“Fuck the media hype, scribes sniping at me and mine, Megatron clocking Autobots with the eagle eye. They got you covered; eye colour to your sneaker size, revolutionaries demonised, Mother Earth colonised, stolen culture commodified.” – Jehst – ‘Brimstone Rock’ [Low Life]
Whilst BBC’s ‘Sound of’ poll has bought the world Adele, many a great self deprecating interview from Gold Panda and um, Jessie J, there’s never been a nomination that’s impacted quite so hard on the wider dubstep community than that of James Blake – a producer who’s musicality and measured approach to production, releases and general profile has seen him win fans for his music alone, accumulating merit thanks to the genuinely different ways he moved a dancefloor. Blake’s eponymous debut album though, has little, well nothing in fact, to do with a dancefloor. It’s a lonely listen. An isolating thirty plus minutes of personal fragility compensated for with a brittle backdrop of stripped back instrumentation and the occasional caterwauling crescendo. It’s also completely brilliant, in an emotively introverted kind of way.
For Blake, the way his work has been publicised with an emphasis on his emergence from the dubstep scene does his song writing a disservice. ‘Limit To Your Love,’ his breakout ‘song,’ does contain basslines that will rattle the air conditioning units of every venue its played in, but the rest of album - particularly the latter part - is a baroque drift that lacks the kind of instantaneous impact, inherent within any dance music. Dispelling any notion of that myth with the slow follow up single ‘Wilhelms Scream,’ which honestly feels too echoey and emotional to be leading into N-Dubz, Jason Derulo or Black Eyed Peas on the BBC’s A-list playlist for daytime radio, Blake’s pushing his real self out there poignantly, upping his sensitivity and vocal layering to new levels.
Using a lot of the same techniques as his earlier work - namely his two preceeding EPs for R&S, CMYK and Klaviwerke - letting his compositions breathe and move fluidly, layering melodies and maddeningly pitched vocal samples and using drums sparingly, Blake creates his own world; all be it one that might break down in a fit of flailing limbs and self harm if you blew on it too hard. But that’s this record’s core strength; it’s woefully sad, full of downtrodden lyricism and outsider concerns; a collection of a developing man’s feelings captured in lo-fi glory.
Our podcast hosters and those all round good dudes over at Bleep.com just announced their Top 100 tracks of 2010.
According to their HQ:
“Putting together The Top 100 Tracks of 2010 was a labour of love for Bleep. An opportunity to showcase the music that has turned us on in the last 12 months and put across our take on the year’s best music. Through a process that included the whole team and contributions from our friends and partners the massive amount of great music that was released in 2010 was whittled down to just 100 tracks.”
They’re offering an incredibly unique download opportunity for the public to buy these 100 tracks in high-quality, DRM free MP3s for just £30. The list spans Bleep's wide-ranging hand-picked catalogue of music and includes critically acclaimed artists from the last 12 months such as Brian Eno, Caribou, and James Blake.
You can check the full list of tracks here. And you can also read our thoughts about why James Blake’s ‘CMYK’ got included right here too.
“When it drops it explodes like a paint splash on canvas, eclipsing whatever it bursts out from with ease. - Oli Marlow”
As a token of good will for the new year, Bleep have kindly offered Sonic Router the chance to give away one of these download bundles for the price of an email. So electronically ping us your answer to the below question by this time next week to be in the running.
Q: Which Untold track did James Blake remix to astounding effect back in 2009?
We're stoked to announce that we're part of a new initiative over at respected music retailer Bleep.com. Bestowing on us the great honour of giving us the first installment, the #001 - if you will, of their brand new podcast series, isn't something we took lightly. Asking us to provide a monthly podcast and giving us expansive access to the past month's releases has resulted in this, an 60 minute long snapshot of their September.
Think of it as an hour long mix of music thats been released over the past month on Bleep.com, just to point out a few things, uncover a few bits you might've missed and maybe, as a chance for us to play you things we dont get a chance to play you on our radio show.
