MDC Interview#54 " C-NETIK "

C-NETIK
https://soundcloud.com/c-netik
Producer/DJ in various electronic genres, part of the promoter/artist crew and label Yellow-Stripe, based in Portugal.

Q. Please tell us about your upbringing.

I was born in Lisboa, Portugal and raised for the earliest part of my life in and around the surrounding areas. From the greenish suburbs close to beautiful beaches and later near the urban center, but always by some large body of water and the lively mix of cultures that comes with that. My extended family is numerous and spread all over the world but we would always have big seasonal gatherings and people visiting, just as my own household would travel out to meet other folks. There was always a lot of good (sometimes live) music, dancing, food and conversations with great stories of the past… Much of my family is of African descendance or immigrants, and many of my relatives traveled from Portugal to other countries to make a living, some eventually settling back in the homeland. I moved around from place to place as well, eventually living outside of the country and even in the US for a time, just around Y2K and before 9/11 happened. During my teenage years I came back to Portugal and have been here since. Lisboa is an extremely vibrant, culturally rich place with people from all walks of life and corners of the world. Over the years it has changed quite a bit and become a tourism hotspot, with all the pros and cons this entails, but the atmosphere is always charged with plenty of energy that translates into a lot of variety in just about everything you can think of. I currently live just across the river - a ten minute ferry ride away from downtown Lisboa ‐ in Almada, one of the major portuguese cities where urban subcultures first thrived and where a lot of my relatives initially settled, which is also quickly booming into its own modern culture hub and key location.

Q. When did you first become interested in music? Do you remember the first CD or record you bought?

As a child I was already very interested in music. My family and close friends always played many of their favorites for me, some being musicians themselves or involved in the industry in some form. At an early age I got a small boombox radio that could record tapes and started making my own mixtapes or pseudo radio shows just for fun, speaking about random topics and doing my best to introduce the artists playing. Eventually I got a Walkman, then a Discman and even a portable MiniDisc recorder after that, and all this just carried over. I also used to record music videos from TV on any VHS tapes I had around, that I would play back when friends were over or when I wanted to hear something I didn't have in another format. There was for sure a turning point around when I was 10 or so - after listening to a lot of hardcore rap played on music channels and on the radio at night - I borrowed tape albums by Ice Cube, Digital Underground, Naughty By Nature and more from older friends and family and I also heard artists like the Chemical Brothers or Fatboy Slim on these mediums. I saw some concerts and performances but nothing noteworthy till much later, so I wasn't really aware of venues and local artists at the time. Not long after I started going with older friends into shops to browse and listen to music, eventually saving up enough pocket change to buy some albums. At the time I remember buying some leftfield CDs like the soundtrack to the movie Spawn, Prodigy's Fat Of The Land, Wu-Tang Forever, FSOL's ISDN.. I still carry this mix of raw sound from the 90s with me to this day. The first CD I owned was the soundtrack to TMNT 2 from 1991 which I got at age 5 or 6, and which I still have in my collection. Later I got deeper into hip-hop, even went through a nu metal phase and eventually rediscovered electronic music.

Q. When did you first learn about drum'n'bass? What attracted you to drum'n'bass?

I didn't have internet access at home till my initial teenage years, so I relied either on word of mouth or my own curiosity through reading magazines or browsing music in shops, music channels and radio to find new genres and artists. A few of my relatives were either starting to make electronic music at the time or involved with national artists on the rise like Da Weasel and other groups that had more insight into what was going on in the alternative realm, so I was partly introduced to the genre by them. Albums like Saturnz Return, LTJ Bukem's Progression Sessions, Timecode's mix CDs on Moving Shadow, Ed Rush & Optical's Wormhole and music videos by Goldie, Photek or Aphex Twin. Around that time I also discovered artists like Atari Teenage Riot or The Panacea and jungle DJs like Hype or Brockie which drove me to pay attention to the mix of influences that was prominent in the scene. I was heavily drawn to the powerful bass and breakbeat combinations that some of these producers were making, it all sounded very fresh, futuristic even. Later I found web forums like the infamous DogsOnAcid and IRC music channels where I would learn a great deal about the scene and there I made my first connections in the community. I started paying more attention to D&B sounds being used in film scores, game soundtracks and in general, and basically consumed a bit of everything related to it. To this day I think the unique style blending that happens in D&B is what initially caught my attention and what I enjoy the most about it. With all its subgenres, a wide BPM range, there are no strict boundaries in place, and that's part of the reason it attracts people from so many different backgrounds.

