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RED RACK EM INTERVIEW
Hey Danny. Thanks for the mix ... really digging the Detroit beat down sound of it.
Personally I've noticed a bit of revival in this style with the stuff coming from guys like
Move D, Slowhouse recordings and so on. How did you get into it and who do rate as
pushing the sound forward?
I have to give props to my old school friend Fraser Saunderson for introducing me to Theo
Parrish in 1998 when he got First Floor Metaphor. We were flatmates for a while in Edinburgh
from '95-'97 and that was when I was just getting my head round DJing. I was pretty much
strictly hip hop in those days (and Mo Wax etc) and he was buying things like 'High In A
Basement' on Heavenly (seminal deep house comp) and Doctor Rockit twelves. He has
always been years ahead with his music tastes and I still leave Edinburgh with new lists of
stuff to track down whenever I visit him. Also Dave Smith and Rick Donohue who worked at
Funky Monkey Records in Nottingham between 2001-2004 when I was really finding my
sound. They passed me a lot of out there stuff in those days.
In terms of who's doing it in the genre.... hmmm its a tough one as I think that beatdown style
stuff is very much based on a feeling rather than a specific set of sounds. So I often feel like
the tracks I buy/rate are tapping into something that's already there rather then bringing
something new to the table. That's no bad thing in some ways as it's a comforting sound
which often draws on the past. Mark E has really come of age recently. A Made Up
Sound/Dogdaze has got some ace stuff which will never see the light of day as he's doing well
in dubstep as 2562 now. Juju and Jordash have got the vibe. The Firecracker guys are very
talented - Fudge Fingas and Linkwood Family - great to see Edinburgh well on the map for
beatdown style music. But ultimately it's people like Theo Parrish, KDJ and Rick Wilhite who
get my vote. So much atmosphere and emotion in their early stuff. There's a reason why the
big names in detroit music are so big.
You're from Nottingham right? How's your Smuggler's Inn parties going over there and is
mix for Cool In The Pool representative of the soundtrack?
The Smugglers Inn parties are mainly held in Saltwater which is a fairly large bar/restaurant in
a modern cinema complex with escalators etc in the centre of Nottingham. I have known the
manager for years and he's incredibly supportive of loads of people on the scene in
Nottingham. It's the most successful bar in town and he plows the money back into events
featuring the likes of Charles Webster, Move D, Bent, Crazy P, DiY, Schmoov etc. The
Smugglers Inn stuff has been ace as I have managed to get an eclectic, leftfield and often
psychedelic soundtrack played in the busiest bar in Nottingham. There is no music policy at
the night and I try to put on 4 DJs who play completely different stuff so you might have soul
expert Al McGowan playing before electro/wonky techno guru Alex Byrom, or local hip hop crew
The Elementz playing before disco don Peej. So the Cool In The Pool mix represents about
5% of what gets played at The Smugglers Inn.
I also throw the odd 'Allstars' event in Nottingham too where I get about 10-15 DJs together
and we all play for about 45 mins each in a semi competitive atmosphere. I love getting
everyone together for these as everyone is always out working at the same time. It can be a bit
lonely as a DJ in Nottingham sometimes! I also recently did an invite only no randoms secret
house party - my friend had sold his house so I got everyone to meet in a pub 2 doors down at
midnight and led them to the party. The sound was amazing that night - we had Quested
studio monitor tops and Celestion 18" subs with a 750 watt MCSquared club power amp and
digital crossover for this tiny house with about 40 people in it. Amazing scenes!
You also do a online radio show called Smuggler's Inn. Tell us more ...
My friend Alex Traska started his own internet radio station http://www.myhouse-yourhouse.net
as a primarily house based station. They have broadcasters from all over the world using
shoutcast software to stream through the MHYH website. I used to do guest mixes on his
show and Alex has become more and more eclectic in his tastes so he asked me to do a
show. I began in Jan 2007 and it's really altered my outlook to DJing and music. I have always
played eclectic sets so I have got a pretty broad collection but I tend to get 'over' things too
quickly. Like I can't imagine playing much standard funk music in public these days. Or 75% of
the disco edits I dutifully bought 4 years ago. Having to compile a 3 hour show every fortnight
has breathed new life into my collection. I find myself pulling things out of boxes in the corner
of my room that I forgot I even owned. It's also made me focus on getting new unreleased stuff
even more than before and I even occasionally play some of my own stuff on there too.
