United By Breakbeat’s Weekly DJ Showcase #7 SkyBass Takeover!
United by Breakbeat (UBB) is a drum and bass DJ collective that includes artists and broadcasters from around the world – it is an open enrollment Twitch team founded by Christopher Goodacre (a.k.a. Guddah) that focuses on increasing the visibility and reach of it’s members. The team offers a mutltitude of resources to every member, including tips on getting a stream started, using Open Broadcasting Software (OBS) and other tools, endless troubleshooting, promotion, community raid trains (a way to pass viewers from one artist to the next), and now a weekly community DJ showcase. As Twitch has grown and changed in the last few years the discoverability of new DJs has been a challenge – there is almost no way to grow on the platform without some sort of help, and retaining viewership can be a difficult game. That being said, there are many things that the platform provides that can’t be found anywhere else: the openness of being able to essentially play whatever music you want, the gamification and amount of interactions, and the strength of the community. On the artistic side of Twitch, it is delightful to see the creativity of individuals show on their stream through the infinite customizations that are available as well as their broadcasting style, aesthetic, and knowledge. Every presenter has their own story!
The core goal behind the showcase is to put a spotlight on these artist’s hard work, whatever story they would like to share, and to provide a space where the public can see their acclaim. Organized by Guddah with support from the UBB team, the showcase is now in it’s third week – when Guddah isn’t working on this or streaming, he is helping other people and building his community/platform. The team is designed to be a collective to share ideas, promote and help one another, and increase the visibility of its members as well as drum and bass in general. Every week this show is improving, last week we introduced the discord format in which some of the presenters including Guddah speak in between the sets about the previous DJ.
Every week I will summarize each performance, provide a short biography of the artists based on their submission questionnaire, and provide information about forthcoming shows, sign-ups, and membership perks. The full recording of these showcases will be available on Guddah’s YouTube channel.
As with the last takeover, the showcase lined up perfectly with an ongoing team raid-train! This lineup is comprised of team SkyBass (SB) members as well as the founder, Polymathic. Mathijs (Polymathic) has a fiery passion for all things DnB, and when DJing he represents styles that match his ever-present energy and drive. The performers this week brought music that pushed the listeners to open their ears to new sounds with their eclectic and well crafted sets. Part of the core message of the team is to open new ears to DnB and as they spread the gospel of DnB the team grows larger – they have gone certifiably global with their online performances and roster enrollment, and now with core members having performed in many countries the runway is set for takeoff. Check out the official bio for SB:
Team SKY BASS is a global DJ collective dedicated to uniting digital and physical spaces. Through our Twitch team, we highlight a mix of established artists and rising talent. We focus on the modern, energetic, gritty, and euphoric side of drum & bass that’s rapidly gaining global traction. Our goal is to engage music lovers who may not yet know the world of Twitch DJing and introduce them to a thriving scene beyond Spotify and YouTube sets. We also broadcast our IRL events, integrating chat into the physical experience and linking the two worlds.
We believe that Twitch is an incredible platform to discover music, connect with new communities, and find your next favorite artist. Yet, many people are still unaware this is happening. At SKY BASS, our mission is to change that—bridging the gap between the Twitch and non-Twitch worlds. Born from small Twitch open deck nights and evolving into a full-fledged IRL event, label, and global community, our goal is to elevate talent, foster connection, and showcase a pool of talented Twitch’s drum & bass artists.
Here’s what went down this week:
First performer: Polymathic
Calling The Hague, Netherlands home, Polymathic is a DJ/promoter/producer that has developed a signature sound, focused on epic musical blends and high energy mixing. Around home, Poly has thrown numerous events with SB for locals and like-minded people such as their Black Box series, and around Europe upcoming in Bratislava for B-Complex’s birthday party. His dedication to streaming and community building has led to partner status with Twitch as well as a very active Discord and even releases on the label side of SB. He’s a dedicated reader and collector of books, manga, movies, and gaming consoles which I thought was interesting as it shows a deeper appreciation for physical media. The SB mission of bridging the gap between physical and digital realm is clearly alive in Poly’s soul, and it shows when he is behind the decks throwing down a combination of neurofunk, dancefloor, jump-up, minimal and liquid DnB.
From the questionnaire:
I was introduced to DnB during a power outage at my Student Association in Autumn 2019. Then one of my fellow board members put up music through her phone and a speaker there and it was Liquicity stuff. I recognised some Fox Stevenson stuff and maybe some Maduk, Kanine, Graffix. Uptil that point that was all just “nice fast EDM” to me. The term Drum & Bass was still unknown to me. Liquicity Winter 2019 was my first rave and real dnb experience.
