United By Breakbeat’s Weekly DJ Showcase #13 – The Interstellar Audio 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. When the viewer count goes up during the showcase, the stream rises up the ranks of ‘suggested streams’ when someone is browsing something to watch, so the format helps more people get eyes and ears on our performers. Organized by Guddah with support from the UBB team, the showcase is now in it’s thirteenth 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 provide a short biography of the artists, a quick look at their set from the week, background 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.

This showcase featured four members of the Interstellar Audio (IA) crew, a cutting edge DnB label and event promotion company based in the UK. This outfit has five releases under their belt, with the first full length album dropping on the label on the 6th of june. IA offers a one-stop shop for all things DnB – their landing site posts upcoming music and event drops, merch, as well as a youtube channel that features mixes and a podcast! The label has a signature soulful sound, laced with moody dark bits and dreamy, ethereal vocals. Artists like Darkyycomet and MissMedik exemplify this label’s sound with their respective EPs perfectly (Holographic, The Place in Our Stars). The crew brought sets that span this space between liquid dnb, minimal, and choppy dark jungle sounds which IA seems to be finding a pocket in, lacing picturesque sounds in between poignant synths. Here’s what went down this week:

First performer: Needlenose

Hailing from the Ozark mountains of northwestern Arkansas Needlenose brings a particular musical richness to his streams that represent his instrumental background. I have heard sets from across the spectrum in Needlenose’s stream that integrate live musical input as well as dedicated looping – he adds so much to the already interesting DJing, that really span all subgenres of DnB. He gives shouts to deep and melodic rollers as well as liquid/atmospheric but makes clear that he tries to think outside of these boxes when building his library! Needlenose is influenced by Seba, Alix Perez, Aphex Twin, Pretty Lights, STS9, and DJ Shadow when it comes to DJing and electronica, citing labels such as 1985, Hospital, DIspatch, Critical, and CIA, and the likes of Smashing Pumpkins and Snarky Puppy on the band side. This will all make sense when you hear the set – this is a pretty distinct list!

From the questionnaire:

The first electronic CD I ever bought was MTV Amp, Vol. 1 in 1996. It had a TON of artists on there that are just iconic at this point: Aphex Twin, Photek, Goldie, etc. At the time I had no clue who they were or the kid of impact they would have on me or music in general, but I probably listened to that album from beginning to end close to 500 times.

 

I was always a music kid. Some of my earliest memories are of my sister and I singing along to Beatles tunes while my dad strummed guitar. In 6th grade I joined the school band, and despite wanting to play percussion, I played alto saxophone in the symphonic & marching bands for several years. It wasn’t all bad – I learned a lot about music and theory, until my sophomore year of high school, when I got kicked out of class for “embellishing” during rehearsal. (True story – it felt very similar Lisa’s opening scene in intro to The Simpsons – band director’s finger pointing to door and everything).

 

At that point I had already decided I wanted to bail on saxophone, so I convinced my parents to buy me a drum set for Christmas, and somehow they agreed. I played along to every CD I owned on repeat until my hands bled, trying to emulate what they were doing, and that’s essentially how I taught myself the drums.

 

I played in several different bands over the years, but of course they always fell apart, and eventually I got the idea in my head that if I wanted to produce music, I needed to be able to play everything – guitar, bass, etc. I slowly started acquiring any gear I could get my hands on. Eventually I met some people who introduced me to a few “underground” DJs and electronic jam bands (and more importantly, this new idea of MIDI and modular setups) and I was hooked. Unfortunately I never had the money, the gear, or the patience to make it a reality.

 

I moved to Arkansas in 2012, and got my first DJ controller, a Traktor S2 MK2. A couple of years went by as I learned to dabble, but eventually my unchecked depression & mental illness caught up with me. I spent over a decade barely touching any of it, with less than half maybe getting picked up once or twice a year, despite continuing to hoard it.

 

Around the end of the pandemic, I started to find DJs on Twitch, and it became part of my daily routine. Seeing streamers like Helmahof, Widdzy, and Guddah, with these amazing communities, started to remind me what was so important about music. Several friends and family members encouraged me to set my gear up and start streaming, and at the end of 2023, I decided to give it a shot.

 

I set myself a goal of 1,000 followers for year one, and the support was insane. I ended up gaining over 150% of my goal, reaching the 1,000 mark by October. The concept of “Thanks For Being Alive” was born out of all this, as I truly believe that the Twitch D&B community probably saved my life. I’ve now been streaming for over a year and I absolutely love it, and I’ve made it my goal to support as many of my friends as I can. It also gives me an opportunity to promote other artists & producers.

 

Fun fact: “Needlenose” actually comes from my love of dachshunds. When I was a kid my grandma always had a red doxie named Mitzi, and she would call it her little needlenose. I thought it made a great name and the fact that it sort of correlates with record players is just a plus.

