From the second ‘Chronos’ starts, any thought that Carl Finlow may be lacking hunger can be flytipped under cover of darkness. I hypothesise as Finlow is such a font of electro nectar that surely he can’t go on forever? Well, he shows no sign of slowing down and in the process seems to be reaching new levels of maturity. This release on north of the border’s fantastic Craigie Knowes features five tracks which each vie for the “who can spread the most cosmic menace” cup, although some do it much more effectively than others. There’s a wonderful balance on show here, and it’s great that the tracks are so bassy, none more so than ‘Chronos’, which is my fave. It’s got everything, picking up the pace just when you think it can’t turn a new corner. ‘Marauders’ shares some similarities, driving along in the same vein, but feeling slightly crisper as it does. Both ‘Boolean’ and ‘Exige’ are more introspective, while ‘Unconditional’ is cleaner, sparser and altogether lighter. A great release and one which should sell shitloads if there’s any justice.
Great this. Fact is that you just need some mean beats and a vocoder, that’s all. Better still is having the foresight to voice track titles with the aforementioned apparatus. You can’t go wrong. ‘Robot Wreckin Crew’ does use a time-honoured synth line to circle around the varying amounts of battery going on down below, and the EP, on the whole, seems to draw a lot of inspiration from Dynamix ll, but it’s not as in your face, softer and spacier. Great release this, throbbing bass, great kick, vocoder, I could go on. As well as the Cygnus release on Burek, this is one of the best of the year.
Last night was the first time the motherchip had landed for a while, and my first time as a passenger. Captain Laurence Fisher, aka Purplehands, had on our previous briefing told me that things only started to get really interesting towards the end of the night, as crew members didn’t turn up early enough to get down. Well last night bucked the trend big time. On entering the party had got well and truly started, with 96 Back on the decks. It would be wide of the mark to say he played exclusively electro, in fact the majority of what I heard was techno, which presented all kinds of problems regarding genre recognition, as my other half, who I’d dragged along having first tempted her out with the promise of tapas, only to discover that the restaurant we went to had no paella at all! (I know paella isn’t tapas, but you need something for the little dishes to orbit) was very anxious to know the difference between said genres. Not normally one to mince my words regarding such things, I managed “Well, you know, Kraftwerk . . .” and left it at that. Eddie Symons came on next and proceeded to play a set of his own stuff, which was excellent. He did the digital thing after Mr 96 Back played the vinyls. The music was great, purer electro set from Eddie, but everything slid seamlessly into my paella-deprived body. We couldn't stay until the end, and so missed Purplehands' set, but by the time we left I was like an amphibian, breathing pure electro and machine funk strains through my skin. Had trouble reacclimatizing outside but just managed to get back home in time to stick some late night Drexciya on.
Probably should have posted this before Friday, but better late than never. Shows Mr Back's lovely muzzy off innit.
The Phenomenal Handclap Band can put a tune together, that’s for sure. How much of that is down to Ray Mang’s touch is debatable though, as I’d never listened to them before reviewing this. So it’s 5 mixes of the same track, and a cursory flick through them reveals very little variance between versions. A more detailed listen reveals brings nothing extra to the table either. It’s a good track, if you like that sort of thing, but I can’t get away from the image of the type of people I’d rather avoid singing along to this. A little overcooked, but I suppose you’ll pick and choose innit.
I first met Eddie around a month ago, at the Drexciyan Legacy soiree Hector and Laurence Fisher were DJing at. He was introduced to me as "Mr Eddie Pointer", which made him sound like some sort of early 20th Century Royal Gun Dog. Recognisong an opportunity I offered him a space on this highly esteemed blog, which of course he accepted. I hope to be reacquainted with him on Friday the 19th October at the belated launch party for his splendid CPU release, 'AFTRMTH'. Meanwhile, here are some in depth words from the man himself to set the mood. When did you start making music, and what inspired you to do so?
