‘Tuned Up With…’ is a mini interview series where we discover certain producers’ favourite tunes to either play or simply listen to via ten straight to the point questions.
If you’re not familiar with Opus after the year this guy is having, then you’re seriously missing out. Following his exceptional release on Simply Deep earlier this year with ‘Mindapple EP’ (SD007), Opus has landed not one but two wicked releases this month on two of the genres leading labels; a second appearance on White Peach with ‘Methodist EP‘ and a highly anticipated debut on Crucial Recordings with ‘Sharpie’ (CRUCIAL018). That’s quite the CV.
To find out more about his current taste and selections, I threw over ten quick fire questions his way…
1. Current favourite tune to open a set with?
This is a tough one! Depends on whether I’m playing half-time 170 stuff or dubstep. For half-time, it’s a new bit by myself that you’ll be hearing about soon if you follow my socials. For dubstep, it’s a 140 hip hop instrumental: Clams Casino – Kali Yuga.
2. One of your favourite recent productions by yourself?
I’m proud of how my EP with Crucial Recordings turned out, it’s been getting played out by Goth Trad, Distance and a few others which is pretty mad to me. Specifically to that release though, my pick of the bunch is Sharpie.
3. And one from the past?
I still play out Mindapple, the title track from my EP with Simply Deep. That was probably the first dubstep tune I was happy with, so it was really good to see it get a release a couple years later.
4. Three tracks you can’t avoid dropping into your sets right now?
Høst – Give me more (DUB) / Argo – LNTC (DUB) / Sukh Night & Mystry – Suckaz (DUB)
5. Deadliest dub in the bag?
Kloudmen – Shifter VIP always, always shuts down the place. I don’t think it’ll ever get old.
6. Most underrated tune past or present?
One tune that I don’t hear enough about is Clarity – Cryptid, from his album on Samurai Music. The groove makes me tick in a big, big way and I drop it pretty much every time I play half-time.
7. Last tune on Soundcloud you hit the like button on?
Argo – Astro Dub, which is forthcoming Encrypted Audio.
8. Your pal is giving you a lift and hands you the aux cord, what’s the first tune you play? (Any genre.)
To be honest I’d probably play it safe and stick some hip hop on. I love the stuff High Focus put out and some of it has the added bonus of being very accessible for people with lots of different tastes.
9. One tune that inspired you to get started in the production of music.
Back in 2014 when I was just dipping my toes into electronic music production I was very, very into Kaiju; a track that I regularly came back to was Kaiju – Close Break. I tried my best to emulate as closely as possible the sound of the drums and sub bass in my early productions, albeit without much success!
10. And finally, for good measure, name three producers that currently keep popping up on your radar.
There are so many producers doing absolute bits right now so it’s very hard, and probably not entirely accurate to narrow it down to 3. Off the top of my head though:
LFK, Glume and Darkimh.
Out to Opus for taking on the ‘Tuned Up‘ questions and answering with a great mixed bag of tunes. Plenty to find out and listen to!
‘Methodist EP’ is out now on White Peach Records and available from the White Peach Bandcamp.
‘Sharpie EP’ is out now on Crucial Recordings and available from the Crucial Recordings Bandcamp.
Check out Opus on Soundcloud and Twitter.