DJ Absurd is well-established in France's bass scene as the founder of The Bass Society, and as a DJ on Rinse France since the station's conception in 2014. To coincide with the drop of his new release Pxris Lxvxmxn, we talked to him about how it all started, the lesser-known 'La Dub War' of 2018/19, and what the future holds for France's grime and underground bass renaissance.
The
Bass Society was born when the local scene in Paris, which Absurd believed consisted of better
DJs and producers that than a lot of the headliners he was touring with, didn’t
have a venue to perform in. Deciding to change that himself, he managed to find a
space in the bottom of a youth hostel through a mutual friend of someone who worked there. Believing around 50
people would come to the night he set up with local talent, he got a shock when working the door and about three times the
venue’s capacity turned up to dance in the street. “Next thing you know we
ended up with a roadblock,” said Absurd. The huge rig they supplied reached
people stuck outside the venue, letting the crowd dance in the street, but it was so oversized is caused a few
problems. “We had the blue devils coming to tell us they had calls and
complaints from people on the 7th floor of the hotel next to the youth hostel basement,” he explained.
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| One night at The Bass Society residency at Batofar between 2011 and 2012 |
J Da Flex performing for The Bass Society at the Moulin Rouge nightclub, 2011
A
turning point came in 2018, when Absurd sat down for a to-this-day unpublished
interview with SeeSickSound lead editor and future member of The Bass Society, Background.
“We ended up talking for hours about everything that I had done from 2001 to
2018, making hundreds of references to obscure old school dark garage white
labels, Axe FM clashes, punk rock, 70s Jamaican music and everything in between,”
he recounted. Both DJs realised they thought the scene needed the same thing: a healthy
dose of warry competition and clashing. “I was missing the soundclashes because
that’s the only platform where just skills matter, not your hype or who you
associate with in the industry, and Background wanted clashes to happen again
for the same reasons, plus being from a younger generation he missed the old-school
ones.”
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| Lexx Coop and DJ Absurd: together they released"Gonshaart", the first French grime record back in 2005 |
After
creating a private Facebook group for The Bass Society to enable a link
between the existing crew and outsiders to share music and chat, fellow producer Skwig suggested a making that dream of a soundclash a reality. An all-out dub
war kicked off, finding support from producers, DJs and radio shows across France.
“We had producers from every bit of the country involved, and it was the first
time there was a common project with so many French producers from different bass
sub-genres linking up,” he recalled. The results were pretty incredible: “We eventually
ended up getting featured in the main national electronic music media, and the
clash tunes compilation got decent reviews in DJ Mag UK and several radio
shows. It also reinforced my belief that soundclashing, when based on skills
and dub quality rather than just disrespect, is the purest and realest form of
what we do.” You can still find 70 high quality cuts from ‘La Dub War’ for free download on The Bass Society’s BandCamp, spread across two compilations that serve as a
brilliant introduction to the underground French bass scene.
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| DJ Absurd performing a dubplate set in Glazart nightclub, 2009 |
Moving
to the immediate present, Absurd’s newest release has landed today. Pxris Lxvxmxn
features two heavy, steely grime tracks infused with electric breakbeats energy.
For him, it’s all about pushing forward to find new ground that will keep momentum
building nationally and internationally, responding to the developments he sees
across the whole range of bass music: “As weird as it may sound, I think this
global moment and context is my main influence production-wise. I’m just trying
to make music that will sound good in my next set. It gives me the freedom to incorporate
elements and references of the current period I’m making the tune in. My style
has evolved that way; I’ve learnt new skills through the years from navigating
within the whole spectrum of BPMs and moods.”
Using his platform on Rinse France, Absurd has
carried on supporting and spreading the music he is passionate about. Who
are his favourite artists at the moment? “That is so
hard to answer without giving you a 20 page long list! I would say you have to
check my weekly radio show and the people you see me making moves with to find
out.” He does have some insight as to what we should keep a look out for in the near future, though: “We are working on original French dancehall don
Big Red's grime project at the moment. It’s going to be a blueprint for the genre in French.”
Check out DJ Absurd’s new release Pxris Lxvxmxn below. You can also find a limited vinyl version here.
Also, check out The Bass Society on Facebook for more updates, including news about their 10 Years Special Edition event on 7th March.