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Murmurs of melancholy, shades of deep blues, a sense of the transcendental; whichever corner of the anarchic unknown you’ve found Dominick Martin reconnoitring and provoking, his singular signature shines throughout everything he creates.

Every genre he explores. Every instrument he plays. Every song he writes. Every picture he paints or draws. Every record he selects. Every lyric he sings. A soulfully honest expression resonates.

Resolutely under-finessed. Raw. A channelled idea tethered quick enough to illustrate or articulate. One of electronic music’s most respected auteurs: the Belfast-born, Cologne-based man best known as Calibre sports double decade stripes. His body of work weighs deep with 16 albums and well over

100’s of 12”s, most of which are at home on his own Signature imprint but can also be found on labels such as The Nothing Special, Deep Medi, Soul:r and Digital Soundboy. He’s remixed many but has never been remixed himself. He has more unreleased material than you will ever know.

Yet he still conjures, creates and releases with a confounding proliferation and consistent vitality. A tireless verve that has amplified and broadened over the years. Venturing out from his cornerstone jungle melting pot – the genre in which he first established himself in, has influenced countless artists within, yet steadily declined to follow any of its rules – Calibre’s palette stretches from smoky jazz and woozy downbeat (such as the work on his beguiling Dominick Martin albums ‘Shine A Light’ and ‘Valentia’) to oceanic ambient and sombre techno (his ‘Grow’ album on Craig Richards’ The Nothing Special) via some of the most natural and emotive drum & bass records released this century.

One moment he’s serving you your rights with a grizzled roller (‘Iron Balls’), the next he’s reduced you to tears with smouldering contemporary soul (‘Falls To You’). He’s got tunes for the bar (‘Easy Living’), he’s got tunes for the bed (‘Limbo’), he’s not averse to plunging you deep into a dank dubhole (‘Steptoe’ or ‘Stolen Shadow’), he’s had fans singing an anti-war song with shit-eating smiles on their faces for years without realising (‘Even If’). His music asks more questions than it answers yet joins more dots than you thought existed. The same is to be said for his DJ sets: Fluent within his own vast range, favouring the bookings where space and time allow him to draw out a narrative and provoke emotions (usually with almost entirely his own material), Calibre sets draw across his own personal spectrum, never resort to hype tactics and are perennially sprung with never-before-heard surprises. Often flanked and navigated by spiritual brother and creative sparring partner MC DRS, sometimes as part of their boundary-smelting Alchemy project, his role as a performer mirrors the extensive shades of his releases. And whether you experience him taking over a room for the full 6+ hour trip, or he plays a shorter higher impact role on a bigger bill, his singular signature persists: a soulfully honest sense of the transcendental and a unique perspective from the anarchic unknown.

Signature records

In 2003, Martin decided to launch a self-published record label, Signature Records, which became his vehicle for publishing his music. Martin states, "There won't be any other artists on the label for the foreseeable future". For a few years the label's website ran of the back of Soul:R, the record label he ran alongside Marcus Intalex. With the Soul:R website receiving very few updates since 2006, Calibre published most of his work and news through his own MySpace page however he deleted this in early July 2011.

Second Sun

November 2005 marked Martin's second full-length album release, through the Signature label, entitled Second Sun. Second Sun was released after much anticipation following his 2001 release. He stated, "I look upon my move to Logic as a process in the studio to be a second part of the story. But having said that, the 22nd is my birth date, it's my second album, I'm the second son in the family, this is the second phase production wise but for me its nothing to do with numerology, its more to do with reinvention, a new life." The album Second Sun is regarded by those working in and those listening to drum and bass as a landmark release for the genre. On 17 September 2008, BBC 1Xtra drum and bass DJ Bailey gave special praise to the title track of the album, noting it as the tune of the festival for Sun and Bass 2008, a dedicated drum and bass festival which is held in Sardinia.

1. Bullets feat. Diane Charlemagne
2. Second Sun
3. All The While
4. Don't Watch This
5. Got A Thing
6. Is It U
7. Drop It Down feat. Singing Fats
8. Go Back To Go Forward
9. Blink of an Eye feat. Lariman
10. Breathing Man
11. Kiya feat. Crow
12. Timeout feat. DRS
13. Drinnahilly
14. These Few

Shelflife

In October 2007, Martin released Shelflife a retrospective album featuring 21 unreleased productions spanning from 1998-2005.

