SR Mix #75: Konx-om-Pax [Display Copy]

Twenty six year old Glaswegian digital artist and sonic experimenter Tom Scholefield has been slowly rising in stature over the last couple of years. With mixes across a multitude of blogs and DJ sets in increasing demand it's hard to look across his rapidly diversifying body of work and pin him down to any one specialist artform – but it's under the banner of his audio-visual label, Display Copy, that he is most productive. As an artist he has been called upon to produce some high profile commissions including the hallucinogenic neon paint splashed video for Hudson Mohawke's 'Joy Fantastic,' the cover for Oneohtrix Point Never's Rifts album, as well as further OPN art, a Laurel Halo video, Mogwai posters and he has also worked with labels such as Optimo, Warp and DFA. You may well recognise his work if you’ve followed the recent releases on Numbers and the labels the crew ran beforehand, but in short, Scholefield’s is no small portfolio.

Optimo Tracks, the first record released on Display Copy was written for an AV installation at legendary club night Optimo Espacio in 2009 – the CD featured three tracks that flip between walls of screeching metal, analogue noise and sleek Detroit machine pulse with a remix from No-Fun-Acid impresario Carlos Giffoni sewing up the carnage left at the end. The second release on the label is Tom's debut full length album titled Light In Extension – a direct translation of his artist name Konx-om-Pax, a moniker taken from the Greek Eleusinian Mysteries. The tracks across the record draw a line like the vapour trail of an ascending rocket, piercing out of a collapsing constellation of abstracted industrial noise, techno and hypnagogic acid and into a space realigned across his own transformative vision of what transcendental noise can be.

To illustrate his influences, Tom made us a mix - number 75 in our ongoing series - that incorporates past and future signposts along his musical trip...

SR: First of all I want to ask about your name, Konx-om-Pax – is it from the Alistair Crowley book?

KOP: No, it isn't. People always seem to think that but it's from Giacinto Scelsi, an avant garde composer, it's the name of one of his songs. I didn't hear about it until people started telling me. It means Light In Extension, that's where I got the name from because I thought it related quite nicely with the visual aspect.

There's a relationship between the textures of the tracks on Light In Extension and the visual aesthetic of the artworks Tom produces – a nostalgic futurism...

Yeah, that's sort of it – BBC Radiophonic, Board of Canada influenced fuzziness to it. I listen to a lot of techno, when I make stuff I'm engineering it to sound good live, and simple. That's from years of playing techno and listening to what club music sounds like, so when I'm making weird fucked up synth stuff I'm still engineering it in the same way you would a House record. How it sounds loud on as PA

Did you start out making noise music?

I started out making really really hard Jeff Mills-y techno when I was about 15, on a Yamaha DJX keyboard. Really purposeful hard as fuck loopy techno. It sounded really bad and then I learnt more about production and stuff, moved away from more traditional music and got into noise based stuff later on.

On the mix there's a thread between the tracks that ties them together, a sense of formlessness to it, an amorphousness which is a counterpoint to the more structured techno...

They are two really clear things in my head and I understood when you said formless, I like the really loose and unformulaic – no rigid bar structure or tempo, music that doesn't have a repetitive structure. Really weird compared to more traditional dance music. There's definitely quite a strong link between most of the tracks in the mix.

There’s a noisiness and a trance-y, meditative aspect running through to the last track... a kind of religious, ritualistic trance music...

That sounds like something out of Blade Runner doesn't it? I found that last track on a really cool blog; it was tagged with the genre 'Ceremony'. I like that there was a genre called Ceremony.

And my mate Team Brick, I saw him in Bristol, came to the Mogwai show and hung out and gave me and Dominic from Mogwai a tonne of CDRs that he'd been making; a couple of noise ones a couple of really fucked up electro ones, and that track was off one of his electro albums that kinda sounded like a noise producer trying to copy the Analogue AFX series. Interested to hear a noise producer trying to make dance music, it doesn't sound quite right and that's why I liked it.

There's a dirtiness and darkness to one end of drum and bass that is very noisy, is that a kind of dance music you ever got into, or has it been purely techno?

You know that drum and bass track on Moving Shadow,? Dom & Roland 'Can't Punish Me'. I bought that on vinyl when that came out when I was about 16, and the bassline in that was by far the gnarliest bass noise I'd ever heard. And later on it kind of sounds like a sort of Japanese noise bassline or a Throbbing Gristle synth noise or something like that - just really nasty. It's funny how those noises then developed into dubstep and stuff like that, but it was just a real noisy resonance, the resonance was also quite high up, an acidy bassy sub sort of thing. Probably one of my favourite basslines ever, I think.

How did you come to work with Oneohtrix Point Never, and Carlos Giffoni?

