Super Flu – Ransacking The German House

3rd
Sep. × ’10

Super Flu

Super Flu's entire approach to music shows that they are having a lot of fun. With track names like "Beyonce Bukkake" and "Beautiful girls have large handbags" they immediately destroy the traditional image of 'serious German DJs'. But behind that image Feliks Thielemann and Mathias Schwarz have worked hard to create their own, contagious style of house. With their creative glue and sublime production they have been turning heads consistently since their first single in 2005.

Milestones along the way have seen them included on Lee Burridge's Balance Series mix and signing a number of singles to the respected labels Traum and Herzblut (the first release on Herzblut that wasn't label head Stephan Bodzin). What's more, they have done it all without the 'easy Berlin tagging' that so many of their contemporaries have had. Instead, these German boys hail from the east in Halle (Salle).

They released their debut album, Heimatmelodien (literally, "Melodies From Home"), in March this year. It was published on their own label Monaberry and the first single, Oktavlachs, features the most amazing video clip. It breaks the usual drifting fantasies that fill dance music videos and replaces it with Thielemann and Schwarz as the centrepiece. Their lips, faces and ears are made to move in time with the beats and it simply has to be seen to be believed. It's pure fun and these German boys want you to have it to their music.

What's Halle (Salle) like as a place to live?

F: Halle is small, a bit dirty and not very exciting as a city. To the outsider, it might look like just every other average town with a population of 200 000 people. Many call it the "Gray Diva", but it is the most beautiful city for us.

M: Yes, we have everything that you need to survive in this hard techno world. Our friends, our families, an airport and above all, all the comfort and silence that allow us to concentrate on our stuff. And in case we really miss the big city feeling or the DJ gossip, we can reach Berlin in just one hour.

Did you grow up there and was music a big part of your childhood?

F: My music education started at an early age in one of the oldest boys’ choirs in Germany. I think I was 6, when I wrote my first note on paper. And since then I cannot imagine my life without music.

M: I also started some many years ago to travel in our region to play in clubs and to try out to be a DJ. In the beginning I was playing cassettes, later vinlys... And at some point our paths crossed.

What inspired you to start creating music?

F: It is hard to say when it all started. I remember for example how I did my first recordings with Grandpa’s Herbert old tape recorder. I must have been around 7 years old. And later on I had my personal tape recorder and later a computer and I experimented by myself. After some time there were even things that I was happy with. But there is an artist, who has influenced us both a lot and this is Matthew Herbert.

Is this your philosophy of creating music? "Is your equipment rubbish? Trust your intuition, tickle the max out of the old stuff and squeeze inspiration out of everything you can lay your hands on!" And if so, would we find a studio full of old synths, squeezy childrens toys and strange objects for making noises? Perhaps even a reel to reel?

M: We have a small studio in the outskirts of Halle, where we go occasionally. There we have a number of selected instruments, effects, sequencers and beer. We believe it is very important to limit our opportunities, so in a way we are pushed to explore few instruments/effects, etc very intensively, which really helps us to be creative on the other side. This applies to everything else – be it a music program or a place to live in.

You released your debut album "Heimatmelodien" earlier this year. Tell us about the creation and inspirations behind the record.

F: The process was not very long, not like in the case of other artists. We rented a small house in Jonkoeping, Sweden for two weeks, where we hid from the world. We took our most important utensils from home and it was there, where we enjoyed life in its most pure form and we collected ideas. We had to pick wood for the fireplace, we went fishing and in the mean time we improved our instruments and software.

M: The complete material consists of different loops, recordings (for example we recorded the splashing of the water on the stones in the saune = white noise) and melodies, which were then mixed in our studio in Halle.

Super Flu - Heimatmelodien

Have you been happy with how the album has been received?

M: Yes, absolutely. There was so much positive feedback from all sides. Even people who usually don’t listen to house and techno expressed a positive opinion. It is great honor for us and shows us that we did not do everything wrong.

You have a very fun feel in your promotion and your artwork. I wonder.. how would your best friend describe you if I asked them?

F: I believe that our artistic identity is not much different from what we are in reality. We are not trying to create a certain image, we want to be as real and honest as possible and reach high degree of authenticity. We have fun in life and in our music. Why shouldn’t we show this to the world?

Speaking of fun.. Who produced the Oktavlachs video clip?! It is a wonderful idea - very different from the usual dance video.

F: We like to give a personal character to our tracks – either through the right track name or through a video. Everything happens spontaneously though. We come up with some general framework, we call our friends, get an old camera rolling and it all starts to flow. We don’t need producers, who try to develop their scrip at all costs.

What are your Top 5 tracks at the moment?

Rüde Hagelstein – Emergency
Caribou – Sun
AndHim – Patty Sue (Super Flu RMX)
Veitengruber – Last Train
Oliver Klein & Kolombo – Chica Chica (Loko RMX)

What are your plans for the rest of the year and into 2011?

M: We will be taking good care of our labels Monaberry and Sunset Handjob. There is a release planned with remixes by Format: B and Dapayk and in the beginning of next year, there will be a new EP on Monaberry.

And, last but not least, what are your top 5 tips for Australians visiting Germany?

- go to the "Fusion Festival"
- eat white sausage with bretzel and sweet mustard
- visit "Charles Bronson" in Halle
- say yes to everything
- drink beer

Super Flu are touring Australia this month:

http://www.futureentertainment.com.au/events/currenttours/502-super-flu-september-2010

Check them out in Melbourne TONIGHT at Likes Of You:
http://likesofyou.com.au/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=111:the-likes-of-you-with-marc-romboy-chez-demier-agoria-a-superflu&catid=6:current-events&Itemid=7

http://www.super-flu.de
http://www.discogs.com/artist/Super+Flu

Posted in Q&A, Writing | Tagged | Leave a comment

Symbiosis Episode 53 – Shades Of Gray – On The Road

1st
Sep. × ’10

After interviewing Beef Records head honcho, Michal, for Beat in July I asked him to get in the mix for Symbiosis. Michal (DJ Schwa and one half of Shades Of Gray) recorded this mix whilst he was on the road at the start of August. It's a great mix and it will definitely kick your week along nicely.

The label is presenting Peter Horrervorts (Amsterdam) in Melbourne this Saturday:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=134943109876782&ref=mf

and those of you in Sydney can check out the Beef Records crew on 1st October:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=146740418690479&ref=mf

Check out the interview after the mix info..

Cheers,

Simon

Symbiosis Episode 53 - Shades Of Gray - On The Road

Symbiosis - Episode 53 - Shades Of Gray

Download the mp3.

