We’ve asked Lawrence aka Loz Contreras to talk about the biggest influences on his music productions.
Loz Contreras has been consistently releasing some of the most powerful liquid drum and bass for nearly a decade, and there’s no end in sight. The Leeds producer teamed up with Macca for their first collaborative release on Fokuz back in 2014. Fast forward to 2017 and they’ve now released a highly regarded full length album on Fokuz, multiple chart top singles, and now recent releases on Shogun and Spearhead. Loz is also known for his prowess behind the turntables, and not just drum and bass. A regular selector of all things funk, house, garage, and hiphop related, it becomes apparent quite quickly as to why his tunes have such a unique sound. As the 8th part of our Influences series, we find out just a bit about the musical inspirations behind the master crate digger.
“Kicking off with one of the finest soundtracks to a computer game at the time it game out, Dave Mirra’s BMX 2. My favourite track was this classic from Gang Starr….an introduction into East Coast Hip Hop and more importantly, DJ Premier. If you know your samples you will know some of my tracks are based around Premier’s amazing work.”
“Keeping it on the computer games, I was about 12/13 when GTA 3 came out, and I couldn’t get enough of MSX FM while driving into crowds of people and shooting gangsters. Anyway, this was the stand memorable tune for me, Although I must say, my favourite Omni Trio tune is Renegade Snares (Foul Play VIP).”
“When I was 14 my brother got a mixmag with a free CD mixed by Eric Morillo. It was titled ‘Subliminal So Far….’. The mix completely captivated me, the selection, the way it was mixed and blended together, with mixes held for a really long time and in key.
Up to this point I had been mixing by brothers old trance records, garage and house on some old Soundlab Decks. The house I played was a bit more commercial until this, I had to source this music at more underground record stores in Leeds which was exposure to a whole new world of music. I have picked track 1 from the mix…check out the sax on this 3 minutes in!!!”
“A pretty obvious tune, but I heard this on one of the early Marky Podcasts…I didn’t know Roy Ayers until this. Finding his music lead to me into incredible depths of funk and soul, and then understanding the art of finding incredible samples.”
“Not much to say on this, other than….If I hear it out, I lose my shit!”
“Growing up with a South American family exposes you to some amazing music.
Whether it’s Samba or Bossa Nova, all that is good in the World can be captured in soul of Brazilian music. I cannot recommend Jorge Ben or João Gilberto enough to listen to when the sun is shining.”
“That hook…nuff said. Check the Henrik Schwarz edit too ;)”
“It wouldn’t be able to sleep at night if I didn’t mention High Contrast as a HUGE influence, and Racing Green was a piece of music that totally captivated me. It got a bit of Radio 1 play if you listened at the right time of night and got me into Hospital Records, Drum & Bass Arena and other major outlets.”
“Since I Left You remains my answer when people ask ‘what do you think the best album you have ever listened to it?’ I recommend you listen to it from track 1 right through, it doesn’t work if you skip any tracks. The Avalanches use of dozens of samples in individual tracks is truly mind-blowing.”
“I have to mention this absolute classic tune from DJ Marky & XRS. I remember buying the single from HMV, and had no idea it was Drum & Bass. I assumed it was some kind of UK Garage tune as that was really big at the time, the beats were broken and it has large big male vocals. Finding more Marky and latin drum n bass through the Sambass collections had a massive influence on my sound today.”