Dan sent me a message on MySpace a couple of years ago after he saw one of my bits of work and asked me to design his Rifts artwork. That was quite an interesting working relationship because he's probably got one of the most overactive, visual, crazy, out-there imaginations I've ever met – it was this never ending gmail chat about ideas. I would say something and he would give me paragraphs of the most in depth code like language to describe what he wanted me to do. I was having to decipher this really personal language that he has to describe whatever the fuck he's going on about. But I got it because it we eventually came to something that he liked, though it probably took a couple of months to get that Rifts artwork to something he was liking.



I just got to know Carlos through that; we hung out in New York and he took us to this Venezuelan restaurant and ordered some really cool food, gave me some really really really strong weed, I don't think I've ever been that high in public just a pure grass joint before going out. Fucked me up properly, it was a good night. He kept it in the fridge and went “do you want that”, I smoked about half of it then was in another dimension for the rest of the night going round New York, it was cool.

I wasn't going to ask you anything like this, but since we're here on the topic - do drugs play any kind of a part in your music and art?

Not necessarily, I think every couple of months I use a joint to help me out, that's about it... maybe one spliff, creatively, if I seem to get stuck on something. All it does is remove me from the stress so I can take a step back and look at stuff. I could probably list all the things I've made when I've been stoned and they're all generally the funnest most colourful things I've ever come up with. But I mean, I don't rely on it, or I don't condone it, or encourage anybody to do it. I've had a few interesting psychedelic experiences in my life, but I think that influences the visual side of things more than the music stuff.

Are the inspirations for your art and music drawn from the same influences?

Yeah, everything comes from the same bracket, sort of 60s to mid 80's diy avant garde, handmade animation sort of stuff from Europe and America. Piotr Kamler.

Do you consider your work as having any nostalgic elements, with all the hypnagogic stuff around Oneohtrix, the American synth-age sounds, or is it a continuation of your current existence?

I think everything I do is relating towards creating a wee world of my own where I feel safe, and that's probably not nostalgias... I don't know, it's kind of difficult to describe 'what does nostalgia mean,' but I'm trying to create a world that I sit in and trying to seduce other people into that world where everything is a bit safe and nicer. I don't like living in this period of time now with everything that's going on, I much preferred it when I was littler and wasn't aware of all the bad things in the world. I don't know if that makes me sound like a hippy...

That's a fairly common sentiment, people feeling more comfortable in their childhoods...

Well, when you've got people like David Cameron running the country I don't want to be part of that. I'd rather just be able to put my mind somewhere else and not have to think about that.

Is that what you use music and art for, as a form of escapism?

Yeah, I think so. Escapism, and partly the reason why I do all these mixtapes and put up the tracklistings is just so other people and maybe get into it and realise there's more music out there than the newest UK dubplate that these blogs are going on about. There's tonnes of music that's been made in the 40's and 50's and 60's that's just as interesting. I think the fascination of the new really pisses me off, and how people discuss and compete against each other in having the newest music and how that equates to being the best. I like new music but I don't like how it is automatically assumed that because it is brand new it means it's good and there's just so much out there that's been made a long time ago that's just as interesting. It's kind of automatic: if it's new it must be good and only four people own it. It's not a competition.

Everything is like a never ending announcement, like we're stuck in an internet train station with fuck all info about all that is happening but there's no real criticism. I think I just need to get off the internet for a wee while and get back in to the studio; it's making me go a bit mad.

The momentum of the new and the lack of criticism doesn't give people much of a chance to put anything into a greater context. If there were more analysis going on there'd be more reference to older works and people would have the chance to slow down and discover more of the older music...

There's a really great interview with James Stinson (Drexciya) talking about how he makes things and how he was quite adamant that when he is making stuff he cuts himself from everything – obviously no internet, no going to clubs, no radio, just involving himself in his own little universe to make stuff and I think that's one of the best bits of advice you could get if you want to make something proper. You've just got to ignore everyone else and get on with it and I think I'm probably headed into that world at the moment, stopped going out as much and trying to just ignore all this noise that's buzzing about and getting on with making music and working on the film.



So what projects are you working on at the moment?

I'm just beginning to storyboard my first short film, an abstract piece influenced by stuff by a polish animator called Piotr Kamler and stuff by the Brothers Quay.

I'm going to be working with another Glasgow character animator and it's going to be really surrealistic and psychedelic. I'm going to be soundtracking it. I'm going to aim to be able to have it as almost like an installation piece, with people working with ambi-sonic sound, producing it. So it's like a step up from the 5.1 – this is all early days. Set up a guerrilla cinema system with an ambi-sonic sound generator so the sounds will be travelling through space in 3D. It will be really intense I think.

Have you done much sound installation in the past?

The only think I've done recently was at the Tramway as part of the Nurse with Wound event, I made a projection installation piece, there was sound to it a well but it was more of a passive, almost background element to it, it was really just to soundtrack the cafe space it wasn't intrusive in any way.

