Agressor Bunx seem to be an elusive duo to United States DnB fans, but anyone who listens to a Noisia or Eatbrain podcast will have been struck by the Ukranian duo’s pull-no-punches hard bass style. They have established themselves as being exceptional with rollers, hard chop bass and, of course, the all-important neuro drop.
Their recent EP on Eatbrain called Massacre continues Agressor Bunx’s high quality beats, especially in the roller department. It also sees them collaborating on two of the five tracks on the EP: “Hard Metal” with Kryptomedic and “Slammer” with L 33, thus adding new and different layers to their already undeniable sound. With the festival season approaching and U.S. fans hoping for a tour this year, as well as many a fan and producer wondering about how the duo create their full-bodied beats, Your EDM sat down with Agressor Bunx to get technical and discuss the new EP.
Obviously you’ve released with Eatbrain in the past, but how did you come to work with them on the Massacre EP?
First we want to say big thanks to everyone who support us: Nest HQ, Noisia Radio, Blackout, Dark Warrior and many more!
Eatbrain is one of the best DnB labels at the moment and we love to work with label head Jade. We feel each other and have great discussion about tunes. We’re like one big family!
Was there a certain theme or style/feel you were going for on the Massacre release? The tracks are all quite different but the EP seems to have a consistent feel. Did you do this on purpose, or did you just pick tracks you thought vibed together well?
We didn’t make a certain theme. This EP actueally came after discussion with Jade about another EP. All the tunes are different because we don’t like to make the same grooves. But yes, after some years of working on it we have our style and sound, so that’s why this EP feels that way.
Were “Hard Metal” and “Slammer” your first time collaborating with Kryptomedic and L 33 respectively? How did you find working with each of them and what do you think they brought to the table in terms of style?
We take collabs quite seriously because every producer has their own unique style, so we we always try to think what will be in the final product, and if the people will feel it or not.
Alex: We’d met many times with Dayan (L33) but we never talked about any collabs until this one, which was spontaneous. After a show one say we started talking about doing some work together, and then when we got home we sent Dayan some demos. He chose this one and started adding his sounds. And now it’s done. Simple as that, and we’re very happy with it!
Nick: We have had a lot of shows with Mike (Kryptomedic) and we really like what he’s doing. After a few meetings we decided make this collaboration. When we finished some cuts, Mike sent us the stems of vocals. This was a case of making it work, because once we put everything together we weren’t feeling as good about our drop, so we spent some time for creating a new one. We are really happy with this how this tune turned out in final. Hopefully we will make other collabs with him in the future!
For “Slammer,” the beat structure is different, kind of going back and forth between hard techno or a straight beat and more recognizable drum and bass beat. Was it tough to put all that together? How did it work with three of you on that track to make sure it was cohesive?
Yes, we really like to put something new in our tunes! This time we put some techno sounds into this tune. Work with “Slammer” was actually very cool and fast. We have the similar style with L33 so we didn’t have any troubles with productions. We think this tune is really powerful and interesting and the crowd reaction has been awesome. Big respect to Dayan for fast production!
Something that seems to be a theme on this EP is some very unique bass synths that almost become the melody more than any higher-register synths. What do you think is a key to creating those heavy, almost intelligent synths?
Actually what it is quite often is we have some rendered samples that we created. We spent some time making our personal sample pack, and it’s helped us to be able to make music so quickly. For our basslines we use FM8, Serum and Massive. That said, really all the magic comes comes after mixing with another VST plugins, which give us all the distortions, eq and compression.
It seems like there were a lot of mad science experiments on getting the sounds together on these tracks, but also a great deal of funk and groove in the beats. How do you feel you can strike a balance between sound design and tracks that people want to dance to?
When we start to make any track, the first part is the drop. We try to think about crowd reaction, and is it for dancing or for listening? From there we try to analyze what we need to do with the rest of the track, but the drop is what helps us to make some of those initial decisions.
How have you found people respond to the tracks on this EP in a dancefloor setting?
We think all of the tunes are very cool for dancefloor, they just need to be played at the right time. It’s another part of our work!
Which of the tracks are the most fun to play out so far?
Definitely it’s “F#cking Finger!” People never expect that drop!
With festival season coming up, do you think different tracks will play well at big venues than at clubs?
It’s so hard to tell! We will see.
Including festies, where do you plan to tour this year? Any plans to come to the US?
We have a lot of shows in Europe, so all the time will spent there but we really hope that we will have a U.S. tour this year. Stay tuned!
The Massacre by Agressor Bunx is out on Eatbrain now and can be streamed on Soundcloud or purchased on Beatport.
