Toby Reynolds - DJ Skud -- "The Joys of The Ambush" -- An Interview by James Graham at Last Sigh Magazine

Total Destruction

DJ Scud
And The Joys Of The Ambush

An interview with Toby Reynolds by James Graham

May 2000

The music of Toby Reynolds (DJ Scud) and his label, Ambush Records tends to evoke a very physical response from listeners. The grounding of the label is in the sound of the breakbeat, but the breakbeat fucked up, crushed and beaten up. Scud and his label mates come from a soup of influences like dancehall, free improvisation, musique concrete and modern sound system culture. The end product that Reynolds and friends have pressed to wax has driven people away, brought them closer together and thanks to the certain frequencies, gotten them literally very sick.

Ambush tunes, whether they be from Scud himself or other artists like Shizuo or Ambush co-owner DJ Aphasic (Jason Skeet), occupy a dark yet magical corner of the musical world. Lying on the fringes of electronic music, they create for the sake of creation, challenging the listener with breakbeats and noise that are harsh and uncaring one minute and as soulfully aching as a Marvin Gaye tune the next. Surrounded by a growing group of fellow beat-freaks who are just as ready to raise a middle finger to the dance floor as to the growing horde of armchair techno producers.

Straight out of the heart of South London, the sounds of DJ Scud and friends are indeed the sounds of ‘Now,’ slices of sonic memory that will forever define a place and time in out history. We cornered Scud in front of computer not long after returning from a successful DJing trip in New York. He had much to say about the continued spread of the Ambush virus..

Last Sigh: Tell us a bit about yourself and what you’ve been up to.

DJ Scud: I’m 30. Unemployed. Broke. I’m doing some medical trials for cash: possible side effects - impotency. I’ve just got back from New York where I was spinning and I’m still jet lagged.

Last Sigh: When, where and why did Ambush begin?

DJ Scud: In 1997 here in South London. I had this very clear sound in my head that I wanted to get down on vinyl and no-one I knew at the time was really releasing stuff like it. Sure there was DHR but I wanted to control my own material. In the beginning I wasn’t even sure if people would buy the records, but they did.

Last Sigh: How would you describe the ambush sound?

DJ Scud: Hard radical dance beats. Industrial drum & noise. Or as you may already know it "Splatterbreaks" heh heh. There’s also ‘Harsh-step’. ‘Shrill-step’. ‘Terrorcore’. ‘Harshcore’. ‘Breakcore’. Take your pick.

Last Sigh: Why the certain collection of people that you’ve had do stuff for the label?

DJ Scud: They’re just people whose stuff we liked and were impressed by. David Hammer (Shizuo) I know from way back. I met him at this regular Hardcore squat party called ‘Dead By Dawn’ back in ‘94 in Brixton. I sold him some drugs and tried to rip him off heh heh. Dan (who did #05 ‘Sex With a Machine’ EP) we ran into at the free parties. Fred (Din-S.T) sent us a demo and we loved it and I’d never heard anything to compare it to. There’s no specific sound we’re looking for - just strong individuality and forward thinking.

Last Sigh: Describe your approach to DJ-ing?

DJ Scud: I play very fast shrill breakbeat noise (Ambush, Praxis, DHR, Position Chrome, Jap Noise etc.) I like to keep the funk elements in there so people can still dance to it. I don’t really beat mix or overlay. I match the tempos and then listen for entry and exit points in the noise to keep the flow. I don’t like playing a tune for more than a few minutes. I like to keep it moving and to change the energy frequently and I normally EQ the mixer to oblivion. When it works - it really goes off. Ear damaging on occasions I believe.

Last Sigh: Do you go into the studio with a specific approach in mind?

DJ Scud: Sure. Keep the beats rolling. Keep the funk. Bring the noise. Mash it up. But it’s also nice to let accidents happen as well and lead you somewhere different. I conciously look for that in fact. I’m also quite brutal with my material in that if somethings not working (even if I’ve been working on it for several hours or a whole evening) I bin it.

Last Sigh: Can you maintain the funk yet still be hard and abrasive in your sounds?

DJ Scud: Of course. We should be clear what we mean by funk though: for me its the dynamics of the track structure. The tension and the release. The headbanging element. The moment when the track seems to take on its own energy.

Last Sigh: Who are the producers with the knowledge?

DJ Scud: Which knowledge are we talking about? Functionality or innovation? Too many to name them all, but my favorites: Aphex, Alec, the Ram crew (Andy C & Ant Miles), RZA/Wu-Tang, Mad Mike from UR, Jeff Mills, Ryoji Ikeda, King Tubby, Lee Scratch Perry.

Last Sigh: Do you find yourself ever creating material outside of breakcore?

DJ Scud: I’m very limited as to what I can actually do here at the moment on my equipment. But sure, I’d like to try a lot of other ideas out eventually when I’ve got the facilities to do it. I’m hopefully going to be doing some fucked-up Hip-Hop material later this year with MC Rant (ex-New Kingdom). I did some stuff with him on Panacea’s album last year. It came out really well but we both felt we could take it a lot further on our own terms.

Last Sigh: What spurred the release of ‘Mash The Place Up’?

DJ Scud: We simply realized we had to start doing CDs. I mean this ‘vinyl only’ thing is so esoteric and so willfully obscure. We’ve just reached a stage where we want to reach a wider audience and to spread the sound. It was also mainly for the US where the early 12"s were much harder to get hold of.

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