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–This is an interview I did earlier in the year for Pulseradio, reproduced here (because it’s interesting, and W+L have gone from strength to strength since then).
In the past 18 months, Wolf + Lambs rise has been nothing short of meteoric spotlighting the careers of Nico Jaar, Deniz Kurtel, Slow Hands and a host of the new wave of house, techno and disco artists. Label boss Gadi Mizrahi isn’t short on ideas on what makes a successful label. In barely five years he and partner Zev Eisenberg have turned a tiny web label into one of the most revered and forward thinking production stables in electronic music. Having just teamed up with Soul Clap to mix the latest installment of the DJ-Kicks series, he is heading to Australia for a string of dates in March. He spoke to Lachlan Holland about the evolution of Wolf + Lamb, how to properly run an underground party, and spreading the right kind of love…
So you’re in Miami at the moment? Gadi: Yeah we’ve been planning on doing a Snow Bird thing for years now, and it finally worked out. It was always Zev and myself that wanted to do it, but now we have Soul Clap on board we can pretty much go anywhere and not get bored.
And your running some parties there? I’ve always believed that if you had one amazing club in your city then you could build a scene around it. This club called the Electric Pickle started to be that amazing club, lets say two – three years ago. They’re constantly renovating, the size is perfect and intimate, the staff and owner are just all about it, they’re all about the right music and vibe. Every year I play there five or six times, as well as during the WMC. It’s kind of replaced the Marcy for us, which is in Brooklyn. The Marcy became kind of taxing as it got more popular. We were always worrying about not getting shut down; it was a completely illegal venue. Once the Brits found out about it, we had to slow it down a lot more. That’s a whole different level. The venue was never that big and more people start to catch on once the Brits come over.
Now we do parties at the Pickle all the time, and it’s great. If you haven’t been here to this venue, you have to. It’s one of the best venues in America right now, so we’re lucky to have that connection. The guy who owns the place and built it with his own hands is a huge fan of the label, a really good solid DJ and has been shopping for records his whole career. He’s really into what we’re doing. So it’s like a dream right now, we’re all planning on doing this every year. It’s kind of funny; when we told people we were thinking of going to Miami I guess they imagined South Beach, which is really silly. Nobody can really live in South Beach, really, no one wants to.
Because it’s fake? It’s not even fake, it’s retarded fake. No one really lives there. We don’t live there. Everyone who has fake tits from all over the world will fly in there to hang out with people like them. It’s ridiculous. We don’t go there.
So where’s Electric Pickle located? It’s in the design district, across one of the bridges from South Beach. It’s being gentrified, its kind of ghetto but there are also a lot of good restaurants and galleries and venues and stuff, it’s got its own little world there.
Going back to the Marcy, when did the parties there start? The Marcy started renovating five or six years ago, we had run parties before then, around the beginnings of the 2000’s, but the Marcy started around 2005. The impression of New York (from outside) from around that time was that it was difficult to throw parties there. You’d read about parties being shut down, Rudolph Giuliani going after the club scene etc. Can you give us some insight on what it was like to run parties through that? That is definitely true, and it’s starting to happen again. Over the last few years in New York it’s become harder to throw parties, Illegal underground parties.
We got around it because the Marcy was more like a small house party. My philosophy on throwing parties is, don’t try to be a pig about it, and the city will leave you alone. I’ve had cops show up, but I just made sure they were aware that it’s really mature, supervised and all that, and it was usually totally cool. I never really tried to make money off of it; we used to have two for five beers. It was never really a business model for the city to shutdown; we were always geared towards incredible music and having good artists from around the world to play at this really intimate party. The vibe just resonated and the city didn’t [try to stop it]. And I was never too high to talk to the cops.
“It’s become such a fucking monster right now, I only have one release slated for it. The quality has to be so high with Wolf + Lamb, every record I put out for it has to be a statement, there’s a lot people paying attention to it.”
The truth is, in New York, you can get away with doing this. Always. There was always just one thing. Noise complaints, you could never get by that. In a city that’s the one thing you always have to worry about. So Zev and I kept moving the party about into different spaces inside the building, the first floor. We’d also done construction from day one on isolating the sound, and of course talking to the neighbours. And if you do these things only once every month or two months, it’s too inconsistent for people to catch on. There were all these ideas that Zev and I had about keeping it special and not being a pig about it – doing it too often, charging too much etc. We tried not to upset people.
Its funny, there have been times in the last few months I’ve heard, that there have been parties calling the cops on each other, and clubs in the city would call the police on some of the underground parties. The legitimate clubs in the city are starting to feel that the underground parties are starting to take people from the city, and the city parties. But for Wolf + Lamb, and the intimate parties we had, it was always just like an apartment. We could only fit two or three hundred (we later annexed the outside so you could fit like another couple of hundred). Nobody ever wanted to shut it down, it was never a glutinous thing, it was always special.
