Krafty Kuts interview: Tricka Technology

He's toured here more than most of us have had hot dinners, so it's not surprising that breaks don Krafty Kuts is a big fan of Australia.

For anyone even remotely connected with the breaks scene, the name Krafty Kuts is as familiar as Technics or Stanton. Krafty Kuts (aka Martin Reeves) is one of the few breakbeat 'gods' who have dominated the genre for the last 10 years alongside other acts such as Plump DJs and the Freestylers. His style is primarily fun and funky and his gigs see him also incorporate hip hop, drum'n'bass and house into his set, creating a massive fiesta of sound that always manages to make the punters go spastic on the dancefloor. He has toured Australia more times than I've had hot breakfasts and his breaks releases, such as Trickatechnology are considered must-haves amongst all breaks aficionados.

So it should come as no surprise that Martin is on his way back to Australia for a slew of gigs including a massive four hour marathon set in Melbourne that is sure to strain or break hundreds of calf muscles. He's also working on a new album that is due for release mid year which sees him diversifying his traditional breakbeat sound and moving into a more hip hop-flavoured sound. All in all, things could not be better for Martin, who is at the top of his game, both musically and commercially.

You've consistently toured Australia over the last six years and this is something like your 12 visit. What keeps you coming back-
"Every single time I tour it just gets better and better. You know I take my hat off to you guys, you really know how to have a good time and to appreciate someone. And it makes me feel good to know that people enjoy what I do. Rather than let it go to my head and think 'right I'm doing really well I'll just go out to Australia and it will be a breeze', I want to work really hard to make it special. So you know I go into the studio and get some new tunes and bring something extra…"

Krafty Kuts is more associated with the funkier style of breaks. Why do you prefer to keep things a bit lighter, fun and funkier on the dancefloor
"With the funky style of breaks, it's slightly laidback and I suppose it is more suitable for the ladies. It gets the girls out on the dancefloor shaking their thing and I think then the guys follow. So you can build on that and then in between you can shove in the heavier tracks and the big snare rolls, big drops, epic stuff etc. So with someone like me you can experiment. You can take your crowd funky and then build it and suddenly go epic and change it and cover all spectrums. And I think that's what makes it interesting, you know for people to hear that over a short period of time at festival or over two or three hours in a club. You can go from starting with hip hop and end in drum'n'bass and literally at some point you've made everybody happy with a certain tune. Which is quite good and it's quite hard to do. I mean certain people go to hear a certain kind of sound, I mean some people like Meat Katie and the more tech-y, driving sort of breaks or the Plumps' big room, massive beat sounding breaks. So people love that sort of stuff and they will know when they hear a Plumps tune. But with me you kind of get a little bit more than that, I think you get people who might like hip hop or drum'n'bass coming and seeing me play. And that's what I've tried to maintain continuously over the last five years and it's been hard."

You've been working on a new album, can we expect the same traditional Krafty Kuts sound-
"It's kind of a definition of where Krafty Kuts has come from and all my flavours and it has a very funky feel. It is a breaks album, although there are some hip hop tracks on there and a few other various artists and vocalists as well as some old people who I've worked with before like A-Skillz etc. There are also some quirky things and some Latin flavoured things. I'm really excited about it, it's quite a Tags

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