After a two-year musical hiatus, Jack Adams (better known as Mumdance) is back in action with a new LP called Twists and Turns. The album contains 13 tracks that, true to the title, twist and morph underground UK bass sounds into a collection of personality-filled and even cinematic vignettes. This isn't the London-based DJ/producer's first spin around the block – Diplo first released his music in 2008 on Mad Decent – but this record is definitely a reinvention of sorts after Mums returned to the drawing board and switched from software to hardware. Download Mumdance & Logos' "Move Your Body" for free here and scroll down to find out more about him and stream the album.Where are you from?
From a tiny little village called Henfield near Brighton in the UK.Tell us something about your hometown.
It's small in size, but big in talent. Both L-Vis 1990 and High Rankin grew up there too.How did you get your name?
It's just some weird word I thought up when I was young and drunk.What labels do you record for?
I have had music and collaborations released on Mad Decent, Tectonic, Keysound, Hyperdub, No Hats No Hoods, Trouble & Bass, Greco-Roman, Southern Fried and I have a forthcoming EP on Unknown to the Unknown plus a couple I can't speak about yet.What did the first ever track you made sound like and what was it inspired by?
I can't remember what it was called, but I was about 16 and it sounded like "Flat Beat" by Mr. Oizo, like same kind of wobbly bass (but obviously it was nowhere near as good!). I made it on Fruity Loops with a Juno Virtual Synth and a drum break that I cut up in ReCycle. Man, I need to go find that tune! I would love to hear it again!!!Who is your best friend that also does music and what are they like?
Pretty much all my friends do music in some way or another – it's always been like that for me. Music brings people from all walks of life together; that's one of the main things I love about it. People in music who I hang out with and speak with a lot are: Jammer, C Gritz, Logos, Mao, Brodinski, Toy Selectah, DJ Gorky and High Rankin. They are all amazing people in their own way. It's cool to have creative people around you to bounce ideas off of.What's the best environment to hear your music (real or imagined)?
Wow, thats a tough question you know! I really like listening to music on a journey, on some form of transport be it a plane, train, bus, car or boat. It's just nice to look out the window with a good pair of headphones on and let the scenery wash over you as you listen to music. It's definitely the best when the sun is either setting or rising though – the washes of colour, movement and sound can be very special.What is your favorite sound right now?
I just moved back to London a month or so ago so I'm really into the sounds of the city, I carry a recorder around with me all the time and grab snippets of my environment, just anything I hear that interests me. I mentioned this the other day on Twitter but, for example, the majority of the sounds for my track "Dragon Egg" are sounds I recorded in the supermarket while I was doing the shopping.Name three non-musical inspirations.
The season and weather, the time of day, and my environment and surroundings.Who is one up-and-coming artist you think we should look out for?
I'm gonna have to say my boy Logos, he is extremely talented and we collaborated a lot on this mixtape album. He makes really interesting, abstract space-age grime music; the ideas involved with it are crazy good. He also made "Move Your Body" with me, which we are giving away on this post too. Also take the time out to hunt down music from Slackk, Visionist, Bloom, Strict Face, Mao, Breen, Rabit, Murlo, Wen, Emma, Neana, Moleskin, Inkke, Sublo, Sully and Halp – all of them are coming through with the goods right now.What's next for you?
I've started a live show, so I'm just getting it ready to take on the road. The sound kinda falls halfway between Jeff Mills drum jams and golden-era 8-bar grime. A lot of people right now are coming through with live shows which rely on huge visual light shows, fireworks and spectacle, so for my live show I wanted to strip it right back to the bare essentials: a 909 drum machine, a sampler, two decks and a mixer. I wanted to make it as raw as possible and focus it on the dancefloor. I guess it's kind of a hybrid show. The way it works is I will play a few tunes, get things started off nicely and people dancing, then I mix into the drum machine and start jamming on that, reacting to the crowd and building up rhythms, then I add to it with the sampler so I'm building full tracks in front of the crowd. It's all improvised, so will never be the same show twice and there is plenty of scope for it to go wrong! It's essentially a big juggling act. I'm not looking to make it too polished. It's a live show! It's supposed to be shambolic and fun – it's about dancing, that's the main thing. I did my first show at Fabric a couple of weeks ago and it was really well received so Im looking forward to taking it on the road!For the UK heads, you can catch me doing my live show at Notting Hill Arts club this Friday, June 14. It's the launch party to my album and Dusk, Blackdown, DJ Haus and Temple are playing also.
