P O W E Rmagazine

Tom Misch - Cosmo’s Midnight - XXYYXX

KaytRanadaLooking at the incedible act that is Kaytranada.

daft PunK uS tOuR

Behind the scenes access to France’s hottest dance act.

nEW! diSclOSuRE

An insight into the pair’s new album.

£2.50 noveMBer ediTion no.12014

daRWin iS tHE WORld REady fOR tHiS yOunG MaStERMind?

HW&Wonly The

BESt.

it’S a Bit GRiMEynovelist explains.

WWW.PoWerMAG.co.uk

ALL nEW CoMPeTiTons

inSidE see hoW To Win A TriP oF A

l i f E t i M E ! !

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C o n T e n T s november edition no. 1 2014

intERV i EWS 4 daRWin10 naughty Boy12 sBTrKT13 Mr Carmack16 sango

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indEX 4 daRWin

8 nauGHty BOy

9 Run dMc

21 diSclOSuRE

25 dE la SOul

38 cRyStal caStlES

39 dJ EZ

41 aRtful dOdGER

44 tOM MiScH

46 cOSMO’S MidniGHt

52 XXyyXX

54 BRO SafaRi

57 GEnt & JaWnS

60 a tRiBE callEd QuESt

68 icE cuBE

78 MiZuKi

fROnt cOVER

4 daRWinis the world ready for this young mastermind?.

19 daft PunK uS tOuRBehind the scenes access to France’s hottest dance act.

26 nEW! diSclOSuREAn insight into the pair’s new album.

30 KaytRanadaLooking at the incredible act that is Kaytranada.

45 it’S a Bit GRiMEynovelist explains.

55 HW&Wonly the best.

nEWS

17 BREaKBEatnew craze sweeping the undergound world.

20 BuSta RHyMESAn interview with a hip-hop legend.

23 JuSt OnE MORE tiMEA look at the life and death of J dilla.

26 it’S a Mad WORldThe life and times of B.i.G.

93 OncE uPOn a tiME?A look back at the 80s dance scene.

123 REal SidE Of R&Bhip-hop duo Mobb depp speak about what makes r&B so special.

90. KERRanGKerrang slow down to join us

for this month’s edition.95. ViBE

We chillout with vibe.

97. fORMal intROductiOnThe Guardian newspaper dives into the deep end.

101. filM?hollywood’s Joel Coen ladies

and gentlemen.

107. JERRy SPRinGERspringer let’s us know what he

thinks.

111. Q .Getting down with Q.

117. claSH MaGclash vs PoWer.

120. MOJOPhil Alexander gives us his

thoughts.

liVE!

40 MicHiGan’S VERy OWn

sango feeling right back at home.

42 BRiXtOn iS WaitinGdisclosure live next month, Brixton cannot be contained.

82 nEc A$AP Ferg taking a detour.

95 WHEn in ROME Mr Carmack on a trip to italy.

2 3

REViEWS

REGulaRS 65 Kaytranada

Back to his old tricks.

96 MOtOWn This week’s topic is holiday

100 tEcHnOlOGy roland Tr-808.

112 REadERS cORnER

Best from our reader’s mail.

RevolutionaRydaRwinconqueRs the

uks

o, how long have you been making music for? Well...i’ve gone through ten speakers, 3 computers

and listened to over 300 albums...that’s how long.”

4 5

These are the words of one of the hottest new acts rising up through the ranks of the dance scene. ryan Cowling or better known as ‘darwin’, is one of house’s bright young talents, hoping to break through and take the world by storm. Born in south east London and son of two musicians, Cowling has always been surrounded by music. From a young age ryan has always been known by his relatives as a ‘music maestro’. When asked, his mother said “right from the off, ryan has constantly been hitting something,

earlier on this week we caught up with the fanatic that is “darwin”, just to find out what is so special about this young talent.