So the relationship with the other promoters and people in the scene were important for that? When we did parties on the same night as somebody else we were close with, we’d try and cross-promote it so that people could just hop between the parties. A stamp from one party meant you could get in half price at our party. So we always wanted to keep a good relationship with the others. We were in that position where our close friends were throwing parties on the same night. For a moment it felt like a rivalry, but then we realised if there are two or three really cool things happening, then it might be an incentive for people to come out who wouldn’t usually come out, because there’s literally so much to do. There’s like ten hours of partying, its like an extravaganza, you can just hop from party to party. We were trying to figure out how to turn that situation into something positive, and it worked out.
You started Wolf + Lamb as a label around the same time, can you tell us about when you decided to take that step and how it all came about? Zev and I met, and we moved in together, and we both quit the jobs we had at the time, and we started to DJ together. And then we were like “what do we do now?” We started going to the city clubs, and the way the city club works, is a night is owned by a certain promoter, you know, they’ve worked with the club for years, and there’s no reason to start with a different promoter, so it’s really hard to get into that scene. So we tried to throw a few parties out there, but that didn’t really work out. We tried to DJ at other people’s parties, and that was fine but it didn’t really work out either.
We realised at some point, specifically after going to Mutek, which was a really cool underground festival when we were starting out, that all our favourite DJ’s were producers too. We made that connection, you can stay a local DJ, but you can’t really go out there and tour unless you have your own production. So we had to start producing. And this was out of necessity, trying to figure out how to make it out there as a DJ. So then we started producing, and we were like, we have to put this out there somewhere, but there were only a few labels – Perlon, Ghostly, Cadenza – which we would want to be on and realised we would have to produce music for them, which was very counter productive to the creative process. So this goes back to how Wolf+Lamb is really diverse in the output. It’s not consistent at all in sticking to the same genre. And it’s all built around these ideas that we had when we were thinking about how to get our music out there.
So you started W+L to avoid having to compromise your sound? We started our own web label to put our productions on. To this day, neither Zev nor I have put out our original production on any other label. So we made wolflambmusic.com. Different things began to feed into it, the parties, the label and other things. No Regular Play were really into our parties, and started to send us music, and also the Visionquest guys, who were really young then and had almost no production out yet, Sean, Ryan, Seth and Lee. We had a party with them, and they were just these new kids who were just starting to produce.
“Programming for Wolf + Lamb has become more difficult for me, because its become more popular, and a lot more people want to be on it because they know we can make their career. That sort of power is a little scary for me, makes me a little uncomfortable, and with Double Standard its much more pure, because nobody is really paying attention to it.”
I became really close with Lee Curtiss, and started making music with him, then did a few releases with all those boys. Those were the first records that were really noticed from the label, the first pressed vinyl records were Lee’s [Curtiss], then Seth [Troxler] then Zev and I. And by the third, it had started to become something serious, a lot of people were paying attention. But it was still a while before we went on Beatport, and a few years before we became a record label.
Sounds like a pretty good start? For me it was a really nice, natural progression on learning how to run a label without any real costs. So by the time we started with vinyl I already knew how to program a little bit better, and I’d had time to figure out how I wanted the label to be, who I wanted to be involved, and stuff like that. When you start straight out with a vinyl label, your not always thinking “oh these kids are cool I want them to represent our label”, all your thinking is you want great music. Which sounds fine, but that’s actually a little bit to fault as well, because years down the line your label is still going to be represented by these artists, so you have to be sure about them. And I see labels starting off, with their first few releases, and I often think, “do you even know who these people are? “
There are thousands of kids, in Leeds and Manchester, who are just making music, copying other people, trying to make the Jamie Jones sound, or the whatever sound. And I don’t think many of these labels actually get to know these kids and make sure that these people are who they want their crew to be. I talk to Jamie, and I say you’ve got to be careful, because whatever it is, whether it’s Visionquest, or it’s Hot Natured, these kids are walking around representing you. Just make sure you know who that is, because you want proper representation.
So with Wolf + Lamb, you keep a very tight-knit crew? Yeah, and it’s more tight-knit now than ever.
In managing Wolf + Lamb, with the guys that come on and release, how do you get the most out of them? The first thing is, I never know where the next person is going to come from. It could be through a friend, Im a little tricky to find as I don’t keep a facebook or myspace, most of the demos I get I don’t really listen to. This kid recently called me on Skype. And at first I thought that was a little stalkerish, especially because I don’t really have my name out there on Skype. It felt a little bit personal, but I started working with them. I actually have a very personal and intimate relationship with the people that I work with, when it comes to music. Not in terms of directing how their music should sound, I keep that very open. I always want people who’ll bring diversity to the label. My motto is usually, keep it very deep, and weird and different.
