With a shadowy origin story, ConRank comes to us in Shanghai with a London club pedigree, and plenty of experience playing out all over Asia. Attributing a background in '90s hip hop, classic drum n bass and heavy bass lines, ConRank is prolifically working away at his own original productions in a newish style of d n b, sometimes referred to as 'autonomic drum n bass', among other things. Said off-shoot is loosely described as a more "chilled" version of drum n bass, imbuing the genre with the sort of fuller, 'organic' sound as pioneered by LTJ Bukem among others, along with influences from idm, ambient, and downtempo. Drop some snares; lay off the "whiz". You can do your own research by starting here, and working the google machine.

ConRank is also doing a podcast with long-time friend Killa Kela, which you can check out right here.

ConRank is playing at the "official Peaches after party" Friday night, along with the Badtastic DJs. All proceeds from that are going to the Qinghai Earthquake fund. That starts around midnight.

SmartShanghai talked to ConRank about mature drum n bass, London, Killa Kela, and making songs. Here’s his links: MySpace; SoundCloud; Douban; MixCloud.

Here's the event link to Friday’s party at Not Me.


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ConRank: Well home base is a little bit blurred at the moment. I've spent the last ten years in London and I've still got a flat in London and various other bits and bobs going on there, but my fiancé is Taiwanese and she's just got a job in Shanghai and moved here. So I'm kind of playing here and there. But I'm kind of basing myself here but not living here, if that makes sense. I'll probably spend a fair amount of time back in London as well. And wherever else life takes me...


ConRank: Well my future plans are less focused on Shanghai I guess and more focused on Asia, and also back in London. My agent is based in London so that obviously makes a big difference. And the music that I'm making now is something that is just starting to bubble in London, which is this 'autonomic', half-step drum n bass stuff. And so, I've got strong links to the UK but I have got some plans in Asia -- I'm looking at building up that whole 170bpm scene over here. I think it would be quite nice to kind of build that up and see where it goes. And I want to set up a studio somewhere over here as well.

Just generally, wherever I am I just want to do something to just benefit where I am, rather than just making music for myself. So I'm lucky to have met some great promoters in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Shanghai. There's a great attitude in this city so I'd be stupid not to try to do something.


ConRank: There is still a lot of energy about the music here. Like, I know it's not massive, but when people hear good music, they fucking love it and when you bring something new in it's like... well the UK is just swamped with constant new music, so it's a little bit harder to excite people over there. I suppose my future plans are label, a lot more shows, and I'm wanting to maybe hook up with a Japanese singer or a Chinese singer, and maybe do an EP or something like that. The music I'm doing right now is more open to vocals, but I'm trying to do it in a way that's not cheesy, if you know what I mean [Laughs.]

But I'm still figuring out where and how much to play. Like, you don't want to saturate. The one thing about the UK is that you can DJ constantly. You can basically DJ Friday, Saturday every week and you could do it for a year or so, and you'd play the same place maybe twice. There is so much going on. So many amazing nights and promoters. And even if you play the same place every month, people still wouldn't get bored, because there is enough stuff going on and enough people passing through. So it's strange to come here, but my main focus is on the music making... and on the Rankadank thing.


ConRank: Well, up to now the music I've been making is very club-based music, like hard, bass line-driven club music, but from a younger age I was always a bit more musical -- playing trumpets and... this is going in a way we shouldn't go -- "my life story" [Laughs.] But yeah, playing pianos and trumpets, etc., etc. so I've kind of come back to that. And I spent years and years being really into Logical Progression and LTJ Bukem and things like that. Kind of more "chill out" drum n bass. "Liquid" or whatever you want to call it. And then I got into dBridge and Martyn and stuff like that, and I thought, 'oh, this is lovely'.

But I've tried to not listen to too much of what's coming out on that side of things so I can do my own thing with it. But I have a massive hip hop background with Killa Kela and love my drum n bass and my bass-line music, so it's all of that together, which is nicer synths and pads and things, and then also remixing Public Enemy with it or Big L, "Put It On". I love those tracks. '90s hip hop is like my favorite era.


ConRank: Yeah, I suppose. If you want to tie it to something, it's 'autonomic' -- and there's about five other names for it and no one really knows what it is. "Drum step"; "drum funk"; "half step"... Nu Metal... [Laughs.] And then some people try to class it with dub step, but it's a different bpm and a different feel.

