When you think of the term bullet time, you probably instantly get flashbacks of the scene from The Matrix where Neo does his famous slow-motion back-bend. But how could a concept like that be applied to electronic music? A while back, DNB duo Koven recorded a wild mix using such technology to celebrate the release of the deluxe version of their album Butterfly Effect. This is the first time technology like that has ever been applied to a DJ mix, and the results are nothing short of spectacular.
The deluxe version includes a solid lineup of remixers, with some surprising acts like Ilan Bluestone. We were very curious about how all of this even came together, so we invited the duo to talk us through their remixer choices, as well as how they pulled off the bullet time project.
Words by Koven
When we decided to do the deluxe edition of the album, the first idea was mainly to create a remix package as we had already started creating our own VIP of Butterfly Effect. But we wanted it to have the most impact possible to make sure the project continued to have life. So that’s when we decided we needed some fresh singles in there as well. It was a combination of tracks we had already had ideas for and then some we started totally fresh. Numb was written during the first lockdown and Light Up was actually written about 6 months after that. You can hear our optimism had increased somewhat by this point. Good Enough was an idea we’d had for ages so we are really glad we finally got that one finished and out. They are sitting very well in amongst the other album tracks.
Light Up
Butterfly Effect VIP
Numb
Good Enough
REAPER - Reaper is someone whose music we have been really loving these last few years, he’s fairly new to the scene but we just loved and respected his work, we really wanted him to be part of it. He was actually one of the first people we approached so he got to pick which track he wanted to remix.
BCee - We’ve known BCee for years and had been speaking about working together for some time, it made so much sense to have him on this project as we wanted to hit the liquid side of DNB, something we don’t too often do, it just made sense to have him work on ‘For Me’ which is definitely one of the most delicate tracks of the album.
Oliverse - We love everything Oliverse does, we knew he would smash it and he did!
A.M.C - Alex (A.M.C) listened to the album way before we had released it and he always said to us if you do a remix album, let me do ‘Followers’, he said he could hear straight away what he would do with it, which was funny because what he gave us was so unexpected, it’s such a mad remix! Definitely the hardest track we’ve ever released, but also one of the most well-received from the deluxe, and it goes off live!
Franky Nuts - Franky Nuts brought such a unique sound to the remix package, it was so great to work with him, we’ve been loving his stuff for such a long time.
Ilan Bluestone - I (Katie) really wanted a trance remix on the deluxe, because I have such a soft spot for the genre and we’ve touched in that world before and it’s always gone down well. We knew we wanted Ilan and we knew we wanted him to do ‘Missing’ so we were chuffed when he said yes.
Fox Stevenson - Was so cool to get Stan (Fox Stevenson) on the package, we have very similar fan bases so we knew it would be a biggy!
The Prototypes - We’ve known these guys for years and admired their work for such a long time, it was an honour to have them remix ‘Your Pain’, they smashed it!
Grafix - Josh (Grafix) is someone else who we have known for a very long time and always respected his music, he really puts a different spin on the ‘Worlds Collide’ remix compared to the original, we’re so pleased with how it turned out!
Bullet Time
Katie - Initially the bullet time rig was quite daunting, to walk in and be surrounded by 60+ cameras is enough to make anyone uneasy. But once I started watching back what they were recording, it felt incredible. We knew the outcome was going to be good but some of the shots that were taken were unreal!
Bullet Time (from It’s The Flash Pack)
The Flash Pack 360 Bullet Time rig consists of 70 high-resolution stills cameras each controlled and connected by bespoke software and hardware to our central server. Each camera captures an image a few thousands of a second after the previous camera and the rig can sustain multiple revolutions of capture at a time. The system then downloads gigabytes of image data each capture, automatically stabilizing and rendering a video almost instantly. This continual sequential capture creates amazing non-stop 360-degree slow-motion content, showing the action from all angles.
Grab your copy here.