Piotr Kamler has done an amazing thing with Bernard Parmegiani, an Italian composer: Une Mission Ephémère is probably the coolest thing I've ever seen. I think that's a big influence on the animation film stuff I'll be doing, a surrealist non-space with abstract stories and characters I think.

This year I'm supposed to be doing more stuff with Oneohtrix. I was chatting to him about doing something on the Software label, but I don't know. Doing some music video promo work for - this is early days yet – for Hyperdub and a promo for Domino. Can't say what bands yet, just music video projects for two different labels. I quite like that I'll be working with a rock band and working with a dub thing – both visually very similar but at different ends of the music spectrum.

Psychedelia is the joining force between most of these things.

Is that what you tend to look for?

I think that's why people ask me to do stuff.

Because they're after that Hypercolour?

I think that's generally the common thread between everything... or they just want it to be a bit weird.

::

DOWNLOAD: Konx-om-Pax – Sonic Router Mix #75



Tracklist:

1. Konx-om-Pax - 7th Dimension (Rustie Remix)
2. Team Brick - Track 3 (Klad Heist)
3. The Human League - Disco Disaster
4. Alexander Robotnick - Ar Stack 2
5. Konx-om-Pax - II
6. Bernard Parmegiani - Échos/mélopée
7. Carl Craig - Sound On Sound
8. Konx-om-Pax - Chevy Chase Mega Looper
9. James Ferraro - Untitled (Clear)
10. SPK - Stammheim Torturkammer
11. Synergy - Terminal Hotel
12. Oneohtrix Point Never - Gates of Sanct Vacui
13. Konx-om-Pax - Glacier Mountain Descent
14. Madhya - Thème Solennel de la Rédemption

Words: Meatbreak

RECOMMENDED: Hype Williams – One Nation [Hippos In Tanks]

After hearing the vaguely mysterious Berlin/London duo’s album, 'Find Out What Happens When People Stop Being Polite and Start Getting Reel,' from last year on I couldn’t quite see what all the fuss was about. Maybe it was the auto-tuned crying baby or Pokemon samples that put me off a bit, but all the blatant use of samples just didn’t work for me. The ideas were good but it never really sounded like it worked that well, plus plenty of other people (labels like Not Not Fun, Editions Mego, Olde English Spelling Bee) have been doing this hazy, spaced out, slow motion, genre clusterfuck thing well enough for Hype Williams not to hit home too much. So when their latest album One Nation arrived on the Hippos In Tanks imprint, the fact that i bonded to the content took me by surprise.

There are four tracks in particular that make One Nation. The first is the opener ‘Ital’ and it’s screwed, smeared atmospheres, pulsing warm bass lines and those dissonant synth sounds that morph in speed and texture like they’re being played on a broken tape deck. It’s a key sound to the album that appears again and again and puts it head and shoulders above previous material. The sample baiting has been addressed here too, with the duo making them less obvious; notably the only time a sample is really prominent is with with the spoken word stoner wisdom on the second standout, ‘Untitled;’ the contortion of the melodies is tantalizing and when the bass drops through them the muffled euphoria really comes.

The hyperactive hi-hat workouts on ‘Warlord’ offer a quicker, more serious, junglist edge - whether or not it’s a juke influence at work here remains to be seen but the tempo fits, as do the drum machine cow bell flourishes. ‘Mitsubishi’ feels like a warped take on Aphex Twin’s Selected Ambient Works all slow, shape shifting house complete with child like lead lines. The production, or seeming lack of it, means that it doesn’t really punch like house music does, but it’s a hazy take on the sound but it works a treat amongst the static of the other tracks.

The brilliantly titled ‘Your Girl Smells Chung When She Wears Dior’ has a sunny shimmer, complete with hip-hop drums it plays out like an opening to a movie fucked purposely into new shapes. The hazy glow of ‘William, Shotgun Sprayer’ sounds like your favourite summer jingle being played on the last dregs of battery life through your walkman whilst while ‘Jah’ is the most intense noise exploration on the album, giving off a anxiety soaked train ride through a dystopian city sort of vibe. The album soon melts back into that sweet hazy bliss though when ‘Break4Love’ enters the equation and Hype Williams let its widescreen mellowness, sink in.

Primitive in its processes, One Nation is almost blissful, but completely blazed out; the most mature approach to date from an act whose ramshackle experiments in sound are on everyone’s – including Hyperdub boss Kode 9, who has confirmed they’ll be releasing an album on his label at some point in the future– lips right now. Much like the work of Actress, the production techniques may sound like you’re listening to the album through someone else’s iPod on a noisy tube train, but inherently, therein lies some of its out of body charm.