My show is broadcast every second wednesday from 6-9pm GMT @ http://www.myhouse-
yourhouse.net - The podcast is available @ http://www.redrackem.com , http://www.
danceandsoul.com and also on Itunes.
You're releasing music under many pseudonyms such as Hot Coins, Marlinspike and
Muthafuckin D. What sound do you associate with each and do you DJ in all these different
styles?
Having loads of different names is more of a filing thing than anything else. I used to be just
Red Rack'em and make wonky hip hop, disco, house, brukstep etc. But recently I have had to
really start to think about where the music is going to end up as I make so much which never
even gets burned onto a CD. Having a 'home' for the different styles has really helped me see
things as projects rather than disparate beats on my hard drive. Roughly speaking Hot Coins
is the cosmic, balearic, electro disco stuff. Marlinspike is my detroit 2 step/dubstep stuff and
Muthafuckin D is my detroit beatdown stuff. But there's still loads of stuff which
isn't quite in any category!
How long have you been making music and what inspired you?
My dad was a student at St Andrews around 1978 and I remember being taken to parties at my
dads friends house when I was about 4 and all the kids were put into a creche at the quiet end
of the row of cottages while bands played on stages in a massive garden. I also remember
playing lead glockenspiel for my primary school aged 6 in a school gig and being
commended on my improvisation. I remember making pause tapes when I was about 13 with
red Sharp back to back ghetto blaster which could do over dubs. I remember going to acid
house parties at my older sisters house in St Andrews in 1991 and hearing dance music
(probably Sasha!) and watching scantily clad girls dancing with enthusiasm. I remember my
parents going away for 2 weeks in the summer of '94 and we set up a studio in my house and
recorded an album. I have always been fascinated by music and I have always felt compelled
to make it. I am mainly inspired by my teenage years as I was far more creative then with scant
means of even recording stuff. All my mates were really talented musicians and it was a really
exciting time. Coming from a fishing village in Scotland is the ultimate inspiration though as
music was/is the only escape.
What's you favourite piece of gear and are you mainly digital or analog?
I don't have any gear! I have got a macbook, Logic 8, some decent monitors, a midi keyboard
and a set of decks. Thats it. I do record other musicians though and then feed that into the
tracks so it's not like everything I do is just ripped from records. But coming from hip hop and
digging detroit house has always made me very sample based. I really like the rough quality of
the sound you get with samples so I guess I record analogue sound sources into digital
format to try to recreate an analogue feeling. My fave piece of gear is a bit of audio on the logic
arrange page being cut up and looped in an off kilter fashion.
Your release as Hot Coins is one of my favourites this year. It got record of the week at
Piccadilly Records, licensed to the "Nu Balearica" comp on Ministry of Sound and dj
support coming from Prins Thomas, Steve Kotey, Chris Duckenfield, Domu plus many
more! Are there more releases planned under this moniker? Hope so ...
Wow - thanks man - glad you like it. Yeah I have finished the next Hot Coins EP and I am just
waiting to see who wants to put it out. It's got four tracks on it again and is in a similar vein to
the first one. It's funny 'cause I have played people the Hot Coins stuff over the years
and people have always said it was pretty good. But I think I would have got my shit together a
bit quicker if I had known that it was actually going to go down so well with the public and DJs
that I respect. I think things tend to sound better on vinyl blasting out of a club system
rather then on a CDR with 8 other tracks on it. I am going to sift through the best Hot Coins
tracks get some vocalists on board and do a Hot Coins album. Then I can do a live act and go
on tour. That's the plan.
Any other releases in the pipeline?
Yeah - Atlantic Conveyor have just signed me to their Discolexia label. I played them a load of
stuff in their studio a couple of weeks ago and they really liked 'You Can't Pray For Your Soul'
which is on the mix I did for CITP (see what I did there). It's a low slung detroit style
bluesy hoe down with very strange quasi religious vocal samples on it. The B side will be
Christmas Day which I wrote at my folks house last christmas. I had never made any computer
music at my parents (just got a laptop in Nov 07) and I asked my dad to pick me out some
CDs to sample so it was a bit of a family affair on that one. They watched a film downstairs
while I made this track on headphones in my wee bro's room. It's a kind of jazz hip hop/house
hybrid thing which you can hear on myspace.
