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LISTEN TO MIX: download listen
Thanks for the dope mix! You're based in London right? Please tell us about the scene there ...
it seems healthy with a lot of smaller parties happening. Sort of back to basics underground
style like before the super club era.
Thanks Len, it's my pleasure.
Yes, I'm London born and bred but for my money the best city for genuine underground clubbing in
the UK has got to be Glasgow.
For a city of barely a million people the range of great underground parties is pretty staggering.
There's all kinds of great disco, techno, house and reggae parties going on. I play up there quite a
lot at all kinds of different places and as a rule the crowds have the perfect balance of musical
suss and raw enthusiasm for dancing and general hedonism and there's always a great mix of
different kinds of people on the dancefloor.
Everyone who comes to the UK has to visit Glasgow to check out the party scene otherwise they
are really missing out. All these are great nights to check out; Melting Pot, Numbers, Curious
Curious, Wrong Island, Slabs of the Tabernacle, Monox, Pressure, Huntleys and Palmers,
Subculture, Optimo, and, without doubt, the daddy of them all - Club 69, the legendary techno club
held in the basement of a curry house out near the airport in paisley.
You run the Dissident label that burst onto the scene a couple of years ago. How did it happen
that you started the label?
It was almost an accident. I pressed 50 copies each of 3 of the Control Voltage records to test the
water and realised that if I had pressed a few more copies then i could have made them break
even. That basically became the model for the label so i just got cracking.
Do you think your strategy of going for really limited quality one-sided releases has helped the
success of the label?
It's not really a conscious strategy but I'm sure it's helped, it was a simple of matter of economics.
The bit that was perhaps slightly more considered was not doing any promo. I was curious to see
what would happen if the label relied purely on the music being good and interesting enough to
attract people purely on it's own merit. So far the results have been very encouraging although it
does seem that you have to interact with the hype-machine to some extent if you want to
sell more than a couple of hundred cds so I'm currently trying to work out how to do this in the best
way.
Do you consciously aim for a certain style with the artists/tracks that you release?
I hope not, I'd like to think I'm as open-minded about the music that gets released on the label as i
am about all music in general. I guess there is a certain aesthetic thread in that most of the
releases so far are some kind of analogue electronic music but I'm open to anything that floats my
boat. There's some really good kraut-esque drone stuff and excellent deep techno that's coming on
Dissident in the autumn and all kinds of other good things on their way. In a lot of ways I run the
label like I programme a dj set; there's a general,fairly loose idea of what's going to happen but
always room for a change of direction or some improvisation.
Every release seems to be by a new artist or alias. Are any of them your own or where do you
find all these people?
I'm involved in 4 of the aliases but most are all different people. To start with it was just me and my
mates and then I started meeting people at my gigs who had music for me and getting stuff
emailed to me from people all over the world. So far most of it has been really good and I've met
some really cool people this way.
Sound to the label seems very important, are you an analog fan? I don't think I have seen any
mp3 releases of the singles of Dissident that were released?
There aren't and won't be any mp3s. To me there's something really dull about the mp3 distribution
network and more importantly they sound cold, soulless and sonically two-dimensional over a well
set-up sound system so its not an avenue down which the label will be venturing. And yes, I'm a
massive analog fan. I love the physicality of the sound, the way that the lows have such weight and
body and the highs are really ethereal and cloud-like or strong and sharp, not because they have
been compressed and processed to hell but simply because that's how they sound straight out of
the box.
What's you favourite piece of kit at the moment and how long have you been collecting gear?
I bought my first very crappy synth when i was about 15 but didn't have much of a clue about how to
use it. After that for many years I used other people's studios but when everyone started selling all
the hardware and going computer-based about 9 years ago I soon stopped enjoying making
music that way and started putting my own analogue set-up together.
The classics like the 808 and pro-one will always be among my favourites but I've also got a few
bits that have been specially modified for me to make them more suited to the spontaneous,
hands-on way I make music. There are a few very under-rated synths and drum machines that can
be bought and expertly modded by a pro for less than £200 in total that will then easily hold their
own against and often sound better than recognised classics that can cost 4 times as much and
more.
Dissident's release schedule is just immense, I think I remember one or sometimes even two
tracks coming out every week for a while now. How many records have you released so far
and what has been the best received ones so far?
Its about 60 so far. Of the recent ones, the Hardton, Neville Watson and Brassica releases have
gone down extremely well and there are a few of the older releases that already change hands for
a few quid. What I like most is the fact that there are a handful of copies left of older releases sitting
in record shops waiting to be discovered by people who have just got into the label. I love seeing
people charting Dissident releases for the first time a year or so after they came out. That for me is
what the label is about, music isn't meant to be part of a linear conveyer belt of new releases to be
consumed in some kind of order.
Are you planning on keeping your the schedule up and what exciting stuff have you got lined up?
