Machinedrum shares ‘3RMX82’ – a collection of remixes from his 2024 album ‘3FOR82’ – featuring Skeptical, Whys, Illangelo, Anna Morgan, Coki and more, released on his birthday: 4th March.

A year ago on 4th March, 2024, Travis Stewart aka Machinedrum announced his album ‘3FOR82’. The title reflected that date – his birthday (March 4th, 1982) – and encapsulated  a true passion project that saw Travis re-connect with his younger self both figuratively and literally, combing through old hard drives full of his late-’90s beats made on Impulse Tracker, a rough freeware programme that lay untouched for the better part of a quarter-century, to create the building blocks for the album. It gave ‘3FOR82’ a distinct tone: “From there, there was no going back,” Stewart smiles. “It bridged the gap between my past and future self”.

‘3RMX82’ closes this chapter in Stewart’s epic career then, as he invites 12 respected producers from the bass music continuum to rework tracks from ‘3FOR82’ and the ‘4#TRAX’ EP. 

“I decided to put together a remix project for ‘3FOR82’ for somewhat selfish reasons. My intention was to have versions of the songs from my latest album that are more club-friendly and would easily fit into my own DJ sets. Most of the remixers on 3RMX82 have been making tunes that I play in my sets already, so I’m grateful to have their takes on my own work.”

The intention is clear from the outset – Stewart is aiming this suite of reworks squarely at the dancefloor having comprehensively road-tested them in recent live sets. Leading the charge is UK D&B maestro Skeptical (Soul:R / Exit / Dispatch / Rubi Recs) who supercharges “ZOOM (feat. Tinashe)” into a sleeker, more muscular beast. 

“Skeptical is one of my favorite drum ‘n’ bass producers in the world. I have been experimenting with the relationship between drum ‘n’ bass and hip hop for a long time now and I have always considered a lot of my work to be drum ‘n’ bass adjacent. Skeptical has always been one of my go to artists when it comes to playing dnb in my DJ sets or as a reference point for how my mixdowns should sound when making dnb. His take on ‘ZOOM’ is exactly what I expected and beyond from Skeptical. He took my original vision for the song and turned it up to 11!”

Also repping for the UK are Cesco (1985 Music / Pineapple Recs) and Coki, bringing premium 140bpm bass weight to “RESPEK” and “ILIKEU” respectively. 160 fiends are well catered for in this collection with Anna Morgan, Thys (Noisia), Chef Boyarbeatz and Whys all flexing in this ballpark. However, for punishing four-to-the-floor kicks head directly to lllangelo’s remix of “GODOWN” and Camoufly’s pulsing tech house mix of “ILIKEU”.