Noisia: What's in a Name?

Martijn van Sonderen, Nik Roos and Thijs de Vlieger are three of the most sought after producers/DJs in the world right now. Better known as Noisia they have worked with artists as big as Moby, provided computer game soundtracks and released countless anthems on the finest record labels in the business. And to add to their ever-expanding CV, the Dutch trio have been enlisted to mix the 40th edition of FabricLive.

Noisia’s rise to the top of the drum and bass ladder has been a fairly rapid incline. Although often pigeonholed as drum and bass DJs, the trio aren’t afraid to mix it up a bit, often throwing a catchy house or breaks tune into their sets. Nik feels that “Noisia is more than just drum and bass, and we want to represent that. Of course we're not going to play a whole set of breaks at a dnb party just because we feel like it, but we do want to slip in a few tunes here and there.” In the studio the group’s productions lean towards a darker, more edgy sheen to the usual jump up sound. By taking common noises like the old rave vacuum synth and adding there own unique twist to it, they’ve created compositions which command your attention. Over the years their productions have been released on several big labels including Andy C’s legendary RAM Records and Aquasky’s award winning Passenger. Recently they’ve been focusing on the output of their own labels Vision and Division. Nik’s quick to point out that the Noisia’s name actually stems from the word vision; “Vision is Noisia upside down. Noisia on its own sounds pretty terrible without knowing that. So, contrary to popular belief, our name doesn't come from us being 'noisy'.”

The mix itself is quite a frantic affair, merging sinister heavy drum and bass with catchy energetic breakbeat. Almost immediately the group’s trademark snarling bass can be heard on opening track, Cannonball. Despite this sound reappearing throughout the mix it doesn’t become repetitive; it’s almost hypnotic, drawing the listener further in with every rasping growl. So how is such a perverse sound created? “Our ears,” quips Nik. “Conventional mix down/engineering standards don’t really apply to those sorts of sounds. The more you try to methodise it, the less interesting the result. We also use Cubase 4, Adam s3a, p22a speakers, and a lot of software.” Never afraid of maintaining a high tempo, the Dutch trio manage to squeeze in a whopping 29 tracks for the mix. They frantically cut in and out of records, often playing a tune for just 30 seconds. “A lot of the combinations in there come from our DJ sets, tunes that work well together. It's very similar to what you'll hear at a Noisia gig,” adds Nik.

Half-way through the mix the pace is dropped to 135bpm for some breakbeat action. Although breaks and drum and bass are frequently grouped together, mixing them can be a risky manoeuvre, often leading to a lull. Luckily for Noisia this isn’t the case. “We did spend a bit of time fine-tuning the selection. We threw some stuff out cause it just didn’t work in the mix, but overall, combining the genres went surprisingly well. We've definitely had more trouble doing that in the past,” he admits. Over half of the tracks on this mix involve the Dutch trio’s studio craftsmanship in some manner. Standout tracks include the yet to be released Diplodocus and their superb remix of Moby’s new track Alice. The mix is a refreshing addition to the Fabric catalogue, and Noisia have managed to create something that’s dark and underground but still holds appeal for a wider audience.