Drum and Bass "Neutronic Beats"

Drum and Bass "Neutronic Beats" by Manga UK

This is another interview which I helped with over at Kmag.

Neutronic Beats is a new label set up by DJ Manga that also features the likes of DJ Assassin, DJ Upakut, DJ SLB & DJ Shocka. Heavily based around the jump-up sound at the moment with four releases to date, the London-based collective are also planning to go a bit deeper in the future. Kmag caught up with Manga to find out more...

How long have you been working on setting up the new label?

The label was in the planning for two years before I thought it was time to launch it. I worked with other labels such as Cyntax Error and Cutterz Choice beforehand to make a name for myself. The reason for this was to try and push the name so people would recognise it even before they heard the music. Also working with the labels mentioned above, I was able to see and learn how the industry works. We have now been running for almost a year and I have enlisted the help of DJs Upakut from Kool London, S.L.B. from Nakedbeatz, Assassin, and Shocka. 

Tell us about which type of sound you were trying to achieve?

That’s an easy one to answer - Neutronic Beats is futurist music. We live in an electronic dance music era, so it would be pretty silly of us to go for the older types of sound that you would have heard back in the 60s. I’m a big fan of jump-up and wobble when it’s done correctly and I also like industrial tech sounds; I used to buy a lot of Formation, TOV and Renegade Hardware tracks a good few years back and still do.

Tell us more about the first release...
Evil Residents & Battle Groundz was our first release at the beginning of this year. I was only testing the waters with but to my amazement not only did it get into Drum & Bass Arena’s Top 20 chart but also Nu-Urban’s Top 10 as well. This showed me that with a good level of promotion, anything is possible. We have had a string of releases since then, War God and Screw Face Malarkey,Geno Cyber EP, Sound System Punishment EP and the AnimationLP that we released solely on our website. All of our releases have featured in the drum and bass charts at some point and have been available on a number of the world’s best drum and bass download stores. We’re just getting ready to release the Familia EP with tracks from High Octane, Gusto & Toxin as well as the Silver Eyed Witch EP.

What was your target audience?
This year has been all about good jump-up and drum-step. The upcoming Familia EP is best described as a smooth roller and next year we are looking to test the waters with some tech-step and liquid, whilst still releasing our known jump-up beats.


Do you have any details about upcoming live performances etc?

Everyone on the label has dates coming up. Manga and S.L.B. will all be playing at Show Me Your Bass Face on October 21 but if you miss that you can catch them, along with Assassin, at Drumatics on December 10. Upakat will be celebrating 20 Years of Kool With A K on November 20. We are all doing a fair bit of DJ work and combining this with being busy in the studio in the hope that it will influence the sound and push things forward in the future.