Mike Wallis [Interview]

Although his name may sound unfamiliar, Mike Wallis has spent the better part of two decades subtly shaping the landscape of broken beat electronic music by releasing forward-thinking sounds under various aliases, collaborating with producers like Tipper and Kursa, and founding the London-based label Colony Productions. On March 15, Mike released a cerebral four-track downtempo EP Lab Notes through Colony, the first under his latest alias Osmetic. Some may know Osmetic as the “O” in the producer collective and live scratch project K.L.O with Kursa and Lone Drum, which recently performed across the states from the Bay Area to New York City. The Rust Music had the opportunity to correspond with Wallis about the production process behind Lab Notes, his recent travels with K.L.O, and the arch of his life-long musical journey.

3NA Visuals

Mike began DJing at 15 years old and producing at 18. He’s released under “10 or 11” different aliases, and most are collaborations with other producers. After releasing as PSI SPY and then Abstrakt Knights, a collaboration with Sam Ashwell, he founded Colony Productions in 2001. Primarily, Colony was created as a platform to release early work from Crunch, a collaboration with Mike’s childhood friend Dave Tipper. Although the minimal, textured and ambient Crunch sound was foundational for Colony, the label has come to embrace a broad spectrum of exploratory electronic music, issuing releases from VENT, Kursa, Opiuo, and Bogtrotter during the formative years of their respective careers. These days, Mike is helping to shape the modern wave of sound design and low-end music through K.L.O. He continues to show an insatiable appetite for collaborative projects and a willingness to help other producers rise through the ranks.

Lab Notes is a downtempo dive into lush, vivacious rhythms and spaced-out stereophonics. Although Osmetic is an offshoot of the high-octane K.L.O, these songs are tonally smooth, and distinct from the razor-edged abrasion and guttural sound design of that project. There’s a neural aesthetic across the release, with sounds firing like synapses gracefully in synchronization, the kind of mechanical efficiency that only biology can thus far produce. Utilizing sparse waveforms and precise textures, every song is an ode to minimalism, bringing the listener into a hypnotic space through repetitive phrasing and droning melodies. Resting squarely on broken-beat rhythms, Lab Notes offers a head-nod mentality fused with modern foley and sound design paradigms.

This interview features a companion “Colonization” mix, Rusted Rhythms Vol. 30, featuring one-hour of selections from the Colony Productions catalog mixed by Mike. This all comes ahead of Elements Lakewood Camping Festival on Memorial Day Weekend in Lakewood, Pennsylvania, where Mike Wallis will headline The Rust Music’s late night stage takeover. In some instances, the interview has been edited for length.

The Rust: The Osmetic project seems to be under tight wraps, with very little music available for public digestion. Why the frugality?

Wallis performing with K.L.O at the Black Box in Denver, CO in July 2018 (Credit: Dark Matter Photography)

Mike: Osmetic was born of wanting to find an “O” for K.L.O because we liked the sound of it and the guys already had the “K” and the “L”. It came from seeing a Cosmetics sign that had the “C” and the “S” not lit up. I’m not a big fan of most of my names to be fair but I also like to keep coming up with new ones. My favourite is probably Faek which I used on the Bad Taste release with Kursa. As far as why I don’t like putting out much solo stuff, I’m not really sure. I have a track coming out on a Street Ritual compilation in a few months under the Osmetic moniker. I work on things and dump them on my hard drive when I get bored of working on them. Sometimes I go back and sometimes I don’t. Occasionally I find a tune I’ve completely forgotten about. The four on Lab Notes are my favourites from the last year.

The Rust: From Osmetic and Crunch to K.L.O and more, your back catalog is diverse. Can you dive into some of the creative differences between these separate projects?

Mike: What makes my output over the years as diverse as it is comes from a combination of being inspired by different artists; those that I get to work with and those that I come across when seeing what’s out there. I’m picky about what I like, I know pretty quickly if I’m into something. I’m just as picky about who I work with. There’s nothing like being in a physical space with someone and being in the same headspace. I hadn’t worked with three people before K.L.O and it’s great. Multiple filters make for a better end result, I think. Creatively, it’s about the mood as well, finding a vibe, getting into things. When we did the Crunch tracks back in the day it was about just spending a day together each week, doing something different and having some fun with it - no end aim. One person does something and that sparks the next thing. I generally prefer working with people to working on my own for music I want to release, but I really enjoy the semi meditative state you fall into when working alone, too.