Time messes you up sometimes... You look forward to something for so long, it comes and goes and then you realise you haven't done anything productive in the run up thanks to the anticipation and expectation; still, its a great thing to be able to come back and go big the very first day...
Evan Gach, a little more commonly known as Cloak and Dagger, had us enraptured with his very first release at a dubstep tempo; his 12" for Immerse, 'Crimewaves' b/w 'In The Cut,' making the grade for our radio show straight away, fusing gloriously with the minimal work of people like Joe, Blawan and James Blake. We caught up with him to reignite the SR mix series and get the low down on his music and life choices...
Sonic Router: Can you provide those who may not know you with a bit of background info?
Cloak & Dagger: I’m 27 years old, from San Diego, California, and have been located in Japan for the past four years or so. After DJing for a few years, I first started experimenting with production in 2003 making mostly drum & bass, and I’ve had a few drum & bass releases out over the past couple of years on labels like Intasound, Offshore, and Subtle Audio. I’ve been focusing increasingly on slower tempos over the years, and for the past while have been really enjoying working with the possibilities of 130-145 bpm range.
Outside of music who are you? What do you do on the daily? Where are you based etc?
I recently finished a master’s degree in Environmental Policy focusing on global climate change policy - that’s been taking up the majority of my time over the past few years. I just relocated to Tokyo for work, so it’s looking like I’ll still be quite busy with that. Most of the little free time I have is dedicated to music, but when I’m not doing that I enjoy messing around with photography or hiking when I have the chance.
How did you first get into making music? What was it that infected you to do so?
I bought a guitar when I was 13 with money I saved up and played in a few punk/hardcore bands with friends since then. Around the same age, I was introduced to jungle, and for the first time I felt like I heard a style of music where you could seemingly do anything. I was always into a wide variety of music, mostly from having two older brothers, and hearing a genre where you could incorporate any of those was eye-opening for me. By 15 I was buying records with every spare bit of cash I had. I’d always been interested in electronic production, mostly because I had no idea what the producers were actually doing to make their music- it was all a big mystery to me. DJing was fun (and still is), but I always wanted more than anything to actually make music where I felt like the only limit was my own creativity. When I was 20, some friends showed me the basics of Reason one night, and I just got hooked; the experience of seeing a crowd of people enjoy music that I enjoyed making is still the best feeling in the world to me.
Why the decision to switch styles, slowing it up from a d&b tempo to a dubstep speed?
It was never really a conscious decision. Production-wise, d&b was my first love, but I always enjoyed the UK garage I heard. In America we were never really exposed en masse to the commercial side of the genre, it wasn’t really getting played in San Diego, so it was easy to weed that stuff out and just enjoy the sounds that were closer to d&b in their aesthetic; people like Wookie, Zed Bias, El-B, Horsepower Productions etc. As this stuff developed into dubstep, I heard in the music what I loved most about jungle - a mash of influences, a drive to experiment and develop a unique sound, and the idea that you could have a general aesthetic (tempo, bass, etc.) and just push it until it was almost something else, yet still accepted within that genre.
Even when making drum & bass, I had always still experimented with slower tempos, and I was finding it a little hard to make music at 170bpm that didn’t sound like d&b; a lot of the stuff I was making was deliberately trying to push (or at least blur) the boundaries of the genre’s conventions, which is what I loved about the genre in the first place. It wasn’t an act of defiance or leftfield elitism or anything like that; it was just how I thought it was supposed to be done. At the same time, the scene seemed to be splintering more and more into predefined subgenres, each with their own set of rules, and I was finding that I could go to a drum & bass night and not really identify with the majority of what I was hearing. I think this is pretty natural for a music genre that had seen as much growth and different “eras” as dnb had and new producers and DJs come into the scene after being influenced by a particular sound or era.
