The most noticeable thing about Lemon D's work is the sheer versatility. The influences on the three "Jah Love" tracks range from reggae, through jazz to garage. My personal favourite is "Manhattan" (which first appeared on the Jungle Dub 3 compilation as "Back To Chicago"), with its contrast between sweet vocals, garage piano, dark bass and hard beats. "I haven't been to any garage parties for about a year", he confesses, "but I still listen to a lot of deep American garage. That track just came together, it wasn't really supposed to come, out! To me, it's just a track with another element in there, just like "Jah" has more of a dub influence."
This is the reason why Lemon D thinks breakbeat music is so fresh just now: elements from all different forms can be fused into it. However, he also realises that you can only be totally experimental up to a point. "A lot of producers I know would be more experimental, but the public only want to hear a certain amount of "different" tracks. It could definitely develop into a more creative style of music if the public were a bit more open-minded, but they want to go out and dance. A few years ago it was really experimental with Reinforced. Now the crowd has changed and they want to hear darker music, so a lot of the producers are restricted. That's why I think the future lies with artist albums.
"I've heard some tunes that are unreleased, and you'd be surprised. There are a lot of producers out there who have talent only albums will show. Whereas singles are just for the public, albums are for the people who actually want to know about the artist. You've got to make money off singles to make another tune, and because you're only getting a certain amount of sales now, life is very hard. Everyone thinks you're making a lot of money, but there's no money involved at all." From my experience with Knowledge, I can certainly sympathise with him.
Lemon D has plans for an album, for which he has thought long and hard about: "You need to have a concept behind the whole thing, you just can't make a tune and say "yea, I'll fling that on the album." You're definitely going for a wider field, so you've got to produce for a wider field. I've finished two tracks, and I'm just waiting for another burst of energy to try and make more! It.may take a while." Lemon D is also unsure who will release the album when it does come out, as Conqueror is not the only label he releases on. He also has forthcoming releases on Metalheadz ("Urban Style Music"), Hardleaders (Don't Make Me Wait remix), V (Can't Stop) and an as yet untitled track on Dread. He explains that this amount is so high because he is returning favours to friends, and will concentrate on only two or three next year.
With this in mind, I'm interested to find out what he thinks about people like Alex Reece signing to Island on exclusive deals: "in a way it is good, but you really just don't know what their plans are. I wouldn't go so far as to sign for five or six albums. Majors definitely control things differently, and it depends what's in the contract and how much control you have over your work. Contracts are complicated and majors usually want everything their way."
Lemon D plans to keep us on our toes with collaborations on the album with his old friend Dillinja and maybe even a live vocalist and session musicians. Versatile to the last, don't be surprised if it's tearin' breakbeat with off-the-wall influences or not even jungle at all. Whatever it sounds like, you can be sure it will be worth the wait.
Colin Steven