Since 2010 the Bristol duo known as Dodge & Fuski have been mashing beats and tearing up dance floors with their championed bass music tunes. During this tenure, the duo have become a familiar face on Never Say Die with countless remixes and originals released under the imprint, co-founded their own record label, Disciple Recordings, and most impressively proved their ability to create refreshingly dynamic productions.
As of late, Dodge & Fuski have meandered from their dubstep roots and have begun to dabble with production at a slower BPM. Kicking things off back in September with their single ‘Vice’, Dodge & Fuski sprung out of the gate and up the charts with their new glitched-out tempo. Since the release of ‘Vice’, the duo have kept their sound firmly planted at 100BPM and justifiably so; their next release, a glitch-hop remix of Pegboard Nerds ‘High Roller’ followed suit and climbed its way to #1 on Beatport.
Now after the conclusion of 2013, Dodge & Fuski are back once again with their Stop What You’re Doing EP. Their latest EP expands upon their new-found bombastic glitch-hop sound with the tracks ‘The Clap’ and ‘Stop What Your Doing’. ‘Stop What Your Doing’, which features UK DMC champion JFB, seems to be the perfect marriage between the artists’ respective styles. From the sound design of each squeak, scratch, and drum kick, ‘Stop What Your Doing’ will undoubtedly grab you by the headphones and take you for a ride. Despite, the connotation of its mischievously clever name, listening to ‘The Clap’ won’t leave you with a worrisome burning sensation and a sense of overwhelming shame. Complex patterns of cacophonous samples effortlessly blend to form a glitched out 100 BPM banger that is filled to the brim with groove. It’s funky (sounding not smelling) and will have you tapping your feet with glee like you just got word from the doctor that you don’t actually need that 500 mg dose of Levaquin®. The EP rounds off with a more traditional dubstep wobbler in the form of ‘Bringing Wobble Back’ and a massive rework of the title track by Circus Records’ most recent signing, The McMash Clan. 
The EP is as diverse as D&F’s sound and in addition to our review, we were lucky enough to talk with them about the EP itself, Disciple Recordings and the direction of D&F looking forward.
Since the release of your single “Vice”, your style has shifted slightly from producing 140 BPM to 100 BPM tunes. Creatively what was the inspiration behind this change of pace?
[Dodge] To be honest I ran out of ideas with Dubstep. The scene has changed a lot in recent years and I just felt like I could do something a bit more interesting/standout at 100bpm as I used to be a hip-hop producer. I did an oldskool wobbly Dubstep track on the EP for good measure but it’s not the focus of what I’m doing now.
How do you feel the sound of this latest EP speaks toward the D&F sound looking forward to the future?
It’s very representative of what I want to carry on doing. I’m gonna start working on an album this year and I’m aiming for about 50-60% 100bpm, some other hip-hop tempo tracks (85-110bpm) and probably the odd bit of Dubstep for old times sake on it. To be honest trying to predict what the next big thing is going to be is like gambling on the stock market so I’m just going to do what I like making and see how it goes!
How do you feel the creative scene in Bristol is different from that of London? Do you feel these inspirational differences are apparent in the records you produce?
I’m not sure there necessarily is one. All I would say is there is definitely more of a trendy house scene in London than Bristol but in terms of bass music both cities have equally strong representation from artists living there – in Bristol alone we have KOAN Sound, TC, Roni Size, Loadstar, Calvertron, Cutline, Jakes and Asa just to name a few. As everything is so internet orientated these days though I don’t think your physical location really has that much bearing on your music these days.
In the past you mentioned that your forthcoming EP would feature a remix from one of Circus Records’ most exciting producers. Now that the cat is out of the bag, can you speak to the inspiration behind having The McMash Clan remix the title track of the EP?
When I heard their debut EP I immediately wanted to get them involved somehow. They’ve got a really original sound which has bags of energy and a proper festival vibe. A friend of mine Culprate has taught them a lot of mixdown tricks and it definitely shows in their music, it’s really creatively arranged and brilliantly executed.
Rob from your position as co-director of Disciple Recordings, what is the most important thing you try to provide your artists that they might not receive with other record labels? ( In other words, what sets Disciple apart from its competitors)
Putting a lot of effort into promoting our releases in a nutshell. As Disciple is a joint venture with Never Say Die we’ve had a lot of guidance early on, but we’ve definitely added a lot of our own tricks into the bag. We always try and find a cool prize to give away free on the Disciple page for every release as a ‘share’ competition (my EP we have a one-off hoody and for a forthcoming TBC EP we have a custom gameboy), and we make absolutely sure that every track on a release gets the best Youtube channel upload support possible (be it UKF, Suicide Sheep, Most Addictive, Trap & Bass etc) on release day to drum up sales and awareness. Having been an artist I know how frustrating it can feel for a release to go under the radar so my label partner Rossy who is head of promo does his utmost every release to make sure that never happens!
Who are a few of the artists’ you two project to take over 2014?
Our new exclusive signing Barely Alive are definitely ones to watch. They’ve got a lot of momentum for such an early stage and their music is sick. I would also keep your eyes on Pegboard Nerds as they keep going from strength to strength – the EP they did with Disciple was a one-off that we talked about doing nearly 2 years ago, but I absolutely back everything they’re doing now. Top guys too.
Now for something completely different (see what I did there ☺), what can we expect from you guys for the rest of the year, in terms of touring and future releases?
Haha! Well, we’ve just moved to APA Talent Agency in North America and they’re already getting a lot of plans together for American tours this year. Can’t really say much yet but all info will be on our Facebook page when I have it. As I mentioned earlier, I’m planning on doing an album but we’ll see how that goes I guess as I’ve never made one before… There’s also a couple remixes I’ve done which will be coming out soon. Should be a great year!
Dodge & Fuski’s Stop What Your Doing EP is out now so make sure to stream the previews on Soundcloud and purchase your own copy on Beatport as well! Enjoy.