"I have recorded this mix on the road while touring USA. The whole US experience is being very inspiring... I have to thank you to all the amazing people and promoters involved. This mix represents the latest Shades Of Gray as well as Beef records sound. It is also a bit of a look into the future as some of these track are not even released and signed yet. It's is not a banging dancefloor mix so hopefully you will enjoy it while working or chilling at home." - Michal Schwa

Tracklist:

1. Ola - Club Silencion [Beef records]
2. Cosmic Cowboys - Amor Vincit Omnia [Beef records]
3. Lele Cecchini - Joia (Shades Of Gray remix) [Frequenza Records]
4. Jet Project - Message From Chicago (Shades Of Gray remix) [Beef records]
5. SCOPE - Feel It (Shades Of Gray remix) [Beef records]
6. NTFO - Allure (Shades Of Gray remix) [Beef records]
7. Shades Of Gray - Let's do it again
8. Nunzi & Rohin - 1950 (Shades Of Gray Nuts Bang remix) [Beef records]
9. Shades Of Gray - That Night
10. Yokoo - Sala Malecum (Shades Of Gray remix)
11. Shades Of Gray - Just Like That

Recent and Upcoming releases on Dark Energy, I records, Beef records, Frequenza, Tribal Vision and of course Beef!

www.beefrecords.net
www.djschwa.net
www.myspace.com/shadesofgraysounds

You recently released Prime Cuts Vol 3 - another slab of great sounds! How has the reaction been?

Prime Cuts 3 did really well. Better then we expected to be honest. 4 tracks went straight into top 100 on Beatport and the Peter Horrevorts remix of Australian producer JML stayed in top 10 deep house for almost 3 weeks. For this success we also have to thank to high profile Djs like Fedde Le Grand and Sebastian Leger for including the track in their top 10 charts.

Your first release was in 2006 and there has been a fairly consistent release volume each year since then. Tell me about the history of Beef - why did you start the label and how has your approach/philosophy changed over the years?

Before Beef was born I was working on a label called Tribal Vision records. We used to release progressive house and trance... that was back in 2004. When I moved to Australia I decided starting my own label. I was really influenced by the early sound of electro and minimal (before it went all bleepy and annoying). My partner from Tribal Vision records had a slightly different taste so we have decided to split and launch Beef. Nick West got on board about a year later and invested some money so we could go "next level". At the start it was quite hard, especially being so far away from our main market - Europe. But we have managed to establish a really cool connection with oversees markets and the local Aussie market of course.

If you could go back to 2006 and tell yourself one thing you have learned the hard way over the years of running the label what would it be? :)

The most important thing you have to realize is that there is very little money to be made with the actual record label itself (selling records/CDs/downloads). On the other hand there is a lot of other ways how to do well. It can be anything from touring, organizing events to gigging and merchandise. So the label is really a promotional tool to get good music out there and build the profiles of the artists associated with it. Obviosly it has helped our own project Shades of Gray to get on the map and has given us the creative freedom to put out music we believe in.At the end of the day you just have to be creative, open to new opportunities and work really hard.

Is your own music and the label a full time thing for you?

Music is my full time thing.... Label, producing, playing live, djing and a few other things. You have to mix it up otherwise you would go crazy ;)

How do you go about the process of A&R for the label?

It is very organic process. We are getting sent a lot of demos. Most of the random demos you get in your mailbox are crap. However some producers write a song with your label in mind. When we receive demo like that it is usually quite good and suitable. If we really like it we decide to do an EP or/and include track on a compilation.When we are doing artist EPs we usually secure a few nice remixes from our artist friends or we approach someone new. As the label profile has grown more and more name artists have been approaching the label wanting to work with us. This shows that we must be doing something right.i

Digital releases have got much stronger since you started the label but they haven't quite made up for the loss of physical sales yet. I guess though that your label has been build around those modern economics right?

Absolutely... and that is the reality. The Internet has taken over the music world. It is very hard pressing vinyl these days. We still want to continue with vinyl... more like special limited editions once or twice a year. The problem is not only that no one is buying records anymore but the biggest problem is piracy and sharing. One person purchases a track on Beatport and shares it with 10 of his friends. You couldn't do that with records. So even though the electronic music scene is massive the sales are quite low .But there is not much we can do about so there is no point whinging about it.

So what is coming up for the rest of the year for Beef?

We have a really cool EP coming out soon, it is called 1950 and it is inspired by Duke Ellington and his early jazz/funk music. At the moment we are also working on an EP with an English producer SCOPE. That should be out pretty soon too. After that we are planning to release compilation called "After Hours" presenting music we like to play at afterparties like SPICE. Deep, sophisticated house music with danceable approach. We are also working on a Shades of Gray artist album so stay tuned for that.

Posted in Mixes, Uncategorized | Tagged , | Leave a comment

On the speakers

30th
Aug. × ’10

It's a big one to start off this week with 2562 in the mix for Little White Earbuds...

2562 vs A Made Up Sound - Little White Earbuds podcast 57

http://www.littlewhiteearbuds.com/podcast/lwe-podcast-57-2562-vs-a-made-up-sound/

Just like his Resident Advisor podcast late last year, this one is a keeper.. get on it!

What mixes are lighting up your world right now?

Cheers,

Simon

Posted in Listening to | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Symbiosis Episode 52 – Janek Schaefer – Lucky Dip Disco Vol. 1

29th
Aug. × ’10

Symbiosis - Episode 52 - Janek Schaefer

Download the mp3.

Hi folks,

The mix series is back after a small break and we're kicking things off again with English Sound Artist, Musician & Composer Janek Schaefer.

Schaefer was born in England to Polish and Canadian parents in 1970. While studying architecture at the Royal College of Art, he recorded the fragmented noises of a sound activated dictaphone travelling overnight through the Post Office. That work, titled ‘Recorded Delivery’ [1995] was made for the ‘Self Storage’ exhibition [Time Out critics choice] with one time postman Brian Eno and Artangel.

Since then the multiple aspects of sound became his focus, resulting in many site-specific installations, exhibition & dance soundtracks, albums and concerts using his self built record players with manipulated found sound collage. The ‘Tri-phonic Turntable’ [1997] is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the ‘World’s Most Versatile Record Player’. He has performed, lectured and exhibited widely throughout Europe [Sonar, Tate Modern, ICA], USA/Canada, [The Walker, XI, Mutek, Princeton], Japan, and Australia [Sydney Opera House]. In 2008 he won the Paul Hamlyn Award for Composers Prize, and The British Composer of the Year Award in Sonic Art. The Bluecoat Gallery exhibited a Retrospective of his 20 year career in 2009. He lives and works in Walton-on-Thames.

