Happy 2016 from the city beautiful, Orlando.  Torque has recently moved to the Sandwich Bar in the milk district every Wednesday night.  This week we host Matt Caulder and Funk baby alongside residents Circle K and Collaborator.  We decided to catch up with Matt Caulder in Jacksonville  to get his thoughts on D&B leading up to 2016.

• What are your top 3 labels for jungle drum & bass?

All time its Moving Shadow, Reinforced,  and Suburban Base.  Currently its Exit Records, Samurai (and their sub label Samurai Horo) and, at the moment, I am really enjoying what Goldman Records is putting out (which is the label belonging to artist G.H.O.S.T.).

2.What are your top 3 labels that are putting out vinyl still consistently.

I would say the 3 I just listed.

• What are your current top 3 producers and your all time favorites .

Current producers…. hhmmm…. Skeptical for sure as he is just so diverse with his productions. I mean, he can play it mello but then he can bring the drums and sometimes in the same tune! Great stuff. Tokyo Prose I have loved since their first release and that album just did was really very lovely. Reminded me of the good old Good Looking days but with more of a modern viewpoint. 3rd I have to go with Blocks and Escher as their stuff is just so epic in its sound. Its really unlike most stuff out at the moment and thats what I love. I would have put them at number 3 on my favorite labels but they only released one single last year but 2016 looks set to be pretty big for them with an album and a few new single releases.

As for all time favorites…. Omni Trio. Man do I miss that guy and his DnB but he is still doing music and it is beautiful music I have to say. If you’ve not followed him (Robert Haigh) I would suggest you seek him out. Source Direct of course and lastly…… 4 Hero for reasons which need no explanation and Justice the underrated producer of DnB fame.

4.What is your outlook for vinyl sales in dnb for 2016?

am the wrong person to ask! From what I understand from talking to label owners its certainly a niche market and most releases see maybe 200-300 copies of a record being pressed and sometimes its less than that. I am asked from time to time about vinyl and if its difficult to get music that way and the answer is a resounding “no”, it isn’t. There is very little released digitally that I cannot get on vinyl. I do see more and more releases on vinyl though and I support the format/artist whenever I can providing its music that I LOVE. By that I mean, when I buy a record, its has to be a special piece of music to me as vinyl isn’t cheap. It has to be something I can play at home just as well as playing out at a club. But then again I couldn’t imagine playing music any other way.

5.What, when , and where was your first D&B gig.

My first gig….. wow…… hmmmmm… it would have to be sometime in 1992 and I would say it was at a place called “The Continent” which, ironically enough, is where I threw Jacksonvilles very first Jungle/DnB show way back in 1994 with some of Orlandos finest Dj’s including Redcoat, Dread and Element (However Dread didn’t show up!). Of course I don’t think we called it “Jungle” back then, I think it was still being called Hardcore and kinda morphing into Jungle. The rest as they say, is history.

Here is a link to Matt’s first mixed tape

https://soundcloud.com/matt-caulder/where-im-calling-from-my-first

Catch Matt Caulder live @ Torque  via The Sandwhich Bar> Wednesday January 13th, 2016