Q. What is the history of drum n bass in Portugal before Yellow Stripe Recordings from your point of view? Important producers, DJs, record stores, Crew, etc.

Before YSR was created. Yellow Stripe had already been doing events for a few years, since 2005. I didn't attend more than a dozen or so events prior to this time but am aware of at least part of the important crews to mention. In the years leading up to YS - Garagem, Positiva, Bad Mood, Pressure Force, Bass Republic, Cooltrain Crew, Kalimodjo and more were hosting relevant events in their cities and some on a national scale that would set the foundation for the future of the scene. Members of these collectives which were fundamental and some which are still active DJs include Nuno Forte, Dinis, Riot, Johnny, Nsekt, Subway, Mee.K, Sly, Alif, Ki, Oder, Groovekid… there were quite a few key players. I didn't really buy records back then, but I believe the first record shop in Porto that carried D&B was called Kami Khazz, and was instrumental in turning guys like Nuno Forte into one of the first and biggest legends of the genre in the country. In Lisboa, Flur was and still is one of the best known record shopping spots. Riot and Mee.K were some of the first local producers I spoke to and traded tracks with, along with an older cousin of mine that I lived with then - at the time known as Inph - a technically brilliant producer that sadly did not really wish to pursue a serious artistic path in the scene. Venues like Hard Club (before its relocation), Swing, boat venue Porto-Rio, Club Lua, and much earlier Meia-Cave, Johnny Guitar and even the legendary Lux Fragil were key to kickstarting and/or cementing the scene in Portugal.

Q. You also create Hardcore, how long have you been listening to Hardcore?

My first serious contact with Hardcore music was through the Thunderdome CDs sometime in the late 90s. I don't remember if these were sold at all in the local music shops, but I would go to seasonal district fairs or feasts and many of the youths in charge of the entertainment rides and bumper cars would have Thunderdome flags or merch on display, they would actually play the music there often and actually resell some of those tapes and CDs. I brought a few home and really enjoyed them, so I got more every now and then when I saw them for sale, listening to them repeatedly. Not long after I discovered Digital Hardcore Recordings, through some of their music videos, and began listening to the first singles and albums by Alec Empire and Atari Teenage Riot. I really liked their raw sound which for me was unlike anything I had heard before, their agressive aesthetic and lyrics, and through learning more about them I discovered other artists that mixed Hardcore into their music. I also remember watching the oldschool Mayday raves on TV and recording them to VHS around the same time… I didn’t really look too much into the actual tracks or artist lineups in those videos back then, but I really enjoyed vibing to those recordings. It’s something that for sure shaped my taste in a way, before I really dove into Drum & Bass and music production. Around 2012, hot off some YS events we did that mixed hard Drum & Bass and Hardcore artists, I came up with the idea for a Hardcore and Crossbreed focused event, named Torment, to also try and separate that vibe from Therapy Sessions and other nights we put on. We invited legend The DJ Producer for the first edition and artists like The Outside Agency, Dither, Art Of Fighters, Sei2ure, Mad Dog, Anime and more followed in the next ones.

Q. When did you start making music? And when did you start C-Netik?

As early as 2001 I was experimenting with production software, some drum machines like Dr. Rhythm, Music 2000 on the PlayStation, whatever I could get my hands on in other people's homes or studios. I didn't have access to a computer with an audio interface till 2003, but then I began actively making music as a hobby. I started with the first version of Reason that someone had installed for me with some soundbanks and FruityLoops, before either of those DAWs had plug-in capabilities. I established the name C-Netik that same year, and was trying my hand at making beats in every genre I was fond of, from Hip Hop instrumentals to Drum & Bass and Hardcore Techno, learning how to deconstruct, compose and process my own breakbeats and percussive elements, and chopping up random sample material and vocals.