However, as a producer, hearing a lack of “grey areas” between subgenres and a lack of outside influences as a fundamental part of the genre was frustrating, but I found that at slower tempos, the opportunities for mixing genres, influences, and experimentation were overwhelming. Overall, I find this more interesting and more challenging, and so this has led me to lean naturally towards the 130-145 range.
Cloak & Dagger - Crimewaves [Immerse]
What’s your production set up like? What’s your favourite bit of kit in the studio?
I’ve always been a huge proponent of the idea that it’s not the gear that you have but rather what you do with it. All of my favorite electronic music - jungle, electro, techno, hip hop, whatever – was made on so much less than what’s available to bedroom producers nowadays, so I never really fully understood when I would talk to other producers and they would tell me I couldn’t make good music using certain software or without a particular piece of gear. My setup itself is pretty minimal; apart from a few cheap toys, a couple of low-budget midi controllers, a mic, and a pair of monitors, everything is done on my PC. I use a lot of free plugins and have more fun getting interesting sounds out of those than a lot of the professional, powerhouse plugins that are available. Up until recently, I was using Reason as my main software, so even the ability to use and experiment with different plugins is pretty exciting for me!
Where do you take inspiration from when making music?
More than anything, inspiration comes from my environment and surroundings. I’d been living in Nagoya (Japan) for the past four years, which has a very industrial vibe, similar in some ways to Detroit in atmosphere, as well as a lack of sunny days throughout the year, so my music would often reflect that in its sound. If we had nice weather for a week, my next tune would generally be more upbeat and dancefloor-friendly. I didn’t realise quite how influential my surroundings were to me until I played in San Diego last year and realised how out-of-place some tunes felt compared to Nagoya and vice versa. Other than that, I listen to very little dubstep and don’t follow the scene that closely, so musically a lot of my inspiration comes from various other genres I listen to and trying to incorporate other philosophies, ideas, and attitudes from my influences into my own music.
Your moniker suggests hidden talents or an underlying intention. What was your thinking behind it?
I think it encompassed the attitude I had when making music; it’s always been the subtle things and little nuances in songs that I’ve loved the most, even in really simple music. Also, I’m a small guy, so the characters in books, movies, video games, etc. that have always left the biggest impressions on me were the ones that weren’t physically strong or socially/politically powerful, but rather came out ahead through wit, deception, and skill – spies, ninja, detectives, all that cool stuff. I’ve just always dug the idea that there’s a whole world behind the scenes that we can’t see.
Your first release for Immerse comes out shortly. Whats the deal, what can we expect from the release?
I’m extremely happy to have both of these tunes released and even happier to have the support of a label like Immerse behind them. I think both tunes showcase the genre blending I’ve been going on about so much; you can hear dubstep, garage, broken beat, drum & bass, and other influences in there. Both are percussion driven, but ‘Crimewaves’ takes a more upfront approach, whilst ‘In the Cut’ is a bit subtler and darker. I think they both represent my sound really well and hope others dig them as much as I do.
What other projects have you got in the pipeline?
Hopefully I’ll see more releases, but anything regarding that is too early in the pipeline to mention. But I would definitely like to try and get more of my stuff out there; not following the dubstep scene so much is great for my music, but not as good when it comes to getting my music to DJs and labels. As far as gigs go, I’ve been DJing less and instead doing a live set of my own tunes over the past year and just remade it from the ground up, so I’ll continue to perform that when I have the opportunity. I also just moved and started a new job, so I’m expecting my output to slow down for just a bit as I get settled in.
Any words of wisdom for our readers?
I’d like to take the opportunity to thank everyone who’s supported me over the years, whether it be through buying or playing my music, attending a show, giving me feedback and criticism, or teaching me a bit about the business. Props to Immerse and every other label who’s stood behind my music, and thanks to Sonic Router for the opportunity to provide a mix and rant about myself a little.
Hope you guys dig the mix, and words of wisdom… stay positive!
Present in this month's DJ Magazine is a hype chart from yours truly.