I’ll work with the new kids pretty closely; I’ll give very specific feedback. It’s very intimate, and deep, and specific when I’m working with our artists. They can go in any direction they want, you know almost none of the music on Wolf + Lamb and Double Standard is for the club, it just has to be this edgy forward thinking sound. Once I’ve decided to take on a project, I’ve got a really close connection to it.
“Once the Brits found out about it, we had to slow it down a lot more. That’s a whole different level.”
Right now, we have Voices of Black, these two kids from Brown who Nico Jaar introduced me to. And when I’ve got artists Ill be in correspondence with them at least once or twice a week, talking about everything. When they join Wolf + Lamb now, they’re looking at joining two major agencies, one is Geist (Europe), and the other is Most Wanted (US), it’s a big deal, so I’ve gotta be really sure these kids know what they’re getting into. Sometimes they’re like nineteen, twenty years old and this is the beginning of their musical lives. So I try to guide them from there. In this Industry, I really think you can sell yourself short by putting yourself out on XYZ labels, that are up and coming, and aren’t putting out a lot of high quality music. Everyone wants their music out there, but I’ll try to tell them not to do that. You know, if you hold off long enough …
With Nico Jaar, right off the bat, there were people approaching him, and every few days he was saying “Gadi this persons’ approaching me”, and he didn’t really know which labels were which, so I said “Just focus on making music, we can put your output on our label, and when the right people are approaching I’ll let you know.” Right now, the amount of people approaching him for remixes is crazy.
I try not to take on new artists, more than like two a year, because this whole label management thing is really my life. Besides trying to DJ and tour, I work on promoting the profile of the artists we have. Even down to what name they’re going to use. Half the artists that come to us, they’re putting out great music but they have some funny strange name and I say, “we gotta find a new name for you”, build a profile for you with another name.
Can you give us a few examples? [Laughs] Well, Slow Hands name was Addled. And I was like “I don’t really see that working”, so he said, “you know I was always a fan of Eric Clapton, he had this other stage name he used to go by, which was Slow Hands”. I thought yeah, that works, because it goes with what he was, and still is, making, which is very slow-mo disco, very 10 pm, slow chuggy Mark E kind of stuff.
This new artist that I just signed from Israel, who writes some really incredible deep sounds, he was going with the name Peeny Flow, and I was like I don’t see that working out so we found him a new one, DoubleHill, which is very strange and different. So even down to the logos, these artists will have a name, and Ill go and look through thousands of fonts, to find a cool logo for stickers.With No Regular Play, we have here in the US the National Public Radio, which is like a station that goes all over, and its initials are NPR, so we took that font and instead of it being NPR, it was NRP, No Regular Play. The whole marketing side of this is super fun for me, because it’s all underground, we’re not really making any money off it, we make money off touring but not off of records and parties or things branding-wise.
You’ve got Double Standard as a vinyl only Imprint, what are your plans with that? I’m always thinking to get it out there more, because the music is getting so good on it. I’m thinking of getting it out on digital, because we already have two vinyl labels. I think it will take a long time with Double Standard, but something very special is going to happen with that label. The music we have on it is so exciting; the next two releases are really special. I’m building it; I love it, its super amazing to me.
Programming for Wolf + Lamb has become more difficult for me, because its become more popular, and a lot more people want to be on it because they know we can make their career. That sort of power is a little scary for me, makes me a little uncomfortable, and with Double Standard its much more pure, because nobody is really paying attention to it. I sell out, like 500 copies per release, but it doesn’t have that same thing, with Double Standard its much more pure, your not having that whole Wolf + Lamb thing behind you. They’re not gaining the same thing out of it, so programming Double Standard is much easier for me than Wolf + Lamb. It’s become such a fucking monster right now, I only have one release slated for it. The quality has to be so high with Wolf + Lamb, every record I put out for it has to be a statement, there’s a lot people paying attention to it.
You’ve achieved a lot in such a relatively short amount of time, you must take some satisfaction from that? It’s amazing. What crosses my mind is how the UK press and the hype is really dangerous. When it peaked last year, I think I lost my mind for a few months trying to take in what it all meant. Being really hyped so much. At the time, it kind of drove me a little crazy because it wasn’t expected and I didn’t know how to deal with it.