I sort of got into it at the same time as learning to program. I had a Spectrum computer when I was little, and apart from playing games I also did some programming on it. It was just really simple stuff in BASIC, just bleeps really, but I liked that I could get it to do stuff. Fast forward a few years and I was doing similar on the Amiga, coding games in AMOS and doing the sound effects and music myself. I started with Soundtracker and then Octamed which I got on the cover disc of a magazine. I made loads of tracks using that, some silly novelty stuff with funny samples, but also trying to copy the kind of music I was listening to at the time. That was mostly techno and rave stuff, all built from samples from other tracks as I didn’t have any synths of my own. My brother was always encouraging me with it and would keep me inspired by sending me new music. He was getting into Warp and Rephlex, so it was him that really got me into the more thoughtful stuff, while I was also swapping rave tapes with a mate from school. I still really clearly remember the weekend he came back when he brought 'Surfing On Sine Waves' with him; that totally changed how I heard music.
You maintain a website, but haven’t updated it for a year. Any plans to revive it, and is it important to have one?
My website is totally out of date at this point. I find that stuff like Twitter, Facebook, Soundcloud, etc, kind of mean it’s not all that important for an artist anymore. I’d love to sort it out, but it’s just another thing I’d file under the admin side of being a musician, and there’s always far less boring things I’d rather be doing.
Bovaflux is my first proper project, and the most long running one, which I use for idm/braindance stuff. Broken Future was a short lived alias for a side project I did with Highpoint Lowlife records, which was kind of grimey electronics. Nullptr comes from when I started dabbling in some more electro type stuff about 4 years ago, I played it under a fake name on my radio show which I was doing at the time. The first couple of tracks (Coriolis and Quantic) I ended up using as Bovaflux tracks on my Hermetic Peaks album, but when the electro obsession didn’t go away, I thought it would be interesting to try doing it as a proper project of its own. I guess the main thing I like about aliases is that you can do stuff without any expectations. If it goes well then people will eventually connect it back to me, but if not, then my reputation remains intact! :D I kind of see them as different identities now too, I almost separate them into different characters in my head. Nullptr has done pretty well so far, probably doing better than Bovaflux, so I have some weird internal jealousy going on now too.
You have been running [d]-tached since 2002, but haven’t released anything on it this year. Could you explain why you set it up and describe the type of music you release on it? Are we going to see more stuff on it in the future?
I set it up originally for just releasing my own music. I got a bit frustrated early on with sending off demos and hearing nothing back, so I thought I’d just do it myself. It was (and still is) very small scale, but I’d rather get stuff out to a tiny audience than just let tracks sit on my hard drive. I’m not sure there’s a particular sound I go for with [d]-tached, it’s just stuff that I find interesting really. I should have stuck with releasing electro on it the last few years, it’d probably make it easier to sell stuff, but I have to go with what I feel like at the time. I wouldn’t really have thought I’d have put out anything like Supersentient Intelligence Construct, which is all drones, ambience and weird noises, but there’s something I find strangely hypnotic and fascinating about it (plus it always gives me weird dreams if I listen to it at night). As with most things in underground music, you kind of have to focus on whatever you have the most fun with, as there’s little chance of making any money from it (half our releases struggle to break even).
There’s only been one release on [d]-tached this year (Supersentient Intelligence Construct’s Holomorphic Metacrystal), mostly as I’ve been a bit distracted with my own records coming out elsewhere on CPU and Mindcolormusic. Also the fancy holographic foil print I did for it was really expensive so I couldn’t afford to do anything else immediately! I’m hoping to squeeze another release or two in before the end of the year though, including an EP from Joseph Morton. His way of making music is really weird, in that he doesn’t do anything for years, and then turns out an EP in a weekend. Like most [d]-tached artists, he’s not really thinking about fitting into a scene, he just does whatever he likes.
Your Nullptr release, ‘Aftrmth’, on Central Processing Unit is your most recent. What did the label want from you and has this translated into more exposure?