When everything locked down during COVID my volunteering job as head of the board of my student association kinda went from 30 hours a week to maybe 5 (what else can you do when your bar is closed). I was graduating as well and living on my own. I had too much energy and time left in me so I started DJ’ing bc I really liked the DNB DJ livestreams of people like Maduk & Fox and the community it brought together in chat and Zoom calls during those streams. After getting a DDJ-400 and looking at “How do all the buttons work” kinda tutorials when the deck was shipping I just started fucking around. I didn’t have any real DJ friends and only 8 months later in December 2020, when I started having some people over, I learned what was right and wrong a bit. This meant most of my first 2 DJ years were super experimental and nobody really told me what to do. This made me settle into my own DJ style a lot. During that same Christmas month I got asked to play at somebody’s home party at the other side of the country. I really didn’t want to travel that long for, on that point, maybe my 3rd house party booking, seeing they didnt pay me. So what I ended up doing was asking 2 friends over and doing Twitch livestreams both weekend days. From there on I kept streaming on my own, but mostly with friends. The main audience on that point where all non-Twitch friends looking for music in these silent times. The first COVID restrictions where lifted we organised the first SKY BASS, which was on the 18th floor of my apartment building. Therefore Bass in the SKY. SKY BASS also became a label alter that year, yet we didnt have a large Twitch presence and community. We still had that old mindset where we just “hoped” people tuned in, without investing much in Twitch or our own online presence/community. This happened a year later in November 2023 when I was introduced into UBB. From there everything went really fast, and the SKY BASS brand really resonated with a lot of people. In that same year I also won the LIQUICITY Festival DJ contest, which really made me a household name in the country. From that point I dabbled a bit in production, got some really nice small bookings here and there, and I hope to slowly keep growing these bookings by being a the best DJ I can be , a Producer slowly improving his skills and being a good person leading a healthy community (which so far has worked out super well).
Next to playing at Liquicity Summer 23 (where I filled a stage at 3PM on a Friday) (I needed 3 hours in my tent post set to process all it with a lot of happy tears), my most memorable set was The Hague Student Party ’23. Here my Student Life and DJ life overlapped when I was allowed to play a 3 hour dnb set in a packed 3rd stage. Everyone was super super hyped and didn’t expect me to go that hard. They never heard dnb or saw a DJ jump around like I did, let alone a friend they only know to be a silent older member of their association.
Top three tracks of all time: Fox Stevenson “Human In The Evening”, 1991 “Pressure”, POLYGON “It’s Over (ft. Rhode)”
Second performer: KeyboardMedic
With a background in design and engineering, this Netherlander plays a full bag of heavy DnB from neuro to ragga jungle and splices in influence from hard rock and punk where he can. His stream has great visual layout with track IDs which allows his audience to enjoy the fruits of his crate digging as well as sharing the knowledge, which helps understanding his flow because he plays such a wide variety of sounds. Initially starting as a game streamer with occasional engineering and design streams in his repertoire, DJing is what brought him back to Twitch after a short hiatus (presumably to work on backyard camping setups). Keyboard loves the community and togetherness that comes with DJing, fondly citing a Twitch get together for his first ever DJ birthday party. It’s these type of shared experiences that make DnB special for us all.
From the questionnaire:
My buddy Iboh (BackupIboh) got gifted a deck from BltzMac and he proudly showed me what he could do with it, quickly i got the urge to try my hand at some blends as well so i downloaded Mixxx and started mixing with mouse and keyboard, little over half a year in and trying to mix with all sorts of crazy solutions (a line mixer in combination with mouse and keyboard) i bought my first decks. From the start i mixed on twitch since i got exposed to djs there and i made loads of friends along the way! nowadays i still focus on twitch, i don’t have much interest in playing live events other then Sky Bass or other events hosted by good friends. as a result i don’t focus much on growth, i do try to get better at djing but for me its all about the fun of playing good music and sharing it with friends, no good or bad, just vibes! whether its for 2 people or 200 i will keep playing the tunes i love!
Top three tracks of all time: Pendulum “Crash”, The Prototypes “Rocket Guns Blazin”, The Qemists “Stompbox”
Third performer: Kryptonite
Kryptonite is a veteran promoter, DJ, and overall major robotics and VR geek – really this guy does a little bit of everything, and you see him everywhere! Kryptonite’s contribution to the DnB and bass music scene cannot be overstated (check his bio for some highlights) and he continues to dedicate his life to this music. Part of the organizing trio of BassFighters, an events and promotion company in Slovenia that includes names such as Metanoia, Spencah, Smooth, and Aniline, they have thrown parties for some of the biggest names in the business. Absolutely check out what the BassFighters crew is up to.
From the questionnaire:
I started by streaming games in 2014! I’ve had my on and off years, but when it comes to streaming music, I properly started in 2022. I hadn’t even thought about regularly streaming music on twitch, until I joined VRchat in around 2022. I found out there’s a ton of people that want to listen live DJ performances online, so I quickly pivoted to do both VRChat and twitch at the same time, with great reception from the public. Ever since then I’ve been streaming music on twitch and slowly growing, it’s so much fun! It’s hard to pinpoint a main influence as this is something that regularly keeps changing, but I’d say some of my main influences currently would be Magnetude, State of Mind, Ed Rush & Optical and A.M.C. I’m in love with their mixing styles, song selection and just overall vibe!