Yourself and Zev, along with Soul Clap, have just finished the latest DJ-Kicks, did you carry this pressure into it? The DJ-Kicks thing was an opportunity to do something really different with a mix; that was the attractive thing for us. We had this opportunity to do something that would be high profile, but at the same time be creative in a way that would be different from anything that happened before. Before we did this, almost every other DJ-Kicks had been about taking a DJs favourite tracks that they’d been playing out, put tin git into a mix and getting it out there. For me, I’ve already come around to what had happened in the UK, and now I have Double Standard to do what Wolf + Lamb used to do for me: putting out underground releases. So now, with Wolf + Lamb, I’m trying to see how I can do things differently, ways that I can use that hype and that machine.
I’ve been watching the other labels do their thing for years. Minus for instance. We were looking up to Minus when we were starting out. But what Minus has become now, is something I would hope Wolf + Lamb wouldn’t become. Perlon was also something we were looking up to, but now they sort of disappeared. They don’t really make edgy music and aren’t really talked about anymore. So we don’t want Wolf + Lamb to go in that direction either.
With this opportunity, we can do something and take it in a different direction. We have this super strong family that’s really talented and really close, and we have an opportunity to do something that hasn’t really been done before. Soul Clap and Wolf + Lamb have been touring the world these last 24 months. Instead of taking the tracks we were playing out, we decided to call out to all of the Wolf + Lamb artists and extended family, and ask for exclusive tracks for this thing. We have ten exclusives for the mix that were mostly made for this mix. Everybody just got to it, and a lot of what was made was their best stuff.
In terms of licensing, this was a lot easier as well. In the previous [DJ-Kicks] mixes, they would just go and get the Larry Heard thing licensed or a Gemini track licensed, but rather than that, ninety percent of the licensing was just Wolf + Lamb or direct with the artists because it was exclusive. It was way easier to put together. A lot of the tracks we play when we DJ would be complicated to license. I don’t even know if we could get a Moodymann license anyway, or an Omar S, it would just be a hassle.
What it turned out to be is, I think, like a statement. And the fact we’re all coming of age, in terms of our production ,at the same time as a family. This family, this showcase and this whole direction, is really strong. I know there are other labels doing a similar thing. Cadenza have their Vagabond showcase. But with this I think its slightly different because we’ve all become like very best friends, with a similar vision. I think Minus has that as well, but nobody considers them underground anymore.
You guys often bring up Burning Man as a strong influence on Wolf + Lamb. Do you think the family aspect to your label comes from that? I think so, definitely. We all try to go together, but some of the younger kids aren’t really ready for it. There are a lot of drugs and debauchery: you don’t have to get involved in all that, even though that is kind of part of the experience there. Soul Clap’s going to come this year, Zev and I have done this for eight years. We’ve tried to take a year off it, but there’s nothing else like it. Its expensive, but the experience is like that once a year holiday you’ve gotta make out. You get a lot of music festivals, like Glastonbury, but I don’t think there’s anything like burning man.
A lot of people like to focus on Burning Man, when they talk about Wolf + Lamb, but we’re all from New York, so we’re actually not very ‘Burning Man-like’, in alot of ways. We’re too cool for school a lot of the time, over here in New York, but that’s kind of what balances us out. We have this ‘fuck-off’ New York attitude, but then we go to Burning Man, and we’re charged with all this hippy love…. I’ve tried to fight it sometimes because it’s a little too hippy for me, but I’ve accepted it into my life, because it’s what I need. I am kind of a shy person, with a New York attitude, and I need to go out there and get that experience every year.
I feel like Australians are way closer to this sort of attitude than New Yorkers. I see the Australians that I met working and touring, they have kind of a West Coast, San Francisco attitude. Everyone that I met was always helpful, and totally forward and outgoing. That’s kind of what you need.
You’re coming to Australia next week, what can we expect to hear from you over here? Musically, I do love playing edits, deep house and nu-disco. Our sound right now, all of the DJs share a very playful, non-serious party vibe. I’ve got a really good feeling about this tour, I think the Australian laid-back vibe and easy way is going to go well with this party sound I’m going to bring. I think there’s something that’s going to click with the attitude that you guys have over there. I’m coming over for a total of about ten days so I’ll get to hang out, and I’m really looking forward to it.
Lachlan Holland
I joined Mark’s Reload project as a co-writer/producer under the name E621 – to ‘enhance the flavour’. Meanwhile I’d been developing the concept of ‘pure emotions in sound’ so I presented the idea to Mark on my Birthday. We developed a track based on a natural rhythm; Heartbeat, and fusing our love of Soundtracks and Ambient music created Incidental Harmony in ’92.
Global Communication will be playing at Sonar and also Glade next month, what sort of kit will you be bringing, and what direction are you taking with your sound for these shows?
