finally back in berlin home base today after a month of crazy travel. thanks much to the champions and superstars who helped us along the way. sifting through the mountain of photographic evidence now, will post a/v soon !! many thanks to all japan/taiwan crew, you were lovely. more soon.
05.15.08
big thanks to everyone at bangface weekender!!! the night was one of my last jungle sets ever, and you guys made it special. will be focusing on drumcorps and ambient from now on. was great to see so many friends i’ve met over the years all in one place. will always look on these days fondly. special thanks to everyone involved with the organization side of it, you know who you are. and big up to the pool party d&b massive! i’ve never seen anything like that. oh my….
it was an inspiration and a moving experience, to play at such a place, with artists of such caliber…. was especially jazzed to see phil hartnoll play, as orbital were one of my very first inspirations that got me into this whole electronic music thing…. a brilliant time. onward now. see you at the drumcorps gigs.
04.28.08
big thanks to everyone who came out to friday’s saint petersburg show. first off, no one informed me about the specifics of this show until literally 1 hour before my set. apologies to anyone who was there for the music and didn’t want to deal with the other stuff. it was great to see so many real music fans in the audience though, you guys ruled. massive response, especially to the new tunes. looking forward to visiting russia again in the future.
04.14.08
Interview with ore.lt, first published February 2008. These guys asked some good questions so I’m re-posting the interview in its original English version here.
Why have you left USA for Germany?
In the USA, cash is king. It’s hard to build anything sustainable from the ground up if you’re doing weird music. You have to put too much effort into hype and spin - which is not my bag - I’m horrible at that stuff. I chose the pure but insane method, and reoriented everything in my life towards making music. I moved to Berlin with absolutely zero connections and have been able to build things gradually the natural way, by just making my music the best it can be and letting the rest happen on its own. There are amazingly talented and creative people in the USA, and I miss that. But move to Europe, where I can play on amazing sound systems, get treated with hospitality and acceptance, live a simple stress-free life, invest in gear and personal growth instead of gasoline… no worries about crime, or owning and maintaining a car, eat healthy non-plastic food, take walks in the park … hey it’s great, but I’m still torn. I miss my family, and my home terrain where I understand the deal a bit more. The country I grew up in is not the country it is now though, and I have more problems with it every time I go back. Europe will never be a total home.. I feel like a cultural refugee of the lowest order. Having met real refugees here who fled actual death and destruction in their home countries, my situation is obviously frivolous in comparison. I don’t know where I will end up in the future. We will see. Right now I am feeling like I miss a bit of the chaos. Maybe just another tour there will be enough.
Is this city inspirational for you?
Berlin gives you space - which is both its strength and its trap. Life is so quiet here that you don’t feel pressure of anything you should or shouldn’t do. Your mind is clear and you can listen to your heart more easily. It’s given me that vital space to develop. Berlin’s downside is that if you’re not self-motivated you can get lazy quick, so you have to be careful.
What do you like the most about Berlin?
Quietness and space - parks that are pleasant, open green space, apartments that aren’t a total ripoff, trains that work, friends take time for each other - treat each other like actual humans - not a disconnected hustle grind rush. these things are pretty unusual for a city…
There are lots of styles of music used to characterize your stuff. How would you self describe it?
emotive, cathartic, introspective, melodic, distorted, heavy, quiet, percussive
Your first official releases are about punk mixing with jungle. Is it hard to put these styles together?
Punk and jungle actually go really well together - the moods, sounds, and tempo all fit. Boston’s Toneburst collective did a show called “Junk” which had punk bands playing alongside jungle DJs, in something like 1998.
What made to move your musical content from instrumental music like hardcore to electronic like jungle and ambient?
In the early days I found hardcore’s guitar/bass/vox/drums sound palette to be too limiting, I wanted to hear some more sounds…. so electronic music was a great way to expand.
Was the fact that that you were playing drums inspirational for your present musical expression?
Definitely. What you learn at an early age stays with you, and everything I do is filtered through a drummer’s perspective. I’ve been working on guitar a lot more lately, but I’m a drummer at heart.
