Submitted By: drewby39

Genre: Jungle / Drum and Bass

Date of Set: May 25th, 2006

Filesize: 88.24 MB

Total Downloads: 5

The exploration of the mind should never be taken lightly. Laying it bear is perilous to the explorer, as in its nudity it often reveals cognitive trails capable of instantly inducing psychosis. Meanwhile an audience of anyone brave enough to donate their (in)sanity in a consumable and concrete artistic form must ensure its complete awareness of the fragility of its own mental state, as self assessment will consequently ensue. Individuals most frequently examine themselves when confronted by their own reflection, and it becomes the point of departure for an introspective trail of thought. The first subconscious impact is the eternal sadness of the eyes, as the mind realises its inability to garner anything more than infinite reflections of light in the instant of superficial impact, for the soul rests not in the eyes, but in the mind that searches it. As, quite simply, the most superficial of bodily aspects – the face – is once again encountered, the mind readjusts itself on its voyage of introspection to gloss over that which is most obvious in order to attempt to perceive an ounce of tangibility within the abstractions of the inner mind; a voyage which is often defeated by the fear of the truth. This does not mean that an encounter with the elusive phantom that lies beneath the visage cannot be achieved, for if consciousness can defeat the mind killer, it shall arrive prepared to face its phantom, that which is underneath, its subconscious…its PHACE.

As a trail of thought ends, so begins a trail of life: the biographical journey of the Drum & Bass production duo known as Phace. Hailing from the capital of the land on the Western border of Germany through which the Saar River flows, the psyches of Nicolas Ruoff and Florian Harres bizarrely merged by means of the little understood phenomenon of neurofusion whilst dancing to the music of Drum & Bass pioneers such as Ed Rush & Optical, Photek, Konflict, Matrix and Teebee to form the unified brain behind Phace’s violently contorted yet subliminally delicate musical reality. This reality – influenced by the duo’s roots in Rock and early nineties Dance music, and affected by the industrial perfectionism of German culture – is an evolution via modern digital technology of the analogue Neurofunk sound of the late nineties. Their modified Neuropunk strain is initially cold on contact, devout of all vestiges of colour, clinical in execution, with merely superficial twitches of mania to hint at what may be hidden beneath. As you continue to familiarize yourself with this new strain, its outer texture increases and you begin to perceive its intricate surface detail. However this merely acts as a precursor to the cacophonous underbelly of amorphous abstraction that begins to reveal itself when you break through the music’s fierce framework. Beneath lies the dementia, delerium and disorder typical of those who are in their mind’s thrall as it attempts to disassociate itself from external reality. Phace’s strain of music is a classic borderline case: it straddles the conscious and subconscious, presenting itself as a frank and introspective analysis of the mind through sound.

The first extracts of this analytical sound surfaced in 2004 on German labels Protogen and Shadybrain, but it was fellow lunatics Noisia alerting seasoned Norwegian Neuro-explorer Teebee to Phace’s sinister new strain that resulted in them finding a suitable patron to publish the explicit sonic results of their mental meanderings. 2005 saw the duo’s first release on Teebee’s Subtitles Recordings in the form of Brainwave/Polymers, the strength of which immediately injected their Neuropunk strain into the DJing veins of the likes of Ed Rush & Optical, Matrix and Calyx. Driven by the esteem of their heroes, Phace made the lab their home and began to supply Subtitles with further surreal insights into their precarious mental condition. The Now & Tomorrow EP and a second single Hot Rock/Moore’s Law followed, cementing them as the future of the imprint and worthy apprentices of Teebee’s deep, cold and clean sound. Meanwhile, the first result of their strain-fusion experiments with Noisia surfaced on future funk powerhouse Renegade Hardware. Dead Air, alongside the Dutch trio and the experienced neural voyager Stu C4C, also saw Phace form a bond that resulted in them supplying the Hardware camp with the solo efforts Lost and Krunk Time, which appeared on the Carpe Diem and Above The Game LPs respectively. Phace were rewarded for their vigorous laboratorial studies in 2005 at the German Future Music D&B Awards where they won the award for Best National Producers and were voted Second Best National DJs and are going to get the same result again later in 2006. Riding the crest of their own psychotic brainwave, 2006 saw the duo’s work reach ever-greater heights and an even broader audience. They supplied Luxembourg based label Full Force with Confront (a collab with N.Phect), which has since been followed up by LoveSexPain (a collab with Statesides producer Mayhem), and Dutch label Syndrome with Cavity (another collab with N.Phect), which has since been followed up by Crocker, as well as contributing their Deep Throat to another German label, Basswerk. Meanwhile recognition from the media - most notably features in ATM Worldwide, Knowledge and Central European D&B magazine Resident - underlined the duo’s impact on the Drum & Bass and saw the faces behind Phace launched into the global scene’s communal cranium. The in demand duo also started spreading their personal brand of dancefloor devastation worldwide as DJ bookings descended upon them from all over Europe, including prestigious plays at Renegade Hardware’s legendary parties at The End, not to mention their multiple tours of North America and Australia.

Phace’s musical highlights of 2006 were undoubtedly the further results of their strain-fusion experiments with Noisia which produced Homeworld/Outsource on Dutch label Citrus, Thrillseekers on Subtitles, and lastly and most significantly Unveil on Virus Recordings. This release marked a dream coming true for Phace, who finally saw their Neuropunk strain return home to Ed Rush & Optical’s mother label. The best was however yet to come. The silence caused by the notable absence of a Phace solo release on Subtitles in 2006 was broken towards the end of the year when Reservoir, backed by another Noisia collaboration The Feed, ripped holes in cerebral cortex’s the world over and set mood perfectly for the duo’s magnum opus. A year in the making, Phace’s comprehensive musical report on their precarious condition diagnosed the psychotic undercurrent in their Neuropunk strain. An introspective, intense and pulsating debut album, the aptly titled Psycho has had even the most hardened Neuro-aficionados expressing disbelief at the rawness of the sonic spectrum it contains and global dancefloors struggling to maintain control over their juddering tendons and singed synapses as surreal strains of sound get injected into their cerebellums. Phace are harnessing technology to smoulder sound, making it implode on every drop and penetrate the deepest most hidden chasms of the audiences’ mentality. Their music gives the listener no choice but to confront it, to take that introspective journey in search for the phantom, and to come Face To Phace

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