I’ve got way too many hobbies! I build and fly FPV drones ( https://www.youtube.com/@KryptFPV ). I’m also tightly involved in the Virtual Reality raving community, I build virtual reality clubs in which parties are held monthly, I help manage Zardonics VR club, I help staff MUZZ’s VR club & even started involving Bass Fighters in VR last year! I guess you could say I’m a geek!
I first got directly involved with the bass scene in 2012, throwing local parties with my good friend Spencah. We started out in a very small bar where we threw weekly & bi-weekly events, introducing our city to a broader spectrum of bass music, that wasn’t previously provided. I quickly found out that drum & bass was my calling, and thus Bass Fighters was born in 2014, after 2 years of doing local parties under no particular brand. Now it’s been a decade of us persistently carving our way through the local and international music scenes, boasting some exceptional achievements. With a multitude of events across Slovenia, featuring top notch foreign and local guests, regular international performances, our own festival and numerous club residencies, we have shown that we’re very good at what we do. Just some noteworthy names we’ve had at our events: Black Sun Empire, Teddy Killerz, A.M.C, Culture Shock, State of Mind, Prolix, Redpill, Burr Oak, Zardonic, Magnetude, Mandidextrous and a ton of others.
Some of the noteworthy festivals & events we played at: Let it Roll Warmup in Prague, Outlook Festival launch party, Exit Festival, DIVIDID label night, Blackout XL, Storm Club Prague and many many others.
Oh god, most of it I am not at liberty to share publically, but we’ve had a lot of weird and hilarious moments happen throughout the years! One memorable moment that will be with me forever, will be playing in Brno, CZ for the first time in late 2017. One of the lovely Mindicted Crew boys that was hosting us, worked at an absynthe bar, so the day after the party the schedule was known: get drunk on absynthe, which most of us haven’t done at that point. Once we arrived to the bar, we could smell a familiar smell radiating from the basement bar “Naproty”. Once we entered it got even more obvious, you were allowed to smoke weed inside the bar! Something, we’ve not previously experienced. Furthermore, they had a damn Volcano Vaporizer on the bar, and everyone could grab a bag, fill it up with their own weed and go toke it at your table. They had pool, table footable & just the perfect stoner atmosphere. To say we had fun, would be an understatement! That time going to CZ, will always stay with me!
Top three tracks of all time: Fox Stevenson “Bruises”, Audio “Invasion”, Wilkinson “Used To This”
Performer four: EZEH
Representing the east coast of the US, this DnB dad started his streaming journey with gaming as well playing popular video games around 2018. His son is a lover of DnB, following in his papa’s footsteps by yelling lyrics around the house as well as offering suggestions for songs to keep in his set (he’s 4). Influenced by heavyweights Sub Focus, Justin Hawkes, and Bou, EZEH brings this kind of epic approach to his DJing and tosses in absolutely devastating drops with his 4 deck mixing. He mentions below that he runs a local DJ collective of DnB heads, another incredible dedication to put time into that while also being a father – it can be difficult to make time when so much of it is accounted for already! Check out more about EZEH below
From the questionnaire:
As a teenager I was a huge nerd and was really into making call of duty montages. Back then most people used dubstep, but some people used DnB and it always stood out to me. Back then I didn’t even know it was different than dubstep I just thought I liked that version of dubstep better. After saving some of those songs and listening on repeat I was hooked. Naturally finding UKF and Liquicity around that time in 2012 was monumental for my love of the genre.
I started DJing around December of 2023 with a Hercules Mini 2 channel controller and grew in confidence to start streaming around February of ‘24. After months of streaming 3x a week I upgraded to a 4 channel controller (FLX6) and began preparing for bookings and ended up securing my first show in October of 24’ in Washington DC. To this day, I still stream 3-4x a week and have had a few recent bookings with a few more on the horizon.
I run a DnB collective in DC and we have put on a few shows. I was lucky enough to get to perform at our last event and the crowd and the energy was so fun and electric. Being able to create an environment w the brand and being able to DJ in that environment and provide a fun experience is something I will never forget!
Top three tracks of all time: Flite “Decisions”, Sub Focus and Wilkinson “Illuminate”, Danny Byrd “Tonight”
You can watch the UBB DJ showcase every Saturday from 16:00 GMT – 22:30 GMT (10AM CST, 8AM PST) on Guddah’s twitch channel! The weekly recap will be available right here on Best Drum and Bass in the following days of each broadcast.
If you are a Twitch streamer that is interested in getting involved with UBB, ask about signups at one of the showcases and a team member will invite you to the discord and add you to the Twitch team. Membership is open to everyone who streams drum and bass on twitch in any capacity. This community aims to build each other up and provide an even platform for people to share knowledge. It is a safe space to discuss streaming as well as real life issues, with a member list full of compassionate and interesting creative people who are full of drive for this music. Until the next showcase, we hope to see you soon!