Are you still practicing drums?
I still play on my practice pad at home, but not a full kit.
is guitar only for the noisy part of your music?
I use guitar in my melodic tunes as well, it’s really expressive. Coming from electronic music in the USA, which is an extremely small scene… I got into a mode where I hated guitar music and all it represented. It’s a totally understandable reaction that a lot of people there develop, an “us versus them” mentality. Totally counterproductive and limiting. It kept me away from guitar for many years…. I’ve let go of that nonsense as I’ve gotten older and fallen in love w/ the guitar for what it is - an amazingly expressive sound source and intuitive controller far better than the little midi keyboards I’d been using for years.
Are you able to play any other instruments?
I play hammered dulcimer, bass guitar… a bit of whatever is around.
Speaking of your release “Lost Tracks” I have to admit, that it was quite unexpected to attain from you some of that ambient music when I knew you only as a punk/break core producer. How come you are so widely creative?
Work in every style informs another. You always learn something new.
Would you be able to play ambient set at “Big Chill” or any other lo-fi kind festival or event?
I would love to play at such an event, definitely. My ambient sets are going more in that direction.
I’ve got your “Say More Fire/Music Is The Weapon” LP. I love first track so much. It blows your mind with this unexpected power in it. But it is not-typical your kind of music if we speak of your first releases. Are you trying not stick with the same style or is it just progressive “go forward” of your creativity?
I’m not consciously trying to follow any kind of rule… but you know, some days you feel aggressive, other times quiet. I just write what I feel and sort it out later. the way the styles change is more a mirror of my life changes than anything else. What’s been most encouraging in the past year is that I find people actually like many of the different styles simultaneously, they’re more open than ever.
Mary Anne Hobbs played “Say More Fire” on BBC Radio1 at her show and she’s rated you very highly. What does it mean for you to be valued by this person?
It feels very good and validating to have that happen. I’ve loved her show for a while, and I listened to the Peel show all the time, so being played on the BBC was a long standing dream. Writing music, that’s the best feeling though - that spark when you’re immersed in making a tune, and suddenly it’s 7 am and the birds are chirping. What happens afterwards is great, but it’s not healthy to focus on that too much.
What do you think of mass media if we speak about “spreading the word”? Don’t you think it makes music too pop-ish?
I think it’s a waste of time to worry about if a kind of music is sounding too pop / underground / or too this or too that. Just find what you love and support it. That is all. Mass media distorts everything - ignore it. Just find the music that truly truly moves you, gives you chills, or makes you want to riot in the streets. If it’s YOUR reason, and not some reason some marketing company put into your head in order to get you to buy stuff, it’s right. The KLF have some wonderful things to say about music subcultures and how they fit into the pop music scheme of things http://www.piratecinema.org/the_klf/the_manual.txt
One of the most impressive music trends for the last few years is dub step. Are you up for it? Does it make an impression for you?
Absolutely, dubstep has been a big influence lately. Vinyl from about 2 years ago has a vitality and fun to it to it which I love.
And the last one. You are traveling as a musician around world so often. How do you feel about meeting so many people from different cultures with different point of views?
The past few years of travel have been amazing, Hearing all kinds of viewpoints is one thing, you can get that from reading - but it’s another thing to live how they live, eat their food, ride the bus with them, sleep on their floors, read their newspapers, and get bombarded with their advertising. You love and hate everyone all at once. You see the same patterns of intolerance / power grab divisive politics all over the globe. Different specifics, same old tactics. Then you start to realize how adaptable you are, and how you’d probably be the same way if you grew up there…. You get really lonely and you start to feel like you don’t belong anywhere. You also blend in everywhere and you can feel completely at home in the most ridiculous surroundings. It’s a weird life. I feel extremely grateful to my fans, and friends, that I’ve been able to do it at all - and for this long. This kind of life might not be possible for much longer, once we adjust the costs to the true impact of all these planes flying around the world.