It’s focused around a pair of Laptops and controllers, running the usual apps ; Logic/Live etc. We don’t have stems from the original tracks so we’ve been exploring ways to forensically deconstruct our tracks using digital tools such as the incredible Melodyne spectral software that can interpret and isolate sound grains to give you the possibility of extracting individual elements from a stereo audio file. Essentially the set is around 60 minutes of ‘highlights’ re-constructed and contemporised from our GC repertoire, which build in energy and tempo from the beatless, ambient tracks through to the tracks with drum programming.
76:14 and Pentamerous Metamorphosis are often cited as classics within the history of experimental electronica, likewise, tracks such as The Way have kept relevant in the deep house scene since its release. Your tunes are often described as having a timeless quality. Do you feel any pressure or expectations are attached to Global Communication?
We’ve always made music with emotional integrity, which is that timeless quality we strive for in music. If that is your intention from the outset then people will feel it, regardless of tempo or genre.
In fact, there’s less expectation or pressure because we are being deeply honest about the music, with no hidden agendas or material motivations. Just to share and connect with as many people as possible.
What producers have been grabbing each of your attention so far this year? I’m enjoying modern electronica artists such as Mount Kimbie, James Blake, Gold Panda, Pangaea, Koreless, Synkro, Teebs, Bop, Caribou, Fourtet, Pantha Du Prince, Vincenzo, and labels such as Hessle Audio, Young Turks, Hotflush, Ghostly International, Wolf and Lamb.
You’ve both avoided being confined within particular genres. As DJ’s, how do you manage audience expectation versus creative freedom, and how do you balance cohesiveness with experimentation? (if that makes sense!?)
If we’re feeling it, regardless of genre or era, and it’s relevant to the narrative for that event and the music inspires us, touches our souls and makes us want to move then it’ll work in context. With over 20 years of DJing experience, it’s all about how you select, program and perform the music. If the audience feels you’re interacting with them then the synergy flows and you get a real party.
You’re based on opposite sides of the world these days – how do you get around that when it comes to working on Global Communication? Thankfully the current speed of the internet facilitates creative collaboration wherever you are on Earth so it’s still possible to brainstorm or jam and be ‘in the moment’. Skype/iChat/Facetime Video chat/conferencing still amazes me..Bladerunner/Star Trek communication realised!
Individually, what are you guys up to for the rest of the year?
I’m always multi-tasking and involved in a number of projects, so busy, busy, busy. From Djing, to curating a tent at Big Chill, Sound Architect/Music Director of Yotel NYC with a new monthly residency, to Film Trailer work and my new music projects…plus I’m involved in Design and Development for products in the Pro Audio and Earphones industries.
With your Back in the Box comp, the selection features much of what would be called classic early nineties techno, both Detroit and European. Would you say it’s a snapshot of what you guys were playing at the time, or a cross-section of influences on your studio sound?
We both collected this music for listening pleasure, studio inspiration and for DJing. All the tracks have been in and out of the box over the years, and never left the heart or soul. It’s pretty complete for the EDM side of things, with only a few tracks that didn’t make it. And the only real issues where trying to license major label artists that inspired us such as Eno, Vangelis, David Sylvian, Tomita, Talk Talk…that list goes on and could be a part 2!
NRK have a long history of putting out artist compilations (and clearly have plenty of ability when it comes to licensing tracks), how did it come about that you became involved with this?
Nick is an old friend, had licensed a bunch of our tracks for previous comps and been asking me to do one for a few years now, so so it made sense to work with NRK at the same time as reforming Global Communication to DJ and perform live. It adds value to the back story of the project and provides an essential incite into the EDM world at that time.
In these last few years, revisiting the 80′s/early 90′s in electronic music has become a common theme. Both of you were there first time around, what similarities do you see being played out today? How much of it is nostalgia?
It’s funny to observe the Fashion and trend cycles and which era’s are being used for catwalk/culture/music inspiration. Shame there’s so little experimentation and exploration for newness and originality. It’s all a bit too obvious really. The 80’s where unique in terms of style and Electronic Music development. The birth of Synth Pop and machines replacing traditional instruments. Fascinating time to live through and now reflect upon.
And where do you see it hopefully going over the next few years?
Thankfully today’s music consumers are much more open minded in general and ‘get’ most of the music genre’s out there. It’s way more instant to pick up on what’s ‘new and hot’, in a tweet the world knows about it! I would hope that more value is given to real musicality, emotional integrity and originality in a time where it’s so easy to drag and drop prefabricated ‘trend’ loops and make it into the Beatport Top100 with a plagiarised or poorly remixed version of another’s ‘real’ ideas.