Went like this:
1. Mono/Poly - Oil Fields [Fat City] "The true sound of a mouth trumpet summer." 2. James Blake - CMYK [R&S] "More serene composition from Blake." 3. Blawan - Iddy [Hessle Audio] "New heat from Blawan's debut Hessle 12"." 4. V/A - Tropical Heat Vol. 1 [Myor] "Slugabed, Mesak and Nino ride to the very pinnacle of awesome hip-hop." 5. Mount Kimbie - Maybes (James Blake Remix) [Hotflush] "Blake shatters apart Kimbie's breakthrough, re-staining it a fragrant orange hue." 6. Guido - Mad Sax [Punch Drunk] "Might as well be called Mad Sex given the facial reactions this one's getting..." 7. XI - Ghost [Orca] "First platter from the Orca imprint frames XI's drum funk perfectly." 8. V/A - Astro:Dynamics [Astro:Dynamics] "New compilation of next level beats." 9. Ramadanman - Glut [Hemlock] "Mr Kennedy happily turning his woodpecker percussion up to 11 on this one..." 10. Eleven Tigers - Clouds Are Mountains [Soul Motive] "Illustrious debut LP from Lithuanian producer Eleven Tigers."
With thanks to Markle.
Audio of all the above is available on the archives of the Sonic Router x Hivemind show on mixcloud.
Big shout to Ben, furthering his mining of discogs and continuing his run of website dominance in sterling fashion with a mix for US site XLR8R and garnering deserved comments like: "one of the best DJ's in the world right now" from the braun behind Electronic Explorations Rob Booth.
Look out for Blawan's 12", 'Fram' b/w 'Iddy,' for Ben UFO's co-run Hessle Audio imprint dropping shortly in shops now.
Milyoo deserves props. The American producer’s debut 12” will be out imminently on Subeena’s OPIT Records imprint and it’s a particularly varied and bewitching triplet of tracks. Sitting betwixt the genre malaise with little concern for what surrounds him, we caught up with Tommy - who was busy shovelling mud out of his studio after a storm hit his native Kentucky domicile - to obtain a bit of backstory and grab the 45th exclusive Sonic Router mix.
Sonic Router: Can you provide those who may not know you with a bit of background info?
Milyoo: Sure. I’m a 32 year old guy from a mid-size college town/city called Lexington, Kentucky. I used to smoke cigarettes, but I quit.
Outside of music who are you? What do you do on the daily?
When I’m not attempting to make music, I’m a soon-to-be-former (eventually to-be-returning) PhD Student in Cultural Geography who used to think about writing (though never fully wrote) a dissertation on ghosts and memory. But with the school thing winding down I’ve mostly been writing tunes, hanging out with my super-cool wife Erin, and trying to get back in climbing shape in the Red River Gorge (also see: unemployed)
How did you first get into making music? What was it that infected you to do so?
I guess I’ve always made music to one degree or another... more or less. I bought my first piece of gear in ‘98, but I failed to get very into it until the last year or so. Seems like good timing as I can’t think of a time when I’ve been as excited about the overall state of music-making.
What’s your production set up like? What’s your favourite bit of kit in the studio?
I write in Propellerheads Record/Reason environment and arrange in Live 8 using a few different midi controllers. I also have an Emu E4xt where I chunk up samples sometimes, a korg electribe synth box which I like quite a bit, and a variety of drums, tambs, bells, and whatnot. A tapedeck w/ pitch control. Some 1200s. A guitar. But my favorite gear is my field recorder and mic. I seriously don’t know what I was doing before I started finding sounds.
Where do you take inspiration from when making music?
Movies, bus brakes, great hooks from songs that suck, my friends, other artists... If I’m feeling particularly dim on days I’ll throw in something amazing (right now I’m listenining to some Ramadanman) and just sorta vibe off it for a bit and see what happens. But most of the time I just sit down and start beating on stuff, turning knobs, sampling records, and eventually a song comes out. The process is still really amazing to me.
