A new BITS! with some fresh new artwork, BITS! Vol.17 sees another DSM cohort Ben E take the wheels. Ben E describes this mix as “…a mixture of rolling beats with each tune offering something different, covering certain aspects of D&B that I personally love the most.” That sentiment pretty much, if very modestly, sums up this great little mix, another classic to add to the ever growing BITS! catalog. Ben E is also the 13th DJ to feature from Oxford.
A little note for iPod touch or iPhone owners. If you tap the album artwork during playback you’ll get the track list.
Track List:
- Calibre - Bullets Ft. Dianne Charlemagne (Signature)
- Breakage - Cooper (Critical)
- Sabre - Lady Fortune (Bassbin)
- Break - Enigma (Quarantine)
- Commix - Scarlet (Hospital)
- Alix Perez - Stray (Shogun Audio)
- Logistics - City Life (Hospital)
- Silent Witness - California (Critical)
- Commix - Be True (Metalheadz)
- Break - No Destiny (Commercial Suicide)
- Fierce & D Bridge - Nevermore (Quarantine)
- Survival - The Jam (Integral)
- Ben E - Shallow (Dub)
- Alix Perez - The Resolution (Shogun Audio)
- Zero Tolerance & Survival - Cold Blood (Revolution)
- Prolific - Rodeo (Industry Dub)
- Fierce & C4C - Carrier (Quarantine)
- Spectrasoul - Tectonics (DSM Dub)
- Icicle - Late Nights (Critical)
- Ben E - Forgive (DSM Dub)
- Icicle & Switch - Looking Away (Osiris Music)
- Die & Clipz - Black Doves (Full Cycle)
- D Bridge - Pipe Dreams (Bingo)
- Sabre & Vicious Circle - Columbo (Critical)
- Ed Rush & Optical - Bacteria (Virus)
- Jonny L - Wish You Had Something (XL)
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Download: Blunted Presents - BITS! Vol.17 ft. Ben E (1839) (right click to download)
Ben E Interview
Right, so give the good people of Blunted a little introduction to yourself
I’m Chris Benfield, I’m from Carterton which is on the outskirts of Oxford. The reason I am called ‘Ben E’ is that my close mates used to call me ‘benny’ because of my second name…
So, you’re now making serious moves in DnB. How did you first get involved in the scene?
Basically I went down to the Hit&Run open decks about 2-3 years ago now. I didn’t know anyone at all except for Fu through Myspace, from that I managed to get a set at Hit&Run and just generally got to know more people who were involved in the Oxford scene through attending nights.
What can we expect and how would you describe your BITS! Mix?
I would describe the mix as a mixture of rolling beats with each tune offering something different, covering certain aspects of D&B that I personally love the most. I like to keep things simple on the mixing side of things letting the tunes do the talking but also keeping it tight and flowing throughout.
Well it certainly seems to be paying off! I’m listening to your BITS! mix at the moment, what’s the tune that drops 10 mins into your mix?
Commix – Scarlet, such a big tune!
Certainly caught my attention! Your doing some work with the DSM label - can you tell us a bit more about that link up?
I can’t remember how I met Stumasta, again I think it was just through networking on Myspace and attending nights in Oxford. It was around the time I started writing beats and I used to just send him everything I did. He would just dark me by saying something along the lines of ‘that beat is shit’. But it was exactly the advice I needed, as weird as that sounds.
Haha, the legend that is Stumasta. So it seems like a combination of networking and hard work is paying off. I was just trying to think how we got introduced, how did you come to learn about Blunted?
Think it was that time when FeelTheBass what shut down for a couple of days…
Lucky coincidence then! So if peeps are feeling this BITS! mix and want to hear more of you, where can they go and what can they do?
I have a Myspace page which you can hit me up on - www.myspace.com/benedj. It also has a few of my tunes on there which aren’t on the mix if you’d like to check out more of my stuff. I have two tunes signed, one is to DSM and the other to Industry Recordings. The Industry bit is due out around August/September time and the DSM one around October.
Nice - you playing out anytime soon?
Catch me and Stumasta back 2 back at Fresh’n'Funky on 6th of June @ Thirst Lodge, Oxford…
Favourite meal?
At the minute its probably my ol’ dears homemade chicken kebabs, baaad!
If you won the lottery what would you spend your winnings on?
Starting a D&B night in Oxford probably.
If you could meet any musician dead or alive, who would it be?
Probabaly J Dilla just so I could steal his samples/production skills.
Lastly squire, you got any shout outs?
Yeah just shout out to everyone in Oxford involved in the scene, really appreciate the support I’ve had from DJs, and everyone in general. Really got to big up Jordan Infectious as well for helping me a lot with production!! Oh yeah nearly forgot… Big up Blunted!
Questions: Gabs