What’s it like running a label while also working with other imprints and artists as a producer yourself? Does your work as a musician inform your work as a label director, and vice versa?

Mike Wallis founded Colony Productions in 2001 as a platform to release the first work from Crunch, a collaborative project with Dave Tipper. Today, Colony embraces a wide spectrum of exploratory electronic music.

Mike: I like to think of the label [Colony] as bit of a stepping-stone. I want to push the sounds I like, and I feel like we’ve always been slightly ahead of the curve. The label was originally started to release the Crunch work we did after that first Crunch 1 album on Musik Aus Strom. Then Seven Ark aka Justin De Nobrega sent me a demo, I loved it and I wanted to put it out. I actually rang him in the middle of the night by mistake as I was so excited I forgot to check what the time was in South Africa. Sam Ashwell, who I run the label with, got involved around 2005. Sam and I had already been writing together under the Abstrakt Knights moniker, and he was interested in jumping on board. When I had my daughter a few years later, something had to give and he basically kept the label going those first few years she was around. That’s when the Vent releases he was working on with Dan [Havers] (who’s also half of DC Breaks) started coming through. I have an idea of what a label should be but everyone does it differently. Some are better than others. I’m proud of what we’ve done so far and I really appreciate that all the acts and visual artists we’ve featured want to work with us.

Lab Notes is especially lush from start to finish, from its solid, honed-in textures to its extensive foley work. Can you describe your songwriting and production process? What digital/analog tools and instruments did you favor when designing the EP?

Mike: I use the Native Instruments Komplete 10 suite (I’ve just upgraded to 12 but that was after those tracks) and Ableton 9 (which I will upgrade to 10 soon) with a bit of sampling from my Virus b, my TB303, my TB03 and my record collection as well as a bunch of samples I have on drives from over the years and I monitor through my Adam S3A’s. My controller is the NI Kontrol S61 and for playing out I use an APC40 MK2. I like to just mess about and make sounds then piece them together. It’s the ultimate puzzle, really. As far as the Osmetic tracks, the first was born out of finding the Michael Norris plug-ins and it just came together from that. I usually start with a string and build from there. Once I have a basic melody to work with I just add elements until I have something more coherent. I think the track finds you rather than you writing the track half the time. “Low Fly” is literally a string, a bass, a break and a loop, but it’s got a nice feel, I think. “Simples” I just started with the sample and it went from there. “Oh Klahoma” I was tinkering with the melody line on another track and that one came out of it. I don’t really have a format for writing tracks. I just run with what I hear in my head once I hear a sound, it’s more reactionary than a planned route. I don't set out to make a certain type of track.

Hip-hop rhythms/motifs are especially prevalent in the states, while the UK traditionally spotlights drum and bass. What drove you towards half-time based musical projects?

Mike: The first record I bought myself was a De La Soul 7” when I was 12 years old. Until then I’d only had a Beatles tape and a funk compilation set of double LP’s my parents had given me. So I just thought it was all melody, groove and breaks. Which it kind of is. I went to college at 16 and there was a shop called Troublesome Records in my hometown which sold hardcore and techno (before d&b was invented yet). I got into that heavily and spent most of my free time in that shop just hanging about and getting into the scene in general. I studied sound engineering, bought a sampler, and started trying to write some tracks. I was also into the Warp Records catalogue by then, too, after coming across Aphex Twin’s digeridoo on R&S [Records] and this Mike Dred clear vinyl on Rephlex at Troublesome. That introduced me to the world of weird stuff and then I got really in to trip hop and breaks as well. I do love drum and bass though to this day. I’m a firm believer that there are good tracks in every genre as well as bad ones too. For me, it’s either electronic music or acoustic/band music rather than worrying about styles within those. They’re all just made up names really anyway. For me it’s 100% more about whether it’s good or not rather than what people are calling it. I’ve always judged tracks on how they make me feel rather than the tempo or genre.

How does Osmetic compare with Crunch or Mike Wallis in the live sphere? Which project do you prefer to perform with?