Whats behind the Milyoo moniker?
Milieu is of French origin and means something like the context or situation in which a thing develops. In my mind, to split the ‘milieu’ from the ‘things they develop’ is a really unnecessary gap. That is, the two are seamless. The milieu and the thing are both collections of stuff, themselves collections of stuff. So, in my mind, everything is a milieu or milieus are everything. ‘Milyoo’ (the phonetical bastard of the original) then is my attempt at highlighting this always-already-beyond-me of music; the ‘not-me’ stuffiness of it all.
Plus my old name ‘The Tommy Wilson Electronic Music Band’ was too folky.
Opit 12" snippets:
How would you describe your sound? I mean your mix for us jumps from Madlib to James Blake via Airborn Audio… would you say hip hop was a big influence on you?
Yes, hip hop was and is a massive influence on me. I grew up rocking out to Guru, Casual, Wu-Tang, Dre, and Biggie when I was a kid, but more recently Dilla’s stuff really turned me around. I know Dilla love isn’t too uncommon these days, but the way he brought together Detroit house vibes, hip-hop cuts, and tripped out production it felt like – seriously – he had made a pile of music just for me. When I’d listen to Donuts on the walk to campus I felt ridiculous if I wasn’t dancing. That’s some serious stuff I think.
But in terms of my sound it seems like I’m always writing a lot of different stuff at any given time. Sometimes I settle into a groove of sorts and write a type of something for a bit. I guess – at the moment – I write slo-mo tribal rnb-tinged psychedelic house music...(?) My last three buys are Flylo’s album, the Where the Wild Things Are soundtrack and Dimlite’s new one. All three of which are bearing heavily on me at the moment so we’ll see what comes of it.
And how did you discover dubstep?
To be honest, I don’t feel comfortable taking credit for discovering dubstep. While I am the first guy I know (personally) who accidentally found Burial while searching through the iTunes store, I’m not quite sure that marked the origin point of the movement. Kidding. I take full credit. You’re welcome.
You live in the US in Lexington, Kentucky. Is there any tangible scene there? Where do you go for live bass music?
Lexington is basically a really big (500,000) college town so there’s always enough kids here to get something going; and while you can pack a club with students easy enough, Lexington is just not large enough to sustain a stable community of niche music junkies. Of course, there are some talented people here, and there’s cool stuff cooking at the moment so we’ll see I guess. The other option would be to drive to one of the larger cities in the region (Atlanta, Chicago, etc.), but I’m hard-pressed to drive 2-3 hours to go see live music with any regularity.
Your first 12” on Opit Records is out shortly. How did you hook it up? Tell us what peoples can expect…
Pretty short story really. I sent Subeena a link because I liked her release and the Opit logo, and it turns out she liked my soundcloud stuff. I used to have a ton of tracks up (70+) and she combed through all of it and picked these three. I’m not sure how to characterize the release really...it’s a variety 3 pack of tunes taken from a ton of different influences recorded over an 8-month span.
What other projects have you got in the pipeline? What’s happening with you in the rest of 2010?
I’ve got a remix from Greymatter’s ‘Mind Over Matter’ coming out soon. It’s pretty cool I think. I also have some stuff going on/over with Hold Box Flat that I’m really excited about. I’m assuming everyone already knows this, but just in case: Thristian bPm and D’Wala’s Transmit Box Flat is the absolute penultimate in podcast awesomeness. Seriously: 10/10.
As far as other stuff goes, I’m in the symbolic stage of starting a label called Landforms, mostly because I can count the number of quality US labels (not located in LA) on one hand, and it strikes me there are enough talented artists on this side of the Atlantic to get something going. That and I’m apparently addicted to working really hard sans pay. Finally, I’m trying to do some collaborative work with my Dublin-based friend Shatterfreak and other than that I can only speculate... might have a kid this year... gigs... more releases... job getting... I’m doing a guestmix of some of my stuff for Mary Anne Hobbs on May 26th which is really cool. And I’m gonna keep writing tracks.