Janek tells me that his Symbiosis mix is a "kind of lofi live mix with two acoustic record player and an edirol recorder. It sort of sounds shit quality on purpose – like the fidelity of a cassette tape, a mixtape for a mate. A diary show reflecting on the early 90’s dance music and other bits.. Who does it play for you...?"

I love the fact that Janek's mix shows us another side of his musical interests. We had a chat by phone a couple of weeks ago and you can read the q&a below.

Enjoy this episode of Symbiosis!

Cheers,

Simon

Janek Shaefer on the TV

Janek Schaefer interview - 6/8/2010

Symbiosis: Hi Janek

Janek Schaefer: Hi. How are things in Australia?

S: Good - it's about 9pm here. How are you doing?

JS: It's midday here and I went to bed at 6am, so I'm just getting up! (laughs)

S: Are you a night worker usually?

JS: Yeah, yeah. That's when all the inspiration hits and all the distractions are all asleep.

S: You have three children now right?

JS: Two kids.. 4 and a half, and one.

S: Excellent

JS: Yes they are. (laughs)

S: So, what are you working on at the moment?

JS: I have just got home from running my installation 'Asleep At The Wheel' in Milton Keynes. That's a new city in England that was planned around roundabouts and straight roads in the sixties and seventies.

I actually grew up there as a child, on the edge of the village.

I was the artist in residence there. They invited me to do a piece about cars in the city of roundabouts. I had six months and I didn't know what I was going to do and it turned out to be - well how do you define success? - an extremely rewarding and surprising experience.

S: It's very hard encapsulating sound art isn't it?

JS: I can't describe to the lay person what it is that I do succinctly or intelligently without feeling like a bit of a buffoon. (laughs)

S: Well I know a lot of sound artists like yourself are installation artists more than they are recorded music artists. How do you decide what to encapsulate on a record or what to release?

JS: On a record? Well limitation is good - you have stereo and about an hour. That's usually quite helpful. I've never had a problem translating installations into records. People always mention how it translates when they write about these things. But if I am doing a piece for a record then it's a piece for a record. It may be inspired by an installation but try to mix it as a composition.

S: I guess it's a bit like a live recording and capturing it at a point in time.

JS: Well, I've never done like a sixty minute walk around. I have always taken the material and tried to develop it into something that is satisfying on a disc.

S: Your first Room40 recording was a live recording in a church right?

JS: That's right. Well, it was a live composition. I composed it as a piece to be performed to a structure but performed it live with recorded elements - I knew it would last an hour and have four movements. And then I diffused it and played it, and messed with it, live in a hall. So that was a hybrid. Everything's a hybrid really.

S: I love that record - it's probably my favourite release by you.

JS: Well I always say that every record is my favourite as I've go through my career. (laughs) But that one is the one I would currently say is my favourite record. It encapsulates the installation, the live element, the source materials, the slowness, the intricacy, the atmosphere, the 'site specificness', and all those things. It came out well and I like it a lot too, thank you.

S: Would you say that there is a philosophy that encompasses your work?

JS: I definitely have a set of rules that I make and/or break. The first thing that came into my head when you said that question is serendipity and context. Those are the two things that inspire me.

I can't do anything unless I have a deadline and context, a reason to do it and who it's for, what it's going to be, the purpose of it. I generally don't just sit down and make tracks. I'm not a studio artist - I always have to have.. how much money is it, who's going to be there, what's the kind of space, when, what time of night. All these things narrow what I'm going to achieve. So I always try to think first, 'What's my audience?' and then make it for that.

Apparently that's what you should never do - you should never make work for your audience, you should make it because you want to make it. But I have to know who it's for first.

S: It sounds like you're a person of context and that you work best creatively with limitations.

JS: Absolutely. Limitation breeds creativity - I've always said that. It's what I enjoy…

S: I know when we spoke previously on Symbiosis we looked at your architectural background. I won't go back there again - it's fairly well established. But how would you see your work as having evolved since 1995.

JS: Yeah, well the first work I did was for that self storage building, it was Recorded Delivery. I posted a tape recorder through the post. It was very much defined by the fact that it's a building full of boxes that move around space. So I posted a box to the space and it recorded its journey.

And, where am I now? I just finished Asleep At The Wheel. That was in another architectural space which is an old supermarket and it was 100 metres long, 40 metres wide. An epic space. And I put this ghost road of cars through it. And I did this piece that ended up being all about our consumerist situation, our consumerist culture, and where we are heading in the next five, ten, twenty years on this more,more,more/foot-to-the-floor/fast line of life with our head in the clouds in a day dream, thinking the road goes on forever. It's about how we think we can have everything but we're on a finite planet, ripping stuff out of the ground as fast as we can and burning it; in the last generation we've burn half the fossil fuels on the planet and things are going to change for my children. It's a reality.

So the site, the space, was where people in Milton Keynes used to go shopping for their blueberries from South America and their lamb from New Zealand, and the came in with this road of flashing cars in the distance. (laughs) It was very eery.

The site played a big role in it. Actually, I didn't complete the story of Asleep At The Wheel earlier.. we had 7,500 people through in 10 days which, for an experimental person like me, is a little off the radar!

S: That's huge!

JS: Yeah. Michael Jackson sells that many tickets in an hour.

S: Yes, but it's about context.

JS: It was shocking - it was full.

There were 10 cars and you could sit in the back of each car and it played a new soundtrack to you. It fed you sentences about research I had been doing with people who know what's going to happen in the imminent future. So it was very much an information art piece.

It's a very tough subject that people don't like to talk about. I mean, I find it hard at home raising these issues! I get called an evangelist and a dinner party bore and all of this kind of stuff. It's socially difficult to talk about this really, really pertinent, socially important subject.

So when I chose it for the installation I didn't know what response I was going to get. I had a woman crying at the end because she recognised that she had done nothing about this issue in her lifetime. She felt a tremendous amount of guilt and she had tears rolling down her face. It was incredibly powerful. And apparently people were having a bit of light sex in the back of one of the cars so I had it all - from birth to death. That's what Facebook says anyway! (laughs)

S: It's good to know that it connected with people - emotionally and sexually it seems!

JS: Yeah, and how do you define success? The numbers were fantastic, my wife says it is the best piece I have done, but the amazing thing was that people came back three times to see this - what I thought would be a difficult experience. But I wanted to make it memorable so that they took on information. And the comments book is just - I've got 250 photographs of a bunch of the comments in it and it's just a book of goodness. People lapped it up - it's was very moving.

