Saddened to learn that Terror Danjah - grime's greatest producer and co-founder of the Aftershock label - has died.
Here is the liner note tribute I did for Gremlinz - the Terror Danjah compilation that Planet Mu put out in 2009. There's also a longer length version of the Q + A with Terror that appeared in Gremlinz
By Simon Reynolds
Ninety-five percent of grime beats are strictly functional: they're designed as launching pads for an MC's skills rather than as showcases for the producer's virtuosity. These tracks don't tend to go through a lot of shifts and changes but instead loop a drum pattern and a refrain (typically evoking an atmosphere that mingles menace and majesty, with melody and "orchestration" pitched somewhere between a straight-to-video movie score and a ring-tone). And that's fine, you know: it's a perfectly valid and valuable craft making this kind of basic MC tool. It's okay if the tune doesn't go anywhere, because the pirate deejay's only likely to drop a minute-and-a-half before cutting to the next track. It's alright if it's thinly textured, a bit 2-D and cheapo-sounding, because it's going to be largely drowned out by MCs jostling for their turn to spit sixteen bars. But it stands to reason that few of these tracks are going to be things you'd want to buy and listen to at home. They're just not built for that purpose.
But on this all-instrumental anthology, with the pungent charisma of MCs like Bruza or D Double E removed from the picture, you can really hear all the work that Terror Danjah puts into his tunes. On tracks like "Code Morse" and "Radar," the intricate syncopations and hyper-spatialised production, the feel for textural contrast and attention to detail, are comparable to German minimal techno producers like Isolee. But all this sound-sculpting finesse is marshaled in service of a gloweringly intense mood--foreboding and feral-- that is pure grime. This is artcore: a stunning blend of intellect and intimidation, subtlety and savagery. Street modernism, in full effect.
You started out in the late Nineties with Reckless Crew, an East London jungle/drum'n'bass collective of deejays and MCs. How did that come about?
What did you learn, as a producer, from those drum and bass days? Who did you rate at that time and would consider an influence?
When did you make the transition to UK garage and that MC-fronted 2step sound that was the prototype for grime?
I did two garage tunes and they blew up so I decided to stick with that. In 2002 I did "Firecracker" b/w "Highly Inflammable" on Solid City, Teebone's label. For a while I was part of N.A.S.T.Y. Crew, because I'd been at St. Bonaventures [a Roman Catholic comprehensive school in Forest Gate, London E7] with a couple of members of N.A.S.T.Y. But all the time I was doing my own thing and eventually just branched off.
Some of that comes from listening to a lot of Roni Size and Andy C and producers like that. Lots of abstracty sounds rushing about, coming out of nowhere. There's a sense of more life in the music. That’s what I do in my tunes. Drum and bass gave me ideas about layering sounds and placing sounds. But it also comes from studying music engineering at college, doing a sound recording course. I learned about mic'ing a drum kit and panning. You've got the pan positions in the middle of your mixing desk, and the crash should be left or right, the snares should be slightly panned off centre, the kick should be in the center. So you've got a panoramic view of your drum structure.
Obviously I went beyond that, started experimenting more. The bass stays central but the sounds always drift. So each time you listen you’re not just bobbing your head, you’re thinking "I heard something new in Terror Danjah’s tune". So it always lasts longer.
Payback was the biggest. That EP of remixes was one of Aftershock's top sellers. It was getting caned the most, especially my "Creepy Crawler" remix of "Frontline". That cemented it for us.
Basically you took Big E.D.'s "Frontline" and merged it with your own "Creep Crawler" from Industry Standard. It's got a really unusual synth sound, harmonically rich, with this sour, edge-of-dissonance tonality. It makes you feel like you're on the verge of a stress-induced migraine. A sound like veins in your temple throbbing.
It's a normal synth, but where many people would just use it straight out of the module without any processing or texture, I’ve learned some techniques to give it more. I add that to it. I can’t tell you how, though. Certain producers might go "ah!"
That's like an orchestral riff. Again, it's all about the effects I put on it. If you heard it dry you’d think "Is that it?" It’s the same techniques I use for the giggle.
Ah, your famous hallmark: the jeering death-goblin laughter. How did you come up with the Gremlin?
I had a lot of drum and bass sample CDs back in the day and I had that sound from time. I used it a couple of time in tracks, just to see how it sounds. Then I stopped using it and everyone was like, "Where is it?!?". I was like, "I don’t want to use it no more". But everyone was going like "That’s nang! Use it!". So I switched it up, pitched it down, did all sorts of madness with it.
I used to listen to Omni Trio and all that, when I was 14 or 15. That R&G style is more me. Everything you hear is different sides to me, but that sound, I can do that in my sleep. One day I can be pissed off and make a tune for deejays to do reloads with. And another day I'll do one where you can sit down and listen and relax, or listen with your girl and smooch her.
I don’t think none of them really. [Aftershock producer] D.O.K. is the closest in terms of subtle changes, and DaVinChe. You've also got P-Jam. But I don't really look at anyone and think they’re amazing. Wiley at one point was the guy whose level was what I wanted to get to. But I don’t think there’s anyone now who’s doing anything different. They’re being sheep.
After the very active 2003/2004/2005 phase, Aftershock went pretty quiet. There were just a few more vinyl releases and then a couple of full-length things. What happened? And what have you been up to in recent years?
The label went quiet due to the change of the climate--the introduction of CDs in the underground market place. Because we were so successful with the vinyl format, but it was time to move with the times. So I released a CD called Hardrive Vol 1, which had ten vocals and ten instrumentals and featured artists like Chipmunk, Griminal, Wiley, Mz Bratt, Wretch 32, D Double E, Scorcher, Shola Ama. I also put out an instrumental CD called Zip Files Vol. 1. And I've been working on Mz Bratt's album.
I'm told this compilation was selected out of some 80 instrumentals. Which means 62 weren't used! Does this mean you are sitting on a vast personal archive of unreleased Terror Danjah material?
You have Industry Standard Vol 4 on Planet Mu soon, and you recently returned to deejaying with the Night Slugs appearance -- does this mean you are back in the game full force? Do you feel like grime is still an area you want to work within or are you being drawn to other areas, like funky, or the more experimental end of dubstep?
Talking of the wacked-out end of dubstep, I can see a lot of your influence with the nu skool producers like Joker, Rustie, Guido, and so forth. Can you hear it yourself and what do you think of this sound people are calling things like "purple" and "wonky"?