Mike: I basically play as K.L.O on the whole at the moment. Ben [Ben Parker aka Lone Drum] and I have been playing together under various names since I asked him to cut over my set at Glade Festival in 2012. I knew straight away I’d like to have him cutting on all my sets if I could. He has a great flow, and the scratching is key for the more uptempo sets, I think. It adds a real live element and makes it feel different every time. I do listen to music with vocals but for me the instrumental vibe is king. As ‘Mike Wallis’ I either play a downtempo set or a Colony set depending on the time and place [Rusted Rhythms Vol. 30 is one such “Colony” mix, featuring only music released through Colony Productions]. I’d say I prefer playing with Ben as K.L.O because it’s fun up there and it’s never the same twice. I don’t want that to take away from my solo sets, because I do really enjoy those too. I also really like the sound we're pushing with the K.L.O sets. The Crunch set at the first Suwanee Full Moon Gathering was a one-off. I doubt we’ll do that again but I’m glad we did it.

The K.L.O project has been booked throughout the US now. What cultural/social differences stand out to you between the nightlife/music scenes in the UK and US?

Mike: The scene is bigger in the states for that style definitely. I knew we were on to something when Rob C got me over for the Tipper pre-party for Red Rocks [in 2015] as that was the first time I dropped any of the K.L.O tracks we'd been working on and they went off. The festival scene is good in the states for sure. I don’t like all the talking in sets, though, if I’m honest. That kind of throws me, I just don’t get it. I think we have a darker vibe here in the UK born out of electro and drum and bass nights. There’s less emphasis on the visuals and rarely any live painting, but we do have it at the odd festival. Noisily is a good one if we’re talking festivals, as is Boomtown in the UK. We have more emcee’s in the UK but I don’t really get that either.

How do stateside festivals compare to their United Kingdom counterparts?

Mike: I think I covered this already but you guys do it very well. Especially the sizes I’ve played at. I haven’t played any massive ones so no idea on that front but they look less good I’d say but that’s a guess. I’d like to check out Burning Man one day. The UK has a few decent ones. I think my favourite festival, although I think it’s more than that, is Sonar though in Barcelona. That is done really well although I haven’t been since I drove a straight 20 hrs to get there after French air traffic control went on strike and my flight was cancelled a few years back, there was no way I was missing Kraftwerk though! Really looking forward to checking out Elements Lakewood for the first time.

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With little fanfare and great modesty, Mike Wallis has operated under the radar throughout his illustrious but quiet career. Playing the role of the curator above all else, his guiding hand continues to shape the current landscape of electronic music, both through his label and his performance and production projects. Wallis is scheduled to perform numerous sets as K.L.O, and “Mike Wallis” over the next several months, including at Elements Lakewood Camping Festival (tickets), where he’s sure to continue pushing genre-defining sounds.

FOLLOW Osmetic:   SoundCloud / Facebook

FOLLOW Colony Productions:   SoundCloud / Bandcamp / Beatport / Facebook

Lo-Fi Sundays 067 - Flavors

For boom-bap beats with the right touch of lo-fi aesthetic, tune in to the hard-knock sound of Connecticut-based beatmaker Flavors. With a deep catalog and a consistently slamming style, his music is perfect for hours spent studying, strolling or daydreaming. One will be satisfied drifting away with his beats as background, or digging into them to focus on their careful curves and layered sonic details.

He collaborated with a long list of talented beatmakers including soho, BLVK, chief, and floridomi. He has a particularly close relationship with this last producer, floridomi. They’ve performed together in Boston before, and their excellent collaborations, which fill this weekend’s playlist, informally take on the awesome “flavordomi” moniker. Flavors works with lo-fi motifs, but his production more often than not falls into the boom-bap bucket, and, here, his percussion hits harder than most. He’s able to crank the compression to 11 on kick and snare combinations that nearly blow out the speakers and compel your body to bump back and forth.

Because it’s just that good, his tune “empower” is included twice in our curated playlist; once on it’s own, and once at the beginning of his latest album “summit”, which was released just a few days ago and is available to purchase on Bandcamp. If you’d like to learn more about the producer, check out his interview with Pastry Beats, a Boston-based beats collective, which is coupled with a killer guest mix.

