The winter might be cold in Bristol, but its dance music scene is piping hot. Just ask Thrilogy! First of all, his label Fate And Fiction is set to release its ninth compilation which gathers crazy tracks from friends and like-minded artists. And of course, beyond that, the musician is on a roll, as you’ll hear with Tha Bump (90s Garage Edit). Distilled to its purest expression, this garage gem has all the infectious energy one needs to keep warm during the long snowy nights. We’re proud to be premiering this edit today, and for the occasion, we had a chat with Thrilogy to talk about vinyl crackle, vintage breaks, and accidental gold.

We’re happy to premiere Tha Bump (90s Garage Edit) today. Can you tell us about the background of the track? What was the inspiration behind this beat?

I have always loved and played garage, so it’s always nice to release a track that you want to play out. It came together pretty quickly. To be honest, it’s pretty much drums, chords, and a groove, so didn’t need loads. And then some nice little 90s vocal samples.

This track cuts to the chase in an inspiring way. Do you sometimes fight the urge to over-complicate your tracks? How do you manage to cut through the noise and go to the essence of a beat?

As I mentioned, this track hasn’t got loads of elements, but a stripped, bumping garage groove, so I just focussed on that. Sometimes the simplest tracks that you can bash out quickly, are the ones that stick.

What makes a good dance track, in your opinion? Do you have any tips or tricks to make sure a track translates to the dance floor?

If you know you can play the track in your sets, you have a winner. And perhaps a good dance track is the one that you can play over and over again, and you never get bored. Or in a year, it still sounds fresh. I think that’s why the early US house and techno classics still stand the test of time.

One tip that has always helped me is to find a kick drum that I know works well on your chosen favourite dance floor and make that your barometer. Also, always A & B your music with similar tracks that you know work. DJing can always help your productions.

I love the artistry you've put in conceiving your drum beats. I'm curious to know how you pick your sample and process them to get your characteristic sound. Do you have a specific method?

It’s a mixture of hardware and samples that I’ve been building on since the 90s. Sometimes it is the littlest sample that I haven’t heard for years that inspires the track.

I used to sample loads of vinyl back in the day and I think that dusty crackle of the needle on the wax definitely makes a difference.

Speaking of processing, there are a lot of analog emulation VSTs and hardware on the market, but with a genre like dance music, vintage hardware gear can spark different ideas. What's your philosophy on modern VS vintage gear, and how is that reflected in the music you make?

I’ve been lucky enough to share studios with Jamie Anderson and Maxxi Soundsystem, and their knowledge and use of vintage gear are totally inspiring.

Personally, I think you can tell the difference between emulation and the real deal. When Jamie and I were making our Deepgroove & Jamie Anderson album for Harthouse we would jam for hours on vintage synths to get what we were looking for.

For my Thrilogy tracks, I’ve generally started with an old sample or a bit of vocal, so there is less need for hardware jamming, but also some of that ‘accidental gold’ doesn’t come along as much.

Can you tell us a little bit about where you live right now? How is the music scene there, and how has it fueled your creativity?

I live in Bristol. I don’t think I could live anywhere else (except somewhere hot over the winter!). The music scene is really strong here and with our Fate And Fiction label, we always try to use homegrown talent.

There are incredible parties most weeks and always something interesting going on.

Can you tell us about Fate And Fiction Recordings. What's its mission, and what role does it play in your life?

We are on to our ninth release and have been enjoying every one. We’ve signed some great tracks and most have been made in our fair city or have something to do with Bristol. We’ve had music from Ishmael (from Ishmael Ensemble), Christophe, Greymatter, Gallegos, G Markus, Piers Kirwan, Kemback, Remotif, N-Gynn, Delahay, Joint4Nine, Joseph Cook, Ment, J Morrison, and more.

I think they all definitely fall within our FAF sound with dusty samples and record crackles. Kinda proper deep house, we would hope. We also sell merchandise on our Bandcamp page (tees, totes, sweaters, and slipmats)  and have regular label parties that keep me very busy.

Do you think your role within Fate And Fiction has influenced you as an artist?

It is really hard not to be influenced by the great producers around you and every record I have signed has definitely shaped my sound as a DJ and I think you always tend to want to make music that will fit into your sets, so it is a nice circle of events where one feeds another.

How did you collect the tracks on FAFEP009? Did you send out a call for a certain vibe?

Every V/A we have done has featured fresh tracks from our stable of artists and from myself. We don’t always want a particular EP to have an overall genre or one sound, so we like to mix it up a little.

However, I do think each track always sounds like it fits the label.

How do you feel about this new compilation at the moment? How do you feel about the tracks and the artists featured on it?

To be honest, this is a pretty strong release, in my opinion. Some real favourite tracks on there. I did love our last compilation as we managed to put out a double-pack of eight tracks!

For FAFEP009 we are really pleased to welcome back N-Gynn as he is really smashing out the tunes, Ben Gomori is back too after releasing as G Markus, Last Orders again, with another late-night banger, and the incredible Tommy Vicari Jnr puts out the most sublime deep house record. Oh and my ‘Ruff Bug’ is one of my favourite tracks I’ve ever made..!

What's coming up for Thrilogy?

It’s looking like a busy next year with more parties and more Fate And Fiction action. We are pretty excited to welcome the legend that is Robert Owens to the label and Jamie Anderson, so lookout for a very special release coming soon!

On the Thrilogy front, there are more tracks to come out, and very nearly finished my first artist album, so stay tuned.

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