cm Producer Masterclass PHILTH

Philth – aka London DnB polymath Phil Robinson – takes us into the dark world of techstep, via his personal studio, with this in-depth tutorial and track breakdown

It’s not for nothing that the Philth track Phil Robinson dissects in our accompanying video is named The Teacher. And not just because one of his side ventures (although we can only imagine he is doing it for the love, as his levels of success soar) is as an, erm, teacher. No, this is an artist who very much has something to teach us mere wannabes – the art of being prolific in our output. And what is the key to that art? Well, we’ll let him explain over the course of this masterclass…

Robinson’s upbringing in West London meant he was fortunate enough to be situated in the epicentre of a lot of the genres he loved, soaking in the soundsystems in clubs he would then, in later life, dominate.

Again, we’ll let him recount the various musical influences and releases he’s put out over the past decade or so, but for now we’ll skip the middle years of his CV and jump to an anecdote recounted to iDJ that he only briefly mentions here but is pretty damn cool. That is, the one where he and college mate Facing Jinx went to breakfast with Peer Pressure label boss Matt Beebe and finished the meal having taken on responsibility for said label; along the way imbuing it with their own unique style.

Phil’s two-part debut LP Moments In Time Parts 1 & 2 came out last year, the work of years’ worth of grind, and showcasing “everything he loves in DnB”. The producer hyphen label boss hyphen teacher (we won’t even add Masters scholar) had to cultivate, he says, new skills: patience and consistency of expression. The album can be purchased from Dispatch Recordings’ site, but in the meantime, enjoy one or two insights straight from the horse’s mouth…