I want to keep it at 2 or 3 per month and get a compilation cd out every 3-4 months. There's volume
3 of the cds that's just come out and loads of great 12s just waiting for their place in the release
schedule to come up. I'm also starting another label project called Black Editions that will start in
August and run for 13 records over the next year or so.
I love the Dissident label design, who did that?
My friend tom from Vacant Design and I talked about using simple geometric shapes and a stark
monochrome colour scheme to make a strong label identity and that's what he came up with, so
the brief was certainly satisfied. After two years in black and white we've finally moved into colour on
the new cd and we'll develop the visual identity over time but I think the 12s will stay basically the
same as its such a strong graphic image.
Have you played at any good parties lately?
Of the recent ones there was a boat party at the Garden Festival in Croatia where me, Amy from
Drop the Bomb and Earl Gateshead from Trojan just played reggae and it was simply amazing. We
have a reggae thing called Dubco that we do together and this party was one of the best gigs we
have done. I was expecting a nice mellow evening and it started like that but then went right off,
people were really freaking out to heavy roots, dub stuff, early 80s dancehall and even a little bit of
dubstep.
Another recent one that was really good was a party called Bodyhammer. They asked me to play a
new-beat and ebm set and their crowd were really into it, massively receptive and dancing wildly to
a mad soundtrack of heavy bass, slow arpeggios, clanging noises and clattering rhythms.
Drop the Bomb is always really good too. Its a party aimed at London's street dancers. Not the
macho competitive b-boy style, its more for the poppers, lockers and house dancers. There are
always the most amazing dancers there and the music played by Amy and Mr P is absolutely
spot-on.
The mix you sent to CITP is amazing atmospheric cosmic gear. What kind of stuff do you like
playing in clubs, is it just as eclectic?
Thank you, I'd probably only get the chance to play most of the stuff in this particular mix in a
chill-out situation at a multi-roomed party or maybe a daytime event but some of the tracks do
occasionally make it into my club sets. I like to play lots of different styles where possible but of
course most clubs and parties usually are happiest with something around 115-125 bpm unless
you get a really spot-on crowd and a nice long set to work with. Even in those 2-3 hour guest slot
situations I still mix it up a lot tho, playing disco, real house, psych-funk, italo, boogie, ebm and all
sorts of shit to make you lose your shit, that is where true house music comes from after all.
I just keep it moving and keep the energy up so that even the people who would ultimately prefer a
fairly basic mix of contemporary grooves and re-edits can really get into it and enjoy themselves. I
often finish sets and have guys coming up to me asking where I get all my edits from and they are
pretty shocked when I tell them that I only ever play originals. There's a silly notion that currently
pervades that all this old stuff needs 'rectifying' slightly before it's palatable for a modern dancefloor
and of course that's just nonsense, you just need to play it properly and everything slots into place
nicely.
Would you describe yourself as a record digger and how did you land on the whole space disco
balearic vibe?
My musical tastes have always been wide-ranging from very early on. When the original balearic
thing rocked up in London in the late 80s it was great for me as I had always found the regular
notion of what constituted 'dance music' pretty narrow and tedious (then as now really) and the
music and wild range of styles in the original wide definition of balearic back then was very much
what i had always been into anyway.
Currently, I really like that people have cottoned on to the fact that some of this stuff made in the
70s and 80s is still among the most adventurous and futuristic music ever made. For me its like
going back to my roots although there are still countless gems that I have never heard before that I
find on a daily basis. And yes, I guess I have to admit to being something of a record digger.
What other labels or artist are doing it for you at the moment?
To be honest I have no real idea of what anyone else is up to other than the artists whose music I
release. At the moment I'm digging full-time for older stuff rather than keeping up with the
contemporary release scene so I'm not sure how qualified to comment I am.
What would surprise people to find out about you?
A lot of people are incredibly quick to label and pigeonhole based on a very minimal amount of
information so no doubt some of them would be most surprised to find out that there's a lot more
to me musically than the output on dissident, or disco, or reggae, or the 7" mixes and sets that i do,
or the first dj set that they heard me play, or this mix, or whatever else they found out about me
through.
I think it would also surprise some of them to see that even the most regular of club dancefloors
can be rocked to their foundations by a set made up entirely of older and often obscure records that
most of the dancers have never heard before if they are programmed and presented properly. It
goes without saying that all the elements required to rock a party have already been out there for
years, its just a case of piecing them together properly in the heat of the moment.
What do you think will make the world a better place?
More love, compassion and honesty would be a great start. The death of marketing would be a
good next step but there's no way that's happening any time soon. As long as there's a fool willing
to buy into the hype, then hype there will be.
Would you like to give a shout out to anyone?
To all my friends and loved ones and all those around the world who do
it properly, I salute you.
Links:
www.dissidentlondon.co.uk