S: It's great to hear.. So now that's done, what's coming up for you?

JS: I have two releases coming up. Room40 is releasing my project National Portrait - The Last Transmission which is a 24 hour composition. I'm releasing it in an audio file format - an audio file album as I like to call it - as a usb/download thing. It's an installation that I did at Christmas, when they stopped transmitting analogue television across the city of Liverpool where I did my retrospective at Christmas last year.

We had five television channels that are being shut down and we are starting to switch to digital. So it was kind of this switching point between analogue and digital culture. And it's another thing about how 'more, more, more' is how we want our society to go by having a thousand channels rather than five. Are we better off? No, I don't think so. No one seems to be able to find anything on the telly any more, even though there are a thousand channels!

So I recorded the last twenty four hours of each of the five channels. I cut each of those up into little sound bites and played them on five tellies. On the random playback system that I often use all of the sound bites ricochet around the room and make new contexts for the audience that are walking around them. So for the release I have mixed all of that together into a thousand mp3s that last twenty four hours.

Janek Schaefer - Vacant Space image

S: Those sort of ideas really stick with you I think. That concept of the end of analogue television being an epoch.

JS: What's interesting I think.. I did Recorded Delivery which lasted an hour and I did it with analogue cassette tape on a sound reactors tape recorder dictaphone. Now fifteen years later we have the means to make a twenty four hour album and to record it, you know. I did five twenty four hour recordings - one hundred and twenty hours of audio that I had to chop up! (laughs)

So it was pretty scary. When I was two days from opening the show I had to take on board that I had to edit one hundred and twenty hours of audio in a day and a half. We got a team of volunteers in the morning because I was panicking and by the evening they had edited the whole lot into short chunks using contemporary software.

And I have just been commissioned by the London Sinfonietta, which is an avant-garde orchestra that started in the sixties. My brother-in-law, John Tavener did the first piece by them called The Whale that was released by the Beatles. And because of Asleep At The Wheel this orchestra has commissioned me to do whatever I like.

They told me, "Janek, you can do anything!" which is always very hard for me. I have to define my boundaries. But you know, they said, "you can do a piece that lasts two weeks if you like!". And I was like, "Okay! Let's move up from a day to two weeks!" (laughs)

Not sure what I'm doing yet.

S: At least you have that freedom. It sounds like Asleep At The Wheel will be a great springboard for you.

JS: The wonderful thing about Asleep At The Wheel was, as an artist-in-residence at an international festival, not far from London, waves of people who are influential in the art and music scene coming through. I got to give a ten minute lecture to them. So I definitely hit a few nails on the head there and then off the back of it came the commission for the London Sinfonietta.

So it seems to be a nice step up to the next level. It's exciting.

S: Yes it is.

JS: So my other cd is coming out on Spekk in Japan which is called Phoenix & Phaedra Holding Patterns which is my concert for radio transmitter and sound PA in a concert hall setting. I don't perform on the stage and I have speakers in front and behind the audience, and little portable radios dotted around the audience. And I mix a live acousmatic concert - it's very dynamic, strong and powerful but also quiet, tender and fragile because of the transmitter technology. That's coming out on Spekk soon.

S: Excellent. It sounds to me like one of the evolutions in your work is the sheer size and scale of the canvas. It's wonderful to know that your vision can be writ on such a large basis.

JS: Yes.

S: My last question today relates to your children. As an artistic parent, how do you see your children growing up in that context. It's a very unconventional context and I wondered how you are passing knowledge on to them.

JS: Well, kids as you know.. I'm addicted to innocence and the purity of youth is divine. They get clouded with realities as they get older. Scarlett is only four and a half but you know..

When I was talking to her about energy and usage, on the very domestic level of light switches, she just got it one hundred percent. And obviously I give her a framework that is a bit wider as an artistic parent.

And I sit in the car with her and discuss 4x4 cars and sports cars because I don't really think they're the way to go. And she says, "Daddy, daddy.. is that because they only have two seats?" (laughs) But she gets it!

The kids get it and what's incredible on a down-to-earth basis… My local primary school have a very head teacher and it took a lot of work to get her in there. And we went to the opening meeting where the headmaster gave a speech and he said, "blah blah blah.. we won the first prize for being the most sustainable school in Britain because we reduced our energy use by eighty percent in the last few years, and we ran the whole school off the national power grid for a couple of weeks recently."

I was like "Wow!"

So I went and interviewed him for Asleep At The Wheel. Well someone came up to me after going to Asleep.. and they talked to me about this guy who talked about this school they ran and they found it really inspirational!

"Be The Change You Want To See In The World" said Gandhi. I stuck that on the mirror in one of the cars and someone came and wrote a comment, "It's a bit sixth form philosophy!" (laughs)

I try and live up to that quote in my own little way. I'm as hypocritical as anyone. I mean, my whole career is as an 'international sound artist' - yay Janek! That means I have flown around the world on cheap energy in the last fifteen years, with cheap electronics, cheap laptops. The only reason I can survive as a sound artist is because of the cheap energy and materials that we've been using more and more in the last decade.

I don't want to do that any more. I want to focus on being more local so it's been great being the artist in residence.

S: Janek, I'm going to let you go and enjoy your day. I'm very happy that we can feature your mix on Symbiosis.

JS: Yeah I hope people enjoy it because it's the type of music I used to listen to before I became an experimental artist. All the early nineties dance tracks when I lived in Manchester. And I started the Lucky Dip Disco because of Scarlett to educate her about sound and dance music from the last sixty years rather than just contemporary cds they make now and most children get fed on.

The tunes I have chosen make you dance and my own music just makes you dance in your head. And I love people dancing! These are the tunes that got me off the sofa and onto the dance floor at the Hacienda on a Wednesday night.

Janek's website is at Audioh.com

Forthcoming

Phoenix and Phaedra holding patterns CD - Spekk [Japan] Summer 2010

+

50 Inner Spaces [for JG Ballard]
Split 5” vinyl release with Stephan Mathieu
Cronica [Portugal]
http://www.cronicaelectronica.org/

+

‘Exposure’ CD Summer 2010
Cronica [Portugal]
http://www.cronicaelectronica.org/

+

Desert Island Discs radio show with Philip Jeck
http://www.audioh.com/information/Desert%20island%20DIscs.html

+

‘Sound Art’ Retrospective Exhibition 2010
http://www.audioh.com/projects/soundartretrospective.html

Posted in Mixes | Tagged | Leave a comment

Wiley – New Life For Grime’s Godfather

24th
Aug. × ’10

Wiley interviewed by Simon Hampson for Beat & Symbiosis

"What I've really got to do though is travel the world," Wiley tells me. "I don't really want to sit down here. I've been here for 31 years."

