716 Exclusive Mix – JaX DaX : Don’t Mess With Us

From deep within Manchester’s urban jungle comes JaX DaX. Keeping the original fire of the UK rave scene burning this mysterious producer has been releasing nothing but bombs on the Magic Waves and 030303 labels and is a hot tip for who to keep an eye on this year. Here is one anecdote. I loved immediately Jax Dax music and wrote him an email to ask him for a mix. Funny thing is that he replied me : “it’s me xxxxx but shut :)”, he was indeed an artist I knew very well and Jax Dax was his incognito project. Who are you Jax Dax?

“The JaX DaX thing started as a side project, to unleash some tracks in me that were ‘less nice’ ‘the 100% real me from North West England’ and had more attitude than the euro synth stuff I was known for. It all began in late 2013/ early 2014, when i sent some old skool style beltram mess about demo to James Penrose (Casionova) at Magic Waves. He said this is ace, and I should go away, make more, we can do an EP. I think I sent him about 50 demos over that month!!

I needed a name, and we brainstormed a bit over a 4 hour+ Skype. In the end I decided to call myself after the two machines I used for ‘AnXiety’ (first track released); ‘JXDX’…the Roland JX3P and the Yamaha DX21.

We added some ‘a’s and JXDX became JaX DaX.

My identity was initially meant to be kept secret, and perform with the mask etc, but after a few years now I don’t mind if people find out who I am, if they wanna know, they can find out, or i’ll tell them, but i’m not going out of my way to shout who it really isz

After releasing and playing gigs and a few festivals (Magic Waves in Berlin and Den Haag rockkked)  it’s become a serious thing that’s more than a side project. There’s literally 100s of tunes ready to go, and this is the project i’m concentrating on right now. 

I’m making and mixing stuff that has influenced me since getting in to rave music in the late 80s, early 90s as a young lad. Rave, jungle/dnb, techno, acid, new beat, house, ebm… it’s all gone in to my tracks, and gives my total freedom to do what I want with no constraints or preconceptions from music buyers or fans of what they ‘expect’ to hear.

All the tracks were made on various bits of old hardware in my attic in South Manchester. So, I reckon that rough, dusty, dark, cold DIY makeshift environment reflects in the music.

Most of the tunes, if not ALL!!, are recorded in one take jams, once I know the basic flow. I’m heavily influenced by RZA, love that raw, rocking the mixer kinda production. There’s mistakes and buzzes from cables in there, but we kept them in, this isn’t meant to be nice, or clean or precise.

I’m making a lot of acid kinda stuff right now, a lot of basic bleepy repetitive loopy chuggers. 

So look out for them. My latest production is released  on 12″ early June on the Magic Waves label. My 3rd EP has 5 hard-edged twitched-out horror-fuelled paranoid psycho-techno for your mind, body and soul. A soundtrack to the nightmare future-world of Earth in the 21st Century.

The Future? Making a LIVE set and DJing again is the next thing on the list”

Jax Dax, 06/2017