Shai - If I Ever Fall in Love Again (Acapella Ver.) Radiohead - Reckoning (Kidkanevil Remix) James Blake - The Bells Sketch Pariah - Detroit Falls Milyoo - Like a Fool Madlib - Lifetime (Lifeline) Kankick - Mas Fire (Snip) Kidkanevil - When Doves Bounce Latyrx – Latyrx Airborne Audio - Trust Me Untold - Yukon (Fantastic Mr. Fox Remix) Tokimonsta - Glaring Lights Take - Horizontal Figuration Paul White - Floating Free Beach Boys - Our Prayer Adele - Chasing Pavements (Various Production Mix) Bullion - Crazy Over You Milyoo - So Many Windows
Some on camera chatter regarding that debut album from Mount Kimbie's Kai & Dom, amongst other things with some sweet ass video transitions thrown in for good measure.
Whilst North London resident and producer-du-jour, Untold, and his profile have risen up into the echelons of cultural notoriety of late, he's also managed to carve himself a neat little plateau to launch other artists, in his own Hemlock imprint. Stylistically, the label sleeve's uniformity - blessed with a dark all-over Hemlock crest screenprint and a stark flash of colour on the artist label - has become a signifier for quality, and somewhat of a collectors item given the print standard and limited run of the pressings.
Having released 3 x 12"s and a double pack EP of Untold material - he seemingly reserves some of his most ground breaking work (see 'Yukon' b/w 'Walk Through Walls' and 'Gonna Work Out Fine') for release on his own imprint - the label has also become a home to work by Fantastic Mr Fox & Rich Reason on a collaborative single as well the ever blossoming harmonies of James Blake; who appeared on his first full 12" and on his dancefloor challenging re-work of Untold's 'Stop What You're Doing.'
For us, Hemlock truly is up there with labels like Ramp Recordings, Hessle Audio and Hotflush in terms of being a no-brainer for on sight purchase, and - ever so kindly - to celebrate both the label's new 12", a collaboration between Untold & LV which features a Mount Kimbie refix on the flip, and their takeover of Room 2 at next Friday's Hyp!Hyp!Hyp! @ Plan B in Brixton, they're offering a few lucky Sonic Router readers the chance to scoop a shit load of bounty.
Top prize: 1x Hemlock Sweatshirt 1x Hemlock T-shirt 1x Full Hemlock vinyl catalogue* 2x Guest list for the Event
3 x Runner up prizes consisting of: 1x Hemlock T-shirt 1xGuest list for the event
O' happy day!
EDIT - This competion is now closed.
Q: Walking through walls is a feat attempted in which recently released film starring George Clooney?
*Hemlock Catalogue to be won:
HEK001 12" Untold - Yukon / Walk through walls HEK001R 10" Untold - Yukon (Fantastic mr fox remix) / Walk through walls (LV remix) HEK002 12" Untold - Discipline / Bones HEK003 12" Fantastic Mr Fox & Rich Reason - Plimsoul / Bleep show HEK004 12" James Blake - Air and Lack Thereof / Sparing the Horses HEK005 2x12" Untold - Gonna work out fine e.p HEK006 10" Untold - Stop what you're doing (James Blake remix) Untold - I can't stop this feeling (Pangaea remix) HEK007 LV & Untold - Beacon / LV & Untold - Beacon (Mount Kimbie remix) (Unreleased advance copy)
Guestlist to be won:
Hemlock Room:
Untold James Blake (DJ set) LV Fantastic Mr Fox b2b Rich Reason
Doors: 2200-0500 Tickets: £7 advance / £12 on the door
Since falling into Pariah’s music after a myspace six-degrees-of-separation type delve, we’ve kept up a constant barrage of instant messages. With his debut single on R&S due shortly and his remix work for people like Ellie Goulding (yeah... you probably would) and The XX getting him attention from promoters and listeners alike ,we thought it was prime time for Pariah time round here.