CD 1

1. Venus And Mars
2. South Self
3. Stay High
4. Less Los Ablos
5. Jibaro
6. STCal - STCal Roller
7. Shades
8. Klute – Part Of Me (Remix)
9. Easy on My Mind
10. Re Entry

CD 2

1. Untitled
2. Acrobat
3. Makes Me Wonder (Original)
4. Cold Blade
5. I'll Stay
6. South Self
7. Free
8. Turn Around
9. Beat 97
10. Peace Of Mind feat. Lariman
11. Idris
12. Time And Space

Overflow

Martin released Overflow in Spring 2008. Overflow features vocals from Martin himself, along with his artwork.

2009: Shelf Life Vol. 2 & Shine a Light

In January 2009 there were final confirmations from S.T Holdings and Calibre's MySpace, Shelf Life Vol. 2 was to be released on 11 May 2009. Another retrospective album including the long lasting dubplates "Life" and "Why Time". As with previous albums, this release featured few guest artists, but there were vocal contributions from Lariman and MC D.R.S..

Again, as with previous albums, this was a double album. It also includes many downtempo tracks.

Very soon after the release of Shelf Life Vol. 2, Calibre stated he would be releasing his long anticipated downtempo album, Shine a Light. In October 2009 S.T Holding announced it to be released on Monday 16 November. Calibre stated that he has wanted to release a downtempo album for the last 2 years, but decided to release his second retrospective album first. “I have spent over 10 years writing music, the majority of my work being drum and bass, so i wanted to write an album that wasn’t attached to a particular musical genre; to me it felt like feeling my way in the dark”

2011: Condition

Released in October 2011, Condition was described by Mixmag magazine as “a shape-shifting trove of wonders that leaps ambitiously from the serene to the brutal”, awarded Drum ′N′ Bass album of the month and rated 5/5.

Calibre himself describing this album:

"Condition is my drum and bass follow up to "Even If", I originally wanted to make an album that was more dance floor influenced, to have a more light hearted approach, in some ways it has that, but I couldn’t stop myself from making the deeper material, for years i have wrestled with the subtle side of drum and bass, my journey has been one that tries to attain the simple groove, to keep removing the layers of this music, this album is an expression of this, and how im still feeling the underdog waiting for the cycle……. it came about as it always has and that's the way its supposed to, enjoyable and moving fast to discover the stillness."

2013: Valentia

In 2013 Calibre released the album Valentia under his own name, Dominick Martin. The album was titled after Valentia Island, located off of the south-western coast of Ireland, where much of it was recorded. Martin, who brought with him only a laptop and microphone, said of the location: "in one of the rooms sat a piano, and as my fingers touched the keys I knew there was a story there waiting to be told. The sound of the piano in that place was something very magical as 100mph winds battered the house and interrupted my recordings."

In a 12 April 2013 interview with DJ Magazine, he described the project in more detail: "This album is like a singer/songwriter album, it’s like its own big story in itself. I went to the West Coast of Ireland and there was this big storm brewing, and I was scared to death, and I was writing out of fear, it was crazy. I wrote this album down there, I sampled a piano and it’s exactly that material that brings me away from drum & bass.” Valentia was released digitally as well as in a limited physical CD and Vinyl release through Signature records on 15 July 2013.

Discography

Albums

EPs

External links

• Calibre discography at Discogs
• Calibre at Rolldabeats

Notes

1. "STH releases w/c 15 June 2009" St Holdings: Accessed 12 Aug 2009
2. "Calibre - Shelf Life Vol.2" Discogs: Accessed 12 Aug 2009
3. "forthcoming: Dominick Martin – “Shine A Light” LP – Signature" St Holdings: Accessed 1 Nov 2009
4. http://www.residentadvisor.net/news.aspx?id=20380
5. http://djmag.com/content/calibre-rasing-standard
6. http://www.discogs.com/sell/item/244307864

• Use dmy dates from June 2013
• British drum and bass musicians
• British electronica musicians
• Club DJs
• DJs from Northern Ireland
• Living people
• Electronic dance music DJs