NEO 09 – MIX AND INTERVIEW WITH ORCHID MANTIS

I recently caught up with Orchid Mantis, a producer whose dreamily melodic plunderphonic sounds have been capturing my imagination for some time now. He was kind enough to create a mix for our aural pleasure – a delectable, dreamy ambient construction that’s now on heavy repeat. Enjoy it, and check out our interview after the jump. 

Tell us a bit about your background and influences. I noticed on your bandcamp you talk about Entroducing…what about that album was so inspiring to you?

I first started writing songs on guitar, mostly just trying to sound like Nick Drake & Elliott Smith. I was always more interested in more hushed & introspective sounds, so when I got into ambient & hypnagogic pop, stuff that was incorporating electronics but obstructing them in lo-fi, foggy production, that really played a huge role in shaping my songs. At the same time, my whole perspective on how I could approach music was being broadened by albums like Endtroducing. Along with simply loving the sound of that album, I was inspired myself to try constructing songs around a sample being used as inspiration. Not having to start from scratch somehow made it a lot easier for me to find a voice & strengthen my songwriting.

I also read in an interview on Rare Candy that you’re influenced by summers in Sweden in your youth and filmmakers such as David Lynch…can you describe how these things inform your music?

I’ve always gravitated towards writing about nature, as well as taking inspiration from the natural sounds of places for the sort of organic, degraded tones I use. I guess this comes from my interest in trying to express a sense of place & environment in my music. Somehow many of my songs end up outside in wooded areas or generally in/outside friends houses after dark. When I’m writing about the woods, I’m drawn to childhood memories of Sweden because that’s when nature was grandest for me, spending all day wandering around middle-of-nowhere farmland until I could see the sun set & headed home. These are also very old memories; I write about the past in my music far more often than the present so it becomes clear that there’s significant warping – very romanticized pictures in my head that I’m trying to convey accurately. That’s what my interest in surrealism stems from, I like to emphasize elements & shape the tone of the lyrics & sound of my music in a way that isn’t intended as an accurate depiction of events, but rather, how the memories appear now looking back. Often they feel sort of like a dream, looking back on the logic of past lifestyles. David Lynch also seems interested in approaching reality through a warped lens, taking things we recognize & twisting them until they’re just off enough to feel foreign & uncanny. Discovering him & the entire surrealist movement in general was so important for me because it was indication that what I imagined wasn’t anything new, I had teachers & vast works to draw influence from.

Is there a strong experimental scene in Atlanta? I think for most of us from the outside the scene is almost totally associated with various styles of hip-hop and soul.

I really don’t feel equipped to answer this very well because I’ve only really started interacting with the Atlanta scene recently! However, I’ve definitely managed to find a great deal of live experimental music in Atlanta just by looking out for it. Venues like Eyedrum, Mammal Gallery, Wonderroot, etc. are all very open to & supportive of alternative approaches to music. I recently saw Ben Pioulard perform at Eyedrum, supported by a female singer-songwriter who sang intimate folk with just her voice, guitar, and a percussive rattle made of bones, as well as two different ambient groups, one of which finished off their set with a haunted-sounding rendition of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, conjured through the demo function on their casio keyboard.

How did you first become interested in producing your own tracks?  

It sorta started with loop pedals. I was in a band in high school & we never really got the “consistent practice” thing down, so I kept writing these songs & I would be too impatient to wait & finish the rest of the instrumentation with the band. I figured I’d just write them solo & do everything myself, so that led to discovering loopers. After I began making little sample collages in ableton, I decided to buy a midi controller & try to incorporate guitar as well somehow. I started recording with 4-tracks and aside from some upgrades in the process, its still pretty much what I’m doing.

You work a lot with audio collages, How do you put together these tracks, what is your process and what equipment do you use?

I draw from my own collection of field recordings as well as little bits of sound culled from all over youtube. I’ll arrange everything in ableton, just chopping up, looping, reversing little pieces. Additionally I’ll also run that through old tape recorders & pitch things around or warp the tape just to blur the edges & get closer to what I’m imagining.

What do you do to get your music out there? How did you first become associated with Track & Field records for example?

I’ve stuck pretty much exclusively with online promotion for Orchid Mantis, my strategy from the start has always just been telling as many people who are really into music as possible about my stuff. Just from that, with patience, cool things start to happen organically. That’s how I found my publicist Lanny at Chill Chill as well as Track & Field, just making lots of connections & reaching out to people who are into similar stuff.

Tell me about your mix.

I wanted to focus on my love for ambient/drone music and just make a sort of sampler of what’s influenced that aspect of my work with Orchid Mantis. A good deal of the songs remind me specifically of really early mornings; I was staying at friends houses often in my senior year of high school, and I’d always put on tracks like these as we made the drive to school every day. Additionally, there’s some newer stuff I’ve only found recently as well as an exceptional band I know from Atlanta.

What’s next for you? Have you got any releases, shows or videos we can look forward to, or are you working on anything at the moment?

I’ve been recording on & off, always writing & conceptualizing. I’m starting to amass a pretty large collection of unreleased tracks, right now the issue is figuring out what I want to do with them. There will be something coming soon for sure.

