.jpg)
RELEASE OF THE MONTH!!!! 9/10 ***
RQM – BARELY EVIL EP
RQM – BARELY EVIL EP
“The girl is so nasty, trashy, dirty mouth, actually ready to fuck,
She’s asking me getting down happily, grabbing my like gravity,
Sweet agony swallowing calories killing me gradually
First the tip than all of me ….
She’s so evil, that’s barely legal”
I am very very pleased to write this post. I always like to support true and quality artists from my homeland, Poland (I only wish there were more of them). Łukasz aka RQM is definitely such a person. In my humble opinion he’s currently one of the best vocal cord artists doing great job in lyrics department and his new EP Barely Evil is simply the best thing I’ve heard this month and definitely one of the most interesting releases this year! RQM left Poland many years ago as a kid and Berlin has become his home base for some years. Well, actually at the moment he lives in a sunny Barcelona but he relocates soon. He is part of the huge music expatriate community (too many names to mention here) living and working in the capital of Germany for the benefit of all of us, avid listeners who receive a constant inflow of quality and original stuff (if maybe sometimes too much bent towards raw minimal sound). His extensive Berlin Bass Mafia is on the rise, so don't say I did not warn you about them!She’s asking me getting down happily, grabbing my like gravity,
Sweet agony swallowing calories killing me gradually
First the tip than all of me ….
She’s so evil, that’s barely legal”
Well, let’s start from some basics first. This concise bio will definitely help in providing more details about RQM:
“If you're really into Electronic music, then knowingly or not, you've heard RQM's mellow voice at some point. Be it on the intro teaser for the Maryanne Hobb's BBC1 show or on the Jahcoozi, Stereotyp, Mochipet, Al Haca, Tolcha, Milanese or The Tape records. It's also possible that one of his tunes was on that DJ Shir Khan compilation, an XLR8r Podcast or a CLP mixtape that was pounding on your stereo. Or maybe you heard one of his tunes on a Sinden radio show. Chances are you probably even danced your ass off to one of the countless remixes of his tracks, while checking out the likes of DJ Mixhell, Jesse Rose, the Acid Jacks or Oliver$ .
The point is - this multi-versed shape shifting emcee is practically ubiquitous. Over 30 features and counting, shows alongside the likes of Missy Elliot, M.I.A., Buraka Som Sistema, The Stereo Mcs, The Rapture, Radioclit, Peter Kruder, Kool Keith and The Cool Kids and RQM says he might be ready to release his solo Opus.”
Barely Evil EP by RQM is released today 3 August on OMG! Recordings. This is Beatport exclusive release: listen and buy it here. Apart from the extremely infectious and sleek original track, the EP includes a very diverse array of fantastic remixes and each track deserves a proper description in itself, at least a brief one not to overload your sensitive “short-attention-span” senses.
Barely Evil original mix is a sleek and funky joint with great, dirty lyrics which are the trademark of RQM’s unlimited imagination and of course the props must go to the production duo of Marvin Suggs who are responsible for such an impeccable crispy and modern pop sound which should make Tiga jealous. Great for partying great for chilling, fantastic for singing unter die dusche
Brain Matters remix is a simple banger with a straight heavy kick, dirty bassline and lyrics cut short to “The Girl’s so nasty, trashy, dirty mouth”. A catch phrase which will work perfectly in dimly lit club rooms at the peak of some crazy party. BANGER ALERT!
Bass Weazal track is the heaviest and dopiest (literally) shit in this package. Just listen to the percussion and totally distorted vocal and then wait to be smashed by the typical urban UK bassline. Insane!
Filewile Alpine Dub Minimal is a warm and organic journey through the sea of minimal structures and dubbed out beats. Listen carefully, you’d be surprised how much actually happens in this track. Music to play on yachts in the early morning hours just after the sunrise.
Big Dope P Ghetto Nasty Remix. Well, the name speaks for itself. Big Dope P delivers a f…g bouncy killing ass-shaking ghetto tech booty. Makes my head bob like crazy. Party treasure, aye!!! Another BIG remix. Check it also here.
Lars Moston Remix. Dirty-on-purpose tech / fidget house joint which transforms into oldschool 'silly' stompy banger with Made In Berlin written across it with capital letters! It reminds me of the tracks I heard back in the days at underground parties in Tacheles! But at the same time would nicely fit into some recent Kid606 mixtapes. A real modern old-school fusion!
