ASC - Lexicon

A concept to expand the choice of atmospheric drum and bass first thought out two years has finally given birth to Cov. Ops. Fronted by the trio of James Clements, Jon Schorah and Tom Hill the label is conceived amongst a wave of quality new atmospheric labels formed under the AIM (Atmospheric Independent Movement) umbrella, which acts as a mutual understanding for such labels to help promote each other and move forward together.

James and Jon should already be familiar with you under their producer names ASC and Cedar. They have both released on various labels within the Good Looking organisation and ASC is enjoying success on Trixta's currently on-fire Nu Direction's label. Newest to the studio Tom will be looking to release his work towards the end of the year under his alter-ego Dimensions.

I caught up with key recording artist and DJ ASC as he took five minutes out from his 9 to 5. I wanted to know he decided to set up his label Cov. Ops right at this moment: "I think it's demand from the public really, I mean if there's only one person doing it and it's all the harder stuff that is selling in the shops then I don't think there was much of a call for it but I think it's different nowadays though."

A mixture of artists who have had releases through GLR, a handful of releases on other labels and brand new ones coming through will all be touching on Cov. Ops in the not too distant future. Expect to see the names Cedar, ASC, J-Laze, Mykra, Pariah, PBK, Probe-One & Orion gracing the imprint real soon.

James' path to the atmospheric scene all started upon listening to an early Fantazia tape of breakbeat/rave music circa 1991. Back then it was the musical side of the music that really caught his ear and led to the natural progression of making atmospheric style drum and bass.

"I come from a really art related background, I studied creative imaging and graphic design at university and college. So I would say arts is a very big inspiration for me, when it comes down to musical inspiration. I think it's natural that I put pictures to visions, so it just comes from there really. I would probably say my biggest influences were Future Sound of London, Orb, 808 State, stuff like that, some really abstract stuff as well."

James started figuring the Atari ST along with Amiga Sequencers around '95 / '96. "Back then the very first thing I did was all out of tune, it didn't sound right at all but I was like 'wow! I've made a track' and it just went from there and I started messing around doing more and more stuff. But when I think about how long I've been producing properly it has to be the last three years. I was very lucky with the first track I did, I sent it out and it got signed straight away."

Managing to get a response let alone sign his first track would be a great feat for any aspiring artist but Nu Direction's boss Trixta recognised the talent and as a result put out the 'Lifeforce EP'. 'Network' was his first track on Looking Good and James has just recently remixed Chris J's 'Mysteries', that will be appearing in a future GLR compilation. Released at the latter end of 2001 was 'Cataclysm' & 'Solemn Thoughts', the follow up to his Nu Directions debut, '2019 (The Nexus Spiral)' & 'Surface Tension' on Inperspective, 'Silver Breeze' & 'Resolution' on Texas based Warm Communications and the premier Covert Operations release 'Ethereal Images' & 'Serenity'.

Cov. Ops is a northern based operation as James and Tom are from the Bradford area whilst Tom is from Newcastle, I wondered what the party scene was like up there... "At the moment the drum and bass scene up here is nearly non-existent. We're trying to do some parties, I mean Good Looking come up here every now and then and they seem to get a good response. I think we're going do a night up here and see how it goes, we'll announce more when the time comes but it's in the pipeline."

You can catch ASC playing out as one of four rotational residents amongst Equinox, Senses and Chris Inperspective at the monthly Technicality nights at Herbal, in Shoreditch. For the latest news, release information or any new artists wishing to contact the label click on to the Cov. Ops website - www.covops.ukf.net. ASC has a very busy future ahead with releases on Nu Directions, Covert Operations, Sound In Motion, Inperspective, True Intent, Gamma Ray, Good Looking and La Belle Epoque Musique all forthcoming.