The so-called 'Godfather Of Grime', the UK rap style that emerged around 2000, has a new lease on life. Around two weeks ago he leaked eleven zip files full of unreleased tunes - including a whole album, The Elusive, that was going to be out later this year. And the files aren't just bad mp3 versions - they are full cd quality files. What's more, he did it all via Twitter as well as firing his manager at the same time. It sent the online Grime communities into a frenzy and even managed to bring down the Grime Forum website with all the downloads.

Speculation was rife that Wiley had gone mad or was in a meltdown but the story that has emerged, and the rational artist on the end of the phone with me, directly contradicts those theories.

He continues with his new worldwide focus: "What I really need to do is - I need to spend the next five years travelling and meeting the commitments of my music and the labels around the world, not just in England. If I stay in England it's a small horizon. There's a way that you can become worldwide and go to every territory and do the interviews, press and studio time with the musicians there." Wiley is starting that process by returning to Australia for Stereosonic after the cancellation of most of his club tour last year due to personal reasons.

But his vision goes further: "You see Timbaland and people like that. They do music on a scale where - say if he's at home and he decides, 'You know what I want to go to Holland today cause I wanna record with blah blah blah.' That's the power I wanna have."

Isn't that far fetched though? "You can make music where ever you are and whoever you are. If you're someone and people like you, and you like them, and you can bond and make music that will make money!" says Wiley. "Then you can be wherever in the world bro. But what you've got to keep doing is to keep moving. And in England they don't think outside the box and they think London is the world. And that's not really good enough for me and I need to know and see that it's not. I need to go and see these other places because I want to spread the vibe. I don't just what to be here."

He concludes: "The world is a big place and if you can get it right then it's only good for them places. And as long as I pay my taxes then we're live!" he says with a laugh.

Wiley has been working at a frantic pace since he released the zip files. "I'm just trying to vocal as many as possible," he explains, "because I know that there's always gonna be one out of a batch of tunes that someone is gonna like. If they don't like them you keep going because that's how you find hits. Otherwise if you just make one hit and then you wait and you wait that's like one hit wonder stylee and I don't really want to be like that. Know what I mean? I just wanna have song after song."

He explains the sharing of the zip files: "So I've leaked them to get the worldly vibe. I looked at Drake and Lil' Wayne and saw the way they leaked. And sometimes if you leak good music and people are like, 'why the hell did he do that?' - that is when you become the person that you really are. Because they see now that I make loads of music. I go around, I shop, I try to get deals. Sometimes the music goes unheard. That's two years old music that I've just got eleven zip files together and I let them go."

And Wiley also achieved another aim: "So everyone realises, 'Oh Wiley has been working but the labels ain't gave us what he's been makin! They just give it to us in dribs and drabs or they hide what he's really been making.'"

It's like a new beginning: "Yeah definitely man, definitely! So my whole point why I even leaked the tunes is because I said right cool.. If I leak these tunes that is a challenge for me to make the next twenty tunes build on top of these zip files."

But just as importantly it was a refreshing of Wiley's own outlook: "I realised that we're living in the time of downloads. Sometimes you have to use the free downloads thing. You have to get in the game. I didn't have to give it away but I did and the love that has come back is immense bro - I've never had it before. So I know that it is definitely a new day."

But what of firing his manager? "I respect every single person. I respect every person I have worked with - no matter what. If they fired me, or I fired them, or we fell out. The whole point of us falling out or moving on and not working together.. like with this manager John Woolf, the most recent manager, I fired him from being my manager not because I hate him - I think he's a cool person - but I need him in a different position in the company. I need him not to really be my manager. He needs to be a different job title so that I don't feel this way towards him."

Things are becoming much more clear and Wiley's thinking is clear too: "Cause I like him but not as my manager. So we switch it so he's my partner maybe so we do stuff together instead of... do you know what I mean? Cause he comes from the business side of it which is really really good - I need a business person. But then obviously a business person who's quite clever might try to be too clever on a different day and then when I work it out in four weeks time then I'm angry at him. You know what I mean? So that's all that is. But everyone else - like XL - every label that I have worked with I've got so much love for them."

Wiley - Playtime

But the love goes deeper than the business: "Not because they gave me money - money was part of it - but that's not why. The reason why I love them is that they didn't give up no matter what. If I walked out or couldn't handle it any more they were understanding. And they could have been much more angry because they did give me money for the music. So I can't hate them and I never will. All I will do is look back and say 'cool, maybe I'll work with them in a different way'. I won't be underneath them, they won't be underneath me, maybe we'll be equal."

But Wiley is holding himself to high standards: "If I fail or I don't meet the needs of what I need to then it's gonna be my fault. So that's why I want it to be my fault - then I can't blame someone else. I can't rely on anyone and I just have to keep going in my own brain. It's hard though man because most of the people in the world who work as hard as me in other countries - like in the US - they do less. They don't have to worry about all the things I have to worry about. Do you know what I mean? Their managers, everyone, has got everything so tight that all they have to do is just fuck about really. 'Scuse my language."

Fans are eagerly anticipating Wiley's next album later this year. "Since I released the zip files two weeks ago I have done like a tune or two tunes a day since then," he tells me. "So I've got like 20 tunes for my new album, King Richard The 2nd. I'll try and get it out this year, I'll be honest with you, but if it don't then it will come out early next year. If I can get a single out around the end of September and then release the album straight after that, and then do another single at the end of November then I'm live. It will be a tight schedule but I'm gonna talk to my label now and see what they're saying. Cause I just got a record deal with All Around The World."

For someone who has been in the game and acknowledged as an originator for so long it is great to feel such determination. "This time I just wanna remain on the label. I wanna sell a couple hundred thousand records - I don't just want a deal. Know what I'm saying bruv? I need the numbers. I was watching a little documentary and the manager said, 'numbers don't lie'. And he's right. Because what they do is the highest numbers is who you are bruv. And that's what I wanna be."

Wiley plays at Stereosonic nationally around Australia in November/December this year.

Posted in Article, Writing | Tagged , | Leave a comment

On the speakers..

23rd
Aug. × ’10

Hey folks,

We're back after a week's break.. the next Symbiosis episode will be with UK Sound artist Janek Schaefer with his Lucky Dip Disco.