FOLLOW Flavors: Soundcloud / Spotify / Bandcamp / Instagram / Twitter

ALEPH - NEXT HYPE [EP]

Fresh out of the wake of his single release last week, ALEPH unveils his newest collection of sonic hand grenades with the full release of the NEXT HYPE EP. Thoroughly germinated with his signature fidelity-busting textures, this EP is at once both familiar and entirely unique; utilizing his preferred language of audio asymmetry and brutish compression, ALEPH covers a host of tempos of atmospheres across the four collective tracks.

“ULTRAVIOLET” is the brain buster you didn’t know you were looking for, opening the EP with spectral filtering and positively massive breaks. High-resonance filters sweep across the upper-mid-range, highlighting harmonics and distorting the brightest points of synthesis into a veritable ceiling. The bass lines are a vicious amalgamation of home-brewed sound design and relentless resampling, with every last audio artifact taken fully advantage of.

“LA$ER BEAMS” is the heavy-weight closer, bringing the EP to an eruptive end. The song itself is a 12-gauge blast to the senses, with every texture, tone, and waveform viciously distorted into an aural 1-inch punch. Staccato resampling busts the beat in half while fractured acid synthesis spikes and phases in and out of the wider stereo space. Just when you think you’ve hit the peak of intensity, the next bar is waiting to push the audio envelope even further.

Renraku Global Media has featured ALEPH across their release cycle for nearly two years and running, and it’s absolutely no wonder why. With such a diverse production palette coupled with his massive execution, ALEPH is shaping up to be far more than just the typical low-end enthusiast. Pay close attention to his future endeavors, as he’s sure to continue busting boundaries and redefining the landscape of sound design and engineering. For a further look into the EP, check out our premier and review of the title track “NEXT HYPE” here.

FOLLOW ALEPH: SoundCloud / Facebook / Spotify

FOLLOW RENRAKU: SoundCloud / Facebook / Bandcamp

Lo-Fi Sundays 066 - Eyukaliptus

Smashing beats like a true beast from the East, EYUKALIPTUS delivers a diverse hip-hop package that spans the wider breadth of broken-beat rhythms. Based out of New York City, his tracks exude a palatable head-nod coupled with supple composition. From dazzling jazz overtures to traditional boom-bap flare EYUKALIPTUS manages to touch upon each nuanced niche of lo-fi music.

With classically bit-crushed percussion and the intonation of finger-drumming, the rhythmic dynamic in the EYUKALIPTUS catalog is hypnotic in its own right. The duality of the percussion and the flickers of sub movement create a pocketed groove for each track to rest in, fomenting the best aspects of every sample utilized in his discography. The sampling itself demands particular note, as his careful touch on each slice of audio allows the original texture to flourish while simultaneously blending into a new paradigm. As a on-going demonstration of attentive musicianship and song-writing, his melody structure fails to fall flat at any point, instead bringing a vibe and an atmosphere that feels especially weightless.

With three years of constant releases under his belt, the EYUKALIPTUS track count stands at 120 and rising. It’s no wonder his choice of style and tempo can vary so greatly, given his rapid-fire output. Various live mixes dot his catalog, featuring the delicious audible touch of SP 404 sampling power. With hands touching so many various aspects of musicality and production, watching EYUKALIPTUS with a close set of eyes can only do you justice.

FOLLOW EYUKALIPTUS: Soundcloud / Bandcamp / Instagram / Tracktrain

ALEPH - NEXT HYPE [Premiere]

Breaking beat boundaries and blasting brain waves, ALEPH returns to the spotlight with the release of NEXT HYPE. A longtime resident with the label Renraku, ALEPH specializes in musical asynchronicity. This marks his production and makes it recognizable. Extremely saucy interpolation, audio artifacts, and crushing wave forms are the staples of his arsenal, and his newest endeavor takes all those assets along for the ride.

The title track “NEXT HYPE” is a fresh interpretation of the ALEPH style, channeling the power of breakbeat dance floor madness. He steers his preferred textures in new directions, and a retro-future smoothness is substituted for the hair-splitting intensity of his usual work. The percussion is an amalgamation of drums, pops, smacks, and aural bubbles slapping back and forth in the stereo space, throwing the listener into a hyperspace disco. Low-end grit and distortion plays it's part subtly, with bass lines laying down a follow-the-leader funk that shimmies in between each pang of the drums. Topping off the track like a cherry, the glitched-out audio trinkets that dance throughout the composition bring three-dimensional life to what would otherwise become too static of a song.

