In Conversation with Kasra, Discussing Enei's Machines Album

We’ve been talking quite a bit about the debut artist album from Enei, Machines, in the run up to the album launch taking place in Room Two this Friday, we even previewed one of the tracks a while back. But what we, as a collective, always seem to find interesting are the motivations behind a project such as this. Not just in the artistic sense - being in the business of releasing music ourselves we get can get a pang of excitement just from seeing the artwork mock ups - but in terms of that wider sense of product crafting and the glory of the end realisation. So, to go a little bit further into the project we grabbed Critical boss Kasra to discuss the project, giving us (and you) an insight into the workings behind the project from the label’s point of view. In celebration of the album launch we’re re-upping Enei’s FABRICLIVE x Critical Sound Mix from back in May, just because it really captured something back then and remains the type of mix that conveys his style and technique perfectly. So, what was it that drew you to Enei's music in the first place? Alex had been sending me music for a little while and I found that more and more of his tunes were making their way into my sets. I thought at the time about his music and why I was playing so much of it and I realised that a lot of his tracks had this exciting combination of being amazing DJ tools (which for me is a tune you just love to play) but with tons of character. They used a different palette of sounds and had really fresh ideas. How did the idea of an album take shape? Enei was the first artist to sign to Critical exclusively so an album was something we spoke about when he signed to the label initially. He is still really young so I wanted him to have a year or two of his own releases on Critical as well as some remix work - to help him grow in confidence as a producer. He writes music very quickly so about 9 months ago we started putting tracks aside as potential album material; we ended up with about 30 or 40 sketches that we honed down to what makes up the album today. What do you think it's trying to say? A lot of labels and artists come through drum & bass and as soon as they have an album format in front of them feel the need to express themselves through other genres. I’m 100% behind my artists working on different tempos and pushing themselves but me and Alex agreed that we wanted this album to be predominantly a great d&b album. As his career progresses there's going to be space to work on other styles. Machines is raw and exciting, great club and home system music. Are you happy with the end product? I’m really pleased with what Alex has made; I love every track on there. We both worked really hard on shaping the album but ultimately it’s his vision and I’m very proud to be able to release it on Critical. Catch Enei and Kasra in Room Two for the Machines album launch this Friday night. You can listen to the album sampler here or via the widget below.