Words: James Balf // Out: Now

RECOMMENDED: Ekoplekz – Memowrekz [Mordant Music]

Ekoplekz might well have first come into view via the 20th release on Punch Drunk late last year, an unexpected and downright refreshing 12" for the label that acted like a jagged edged palette cleanser. Label boss Peverelist was simply (once again) indulging his penchant for the sonic curve ball with two cuts of dubbed-out beat-less noise, fully allowing the analogue freakout. Given it probably wasn’t what the world was expecting from one of the leading lights in the, for want of a better word, dubstep scene for their landmark release, but Pev’s open policy of putting out pretty much anything he’s feeling from his surrounding Bristol geography has paid off in droves.

Upon further digging the move makes a lot of sense sonically. Noisy freakouts aren’t so far removed from dubstep’s outer limits (see The Bug and or Cloaks) and the label under the microscope here, Mordant Music, have been working alongside one of dance music’s most warped producers, Shackleton, for years. You can connect these threads further afield too, Ben UFO pretty much played a experimental noise set the other night on Rinse, debuting some extreme guitar excursions by Andrew Coltrane from Trilogy Tapes - the label who’ve dropped a 12” from Dro Carey who has been known to get a bit fractured with his samples, whilst keeping his dancefloor slant rolling – and the same goes for a producer like Egyptrixx, whose work is distressed and frayed yet decisively melodic.

Memowrekz is an epic thirty three track workout of dub infused dissonant synth music, and as such, it’s kind of a tough one to pin down. It’s a dystopian vision but one that draws you in; it’s discordant but never gets overtly confrontational. Incredibly tough to draw comparisons, the record sits somewhere within that bunch of freaks on Olde English Spelling Bee: Stella Om Source and maybe even Forest Swords; it’s got the synths of one and the heavy dub of the other. You could also draw parallels with the Not Not Fun stable: Sun Araw’s and Peaking Lights dub-psych jams, both the heavy and breezy angles... It even fits next to Oneohtrix Point Never, but in a way it's more free flowing and compelling.

The improvisational manner in which Ekoplekz works really shines and pays dividends here. His deep synthesized squiggles get shaped and treated before your ears; beats bubble up and under – when they appear at all – and echo drenched surges of noise build upon themselves atop layers of warm synth tones. Intertwining the odd bass and guitar line, dropping them deftly into the synthetic ocean of sound, Memowerkz makes for a really enjoyable listen. The blissful bright passages mark a tonal change in mood and texture and they really pop out during the full listening experience. The extremities in sound are balanced with ease though, giving Ekoplekz and Mordant Music a killer combination of industrially tinged experimental composition.

Words: James Balf
Out: Now

Catch Ekoplekz’s freshly uploaded mix for Electronic Explorations, show #146, here: http://electronicexplorations.org/the-show/146-ekoplekz/

RECOMMENDED: Peaking Lights - 936 [Not Not Fun]

Eagle Rock, LA based label Not Not Fun has been producing the goods for well over a year now with nare a single mistep in its release schedule. Run by Britt and Amanda Brown NNF has been a focal point for heavy lidded lowest-of-the-lo-fi straight to tape bejewelled, silk-screened rumbling and mumblings since 2004, but in the last couple of years has been ramping its output up into the stars with an accelerating trajectory of future household names that has included Abe Vigoda, Ducktails, High Wolf, Matrix Metals, Sun Araw, Dylan Ettinger, Magic Lantern and of course, a lotta Pocahaunted. Now they have released the second full length 12” from Peaking Lights, the similarly wedded couple Aaron Coyes and Indra Dunis (formerly of the propulsive angular guitar band Numbers). 936 is a release set to blaze this band's name into the firmament.

After a couple of split singles they released their first full album Imaginary Falcons back in 2009 through both Night People and Not Not Fun to some seriously wowed acclaim. In 2010 they released a split with Wet Hair on NNF's Bored Fortress 7” series and then the Space Primitive cassette on Night People and again on 12” through NNF. All their releases so far have involved fantastically spun out psychedelic embraces of themes, woven through spatial enhancers, psychotropic distorters, emotional compression, circuit bent trinkets and charmingly weathered keyboards that belong from within the realms of the junk-rock circuit, but none have quite hinted at the full potential realised in this release.

A mossy collage of root-bound tape-loop drone opens the album, offering a sense of intuitive awakening from the sleep since Imaginary Falcons, that tips the listener gently into the album itself with 'All The Sun That Shines.' The lead track released several weeks ago with the crate-digging collage video by Amanda Brown lays a big hook into the listener with a fat island bassline that throbs through its core, marking this out as a different entity to their former work. Comparisons to Amanda Brown's final album with (the NNF supergroup incarnation of) Pocahaunted are easy to make with the distinct dub and reggae influence a common thread amongst much recent NNF releases, but Peaking Lights are the band to have incorporated the most essential essences of dub experimentation cast from the desk of the Black Ark, ingesting and regurgitating them instinctively into the noise-band psych-folk of the West Coast US.