Beef records Elements: Earth is the first in a promised series of compilations for the Australian label. Keeping it deep and underground, while still holding onto dancefloor viability, Earth is a solid offering and welcome for at home as well as for the more discerning club.
Daniel Fellows opens the EP with One of Us, opting for a chicago-inspired rendering that features some juicy melodic organ progression, tight percussion and interlaced with female blues vocal stabs and assorted atmospheric pads. It has an overall rich and melodic texture, and with its classic, abeit subdued, piano house vibe it will no doubt appeal to fans of the likes of Milton Jackson or Tony Lionni.
Keeping with the moody soul vibe but stepping it up a notch is Sydney-based FT-Mode, with Running. It’s a chuggy and moody number that quickly accelerates into a solid and undulating groove that locks you into its gravity. At first disconcerting, a voiced “ssshhhh!” riding over the top soon becomes part the rhythm, and sets the stage for the sultry songs to come. As the female vocals rise from the depths, singing that the ‘train is coming’, you begin to feel like you are riding through the night on the way to some unknown place. Coming in at 9 mins, while the journey may seem a little long, it’s one of those tracks you can just shut your eyes for and ride to the end of the line. A definite late night player.
Melbournite Jay Ueta’s ‘Possessed by Love’ takes us on an excursion of similar length but via a different track. Plucky moog-esque bass and clean wooden percussion drive things here. More synthy and clinical, it builds with gated pads and clean tonal stabs, while a grainy voice speaks of how “we’re all searching for the kind of love that will persist”. Probably the biggest point of departure from the overall flavour of the compilation, in that it is less ethereal and holds more of a big room sensibility, it nevertheless holds onto the deep melodic tones and unforced progression of its companions. A quality track that deserves attention.
Mike Montano’s “Natural Born Groovers” rounds the EP out with a funkier number, with warm basslines underpinning some very natural sounding drum elements, and punctuated with sax and organ. Overall, this one is a cosy and groovy track that harks to the dubbier end of established west coast deep house sounds , and the vibe is one of a dreamy and moist night. In the breakdown, a flute drifts in from the haze set by the reverb, heightening the tension before a gentle drop back into the groove.
While not groundbreaking, all of these tracks are very well produced and refined, with alot of care and intent behind them. While each provides its own absorbing journey, as a whole the EP has a cohesive theme and I highly recommend it.
Elements:Earth is out 26th of July on Beatport, and elsewhere next month.
Free download for the discerning Lady or Gentleman.
Nightmare disco music.
SHARON REDD – SAVE THE NIGHT (HOBER MALLOW REMIX)
Living in the cloistered world of Laptops, Techno, DJs and Records, it’s refreshing to step out occasionally and find a band that makes dance music sound fresh.
I’d already been lucky enough to catch Holy Balm a couple of times previous, performing at the Red Rattler, as well as a gig a few weeks back at the Opera House. However, last friday at Good God Small Club was the first time I’d been able to feel the full force of their sound.
Emma Ramsay, Jonathan Hochmann and Anna John form the 3 piece, putting together some of the most fantastic, warped-out deep techno and disco jams you will ever hear. Frenetic and relentless drum machine sequences work away underneath detuned moog strings and half-distinguishable vocals, with Emma’s live percussion punching through over the top. The range in their songs is incredible, as they move from the painful, incoherent and barely cohesive seamlessly into the downright funky. It’s like listening to Joy Division, White Rabbit, Chicken Lips, MBO and Metro Area in the space of five minutes – and I mean this in a good way.
They have a 7-inch coming out very soon (a difficult feat considering their tracks range up to 14 minutes), and keep an eye out for their next gigs. Facebookgroup
Joshua Harvey is a man with a long list of aliases. Even the most casual observer will have seen the name Herve , who has been laying down solid original releases on Dubsided, Skint and his own Cheap Thrills over the last few years. Or if not, perhaps they’ll be more familiar with his remix work as The Count. Or maybe Speaker Junk (with Trevor Loveys). These and his various other guises are a reflection of a producer that doesn’t settle within a particular sound, or feel limited by the conventions of a particular scene. Like with 2008′s Beeper, or his recent co-production with Fat Boy Slim, “Machines Can do the Work”, his tracks for the club have been driven by innovation as much as for dancefloor functionality, and he is one of those select few that can claim to have spawned genres while making hits. His influence in the production world being what it is, Loopmasters recently called on him to co-produce a sample pack with Trevor Loveys.
Hi Joshua, How was your Summer?
Pretty good thanks, lots of time in the studio remixing and producing.
Cheap Thrills 2, out next month. Some familiar names, and some new ones. Tell us about the selection?
It’s basically all the big tunes from the last year that I have put out on Cheap Thrills, with the extra bonus of 6 new and vip versions. I always like to get new bonus material in the comps to keep it fresh and exciting.
