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STATE OF MIND MUSIC
 The land of New Zealand has been pretty good to the DnB scene as a whole over the last couple of years. Artists like Concord Dawn, The Upbeats, DJ Presha, Bulletproof and Agent Alvin have been dropping tracks on many of the scene’s bigger labels, with other acts coming to the forefront as well. One of those acts is State of Mind. Seemingly coming out of nowhere in 2005, they have since become favorites of many fans worldwide. Their new label, State of Mind Music, is set to release its first 12'' in due time, and it's already set to be a smasher! Before we get ahead of ourselves, though, let's take a look back...
The story starts with a demo CD: ''we had given a demo CD to a guy called DJ Presha, who at that time was one of the main players in our local scene. That CD included tracks like 'Sunking' and 'Different Strokes'. He was impressed with it, and played it to the Total Science guys.'' From that passing of the demo, Total Science actually came looking for State of Mind in the club! They hit it off well, and next thing you know, ''Sunking'' is out on TS' C.I.A. label. This was followed by releases like ''Different Strokes'' on the BC Presents Bad Taste album, the mighty ''Real McCoy'' on C.I.A. (SoM has had a great relationship with C.I.A.), which has also been featured on High Contrast's Fabric Live 25 mix CD, as well as releases on 31 Records, WAR, Hostile and Technique. Not to be outdone, 2006 followed with releases on varying labels: Subtitles (''Money Train''), Shogun Audio (''Back To The Jungle EP''), on the Bad Taste volume 2 LP, and two big looks: ''Aces High'', a collaboration with Concord Dawn, came out on Concord Dawn's Chaos By Design CD, and their remix of Black Sun Empire's ''Don't You'' coming out on the first volume of the Endangered Species series. 2006 also saw the SoM boys putting out their first CD, on Concord Dawn’s Uprising label, entitled Take Control: ''Take Control is an album we put together for the CD market at home here in NZ, and to some extent, Australia. DnB is a very strong mainstream music down this way, and putting out a CD album seemed like a logical step for us. What we did basically was license some of the material we had released on vinyl, combined that with new material, and made an album.'' [NOTE: CDs are available for purchase at SmokeCDs.com] Their stock just rose from there, with the first half of 2007 already seeing the duo chalk up releases on Uprising, Crisis, Advanced, Shogun Audio, Cyanide, Basswerk and Black Sun Empire, but it seems that the desire to create more of an individual identity created a desire to start their own imprint, State of Mind Music: ''we have launched SOM Music. The main reason for this is that over the last few years we have worked with literally dozens of different labels, but being based so far away down here in NZ, it’s difficult to really identify with one label in particular. Having your own label also gives you the freedom to experiment a lot more and release tunes that other labels might not be interested in taking the risk on.''
 We are now back where we started. The first release already features ''Deadzone'', a nasty romp with the one like Axiom, backed with a nasty Black Sun Empire remix of ''Real McCoy'' (peep the DOA review of this 12'' HERE). When asked about future releases, the SoM crew is very tight lipped on the specifics, although ''there are certain producers that we work with a lot in the scene, and we will be putting out 12s that feature material done with those guys first of all…'', which includes ''Hungary's Chris Su, more from the BSE crowd, and, more locally, stuff with Concord Dawn and Upbeats.'' They are also working on their second album (which is set to drop around April 2008, according to their schedule), but again, ''I cant say much about it because we are keeping a tight lid on it all, but were about half way through and its shaping up nicely''. I guess you fanboys will have to stay tuned for more info on SoM LP #2!
For anyone who wants to check out the latest State of Mind Music tracks, or just great DnB from like-minded producers, the guys co-host ''Next Level'' with DJ Presha and Avid on 985FM in Auckland. ''A lot of people check out the radio show that we do, thanks mostly to the work of one Sable on DOA (nice one!) who archives and posts downloadable links entirely for the love of it'', so if you are ever trying to find some quality mixing with a load of quality DnB tracks, check out The Board and do a search. State of Mind will also be touring Australia and Europe in November; if you want to get the tour dates, as well as any further info from them, check out their MySpace page or their MySpace Music page.
>> GRAB STATE OF MIND RELEASES IN THE DOA STORE <<
>> GRAB STATE OF MIND TRACKS FROM DOA DOWNLOADS <<
Words: khal |
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Dogs On Acid > Comments > STATE OF MIND MUSIC
09-20-2007 06:54 PM