Long slow moving King Tubby basslines appear on several tracks, providing ample cushioning for the raft of cosmic effects and reverbed chords to flutter off into haunting repetitions of increasing opaqueness, snatches of circuit bending burst apart and melt back into the ether in increasingly deep and psychedelic successions. The suitably epic closer 'Summertime,' heralds what sounds like it could collapse into a huge speaker destroying wobble, then settles into a malleable pulse, Indra's cool vocals smoothing over what could sound demented without her presence. Joined by a lead melody tone that is both chilling and uplifting her vocal loop ushers in a host of glitchy rattling and humming opening a portal through which exotic otherworldy entities spill through.

The third track is potentially the highlight, dealing in the most sensual sonic experimentation of the record; the bobbing bottom end of 'Amazing and Wonderful' is sprinkled with soft feedback ringing out in fading ripples of delay, echo heavy guitar vibrations and an intimate tapestry of muted arpeggios descend down melody lines that cross each other like dancing lovers. What made Imaginary Falcons such a warming and beatific experience is blushed through this one track, and it's soporific euphoria that transcends all that came before it.

This album is one long slow, sustained process of sensual enlightenment. There's a total awareness of which sonic textures best nurture each other, with noises offering more in the way of melody and musicality than just surface aesthetics the relationships each element of the mix has to one another, of the space each incorporates, the dynamics that can be achieved by the anticipation of sound in the silence. This is elevated, intimate music making that may never appear from the hands and minds of another artist. This incarnation of Peaking Lights exists on another creative plane of being, like star crossed lovers set adrift on hypnagogic bliss.

Words: Meatbreak
Out: Now

Link:
www.myspace.com/peakingfix
www.notnotfun.com

INTERVIEW: Chairman Kato [Pictures Music]

For all our love of bastard house and the overloaded synth explosions of the current instrumental hip hop and skweee that we harp on about endlessly, it ain’t half clean sounding. OK admittedly, someone like Egyptrixx - whose just announced his debut album Bible Eyes will be released on Night Slugs in early March - uses a little more of that sheet noise aesthetic, trusting a lot of his stylistics to the overbearing presence inherent in his sound, but sometimes our ears just hanker for that completely immersive, brooding, drum kit falling down the stairs type of beat music. Plus, as Slugabed so eloquently pointed out recently, there’s not been so much of the slow, slow stuff round these parts recently.

Enter then Chairman Kato, a London dweller whose productions simultaneously imbibe the foreboding spirit of early El-P (think The Cold Vein more than Fantastic Damage) and Shackleton’s passion for drawn out drones as melodies. Texturally, it’s often hard to beat the crunch and depth in sound that you get from using analogue equipment, and Kato’s forthcoming EP for Pictures Music , the Wildfire EP, displays precisely what we mean by that sweeping statement. 5 tracks strong it revels in its own darkness, perfectly creating a darkened and lonely person’s dream state. ‘Gemini Eyes’ might well be the more floaty of the productions on offer on the EP, due out this Valentine’s Day, but with its sandpapered edges, scuffed synthesizers and far off kick drum it’s more of a turmoil inducer, coming on more cerebral than the obvious smash and blap of ‘Thuddd’ or the fierce head nod of ‘No Coincidence.’

As Pictures themselves put it in some early correspondence: “it's pretty fresh compared to all the other stuff that seems to be cycling around and there’s not a 2step beat in sight.” From one listen their point is overtly evident; Kato’s music is at once hypnotically subtle and tempered like gravel, probably the over-riding reason we wanted to see what he’d throw down for his contribution to our mix series…

SR: Can you provide those who may not know you with a bit of background info?

Chairman Kato: I am Chairman Kato, a producer based in Hackney, East London, mate. I stay up all night making music and drinking Gaviscon. I am sponsored by Nong Shim Shrimp Crackers and Pictures Music.

Outside of music who are you? What do you do on the daily?

My nocturnal habits tend to get in the way of doing anything meaningful during the day time. I have paid the bills by allowing my body to be used for experimental research into the effects of anti-oxidants in oriental teas. This is conducted in the low lit basement of a teashop in East London on Mondays and Fridays.

How did you first get into making music? What was it that infected you to do so?

Good question. I’m trying to trace it so I can undo the damage and get my life back together, maybe get a job and an Alfa Romeo or something. When I was a teenager I just had the feeling that listening to music wasn’t enough, that I needed to participate. Picked up a couple of instruments, did the usual thing of having a shit band, then started going out in Birmingham, got into DJing and later production.

What’s your production set up like?

It varies really, depending on what mood I’m in....got a lot of vinyl, some synths, some cutlery, a fridge nearby (essential). I ram most things through a vintage tape machine and make the meters go all nice and red. I often have a film on with the sound down too for extra mind-fuckery.

How would you describe your sound?

Raoul Moate’s ipod.



You share an affinity to people like Lukid, Cloaks and those who build beats out of rougher stuff. What kind of music do you listen to in your own time?