And some people just call it drum n bass -- you're missing out some snares and it's a little off beat here and there, but I love the fact that the whole LTJ Bukem kind of thing is coming back a bit -- like the nice deep pads and all that sort of stuff. But it's basically drum n bass that sounds good at any time -- going out to a club or the next day hung-over on a Sunday morning.


ConRank: Well, that's sort of the hard part. Because it's quite chilled, and it's not really the most known genre in the world, so unless it's going to be just people sitting there smoking with nice cushions around, it's not really going to go down well. But what I'm basing my DJ set around is the influences that have got me making that music.

Basically, when I play I'm going to delve into like 1990's hip hop -- Pharsyde, Big L, Jay Z, Biggie -- that sort of stuff, and obviously dub step, which has the bass lines. And then the big one, which is drum n bass. Right now it's really nice playing different genres and whatever.


ConRank: Well, I met him when I was about 15 when he started working in the petrol station next to my house. And we started beat boxing together. He was already doing it when I met him. But we used to hang out in the petrol station, beat boxing when people were filling up their cars. And then we started doing shows together, and I started doing shows on my own. And throughout this he was just getting bigger and bigger, but my passion for beat boxing wasn't anywhere near his -- and if you're not passionate about something don't do it, so I got on with some other stuff.

But we've been best friends since then really, and I used to DJ and have some club nights in London. And then I started producing, and then not too long ago, maybe five, six months ago, he gave me a call to do something together. So we're doing a podcast, "Kela & ConRank" -- but it's really quite exciting because it's brought the excitement back to beat boxing for me. And to have the chance to play with him in the studio has been brilliant.

You have the classic figures like Biz Markie or Rahzel, but you know, Killa Kela has been one of the most influential beat boxers to date, really. And he's worked so hard. And he's been an influence on how hard I work and putting the effort in.

We've got four podacsts all together that are going to come out and then from there, who knows what we'll do with it. The basis of it is we spend and afternoon in the studio, sometimes the whole day, and I'll put some bass lines together, and he'll put a beat on it, and I'll put a snare on it, and he’ll put some toms on it -- and we'll fuck about with it, and by the end of the day we have four or five beats. And that's it. That's basically the podcast. Like a mini mix tape, and its all throw away -- you might hear 30 seconds and think 'oh, this beat is awful' and then the next 30 seconds is like, 'oh, that's alright' and then you might be like, 'oh, this is the best thing I've ever heard.' [Laughs.] So at the end of it we can have loads of little sections and material to do full tracks with.


ConRank: So far it's just bootlegs. I had my first single come out on May 5 of this year called "Hold On" on iTunes, and it's all original, not a remix or anything, and that's kind of the way I want to do it. And then I think I'll put out another two or three things in the next few months. I've got some stuff up on my Sound Cloud, and I'm looking at working with other people in China. As much as I like DJ, I'm just loving being productive in any way, shape, or form, you know what I mean.




ConRank: When I sit down to make a song, I'm trying to let it go in its own direction. I know what bpm I'm going for, but I try to let it go. And so far I've sort of surprised myself. When I played it to my agent, I was thinking 'oh, is this going to go down well,' but I think because I haven’t been trying to do anything in particular, I think people can see that it's a little bit new and different.

Well, generally, when I sit to make a track, 95% of the time, I'll start off with a pad. I'll shuffle through a load of pre-sets and find something that really gets me. Just that one sound, and then you can start tweaking it and making it, and once you’ve got that, you can make some nice chords out of it. And that's where the track begins. And from there I'll build up maybe 15 or 20 layers of just bits of leads, and once I've got that, then I can stretch it out and make loads of parts of it. And then I'll start working on the drum kit. And I'll get a basic drum kit rhythm. Basic kick, snare, and high hat, spread across the track. Working on the drops and bass line. Working on it more, dropping things out and bringing things in. And then you start thinking about mixing it down and reverb and positioning and compression and all the crap that you have to do. Mixing it all down and up again and down again. And then you get to a place that you're happy.

But the key thing for me is the pads -- there has to be something in there that really gets you. You can close your eyes and really feel something. That's what I'm looking for in a track to listen to -- something that will make you feel a certain way. But yeah I had my own track on repeat for like 40 times today -- and yeah it's a bit up my own ass or whatever [laughs] -- but it's something I made and I love it, you know what I mean.

Then you put it out. Brilliant. Put it out there and see what people think.

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ConRank is playing the Peaches afterparty at Not Me, along with the Badtastic DJs. No cover. He should be on around 2ish.

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