Renegade Riddims: Kuttin Edge

Alex “Kuttin” Edge is a multi-disciplinary artist from Hamburg, Germany, working in a number of artistic fields. He has been involved in electronic music as a DJ, radio host, and label founder.

The name Kuttin Edge goes back to his former hip-hop-like DJ style, that involved a lot of cutting. Today, it stands for a concept rather than a specific sound or craft. Alex considers himself a generalist who enjoys working on many artistic projects. His work has always been eclectic, seeming to oscillate between past and present.

In the nineties and noughties, Alex made a name for himself in the town of Frankfurt – at the time dominated by 4×4 music. He played jungle and drum & bass records alongside techno DJs and became a radio host and promoter. As a club DJ, Alex opened for Kemistry & Storm and Doc Scott. With his “Solid Solid” crew, he later promoted the emerging liquid funk sound to a German audience, including regular guests like Marcus Intalex, Calibre, Flight, Commix and Artificial Intelligence.

In 2005, Alex tapped into production and co-founded the label Trackdonalds, one of the first digital bass music labels, releasing tracks by international artists as well as his own. Together with his team, he built a custom platform, a bespoke label shop with an original front end that resembled a record shop. Unlike today, the artists kept their masters and customers received additional wav files for free. The music featured Drum & Bass as well as Dubstep, Breaks and Ambient.

A few years later, he organised the first dubstep parties in Frankfurt, with guests like DJ Chefal. He often took care of the artwork too, notably for Benga and Skream.

In 2008 Alex went on hiatus for about a decade to devote himself to agency projects. It wasn’t until 2018 that he returned to Drum & Bass after a visit to SUNADBASS.

Today, Kuttin Edge is best known for his Krunchtime brand – delivering music but also art, design, and streetwear.

Today Alex joins our Renegade Riddims series with a great mix featuring music from himself, Mefjus, Breakage, Satl, The Caracal Project, Sully and more!

Check out the mix below and if you’re feeling it you can download it for free here!

Q&A:

Sum up this mix in 10 words…

Quirky renegade jungle to dm your crush to

What’s your personal favourite track on it?

All those tunes are my favorite on different days! So if I had to pick something today, it would be Azifm – If Only. Very much into his stuff at the moment, original and well-crafted.

What’s the special ingredient in this mix?

It has a lot of brand new Kuttin Edge, of course. Otherwise, it’s me going back to my roots: “Krunchtime” Radio. An hour filled with fast-paced, breaks heavy tunes and puzzle transitions. Not to forget some classics by all time favourite artists such as Bop, Breakage, and Fats (RIP).

Tell us about your next EP?

The next release will be released on Lynx’ label Detail Recordings at the beginning of May and is called “Cheyenne”. It’s an EP with some darker and more unusual stuff, music you probably wouldn’t expect from me. Really hope you’re gonna like it though!

What have you got coming up? 

I enjoy myself diving into production right now. I’m still an absolute noob, I don’t know what I’m doing. But it’s so exciting. It’s like an open-world game, you can spend endless time with it and keep discovering new paths, keep improving, it’s infinite. So on my way to the end boss I got a couple of remixes and “edge:its” in the pipe. There might be a few surprises, make sure to follow the Krunch if you want to stay in the loop!

When was the last time you actually raved?

I went to the Golden Pudel Club here in Hamburg at the harbour the other day. Not sure if it’s ravy, but the programme is always quality. Underground electronic music with a lot of attention to detail. And yet down to earth in true Hamburg fashion.

And finally, do you have a special message for our readers?

Never stop doing music, ever! I didn’t do anything for years – no radio, no gigs, no events and I also gave up the label – and I regret that deeply. It breaks my heart when I think about how it could have developed if I had stuck with it. You don’t know how life will unfold, but never let it take away your love for music.
And always have some vinyl at home. Even if you don’t work with it, a record can instantly heal your soul in a way that Spotify can’t.

TRACKLIST:

I C U WANNA KNOW
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE – SEA BED
EASY – TO BE FREE
SUN PEOPLE – I FELL FOR YOU
COOKIEE KAWAII – VIBE (HYROGLIFICS REFIX)
KUTTIN EDGE – ID
MEFJUS – SINKHOLE (SKEPTICAL REMIX)
BREAKAGE – MOST HIGH
SULLY – WERK
ID – ID
KUTTIN EDGE – ID
KUTTIN EDGE – REVERSE GEAR
DRAKE – CHARGED UP (EDGE:IT)
KUTTIN EDGE – CHEYENNE
BOP – UNTITLED
KEMAL & DRESDEN CODEX – AFTERGLOW (BOP REMIX)
FRACTURE & NAH EETO – SHADA SHADA
BREAKAGE – RIC FLAIR STRUT
BREAKAGE – UNTITLED DUBPLATE
AZIFM – IF ONLY
KUTTIN EDGE – SINK OR SWIM
KUTTIN EDGE – MXZE GAWD
SATL – TRIAGE
THE CARACAL PROJECT & SKYLARK – JOI