re:ni and Laksa interview: “A lot of good music was getting lost”

We meet the pair behind 2023’s most exciting new bass label

Of all the new labels to laucnh this year, you’d have to say that re:lax is one of the most original and exciting. Set up by Laksa and re:ni, who many will know from their NTS show and various club nights around the country, the label positively burst into life with Laska’s ‘Body Score’ EP, which took bass music as its starting point but added snippets of choppy breakbeats, dubby production, eerie industrial-style voices and a general disregard for genre conventions.

The results were pretty accomplished. Start as you mean to go on, as they say, and if re:lax does that it’ll be surely one of the most celebrated of the year’s new arrivals. Bearing all that mind, we thought we really ought to collar the pair for a more in depth idea of what they’re up to.

Laksa

Hello and thanks for taking the time to answers our questions.  Before we start, can you tell us whereabouts you are as you answer these, what you’ve been doing today so far and what have you got planned for later today?

Finishing writing this as I’m on my way to Australia. Mainly just been last minute panic packing and digging. Due to play at Rising Festival the day I arrive in Melbourne, alongside re:ni. It’s for our first of many re:lax shows out in Aus and Asia. Hyped to say the least

Tell us about your earliest musical memories.  What music were you exposed to at home from parents and siblings? What were your first musical loves and when did you start making music yourself?

Earliest musical memories that feel significant to me are Bristol and St Paul’s carnival. To be honest, I didn’t really appreciate it at the time but they were really important experiences. Just to feel sound. That warmth of a system, when it almost feels alive, that’s what I love.

For raving I just think of being at Lakota, Crofters Rights, The Tube. There were nights like Shit the Bed and Dirty Canvas, seeing DJs like Joker, Kahn and Gemmy. I probably started making music around 17. I heard JME reference pro tools and fruity loops, and I was like ‘what’s that?’ Downloaded FL and I had no idea what was going on haha….so I initially gave up. Didn’t end up having another go for a few years.

First musical loves were classic hip-hop. I mean I love that stuff but when I got more into grime and dubstep, I felt a closer pull as it was a UK thing and you could actually go and see the artists.

How did you first hook up with re:ni?  What did you initially bond over?  What came first, the parties or the NTS show? 

I vaguely knew Loz (re:ni) from uni and then we ended up moving into a shared house with a mutual friend (shouts to Meathead). Despite what we were mostly playing at the time, I suppose we had similar foundations for our taste and I suppose that came through. Having said that, I always joke with her that she was in her industrial reenz phase at that point – big whomping distorted kicks, knarly synths. Head pounding business!

Our nts show came first (but we did have a Noods show even before then).  The parties followed after Loz did a fundraiser at this spot called the Rising Sun (basement of a communal living space), and then things just organically fell into place.

When did you decided to extend that into a label?

We’ve been meaning to turn re:lax into a label for a while. Me working full time as a social worker over lockdown slowed things down a lot – still is tbh. I suppose with everything we do we’re striving to have intent – what are we actually trying to achieve here, what can we add, how can we recontextualise this etc. I overthink a lot too (soz Loz) which I’m trying to work on. I suppose we balance each other out in that way.

It felt important to start a label as we felt a lot of good music was getting lost in and amongst various labels and the haze of the internet – overall just too much going on without something to tie it together. We hope the label can add to the ecosystem we’ve already got. To me it’s so important to have a feedback loop and I think radio, the nights and, now the label, positively interact with each other. Hopefully it will give releases more impact and, importantly, start to form a narrative.

 “Now more than ever it’s easier for you to create and put music online…”  you say in the press release – does a physical release make a statement these days? 

Doing records in the current financial and cultural climate, I feel like you have to back what you’re doing as its a risk releasing vinyl. We might make a loss and it might not be viable long term but we wanted to try. What I really meant with that statement is that, directly and indirectly, quality control can drop down a bit when the process of making and releasing music becomes so much easier. Bandcamp has so many good qualities and in many ways it’s so great there’s been a levelling out of music distribution. That comes with its downsides though, and I feel it aligns with the push towards individualisation.

 At the moment the idea of record shops being gone, houses where there’s no viny, I don’t really like that idea and it would feel like a loss to me. As someone like Elijah would argue, maybe we need to rethink how we rebuild a relationship with music away from record shops and vinyl. I’ve seen people try with different formats, but at the moment I haven’t seen anything that resonates with me. It’s something I think about and it would be interesting if someone does crack it.

Ultimate issue at the moment is the price of things and now records becoming more a collector’s item.

150bpm territory is still relatively untouched, even though quite a few genres (jungle, hardcore, techno) have been there.  Is the opportunity to blur the lines between genres an appealing one, or is there still a need for careful delineation?

In the current internet age I think striving towards delineation, especially in its purest form, would

1. Be quite difficult to achieve – history kind of shows you the conditions of a local scene with some new advent of technology.

2. Is it something we even want to achieve? If we seek to delineate with the label then what does that mean for the radio, club parties and our DJing in general. Would feel quite limiting and restrictive.

 Blurring the lines feels more appealing (and enjoyable haha). Maybe it’s semantics but I wouldn’t things to be ‘mushy’. I suppose ultimately by blurring you’re trying to re contextualise and create some surprise and weirdness – got to get satisfying weirdness though, and I’d always want to feel in control of that process .