Q. When did you meet the members of Yellow Stripe Recordings? What were your early activities?

I think I first met T-Rex, the founder of Yellow Stripe, in 2006 or 2007 at a party that we both played at, to which I was booked by a mutual friend and event producer, Rumba, an infamous Porto nightlife persona who was instrumental at the time in putting on some memorable events, a night that Vicious Circle, The Qemists and High Rankin also played. Not much later there was talk through some other mutual friends and promoters about me playing at Therapy Sessions, which YS brought to Portugal in 2007. At the time that darker and harder side of the scene was in its infancy in the country and was actually quite shunned and frowned upon by many heads and veterans, especially fans and artists of the lighter and deeper part of the spectrum, which were in the majority… but not for long. I played my first Therapy sets at the second edition of TS in Portugal that Halloween, with founders Robyn Chaos and Dylan touching down in Lisboa and Porto (since then it became tradition to do a two-city event on these occasions) for the first time, and shortly after, following the success of those events, on the New Year’s Eve of 2008 at the parking garage of a Lisboa university with some of the best national DJs, along with headlining acts The Sect and Raiden (who performed a rare live act) fresh off starting Offkey Recordings, which pioneered a heavy subgenre of Techno-infused D&B we really enjoyed and championed for years at our own events. 

Later I met Blast at other Yellow Stripe nights, who from the very beginning was one of the most versatile and skilled DJs around, and Dkaos, who was a close friend of T-Rex’s that also performed Breakcore sets as Arrhythmix when we hosted a secondary room at our parties. Both joined YS not long after our first contact as the idea was to form a strong core roster with the artists that were best showcasing the sound we became known for. BSA was part of a crew which was also doing events we were invited to play at, Massive from Braga, a city about half an hour drive to Porto, and shortly after our initial rave meetings he also joined the collective. Fragz would be the last core member to join, after playing some of our regular nights as an upcoming talent in 2010-2011. Around this time we had bonded and shared enough thoughts to collectively decide to start Yellow Stripe Recordings and put ourselves out there. We built up a reputation for the heaviest and hardest electronic music parties in the country quickly once the crew was gathered and there were even copycats attempting to emulate what we had put together. Not just that, but Yellow Stripe, throughout the years and in collaboration with other key organizations, brought just about every relevant Drum & Bass artist out to play in Portugal, including many rising talent debuts in memorable events. YSR was born out of a desire to build up our brand even more, at an international level, to stand out with our own music and shared vision, but also to inspire our peers and kind of elevate what had been done so far. We hosted a launch party for the label in January 2011 with Katharsys - who would be a part of our second planned release ‐ at Porto-Rio, a legendary boat venue that was essential to building up YS as a force to be reckoned with, and the first vinyl was released shortly after in February.

Q. When was the first time you played outside of Portugal? What were your impressions then?

Tough question as those times are now kind of blurry in my head haha… but I think in 2012 or 2013, around the same year I had my debut releases on PRSPCT Recordings and when Thrasher added me to their artist roster. I first played in the Netherlands at one of The Third Movement’s Club r_AW events, with some amazing, hard as fuck artists like Tripped, Matt Green, Sandy Warez, and Rude Awakening aka Promo - at the time this was all still quite new to me so I was a bit overwhelmed, nervous even, especially coming from a mostly D&B portfolio to a very Core-centric showdown, but I did my thing, had a good time meeting these leaders of the harder styles and got nice constructive feedback. I would come back to Holland later that year to play at Q-Base 2013, which was an amazing gig in a decommissioned aircraft hangar, with legends like Venetian Snares, Hellfish, N-Vitral, DJ Hidden & Eye-D in the same lineup. It was definitely an eye-opening experience for me as I hadn’t personally been to any Q-Dance or similar festivals yet - witnessing the scale of the event first-hand, hearing other artist friends’ accounts of what else there was in store, making connections and listening to the diversity within the harder genres was exciting and refreshing for me. During that evening there was even heavy rain but this didn’t stop gabbers and ravers from having a good time. By the end I was soaked as fuck but had a blast and couldn’t wait to be back.

Q. Your music shows the influence of Technoid (Techno DNB), are you influenced by Technoid?

One of my favorite acts is without any doubt Kemal, a pioneer of a very specific Techno-influenced type of D&B, half of Konflict of ‘Messiah’ fame with Rob Data, and who is an inspiration still to this day for upcoming and established artists alike. That sound, and releases on imprints like DSCI4, Renegade Hardware, Black Sun Empire, and other imprints that were focusing on a forward-thinking techy kind of vibe were essential to the creation of certain label projects like Offkey, m-Atome, Sinuous, Venom Inc, Melting Pot and more, all of which I followed closely, that would come to define what became known as Technoid. At most Yellow Stripe events the crowd really enjoyed a relentless techno-ish rhythm with hypnotic and tough sounding beats and synthlines, and we were absolutely enamored by this sound as well. It was fun to mix, hard, fast, futuristic and dark enough to mix with some of the crazier tearout stuff we were bringing to the table. I’m sure if you pay some close attention to many of my productions you will hear the influences of the techier sound of the early 00s all the way to the 'golden age' of the Technoid sound, so the answer is a resounding yes, and I guess it helps that I am also into Techno as a whole.

