Exploring shadows and sparkles with MiXE1

From a one man exploration to a full band increasingly weaving new and diverse strains of sound and imagination into emotive electronic rock soundscapes, MiXE1 has been a refreshing and increasingly potent force in the UK rock scene these past five years. The band’s music has grown and evolved with magnetism which is impossible not to be wrapped up in and producing songs pungent in adventure, emotional reflection, and rich textures all uniting in inciting drama.

MiXE1 began with Mike Evans, the former songwriting/guitarist of alt-metal band Broken Butterfly X. In 2010 he began experimenting with electronics for new explorations in songwriting, this emerging as solo project MiXE1 with Mike providing his own lead vocals for, as far as we know, the first time anywhere. Quickly his new explorations bred debut EP, “Module 01”, and a strong introduction to a fusion of elements like industrial and alternative rock, electro and rock pop. One song from it, ‘Breathe’, especially caught the imagination of fans and the underground media, in turn providing the spark to MiXE1 signing with Static Distortion Records for the subsequent release of second EP “Module 02” in the summer of 2012. With ‘This Is Not Goodbye’ its own particular magnet in a quartet of new songs already showing rich signs of growth in songwriting and invention, as well as boldness, the EP lured even greater attention and praise than its predecessor.

The EP was in a way also the end of the first chapter of MiXE1 as the one man experiment soon after became a trio of imagination loaded musicians. Firstly guitarist Lee Towson linked up with Mike, the pair long-time childhood friends who had already been writing music together in some form or another over the previous decade. Lee T had also appeared in the music video for ‘This Is Not Goodbye’ and produced the lyric video for ‘A Spark In The Air’ (a song released for free to celebrate their signing to Static Distortion). The line-up was then stretched again when former Load drummer Lee O’Brien joined up, with finally the MiXE1 live presence completed by bassist Marcos Farias.

The mix of new skills and inspirations quickly added another hue to the band’s music and Mike’s songwriting which musically and lyrically is, in his words, “inspired by life, my wife, my family and friends all sorts,” adding that “things we’ve gone through has been a bit inspiration for the songs.” This intimacy to the music is openly woven into a tapestry of sound which also feeds off of the alternative metal experiences and influences, like Korn and Dir en Grey, which flavoured Mike’s previous band, as well as the Pendulum, Prodigy, Celldweller, and Rammstein side of Lee O’s creative tastes and from Lee T the likes of The Damned, UK Subs, The Clash and “a hundred other bands across the punk spectrum” with rich spicing from reggae, new wave, Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin in there too. There is no escaping the broad eclectic background and loves within the band and how it either slyly or openly brings striking levels to songs and helps set the band away from the crowd.

Swift evidence of that came with the “Lights Out” which was made up of revamped songs originally penned in between the release of the first two EPs. Straight away it declared that though MiXE1 was never intended as a ‘real’ band in its conception, this was a move only going to lead to bigger spotlights and new depths of creative endeavour. In some ways the release seemed like an experiment in itself, to see how a bigger mix of personnel and individual ideation could and would work in developing already mainly defined songs. It was a glowing success earning quick acclaim, songs like ‘Part Of Me’ and ‘Find You’ gripping ears and thoughts with an array of electronic rock colours recalling whispers of bands such as Celldweller, John Foxx, Ghost In The Static, and Modern English whilst forging a strong identity all MiXE1. Talking about the EP, Lee T gave a clue to why some of its success, saying “In regards to “Lights Out”, I suppose we approached the songwriting in the same way we have always done and that’s with an open mind and a good sense of humour! The advantage of the way we work is there are no preconceived notions on how things should be done and there isn’t a certain standard expected from one another, so it leaves room for a real casual, yet productive atmosphere.” It’s 2013 release quickly garnered eager plaudits the way of the band and ensured anticipation and appetite for their debut album was keen and greedy, a hunger more than fed by “Starlit Skin” the following year.

The self-released “Starlit Skin” built on its predecessor in character and expansive sound, taking big leaps in all aspects to confirm MiXE1 as one of the majorly exciting propositions emerging in the British electronic and melodic rock landscape. It offered eleven songs which were as adept at roaring and serenading as they were impressive in casting expansive themes within sonic terrains or emotively intimate melodic seductions. The band, as The RingMaster Review described, “without losing any of its mesmeric passion and floating melodic persuasion has transformed into a snarling bordering on ravenous provocateur of synth rock.”

Favourites seemed to come in different songs to different people, but all tracks found enthusing sponsors with the rousing ‘Talking In Our Sleep’ and the eye of a storm like title track ‘Starlit Skin’ arguably drawing the thickest attention. Since its release the album has been showered with, and continues to be, acclaim, Sputnik Music describing the album as “…an honest record” and Scandalous calling “Starlit Skin”, “A phenomenal mixture of dark and mysterious to bright and vigorous ambience.”

Live MiXE1 has equally enticed fans and radiant words over the past years, perpetually helping to keep a flame burning brightly in electronic rock. Now with the band working on their second album with a new collection of songs which even in secrecy are breeding more aroused anticipation, MiXE1 is building up to make that new big step into European and world seeded spotlights. In the words of Mike and the two Lees, “Stay tuned!”