Why do you think faster music is getting more and more popular in clubs? Is there a connection with being released from lockdown?

I mean I suppose you could make an argument for it with lockdown. There felt a unique intensity to that experience, especially with the internet, but you can make an argument for many things. What did it mean when things slowed down from jungle/dnb to dubstep and grime, and then to the bassy UK techno stuff or Gqom? For me it would be hard to argue life was slowing down at that point

I can’t speak for everyone playing fast, or going slower, but my understanding is people looking for the ‘new’, searching for something different or to keep themselves stimulated. It’s a mixture of those for me right now and somewhere I feel i can add my own twist whilst keeping myself inspired and interested.

Its also worth saying, there’s many ways to skin a cat too. The bpms can be the same but the outcomes can feel very different. I’ve seen sets which are quite pummelling, end of the world 4 4 tesh. Not very dynamic. This doesn’t excite me and it feels going faster just for the sake of it. I’d hope someone would listen to Body Score and feel like it’s got its own energy. Slaps to the face, but also with a (sweaty) hug.

many approaches and ways of playing fast to.

What’s next for the label – in terms of releases and also in terms of a more abstract ‘mission’

We’ve got the next record lined up for final quarter of this year. Hopefully Oct if pressing plant gods are on our side. Super excited for this one as we’ve been working with the producer on the record for a while now. Think it’s his best work yet. Really excited as me and Loz are currently on a Asia/Aus tour in June, with quite a few re:lax shows. Got shows in spots such as Melbourne, Tokyo, Bali – super hyped for that. Hopefully me and Loz will do records next year, along with any new or existing re:lax cru. Loz will also be doing a relax tape in the summer too. Ooohh Mission,  I suppose it’s to create some narrative and tie together music that might otherwise get lost.”

re:ni

Tell us about the genesis of the Re:Lax club nights – how did they start and then give us a brief history of how they progressed and grew…
 

Me and Cal (Laksa) were living together at the time and mixing/raving together loads. We decided to start a radio show, firstly on Radar, then Noods and now our current home, NTS. We started putting on parties in 2018 in the cavernous, sweaty basement of a pub some friends used to live at. There was a steep narrow staircase to get down to the dancefloor, minimal ventilation and the ceiling was so low that if you were much taller than 6ft you literally had to stand in the one corner that was high enough to accommodate. We didn’t do much online promotion as the venue was private so it was more of a word of mouth type of thing. I think this helped set a precedent for the parties being less about big eye-catching headliners – there are tonnes of parties in London with stacked lineups so our approach has usually been less about quantity/hype and more focused on just having a night of quality tunes and vibes, with smaller local DJs/friends and family. For our label launch party we had the addition of Farda P as a host which felt really special and definitely helped raise the hype and energy levels. He should be joining us for future parties now which is really exciting.

Likewise,  with the NTS Radio Show…  What’s the brief for that?

With the radio show, we hope people listening might have a few ‘wtf is this’ moments when listening. For me, having listened to hessle on rinse over the years there was that nervous excitement for what new tunes and sounds you were gonna hear. Not that I’m comparing us to those guys haha but if we can get anywhere close to having a regular audience who are attentive to what we’re playing and might get hyped on new producers’ stuff we play, then we’re doing what we intend. A few years ago I would have said the focus is on UK music but I suppose that’s not strictly true. Moreso, there are crews from around the world are doing their own take on UK genres, people like SVBKVLT, Azu Tiwaline, Toma Kami, the latter 2 who have done guest mixes which nod to the sounds we play on the show, from dubstep to drill, but in their own idiosyncratic ways. Having a 2 hour show is great as it gives us space to invite people on, and we’ve had some incredible guest mixes over the years. Doing shows live and inviting guests IRL is always our preference, cos you get that buzz from people listening live and as DJs you all bounce off each other. The show also falls on a Sunday night 10-midnight so more often than not there’s some roll thru energy to add to the vibe if it’s been a big weekend. 

As with our club sets, everything between me and Laksa is very free-flow; we never plan our sets or shows. When there’s no guest mix and we have the full 2 hours I love the feeling of rocking up to the studio not knowing where we might go. We’re lucky to have built this complete trust and comfort in each other behind the decks after years and years, it helps everything flow effortlessly.  It doesn’t even feel like a b2b in the sense that we’re kinda just doing re:lax and it’s not about either of us individually. Having said that Laksa is one of the most skilled selectors out there both technically and with the tunes and ppl are wowed whenever they see him play for the first time so big up Lax always!

So obviously Laksa has done the first release on the label – will we be seeing one from you as well?  Any other dream artists you’d love to get on board and any actual concrete plans in the pipeline for future releases?
 For sure, there’s a record coming from myself as well as the launch of a tape series alongside the records. We have another artist TBA who we’ve been working with for a while and the record is finally ready to go so we are super excited for that to come out, really amazing tunes which have been in heavy rotation in my sets already. On top of that, more Laksa to come, working with a couple of others too, so 2024 should be a spicy one for re:lax.

Ben Willmott

To buy your 12″ vinyl copy of ‘Body Score’ EP by Laksa, click here