I definitely do respect people like that because they have an appreciation of depth and texture, which is something I try to spend a lot of time on. I listen to a loooot of different stuff....let me pull out my ipod and see what I’m on at the moment... Ducktails, Tame Impala, Robag Wruhme, Dakota Suite, Tommy Tempa, Tom Trago, Forest Swords, Broadcast….

What is an inspiration for you?

Being in London; mainly. Being here exposes me to so many ridiculously good things and interesting people. I get a lot of creative energy from this place. I feel lucky to be here.

Are there any producers you rate that the world should know about? Any peeps not getting the props you think they deserve?

My good friend Tommy Tempa is someone you’re going to be hearing about. Nochexxx is criminally underrated and hopefully that’s going to change this year. The first release on Five Easy Pieces is going to be an EP by a duo called Chesca Royalty that has some riddim and bounce.

You’ve got an EP forthcoming on Pictures Music. Can you tell us a bit about that and shed some light on what else people can expect from you in 2011?

The Wildfire EP is my first EP as Chairman Kato, I’m very excited to be working with the Pictures boys. It’s got a bump to it but it’s not particularly dancefloor orientated... lots of noise, lots of tape saturation, with little bits of light in there to stop you killing yourself.

There’s going to be plenty more from me in 2011. Currently putting another EP together and then I’m going to decide what the hell I’m going to do with massive pile of stuff I’ve got sitting here. Basically I’m gonna be putting out more EPs in various places and possibly an album. Also I’m working on an audiovisual installation. Oh yeah, and a live show.

Tell us a little bit about the mix you’ve put together for us…

I really enjoyed doing this mix. I knew that it would be easy to get waylaid for days short listing tracks so I just pulled out stuff that was to hand and took it from there. I think it’s important to vary tempos and styles in a mix to keep it interesting so as well as new stuff by people like Hype Williams and John Roberts I couldn’t resist throwing in some Joy Division and one of my favourite 7s, by the Fabulous Three. There’s a track by Broadcast there in tribute to Trish Keenan [who passed away recently], which I’m still in shock about.

Any words of wisdom, for our readers?

Don’t wear your jacket inside and chew your food properly.

::

DOWNLOAD: Chairman Kato – Sonic Router Mix #67



Tracklist:

1. Leyland Kirby- ‘The Sound of Music Vanishing’
2. Harmonia and Eno- ‘Vanos Companeros’
3. Kassem Mosse- ‘Untitled’
4. Chairman Kato- ‘Streets Of Rage’
5. Lukid- ‘Rags’
6. Bat For Lashes- ‘Glass (Chairman Kato’s Rework)’
7. Hype Williams- ‘Rescue Dawn’
8. Fabulous Three- ‘Answer Me Softly’
9. Radiohead- ‘The Gloaming’
10. Redshape- ‘Manhattan’
11. Wbeeza- ‘Southern Girl’
12. Shed- ‘My R-Class’
13. John Roberts- ‘Navy Blue’
14. Luke Abbott- ‘Trans Forest Alignment’
15. Joy Division- ‘A Means To An End’
16. Com Truise- ‘Sundripped’
17. Broadcast- ‘You And Me In Time’
18. Chairman Kato- ‘Gemini Eyes (Teasmith version)’

The Wildfire EP is out on Pictures Music this Valentine’s Day.

Links:
www.myspace.com/chairmankato
www.picturesmusic.co.uk

INTERVIEW: Downliners Sekt [disBoot]

Followers of the writing that appears on this page and the stupefied textures that appear in our radio show should be aware of our penchant for weird abstractions. Long since a fan of Murcof and Philip Jeck, players that harness the full power of white (and pink) noise and - at the risk of sounding like a complete thundercunt - of the fulfilling kind of solace listening to the unfurling of a drone can provide, we like going to art galleries, and or big white painted spaces to listen to a heavy set Japanese dude detune a banjo for an hour and three quarters. Alt-rock band Fog remain one of the most important bands in this blog's editor’s musical history, and in a sense, they hit the nail we’re trying so hard to paint upon, on the head. Fusing conventional pop song melodies with awkward glitches, propelling drum lines and full on horn wig out sections, they’re weird enough to engage our elevated opinions and have pretty enough songs to make us listen to them way more than once.

Downliners Sekt are another one of the acts that appease all sides of our tastes. Ethereal enough to be ceremoniously stamped with a Burial influence, it’s the crackle of static that is the outfit’s biggest star on their June released Hello Lonely, Hold The Nation EP - put out as the first part in a trilogy of EP’s on Barcelona’s disBoot label - and it’s with their acre deep crunch that we’ve so openly bonded. Largely anonymous, never conversing using names, the rotating group began producing music under the Downliners Sekt moniker back in 2004...

“It's the classic story of a bunch of all time friends sharing the same cultural interest,” we’re told by the vocal representative of the group over the course of several emails, “but unlike most bands, we started working together when we got separated and were all living in different cities.”

