8 Tracks: Of Sub:System

 
Music

There is no shortage of parties in London, perhaps the most obvious statement ever written on Ransom Note… 

However, sometimes it can require some digging and research to discover the best of the bunch, they may not always shout the loudest, promote and hustle the meanest or hype themselves into kingdom come. They often do what they do, for those in the know, beneath the surface, mostly for the sheer love of it. 

Sub:System is one such outfit, a London party made up of a collective of dj's who showcase the eclectic leanings of electronic music through off piste trance, progressive sounds and beyond. Remove-Me, Richard Gregory, Jacques Adda and Carl H are the team behind the party and each have impeccable taste as disc jockeys. Well versed in the dark arts and the after hours, they are a collective powerhouse of fast paced electronics and delight in the abstract. 

We invited them to showcase the sound of Sub:System through a selection of tracks… 

See below: 


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Ebop - Cruzing

Found this pys trance wrong speeder on a little rummage at Container Records in Brixton a few years back and hadn’t yet found the right time to play it. As we rotate the set times amongst us I was due to play the warm up for the next free party we were doing on the summer solstice of last year. We’d had some intel to say that another crew were planning to do a party and possibly in the same location, so reached out to advice them with the numbers they were expecting and the recent crackdown on illegal gatherings nearby they’d be better off finding a bigger spot somewhere else. They did, and were shut down before we’d even unloaded our gear where we were. After a few heavy commando styled runs with the kit, random party people began to arrive at our site from the shut down party and before we knew it we had nearly 300 people gathered in the dark before the music even started. I guess ordinarily if you have that many people in front of you waiting to dance you’d crank it up and start to pump out the tunes, right? Wrong. This was our party, we’d lugged all the equipment there and one of the benefits of doing your own event is that you can play the music you want. Anyway, to cut a long story short…after an hour and a half of ambient and 108bpm chug – much to the pain of the Romanian and Spanish tech house randoms and endless request to play something harder/faster – I dropped this (on 33rpm) which marked the start of things getting a little more serious and a tad more dancey. It managed to get a good few woo’s and restored the piece with the folk who up until this point had regretted where they’d found themselves.
There’s not a 33rpm version uploaded so you’ll need to adjust the playback speed in the settings for this one.

  • Ebop - Cruzing

    Found this pys trance wrong speeder on a little rummage at Container Records in Brixton a few years back and hadn’t yet found the right time to play it. As we rotate the set times amongst us I was due to play the warm up for the next free party we were doing on the summer solstice of last year. We’d had some intel to say that another crew were planning to do a party and possibly in the same location, so reached out to advice them with the numbers they were expecting and the recent crackdown on illegal gatherings nearby they’d be better off finding a bigger spot somewhere else. They did, and were shut down before we’d even unloaded our gear where we were. After a few heavy commando styled runs with the kit, random party people began to arrive at our site from the shut down party and before we knew it we had nearly 300 people gathered in the dark before the music even started. I guess ordinarily if you have that many people in front of you waiting to dance you’d crank it up and start to pump out the tunes, right? Wrong. This was our party, we’d lugged all the equipment there and one of the benefits of doing your own event is that you can play the music you want. Anyway, to cut a long story short…after an hour and a half of ambient and 108bpm chug – much to the pain of the Romanian and Spanish tech house randoms and endless request to play something harder/faster – I dropped this (on 33rpm) which marked the start of things getting a little more serious and a tad more dancey. It managed to get a good few woo’s and restored the piece with the folk who up until this point had regretted where they’d found themselves.
    There’s not a 33rpm version uploaded so you’ll need to adjust the playback speed in the settings for this one.

  • Mauro Tannino & Stefano Di Carlo - Millenium

    This is a beautiful progressive trance track from 1995 by Italian producer Stefano De Carlo which i played at our first SUB:SYSTEM party with Jane Fitz back in 2015. It was Jane’s birthday and a friend had let us throw a party in his warehouse in Hackney Wick. Carl followed after Jane played 3 hours of heady acid trance and the 3 of us ended up doing a b2b2b. This was one I remember dropping to great effect, shifting the mood slightly as the sun was starting to come through the shutters and the sweaty gurning crowd were starting to tire and maybe needed something a little more emotive before they went on their merry ways.

  • Off And Gone - Namlohssa

    I picked up this record by Off and Gone on Exist Dance at Reckless a while back. I played it during the warm up at the first SUB:SYSTEM I got involved with, after Carl and Tom asked me to join. We had Spekki Webbu over from Amsterdam and we’d secured this perfect live in warehouse space in Hackney Wick. I love doing the warmups at S:S, our parties tend to go on for quite a while (usually 11am … ish) so we usually start pretty steady with lots of slow chug, which this is perfect for.