Q. Yellow Stripe Recordings released its first 12" record "Crowd Surfer / Hammer" in 2011. Please tell us about the background of this record.

I had been producing and releasing on a few labels for a while, mostly Neurofunk style tracks, and was starting to get attention from imprints like PRSPCT as my music started having more and more hardcore elements and I improved the technical aspects of my creative flow. The rest of the YS crew were also going in harder and making exceptional stuff, so we became interested in exploring this space as a label because it was a chance to not only put our creative vision and names out there, but to make our mark as a genre-defying movement and collective. It was clear that inviting the right artists to be on board would be key to getting things off the ground. So we had backstage chats with many of our international guests about collaborating on tracks, and having the artists themselves team up in unprecedented ways to deliver what we thought was going to be the defining sound of Yellow Stripe. We got some advice from established heads who ran their own labels on how to go about it, getting distribution and started to work on the first record and follow-up releases. Those two tracks came along naturally with this process and were deemed to be the perfect combination of the Hardcore Drum & Bass crossover and more tearout style sounds that were a staple of our popular Therapy Sessions and other events. We got great feedback from many of our favorite artists and followers of YS were loving not only the tracks, but the momentum our whole movement gained as a result. The decision to release on vinyl was mostly about having an enduring, physical investment that could always be looked back to as a major step up in our legacy and musical output, so our main designer Ayse got to work on the visual side of things and the rest is history.

Q. Crossbreed was born in 2010 and has since become a big movement. How did you feel about Crossbreed at the time?

Hardcore and Drum & Bass crossovers have probably been around since both genres began co-existing, and I’ve always dabbled in it on my own in the studio, but also mixing up tracks that I thought shared similar elements or influences, before Crossbreed as a term actually started being thrown around. To my knowledge there weren't really other people doing this in Portugal or at least they weren't putting it out there to be listened to. To me it was a natural evolution of that blend, and of course it made total sense that The Outside Agency aka DJ Hidden and Eye-D would be the ones pioneering and pushing for it the hardest, as the inspiring forward-thinking legends they are, on their own Genosha imprint and on Killing Sheep Records, for instance. Other artists like Switch Technique, Deathmachine, SPL, Cooh, and labels like Ohm Resistance were also pushing this sound in their own way and that movement quickly gained traction in certain harder styles circles. It was an exciting and prolific period with many different takes and experiments on what became known as the Crossbreed sound, and we at YS around the time the label was established even developed and refined our own flavor of it, enticingly nicknaming it Portostep with some of the artists involved. You could say it was focused on more barebones, in-your-face D&B stepper type of dancefloor bangers that often used Hardcore basskicks or rhythms as the core building blocks. That style gained a very dedicated fanbase and young talents began to step up and play those types of tracks at every party, making for a quick rise in popularity and defining anthems that are still played today.

Q. Please tell us about your music production process. What do you start with first? What equipment do you currently use?

I try to have this work ethic of not going into studio mode unless I have a somewhat clear idea of what I want to do in my head, which may be a single sound or sample, a drum rhythm or synthline, so my process does not necessarily have an order. Often I will start with composing a main hook with drums and a bassline and build from there, but I also enjoy first creating a vibe from the intro with some pads and selecting vocals or other sounds to use if the mood is right. These days I mainly use Ableton Live to do just about everything, relying on external audio editors like Spectralayers for minor adjustments or tweaking elements. I use plugins from Fabfilter, iZotope, D16, Native Instruments and Valhalla for processing, effects and building synths or other elements. I'm mostly producing in the box using software only but also use a vintage Mackie CR1604 mixer to process, drive and mangle analog sounds from a TD-3 synth and RD-9 drum machine as those two are an amazing source to reinvent the sounds of the classic 909 Hardcore basskick and 303 acid synthlines which you can hear in many of my tracks. Currently I use Adam T8V monitor speakers, Beyerdynamic DT990 Pro headphones and other, more inexpensive sets like Sony MDR-V55 to reference tracks on, paired with two ultrawide monitors which make it easier to have everything I need on screen at once. I run everything through a trusty E-MU audio interface which I've had for like 14 (!) years now, long overdue for an upgrade which might happen this year. Occasionally I will also use my Korg Minilogue for sounds, which doubles as the main keyboard in my setup, and I use a vintage Pioneer tape deck and amp to resample and capture sounds when it feels right to do so, plus I have a few more toys lying around for creative sparks. At the moment I have my studio set up in my living area where I also have most of my books, records, films, games, art and decks, and having all of this close by makes it quick to go back and forth from things that may inspire me to the actual creative process. I prefer this rather than having a dedicated music studio room and having it feel like I'm going into an office or something, it just seems to flow better this way for me.