What’s floating your boat right now musically? 

I’m spending a lot of time listening through the insane amount of music Leyland Kirby’s released & picking out the stuff that’s most compelling to me. The music I’m playing is generally pretty piano-heavy lately, I’m not sure why.

 

Thanks to Orchid Mantis for taking the time ❤

You can hear more from him, along with a whole host of great underground producers over on our Soundcloud.

NEO 9 – mix and interview with DJ Phaze

New in our mix series is an upfront selection of footwork bangers, all his own productions, from Chicago’s DJ Phaze.

Check out the mix here, and our interview with Phaze after the embed.

How did you first come across footwork? Coming from Chicago has the style always been around for you?

I came across footwork when in 2000. Going to this place called rainbow or others may know it as the rink on 87th and I remember whenever the dj played juke or footwork I would have an exponential amount of energy and good vibes. The music has always been around even before me as well as the dancing, every generation it evolves.

Footwork has exploded over here in the UK and worldwide in recent years…has that international success caused changes in the home scene? 

The only change i see it has made is that more people are listening and appreciating the music as well as we are and i am thankful for it. oh yeah i cant forget about people from all over coming to footwork events.

How did you make the move into producing your own tracks?

In 2006 I asked the Dj at Markham at the time name Dj Ro, to give me FL studio and some footwork drums and I went from there on my own until 2007. I found out my cousin was making footwork music, his name was DJ Speed (rest in peace). So i asked him if he could show me how to make footwork music and he never showed me but he pushed me to be better and better and gave me really good critiques until I realized that he was only showing me what was in me all along.

How do you put together your tracks, what is your process?

I just go with the flow and that’s just my personality. Nothing too technical, I do have to have complete concentration, no one can disturb me while i am in my zone.

How do you get your stuff out there?

I get my music out there through Soundcloud Facebook or Twitter.

I’ll soon have my youtube back up and running. (watch this space for the link)

With so much music at everyone’s fingertips do you find it a challenge to get heard?

I don’t even think about that part because if you do then you’ll never have time to focus on your craft or your music. I just do what i do to the best of my ability and believe in myself that i will get heard.

Tell me about your mix.

My mix is full of nothing but my traxx I’ve made over time. So you really get to hear me in three different mindsets so it was fun to do. Its also a display of what is yet to come for future releases!

What’s next for you? Have you got any releases or videos we can look forward to?

Whats next for me is a EP I am doing called (straight wurkz) that’ll come in due time. I have no release date nor do I have an idea of what i am putting on it.

As far as releases I am featured on a EP called FUSION COMPILATION 01 ‪#‎ROUGHKUTZ‬ & ‪#‎ABSTRACTIONS‬. I have a track on there called other laws. You can go on FUSION’s Bandcamp. I am also featured on juke worldwide which will be out soon.

We can’t wait to hear more from Phaze – follow him on Soundcloud and Twitter to stay in the loop with his new releases.

A-M-F exclusive mix & interview

We’re back with our monthly mixes! And how better to get us hyped than with a mix that in its own nicely strange way encapsulates everything that we’re here for at Neoterika?

This mix is eclectic and free, a fun listen powering through a bunch of different moods, genres and tempos with nary a care. According to A-M-F it’s “A mess of stuff I’m into”, leave preconceptions at the door – just roll with it and enjoy.

A-M-F’s  Crossing EP is a great listen (links at the bottom of this article), it’s inventive and by turns richly dramatic and spare.

We caught up with A-M-F to find out more. Check out our interview below the mix!

Tell us a bit about your musical background and influences.

I haven’t been a music fan for long. Or at least; I can’t go so far as to label myself as a “music is my life” person. Maybe 6 years I’ve been into music. The interest was born of finding a stranded iPod at my Nan’s house. She didn’t know who’s it was (it actually belonged to my older cousin) and just said I could have it. I ended up being more drawn to the electronic music on there, even heard my first Daft Punk album from there, “Human After All”, which I’ll stress right now is not my favourite of theirs. It also lead me to hear “†” by Jusice, which I’m VERY glad I heard. I love it still to this day.

But sadly, most of the music I was drawn to on that iPod doesn’t occupy my listening time anymore (Digitalism, Boys Noize), but I held onto a lot of it and still consider it my routes in becoming a music fan. As for what influences my OWN music; I’d say Swans, Flying Lotus, Death Grips and clipping. are some names that heavily influenced the “Crossing” EP.

How did you make the move into producing your own tracks?

In the later years of secondary school I had a close friend who started making a lot of Dubstep and Complextro in Garageband in the media suite at school (he went under the name “Subosco” at the time). It piqued my interest and I got some help from him and gave it a shot myself. I made one crummy Electro House song in Garageband, of course it sucks looking back now, but melodically it was decent. It just wasn’t mixed at all, in pretty much any sense of the word.

How do you put together your tracks, what is your process?