Chris (CPU boss) was a big supporter of my first Nullptr release, and I’ve always been a massive fan of his label. I’d been sending him tracks for a while (in an alternate dimension Optical would have come out on CPU) and soon after it came out he got in touch and asked that I keep him updated with new tracks. This was a big confidence booster for me, having someone like that be interested in my music, so I just started sending him batches of tracks every few months. Some labels like to be totally hands off and let you do what you want, but it felt a bit more collaborative with Chris, which I really appreciate. He’d give feedback on tracks and we worked out the track listing together, while other labels let you just pretty much put out what you want. I guess different artists like to work different ways, and some insist on total freedom, but I’m much happier working together on things. It’s definitely given me a lot more exposure - I got played on Radio 1, got a couple of print reviews and keep coming across nice feedback around the internet. I’m hoping it’ll lead to a few more DJ bookings too as I’d like to get out and play a bit more, especially around Europe before things become a mess next year with Brexit.
What is your favourite track from the many you’ve recorded?
Either ‘Many Worlds’ from Optical, or ‘NORTACID’ from aux4411.
Who have been your greatest influences, and what is it like making the music you do in St Ives? Does your immediate environment influence your output in any way?
As mentioned earlier, my brother was a massive influence on me when I was younger. If he hadn’t been feeding me music I don’t know what my life would look like right now. I grew up in a little midlands town where nothing happens, no music scene or anything, so having this whole new world of music made available to me was literally life changing. And for that to happen at the time Warp were blowing up, Aphex Twin was becoming known, and stuff like Jungle was just starting to happen, I feel lucky to have been exposed to it when I was. As for making music in St Ives, there’s nothing of interest going on here at all. We have an annual music festival where the headliners are an ABBA cover band, if that helps paint a picture. In a way, I kind of like being cut off from things a bit though. I think I’m a bit of a hermit, just give me a synth-nest and a cup of tea and I’m happy to just do my own thing. That being said, I am happy to have met Laurence aka Purplehands, the mastermind of Motherchip Connexion, who is really the driving force for electro in Cambridge. If he wasn’t around, Cambridge would have far less interesting music events happening, so I do everything I can to support him!
In terms of the effect of my environment on making music, I’ve lived in a bunch of different cities, and although you might be able to map how my sound has changed over time, I think it’s more me growing as an artist than picking anything up from the area. If I moved back to Frankfurt I doubt I’d start making the kind of music I was doing last time I was there. More of an influence is the closer environment, my studio. I spent quite a few years doing everything just on the computer, but now I have a nice set up with some proper synths and a modular, which I find endlessly inspiring. Having this stuff sat in front of me just waiting to be played with is so much more fun than fiddling with a vst. I tried for years to get hardware controllers and vst instruments to work nicely together, but it always just felt like hard work.
If you had to name a top five tracks (any genre), what would they be and why?
There’s way too much good music to be able to properly shortlist 50 let alone 5. I’ll give you my top 5 counting tracks instead.
1 Bjork – 107 Steps
Dancer in the Dark is possibly my favourite film, partly because of Björk, partly because my mum has a similar degenerative eye condition which has left her virtually blind, so somehow it feels a bit close to home (my mum hasn’t killed anyone though). How Björk manages to wring as much emotion out of singing a few digits is pretty impressive. I love the whole soundtrack to the film, which was made in that time when Mark Bell (LFO) was producing lots of her stuff, so fits in nicely between Homogenic and Vespertine.
2, Boards of Canada – Aquarius
Laid back idm funk with something sinister at its heart. It’s a classic album too, and has definitely had an influence on me.
3, Venetian Snares – 12
I’m a big fan of Snares’ unusual time signatures. This remix of the Pointer Sisters reminds me of that time in the mid-00s when I went to see him play 3 times in a week and permanently damaged my hearing in doing so (pro tip: wear earplugs to gigs kids).
4, Kraftwerk – Computer World 2
Although I’d heard them loads as I was growing up, it was only recently that I actually gained a proper appreciation of their music. Once you see the background of typical German music of that time and see just how revolutionary it was, it puts it into a different perspective which I couldn’t appreciate as a kid. Some stuff off this album, such as ‘It’s More Fun To Compute’ could easily be released now.
5, Quasimoto – Microphone Mathematics
Ok, no counting here but still lots of numbers! I’m surprised I managed to string it out this far really. Anyway, Quasimoto aka Madlib in fine form here. It’s almost like drunken boxing kung fu in musical form, with things being thrown in left and right in a pretty haphazard manner, but in reality he knows exactly what he’s doing.
