There is a huge hype about successful Let It Roll 2016 festival and it is well deserved (you can read my review here). But there was something more, something probably very important for the future of DnB music, and I think people are not aware of it very much.
Right before festival, two days Beats Evolution Conference was held in Roxy Club in Prague. And according to my short Google research, it was really first DnB conference in the world.
Main focus of the conference was so simple, yet so important: meet and socialize with DnB masterminds and learn from each other. Just to pick some label owners who participated – Marky (Innerground), dBridge (Exit), Andy C (Ram), Futurebound (Viper), Jade (Eatbrain), A.M.C (Titan), Chriss Goss (Hospital). Crazy!
Again I have to say, that one thing why i love DnB so much, is that all the people in the industry, even the most famous ones, are such a nice and friendly. Keynote speech from Andy C was so exhilarating – we are really one big family. If you saw his last speech from DnB Arena Awards, you know what I’m talking about.
Except late start and little problems with conference schedule, the biggest problem was insufficient amount of people in the audience. I felt little bit sorry about that, but I believe it was just a typical problem of first year event.
Panel discussions
Main BEC program was focused on several panel discussions with moderators and people from industry – producers, promoters, label crew. And topics were hot – commercial vs. underground DnB, future of streaming services, how to emerge in DnB, globalization of DnB and many more. Let’s remember what Marky sad in the last panel – let’s not fight between commercial and underground DnB, we should support each other! Giving as a example crazy track Bricks Don’t Roll from DJ Hazard, which is played by everybody across scene, I just love this tune.
Each panel was long enough to go really deep into the discussion and also leaving enough space for questions from audience. All panels were simultaneously translated and also live streamed.
Master Classes and Meet the Labels
Down in the Roxy’s main room there you could see and hear, how the best DnB is made. Several producers were giving useful tips how to produce quality sounds. Same room saw DnB fans meeting their favorite labels. Label teams from Ram, Viper and Hospital were replying a lot of questions from the audience.
Demo listening
On the chill-out stage of Roxy, there was demo listening room, letting emerging DnB producers to present their new tunes to the people from the labels. And it was absolutely incredible, how good music was presented, some people are so talented. Lot of people from Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland took the change and brought some stuff.
I would really like to say big thanks to the organizers for bringing something so wounderfull to the live. I’m so proud that something with this level of quality can happen in Czech Republic. Pretty please, do this conference again next year! Big up!