I’m not sure if I have one single method, nor do I know many creative types that do, but nowadays I guess it’s been a lot vaguer of a process. For example, I’ll just say to myself “I’m going to make something that’s around 15 minutes but ends up sounding very little like it started and have the content of the track in it’s duration act as one big transition between those two parallel sounding ideas” and I’ll just try to churn that out. I did that on a smaller scale with the song “Toms”, but now I think I’d want to branch out and make something along those lines but bigger. I don’t really have ideas drafted or stored and think “I’ll add this into something later”, instead I just start with one thing and continually build from it with multiple sonic passages and try to turn it into something coherent. Sounds formulaic, but it’s never met with a “samey” result.

Tell us about your Crossing EP – I really like the mix of almost gregorian chant vocals with very digital futuristic sounds on surpass, and the spare bouncy rhythms of Toms.

I’m honestly quite disappointed with myself on that EP, as it’s not finished. I just resulted in giving up on it, there was supposed to be MORE vocals with more lyrics to further flesh out a concept I had in mind with the first track. But college came around and took up the time I was initially using to work on the EP and I also lost a lot of motivation to work on it. Creative drought’s a bitch. On a less bummer note, it turned out to be at least half of the ambitious project I’d aimed for and I’m still somewhat proud of it, because for while I really WAS pushing myself ambitiously and artistically in the process.

To get specific, those vocals are (like most of the timbres in the EP) were heavily processed. It’s just me poorly singing  “two dimensional, two dimensional” which were then drowned in delay, reverb, distortion and LPF effects and then double tracked and pitched into octaves. Then there’s the vocals that spout out “oh monitor”. Those are similarly processed, but rely more on the use of a vocoder for their melodic output. As for “Toms”, it started just from those distorted synthetic tom drums heard in the first sections of the song. I would say it’s actually a pretty conventional drumbeat, only it’s channelled through a less conventional sonic lens (Low, Mid and High tom drums in place of a Kick, Snare and High-Hat). The aim was to have it evolve from an initially more percussive piece; into one more melodic and ethereal in sound.

What do you do to get your music out there? 

I rely more on soundcloud group sharing for exposure than anything else, which is pretty impractical and met with few results of recognition. I didn’t start reaching out to blogs until I put “Crossing” out, but I ended up giving up on [that] not long after starting.

[…]For now, I’m mostly inactive on pushing my music around. The internet is so vast with opportunities, but right now I don’t even know where or how to start looking.

What’re you working right now?

The most I have is a piece of a song that’s around 3 minutes so far, but I would like to turn it into that 15 or so minute long piece I mentioned earlier, but I’ve also thought of trying to get things rolling with a smaller project (like a beat tape or something). I also opened up the project file of a remix I did for sleepytanuki and ended up adding some sections, maybe I’d introduce that to a live show if ever I started them. It’s sounding pretty intense so far.

Who else is floating your boat right now?

I’m somewhat involved with a small group of long distance friends who’re also producers (namely “sleepytanuki”, “imari”, “sakuraburst”, “yitaku”, “nuage, nuage”, “hyleo” and “Ollygon”).

Thanks A-M-F for taking the time to chat. Check out his Crossing EP on Soundcloud or Bandcamp now.

a-m-f.bandcamp.com/album/crossing-ep

https://soundcloud.com/a-m-f-6/sets/crossing-ep

MODLES EXCLUSIVE MIX

Sometimes you’ll hear a new track from some producer you’ve never heard of and it’ll really stand out. Sometimes (the best times) a tune’ll grab you by the earholes and shake your head. So it was when I first heard Mechanism and Metropolis, from Modles. They combine off-kilter sounds, eerie vocals and staccato beats into a compulsive whole. The pair, along with the gorgeous Crowdpleaser (which you can check out in this months playlist) got me mightily intrigued.

Modles has an EP in the works, to be released through London’s Rooftop Collective. I’ll have more details on that very soon so keep it locked. In the meantime I’m delighted to present this exclusive mix and interview with the man himself. Check it after the embed.

N: Modles seems like a pretty new project from what I can see online. Is that the case, or have you been plugging away for ages?

M: I’ve been producing since I was about 12 but have been playing guitar since I can remember. So it’s taken nearly 10 years to be happy with the music I’m turning out. I’ve been patient in letting my sound develop. A lot of new kids are in a rush to get recognised before they’ve really got anything new or interesting to offer.

N: How did you get involved with Rooftop Collective?

M: I met Tre’bore through working at a club in Brighton. Well I was supposed to be running the place, but one night after closing we ended up getting shitfaced on the bar and getting hyped about each other’s music. I was woken up the next morning in the amp room an hour after my shift was due to start. Surprisingly enough my employment was terminated…

…

I moved to Bristol earlier this year after realising Brighton had nothing to offer me. After slaving away at that job I managed to save 6 months rent to give myself a shot at getting some music released. Tre’bore was one of a few people I’ve stayed in contact with. He asked if I was interested in releasing though RTC.

N: How did the creative process work of putting together the EP with them?

M: The same night we spoke about making an EP, I’d pretty much finished Crypt. That track set the tone for the rest of the EP and it came together from start to finish in about 4 days. Complete isolation, no commitment to work and a push in the right direction is what it took to get things moving.