76

tapping something and just generally been making a racket.” Well at least for ryan’s mum’s sake all those years of broke piano keys and neighbour complaints finally have paid off. due to his dad’s influence, at the age of 8 ryan began playing the guitar. Being the lead guitarist of the prog rock band ‘The Locals’ Cowling’s dad was more than happy to give ryan a push in the right direction. From there, ryan took up interest in the drums, the piano and the clarinet, and by age 13 could practically form his own band. At 14, Cowling began to take an interest in dance music. Through this spontaneous uptake, for his 15th birthday his parents bought him a

set of numark dj decks. From this point on ryan’s, or now darwin’s life would never be the same. With this new found style, came a new name. At first ryan would have a few friends over and they would mess around blending all sorts of pop hits with no serious intention, but as soon as Cowling found drum and bass, things began to get real. one of ryan’s good friends introduced him into one of the pioneers of drum and bass. ‘Goldie’. once introduced, there was no going back. Cowling said “after i heard just 2 of his songs, i ran home and begged my parents for music making software.” on Cowling’s 16th birthday he was presented with ‘reason’ (a top brand music making software). With this ryan was unstoppable, he was blasting out tunes left, right and centre, he changed his clothing

style, his lingo and most importantly...his name. When questioned about his name, Cowling replied “darwin, like the evolutionist, you know. darwin was revolutionary to the theory of life, and like him i’m going to be revolutionary to the theory of music.” now, being signed with 3 Beat Music (an independent British house label), having a hit number one on ‘electric sound radio’, which subsequently was played on Annie Mac’s earlybird mix back in July, and having a regular slot at Mile end’s Boiler room all at age of 19, is truly remarkable. Who knows, maybe darwin’s the answer everyone’s been looking for?

Growing up now, in these times were dance music is adapting so rapidly,

darwin must remain on top of his game. Knowing this, the 19 year old said “music is always going to be a tough field to play in. But in recent times it seems to be tougher than ever.” Well, i don’t think Cowling’s going to be to far out of the spotlight within the near future. Collaborating with big acts such as naughty Boy, Jessie Ware and disclosure, darwin is certainly on the road to success.

nominated for best young house artist at the begining of the year, just missing out to swiss sensation ‘Fasel’, Cowling is at his most confident, and reasures us that “he will” win at the next BhYA awards. After realsing his superb eP ‘BreAK’, fellow dJ and founder of Azuli records dave Piccioni took a shine to Cowling and signed him up as quick as possible. since then darwin’s been signed with 3 Beat Music records and has aroused interest from XL records. now that would be impressive!

With other acts at XL such as The Prodigy, dizzee rascal and radiohead.

With a summer tour to the Us in the coming year, darwin will feature alongside Annie Mac, david Guetta, emeli sande and swiss counterpart Fasel. not much of a traveller, this will be Cowling’s first time to the states, but never fear, darwin’s got this thing on lockdown.

BReak “some call it arrogance, i call it Genius”

But it’s not all been plain sailing for ryan Cowling. he has faced his fair share of criticism, and had to battle against other strong competition. At first ryan was well behind his competetors, he had minimal equipment whilst other producers had pretty much full home studios. But that didn’t faze Cowling, no he rose his game to the MAX! As soon as ryan found the AKAi mp45 synthesizer, in his words, “music became so easy”. To start off Cowling was

one half of the duo ‘double Point’, this includ-ed Cowling alongside good friend Jason who nowadays is recognised as drummer of indie band, Bombay Bicycle Club. The pair began produc-ing music together when they were about 17, and since then have gone on to shake hands with success. After a brief spell with each other produc-ing house and drum & bass, the two split with the hope of making it in the world on their own. now, being free, Cowling was able to do as he pleased. But wait! ryan isn’t just a producer you know.......no, in the next year he hopes to launch his own clothing brand. With the help of the already established brand ‘supreme’, ‘darwin designs’ should be hitting the stores, i believe it’s clear to see that Cowling is a new born genius, and just like a fine wine, ryan Cowling is to get better with age.