Stereotyp VooDoo Remix. Probably the least accessible, yet most sophisticated and deepest track on the entire EP. I have serious problems with describing the listening experience here. This type of music has to sink in first. Definitely it's dubstep'ish in the use of low-end frequencies and strong bass, yet goes much beyond the typical characteristic of this genre. Interesting.
All in all, Barely Evil is definitely one of the best' remix' EP's I've heard in ages. Besides, one can immediately hear that producers put lots of efforts and heart into their work. All tracks are completely diffferent from each other, and I love such diverse approach to all arts, music including.
For me personally, easily THE EP OF THE MONTH and one of the best productions this year. Close to ideal - 9 out of 10 stars!!!
The package includes sooo many great remixes but you will have to check them by yourselves. I selected the original 'source' track from which everything started. IT'S REALLY GREAT! KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK RQM.
DOWNLOAD: RQM - BARELY EVIL (ORIGINAL MIX)
We had a small chat with RQM about his new release and plans for the future.
We should probably do this interview in Polish, but then the exposure would be limited, so I guess we better use our lingua mundi.
I'm with it - lets go global...
A tricky question for a start: Vodka, Beer, Wine, Whisky or maybe straight-edge?
Tricky indeed. Put it like this - if you're family and we're celebrating - it's definitely vodka! If it's hot and we thirsty - ice cold beer. If we're dining on a relaxed tip and the food calls for extra taste bud stimulation - i'll go with some good wine. And then once in a blue I'll chase a whiskey buzz.
Do you party a lot?
Nah. Not really. Not anymore. If I'm doing shows the party vortex sort of swallows me up, but I don't go out of my way to get twisted up, but I go through my phases. I mean you can't go on stage with Jahcoozi without vodka - it's impossible!
On 3rd August your EP will be released on OMG records. After your first solo release entitled Miss Pacman, which came out last year, you return to the theme of a bad girl on Barely Evil. Do you have a special penchant for bad party girls?
These two tunes in particular, which by the way are a part of wider concept series of songs that deal with relationships and love in general, are part retrospection - part observation. When I was younger I was definitely attracted to some troubled ladies with a serious appetite for life, pitfalls included. But you play with fire for a little bit or maybe for a long while and eventually you learn that you can't tame the element and that if you let - it'll consume you. That's on a personal tip. But the songs are also a celebration or maybe a documentation of the type of women that our culture has been celebrating recently. I mean the bad girl archetype is nothing new, it's been around since day one, but it seems these days she done hijacked popular culture and she's running it. And the concept for these songs is my take on Kieslowski's Three Colors series. Miss Pacman and Barely Evil are the Red tracks - they deal with lust, desire and raw uncut sex.
Marvin Suggs from Berlin did a great production job on your track. Very sleek, clean and properly heavy. But honestly speaking I’ve never heard of them.
You ever heard of Micatone? They started out playing jazzy drum n bass influenced soul back in the day and over time they morphed into pure soul music. I think they're still on Sonar Kollektiv. One half of Marvin Suggs is Boris from Micatone. He produced Miss Pacman and this was the second tune we did together. I needed an updated disco inflected jam to get all raunchy with the lyrics and he hit me with this one and it felt right. Name any other producer whom you’d love to remix Barely Evil. I have to say that I'm really happy with the remixes that I got. Of course some bigger names would help me break through the noise in terms of promotion and distribution, but then chances are they would also make the EP sound more generic. I expected Stereotyp to do a Kubo remix for me cause I love the project, but on the flip the remix he delivered is like nothing that I heard before so I'm not sour.
All the remixes for the song are pretty diverse, ranging from pounding ghetto bangers to minimal dubs, did you have any key when selecting them? Was it difficult?