Top three tracks of all time: Seba ‘Painted Skies’, Netsky ‘Porcelain’, LTJ Bukem ‘Watercolors’

In the first twenty minutes of this set Needlenose plays some content that is a bit different than what you might normally hear, and is absolutely insane when it comes to the groove, drive, and musical choices. There are harmonies in his blends, vocals used on top of fleeting rhythms, and some absolutely massive bass drops coming out of nowhere! Needle expertly makes his way in and out of musically focused DnB by using the atmospherics, melodies, and vocals from an otherwise smooth tune with the crushing impact of deep and minimal kicks, creating almost a third track entirely. He played some of my favorites, including the new Seba track ft. Sapele ‘Project’ and Enei’s moody roller ft. odddi ‘Show Me’ with blends I would have never thought of (the ‘Show Me’ one was absolutely epic), and he played loads of tunes I have never heard. I can’t stress enough his usage of different musical elements across these tracks to create bigger and more rich atmospheres among his blends – when he gets into a blend and starts bopping there is magic created in the studio. He closes down the set with some classic tech-y tunes and some atmospheric DnB that takes me back to a classic era. On stream, Needlenose is known for some epic extended streams that jam on through many different realms of sounds and tempos – highly suggest checking out his twitch! Peep the links below:

Needlenose

Second performer: MissGray

A lifelong DnB lover, this Kent, UK based DJ has been DJing for the IA crew on Twitch heavily for the last year or so. MissGray describes listening to music like a DJ would for many years, and recently decided to make the jump into the DJ world to learn the craft for herself. She’s a very quick learner and has a great instinct for musical, sweeping, and epic DnB from the likes of Etherwood and Keeno – even having won a DJ contest to go out of country! This performance would also lead to an epic b2b with the man himself, the one and only Etherwood – she was hanging out at the event’s open decks and he asked for a tag set with her, which she describes as nothing short of epic.

MissGray is also an extremely talented producer, with a recent release on Outer Edge audio entitled “Rise”. She is poised to continue rising through the ranks of elite Liquid DnB and as an integral and founding member of IA there is a huge amount of insightful experience under her belt to continue the momentum forward. Her set today showed the appreciation for dynamics she brings to the table, allowing the mix to breathe and flow as the melodies and keys subtly change. It’s this musical sensibility that she brings to her DJing and productions alike. Keep an eye out for MissGray as 2025 has already been an amazing year for this dedicated and hard-working artist.

Top three tracks of all time: Wilkinson “Machina”, Disrupta “Dreaming of You”, Fred V “Away (ft. Yvonne)

The performance from MissGray today tugged at the heartstrings of our viewers today, finding a balanced vibe between the darker smooth sounds and highest emotional highs that the vocal selections provide. Featuring numerous tunes from the IA crew as well as some of her own music, this mix also dug into bluesy and soulful sounds from other camps of similar ilk such as Keeno Music and Hospital. An incredible showing of these sounds that blended Major and Minor keys well, finding new phrasing between vocals and instrumentation, MissGray found a vein to close out her set with some classics from some of her favorite artists. The entirety of this set provided pure uplifting and soulful vibes that grasped the viewers attention from start to finish. Huge love emanating from this artist. Check out what she’s got planned below:

SC IG Spotify

Third performer: tpbee

A Nottingham, UK based DJ (home of IA) that specializes in liquid and minimal DnB, tpbee is a veteran behind the decks and in the rave scene in general. He’s a trained pyrotechnician and DIY audio expert who brings a tight flow to every single set, utilizing his four-deck setup to deliver complex and driving mixes across his deep selections. Introduced to Twitch during lockdown, and begun streaming around the beginning of 2021 – his broadcast today is clean, consistent, and as clear as his mixing. He’s also spent a good amount of time as a record buyer for a local record shop called 6th form which eventually led to digging for DnB records following a run of legendary drum and bass nights as a patron. He’s provided a great bio to delve deeper into his story:

From the questionnaire:

In the 90s (now I know I don’t look it) at 6th form we always went to Rock City, every Thursday religiously (and often Saturdays). I had hair to my shoulders and was into rock & Indy, but the dance hour in the middle of that Thursday I let my hair down. Everyone was in tribes then, we didn’t listen to “dance music” but breaks were different, felt new, prodigy, chemical brothers etc crossed over. Then they started playing alex reece candles in that hour, that was the one, that was the right speed, that was something new.

 

I then started hunting it out, that was the first year that detonate set up in notts, ED Rush playing at Deluxe was massive, DJ Hype for Detonate’s first birthday was wicked, I still have a massive poster for that somewhere… once I went through that door, I was hooked.

 

I started buying records at 6th form, firstly bigbeat, and downbeat stuff (a lot of skint records) stuff that could be mixed on my garbage belt drives. A year later I got 1210’s mk2, new. These ones I still have. As I migrated to dnb then the records came with it. In all honesty, I was too shy to push my dj mixing forward at that point, I bedroom DJ’d for a long while not daring to push myself forward. It was only when I met a bunch of like minded souls through a magazine project that i was working on that I started playing out. This crew were DJ’s and we started playing in a bar in town weekly. Most of that crew are still making tunes – Quantum Mechanix (Dispatch), Tempral (Locked Up), Sasha Khan (Omni), I then migrated to set up a live PA on Ableton after about 8 years DJ’ing vinyl The PA lasted a couple of years, but when Jim moved back to mancs, I put the PA down and didn’t pick up the decks again until i got new needles (and then new kit) in lockdown.