“Thanks to the internet we broke the gap between us and started collaborating. Back at that time we were more or less involved with different major signed bands that were taking most of our time and energy. Downliners Sekt started to take shape back then, coalescing from individual projects, waiting in the shadows and growing slowly but immaculately from deadlines, budgets schemes, and formats. Because music it's always been a priority to us, we've been arranging our time to keep making it happen. We never know what's coming next, but after a lot of crucial changes and 6 releases, it's good to see we have a history backing us up.”



Stretching across two albums, 2005’s Statement of Purpose and 2008’s The Satire Wave the Sekt have built a catalogue that swims in diversity. From the early dubstep bass weight of Statement of Purpose’s opener ‘Benz’ to the blitzing textures on Hello lonely…’s closing track ‘Negative Green’ and the guitar infusions on their entire Satire Wave album, the group have skewed themselves across almost every genre, style and process. It’s only now, with the gift of hindsight, looking back through their discography and at the time they were constructed, that it becomes so evident how far ahead of their peers the group was, and are now.

“We were teenagers in the 90's so that's where most of our musical influences come from. We could be viewed as an indie/noise/garage band entirely submerged on a rave/DJ/party/drugs culture. With our second album The Saltire Wave, when we were working on it, we took a break from the machines, plugged in our guitars and the album was perceived by some listeners as post rock, which to us sounds a little bit reductive.

"when something we are producing begins to sound too clubby or too fancy we feel like taking an AK47 and shooting that whole dancefloor we've just imagined."

“We're never really sure of what sonic direction we are taking but we get more fun out of a huge noisy bass than a cheap 80's synth preset. We work on a very spontaneous way of producing tracks which is avoiding clichés, pre-made loops and stuff like that. To us it's about creating and destroying. It's like when something we are producing begins to sound too clubby or too fancy we feel like taking an AK47 and shooting that whole dancefloor we've just imagined.”

Positioning Downliners Sekt’s music in a club is another, wholly welcomed contradiction. Sharing little aspects of the beat scene – in that sometimes there is a beat and that the kick drum of that said beat thumps powerfully – their most recent work impacts upon speakers with a stuttered grace. Organic vocals float behind the powerpunch percussion on tracks like ‘Selfish G,’ and, in a traditional lazy point of music journalism reference, echoes the work of Mount Kimbie, whose constructions fuse similar uncomfortable frequencies, beat patterns, vocal snatches and reams of bassweight.

“We've been changing setups and methods of working since day one, but right now its basically laptops and drum pad controllers. Since we started working with computers we've always tried to avoid the machine taking control of our sound and the sequencer taking control of the rhythm patterns. At the end, the computer became just another sophisticated multitrack recorder to us. We've been recently trying some external analog gear, like vintage mixers and preamps but nothing really flashy. The final touch comes from the mastering studio when we work closely with the engineer and try to achieve the kind of sound we have in mind. He brings the gear and techniques while we suggest him to take some directions he wouldn't usually take.”


Downliners Sekt – Negative Green (video by Enrique Muda)

On the cusp of their 2nd EP in the trilogy, We Make Hits, Not The Public, it seems the troup are honing in on the glitches, fully making a feature out of those little crackle powered moments; always letting the snares rip through the mix with the stabbing high end snap of white noise.

“This trilogy is more like an album fragmented into three parts,” we’re informed. “It was a matter of urgency. After the release of 'The Satire Wave' came a long period of experimentation and when we got together again to start working on new material we realized that, because the way we work, it would've probably taken another year or so to complete an album. The guys at disBoot label were thinking on 7" singles or 12" so we started working in that line. It happens that this, more frequent sequence of releases is giving us more constant exposure than releasing a full length in that same period of time.”

On We Make Hits... the poignant roughness of tracks like ‘From Under Spinning Lights’ seeps out in fits, with the jagged edge of the chorus juxtaposing the layered vocals – that are actually just layered, and multi-tracked rather than chopped into fragments and rearranged into make shift sentences in that way so many producers seem to be fond of doing. ‘Incertia Gloria’ hits heavy with electrified kick drums piercing though the current, whilst ‘White Dawn’ paces things slower, making the most out of the sparse percussion and high pitched vocals and ‘Selfish G’ flutters impatiently, almost amplifying the aching anxiety of the whole release with its roughly sampled pads. Making music from such a broad palette can be daunting at times, having too much of a wealth to draw from can sometimes produce a work thats not streamlined enough to work as a whole, but Downliners Sekt make their genius sound casual. The perfect mix of the rugged and raw and the resplendent.

