Daily Discovery is a feature that will highlight a new or recently discovered artist that we’re excited about. See the rest of our Daily Discoveries here.
Grime is in an exciting, vibrant place right now, and North West London’s Dark0 is one of the producers making sure it stays that way. After the ominous on Visionist’s Lost Codes label earlier this year, he’s back with six more tracks of colorful production that reflect both his love of video games and his love of mashing up dancefloors.
The melodies shimmer, glisten, and glide with a joyful energy, but the pounding bass and crisp percussion should serve as a reminder that this is music to dance to, best heard on a big system in a dark club. Mr. Mitch, who runs Gobstopper Records (the label releasing Dark0’s Fate EP) explains it like this:
To me his music has the ability to be extremely colourful and dark at the same time, hence the black diamond/emerald on the artwork. I like to call him Chaos Black because his music is like a black chaos emerald from Sonic.
As part of the Boxed family, whose monthly club nights have become an epicenter for instrumental grime in all its various mutations, Dark0 recently played the Boxed All-Stars Boiler Room session, so if you’re wondering whether his tracks ring off in the club, just check the Boiler Room video here (he starts around 1:15:00, although you should just sit back, relax and enjoy the whole session).
Dark0’s Fate EP is out on August 22 via Mr. Mitch’s (read our profile of him here) Gobstopper Records, featuring “Amethyst,” “Gaia,” and four more unique tracks, so we caught up with the producer, Vine lover, and general Sweet Boy over email to catch up. Check that out below.
What was the recent Boxed Boiler Room like? Did you feel like it was a special moment for the Boxed family?
Most definitely. It was inevitable though—grime is the best music in the world so it was only a matter of time before we got to showcase it to the world. Shout out to Boiler Room for having me.
After this EP have you got plans for a full length?
Not just yet. I have some more projects to complete that I can’t say much about. You will see. Too many people rush into full lengths but it ain’t about tryna get an album out. That’s not my goal. I’m going to take over the world then release an LP.
Is there a reason the new EP fit better on Gobstopper than Lost Codes?
I guess Lost Codes is reserved for a particular type of tortured sound. This release wasn’t that. This release is me freeing the colors and sounds from my youth into six tracks. Gobstopper caters for that and understands what I was trying to do and how I had to put this out because it had been pent up for so long. That’s why it’s called Fate.
It sounded like you played a new tune with K9 in the Boiler Room set, have you got more tunes with him in the works? Any plans for a whole project together?
That was a K9 track yeah… Not my instrumental though. We got some shit in the works. That’s my good homie. Whenever we are coolin’ or in the trap we will fuck with some music. Some of it is hard enough to put out… Most is stoner music haha. Expect a mixtape from him and some other major collabs though.
When did you realize you were the world’s best Vine user?
I realized when I was born bro. I’m tryna win Oscars, Grammys, and BAFTA’s out here bro, for real.
What is your favorite ever Vine?
If you could work with one US vocalist who would it be?
US vocalists… Riff Raff, Lil Durk, Chief Keef, SD, Young Scooter—I’d fuck with these dudes, they got it poppin’. If I had to choose one I’d say probably Lil Durk though. Fuck with me Durk.
On a scale of placid pond to terrifying tsunami, how wavey would you say your new EP is?
Most definitely natural disaster wavey. To those who “get” it, my new EP would be like that underwater nuclear bomb test wavey.
If you had the opportunity to score a video game would you take it? And if so, what video game series would be your dream composer gig?
Yeah of course I’d take that. That’s my dream. I’d like to score a Square Enix title. One of the future Final Fantasy series or something, or if they ever did another spin off of the chrono series I’d be downnnn.
Can you vine yourself doing a “Sweet Boy Pose”?