See him below in the answers and the mix…
Sonic Router: Can you provide those who may not know you with a bit of background info?
Pariah: Hey there. My name's Arthur and I'm 21. I was born and grew up in Scotland but I moved down to London about four years ago now and I've been producing music for just over a year now.
Outside of music who are you? What do you do on the daily?
Most days I'm at uni where I study English Literature. This year I've got a lot more work so I haven't had as much time as I would like to write music, but the course is interesting so I'm not complaining too much. I also write for a music blog called Inverted Audio but, again due to workload, I haven't written for a while.
How did you first get into making music? What was it that infected you to do produce?
Well, I play guitar and piano so I've been in quite a few bands over the years and when I was about 16 I used to mess about on Logic with a friend because we had it on a computer at school. Nothing really came of it and I didn't learn shit about production. But ever since then I've always wanted to produce but I just never had the software. It wasn't until I got my Macbook Pro that I was finally able to make a start.
What’s your production set up like?
I run Logic 8 Express on a Macbook Pro and I use Genelec 8020a monitors. I also have a second hand Alesis Micron but I still haven't gotten round to getting all the cables to connect it to my soundcard and so I haven't really made good use of it yet which is probably very silly of me.
Where do you take inspiration from while making music? How did you get into dubstep?
I guess I got in to dubstep a lot later than most people. Towards the end of 2007. It was ‘Untrue’ by Burial that really made me take notice. Truthfully, I don't think there has ever been a record that has such an enormous emotional impact on me as that album has. So yeah, a lot of my inspiration comes from Burial.
I'm a massive fan of Brian Eno, Global Communication, Boards of Canada and ‘Selected Ambient Works’ era Aphex Twin. It was the first electronic music that I got into and, to this day, it remains my favourite. I go completely nuts for how texturally rich the music is.
My list of influences is stupidly long and it would be silly for me to try and name them all. Everyone from J.Dilla through to Arvo Part via bands like Cursed, Pavement, My Bloody Valentine and Sun 0))).
How would you describe your sound?
To be honest, I don't think I've been making music long enough or have enough tunes to really have a 'sound' yet. I'm still in the early stages of production knowledge so I'm still experimenting with techniques and ideas. I guess all of my tunes are pretty 'nice' and most use vocals in them but I don't know if that quiet merits having a 'sound' just yet. That being said, listenability is an important aspect that I take into account when I make tunes. I want my tunes to stand out on their own as tracks that you can listen to rather than simply incorporate into a mix.
There is a lot of soul in your music. What draws you to the soul/R&B/garage sounds?
For me, vocals are an essential part of the music I make. Pretty much all of my favourite dance tunes use vocals in them. It’s not a particularly profound thing to say but, for me, the use of vocals really adds to the emotional weight of a tune. It gives the tune a hook, something memorable, something human.
Can you also tell us a little about your relationship with garage, your tracks have that sort of bouncy vibe to them. Did you grow up with it around you on pirates and all that or is it just in your blood to make beats like that?
I would be the biggest liar in the world if I said that I grew up listening to dance music on the pirates. When garage was at its peak, I was quite young and I hadn't really found my musical feet yet. I really didn't appreciate it fully. I thought it was all a little bit too cheesy for me and it’s only as I've grown up that I've looked back and realised how amazing some of those tunes were. I'm completely obsessed by the rhythm of garage. It has such natural 'danceability' to it which is something that I think a lot of the more straight up dubstep lacks. Since getting into it, it’s been a real pleasure searching for tunes on ebay and discogs. It amazes me that so much of this stuff is worth next to nothing nowadays. It’s a shame really because it’s great music. Stuff like Dem 2 'Baby Your So Sexy' and Nu Klass A – ‘The Rhythm (Steve Gurley Remix)’ get me every single time I hear them. Beautiful stuff!