Actually I have another five remixes or so that I dropped from the final cut of the EP, and that's not because they weren't bangin'. I wanted a compact, versatile release so some joints just had to go. And it was really hard choosing, which tracks to drop and even harder telling cats that they didn't make the final cut. I know how much love and effort goes into making a tune - so when you get bumped off it bruises your ego a bit. Which is your personal favorite remix on the forthcoming EP? I love all of them for different reasons. The Filewile remix for example is unique in the use of organic sounds as if they were electronic. The brothers played a gutted echo chamber with a stick. Bonkers! Brain Matters is that simple complex combo that I love. The track appears to be all basic on the first run, but when you listen to it again you hear all these subtle things going on in the arrangement. And their vocal cut up is a classic sing-along. When I perform, I use this version. Bass Weazal got the sickest synth drop and that Ketamine like vocal treatment - I can only imagine what goes on in London when this one hits the system. The Lars Moston version is the most punky one to me - it's a bit all over the place, but at the same time it 's huge and it's sort of the same thing you've heard before a million time, but the drugged out avant-garde version of it. The Big Dope P jam is pure fun - made to be played out at strip clubs. And the Stereotyp take on it, like I said before, it's absolutely unique. One of a kind. I don't think a lot of people will get it - i would think of crossover with this one, but it's hands down sick!
Barcelona or Berlin? I love Barcelona and wonder whether you will not miss it after coming back to Berlin?
Definitely Berlin! I broke my neck, my spine, sold my liver and my kidneys to pay my rent in Barcelona - I won't have to do that in Berlin. But on the flip - you can't beat the weather or the beach or the fresh seafood. If I could combine the two - I think I would have me a micro paradise in Europe. But then if that were possible I think I would actually lobby to change the immigration laws. I would do everything in my power to stop the invasion of the consumer hipsters. If you consume music like it's fast food, look cats up and down to check what labels they're rocking. If you go out to parties and talk about your next project while artists are sweating it out on stage - can't come into my city! Sorry! BIG ASS REJECTED stamp in red ink in your passport. Contemplate it and try coming again some other time.
What are your plans for the future? I heard you are about to release more goodies in a few months.
Yeah. I got a few more of these love and relationship related tunes dropping. Lover's Voo Doo, which is a song about sex and telepathy or telepathic sex is coming out on the Bass Brains compilation next month. It should be a nice little drop - Jahcoozi, CLP, Lexi Lee, Robot Koch is on it, as well as Data Mc. I'm looking forward to this one. Also in September Shir Khan will drop his double CD compilation for Exploited Records. I got a very cerebral, liquid poetry tune with Milanese on there called Sandman and another concept tune with Sirius Mo called Atomic Fusion, which I love to death! It might be just me, but I think the tune is gold - it's sort of a Dub Step Pop something. And on a storytelling tip it's about the life cycle of a relationship told from end to beginning, but using nuclear war related imagery. And now I'm shopping the final installment of the concept, which will be a four song EP about infidelity, jealousy and braking up.
Finally, do you plan on performing in Poland anytime soon? (I hope)
I'd love to come - it's been a second. Last time I played in Poland was 4 years back or something around that and it was in Krakow with Al Haca. And I don't what it is with the bookings back home, but every time I'm supposed to come out and play shit just falls apart. All in due time I suppose.
Listen to some of these tracks on RQM's soundcloud. RQM contact data: myspace, website, twitter , facebook
Nah. Not really. Not anymore. If I'm doing shows the party vortex sort of swallows me up, but I don't go out of my way to get twisted up, but I go through my phases. I mean you can't go on stage with Jahcoozi without vodka - it's impossible!
On 3rd August your EP will be released on OMG records. After your first solo release entitled Miss Pacman, which came out last year, you return to the theme of a bad girl on Barely Evil. Do you have a special penchant for bad party girls?
These two tunes in particular, which by the way are a part of wider concept series of songs that deal with relationships and love in general, are part retrospection - part observation. When I was younger I was definitely attracted to some troubled ladies with a serious appetite for life, pitfalls included. But you play with fire for a little bit or maybe for a long while and eventually you learn that you can't tame the element and that if you let - it'll consume you. That's on a personal tip. But the songs are also a celebration or maybe a documentation of the type of women that our culture has been celebrating recently. I mean the bad girl archetype is nothing new, it's been around since day one, but it seems these days she done hijacked popular culture and she's running it. And the concept for these songs is my take on Kieslowski's Three Colors series. Miss Pacman and Barely Evil are the Red tracks - they deal with lust, desire and raw uncut sex.
Marvin Suggs from Berlin did a great production job on your track. Very sleek, clean and properly heavy. But honestly speaking I’ve never heard of them.