N: Music is so oversaturated right now, do you think the rise of DIY music collectives is a reaction to that?

M: In one sense, the rise in new labels and collectives is responsible for the polluted musical landscape. Anyone can release their music independently now. You could set up a bandcamp page right now and start selling your music. I think it’s more a necessity now to be as self sufficient as possible. I’ve approached a lot of labels and haven’t even had a response, so building something special from the ground up seems to be a more logical way of penetrating the music industry.

N: I really like the use of space in your music and the way you use fragments of vocals which kind of puts me in mind of R&S era James Blake at times. Tell me about your music, what / how you create and what influences or informs your sound.

M: Thank you 🙂 James Blake is obviously a major source of inspiration. I was producing deep house before discovering Hotflush. The Back and 4th compilation basically changed the course of my life in the space of 20 tracks. I remember sitting at Lewes train station and hearing the ‘Maybes’ remix, watching trains go by. It was the first time in a long time my mind was just totally blown by what I was hearing. And since then the motivation for everything I do is to provide that same experience through my music. There’s a thin line between inspiration and immitation. Hopefully my lack of a stunning voice or a piano will keep me from crossing it.

N: As a new producer coming up, how do you feel about the state of clubland in the UK? Will something new rise from the ashes or is experimental music going to be pushed out of our cities altogether?

M: …I can’t really comment on the Bristol scene too much as I’m still a tourist… Most of the key labels that make up the Bristol bass scene have slowed down or seemingly all moved into Europe. Bristol is definitely a thriving city for counter culture though and I don’t see any immediate threats to the scene. I moved here for that reason, after watching Brighton give in to student promos and tacky mash-up nights. The drinking habits of young people has changed too. This probably being attributed to a rise in uni fees and a drop in disposable income. In Brighton, the busiest venue is the one that is offering the cheapest Jagerbomb. Bristol is far less superficial. If people aren’t out for the music then they can go to the harbourside franchise clubs, or fuck off to the south east.

…

…Parts of the scene just packed up and moved into Europe. And with the state of the nation here and the enthusiasm for electronic music over there, you can see why that is. But that void will always need filling. I’m excited to see what will emerge from the UK music scene next.

N: you mentioned before that some of your mates have turned up on the Neoterika playlist – is there quite a scene at the moment? Tell us more about what’s going on where you are.

M: These are mostly people I’ve connected with through soundcloud. Humaintenance is a close friend from Brighton though. His tracks are incredible. Having just moved here I’m not really involved in the scene, although that was the intention of coming here. I’ve met a couple of guys and we’re working on a more video based music project. It’s still just ideas at the moment but I think we’re onto something special.

N: In a more general sense, what’s getting you excited at the moment?

M: I’ve been trying to avoid listening to anything that is commercially marketable or club-safe. Trying to challenge my ears and look deeper into the vast and infinite source of inspiration. I’ve been focusing on utilising the sounds that play in the background thoughout every day life. The EP was mainly built from recordings of the journey I took from visiting my mum in Margate back home through London to Bristol. Looping up sections of random noise and turning them into percussion and textures. Some artists I’ve been inspired by recently are Andrew Pekler, S. Maharba, Yosi Horikawa, Tehbis, to name a few.

N: Tell us about your mix. Again I really love that use of space and the way you play with tone and tempo throughout it…

M: The mix was difficult to put together cause basically I suck at mixing and I didn’t want to slap them together in Ableton. I don’t mind that I left a few mistakes in there cause I really enjoy the mistakes in the music I listen to. Also I challenged myself with tempo and styles because I actually find it impossible to listen to a mix that stays within the same genre. It just gets boring and repetitive. Especially in a club. The mix builds in pace and moves through tempos but the overall aesthetic of the tracks are quite uniform, so it’s not just random.

N: Finally, what have you got coming up we should know about? Further releases, mixes, gigs….?

M: At the moment we’re (RTC) just focusing on getting the EP released and trying to establish ourselves. I have 2 EPs that are nearly done which will see the light of day early next year. I’m also working under a different alias doing more Electro and Techno stuff to satisfy the inner rave monster, for when I can’t be arsed to be all deep and technical.

Big up Modles for taking the time out to chat and produce this dope mix.

NEW MIX AND INTERVIEW WITH MG PRODUCTIONS

This month’s mix comes courtesy of MSSNGLYPH (formerly Nard Inc), a founding member of MG Productions, a collective and diy studio out of Portland. I caught up with MSSNGLYPH to find out more.

N: How did MG Productions come about?

M: MG Productions is the culmination of a life long friendship between me, MSSNGLYPH, and Forrest Carder-Wynn, aka A$HITAKA. We have been in bands together since grade school, and messing around with sequencers and drum machines independently since High School. Music has always been a very important and crucial aspect of our lives, and in the last year or so have really manifested our own style and feel. The music coming out of MG is as diverse as our influences. With a great admiration with beat maker giants such as J-Dilla and Madlib, but also more contemporary producer like Chuck Inglish and Harry Fraud, the instrumentals range from soulful, maybe sampling some Anita baker, to trap, with immaculate 808 compression. The production from MG is not solely hip-hop oriented, but also electronic with influences like Dark0 and Suicide Year. We love good music of all genres, meaning anything could come out of our studio, just as long as it’s good

N: Tell us more about your studio, I heard you just built it in your basement and started a local collaborative process from there?