You’ve got some releases coming on R&S, tell us a little about those and what it’s like to be on a label with such a history in dance music that stretches back all the way to the early 90’s.
It’s such an honour to be putting out music on R&S. I mean, it was the label that pretty much got me into dance music. Listening to their back catalogue, some of those early 90's rave tunes still sound so fresh and innovative today. The first thing coming out is ‘Orpheus’/ ‘Detroit Falls’ on a 10" and that, hopefully, will be out in the next few months or so.
The next release is going to be a 6 track EP coming out on a 2x12". Two of the tracks that should find their way onto that release are in the mix I've done. If everything goes according to plan, it should come out pretty soon after ‘Detroit Falls’/’Orpheus.’ I'm really excited to be working with them and, this year, they are definitely one of the labels to look out for. Some of the releases that they have coming up are completely next level.
You did a fantastic remix for The xx how did that come about?
Thank you very much! I'm very pleased with how it turned out. I think that The XX are the most promising band around at the moment... Every single track by them is amazing and they do such great covers. That Kyla 'Do You Mind' cover was incredible. Very sexy. It’s so rare for bands who are massively hyped to live up to the hype but they truly deserve all the praise that they have received.
I was asked by Caius who runs Young Turks to do it and it was actually the easiest remix that I've done and that's probably because of the strength of the original song. I made the basis of it in about an hour and a half and then just spent time on and off for a couple of weeks tweaking it. The vocals were such a pleasure to work with and I really enjoyed doing it.
Who are you feeling musically inside and outside of the scene right now?
Inside of the scene, James Blake, Mount Kimbie and the Hessle/Hemlock lot are doing truly amazing things right now. Recently, I've heard so much good new music but there's one producer, Bad Autopsy, that has really made me sit up and listen. He's already being played out by Braiden and Oneman on Rinse and my mix opens with one of his tunes; definitely worth checking out.
I wiped the dust off the Bok Bok and Manara Niche Mix as well the other day. It had just been sitting on my hard-drive and I'd completely forgotten how amazing it is. I have a real soft spot for bassline/niche but I don't know much about it. Although, in general, it’s a bit ridiculous, I find that the some of the melodies and vocals used have a real sense of heartbreak around them. It’s hard to describe what I'm trying to get at but there is real emotion in some of those tunes.
Outside of the scene, I've been listening a lot to Heather Broderick who's the little sister of composer Peter Broderick. She released her debut album at the end of last year and it’s stunning; William Basinski, the new Four Tet record and Jay Electronica have all been on repeat too.
Tell us about the mix you’ve made for us, what tracks where screaming out for you to include?
I did this mix using Serato and vinyl. I tried to incorporate all the styles of music that I like to play out so there's a bit of house, techno, garage and 'what do you call it.' When it goes into the garage section it was completely spontaneous and unplanned so I'm glad that it turned out nicely. The tune that I had to include above everything else was ‘The Bells Sketch’ by James Blake [forthcoming on Hessle Audio]. I've been obsessed with it ever since I first heard it sometime last year. Also, the Hanuman tune.... deeeeeep as fuck!
What other releases have you got in the pipeline?
After my first two releases for R&S, I'm doing a single on Black Acre and then something on Young Turks. I should have another single out on R&S in between these two which will consist of a Detroit influenced house track that I've done with someone doing a remix on the flip. There are a couple of other things planned but nothing's set in stone so I don't want to jinx it.
Is there anything else you’d like to say to our readers, any words of wisdom?
I wish that Stephen Fry was my uncle and that David Attenborough was my grandad haha.
Yeah, I realise we skipped September but I only submitted it to the lovely gents at The Quietus today so its totally my bad. To make up for it, this edition is an interview with James Blake...
James Blake releases his debut 12" on Untold's Hemlock Recordings this coming Monday. He's a member of Mount Kimbie's live show, and melds stunning vocals with equally individual production.