“It's not tough at all to categorize our music,” the anonymous producer ponders. “We have a whole list of styles that fit. When we have to tag our mp3 files we usually fuck around with made up genres: 'electronoise for breakbeat initiates,' 'slower but faster,' 'dawntempo,' 'r&k,' 'heavy mental,' 'noize in the woods,' '(under)grounded,' 'after hours post rock,' 'save as,' 'en descente de Portbou,' 'down the line,' 'by the way'... Really, people shouldn't spend too much time trying to categorize music; its better just listen to it."

Words: Oli Marlow

::

All the releases mentioned are available to download from the Downliners Sekt webstie. We Make Hits, Not The Public is out now.

You can download Downliners Sekt recent mix for the highly regarded Electronic Explorations podcast series, in show number 127 here: http://electronicexplorations.org/the-show/127-downliners-sekt/

Link:
www.downliners-sekt.com

DOWNLOAD: WNCL - Mrs Fingers (Ekoplekz Replekz)

Long since a bringer of joy and great music to our inbox, West Norwood Cassette Library’s Bob Bhamra’s enthusiasm for the game is infectious. After hearing DJ C in Untold’s FACT mix he made it his own personal mission to track him down and snag a few of his unreleased cuts for his label, and it’s this commitment to going that little bit further to chase something he believes in, which has so genuinely struck a chord with us. As a producer Bharma’s anthemic ‘Blonde on Blonde’ is set to be the first release on the brand new TEAL imprint - hitting like Martyn does with his new trademark booming, relentless kick its coming correct with a deconstructed Pearson Sound remix on the flip – and his ‘What It Is’ track from the first WNCL release still stands out in any mix it’s wheeled out in.

In the wake of his label’s 3rd vinyl release, ‘Mrs Fingers’ - Bhamra’s self styled tribute to Larry Heard, placed over a stripped down dubstep template - he’s not only roped in Echochord’s dub techno don Quantec for a remix on the vinyl version but he’s also sought out Punch Drunk’s most recent artist, Ekoplekz, to submit a version.

“Ekoplekz surprised me this week by sending me a remix (or replekz, if you will) of ‘Mrs Fingers,’ completely out of the blue,” Bhamra recalled to me recently. “I was mostly surprised because his performances (live and recorded) are strictly analogue and improvised so I wasn't sure any remixes were ever on the cards... anyway, I checked the remix and it’s pretty bonkers.”

An experimental musician residing in Bristol, Ekoplekz just released the 20th 12” on Peverlist’s Punch Drunk label, a move that astounded many. Moving acres away from the usual oddball dancefloor pressure the label is so good at housing the two tracks, ‘Distended Dub’ and ‘Stalag Zero’ are pure sound experiments, reportedly made on nothing but analogue equipment. ‘Distended Dub’ takes a suitably heavy bass pulse and splatters it with sheet noise and swells for 8 minutes whilst ‘Stalag Zero’ veers through atmospherics and tortured Indian string instruments in a decidedly ‘BBC Radiophonic Workshop’ kind of way, igniting the ghosts of Delia Derbyshire and John Baker as it careers through its textures.

So to put it simply, we’re stoked and indebted to be able to bring you the premiere of the Ekoplekz ‘Replekz’ version of ‘Mrs Fingers.’ Taking the tonal qualities of the original version’s main riff, Ekoplekz thuds the whole thing out, deploying barrages of distorted kick drums, diamond edged stabs of noise and a severe talent for unleashing the requisite amount of reverb at any given time. It’s a sound experiment that really works; a dark and subtle almost beat-less (in the conventional sense) progression that stamps the Ekoplekz production process all over it while just hinting and the melody of the original.

DOWNLOAD: West Norwood Cassette Library – Mrs Fingers (Ekoplekz Replekz)



Both WNCL003, ‘Mrs Fingers’ b/w Quantec Remix and DRUNK020, Ekoplekz’s ‘Distended Dub’ b/w ‘Stalag Zero’ are out now. TEAL001, WNCL’s ‘Blonde on Blonde’ b/w Pearson Sound Remix is out 20th December.

Audio of nearly all of these is available at our Hivemind.fm show archive: mixcloud.com/sonicrouter

Links:
http://westnorwoodcassettelibrary.blogspot.com
http://ekoplekznews.wordpress.com

PRE-ORDER: Fuck Buttons - Tarot Sport [ATP]

2nd LP from the Bristol based noise duo Fuck Buttons.

Read the full review here: http://beardedmagazine.co.uk/wp/?p=1310

Link:
www.myspace.com/fuckbuttons

DOWNLOAD: 10-20 - Landforms Mix

10-20 has announced a series of 4 limited run EPs called ‘Isthmus’, ‘Mountain’, ‘Island’, and ‘Lake’ to follow up his astounding self titled debut album (full review here) AND, as a taster he's spun together a 15 minute mix featuring some of the forthcoming tracks which you can grab below...

DOWNLOAD: 10-20 - Landforms Mix

More info on the releases is available here: http://highpointlowlife.com/?p=814.

Link:
www.myspace.com/1020musik