The next Hot Coins EP should hopefully be out before autumn. And there's the Marlinspike
detroit 2 step stuff which is being supported by people like Kode 9, N-type, Geiom etc so I am
pretty keen to get that stuff out. Will either self release that or see who picks it up. I want to
do an album of that stuff though so it would be better on a bigger label. The Hot Coins stuff is
heading towards an album too so that needs to be on a decent label too I reckon.
You've supported many well known DJs, so what's been some of your most memorable
gigs?
Playing with Flying Lotus in Nottingham was pretty cool. I played before him and dropped
loads of Spacek, Skweee, Red Nose and loads of my own stuff. My mates who know about
music were all going ballistic on the dance floor while half of the room seemed pretty
perplexed at the way out sounds I was playing. Some girl asked me for Jamiroquai or
something and FlyLo got on the mic and started shouting 'listen ya'll....if you don't like the
music...get the fuck out of the building....get the fuck out of here....we don't take no requests in
this motherfucker....' Proper classic moment. The sound is fed into the restaurant in the venue
so I would have love to have seen the diners faces when Steve got on the mic. Suddenly
everyone started going for it a bit more on the dancefloor. That kind of sums up being a local
support DJ for me. A sea of blank faces until you get a celebrity endorsement. Playing with
Modeselektor in Budapest was another funny gig - they poured bottles of champagne over
their own heads and pretended to commit suicide with toy swords. Playing with Move D was
amazing though. He's a really nice bloke and has immaculate taste in music. I had been out
all weekend and was very worse for wear. But I actually played pretty well. I think I was inspired
by being in such auspicious company. You can hear that set here - http://www.divshare.
com/download/3159320-2cb
Which producers or djs inspire you?
Well it's more about certain records really but off the top of my head - producer wise - early
Jazzanova, Spacek, Kaidi Tatham (mans a ledge), Move D, Pepe Bradock, early Lindstrom,
Dimlite, THEO, KDJ, Rick Wade, Isolee, Jimmy Edgar, I Cube, Domu, Dogdaze/A Made Up
Sound, Martyn, Inverse Cinematics, Red Nose Distrikt, Pete Rock, Dilla, Madlib, 4 Hero,
Stasis, Radiq...
DJ wise - not that many people really impress me these days. Daniele Baldelli was the best
set I think I ever saw in Nov 2006. Domu is consistently amazing - really across the boards.
Move D was ace. Stingray and IF were both great at Bleep 43 in London in April. Radio wise -
Benji B is great.
What's Red Rackem's top 5 tunes at the moment?
Tough question this -
1 - Human by Mark E
2 - Suburbia by Martyn
3 - Sea Spray by Lone
4 - J J Adams by AD Bourke
5 - Subharmonic Atoms by Namlook - Pepe Bradock remix
Do you want to give a shout out to anyone?
Just want to say a massive big up to all the people who tune into the show, download the
podcast, buy the records and generally support what I do. It means a lot to me. Also want to
say a massive thanks to my family and friends for being supportive!
Lastly, how the hell do you get time for it all?
Well I am lucky to work (very) part time at a couple of local colleges teaching DJ skills and
music business which when combined with my DJ work earns me enough to scrape by on. I
try to spend at least 20 hours a week making music. Most people who know me would
probably describe me as lazy - I do write a lot of music but I also spend a lot of time
hanging out. I think time is worth more than money.
Booking details?
info@bethemediauk.com or redrackem@hotmail.com
Tracklisting:
1 – Soulphiction – Dark Berry
2 – Fudge Fingas – Gettin’ Togetha
3 – Inverse Cinematics – Passin’ Through
4 – Andres feat Negue Hernandez – About Time
5 – Mark E - Touch
6 – Oblique – Love Town
7 – Theo Parrish – First Floor Metaphor
8 – Soul 223 – In Search Of Slowly
9 – Mark E - Slave 1
10 – Red Rack’em – You Can’t Pray For Your Soul
11 – San Proper - Twiff Twaff
12 – Theo Parrish - Twin Cities
13 – Linkwood Family – Miles Away
14 – Iken – Minds Eye
15 – Theo Parish – That Day
16 – The Godson - Magic Water
17 – Moodymann – Don’t Be Misled
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