Q. How do you make your kicks like your heavyweight punches?

I like to think of them more like an actual kick to the face rather than a punch, but I guess the intention can be a mix of both really! It depends on the type of track I'm working on, but I have a folder of kickdrums that I've either resampled or tweaked over the years from various sources, more recently including the RD-9 paired with the Mackie mixer, and I usually rely on those as my initial building blocks. After setting the tone, getting the low end of the kick right through EQing and doing some light processing as needed, I will add other layers, these can be anything, other drum sounds, synths or vocal stabs, percussive elements or just interesting samples. Occasionally I will use distortion plugins like Devastor, Camelphat and Decapitator to shape that sound to my liking or create some variations. Normally I'm using at least three layers for kicks, one for the low end, a low to mid range one and a higher end one which may have some effects, a little reverb and small details to make them stand out but also hit hard, and each layer may contain one or several sounds. While designing and assembling a kick I try to be in control of the stereo image, the transient and dynamics to suit not only the rhythm I'm going for but also the BPM I'm working at as well. Starting with the kick early on in a project is key in getting everything else to sit well in the mix, so I get that part out of the way as soon as possible, and in trying not to reuse previous track elements in new projects, it can take some time to get it to sound exactly how I want.

Q. You collaborate with numerous producers. How do most of your collaborations proceed? Which collaborations have you found particularly interesting so far?

Sometimes during events or in online chat other artists will approach me about collaborating, or I will approach them, naturally I guess out of interest in doing something together because we feel our sound will mesh nicely, or that it will be an exciting process for the parties involved. We exchange audio clips of project ideas that may be suitable and see if the other side agrees to building on that, and from there, unless there is the chance of working together in-person, normally we will exchange stems and parts of the projects to be worked on, back and forth in that process til we can all say it is finished. I've had a lot of fun collaborating with Switch Technique, we have several Crossbreed-style tracks together, on labels like Industrial Strength and Therapy Sessions Recordings, in which you can instantly recognize both of our styles and production trademarks. The vibe and energy on all those collabs is absolutely true to the vision I had so I'm quite fond of them, and I can say I feel the same way about a few more like Retrofit (with Cooh), or Syke (with eRRe). More recently I collaborated with DJ Hidden, an artist I always looked up to in more ways than one, for my latest EP, Odyssey on Othercide Records, and that titular track is now a definite favorite from my whole discography. A great synergy of vibes, nuances and production styles that is both cinematic and destructive for any dancefloor. Of course I have to mention the infamous Corona Virus track I released with Bratkilla on YSR back in 2013. It became an anthem for fans of Portostep in no time back then, but when COVID-19 hit in 2020 it took on a whole new dimension, amassing plays on YouTube, Spotify etc like no other track in the label catalog. Some of the comments and feedback was hilarious, and now I guess it's sure to be remembered for a long time.

Q. Yellow Stripe Recordings has been played by well-known artists such as Mad Dog and Dope DOD. What are some of your most memorable party memories?

Way too many to mention and I'm terrible at choosing favorites! We have had crazy and funny stage/backstage antics with the likes of Hallucinator, Thrasher, Limewax, Robyn Chaos, Counterstrike, Eye-D and more whom we consider part of the YS legacy and extended family, but also non-D&B artist legends such as Onyx or Raekwon from the Wu-Tang Clan that have performed at our events, as well as our own raver and staff friends. For a while I was interviewing some of the artists backstage for our aftermovies and event reports, and that was always a lot of fun. I handled a lot of the hospitality part for many of our events and first met many of my idols that way. With time it became natural and very familiar for everyone, and it never felt like I was working a task or job, but rather that I was 'at home', so I always tried to make artists feel the same way. I'm sure many of them also hold fond memories of memorable events we hosted, and to me that is probably more important than any singular moment or memory. In some of our crazier events ravers would invade the stage or booth to party hard which is always fun to remember as this usually happened to the sound of some of the best YSR anthems, as well as moshpits and other rowdy crowd actions which were not enjoyed by everyone but were always memorable.