A lot of your releases are only available as digital files, or CDrs. Do you have a preferred format to release on, and as far as the music you make is concerned, is there ever a contradiction releasing it on something as antiquated as vinyl?
Vinyl is the number one format for me in terms of releasing music, but not really because of the sound quality (which is massively variable). It’s more about the physical object, having something you made in your hand. It’s still an expensive format to make, which puts it out of reach of many bedroom producers like myself. That’s made it a bit of a holy grail, so getting my stuff on vinyl this year was a big milestone for me. All formats have their advantages though, digital is super flexible and portable, cassettes have the nostalgia factor and are cheap for labels to produce, etc. CDs are totally undervalued these days. Nice artwork potential, lasts better than any other physical format, etc. I think electro is well suited to vinyl though, we’re all obsessed with old Roland gear anyway, so why not have an old format to play it on? 😊
What do you think of vinyl purists, and purists in general?
I kind of get it, especially when it comes to vinyl only labels – there’s a trend of devaluing music that’s happened in the last decade or so, with people expecting everything for free, and vinyl is a stance against that - If you want this music, support it and pay a fair price for it! But when it comes to record buyers, I don’t know why you’d want to miss out on loads of music just because the person making it couldn’t afford to throw a grand at getting it pressed. I try not to set any strict rules for how I make or release things. Variety is the spice of life, as they say.
Could you describe the mix you have put together to accompany this interview? Did you have a specific approach to it and when DJing, how spontaneous are you?
I put together a mix which is typical of what I’d play out lately - very electro heavy, sneaking in a touch of braindance. I like to mix the kind of stuff that works in a club as well as on headphones, and I try getting a bit of the more unusual stuff in there too, some stuff straight from Bandcamp, to make the most of doing it digitally.
Tracklisting
Komarken Electronics - Better Tomorrow
Fleck E.S.C. - Discrete Opinion
Photodementia - Ds Groove
Plant 43 - Porcupine Meadow
Nullptr - Unreleased
Versalife - Scepsis
/DL/MS/ - Tides
Jensen Interceptor - Glide Drexler
Populist - Psychometric Profiling
Shinra - Propellor
Morphology - Mind Stealers (Sync 24 Remix)
No Moon - Sirens
Nullptr - Unreleased
Rolando Simmons - Wanderer 112.5
ERP - Vox Automaton
Assembler Code & Jensen Interceptor - Random Pain
Vertical67 - Intrasystem
Microlith - Remember Members
How often do you play live and DJ? What new music can be expected from you over the next six months?
I actually DJ semi-regularly these days, which is weird as I never set out to be a DJ. It’s more that I can’t really do live versions of my music as I can’t re-patch the modular, so I got into DJing as a way to play out my own stuff. I’ve really got into it in the last year or two since we’ve been doing our regular Motherchip Connexion nights in Cambridge. Our next one is a slightly late launch party for my AFTRMTH release on CPU, with our regulars Purplehands and The Subdermic, but also with 96 Back, who also had a release out on CPU. Hoping we get a good turn out, as it’s our first time at a new venue and we want them to let us come back!
In terms of releases, I’m sure there’ll be more Nullptr on the way (I have a stack of unreleased stuff), and I have plans for a Bovaflux album next year. There’s also the release of the Electric Eclectics box set on Fundamental Records which I’m part of, which is hopefully out soon. Oh, and a remix I did (as Bovaflux) for Ariadne’s Labyrinth should be out before the end of the year too. Lots of great artists on board for that so looking forward to hearing it!
If you want a richly textured techno EP, this is for you. Even though it’s hardly original, there’s so much going on here that it’s freshness shines through. The title track is my personal fave here, and comes across as cold wave on steroids. ‘Rhythm (Is Life Edit)’ is a break beat monster of stellar proportions, ‘Kombination 100’ a rubberoid techno banger, ‘In Time (The Brooklyn Edit)’ an airy, tribal romp, while ‘Scroll’ a relentless loop of doom. It’s all here on this exemplary release which is impossible not to like, if you like techno, that is.