For now I wanted to point you to Martelo's new mix, Ups and Downs. This is a fine mix - a nice little roller to start the week :)

I have embedded the player for convenience but you might prefer to play it directly from the site in their pop-up player (so you can change pages).

(thanks to Bassache for the pointer!)

What are you listening to?

Cheers,

Simon

Posted in Listening to | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Kidda – Speaking His Mind

13th
Aug. × ’10

It has been three years since Ste McGregor, aka Kidda, unleashed his debut album, Going Up, on the world. It is a record soaked in sun lit tones and soul vibes; drawing on the great Northern Soul tradition out of the UK. It was an instant hit helped in no small way by the track Under The Sun being featured in a Bacardi ad campaign. Add in a great club remix from Herve and he was onto a fast winner in the clubs too.

The story starts with a lot of hard work on McGregor’s part. Whilst he was working as an animator his tracks got the attention of Catskills Records in 2004. After releasing two EPs through them he was signed to UK label Skint Records. Based in Brighton, where McGregor now resides, the label is also home to Fatboy Slim, Midfield General, and Lo-Fidelity Allstars. He couldn’t have asked for a better platform to release Going Up.

Three years later and McGregor has finally finished work on his follow up album, Hotel Radio. It features vocal contributions from Gary Lightbody, Psycho Les from The Beatnuts, Blak Twang and many others.

On the phone from his home he tells me that the tools haven’t changed so much but his approach has. “I'm still mostly a computer based musician, but this time around I wanted to write the songs myself. Using samples is cool, but it's kind of a one way street, creatively; you're only going to get a good track if you found a great loop.”

McGregor explains his working process on Hotel Radio: “So, this time around I'd start with a sample and then take it to bits and put it all back together using different instruments and approaches, the tune would shoot off in another direction into something much more exciting. I'm still after huge hooks in my music so I began writing lyrics. While being something I only started at the end of the last album, it's become something else that I can work at, and for the most part, it works.”

And he’s going for the jugular: “Arrangement-wise, I have tried to make the tracks as short and punchy as possible, no 10 minute-soul-wig-outs on this one, my goal is to write the perfect 2 minute pop song - I don't really want any pissing about on this record.”

Strange title for the album though right? “I was djing in Sheffield back in February and flicking through the channels in the hotel room,” McGregor explains. “I came across the radio channel, with the words 'Hotel Radio' stuck in the middle of the screen. I took a quick photo of it and it just looked like this weird message that lit up the room.”

And here’s the thought behind it all: “It kind of sums up everything stupid in the world, like having to have it explained that you're listening to the radio, plus I've spent a lot of time in hotel rooms in the last couple of years, so I guess it reflects the delightful relationship I've struck up with these weird, transient buildings.”

McGregor really is a musician who is never afraid to speak his mind. Earlier this year a post popped up on his blog with ten commandments for producers. Apparently a magazine had called and asked about his tips. He confesses that the assignment was boring and he chose to do something interesting instead. “Whenever a conversation starts between dj's and producers about 'kit' and 'plug-ins' it just makes me yawn. Like, 'you spent all that money on some flash machine to write that pile of shit?' - for me it kind of misses the point of making music, it's a consideration sure, but little else. So I took the opportunity to list my general rules of thumb when making music in the vain hope it strikes a chord with the cyborgs who buzz off technology too much.“

And in a world where there are so many faceless producers or DJs it is refreshing to find McGregor speaking his mind. “Well fuck me for having a voice!” he faints anger and surprise at my opinion that he is just about to unleash hell upon the world at any time. But, speaking more seriously, he continues, “I think people take dialogue for granted, like they just say 'stuff' and none of it really matters and doesn't mean anything, most people would be happy to talk about shoes and mortgages till they die.”

McGregor continues on this train of thought: “But thinking is really fun and all I do is afford myself the time to ask 'why?' about a lot of things. If you do that and have a dialogue with the world then it makes life a bit richer. People think that to have an opinion about something is kind of political and shy away from it cos it might bring confrontation and, god forbid, you might have to do something about that, but if you choose not to give yourself a voice then where's your power?”

“I used to get frustrated that kids don't get pissed off about all the shit in the world, until I realised that with £20 for weed and a wi-fi connection, they were happy and didn't want for anything else. It doesn't make them selfish or mean spirited, it's just another inevitability of modern life and the way we communicate.”

McGregor is spending the rest of 2010 touring and working on a new live show for next year. After waiting so long to release Hotel Radio he is also intending to start work on the follow-up.

Kidda (UK) plays Super Disco at the Prince Bandroom this Saturday 14th August, 2010

http://kiddamusic.com/
http://www.myspace.com/kiddabeats
http://www.discogs.com/artist/Kidda

Download new Kidda tracks for free here:

http://www.skint.net/kidda/

Posted in Article, Writing | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Kool Keith – Proving The Critics Wrong

11th
Aug. × ’10

If you work long enough in the music industry then urban legends tend to form. When you're an artist like Keith Matthew Thornton, aka Kool Keith, those stories seem to get larger and more diverse as the years roll on. His artistic approach has fuelled the fire through the adoption of personas like Dr. Octagon, Kool Keith, and Dr. Dooom. The first one is an extraterrestrial time traveling gynaecologist and surgeon from the planet Jupiter, the second one loves girls and doesn't mind saying so, and the third one is a serial killer who murders Dr. Octagon on his first recorded outing. It's all a little esoteric and bizarre but that's where the genius resides.

Thornton's work has been nothing if not provocative and he always pushes the envelope. His first Dr. Octagon album, Ecologyst, was one of my favourite albums of the nineties and it was with a sense of anticipation that I picked up the phone to call him. After some time to get comfortable, chatting about what sort of weather he can expect when he visits Australia this time and the difference between his lifestyle in New York and LA (different girls apparently), we start to talk about what he is working on currently.

"I gave myself a break from rapping on tracks and a lot of other people's tracks. I mean, I do a verse here and there but I just took a break doing projects and collaborations with people," reveals Thornton. "I've been kinda taking notes on what's going on out there and listening to what's happening for a minute."

That consideration has yielded one conclusion: "I notice from my observations of the music industry that everyone is scared of an intimidating bassline. That's what I specialise in. Everybody is usually on the light side of things musically. Everybody wants to be sweet with the key but I use a lot of horror elements and stuff that sounds creepy at night. A lot of my music is intense because I like intense, you know. A lot of guys write intense lyrics but the music behind them doesn't sound intense. I want the music to be as intense as what I'm saying."