In an earlier interview you spoke about your attitude to blogs – how they can be a double edged sword, ie they can either be a positive force, or they can screw smaller labels – what is the right way?
I think the right way is just to post youtube videos or stream clips and have to buy links where possible. It’s really gone up a level piracy wise recently – its quite worrying. I do think blogs have a much better understanding of things now and really do support the artists and their music more than before,
You were also talking about how some people just want to make their living off of music, and not have to “tour till they die”, how realistic is this within niche electronic music scenes?
Pretty unrealistic sadly, unless something dramatic changes. Who knows what’s going to happen, its a very changeable time at the moment, so hopefully the outcome will be a positive one.
You’re playing all over the UK for the next month or so with Sinden. For those who have not experienced one, what do your sets entail? Do you bring extra hardware, or is it a straight up traditional DJ set?
Yeah, we are taking out 2 laptops and have been working on different versions of our tracks and commissioning remixes especially for these shows. It’s gonna be great!
You’ve been behind a relatively huge list of high profile remix work, everybody from Santogold to the Prodigy – when you work on a remix, when do you know its sounding
right?
Well, I’m not sure! I just sort of get on with it and stop when I think it’s done, its difficult to explain, it’s more of a feeling. A wanky answer I’m afraid – but it’s the truth!
The standards question here – as a kid, what did you listen to?
Kraftwerk, The Police, Cocteau Twins, Aphex Twin, Bill Withers, Warp Records, Mudhoney/Nirvana, Blade Runner soundtrack, my mums disco records, my dads blues records, David Bowie, Duran Duran (first two albums), Nina Simone, Twin Peaks soundtrack and Leftfield.
Before things blew up, what were the parties you would hang at, who were the DJ’s you would listen to?
I didn’t really have any money, so I didn’t go out that much when I moved to London. DJ-wise, Andrew Weatherall was the DJ I would listen to.
How do you find collaborations in the studio, how do you settle creative differences?
I like to collaborate, its a nice thing to do – share ideas play keyboards write lyrics etc. I’ve been quite lucky, I haven’t had any creative differences issues. If it’s not working write another one.
Yourself and Trevor Lovey’s recently developed a sample pack for Loopmasters (http://www.loopmasters.com/product/details/615) What was it like putting that together, as compared with a complete track?
Yeah it was a lot of fun! Sitting around digging up old sounds, making all kinds of new sounds and beats. Sitting around with two computers throwing stuff back n forth, jumping on the keyboards – very laid back creative fun.
There are so many new producers out there at the moment, as a label owner and a dj, what are the things that catch your ear, how does a track find its way into your sets?
Original creative music of any kind that I would release or play. It’s very easy to label yourself a “producer” but actually being one for real just happens.
What’s your solo approach when it comes to the studio? Ever suffered producers-block?
No, never. I just go in and push through any feelings of a block. Just sit and write on the keyboard or make up a drum pattern or pick up the guitar to take yourself somewhere else.
So what’s coming up for you for the rest of the year?
I’ve just started a big Count and Sinden tour, which we are very excited about! We also have a new Count and Sinden single, “Addicted To You” that is out early November, along with some great remixes. Also a new Speaker Junk tune “We Can Be” is dropping around now. And I’m in the studio working on a new Herve single and album as well as working on bits of Dead Soul Brother stuff…oh and just did a new Voodoo Chilli tune with Rufio (aka Baxta) that will be out soon. Cheap Thrills Volume 2 double CD also out October, pre-order now!
This one is a review I wrote last week for Pulseradio.net , one of my favourite producers and a solid release.
Eddie C
Tell Me/Organised
HOME TAPING IS KILLING MUSIC
Canada’s Eddie Curelly has been making a name for himself over the last 18 months for his informed and on point edits. Residing in Banff, Alberta, his first release on Jiscomusic, occurred after sending his tracks to an obviously impressed Mark E last year. He has since had to balance his ski time with gigs and production deadlines for labels such as Wolfmusic and 7 Inches of Love. This is his first solo EP for Home Taping, and it delivers what you’d expect – deep, sample enriched house with a disco and funk lean to it.
Tell me is a great opener, with warm basslines, tight multilayed percussion and the trademark single looped vocal sample running throughout, with some nice melodic moments courtesy of smooth organ and piano lines through the body.Organised takes things into funkier territory, with a more stripped back groove courtesy of a simple kick, bass guitar licks and claps. It peaks at various points with choice sample work and has a distinctive 80′s Chicago flavor, with similarities to earlier Mike Dixon or Stacy Kidd output.