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From a tiny little village called Henfield near Brighton in the UK.Tell us something about your hometown.
It's small in size, but big in talent. Both L-Vis 1990 and High Rankin grew up there too.How did you get your name?
It's just some weird word I thought up when I was young and drunk.What labels do you record for?
I have had music and collaborations released on Mad Decent, Tectonic, Keysound, Hyperdub, No Hats No Hoods, Trouble & Bass, Greco-Roman, Southern Fried and I have a forthcoming EP on Unknown to the Unknown plus a couple I can't speak about yet.What did the first ever track you made sound like and what was it inspired by?
I can't remember what it was called, but I was about 16 and it sounded like "Flat Beat" by Mr. Oizo, like same kind of wobbly bass (but obviously it was nowhere near as good!). I made it on Fruity Loops with a Juno Virtual Synth and a drum break that I cut up in ReCycle. Man, I need to go find that tune! I would love to hear it again!!!Who is your best friend that also does music and what are they like?
Pretty much all my friends do music in some way or another – it's always been like that for me. Music brings people from all walks of life together; that's one of the main things I love about it. People in music who I hang out with and speak with a lot are: Jammer, C Gritz, Logos, Mao, Brodinski, Toy Selectah, DJ Gorky and High Rankin. They are all amazing people in their own way. It's cool to have creative people around you to bounce ideas off of.
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Wow, thats a tough question you know! I really like listening to music on a journey, on some form of transport be it a plane, train, bus, car or boat. It's just nice to look out the window with a good pair of headphones on and let the scenery wash over you as you listen to music. It's definitely the best when the sun is either setting or rising though – the washes of colour, movement and sound can be very special.What is your favorite sound right now?
I just moved back to London a month or so ago so I'm really into the sounds of the city, I carry a recorder around with me all the time and grab snippets of my environment, just anything I hear that interests me. I mentioned this the other day on Twitter but, for example, the majority of the sounds for my track "Dragon Egg" are sounds I recorded in the supermarket while I was doing the shopping.Name three non-musical inspirations.
The season and weather, the time of day, and my environment and surroundings.Who is one up-and-coming artist you think we should look out for?
I'm gonna have to say my boy Logos, he is extremely talented and we collaborated a lot on this mixtape album. He makes really interesting, abstract space-age grime music; the ideas involved with it are crazy good. He also made "Move Your Body" with me, which we are giving away on this post too. Also take the time out to hunt down music from Slackk, Visionist, Bloom, Strict Face, Mao, Breen, Rabit, Murlo, Wen, Emma, Neana, Moleskin, Inkke, Sublo, Sully and Halp – all of them are coming through with the goods right now.What's next for you?
I've started a live show, so I'm just getting it ready to take on the road. The sound kinda falls halfway between Jeff Mills drum jams and golden-era 8-bar grime. A lot of people right now are coming through with live shows which rely on huge visual light shows, fireworks and spectacle, so for my live show I wanted to strip it right back to the bare essentials: a 909 drum machine, a sampler, two decks and a mixer. I wanted to make it as raw as possible and focus it on the dancefloor. I guess it's kind of a hybrid show. The way it works is I will play a few tunes, get things started off nicely and people dancing, then I mix into the drum machine and start jamming on that, reacting to the crowd and building up rhythms, then I add to it with the sampler so I'm building full tracks in front of the crowd. It's all improvised, so will never be the same show twice and there is plenty of scope for it to go wrong! It's essentially a big juggling act. I'm not looking to make it too polished. It's a live show! It's supposed to be shambolic and fun – it's about dancing, that's the main thing. I did my first show at Fabric a couple of weeks ago and it was really well received so Im looking forward to taking it on the road!For the UK heads, you can catch me doing my live show at Notting Hill Arts club this Friday, June 14. It's the launch party to my album and Dusk, Blackdown, DJ Haus and Temple are playing also.