For almost a decade, the partnership that is Ed Rush and Optical have been changing the face of the increasingly popular genre of drum and bass with their production skills. From the moment they smashed onto the scene with singles such as the seminal Alien Girl and Bacteria, these stalwarts of the UKs Virus label have maintained a consistent attitude of difference, or indifference as things may be, to the trends of a genre that is all too easily pockmarked by copycat production.
There are defining moments in the growth of any art form, and when the dark and utterly xenotypical rumblings of tracks such as Alien Girl hit, one of those points was reached in dnb. “There was this realisation that there was a completely different way of doing a breaks mix than everyone else,” Optical explains. “It kind of vindicated our attempt to do something different. There were a lot of people who were against what we were up to at the time, well, not against it but just like this isn’t what other people are doing so they weren’t really interested you know?”
Yet this is the ethos that has seen the partnership garner legions of fans and grow into the powerhouse of production and entertainment that they are. “We’re not into bandwagonism at all,” Optical says, as if thinking the concept quite foreign. “We try to figure out what’s going on at the moment and try to do something different. I’m always trying to stand apart form the crowd other people seem to do what’s current, but its a bit pointless to want to be like the next Pendulum or Bad Company or whatever.”
For a genre of music that seems to be so cutting edge, it has also filled up in many respects with producers who may have specialised a little too much, “I feel like some people in the scene don’t take enough risks in what they are doing – and they did use to,” he says wistfully. “There used to be more freedom to experiment than it is at the moment – at the moment its more like that you should sound like everyone else sounds like.”
Much of this willingness to step outside of the box lead to the band based Chameleon project that the pair have been touring with in the past year. “We are working on another album at the moment and that’ll definitely be the whole Virus kind of thing, but we wanted a bit of a break before that happened,” Optical says, explaining the past years shift into the guitar based live performance arena.
“It’s been really much harder than I thought,” he remarks thoughtfully, acknowledging that the projects experimental nature was not to everyone’s tastes. “I must admit it’s not come out as well as I’d hoped but it’s also been more of a success in some respects than others – it’s kinda weird. I’d definitely do it again but, but I think well have a break before we have another attempt. We learnt a lot from the experience, all the touring and having a stage manager and with all the equipment and everything. It was quite interesting to learn it all in that way – and it was good fun.”
Despite the somewhat bittersweet reception to the Chameleon project, its business as usual for the exceptional duo, whose upcoming tour of Australia will include not only portions of their past years work rendered into their DJ sets, but also finds them moving back into the darker side of their nature.
“Well, we’re a lot harder than we used to be, I think, that’s the general comment,” Optical says of their recent sets, laughing. We’ve kinda of gone back to the getting our gear off and ripping holes in our t-shirts, so you can expect that for sure.”
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