Now go explore MiXE1 at the following…. https://www.facebook.com/mixe1    https://mixe1.bandcamp.com/     https://twitter.com/mixe1music

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKrzwGxGWbfU0EH34xBigqQ

See the band’s full profile page at http://www.zykotika.com/

Swinging with THE DROPPER’S NECK

Like any good infection, the sound of THE DROPPER’S NECK is a relentless trespass of body and psyche. Its hooks and twists molest ears and imagination like the wall of hands working away on Catherine Deneuve in Roman Polanski’s “Repulsion”, whilst almost rabid creative shadows, lyrically and musically, entangle the listener in adventure and rewarding unpredictability. It is dark rock ‘n’ roll to savour and has been since day one of the UK band’s punk ‘n’ roll chaos.

Hailing from the county of Essex, the 2011 formed quintet, with a name taken from The Velvet Underground song ‘Heroin’, was already causing a stir in the underground with their raw and ravenous sound in a ferocious live presence when wider attention was nudged by their self-titled EP. The four track 2012 encounter revealed variety honed from everything springing between garage and alternative rock through to punk and psych temptation. In hindsight it was just the potent bed and first seeding for greater, dramatically imaginative triumphs to come, but with air ripping songs like ‘Sick’ and ‘Poor Excuse’, it left a certain imprint on fans and media ensuring The Dropper’s Neck was one to seriously watch.

Inspirations to the band’s sound are bred in the likes of bands such as The Stooges, The Cramps, The Misfits, Dead Kennedys, The Clash and The Velvet Underground, they mingling with more current creative antagonists such as Gallows, The Blood Brothers, Queens of the Stone Age, and Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster. It is the latter in that selection which most often gets held up as a clue to The Dropper’s Neck incitements, especially from the release of the band’s debut album “Second Coming”. The Paul Tipler (Placebo & Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster) produced 2013 proposal was a game changer for the band in so many ways. The five-piece rivetingly realised the early promise of their first offering but simultaneously were casting a whole new drama of new possibilities. Tracks were equipped with, in the words of The Ringmaster Review, “tyrannical and hypnotic rhythms”, “caustic noise and heavy shadows”, in “bruising bone shaking, mentally charring slices of creative ferocity.”

Songs like the addiction shaping ‘Darker Water’, serious crowd pleaser ‘Abrasive’, and the salacious temptation of ‘I Am The Law’ amongst so many, helped the release and band lure further comments; ”Menacing riffs filled with spiralling guitars and vocals that conjure up all sorts of dark feelings; leaves you screaming for more” claimed Big Cheese Magazine, ”Fantastically gloomy, with tales of wicked deeds & devilish groove ; It’s a hell of a lot of fun” shouted Classic Rock, whilst Louder Than War claimed “This is a solid, deep, dark rock album that beats the living snot out of most of what you will hear on modern rock radio.” There was no escaping a new diversity and broader exploration in the band’s sound within the album or the strong reactions and attention it reaped.

Always fuelled by a hungry appetite and intent to play live and ignite as many venues and new prospective hordes of fans as possible, the band continued to evolve fierce ideas and music, the indisputable evidence coming with the psychotic glory of ‘Line Me Up For The Firing Squad’ last year. The single was a hypnotically rabid buzz saw on the senses, fusing greater strains of noise and garage rock into the by now renowned Dropper’s Neck character. It was a new furnace of rock ‘n’ roll from the band waking up another fresh wave of attention and recognition; it also proved to be the teaser for a striking emprise of sound and invention which exploded with creative warfare on ears just a few weeks ago.

Current line-up of band originals, guitarists Chris Blake and George Barrows, and vocalist Lloyd Mathews alongside bassist Jack Turner and drummer Jamie Domo Abela unleashed their dirtiest, sludgiest, most aggressively provocative offering yet with the “Nineteen|Sixteen” EP. Featuring that previous single in its ranks, the almost pestilential fusion of psych and noise rock, punk and psychobilly, was a disorientating and concussive flight of sound and confrontation psychically echoing the EP’s theme of The Great War. The release took the listener with its lyrics and raw incitement through the initial ‘glamour’ of conflict, its fierce wake-up call, on to the stark aftermath which always follows conflict. “Nineteen|Sixteen” has proven to be the most challenging encounter with the band to date; songs like ‘200 Volts’, ‘Monster’ and ‘Stutter’, to just name three, aggressively uncompromising roars of invention. It has also been one of the most exciting making people stop, listen, and eagerly talk about The Dropper’s Neck.

In a year again loaded with breath-taking stage performances i across the UK and of course the uncaging of the “Nineteen|Sixteen” EP, 2015 is proving to be the time of The Dropper’s Neck, though you suspect 2016 is going to be one remarkable and major riot of chaos with the band too.

Enter the world of The Dropper’s Neck…

https://www.facebook.com/thedroppersneck    https://www.twitter.com/thedroppersneck    https://thedroppersneck.bandcamp.com/album/nineteen-sixteen

See the band’s full profile page at http://www.zykotika.com/