M: The main purpose of building a studio was to create a space of shared creativity, a home base for squad to smoke their blunts and create their own sound. Creating a studio was as much as an attempt to explore music as it was an excuse to appease the nerdy gear head inside me. On the surface, there is little difference between the studio and my physics lab, a group of people collaborating over oscillators and other equipment, but one has more of a weed haze to it. Similar to a lab, he main purpose of building the studio was to create a space of shared creativity, a home base for squad to smoke their blunts and create their own sound. Recording sessions are a group activity, so almost everything is a collab. A$HITAKA is by any measure is prolific right now in the amount of work he’s putting out, both instrumentals and verses. With all this raw and new material, we have multiple MCs getting opportunity to a wide variety of quality instrumentals and features.

N: How important is keeping local scenes alive in this digital age?

M: The “hip-hop scene” as an abstraction doesn’t really exist in Portland. That being said, with DAWs like Ableton and FL studios being so easily available {*torrents*} to any kid with a laptop beat-making, from grime to vaporwave to hip-hop, does exist here. The music scene in Portland isn’t big enough to support separated scenes. Interestingly, we are most associated with the rock and punk scene. The guys at Oligopolis Records have been an inspiration for other locals looking to help create a scene here. Music was meant to be shared, both in the creative process and in listening, so we at MG productions all make an effort to be apart of and support the local music community.

N: Who are the local artists ou’re particularly excited by right now?

M: Shouts out to all the people that helped make this music, MCs Golim, Moblin God, and Harvee Bird have all been spitting fire. DJ CPLUSPLUS has been invaluable help in all my audio pursuits. Also check out HYPERION, we are about to drop a collab project with him and he’s been holding down physicist-producer game with me.

N: Can you tell us a bit more about the mix?

The mix you are listening to is meant to be a sampler of what goes on in the studio at MG production. It has a diverse set of genres, but was created to emulate the weed and yerba mate fueled studio sessions. A taste of all the artists in our core squad is represented here.

Find us at https://soundcloud.com/mygoonspdx

Interview: Old Man Diode and Rick Holland

It’s been a minute since I posted anything, but regular Neoterika service is at last being resumed. Thanks for sticking around if you did and come back I still love you if you didn’t. The story of the long hiatus is strange, a tale too tall to tell here. Suffice to say I went to Alaska and unexpectedly didn’t have internet. No streaming at all for months, can you imagine. I can’t and I lived it.

I’m celebrating my return to civilisation with a bumper selection of tracks (check out Neoterika vol 19) along with an interview with the brilliant Old Man Diode and his sometime collaborator, the also brilliant Rick Holland. We did this interview just before I went away (in May) so it’s criminally overdue, but no less fascinating for all that.

N: How did you first start making music?

OMD: I don’t really remember starting, my mum had me and my sisters playing the piano from 4 years old, it was always a massive part of my family life growing up, still is today. I studied classically until my twenties started DJing when I was about 15, became a proper jungle monkey, then got into production at music college, switched from Classical bass to electronic music and have never looked back

N: What where your influences early on and what came to influence the direction you’ve ultimately taken?

OMD: I think a really wide range of music has influenced me over the years, I’ve always been into contemporary music and new sound, ways of using the spectrum available to us as a creative tool. I was very heavily into the jungle and DnB scene in the 90s and early 2000s, most of my vinyl dates form around then. Being a teenager in Bristol in the 90s, you were surrounded by underground music, Full Cycle, Portishead, Smith and Mighty, all that’s stuff has always been a strong influence on me.

I was also into guitar driven music, and distortion, there’s still a part of me that wants to play in a metal band.

I don’t know if I can say that I’ve taken a single direction now, the work I’ve been doing with Rick over the last few years had some pretty clear confines and elements that we were exploring but alongside that I’ve been playing with other ensembles like Jetsam, producing and engineering with other projects like Sion, Deathray Trebuchay, working on various projects that came through the WW studio and working on installations with artists like Sophie Clements. The next chunk of music I want to work on will be less song driven, more noise probably. I think that all of those influences, from Stockhausen and Steve Riech through to Ray Keith and sun0))) are there in everything I make to a greater or lesser extent.

N: How did your collaboration with Rick Holland come about and how did that then extend to collaboration with the other artists on The King Krill and beyond?

OMD: So Rick and I had worked together on a bunch of different projects intermittently for various people for about 10 years before we started on the OMD/RJH collab. We wanted to do something that focused on the two of us, writing without an end goal, just to see what would come out, there was never supposed to be a live show, that all came later on.

