Bert Verso
One fifth of beat collective Grey Tapes, producer and DJ, Bert Verso's productions are informed by his endless search for the 'perfect beat', as he puts it. With no laptops in sight, he makes music exclusively on hardware samplers, synths and drum machines. He feels drawn to exploration of the immediacy of analogue machines and this lends his music a certain direct quality as well as it's unique sound palette.
A hip-hop head and master of the seminal AKAI MPC, his 2012 'Dulcet EP' weaves boombap beats, Juno 6 basslines and heavily cut-up samples from his expansive record collection. His current work retains a similar aesthetic, staying true to his roots with dusty samples, melodic analogue synths and bold rhythms, whilst experimenting with different tempos and dynamic drum patterns.
He released his debut album on Kaneda Records in September, featuring 7 brand new melodic, beat driven offerings. Including lead track 'Dumbshit' which is injected with the energy of Chicago footwork, exploring his love of the frenetic drum patterns and transitions that the genre is known for. If you like melodic drum machine workouts you have most definitely come to the right place.
Bert Verso's Debut album, 'Internal Shlurpee' -
"I wrote these tracks in between Grey Tapes sessions in 2018 as we were recording our debut album as a collective. This side project started out as me trying to make club tracks but soon ended up being far more varied than that, striking a balance between deeper headphone listening and left-field dancefloor fodder.
Lead track ‘Dumbshit’ is injected with the energy of Chicago footwork, exploring my love of the frenetic drum patterns and transitions that the genre is known for. In Crosswinds the vinyl crackle is thick and atmospheric, honouring the late Ras G who famously spoke out in favour of not cleaning the records he found in thrift stores as the dust and crackles add “seasoning” to the music." (NARC magazine, 2019)