Continuing to talk about the elements in his songs Thornton continues: "I think those two things work together. It's just that when I meet a lot of other producers they don't seem to understand that. They just want to give me a beat but they're not listening to what I'm saying. It's an element of the feeling. It's like when you travel places, and you work with producers, they don't know what kind of element I'm coming out of. You know, I'm walking around the Bronx and I just heard a couple of gunshots, and people going through poverty, and everybody is looking mean and mad. And the producer might be somewhere else or not in that element. The music I'm trying to make fits the element so people around the world can get a feel of it."

The eternal challenge for artists is to evolve and take their audience along with them. A lot of people got stuck on the Octagon material and it is something that Thornton continues to rail against. "Dr Octagon was good. It was sci-fi written and we soaked our minds into the element of the record, and we talked some hi-tech stuff," he tells me.

And that time brought some very original approaches: "I was the guy who created the sci-fi thing and the backpack and the king of the underground stuff. But I think when Sex Style came out critics were claiming that I had lost my crown as king of sci-fi. I was hearing that other people were taking over my reign." And that kind of talk can really throw off good creative energy.

But for Thornton, he wanted to move on. "I kind of got tired of being known as a sci-fi rapper all the time - I did that, I mastered that, I was a blue belt, a black belt, green belt, whatever," he says. "So I showed people that I could master something else. I have a very broad imagination. Like when I did Sex Style, I did a record about my California life - taking pictures, girls, and partying - and some days I got songs where I'm talking about street issues."

He is quick to qualify that time and correct the perception: "I wanted to do some other stuff - that doesn't mean I fell off. I just switched - I wanted to rap about anything; girls, ass, whatever. I didn't want to limit myself to sci-fi but then again I'm from the Bronx. You know, I still rap with street slang and all of that. I don't have to rap with big words for the rest of my life because I already did that."

"I'm here writing cool shit that I wanna write, you know. Records like Matthew. But people thought I lost the crown again after Octagonecologyst. But I didn't want to have to prove myself again - I could do that space shit any time in my sleep. People felt that I fell off or that I was smoking drugs or something. I was reading articles that I haven't been good since Octagon. That was the public's opinion which is stupid to me. There were a lot of clones coming out and people started liking the clones.

So Thornton brought back Dr Octagon in 2006: "I started reading a lot of these articles and I was just like, 'Let me go do Octagon and take this crown and shut it down'. I didn't have anything to prove at that point but I did because a lot of those labels had a lot of artists popping up out of nowhere. And after I did that everybody shut up for a long time."

He uses a sports analogy about The Return Of Dr. Octagon: "You know, I did a Michael Jordan! I won two championships with the Bulls and I went to play baseball. And the critics started talking. But I came back and won another championship! They can't take it."

While Thornton is known as a lyricist, he is also an adept producer. In-between his Dr. Octagon and Kool Keith projects he invented the Dr. Dooom persona. "On the first one I did most of the production. First Come, First Served was a slap in the face cause that's when Black Elvis was coming out. Sony took a long time with that and I snuck out the Dr. Dooom record at the same time. I thought Sony were going to keep Black Elvis on the shelf so I went out and made Dr. Dooom. I came out independently with First Come, First Served."

Looking back at his career Thornton has definitely made his own luck and worked hard to push his music. "With a lot of these records people forgot that I didn't have a record company then," he says. "You know, the record companies get credit later but I popped out with these records independently. That's what I was trying to tell a lot of people. I kept my own career burning, my own career going. I popped these records out of nowhere. When Dr. Dooom came out - the first record, not the second album."

And his determination comes from trials and tribulations in his own life. "We made records in the projects and we grew up in inner city street life. We made Critical Breakdown when we were living in the projects, with people shooting drugs and guns, and getting on the elevator with people listening to hardcore records and everything. We just did our own thing because we were focused."

"We were totally urban - we were more urban than people who rap urban. We were living urban conditions - junkies, crackheads, gun shots. But I look at rappers who make records under really bad terms and they can still focus on making something positive. I could have written a typical record like 'I'm livin in the hood, life is hard' but I didn't do that. I chose to write some sci-fi stuff."

As for whats coming up: "I got a lot of tight, brand new stuff I've made that I haven't showcased yet. I'm always making new stuff; creating and making things that are totally different from everybody else's stuff. Because you know, sometimes I go into the studio and make things for myself. I have lyrics that I write at home. A lot of producers just want me to rap on stuff but I'm not really into just doing that. I rap professionally but sometimes I want to put a theme behind my own work."

Kool Keith (USA) plays on Friday 13th August at The Esplanade Hotel Front Bar with Maseo (US, De La Soul), Dialect & Despair

Posted in Article, Writing | Tagged , | 1 Comment

On the speakers

9th
Aug. × ’10

Dev79 sent across a new mix the other day.. you can download it free for a limited time:

DEV79 & THRILLS - PHUCK UR HEAD Mix July 2010

http://www.mediafire.com/?5046l9jzd1htf3x

01. Sduk – Clunge (Dev79 & Thrills Remix) - Slit Jockey Records
02. Starkey ft. Badness – Ok Luv (Dev79 Remix) - Planet Mu
03. Kastle – Better Off Alone (Udachi Remix) - Seclusiasis
04. NoNewYork – Dancehall Blues (Dev79 Remix) - Sub Philo Music
03 Three Of A Kind – Babycakes (Dev79 Remix) - dub
05. Jamtech Foundation – My Funky Wife - white
06. Brodinski – Arnold Classics (Egyptrixx Remix) - Grizzly
07. BD1982 – Lets Talk Math (Makumba Sound VIP) - Seclusiasis
08. Mista Men – Lengthy Riddim - Bass Tourist
09. Dev79 & Thrills - Phuck - dub
10. Alexi Delano - Adjust The Frequency - Clink
11. Teki Latex - Answers (Mikix The Cat Remix) - Sound Pellegrino
12. Rejected - Let's Go Juno (Harvard Bass's More Chords Edit) - white
13. Rico Tubbs - Born To Bounce (Mikix The Cat Remix) - Menu Music
14. Prepare To Meet Thy Broom - El Pollo Kasike (Dan Aux's Way Crazies Remix) - Sub Philo Music
15. Sidney Samson ft Wizard Sleeve - Riverside (Black Noise Remix) - Sneakerz Muzik
16. Thrills & Tony Rocky Horror - Luggage Gangsters (Original Mix) - Sub Philo Music
17. Blackfinger - UMF (Supra1 Remix) - Trouble & Bass Recordings
18. DZ - Shake That Ass (Thrills & Tony Rocky Horror Remix) - Badman Press

I have also been listening to James Zabiela's Essential Mix and the Magnetic Man Essential Mix - both highly recommended. What's on your speakers/headphones right now?

