Skip to main content

Rustee - Vykhod Sily

Vykhod Sily have been organising some excellent podcasts based on a dark electronica and 85/170 bpm vibe. Rustee runs Vykhod Sily which also operates as a record label too. Their first release was brilliant and they are due to be releasing their next release pretty soon (1st May 2018 I believe). Here's a short interview on the brains behind it all.... Rustee

FPZ: Tell me a bit about yourself. What is Vykhod Sily? Who’s involved, and how long have you been operating?

Rustee: Hi! I'm Rustee, Russia based music enthusiast, a dnb blogger and a podcaster. I have been running Vykhod Sily podcast since 2013, alongside doing the admin/content manager work for the project's social media groups. Vykhod Sily (the way the Force is going through in English) is primarily a podcast focused on 85/170 bpm electronica and everything dark electronica related at lower tempos. It's also a worldwide community of future-thinking listeners, dj's/selectors and musicians. In 2017 we started a crowd sourcing campaign at Patreon aiming at launching the VS digital label. With the community  supporting the project we have released our first release. My fellow mate Virulent Green is taking care of technical things, helping me out with the label and VS on web in general.

FPZ: What made you want to start the record label? And how did the first release come together?

Rustee: It's quite a simple story. Been asked many times why don't we launch a label and by 2017 it was obvious we had a decent experience of pushing musical things, setting up the connections with the greatest producers etc. So we definitely had something to show. VS has become known as a solid platform for giving a voice for people to be heard no matter how big the names are. And as I have mentioned Patreon campaign helped us to make everything happen. For the first release I decided to get my favourite artists involved. They were dreadmaul and Bereneces. The idea was to link artists together and it worked well. So all the future releases will be executed in the same collab way. More likely that the label is not going to limit itself to halftime dnb only as we have lots of other great music to release too.

FPZ: What were your highlights for 2017 (doesn’t have to be music related)?

Rustee: Of course one of the highlights is the starting of our crowd sourcing campaign on Patreon. It gained a solid momentum at once and we are really pleased to see the results. People are sticking with us supporting the releases and showing love to the project.
Last year I finally decided to encompass the non dnb aspects of electronic music within a podcast frame. Thanks to my new connections around industrial, somatik techno and ambient the VS listeners got the chance to listen deeper to what I prefer to hear while meditating or just sitting during the late hours apart from dnb. The feedback is huge and I'm really stoked to see how the whole thing's evolving.

FPZ: What have you got planned for 2018?

Rustee: We want to go on with the new releases for sure which don't necessarily have to be 100% dnb. As I have said the music coming from the outside of dnb is influencing us much and I hope we will bring some new unique collabs to the world. Also I'm thinking of starting a local VS party in Yekaterinburg around the sound we love and the vibes we are known for.

FPZ: What artists are you feeling at the moment and why?

Rustee: It's a tricky one. Because there are too many but let's try anyways...

Dyl from Romania is just a fantastic producer with the distinctive sound being in his own league. Need to mention he stepped out of the 85/170 bpm niche a while back and his creative output at lower tempos is getting more and more impressing every year.

Blocks & Escher are the outstanding sonic architects building up a balance between the past and the future. Their album on the Metalheadz label is going to be one of the most anticipated this year.

Ancestral Voices who's previously been known in 85bpm electronica circuits under his Indigo moniker. Shifting to a tribal sound at lower tempos and being active as an ambient musician launching his own label it all makes him one of the most intriguing producer to follow.

FPZ: What are first 3 albums that come to your mind :) ?

Rustee: The first ones are obviously those that I'm having on me wherever I go....
1. Massive Attack's 'Mezzanine' from 1998. Have been a fan of them since day one.  A masterpiece in my opinion. Enough said.
2. Boymerang's 'Balance of the Force'. Such a shame the album from 1997 is so underrated with all those gems on it. But hopefully everything really good is just being tested by time and people are eventually getting a full realizing of an amazing body of Boymerang's creative work.
3. Overlook's 'Shadow Signals'  from 2017. The epitome of Jason's immersing sound and the precise picture of todays cross-cultural fusion thing in 85/170 bpm music. A brilliant trip from techno to dnb and ambient and back. This is one to be re-listened with a doubt. 

FPZ: Recommend me 3 tracks that are not 170/85?

Rustee: Schiari - Atonement; Skee Mask - Routine; Ø - Otava

FPZ: What 3 things influence you the most, and why?

Rustee: 
1. Soviet sci-fi literature. I was raised with that that kind of fiction with lots of books in our family's library. I found it very thought-provoking. The Strugatskie brothers are the best in my opinion. The ideas conveyed by the authors back then may sound a bit naive nowadays but there is a true soul in them. The futuristic appeal still resonates with me in terms of music, regarding drum'n'bass especially. Have always considered those sounds to be from tomorrow's world.
2. Travelling. Due to my job I'm travelling a lot across the country and now and then going abroad on vacation. So visiting new cities, and countries, connecting to new people is much inspiring as well as the long trips to the middle of nowhere - like to the dark heart of Siberia in the wintertime where you can hardly see the sunlight during the day. Travelling and being on the way to somewhere itself is quite meditative especially when you have your favourite music on you. 
3. Cinema. I prefer dark thrillers for the menacing atmospheres and suspense. When doing a podcast I'm trying to tell a story with all those dark tunes I select. So it sounds mostly like a thriller story audio type of thing. Half-tempo dnb serves really well with that purpose. 

Don't you mind if I mention one more inspiring source or a person even. It's my wife Dasha who's in the perfect knowing of what I'm creating. She's feeling the vibes and doing acrylic paintings under the 'Efflorescence' name being inspired by Narratives Music and Auxiliary labels among the others.

FPZ: Any final words?

Rustee: Thank you for giving me a chance to tell about the VS project. Really honoured. Maximum respect to all the global drum-n-bass community, artists, DJ's, labels listeners supporting true underground vibes and pushing the boundaries. Vykhod Sily project's has more to represent to the world in the future so keep your eyes peeled.

Big up and thanks to Rustee. Check out the links:

Comments