ALEPH always makes a killer first impression, and if you're just now learning about this stalwart audiophile, you're in for an absolute treat. If you have to get your hands on more, fear not; NEXT HYPE drops in full next Friday, March 15.

FOLLOW ALEPH: SoundCloud / Facebook / Spotify

Lo-Fi Sundays 065 - Mirrorish

Instrumental hip-hop is often just one shade away from trip-hop, that debated and revered underground genre. In some respects, much of the ascendant lo-fi hip-hop sound could be classified as trip-hop. Without getting bogged down in genre talk, if you interpret that word “trip-hop” at face value, it’s just psychedelic hip-hop. And so many of the out of phase, off-pitch beats in the lo-fi universe are trippy as hell. Certain beatmakers are just inherently psychedelic, even if they’re not aiming towards it. Enter Mirrorish from the state of Maryland.

His catalog is bountiful, with more than 10 LPs and EPs to his name. His latest release, Every Other Color, may be his most impressive. The production is crisp and clean, and it’s full of both straightforward head nods and also cinematic compositions. He produced a contemplative tape with British producer Drkmnd that journeys into a psychological abyss to find some paradoxical combination of focus and disorientation. Percussion limps along while whirring melodies create dissonance with the pads in the backdrop. The Mirrorish catalog is full of this sort of meditation music, beats that can stone you. He also has dozens and dozens of chops that hit the jazzy vein, with crushing boom-bap drums and dainty piano samples.

Often his tunes approach the atmosphere of downtempo electronic music while remaining in the realm of beats through their faithful use of sampled percussion. One can hear this on Every Other Color. The second song “Deadline” takes a dazzling dive down the rabbit hole. Here’s hoping that future releases from the producer continue to explore synthesizer work and incorporations of glitch. Seen from a bird’s-eye view, Mirrorish is yet another talented producer blurring the lines between beats and other styles of music, all amidst a damp psychedelic haze.

FOLLOW Mirrorish: Soundcloud / Spotify / Bandcamp / Instagram

Lone Drum - Pedal Boss

Ascending from the mutant landscape of Gastropodia Prime, Lone Drum steps out of the lab and into the spotlight with his first solo release, Pedal Boss. The 5-track EP is a brain-busting hay maker of a record, ripe with dirty interpolation and space-aged hip-hop rhythms. As the scratch savant of the neuro-hop trio K.L.O, Lone Drum has been steadily injected into the bloodstream of the global bass music ear canal, and he absolutely smashes the bar with his first personal explosion out of the Slug Wife home base.

Pedal Boss is an ode to nastiness; blistered and distorted frequencies are let loose like a race horse straight out of the stable, only to be reigned back in through sharp-edged EQ bands and swelling modulation. The entire EP remains firmly planted in hip-hop’s rhythmic territory, but contains everything other than a classic head-nodder. The sonic bravado bursting out of each track sends the adrenaline pumping, with every song begging to be rinsed through a bone-busting sound system. The brackish textures of the low-end synthesis splinter and break around the beat, with beefy kick drums firing off raucous, heat-seeking bass lines and every snare snapping each line back into place. From start to finish, this is an aural onslaught more than well deserving of the Slug Wife platform and seal of approval.

While this may be the first official Lone Drum solo release, there was never a slither of doubt as to the quality this EP would offer. Being a fellow UK gastropod, it was only a matter of time before his individual works would begin to breathe out in the open. For those as swept up in the pulse of this EP as we are, our good friends Sermon and Envisioned Arts Atlanta are teaming up on March 30th to host the only US Slug Wife takeover to date to feature K.L.O. thus far. Fans of Lone Drum will be in for more than a handful of treats should they make the trek.

FOLLOW Lone Drum: Facebook / Soundcloud / Bandcamp

ManyColors - Bangs [Single]

ManyColors is a new four-piece band that opens up new musical space by using a hip-hop format to explore chords and motifs usually reserved for jazz on their debut single “Bangs”. Soft and sure, “Bangs” offers comfort to the listener but presents a series of unanswered questions. Sonically it combines the twinkle of contemporary lo-fi aesthetics with the electric groove of older, more established styles. This is a new sort of notch in the catalog of Color Red, a Denver-based label run by Eddie Roberts, the guitarist from British jazz fusion quartet The New Mastersounds.

