Untold – Dreaming Of The Future

One of my favourite artists right now is touring Australia. The man I am referring to is Jack Dunning.

Dunning’s productions as Untold have morphed and entralled me since his first release on Hessle Audio back in 2008, Kingdom. I remember when I got that 12″ – it barely left my decks for the first month.

Flick to 2010 and his new single on R&S has also been on high rotation since its release at the start of November. On Stereo Freeze/Mass Dreams Of The Future Dunning turns in a couple of absolute stormers. His early R&S references have now come full circle.

Check out Untold live at Numbers. Recorded live on Friday 4th September at the Sub Club.

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“I want to create and maintain an intense energy in the room, get people vibing, then feed off that. I want to capture the spirit of early rave where the beats were really varied”

Are we going to hear more of the R&S EP style from you in the near future?

Probably. I like the fact that people picked up on the early R&S references.

It was such a buzz seeing my name underneath the dancing horsey. The track Mass Dreams of the Future opened up few more electro influenced ideas for me to explore.

I’m holding off for a couple of months as currently I’m throwing everything into an album project that has an entirely different sound to anything I’ve made to date.

I guess one of the constant challenges for you as a producer is taking your audience on the ride that you set and making sure they come with you? I mean, most of the stuff you make would take at least 6 months or longer to come out and by that point you are probably on the next thing!

Between six months and two years! That’s the nature of putting out records though. It takes time and at each stage requires many things to be perfect that often go wrong.

For me it’s about capturing a moment on the track, making sure the idea and mix is as good as it can be and then moving on. In a perfect world the development of the tunes would be released chronologically but that’s not gonna happen if you work with various labels.

You have said a few times that your DJ sets are a mix of a lot of styles. I am more interested on how you feel when you play and what sort of journey you take the audience on. Describe that to me..

I want to create and maintain an intense energy in the room, get people vibing, then feed off that. I want to capture the spirit of early rave where the beats were really varied – you would have a dark hardcore breakbeat tune going into a happy piano breakdown.

It’s harder to pull off these days as clubbing is less of a “movement” and people are on different drugs. The line-ups in London are so amazing these days but its hard to create an atmosphere that transcends it being “just another club night”. When it works its amazing.

Is there a narrative arc in your sets?

That’s open to interpretation. A typical set might start with Altered Natives or Night Slugs rowdy house, then I might strip it back and play a few more minimal percussive house tunes then into some tribal, go deeper with some 2562 or Cosmin TRG, then into acid, then back intro electro sounding tunes from Bodikka and Addison Groove.

Hemlock has developed wonderfully. What are your plans for the label? Is there a label that you would cite as an influence in the way you run/curate Hemlock?

Thanks. We have no plans other than to keep releasing music that excites us. I see it as a long term project that will grow. Too many labels to mention as influences, but we just wanted to become one that people trust and anticipate the next release.

You have always experimented with your music. Any plans to do pieces for film, TV, or theatre?

No plans but if it feels right at the time I’ll jump at it

You mentioned in an interview with Blackdown that you have been experimenting with keying the kick drum. It’s a very cool technique. How’s it been working out?

You mean using a bass stab as the kick? I think I’ve rinsed that trick enough – time to find a new toy. The drums on my recent tunes are sounding much more natural and textured.

There almost seems to be a trend lately where albums, EPs or groups of songs need to be written ‘in the moment’. I think it is a product of how frenetic our sound culture is now (and our world). To stick there you need to lock yourself away for a period of time (an afternoon, a week.. whatever). What do you think?

I guess so – every producer works differently. For my EP on Hemlock I wrote most of it in a couple of weeks, then spent a couple more on mixdowns. For this album I’ve had a bunch of one minute sketches kicking about since August. Now that I’m confident of the direction and mood I’m going back to them and turning them into songs.

What are your plans for 2011? (releases, live, the Untold travelling circus?)

All of those! The next release on Hemlock is by a band called Breton, which is out December 6^th.

Catch Untold around Australia this week:

Wednesday 23^rd November – Perth
Friday 25^th November – Sydney – Index @ Goodgod Small Club
Saturday 26^th November – Melbourne – Too Much @ Mercat Cross