Personally, I spent a lot of time writing really complicated music before this project so I wanted to really strip that back, not allow any sound in without a specific justifiable reason for it, keep everything minimal. I also was always amazed at how much other people bond to words in music, for so many people it’s all about the lyrics and I don’t tend to hear them, I couldn’t tell you the lyrics to most songs that I like, so working with Rick was a kind of head in challenge to that part of me, I love the way he uses language, the way he can leave space for interpretation and personal referencing in his work. We were looking into writing in collaboration with equal weight to all elements, words supporting music, music supporting words.

The rest of the collaborators are all people that I had worked with before, through WW Records/Music or the WW studio. I’ve known Beth for years, from when we were both back in the West Country, Andrew Plummer did a performance with me in Jetsam, Onallee was someone I’d wanted to work with since the whole Reprazent thing kicked off in 97, and so on. The binding thing with all the vocalists is that they a have a unique and amazing voice and an openess to collaborating that made the whole thing possible. We explored a bunch of different processes, sent in stuff to each other, taking inspiration from one place but the most successful was three people in a room, starting from scratch and vibing it out, then everyone is in every part, nothing gets pushed too far one way or the other, the words work for the vocalist, everyone’s happy with the groove and what we end up making is more than the sum of parts, different to something anyone one of us could invent alone.

RH: A mixture of Goldie’s Timeless and 1990’s DnB appreciation brought us together really, in our young years. It’s been such a great privilege to meet and work with the artists Jo and Guy brought in and we’ve all developed a lot in the process and heavy new pulses have been set in motion by the whole experience.

N: Tell us about the new single. (Although it’s no longer new by any stretch if you missed Morning Gate earlier this year it remains essential listening)

OMD: So, Morning Gate feels like a kind of culmination, we started the project with Beth on a tune called Rise Again, then on to the first single, Open Blue, with no plan other than making something in the studio, no live show, just the music. Then as the project grew, the need or relevance of a live show became apparent so we started on that, that’s when Guy Wampa got involved playing drums and later on David Altweger’s video wizardry, the live shows then influenced how we were writing music, we wanted/needed tunes that could rock a dance floor. That lead to the Keep on Running/Catapult release with Beth and I Am Fya (who’s touring with Kate Tempest at the moment), maybe we felt like we lost something from the initial writing or, at least the freedom of writing with no brief and that lead us kind of back to were we started but having learnt from the journey so, Morning Gate is a celebration of everything that we’ve done I guess. It feels euphoric, it’s open, it’s got motion to make you want to dance, kind of pulls all the strands together.

N: Morning Gate sounds in parts like a love song, but elsewhere it seems to deal with the same ambiguous state of company and isolation as your previous work in this collaboration – can you tell us a bit more about the content of the piece and how you guys developed it?

OMD: I think that sums it up pretty well, it’s a love song but to whoever or whatever you want it to be to. The areas we covered in the King Krill are still there, being part of a society or group but also being completely alone are still there and I think it’s something that were drawn towards when we works together.

RH: Lyrically, the content came about in real-time conversation during the writing process. This was the case with a fair few of the tracks in this project, and I think this feeds in to the patterns you have described, these are the preoccupations or mindstates that we brought to the studio on any given day. Life follows those rhythms, of wonder and saturation and excitement and defeat, and ‘I sleep in a full beam’ quite neatly sums up just how much flies by us as modern urban human beings, and how important the peaceful solitary place within us remains.

N: Is it a good time to be an experimental artist at the moment? While I see a lot of conservatism in the current pop charts and around mainstream EDM there seems to be a simultaneous explosion of really strange music bubbling up under the surface.

OMD: Yeah that’s a fair assessment, I don’t know really, I don’t know if it’s ever a better or worse time, there’s some really interesting stuff happening, lines are blurring and music that would have been completely fringe a decade ago is seeping closer to the mainstream underground, there’s more of an acceptance of contemporary “classical” composition and elements of sound art and that’s leading to some great music being written. At the same time, the social media noise and blather, the lack of decent income streams etc. is pressuring the vendors, salesmen, press and promoters to not push the boundaries to far. Its been interesting seeing the response to this project, it feels fairly commercial to me, drums, bass vocals, song forms etc but we’re definitely classed as being different, not conforming to genre, one foot in DJ culture, another on the band circuit and the industry isn’t really set up to handle that. So, I don’t know haha! It feels like swings and round abouts.

RH: I think it’s the best time in my lifetime to be an experimental artist, because it is now, and there is an environment that is making sound. The challenge, as OMD says, is to arrange a difficult economic life around exploring what is really there. That takes love, and real focus. What Jo and Wampa have done is brave (setting up their own label), they have to fulfil many roles at once, in curation, production, business – that is a difficult space in a climate that favours safe bets. But my advice for a young artist would be that there is a space for you but you should totally love the thing you do, live it every day. If you do this the rest will arrange itself around that focus.

N: Who should we be listening to right now?

OMD: Everything! Itoa is going from strength to strength, Ben frosts Aurora album is a stunning piece of work, as is Andy Stotts faith in strangers. We’ve got some great stuff coming up soon on WW records, more work with Llywelyn Ap Myrddin, more from Sam Mumford and great cross over collars with all of those. we’re trying to work out a multi artist live show that will hopefully be coming out in the autumn.

