Legendary drum 'n' bass DJ Roni Size will perform a set 1,375 feet below ground at the abandoned Cwmorthin slate mine in Eryri on October 15, in what will be recorded as a world record attempt for the world's deepest rave. The event, organised by Casio watch brand G-SHOCK, will also feature the exclusive launch of its G-SHOCK GDG-B100 MUDMAN.
Underground route to the chamber
The quarry, founded in 1810, operated until 1997 in various forms before closing for good. Underground adventure guides from Go Below will be guiding participants and regularly host adventure sessions at the site. Clubbers will access the dance via miners' stairways, waterlogged passages and underground ravines, with scrambles, zip lines and abseils before reaching the chamber.
At the bottom of the route, Roni Size will perform a one-off session created for the underground chamber. The music will not stop at the speakers. Vibration transducers and specialist field-recording equipment will send the performance into the mine and capture the way its frequencies move through slate, mud and water.
Size's return to underground roots
Size emerged from Bristol's sound-system and rave scenes and helped shape the early sound of jungle and drum and bass before bringing the genre to wider audiences. With collective Reprazent, Size's debut album New Forms won the 1997 Mercury Prize.
The DJ said: "Back in Bristol, we'd put on a party wherever we could, and some of the sounds came from what we called happy accidents, playing a track at the wrong speed, hearing something that sounds new but still works. Raves could take place in some crazy and unexpected places, on someone's front lawn, down in tunnels, but what I've always done is play to the environment, and the crowd. The set is a living, breathing thing that reflects the people there with you.
That's the spirit I want to take into Cwmorthin. By the time we're 1,375 feet underground, everyone there will already have shared an adventure. And how much more could you reflect the environment, than by pumping a set into the mountain, hearing the sound travelling through the slate, rock and mud, and bringing it back into the mix. It's the most underground of underground raves ever."
Ballot access and record submission
The record attempt's evidence will be documented and submitted for independent recognition after the rave. A limited group of ballot winners will get access to the underground product drop ahead of its wider release. The chamber will then become a dancefloor as G-SHOCK attempts to stage the world's deepest underground rave at the furthest point under the earth in the UK that the public can reach.
G-SHOCK Radio will broadcast the set via Starlink from Cwmorthin Quarry on event day, October 15, with the full performance available afterwards on Mixcloud. Places will be allocated through a public ballot via https://gshock.casio.com/uk/mudman, with entries closing on October 9. Successful entrants will join the guided descent into Cwmorthin and attendance will be limited to those who meet the necessary age, fitness, and equipment requirements.
How Eryri will shape the music
Using specialist field-recording techniques, elements of Roni Size's set will be driven into the mountain and picked back up as they move through it. Vibration transducers will send sound into the slate, while geophones and hydrophones capture what travels through the rock, water and mud - creating a signal chain that runs through the mine to capture the real sound of the underground.
The sound engineering team used a convolution reverb to measure the mine's impulse response. They will use specialist field-recording techniques and playback technology including high-fidelity geo-acoustic coupling, via which the energy of the venue is transferred into the rock wall and captured live - putting the set into the geology of Snowdonia and vice versa, to channel the mine's geology into the set. The result will be a final mix shaped by one of the harshest environments imaginable, with Eryri's litho-acoustic signature cut into the recording.
