Memory9, alias of groundbreaking musician Gadi Sassoon, will be releasing a new track, 'Kick Drill' as a free download to coincide with news of an exciting upcoming collaborative project with iconic and innovative beatmaker, DJ Vadim.
The pair first met in 2007, at the now defunct London venue, Herbal. Vadim was headlining the legendary club, while Gadi - before he had adopted the Memory9 persona - was playing a weird mix of foley, beats and live guitar in the upstairs room. The two crossed paths numerous times on the live scene across Europe and in the US, and decided to make music together after two popular Memory9 remixes of DJ Vadim's recent projects.
The resulting product is 'Space 201', a collection of spaced out, dreamy beats with a throwback sci-fi vibe, recorded at Vadim's London studio during a number of recording sessions between the end of 2013 and early 2014. With both artists receiving high praise for their previous solo releases, the notion of a collaborative release is an exciting project and one to look out for in the coming year.
To celebrate the announcement - Memory9 is making 'Kick Drill' available as a free download. The track is an unreleased beat which the producer had previously used as the basis for a remix of The Electric's 'Beautiful ft. Yarah Bravo'. The Electric are formed of DJ Vadim, Sabira Jade and Pugz Atoms, and Gadi's retake of their track was released to popular acclaim, racking up over 100,000 views on YouTube so far.
'Kick Drill' opens with an infectious synth riff, one which is repeated throughout the track over an ever-changing backdrop of deep bass and drum patterns.
The release of this new track comes off the back of Memory9's most recent release, 'Red Falcon', an EP which was lauded by both fans and critics and demonstrated Gadi's talent for melding various electronic genres with elements of live instrumentation. The EP's four tracks move between genres as varied as jungle, jazz, hip hop and footwork. Gadi himself is a trained jazz guitarist, and these elements of more traditional musical compositions are beautifully interwoven with sophisticated bassline beats and electronic samples. The EP was inspired by the effect his colour blindness has on his perception of the colour red, the artist traverses images of dreams, desert planets, blood, lust and dust.
Much of Memory9's compositional focus on this EP is on the interplay between melody and bass-beats - something he has showed himself to be expert in, having been heavily involved with all forms of bass music from the early 90’s. This is when he began to make a name for himself playing at underground free parties like Abacus Sound System in London. Later becoming a resident at Soundcrash and holding regular appearances on Ninja Tune’s Solid Steel radio show, he went on to bring his live shows to famous festivals and club nights across the world including Soundwave, the Big Chill, Glade, SXSW and L.A’s Low End Theory.
Having previously collaborated with a range of exciting talent, including Wretch32, Aaron Jerome (SBTRKT), Fat Freddy's Drop and The Super Furry Animals, DJ Vadim has built up an enviable reputation as one of the most forward-thinking producers on the music scene, rendering the prospect of his upcoming collaboration with Memory9 a very exciting one indeed.