We’ve brushed off the mixer for 2021, Hospital Radio is up and running after a mad year. We kick the new mix frontier off with a dancefloor smasher from Bristol based Sentinel 793. A healthy portion of broken beats and wobbly basslines! If you can’t get into the dance, we bring the dance to you. Enjoy!
Yo! Sentinel 793, for those at the back who don’t know, where in the world are you from? And what’s your day looking like?
Yeah all is blessed man, we’re strong survivors round here! I was born in Swindon, but I live down the road in Bristol now, I’ve been here a long time, it’s a mad creative city.
GCASFM thanks you for being part of Hospital Radio and showing support. How long have you been Djing? And how would you describe your mix??
Man I’ve been Djing since the mid 90s, I spent decades digging records and cutting dubplates, but it’s all digital now. I still release vinyl on the label though, it’s still the best way for music to exist.
Who/What would you say are your biggest musical influences?
There’s a lot man I’ll try and strip it down. In the very, very beginning it was Hardcore groups like 2 Bad Mice, Top Buzz, Shut Up And Dance etc, hard, fast breakbeat stuff. Then I got heavily into U.K Hip Hop, like Hardnoise, Katch 22, Mc Mello, Kobolt 60, Demon Boys and early Jungle. There was a big period when the U.K was finding an identity, and that was really exciting. Heads in the Graffiti scene would cut me tapes of stuff from the 70s and 80s , Soul Jazz , Funk , Reggae , early Hip Hop , Electronic Music. When I was Djing early 2000s on a station called Blaze FM U.K Garage was happening and the Broken Beat/Bruk thing was running parallel to that I guess. So that started to feature in my Dj sets around then, at clubs like Brunel Rooms. I started getting bookings in Bristol, and out of town, playing mostly for dances rather than ‘Mc’ stage shows, but I do love working with a good Mc. Since then I’ve always had an eclectic take on it, I love music man. I’m fully up for hearing stuff that’s pushing forwards and evolving.
Can you tell us a bit more about Universal Magnetic and Universal Magnetic Radio?
Universal Magnetic started in 2013 ish. We were on a Bristol radio station called Ujima, doing cover slots. When we got a permanent slot we chose that as the name. That was with Fabia ( Big up Fabs! ) who I was doing Sensei FM with previously. Awkward and Adam came on board when we went to Ujima, we did 7 years there and now we are on SWU FM Bristol, it’s an amazing new station that was much needed in Bristol.
The label side came about as I’ve always been making dubs for my sets since the early 2000. I love that UK Dubplate Culture that we inherited from Reggae and Jungle. I’ve always worked with other labels as well, but it made sense to put bits out myself as well. It’s going well right now, the roster at the minute is myself Sentinel 793 , Mista pete, who came onboard doing guest mixes, and sent me loads of banging productions, K148 whos a amazing poet/visual artist, and sometimes Awkward throws a few tunes in as well. We have a load of releases setup for this year between us all.
As a Music Producer and Dj. What albums would be your top 5 digs from the crates, if you had to pick your desert island discs? And which of your own productions should we listen out for?
Argh! man, can anyone ever really answer that? There’s too much really, ones I’d say without overthinking it are Katch 22 - Dark Tales From 2 Cities LP, 4 hero – Creating Patterns, Mc Mello - Thoughts Released LP, Photek - Modus Operandi LP, Ras G and The Afrikan Space Program - Back On The Planet LP, but that’s a really short list, and there’s a lot of just one off singles and stuff that are as important as albums to me. As it’s a desert island, I’d rather have a sampler and a synth and I’d try and remake the last 30 years of music I listened to!
From myself I’d say my last LP , Sentinel 793 – Live From Zero Point is my best work, I’m still really proud of it and I think it will still sound good in a few years fingers crossed.
Aside from music you’re an active Graffiti writer under the Benjamin One moniker. How long have you been involved in this creative output?
It’s my first creative love , and it’s the reason I got into music in the first place. There’s a massive crossover between the two things, there’s loads of Graff writers that went into music as well. I’m blessed to have been able to do them both for my whole life, I started in 92, big up to all the crews that I’ve been around, it’s way too deep to go into it all here but it’s a life changer for real.
What is in the pipeline for you, any future projects or events you want to shout about?
Yeah keep a eye on the label, we have releases set for the whole of this year and we are all constantly building new tunes and playing them. As for events? That’s a madness for everyone at the minute, but keep an ear on our radio show on SWU, that’s going to be the place to hear new cuts from us first. Also check out the documentary Circles In Squares. Directed, filmed and edited by Adam Bell member of the U.M crew, with the original score from yours truly! Full film available on Vimeo. (Features Kevin Foakes aka Strictly Kev/Dj Food - Hospital Radio guest Dj.)
Lastly, before we got in touch had you ever heard of Crohn’s disease?
Yeah I had a mate who was affected and it’s ongoing. Big up to you for what you do and hopefully you can raise visibility for it.
Massive thanks to Ben for supporting the cause with his mix and for candidly answering our questions…Big Ups! You can follow him more via Instagram or by checking in with Universal Magnetic.
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Words: Matt Strutt , Sentinel793
Images: Sentinel793 Video: Adam Bell Cover: Solaris100 Audio Edits: Flint & Steel
Contributors: André Leitão
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