The B-side opens with Melbourne’s Tornado Wallace’s take on Tell me. It’s tight percussion and rolling filtered bass, interlayed with the keys from the original makes it the most viable pick for house DJ’s. Rounding it off is a special treat, Dub up the Edit, working the ‘pump up the volume’ vocal with original samples used in the original track . With stripped back percussion and cowbells this one could create a moment on almost any floor.
Overall, this is a solid playable release, especially with the offerings on the B-side. However, in light of Eddie C’s recent output, this probably falls short of expectations. The title track is essentially a fairly standard cut of The Revenge-esque disco house, and the whole ep lacks the rawness and emotion found in tracks such as Make it Better or My woman, on Jisco and Wolf respectively. However, this is perhaps down to taste and expectation, and DJ’s are likely to find value in this release, even though it isn’t classic material.
Lachlan Holland
Tracklisting: Eddie C – Home Taping 06
A1. Tell Me
A2. Organised
B1. Tell Me – Tornado Wallace Rmx
B2. Dub Up The Edit
These days it seems that the well-worn cliche that “everyone is a DJ” can now be applied to the production world as well. It’s almost a given that at some point in their career a budding DJ will inevitably turn to production, both as a means of self-promotion and also, hopefully, to add some quality to the vast amount of music that is out there.The affordability and increasing user-friendliness of production software has allowed those with the desire and a little patience to by-bass expensive courses and hardware setups, and start realising their creations with no fuss.
However, as any amateur producer will tell you, the first challenge, once you’ve figured your release from your sustain, is finding fresh, and importantly, nice sounding samples with which to start laying down those ideas. And this is where sample packs come in, with a ready to use collections of sounds that are intended to help producers on their way.
Loopmasters are one of the leading labels in the sample pack market, specialising in packs for electronic dance music. They release relatively low cost packs that also include patches for the more popular DAW’s and Plug ins. And they frequently employ prominent producers to develop packs for various sub-genres, as well as give their name to signature packs.
With this release, Loopmasters have enlisted both Herve (aka The Count, Voodoo Chilli, Cheap Thrills) and Trevor Loveys (aka Switch, Dubsided, House of 909).
The pack contains hundreds of premade drum loops, vocal samples, effects, synth pads, bass lines as well as dozens of single hit samples and a collection of patches for Reason, Halion, EXS and SFZ.
Straight up it must be said that Loopmasters are on top of their customer service. After I had managed to burn through my download attempts due to a dodgy home wireless connection, all it took was a quick report lodged from within my account profile and 15 minutes for Loopmasters to reset the count. After sorting this out, Installation was very straightforward with Ableton Suite.
I found the selection in here to be quite good, if you are willing to move past the odd annoying one. There was a wide selection of generally bouncy drum loops, As you’d expect, this pack is likely to find favour with breaks, fidget and electro producers. Most of the sounds here gel together very well, and interchanging between samples and pads to give variety was fairly straightforward, not really requiring too much in the way of tweaking with levels and fx to make it work. Using just the samples included I had pieced together something resembling a complete track within about 20 minutes. Overall, the samples included are rich in variety, going from some very distorted and synthetic bass pads, to quite rich and tribal conga lines and funky breaks loops. The vocal loops in here are somewhat limited in variety, but thankfully the ones in here are indistinct and proved quite easy to manipulate. A nice surprise in this for mine was a very nice variety in the pads, which range from classic 80′s organ stabs, to huge 808-state sounding chords. I only had the chance to try out the Kontakt patches, and found them to add another level to the process and fit in nicely with the overall sounds on offer here.
Like with any other pack of this type, it will come down to taste, and discerning users will most likely find a handful of sounds here they like, and many they’d care to omit. But in general this pack contains plenty of variety and not much in the way of filler. SpeakerJunk/Bass Heavy House serves up what it says. For 40 odd dollars from the website its good value.
Im going to jump straight past the cliches about hiding and rocks, and say that you simply should know about this party. ..
This is definitely the finest Detroit Techno lineup Sydney has ever seen. And combined with the fact that it will be held at a very decent venue that has usually excellent sound, this is sure to drag out all and sundry from the techno community.
The premise of D25 is as a celebration of 25 years of Metroplex, the pioneering label that brought the sounds of Detroit to the outside world. Part of the celebration is a series of club parties around the world featuring a variety of key players from Detroit. Pulse and Finely Tuned are hosting the Sydney leg on the 11th of December from 4pm at the Forum.
D25 Sydney will be featuring Carl Craig, Moodymann and Theo Parrish (and possibly Kenny Larkin, although this remains rumored). Any one of these could fill a club on their own, but the three together is a mouth-watering prospect, and promises a degree of eclecticism not commonly found in techno parties in Sydney.