You ever heard of Micatone? They started out playing jazzy drum n bass influenced soul back in the day and over time they morphed into pure soul music. I think they're still on Sonar Kollektiv. One half of Marvin Suggs is Boris from Micatone. He produced Miss Pacman and this was the second tune we did together. I needed an updated disco inflected jam to get all raunchy with the lyrics and he hit me with this one and it felt right. Name any other producer whom you’d love to remix Barely Evil. I have to say that I'm really happy with the remixes that I got. Of course some bigger names would help me break through the noise in terms of promotion and distribution, but then chances are they would also make the EP sound more generic. I expected Stereotyp to do a Kubo remix for me cause I love the project, but on the flip the remix he delivered is like nothing that I heard before so I'm not sour.
All the remixes for the song are pretty diverse, ranging from pounding ghetto bangers to minimal dubs, did you have any key when selecting them? Was it difficult?
Actually I have another five remixes or so that I dropped from the final cut of the EP, and that's not because they weren't bangin'. I wanted a compact, versatile release so some joints just had to go. And it was really hard choosing, which tracks to drop and even harder telling cats that they didn't make the final cut. I know how much love and effort goes into making a tune - so when you get bumped off it bruises your ego a bit. Which is your personal favorite remix on the forthcoming EP? I love all of them for different reasons. The Filewile remix for example is unique in the use of organic sounds as if they were electronic. The brothers played a gutted echo chamber with a stick. Bonkers! Brain Matters is that simple complex combo that I love. The track appears to be all basic on the first run, but when you listen to it again you hear all these subtle things going on in the arrangement. And their vocal cut up is a classic sing-along. When I perform, I use this version. Bass Weazal got the sickest synth drop and that Ketamine like vocal treatment - I can only imagine what goes on in London when this one hits the system. The Lars Moston version is the most punky one to me - it's a bit all over the place, but at the same time it 's huge and it's sort of the same thing you've heard before a million time, but the drugged out avant-garde version of it. The Big Dope P jam is pure fun - made to be played out at strip clubs. And the Stereotyp take on it, like I said before, it's absolutely unique. One of a kind. I don't think a lot of people will get it - i would think of crossover with this one, but it's hands down sick!
Barcelona or Berlin? I love Barcelona and wonder whether you will not miss it after coming back to Berlin?
Definitely Berlin! I broke my neck, my spine, sold my liver and my kidneys to pay my rent in Barcelona - I won't have to do that in Berlin. But on the flip - you can't beat the weather or the beach or the fresh seafood. If I could combine the two - I think I would have me a micro paradise in Europe. But then if that were possible I think I would actually lobby to change the immigration laws. I would do everything in my power to stop the invasion of the consumer hipsters. If you consume music like it's fast food, look cats up and down to check what labels they're rocking. If you go out to parties and talk about your next project while artists are sweating it out on stage - can't come into my city! Sorry! BIG ASS REJECTED stamp in red ink in your passport. Contemplate it and try coming again some other time.
What are your plans for the future? I heard you are about to release more goodies in a few months.
Yeah. I got a few more of these love and relationship related tunes dropping. Lover's Voo Doo, which is a song about sex and telepathy or telepathic sex is coming out on the Bass Brains compilation next month. It should be a nice little drop - Jahcoozi, CLP, Lexi Lee, Robot Koch is on it, as well as Data Mc. I'm looking forward to this one. Also in September Shir Khan will drop his double CD compilation for Exploited Records. I got a very cerebral, liquid poetry tune with Milanese on there called Sandman and another concept tune with Sirius Mo called Atomic Fusion, which I love to death! It might be just me, but I think the tune is gold - it's sort of a Dub Step Pop something. And on a storytelling tip it's about the life cycle of a relationship told from end to beginning, but using nuclear war related imagery. And now I'm shopping the final installment of the concept, which will be a four song EP about infidelity, jealousy and braking up.
Finally, do you plan on performing in Poland anytime soon? (I hope)
I'd love to come - it's been a second. Last time I played in Poland was 4 years back or something around that and it was in Krakow with Al Haca. And I don't what it is with the bookings back home, but every time I'm supposed to come out and play shit just falls apart. All in due time I suppose.