Label: Unsigned
Members: Joe McCabe and Mark Davies
Genre: Deep House
Sounds Like: John Talabot, Jimmy Edgar, Axel Boman
Links: Facebook, Soundcloud
It’s no secret that House is having a moment in Bristol right now. The city famed for its contributions to trip-hop and drum & bass has become instrumental in the UK’s renaissance of house music, with a new breed of young producers and DJs helping put a new pin on Bristol’s musical map. Summits are part of the city’s emerging generation of House producers. They first came to our attention via our last Bristol Spotlight feature with Seka, who lauded the local pair as ones to watch and also join him at the newly formed Jack Music Agency. We recently stumbled upon Summits’s set in the Tunnel at the last Just Jack night at Motion and were impressed by their eclectic, genre-bending selections and creative take on deep house. On top of that, the sneak previews on some really accomplished unreleased material, prove their skills don’t just lie behind the decks.
We felt it was only natural to invite the boys to record a mix for us. The result is an hour of soulful and deep house including tracks from our recent day party headliner Mano Le Tough, DJ Koze and a cheeky Nicki Minaj sample for good measure. We also caught up with Joe and Mark for a little Q&A to understand the Summits’ ethos a little better.
Listen to Summits’s mix and a selection of their tracks below, with the tracklist at the bottom. You can also catch Summits in Bristol at Simple Things Festival this October, alongside Moderat, Jon Hopkins, Motor City Drum Ensemble and many more. Find all the information you’ll need in our preview.
So for those not in the know, tell us a bit about Summits and how you came to DJ and record together?
We started working together about two years ago and figured out pretty quickly that our tastes crossed over a lot. It was actually the sample in our track Del Mar that started us producing. We thought the sample was so good that we had to make something out of it. Unfortunately we can’t feature it here because we’re in the process of showing it to labels, so we have to keep it close to our chest.
We witnessed an amazing set of yours at the last Just Jack event and have been impressed by your own tracks too. How do you see yourselves first and foremost: DJs or producers?
That’s very kind of you to say! We are definitely producers first and our aim is to play live instead of just DJ sets eventually. Our tracks are basically recordings of us jamming; doing everything by hand sounds a lot more organic, so playing out live is definitely the next logical step.
That being said we keep finding so much good music that needs to be shared so we won’t stop mixing anytime soon. The mix we’ve recorded for you more or less sums us up; the tracks are all pretty recent discoveries, they’ve got that nice rough production quality to them and a lot of strong melodies. Exactly what we like.
Bristol has always been a pretty special place for dance music, but right now the city seems to be more thriving than ever. How has Bristol influenced you as artists?
We were lucky when we started out because our office was next door to Bashmore’s studio and he gave us some worldly advice and some drum samples to get started with. Also Futureboogie are nearby and have always been a big influence. Their sound is totally unmistakable and the production even between artists so consistent; definitely something to be inspired by. On top of all of this there’s obviously Just Jack, we’ve been going to their parties for years and it’s a bit of an honour to be representing them now.
We first heard of you via our last Bristol Spotlight on Seka, who recommended you guys as ones to watch. Are there any other local talents that we should be listening out for at the moment?
There’s a lot of upcoming talented house producers in Bristol, not only Seka, but Billy Disney (also on the Jack Agency) is definitely one to watch. Typesun is one of our favourites, there’s so much soul in his productions and the last time we saw him DJ he seemed to be happiest guy alive. Pardon My French are also making waves and are playing absolutely everywhere right now. They’ve been great to us and supported us from the start. You can hear some of our unreleased productions in their recent Kiss FM mixes.
As you mentioned before you’re now DJing at Just Jack parties, with the latest with A Guy Called Gerald, Delano Smith and Tiger & Woods. It must have felt pretty special to play on the same billing as these iconic names. Who would be your dream artists to collaborate with?
The ideal collaboration is a pretty tough question. Nicolas Jaar would be the obvious choice as everything he’s produced is pretty much flawless. The list would be endless really though; Tom Demac, Mano Le Tough, Dixon, Slow Hands, John Talabot, Motor City Drum Ensemble – they are all big influences of ours. In the real world, we’re chatting with Seka and we’re all agreed that a collaboration is a great idea, so that should be happening in the near future.
Lastly, what lies ahead for Summits in the future?
We’re focussing on producing as much as possible at the moment, and we’re talking with labels with the aim to release our first EP soon. It’s a bit of a pain because we have to keep all of our productions to ourselves until then. We’re playing in and around Bristol quite a bit, particularly looking forward to playing at one of the Zero Terrace parties (August 10th) in Exeter with Jay Sanders and Rowlanz.
We’ll be playing our first ever live set at Simple Things Festival for Crack Magazine on 12 October, hugely looking forward to playing on the same bill as Moderat and Jon Hopkins. The event looks huge this year and it’s definitely going to be a pretty special night for Bristol.
Also we’re heading up to Berlin in July, and maybe Ibiza with the Just Jack folks in September to go to their final party.
TRACKLIST
Close (feat. Joe Dukie) – “My Way (Tanner Ross & Slow Hands remix)
Mano Le Tough – Moments of Truth (Original Mix)
The Veils – Vicious Traditions (Daniel Bortz edit)
John Roberts – Palace (Original Mix)
Jimpster – Porchlight & Rockingchairs (Original Mix)
Matt Karmill – Reverse Peephole (Original Mix)
Michael & Mattis – Holy Moly (Original Mix)
Nicolas Jaar – The Ego (True Roman Edit)
Jesper Ryom – Ghostly (Original Mix)
Four Tet – For these times (Original Mix)
Gold Panda – Brazil (Original Mix)
DJ Koze (feat. Apparat) – Nices Woelkchen (Original Mix)