 

Big names for DnB but I’ve had this list of 3 for a long time – John B, Logistics and High Contrast. I’d probably throw Camo and Krooked into that somewhere along the line too. Although with my streams I like to make a point of digging deeper, I try to keep an open ear to new releases, try to dig that bit deeper, and play stuff that you may not have necessarily heard. It’s always discovery for me.

 

Around 2005 I put a Ableton live PA together with a few people and gigged it around Nottingham for a couple of years. (I think we built it on ableton2 if I remember right!) We took what toomanydj’s were doing at the time with breaks and sped it up. It was a crazy mashup of pop, indy, dubtep, dnb, anything you can think of, all at 174bpm. Was a mess, but fun, playing hard on the recognition factor. We supported people like scrubious pip and chase and status when they brought live shows to notts. When everyone in the band turned up, we had two of us running the midi controllers (myself and Jim who has gone on to be part of Quantum Mechanix), a Live VJ (Jamie), a scratch DJ (Lukas Wigflex, yes – the techno guy), and 2 MC’s. It was a full stage! It was crazy cut ups, all at dnb speed – there’s some of it still on soundcloud somewhere if you dare look…

 

Started watching twitch during lockdown as a few non music people got on twitch (people like Iain Lee and Stuart Goldsmith) alongside a mate or two who were messing with DJ’ing on facebook streaming. At that point my decks were still gathering dust in a corner. I got some new needles xmas of 2020 and then within a month had brought a serato interface, connected an old midi trigger finger to recreate controller pads, and was saving up for a controller, Ive since gone through a roland 707m, a denon prime 4 and now on an xdj AZ. I still prefer using digital vinyl with my 1210’s though, just feels more natural than using wheels.

Top three tracks of all time (for today he says): Smashing Pumpkins “Today”, Massive Attack “Inertia Creeps”, DJ Shadow “Building Steam With A Grain Of Salt”

tpbee’s got a lovely way of developing an overarching phrase when he’s mixing, usually consisting of 6-7 tracks before a break or midsection to setup a vibe switch or blend. It’s lovely to hear a DJ have such a distinct style amongst so many different ideas and sounds. I think this shows his experience, and the flexibility that comes along with that allows for a journey in 60 minutes – this set is full of gems and deft switches. Opening with a half time tune to start things slow, he quickly moves into a minimal and brooding groove that dips in and out of hopeful and thoughtful vibes. He features a wide variety of artists in this set and draws tunes that are interesting to the ear, understated yet driving and confident grooves that play off one another extremely well. It’s just fun to listen to tpbee mix, and today was no exception. I spoke about variety a lot in this but he makes it all work in a lovely fashion, finding true north. Check out what he’s been up to below:

tpbee links

Fourth performer: Cellar

IA boss, partner in merch line FILTHY UK, producer, and all-around gent, Cellar was a special guest to have come by the showcase today. Cellar and his crew keep IA on the absolute cutting edge of the scene, hosting some of the hottest new artists that DnB has to offer such as Alfs, Lolly, AUDIO iLLS, and Jinbu, and recently hosting Telomic at a massive multistage event. He regularly pumps out content related to DJing with the music always at the forefront of his mission, and provides an open bag to promote tunes that he’s feeling on the podcast and blog. His personal musical history runs far back but as far as DnB it started with the eclectic and experimental sounds of squarepusher, aphex twin, and DJ Shadow, and after seeking this sound out ‘…had a life-changing epiphany’ out at a show on a proper sound system. While getting his start on an online radio station called ukflava, he’s now broadcasting on twitch on the InterstellarAudio channel and features music from the label as well as banging tunes from around the scene. Heavily influenced by Keeno, the Overview crew, and Stoic Music, he’s now setup up multiple collaborations with Keeno Music including a mountaintop broadcast as part of a UKF on-air production.

From the questionnaire:

Almost as soon as I started hearing rave tapes when i was about 17 I picked up some third hand Gemini belt drives and a box of random dnb records… that developed over a few years into having a lot of fun while I lived in house shares… packed it all up after moving away from lads living until 2020 when we were all bored, picked up a ddj200 and just been riding the wave since

Top three tracks of all time: Keeno “Jungle Ballet”, S.P.Y. “all tunes”, D. Bridge & Vegas “True Romance”

Cellar aptly announced that he would play stinkers today and delivered in full force. He’s started out of the gate with some minimal tunes that feature maximum bassweight, shouting out SATL, Telomic, Wintour, and other hot minimal producers of the moment while he shells through his set. I really identified with his style of DJing as a listener and DJ alike because he focuses heavily on the percussive and rhythmic elements in his blends, vying for grooves that flip themselves around between steps and forward drive while the bass twists around the drums like smoke. I appreciated that he maintained the broadcasting side during his set, shouting out artists and followers as well as mates in the chat – I know firsthand how hard this can be while maintaining the mix! This performance was incredibly consistent through and through, with Cellar picking tunes out of the bag perfectly and quickly. Check out what he and the crew have been up to, and whats coming up for IA below:

Cellar links

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!

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