Braxton Kahn dials in drums that stride with a subtle and seemingly off-time step. According to Color Red, guitarist Brant Williams “aims to capture all the musicians as if they were sampled while cultivating a fresh harmonic approach.” It’s impressive that a four-piece band of trained jazz musicians can be recorded to sound like a lo-fi hip-hop beat. It’s more intriguing that they would want to. Eric Luba tickles a Fender Rhodes electric organ, gently laying down those warm melodies that are so frequently sampled in lo-fi beats. Kirwan Brown works the bass guitar well, especially during the song’s swinging second movement.

The direct-to-tape approach of the producers Mike Tallman and Josh Fairman is another gesture towards hip-hop and creates a layer of dusty reverb across the stereo spread. Despite this dust, the audio quality is top-tier, and this is refreshing. (Not to discredit anyone, but much lo-fi music mistakes poor audio quality for an aesthetic). Apparently Color Red has “several” more songs from ManyColors scheduled for 2019. If you dig the audio quality, intelligent harmonics and of course the smooth vibe, then stay chooned.

FOLLOW Color Red: Soundcloud / Spotify / Bandcamp / Instagram

Maxfield - Cage of Glass [Premiere]

The enchanting, Odyssean “Cage of Glass” is the third succulent taste of Maxfield’s upcoming EP The Malleable Mirage releasing on February 27th with VALE. The crisp, cutting mid-tempo tunes “Opaque” and “Chucklebup” each premiered on the Inspector Dubplate Youtube channel recently. But coming in at just under nine minutes, and missing the traditional whizzes, bops, and bright colors that entice bass music listeners, “Cage of Glass” is an enchanting electronic bass ballad that finds Maxfield again out on an artistic limb.

Listeners learned from Maxfield’s prior project Under the Pink Umbrella that the producer is not afraid of taking risks in terms of songwriting. Indeed, one distinguishing aspect of Maxfield’s music is that his songs can be twice as long as your average hit, and non-linear; they never take quite the turn that you’re expecting, opting instead for a series surprises that range from the serious to the wacky and irreverent.

“Cage of Glass” opens as if the listener is inside some sort of translucent prism, probably technicolor and highly reminiscent of a film adaptation of your favorite sci-fi novel. Suddenly, the prism because touring through space-time, passing jungles where flute melodies waft through the air and medieval caverns where a court jester sadly plucks away on acoustic guitar strings. Then, it’s off to the future as an array of synthesized percussive sounds scurry through the mix like a centipede. Before long, all these ages and their textures blend into a sonic collage beautiful for its diversity, not for the strength or severity of any one specific element.

Maxfield has indicated before that his music is suffused with themes of space and space travel. These themes are again at play on “The Glass Cage”. It’s open spaces and its windy and momentous melodies conjure images of a vast emptiness that upon closer examination is not so empty. Look out for The Malleable Mirage on February 27th when the full project in all its quirky glory will be available through VALE.

PRE-ORDER: Bandcamp

FOLLOW VALE: Soundcloud / Bandcamp / Facebook / Instagram / Twitter / YouTube

FOLLOW Maxfield:   Soundcloud   /   Bandcamp   /   Facebook   /   Spotify   /   Instagram

Lo-Fi Sundays 064 - ColDrip

There’s nothing like a chunky, big-bodied hip-hop beat to make you sit up in your seat. ColDrip surprises us with his small cache of these slappers, which are counterbalanced with more thought-provoking, jazzy fair. His small catalog jumps around a few different sub-styles of lo-fi. It sounds like the assuredly talented producer is still finding his voice; seeing what’s hot, what’s cold, and what’s just right.

It’s easy to enjoy the fat stereo spread and twenty-pound compressed percussion in clips like “Littebitmore” and “Things Are Pretty Good”. Full compositions like “SidewalkJam” ft. rbi have more staying power, and not just because of their longer run time. The dynamic songwriting here demonstrate that the producer likely has more complex material to dive into. Most of that, in fact, is over on his Spotify account where three full LPs are available.

Based in Berlin, Germany, ColDrip’s music has been released by a cross section of labels including Dust Collectors, Brunch Collect, and the Syndey-based o-nei-ric Tapes, where his irreverent style sounds most at home. We recommend digging into a lo-fi feast on his Spotify page once you’re through this week’s curated playlist, then keep your eyes peeled for his next serious project.