Q. You released "State Of Emergence" this year on PRSPCT. This EP is a new frontier for C-Netik. Did anything change your mind or challenge?

For sure, State Of Emergence marked my first foray into more uptempo, terror-style Hardcore, and is the result of many sonic experiments and genre mashups I've become known for over the years. The EP was actually completed much earlier but due to pandemic delays we had to wait a while for vinyl production and distribution. I conceptualized the artwork with YS crewmate Blast aka Fedor, who is a prolific, extremely talented graffiti artist, and I even made AMV style video edits for each of the tracks that I think showcase the theme and vibes well. I wanted not only to challenge myself and the listeners' idea of the kind of music C-Netik represents but to also 'emerge' as a type of artist that is not limited to just producing music and releasing it. Time permitting, you can expect more of that going forward.

Q. Have you ever been in a musical slump? If so, how did you resolve those slumps?

Definitely. Slumps are bound to happen especially when you focus on a specific genre, or subgenre for that matter, in any artform. I would say that my slumps were never too long as I'm a curious, rule-defying person by nature that likes to reinvent and push their own limits, but I rely on a lot of other art to get over it. I'm into a lot of escapist media and content, which for me at least works wonders in planting new ideas in my mind. However, I have been on some sort of hiatus in the past but mostly due to commitments outside of music that didn't allow for the necessary time investment. It can be positive to take a breather and just lay off music making for a bit to come back fresh, but to me that isn't the same as being in a slump, more like taking the time to process and organize your thoughts and ideas in my case.

Q. How do you feel about the current Portuguese dance music scene? What next generation producers and labels are you looking out for?

There is always something exciting happening in Portugal with music, even if some are slower to realize it than others. Club and festival culture is very much alive, perhaps to an extent that it has never been at before, no doubt in part due to overwhelming tourism interest in the region, but also because of great curators and collectives like our own. There is a huge Techno movement resurgence, complete with fanatics, posers and pseudo promoters, but that now encompasses other genres of rave culture like Hardcore, Trance and more, which to me kind of symbolizes all of that coming full circle and uniting people under the same banner, so to speak. There is an absurd amount of events happening every week, and you are able to hear for example Gqom, Makina, Perreo, Baile Funk, Kuduro, Jungle, EBM, Industrial Hardcore and more being played in a single rave to a degree that just didn't occur at all not too long ago. Music and/or events by projects such as Amen Lisboa, Counterpoint, Hayes Collective, Mera, Ácida, MINA, ARVI, Príncipe Discos, Monster Jinx, Konnect, XXIII and artists like VIL, Zero, Dust Devices, RZVX, Lynce, Silvestre, Crawler, Arrogance Arrogance, Farwarmth, Von Di are some of the names I've been keeping an eye on and I'm sure they will continue to push forward.

Q. Tell us your Top 3 most played tracks.

At the moment, in no particular order:

- Hellfish & The DJ Producer - Return Of The Damagers

- Aura T-09 & Baseck ‐ West Coast, Pt.3

- C-Netik - Infinite Corridor

Of all-time, also in no particular order, probably:

- The Outside Agency & Sei2ure - Undermind

- C-Netik & Cooh - Retrofit

- Limewax - Lumpeth

Bonus mention for a timeless banger that I also drop numerous times:

Stakka & Skynet feat. Kemal & Rob Data - Bios Fear 

Q. What is your schedule for the future?

I'm currently at work on my first LP, something I've wanted to do for a few years but wasn't sure how to go about. I've now got a pretty clear concept of how it will sound and how it will be represented. It will be my biggest genre-defying project yet, and the aim is to expand the musical scope of C-Netik to the listener, which in time will be reflected in my sets too. I don't have a deadline or timeframe in my mind but I expect by early summer next year it might be out there in some form. Apart from my solo endeavors I am also now part of a trio making more Techno-centric rave music called Chupacabra Soundsystem. We've been working a lot together on tracks and the direction for this project, and are just starting to perform together as well. Beyond this, I have some original works yet to be released this year and in the next one, on YSR and other labels, a handful of collaborations planned for 2023 and tours are also being planned for my debut in some countries. I'm also working with the rest of the Yellow Stripe crew in restructuring our event plans, label roster and release schedule, so that in some capacity we may continue the legacy work built up to this point.