N: Are there any plans for further live shows, I believe you’ve mentioned in other interviews this is the last collaboration, at least for the time being?

OMD: Yeah we’ve got a couple of live shows booked in, Bristol at Mr. wolf’s on the 25th of June and 93 ft East on the 26th, the london show will have most of the gang down, full visual show etc. and we’re in the process of securing a few more over the coming months (N: You can keep abreast of new shows on the Facebook pages for Old Man Diode and WW Records). This isn’t the end of collaborating with Rick or Beth or any of the guys involved so far, it’s more that the specifics of the sound and the process have had their time, theres more material on the way but it’s got a different vibe and we’re not all in the room anymore, we’re talking about giving space to individual elements more. Also Rick is working on a new Book, Beth has been playing out a lot more with her own band, Chris James and Stateless will be launching a load of new material soon, all of that is changing the way we work and what we want to make.

N: What’s next for Old Man Diode?

OMD: So, as I say, there’s some more material in the pipeline and probably a new live show, maybe less dreamy and heavier. I’ve been working on some remix/collabs with Sam Mumford and Llywelyn Ap Myrddin. also might have to get back to my roots, there’s been talk of some Jungle collabs, no pretention, just dance time so, a load of stuff basically! The future is bright and eclectic.

N: …and for Rick Holland?

RH: I’m making a new book, getting totally involved in all of the stages needed to put that out independently. Part of that process involves road-testing the material and finding the right formats for it.

Our experience has changed dramatically, even with the cultural meme of ‘book’, so it is a deep process that could go on a long time without a deadline. The self imposed deadline is for a summer release, and I am at the stage now of testing writing by performing it, unaccompanied readings and improvising with musicians. As Jo said earlier, I hope to present work that people can totally inhabit and find their own way through, that is vital for you every new time you engage with it. I re-heard ‘Clearing Song’ from our album together ‘The King Krill’ the other morning, and swam deep into it, this seems to clearly sum up our landscape at the moment, a human communion and our individual beings battered by data. Yet it is an undeniably wonderful time to be alive, things are bubbling hard. It’s me and you out here.

Thanks!

Check out Rick Holland’s website for more on the poet and to buy his new book, Story the Flowers.

Check out this awesome mix Old Man Diode did for our mix series!

Future Shock! The Story of 2000AD (2014)

Some kind words on FUTURESHOCK, a film I produced from  Rantbits. Thanks!
First published by TwitchFilm In 1977, when the new millennium seemed an unimaginably long way into the future, the weekly SF magazine 2000AD was launched, with Pat Mills as its first editor, and changed the British comics landscape forever with its blend of punkish ultraviolence, political engagement and adventurous storytelling, “turning us all”, as stellar […]

http://rantbit.com/2015/09/11/future-shock-the-story-of-2000ad-2014/

15 times when Jeremy Corbyn was on the right side of history

The World Turned Upside Down

1. Apartheid: Jeremy was a staunch opponent of the Apartheid regime and a supporter of Nelson Mandela and the ANC. He was even arrested for protesting outside the South African embassy in 1984.
2. Chile: Jeremy was an opponent of the brutal dictator Pinochet (an ally of the British government under Thatcher) and was a leading campaigner in the quest to bring him to justice. In 1998 Pinochet was arrested in London.
3. LGBT rights: As noted in Pink News, Jeremy was an early champion of LGBT rights. At a time when the Tories decried supporting LGBT rights as ‘loony left’, Jeremy voted against section 28 which sought to demonise same-sex relationships.
4. The Miners’ Strike: Jeremy went against the Labour leadership and fully supported the miners in their effort to prevent the total destruction of their industry and communities. Cabinet papers released last year prove that the NUM…

View original post 691 more words

NEW MIX AND INTERVIEW WITH TRE’BORE

Tre’bore’s an artist who’s intrigued me since I first heard Dream$ & Filling$ early last year (check it out in Neoterika vol 9). The track’s resoundingly heavy boom baps layered against a dreamy, almost euphoric melody moulded into something that feels very rich and nuanced. It’s a hard track to find a place for, and that is always a good thing. More recently Honey Frills (that and more in Vol 17) played with a clearer hip-hop aesthetic but once again with a layered complexity that rewards repeat listens.

This mix is a scintillating blend of soul, hip-hop, staccato footwork and jungle beats with some euphoric house and trap thrown in for good measure. There’s definitely a rooftop flavour to this, it’s got me feeling to go dancing in the sun.

I caught up with Tre’bore over email to find out more about his productions, influences and why artist collectives are the way forward – check it below the mix.

N: What was the first song that made a lasting impression on you?

T: First song that made a lasting impression was Jill Scott – Getting In The Way. I grew up on mostly Soul, Funk, Jazz, R&B and Hip – Hop. I would hear Jill Scott, Slum Village & Common now and it would just bring me back and always remind me I was hearing what was the base for beat music from a really early age.

N: How did you first get into making music?

