sophonic

Sophonic Records is a spin off venture, engineered by the crew behind Chrome, Liverpool’s leading Drum & Bass night. Chrome recently celebrated its fourth birthday. Sophonic is merely one year old, but is enjoying an accelerated success. Ink. chatted to Stev (Chrome promoter cum Sophonic head honcho) and Si Smith (Chrome resident and producer). Both suggest that setting up a record label seemed to be the natural progression after establishing a successful club night.

Whilst the mainstream Dance Music Media prophesies the death of Drum & Bass as a response to the dominance of U.K Garage, Stev retorts with a valid counter attack "It’s a complete mis-conception that Drum & Bass is dying, it’s bigger world-wide than any form of British music. In Toronto it’s bigger than House Music, in America it’s huge, in Germany, Brazil, Iceland, Japan...." Sophonic are presently spreading their Drum & Bass wisdom across the globe, having released tunes in four continents.

The Liverpool based collective are currently putting out a varied selection of Drum & Bass tracks on vinyl. Stev stresses "the stuff we put out is pure dancefloor". Si Smith confirms "it’s pretty varied, but it’s got to make people dance". Stev suggests "if you want to be good at something you have to concentrate on one thing". So whilst big time producers like Hype and Zinc turn to Underground Garage, Sophonic will continue to put out D&B, sticking to their Jungalistic roots.

As slaves to the musical zeitgeist continue to shun D&B (apparently the bass too dark), Stev and Si are confident that the "stage when it was getting way too noisy" is over. So is a Drum & Bass renaissance on our hands? Sophonic agree that in ’99 "the dark sound dominated" but verify that there’s a plethora of new styles developing. Stev suggests "people like Marcus Intalex are anything but dark". Si Smith supports Stev’s assertion, claiming "tunes are coming out with more melodies and more vocals, Djs have a wider a choice of styles to play."

With a broader variety of sounds on offer, Sophonic are not short of styles to produce or represent. Currently on release from Sophonic is ICU by Mass, with Territory by Prophecy on its flip side, both tunes leaning toward the harder end of D&B. Whilst January will see the release of two tracks from Morph, featuring XTC which Stev suggests are "much more deep, rolling, musical tracks".