Cheers,

Simon
http://www.twitter.com/simonhampson/

Posted in Listening to | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Symbiosis Episode 51 – Ital Tek

7th
Aug. × ’10

Symbiosis Episode 51 - Ital Tek

Download the mp3.

Symbiosis Episode 51 features the work of 23 year old Brighton, UK, artist Alan Myson - aka Ital Tek. Alan has carved his own sound with references to 90’s Electronica, Hip Hop and Techno blended masterfully to create his own style of hard hitting and melodic bass music. In June this year he released his second full length album on Planet Mu entitled “Midnight Colour” and I knew it was time to get him in the mix and on the line for a chat.

Enjoy the sounds if Ital Tek.

Cheers,

Simon

Recent Releases

Midnight Colour (Planet Mu)
Moment In Blue EP (Planet Mu)

Tell us about your history as a producer and how you got into music.

I got into producing about 6 years ago when I was 18. I had been playing guitar in a band for a few years and then that fell apart so I started messing around making noise/ambient recordings on minidisc using my guitar and a load of pedals. Throughout my teens I was massively into labels like Warp and Planet Mu, bands like NIN, Radiohead and also a lot of garage and jungle. When I realised that I was quite a control freak with writing music I thought I’d buy a laptop and just give it a go seriously.

I think my sound has come about through not particularly wanting to rest on anyone aesthetic and bringing in elements from everything that got me excited about music when I was growing up. Hopefully that comes across to the listener.

Your second album for Planet Mu, 'Midnight Colour', recently came out. Tell us about the creative process behind the record.

It was all a bit mad to be honest. I wrote the whole record in about 6 weeks. Probably the only New Years resolution I’ve ever actually kept was that I wanted to start completely from scratch and get an album written quickly. It’s really hard to talk about the creative process because it’s such a personal experience and I was just totally in the zone whilst making it. When you have a burst of creativity like that you just have to go with it, and luckily it just all kind of fell into place. It was only when were getting round to sequencing the album in April that I realised I didn’t really have much recollection of writing any of it!

I think practically having some proper synths gave it all a new energy. It was the first time I’d used any hardware whilst making a record and I think that gave it a spontaneity and roughness that I hadn’t really got with my previous records. It enabled me to connect more with what I was making. A lot of the beats and most of the melodies are played in Live (obviously with a few edits because I’m not the greatest keyboard player!).

Your sound has definitely evolved since your first album, Cyclical. Is that a product of time and experience or was it a creative decision?

I’d say it’s both really. I feel I do have a lot more experience now and that my confidence in my productions is a lot higher. I tend to know what I’m aiming for now and get on with it. When I wrote Cyclical nearly 3 years ago it was much more of an experiment, trying to figure out what I wanted “my sound” to be. In some ways that was probably a good thing, but I like the level of focus I’ve got with music these days.

The only definite parameters I set out for myself with Midnight Colour were that I wanted it to have a much looser and more human quality and also for it to be less dark. I guess I’m not the best person to say whether it is or not, but to me it’s quite an uplifting record. I was in a much better place whilst writing it, and listening back to it now I can tell I was genuinely excited about the creative process. Planet Mu must have thought I was mad sending them a tune pretty much every day for weeks on end!

Ital Tek Live

What are you finding inspirational outside music at the moment?

I’ve forced myself to take a break from writing at the moment, and I think that’s actually refreshed me quite a lot. I’ve just moved house aswell so I havn’t been able to make much music. It’s good thugh because there are a lot more ideas swimming around in my head. Aside from that I’ve been doing a lot of remixes and just enjoying the summer!

I’m pretty hard on myself with writing and sometimes I get locked into this thought that I have to be making tunes all the time, and I don’t think that can be particularly healthy for creativity. My attention span is really short with music, so if I don’t get something down quick then I tend to just leave it and move on, and so forcing a break tends to get me moving fast next time I get on the tunes. I’ve ruined too many potentially good tracks by hammering them to death when I wasn’t in the mood.

Which artists are you enjoying right now?

I went to see the film Inception the other day and the soundtrack by Hans Zimmer is amazing! I’ve been listening to that loads on Spotify. I’d love to have a go at scoring a film.
Aside from that I’m really into my hip hop, pretty much the whole Stones throw catalogue, and whether it’s a hip hop record or whatever the new Fly Lo album is wicked. That’s the kind of album, you can just go back to over and over and it’s like the first time you’ve heard it. The DJ Nate album that is coming out on Planet Mu later in the year is great too, Mike Paradinas played me a load of Juke earlier in the year and it just put me in a trance, its nuts. I’m really feeling that. Move of Ten by Autechre is awesome too.

What are you planning for the rest of the year and into 2011?

As I said I’ve been doing a lot of remixes so they will be coming out over the next few months, and I’ve got more to do for after that as well. Hopefully there will be another EP on Planet Mu before the end of the year. I wrote loads of music just after finishing the album that I want to get out there, some more 90bpm kind of vibes, that Midnight Colour hints at. I’ll be doing another 12” on my own label Atom River also.

Aside from releases I’m just gonna be playing out loads, I felt like such a big part of this year already was taken up writing the album that I just want to focus on doing more gigs for a while. Starting to sort out a USA tour, which is something I’ve wanted to do for ages and hopefully I’ll come over to Australia some time soon!

...maybe I should try and dig out some of those old minidiscs too, and see if there’s something I can salvage...

Symbiosis Episode 51 - Ital Tek - Tracklist

Arkist - Until Next Time
Untold - Palamino
Throwing Snow - Un Vingt
Ital Tek - Moment In Blue V.I.P
Raffertie - Rank Functions (Ital Tek Remix)
Mr Fogg - Stung (Ital Tek Remix)
Starkey Ft. Anneka - Stars (Ital Tek Remix)
Tim Hecker - Harmony In BlueIII
Starkey - CoRot 9b
Ital Tek - Neon Arc
Ital Tek - Black and White
Ital Tek - Heliopause
Ital Tek - Spectrum Falls
Ital Tek - Subgiant
Kudeo - Glow
Silverman - Return of the Sun
Ital Tek - Untitled

Download the mp3.

www.twitter.com/italtek
www.soundcloud.com/ital-tek

Posted in Mixes | Tagged , | 6 Comments