About

ABOUT EASTERN PROMISE AUDIO

Eastern Promise Audio is a label which actively aims for bringing a new sound in drum ‘n bass that has not or rarely been heard in the genre anymore for a long time. Therefore, we feel not to simply push a label but aim for a promise to our listeners of serving them with a specific style we pursue. It brings some philosophical ideas and existential questions we see in both drum and bass music and life, and especially reflects our view upon the world as we see it today. It is this view we want to incorporate into the label’s sound. We have a special bond with the cultures and ideas from the Far East. Some of us had this for a long time; others got it while visiting the area and learn about new forms of living, philosophy and interpretations of the world around them. This is not saying that we became devoted Buddhists or that we actively denounce any values from our own society, but simply that we realized how much the world is forced to conform to Western ideas of living while struggling to maintain their own sense of identity.

Behind EPA is us, the crew from RSA – Reactor Studios Amsterdam. Over the past years, we felt the same has happened to the world of drum ‘n bass. In a sense, we miss a lot of the innovation that was felt in drum ‘n bass when the style was still a ground for experimentation and creating new blends. Many who felt this too decided to look for new styles of electronic music and many of those also felt that drum ‘n bass had its time of innovation and the style was washed out. After all these years we still feel a deep love for drum ‘n bass, so by all means also the challenge of continuing to blend it with an incredibly broad palette of soundscapes this world still has to offer us. Luckily we found other producers feeling the same, and these are the people we want to work with on the concept of Eastern Promise Audio. Where many people in the Far East do adapt to the rest of the world, they also keep firmly in touch with their own roots and philosophic and spiritual beliefs. And where many cultures in the Far East keep true to their roots while embracing all forms of novelty, we want to keep the roots of drum ‘n bass alive while not dismissing any form of innovation. This is a concept we believe it lies at the heart of Eastern Promise Audio. It’s embodying an identity crisis which we think can produce some of the most interesting modes of thinking, resulting in new art forms.

SOME QUESTIONS CONCERNING EPA

So, why is RSA starting a label?

RSA has been a free outlet for drum ‘n bass for more than 10 years. In that time, we were proud of our output but didn’t feel yet it was ready for professional releasing so we put all we produced online for free. In the last five years this has changed; most RSA members had professional releases outside our regular website and we eventually came to the conclusion that the level on which we were producing wasn’t worth giving away our sounds for free no more. This eventually resulted in a halt on free releases on RSA and the whole site since 2009. While most people have been thinking we bit the dust, instead we have been busy gathering forces with producers who still dare to bring innovation and spunk in the darker side of drum ‘n bass, who are like RSA open for the concept of revamping instead of recycling sounds. Producers like Double-O, Infest, Morphy, and Rumbleton have been bringing the dark, mysterious innovational sound we were looking for, and the usual RSA producers have been working hard to bring sounds in this vein. As we will start approaching a new way of presenting this sound, the form in which this will be manifested is Eastern Promise Audio.

So does that mean farewell RSA, hello Eastern Promise Audio?

No. You have to understand that RSA is a crew; we five guys from Amsterdam making and spinning drum ‘n bass music. Eastern Promise Audio will be our new way of presenting our new labor, which won’t be provided for free anymore as was the case with the old RSA page. RSA runs the label, but we also reinforce our strength with other drum ‘n bass artists releasing on Eastern Promise Audio. Thus, EPA is more than RSA, and any artist who is down with the sound and philosophy of EPA and who can provide sounds for it conform to its standards, is welcome to knock on our door. But RSA is and will always be Reactor Grits, Phuture-T, Logikz, Splinter and Drome. EPA will be the RSA boys and many more.

So I have to pay for your guys’ tunes now. All the old material which was free will cost now as well?
Absolutely not. A selection of the songs which were available on RSA can still be downloaded for free from the EPA site, apart from some tunes which will be remixed and mastered for eventual release on EPA. Note that we will delete a lot of our old material which was available on the RSA site since we have no more interest of spreading it on the net. If you are really desperately looking for a ‘lost’ RSA tune, contact us and we’ll see what we can do.

Also, not all songs we will produce now will make it on to the EPA catalogue; tunes which are out of its sound or category or simply not up to its standards can be released for free on our old RSA page. Others might be released on other labels than EPA.