04.08.08
man. there has been a wave of dodgy promoters lately. not just me, many friends had bad experiences this month. sigh. i suppose this shows the natural progression of a scene, as things have moved on from the personal relationships and trust basis of old - now things are bigger. there are a lot more people involved, and not all of them have pure motives. so it goes. you protect yourself in tangible ways like contracts and delegating responsibility to booking agents etc… and in unbreakable mental ways by keeping in touch with your love of music, jamming out and getting immersed in sound. still it’s hard to not let this life get you down sometimes - especially when you insist on doing things as independently as i have the past few years. they will overpromise, underdeliver, and then say horrible things about you when you stand up for yourself. no one will have the balls to confront you face to face, it will be behind your back. fuck it, i can take it. bring it. too many musicians will accept any horrible kind of treatment. you don’t need the blue m&ms, but you do need to be treated with a modicum of respect. even this isn’t guaranteed. all you can do is respect yourself, stay true to your word, withdraw & hone. you are entitled to nothing. the joy of music is all you get, and all that should matter. they can never reach me here.
that said, this past weekend was lovely, many thx to all. response from the channel 4 mix has been amazing! looking fwd to the long road ahead. just added dour festival, which will be absolutely insane. there’s a long path before that though. many hours of sitting in moving boxes. familiar faces, new ones. looking forward to seeing all of you out there.
04.07.08
hey hey!!! late here. our friends genghis tron had a big crash, a wheel fell off their tour van while on the highway. help em out!! fortunately everyone is okay, but they have a lot of repairs and other insane costs. pause. grateful no one was hurt. this could be any of us …
03.26.08
cleaned out some old flyers today. anyone remember that one?!? ahhaha.
back in the day. ambient strangers in a stranger land….
massive apologies to bristol & exeter crew, but the show friday night has been cancelled due to breech of contract. sigh, was looking forward to seeing you guys. truly sorry i couldn’t play this gig, hope to see you in the near future, and will definitely see some of you at the weekender.
03.14.08
Woah, congrats to our friends Genghis Tron for getting reviewed in the New York Times today. Their new album comes out tomorrow, go forth and support!
GENGHIS TRON
“Board Up the House”
(Relapse)
There’s no drummer in Genghis Tron, the three-member metal band originally from Poughkeepsie, N.Y., and now in Philadelphia. This can be confusing; those sound like drums. Why don’t they just hire a real drummer?
But then suddenly some other percussive noise comes in: a highly synthetic clicking or some deeply filtered splat. And then the band goes a step further with electronics, making a keyboard or a synthesizer act almost as a second guitar. Letting go of the old metal-band code of virtuosos playing in real-time helps these musicians: It lets the songs on “Board Up the House,” the band’s second album, take sudden bizarre turns and allows them moods and textures that cross genres.
“I Won’t Come Back Alive” begins with addled, intricate electronica beats and ruminative singing, then flows right into abrasive, juddering metal by means of a hard electronic edit. Likewise “City on a Hill,” which can’t decide whether it wants to be poppish new wave or prog rock or screamo. Genghis Tron is coded as metal by its bleak lyrics: “I see no light ahead, I choke on desperate breath,” or “My body is taken by the cells inside/ They’ll consume me hollow, turn me dry.” But its music is a record shop in a blender, and the juxtapositions are giddy, energetic, and smart. BEN RATLIFF
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/18/arts/music/18choic.html?ref=arts
02.18.08
heyyyyy kids, it’s time for the first episode of…. germany, what the fuck?!? i have a ton of these little tidbits saved up over the years and i’m constantly discovering more. exhibit a, a big table of motorized dolls on sale in berlin’s main tourist area:
what the hell?!? how is this even remotely ok? am i missing something? we had to buy one because it was so ridiculous. you squeeze his hand and he dances around to a grainy digitized 50 cent in da club, like those kung fu hamsters. right next to the motorized bunnies and barnyard animals. oh man. on my street they’re all all about fighting nazis. okay, good idea, step one. but if people would attack some of the more every day racism around here, it’d take a lot of the wind outta the nazis’ sails. antifascists, branch out please.
02.12.08