Eyeballin': The Cornerstone Tracks of Roska's Current DJ Sets

As a producer Roska has developed a pretty strong and recognisable sound throughout his career to date. Over his assorted 12”s and two albums on the Rinse label, his percussion and the amount of roll and groove he puts into his drum work is probably one of the major factors in why his tracks just seem to hit like no one else’s, but it’s interesting (to us, at least) to figure what it is in the music of other people that he gets drawn to. His DJ sets seem to build the direction of the music he makes (floor focused, raw, driving productions) so, with that in mind we asked him to provide a selection of 5 tracks he’s been playing a lot of late and we used them as the jump off points for our second interview that’s been themed in this manner. You can catch Roska in the Roska Presents… Room Two on Friday 23rd November alongside Breakage, Wookie, Dismantle, Mele, Royal T, Shox, Jamie George. Tickets and info are available here. Roska - Penetration Test This feels like a bit of a departure from the types of sounds you’re probably better known for, that clean and jerk funky percussion or whatever it is you’d want to call it. Are you making more things like this at the moment? Is it a sign of more of what’s to come from you do you think? "My roots are there at funky but there is always space for more styles and variations in the world of Roska. This one fits nicely in my sets at the moment escalating from stripped down drums and subs to big room music. It’s just fun party music; I’ve always loved the bleepy house shit, this it just my interpretation of it all". Lakosa & iO - Home Early (Pedro 123 Remix) I’ve been following the housier productions of Lakosa for a while now, but this one feels like it’s definitely been reworked by someone who’s coming from a more grime background. There’s definitely something in the switch up that I can see working really well on the dancefloor… is that why you picked this one? "Lakosa is defo one to watch out for. This has a nearly grime/late garage feel to it and the half-step chopped up samples work for me and the response is always good when I drop it in the clubs. It's one of those remixes that have a long lifeline behind them". Eats Everything - Entrance Song There’s been something of a glut of new producers turning their hand to house lately with quite varying results. Obviously it feels like Eats Everything is coming from a purist type of space, it’s like he’s very up on the history of it. Do you feel that that’s an important thing to do? To learn about the heritage of a style, or is it more just about coming up with your own thing and just figuring that out? I mean I’m thinking mainly of your early work that was so well defined…. "I think it’s important to know about a genre’s history and why you are intending to pursue in creating music in that style. You can definitely hear it in this track by EE. He hits it on the nail and this is why it's such a big tune and a lot of listeners can relate to it fully. I don't think there is one track from Eats that I haven’t liked to be honest, his sound is raw and yet so smooth at the same time". Slap in the Bass – Utopia This feels a bit more like what one might imagine from a Roska set, the percussion and the drop is probably what makes me say that. Do you think you get typecast at all as a DJ? Like do you purposely try and twist and change it up to confound people’s expectations a little bit? "I always like to throw curve-balls in my sets it keeps it exciting and it’s something to talk about later on. It's too easy to keep playing the same tracks every night and seeing the same response but I could easily get bored of that. With this track… it’s definitely a favourite off the RKS releases this year from the Hungarian duo. It's got everything Roska in there that will keep me playing this track". T. Williams - Quote on Quote Bass T’s very much one of those people who you just know has a hundred styles in his locker – I mean this one is one part grime, one part dusty drum programming and like that modern ‘bass music’ cleanliness to the production. Are you always looking at new ways to change your techniques? I mean, read an interview with Blawan recently where he said he was confined more by being able to do anything on a computer and he went analogue to try and limit his ideas a bit more. Do you think stuff like that is important to you? "I found that having lots of styles is cool to reach out to many people but sometimes you have to limit them down to your strongest or the ones you feel comfortable doing, which is I guess why you have producers who have signature sounds or a signature style as such. Williams does it effortlessly from this track to smoother tracks like 'Thinking Of You'. So I believe it can work both ways".