  • Bhasmantam - Apside

    This is off a great Italian label called Pin Up. It’s a double pack, every tune is ace and you can still pick it up pretty cheap. I played this towards the end of a set at a party we did in the woods last year, nicknamed the swamp (it wasn’t that swampy). I remember it getting lots of whoops as it builds into a bit of acid mayhem, but it was pitch black and I couldn’t really see how many people were there. After finishing I realised there was circa 4-500 people there. Suffice to say the police turned up at 8:30am and shut us down…maybe that was a good thing.

  • Mourning / Cap'm Stargazer / Welcome To Lotus Land [2018]

    I played this track at our first outdoor free party back in September 2018. Real nice release on Map Music with a selection of remastered tracks from some amazing Vancouver artists. That party marked my first set at SUB:SYSTEM and the start of me joining the crew and helping with the parties.

    This one was in the woods and set up was a real adventure. We had cases and cases of booze, lights, decor, full rig and all the rest but only a handful of us to set it up ninja style… Trying to find the spot we chose in pitch black darkness, tripping over roots, getting stung by nettles… seemed like an impossible mission but when we finally got there it looked fucking ace!

    Carl played an absolute master set taking us into the early hours before I jumped on at 5am. My nerves were flying and I was panicking about the records I had packed… But then as soon as daylight began to creep up through the trees everything changed. Suddenly I could really feel the energy of the crowd, the magic of forest and we all became one. It felt really special, definitely one of the most memorable sets I’ve ever played. The more the sun was coming up the more euphoric I got with my selections, and out came that “Mourning” track 🙂

  • Digitalis - The Third State [Full Album]

    I played “What else U got” by Digitalis at our last warehouse party in December. I couldn’t find the individual track (13.04mins in) so there’s the album 🙂 It’s a wicked psy breakbeat track and the whole album is amazing. We’d been looking forward to that party for ages – amazing space, full S:S family in attendance and the lovely Jane Fitz joined us for a special 3hr set.

    It was a proper head down eyes closed affair. The crowd were fully going for it and I got the chance to dive in to some psy trancey bits – something I’ve never really managed to do before and that’s what I love about SUB:SYSTEM. Every party gives me more confidence to go that step further, dig deeper in to my selections and get more psychedelic. And the S:S dance floor is always up for it!

  • Alien Mutation - Starship Heart Of Gold

    This little number was one that I started my set with at our first party we put on in the Woods in Hackney. We were scheduled to start at 11pm, but due to not having trollies and being first timers in lugging a sound system, lighting and all the other trimmings you need to put on these types of events we didn’t get things going until way past midnight. I made a massive booboo on the night with an idea for a dj table, I’m not going to go into detail, as its not really that interesting, but basically it was a disaster and didn’t work. Luckily the guy who supplied us with his lovely hand built system was dab hand with a drill and saw and a man who can turn his hand to any thing, and managed to knock us up something with a few bits of wood that were laying around and the pallets we had with us. Miro & Luca played a beautiful tone setting 3 hour warm as more and more people started to arrive through the trees. I followed, and this is the first record i put on around 3am in the morning and remember standing there feeling overwhelmed with a massive buzz for what we had pulled together between ourselves. The party rolled on until the old bill turned up at 9am and asked us to stop, returning at 10am to ask the same, only to stay for a bit and take some selfies and let us carry on until 11am – lol. It ended up being one of the most magical things we’ve done. We made loads of new friends and a everyone left feeling like they’d been to something very special.

  • Resistance D - Cosmic Love

    This track was one that Tom shared with me pretty much soon after connecting with each other at Field Manoeuvres back in 2014. We started to send each other music most days on messenger, then i said “shall we start a party?” with the idea of having somewhere to play all these trance / prog / acid / bleep records we were buying. This is one that I played at our first party in a warehouse in Hackney Wick after following on from Jane Fitz. I’m sure Tom came over whilst it was playing to ask who it was even though he sent me the record – I think he used to play the other side if i remember correctly. Anyhow, its a record that holds a big importance to me and in some ways defines what SUB:SYSTEM is about. We didn’t do too bad for our first outing into the world of scuzzy warehouse rave promotion (apart from the people having to pee in buckets!) and the party ended up being a great success, made all the more memorable having all played with the decks on top of a grand piano!