Four ambient, mood setting tracks which started off life as the background noise to a fashion show (I think). They are interesting enough in that context, and are competently arranged, steadily building in tempo if listened to chronologically. They would also be better than most of what passes as edgy on the catwalk, however, I can’t say much more than they are four atmospheric workouts that don't do anything special. Which is nice.
If Phil Spector made techno it may have sounded like this. ‘The X-Planet’ adopts a wall of sound approach and, as far as the big room philosophy is concerned, it’s not bad at all. There’s little or no space between the various elements and one feels quite pulverized by the whole listening experience. ‘Device 4’ and ‘The Yesterday Machine’ both work on the same principle, but lack the funk of ‘The X-Planet’, feeling loopy and less immersive, particularly ‘Device 4’. This EP goes for the jugular but, to an extent, comes off as formulaic and boring. Hit and miss.
Laurence Fisher is the maverick behind Cambridge's only electro night, 'Motherchip Connexion'. We recently became acquainted, so I thought it only polite to ask him a few questions, and get him to do a mix. Read on and fill your boots (as well as your eyes and ears).
What motivated you to start Motherchip Connexion and what are the realities of trying to run a club night like it in Cambridge?
Motherchip started out of complete boredom and frustration at the lack of any electro music in Cambridge. I was staying in for years on end, mixing and listening on my own and one night went out to see an old mate’s event where people were playing eclectic mixes of music on vinyl. I started talking to people there and quickly made some new friends. I explained my passion for electro music and got introduced to a couple of other like-minded people. Seeing others putting on small events in pubs inspired me to get together with the few folks I met who had electro to play and it went from there. The reality is that in this town electro is a bit of an unknown quantity to a lot of people, but the beauty is that people come up to me saying “I don’t know what this type of music is but I love it, it’s amazing!” Crowd sizes can vary, we have had full rooms and single digit figures. A late license at a venue really helps but it is hard to persuade venues to give you one if you can’t guarantee numbers. We take what we can get.
Who are the resident DJs and what are their styles? How do they compliment each other?
There are three residents including myself.
Eddie aka Bovaflux/Nullptr plays a great range of high quality production electro, plenty of solid classics and new releases. His style leans towards tracks with deep moods, melody and emotions, but also knows exactly how to bring the heat when he wants to rock the crowd.
The Subdermic aka Lilly Phoenix is a force to be reckoned with. She plays some of the hardest techno I’ve heard in this town and slides electro bangers in between. It’s always exciting to hear her new unreleased material live and the reaction it gets. Furiously beat matching and fader flipping her way though intense sets, she takes no prisoners.
Purplehands aka myself. I like to play all sorts of electro styles, depending on the time of the night. At the beginning I’ll be slower and playing gentle vibes; middle period I’m playing the classics and trying out new tracks. End of the night I’m ramping up with fast Detroit electro, and squeaky, bleepy and raw sounds from across the planet.
I think we all work well because we are versatile and rotate different time slots. We know each other’s styles well enough to transition our sets together while all bringing our own take on the music and surprise each other. It’s a lot of fun.
What about lighting and visuals? Would you say that coming to Motherchip is an immersive experience?
Coming from a previous job working as a lighting technician the venue space is very important to me. I have a clear idea of what I like for our music, as dark as possible with a few lasers for dance floor motion and immersion backed up by smoke machine. The strobe comes out towards the end of the night usually controlled by myself. The one thing that people seem to like and comment on are the visuals I make, which is nice. I spend hours looking for old science documentaries, sci-fi and technology videos to splice together into 3 to 4 hour long playing videos. No 2001 though, that shit is great but completely played out! I only have basic software to make them with but I enjoy spending nights listening late to records and picking out scenes that compliment each other. It also really helps tie in the subject matter of electro music. It’s also great at the start of the nights when people don’t necessarily want to dance they can just sit back in the dark, listen and zone out to the visuals. There’s nothing I love more than watching missile tests while Fastgraph is being played.
What are your own feelings about electro, and electronic music in general? How long have you been into it, and what got you started?