T: Well I first got into making music, when I was studying it in sixth form. I was actually lucky enough to be taught by Tehbis and he started playing me some of his beats, shit I’d never heard anything like it before. After that I got so intrigued with experimenting with sounds and made music while I was actually meant to be doing work.

N: What are your major influences?

T: Major influences are mainly the people making music around me and the stuff I’m hearing that I vibe. Being in Rooftop Collective & Fly High Society is great. Everyone shares what they are in to and I guess that’s always my base to research and be like ‘yeah I’m gonna let this influence me’. Great example is CAL and AracruZ from Rooftop Collective playing loads of Footwork in their earlier shows like a couple years ago and I just got sucked into it. Now I’m working with mixing up lagged and pulled backed rhythms into driven Footwork sections, so yeah goes to show.

N: What’s your process creatively? Where does a new tune start for you?

T: My process creatively is never really solid. Like I don’t think I have a strict process. I normally just open up logic, rack through my drum samples and other bits of audio I like to collect or sample and then start with getting them how I want them to sound and build sections from there. I add the basslines, chords, melodies and SFX. Sometimes I just stick my iPhone on record when I’m out and about and try and use those sounds in my work somehow or I would start my drums and stuff on the iMPC for the iPhone just to get ideas. I’ve also been experimenting with adding more live stuff recently, mainly drums.

N: How did the Rooftop Collective come about?

T: Rooftop Collective came about from us doing other music projects together, we used to be taught by Old Man Diode as well as teaching drums to kids whilst working for the Barbican in London and there was a time when we just realised we all share the love for electronic music and beats. After that we all started speaking more and planned to go to nights that we were interested in. Soon after that, we found ourselves on Jams’ (RTC) rooftop in the middle of East London looking at the most beautiful skyline I know, pre drinking listening to a tonne of tunes before rolling out to Tempo Clash. TC had Kutmah, Kidkanevil, Blue Daisy playing, which blew our minds and a few days after we just thought this is the shit, we need to try it and did.

N: Why do you think collectives like RC are important? Is the need for them increasing?

T: Collectives like Rooftop Collective are important, because they keep the movement going. Artists joining together and helping one another to get something creative out is the greatest thing to happen. There would be a lot of slept on stuff without the collectives that are about now. I think there is such a increase in them now, because artists are spotting other artists they relate to on the internet and actually creating together.

N: How we consume music is changing all the time – do you think it’s getting harder to be a producer, or is finding an audience easier than in the past?

T: I’d say it’s easy to be a producer, because all you have to do is create what you or others would like to hear. It’s the getting it out there and finding the right audience that is hard, because there is soo much shit on the internet and loads of niches. You could make good music, but easily get slept on if you don’t find a good place to put it.

N: You’re also involved with Fly High Society – can you tell us more about that?

T: Yeah that’s all SertOne from Liverpool. I really got into his music like a 1/2 years ago, playing it out on Rooftop Podcasts and had to see what he was about. So I followed him on Twitter, clocked that he was a sound dude, gassed up twitter with him, creased jokes and then soon after I asked if he wanted to make a tune together. That happened and I think a month or so later he invited me to come down to NTS Radio with the rest of the crew that were already members to catch vibes and hear the track we made on air. Not too long after that I became a member and it was honestly the best thing to happen. The crew is so chill and we all relate with each other, which leads to good things creatively. Recently did a mini Scotland tour with SertOne & Not Your Girlfriend from Berlin in January, which was amazing, we all realised we have a lot in common and none of that would have been possible without Fly High Society. There’s such a sense of us being a family already, yet some of the members haven’t met face to face yet. We just know that we are about the same thing and are trying to go in similar directions.

N: What advice would you give someone thinking of starting a collective?

T: My advice would be make sure the circle is tight and be motivated to kill it. Do not back down, just keep the work coming and try to put it in the right places.

N: Who’s making music we should be checking right now?

T: Fly High Society without a doubt, keep your ears to Iglooghost. The kid has got mad skills and he is doing things that I have never heard any other beat maker do at the moment. He’s that new wave that is gonna have everyone like “what the actual fuck”.

N: Finally, have you got anything in the works we should be looking out for?

Yeah I would say stay aware for the AracruZ Remix EP that should be coming out real soon. Also go peep “Fly Thai Green” on the Fly High Society bandcamp. That is that new new.

Big up Tre’bore, thanks for taking the time.

A little round up…

Nice round up of new releases from Grime Disciple

Following and showcasing the best in Grime music.

If you’ve been a fan of Grime music for any amount of time, the chances are that you’re able to write out a list of songs that you love that just never got released. Whatever the reasons that those tracks don’t see the light of day, as a listener, it can be frustrating. Which is why today is one of those things that’s something of a novelty: as today there seems to be a whole glut of releases. So many releases in fact, that it’s hard to know where to spend your money. With that in mind, I thought I’d have a look over some of the releases that have caught my attention over the last few weeks, and which, if any, deserve you money. With appearances from the likes of Kid D, Iglew, Izzie Gibbs, and more, this one could get expensive.

View original post 562 more words