Bassrush

Whether it’s been with their advanced recording processes or their hairy pink pastries­, Noisia have been tearing down drum & bass norms for over a decade. With the announcement of Outer Edges— their second album, out September 16 on Vision—the trio has once again left fans with their jaws firmly planted on the floor. Case in point, their latest single, “Collider,” with its raw-edged, heavy metal vibe. We caught up with the boys head of their performance at NOS Center in San Bernardino this weekend to wrap our heads around the forthcoming album and get a sense of what to expect at Project Z.

It’s beautiful to see how many people are displeased by the hairy donut thing. We didn’t think it would work that well!

We hear you’ve pretty much excluded vocals and collabs, and the sound is as uncompromising as ever. What inspired the concept of Outer Edges?
The title itself is representing the fact that we’ve tried to include all kinds of outer edges to what we do as Noisia on the album. We found most of the original ideas didn’t have the need for vocals in our opinion, so we decided it could be a strong look to not have any at all, except for a few cuts and samples.

“Collider” is such a propelling, bass-face kind of tune in that it seems to incorporate a lot of different styles. Tell us about how it came to be?
There were quite a few external inspirations here, like Justice, Nero and the Prodigy. But at the same time, whenever we reached a certain point in the track, anything could happen. That’s how we ended up having a funk section alongside a big bass drop as well as a big chord suspense type section.

Let’s talk Noisia Radio. Have you found a balance between scouting for tunes and recording the show weekly?
We just hit one year so we’ve been at it longer than we thought we would. Now that people know that we have a weekly show, they send in a lot more music, so it’s easier to fill an hour every week. However, we’re very selective so it still takes quite some time for every episode. It’s been great doing this, and it has helped us come across so much music that we would’ve never heard otherwise!

Do you guys take summer holidays or is it all work and no play?
Noisia does, but we don’t go on a collective holiday. (Laughs) We tend to not go very far, as most of the rest of our year consists of a lot of travelling already!

Project Z is right around the corner and we are thrilled to have you back in San Bernardino! Are you bringing the Outer Edges vibes to the arena?
We definitely will! We’ll be playing a DJ set, but there will be a whole lot of new Outer Edges album material and other exclusive tracks to be heard. Looking forward to it!