The genre is incredibly personal to me, it’s the time and energy spent digging to find such amazing music, which solidifies the bond I have for it. The sounds are like nothing else to my mind. It’s full of different emotions and concepts. It can send me into deep thoughts, reflecting on the world and the future. It can also make me want to dance because it is incredibly rhythmic, funky, heavy and sexy.
What I find very interesting is that within a relatively small genre there are a number of artists that have their own original musical styles while still sticking to the essence of electro, it’s very similar to hip hop really, when MCs and beat makers have their own styles and it also feels like there is a bit of friendly competition going on. What’s great is the community of artists within it, I used to message The Advent and Stingray on Myspace asking about tracks and pointers for records. Today it’s great to be able to contact and share information with these artists directly on Facebook or by just chatting to them in person at club nights, there are no egos just hard working, genuine people keeping this scene alive for the love of it.
Could you say what the most popular tunes are at Motherchip? Give us an all time top 5.
The Consumer – Datacare
Shokh – The Man
Randomer – Smokin’
ERP – Vox Automaton
Detroit In Effect – Let Yo Body Rock
When we spoke at the ‘Drexciyan Legacy’ night, you came across as someone who is passionate about what they do, but also realistic. Do you think you’ll ever be able to give up your day job to concentrate more on music, and what is the day job?
Well never say never, it would be great to do, I think that time is more important than money as long as you have enough to get by on. I often get ideas for making tracks while at work and wish I could just go home and turn on the music gear, and then when you get home you’re tired and only have a few hours to get creative. I don’t know if I’m just lazy or my heart isn’t in it enough but I do feel I waste too much time not making music. A valuable lesson I have learned over the years is that stress from jobs kills my creativity. Today I work in hazardous waste management and media production for a biomedical research campus as a lab technician. I have also worked in human anatomy, embalming donors for teaching purposes.
If you could emulate any club night, which would it be, and why?
Scand is an electro night in and around London run by Sync 24 that always inspires me. Its just pure electro all night, they have their residents who are lovely people and they get in the famous names in the scene from around the world. It’s great to hear upcoming releases played by them and you know the crowd is there because they’re really into the music, I have made a lot of friends by attending those nights and it’s good to chat with like minded people about the music. Their last event was at Corsica Studios and was a split night with Neighborhood. It was so great to see electro in charge and in the main room instead of “room 2” which is so often the case; that’s what I’m aiming for too.
What have been your greatest influences outside music?
Space exploration, human civilization, science and, broadly speaking, anything that involves a glimpse into the future. I’m looking forward to the Moon space station, the Moon base and humans landing on Mars, and also a solution to global warming.
What are the top 5 labels and artists that are buy on sight for you?
Stilleben Records in Sweden run by Luke Eargoggle and his brother always put out interesting and crazy banging tracks and have done for years. They’re a must buy for me.
Cultivated Electronics run by Phil (Sync 24) in the UK has consistently strong releases and they fly off the shelves so keep your eyes peeled!
Fundamental Records run by Alek Stark out of Madrid is incredible. He has released artist’s albums and put together the biggest compilations of electro in the world from artists across the globe. These are a buy on sight for me as they contain tracks you cannot get on any other format than vinyl and I treat them like heavy ammo for doing a set.
Jensen Interceptor (Australia) has recently started a label called International Chrome which is taking off right now. He and Assembler Code are putting out some furious banging electro which is a regular listen for me, I’m excited to see where they go musically.
Frustrated Funk is just a classic label and I always have to keep my eyes peeled for new stuff on there, so many great releases over the years.
What is coming up in the future for Motherchip? Is there anything happening between now and Christmas?
Yes we have our CPU Records release party celebrating Eddie’s (Nullptr) EP ‘Aftrmth’, on 19th October at 2648 Bar on Trinity Street in Cambridge. Also 96 Back from CPU will be joining us. Really looking forward to that and in a new venue too. We’ll have to wait and see what the future holds. I have a baby boy on the way so I will be very busy early next year, it’s all really exciting and I hope we can get more people around town to tune into our sounds and grow the crowd. We would like to get some bigger names to play for us and make more connexions! I think perseverance is key and as long as we are enjoying it we can make an impact. To the future! Cacophonous Bling Podcast 10: Purplehands