FOLLOW ColDrip: Soundcloud / Spotify / Instagram / Bandcamp / Twitter

ØDYSSEE - Desired Things

There’s an old axiom that goes, “It’s not what you do, it’s how you do it.” This sentiment was voiced in an old jazz tune originally performed by Ella Fitzgerald, “T’aint What You Do”. The music of ØDYSSEE, a jazzist and vibe provider of a different character, exemplifies this axiom. The Parisian producer dances along the ever-narrowing line between jazz and hip-hop while also incorporating bits of blues, boss-o-nova and electronica. Each style feels age-old, but ØDYSSEE reinvents them through a process of musical collage. On his new six-track release Desired Things he borrows bits from different styles and arranges them like a florist does a beautiful bouquet. This unconventional take on hip-hop, presented by NINETOFIVE Worldwide Beatmakers, is entirely composed and arranged by ØDYSSEE himself; there’s no sampled material here.

Lately the producer has been alternating between original compositions and sample-based music. ØDYSSEE plays the piano, synthesizer, guitar, bass and perhaps more. As some of his peers in the beatmaking world have discussed, there is a degree of tension in the industry between composition and sample-based music. Copyright infringement concerns collide with creativity and spark discussion on the history of hip-hop itself. This doesn’t appear to weigh heavily on ØDYSSEE, whose sole goal is to create deeply expressive music regardless of the technicalities behind it.

The keyboard and guitar take turns leading the musical discussion, speaking to the listener and creating dialogue with each other. They’re projected against a background of deep, velvet basslines and shimmering, aqueous synth pads. With his exceptional songwriting ability, ØDYSSEE’s melodies poke the listener in all the right spots, provoking potent emotions and ideas. One can’t help but fall into a productive daydream during the short but rich “Aquatic Groove”. ØDYSSEE’s music would not be complete without top-tier drums. Indeed, a calling card of his production style is percussion that is punctual and snappy yet swings gregariously. ØDYSSEE was influenced by the blues when he learned to play guitar. This influence is apparent across his entire catalog but makes its most dramatic appearance yet on Desired Things. On the the final cut, “Strange Dream”, the tempo dies down and the drums shuffle lazily, opening up space for raw six string dialogue to spill forward.

In tone and texture this music feels organic, yet it’s spliced together mechanically. Hip-hop offers the foundation and skeletal structure, yet the phrasing and amount of improvisation gesture towards jazz. More than most of his projects, Desired Things finds ØDYSSEE carving out new creative space. He’s not departing from the beatmaking milieux in which he began. Rather, he’s broadening the scope of what hip-hop, jazz, and blues can be in this millennium by applying his unique creativity and force of will to these well-established styles. He always has a project or three in his back pocket, too, so stay chooned.

FOLLOW ØDYSSEE:   Spotify / Soundcloud   /   Bandcamp / Facebook / Instagram

Simiah & The Phantom Ensemble - Connections

England is currently in the midst of a full-blown jazz renaissance, and the talent pouring out of this cultural eruption has a knack for bridging the gap between different strains of broken-beat music. Simiah & The Phantom Ensemble is an open-ended jazz ensemble that folds together live sampling, keys, saxophone, and a bevy of guest instrumentalists in the live sphere. On February 15th, they unveiled their debut LP Connections, establishing their particular fluidity in the studio format. The blend of sampled percussion and zoned-in conventional tones creates a smoke-screened aesthetic behind the eyes, gently touching on the senses.

Simiah is the boom-bap trooper with a vigilant duty to break the beat any way he can. Utilizing a classic MPC to channel drum lines and percussive jaunts, his control of the stereo space throughout the album is entangling, just as alive as the purebred instrumentation that rests atop it. The finger-drummed mechanics of velocity and tension are ever present, ebbing the soul of the tracks back and forth from organic to mechanic. Manning the keys with ever the careful touch, Dan Somers fleshes out vibes in every direction imaginable, blending like butter into the arrangement and mixdown of every song. Without so much as a stutter, his dexterity and precision note-to-note forms the veritable glue of the record.

Craig Crofton does justice on a moment-by-moment basis, rocking the saxophone with a sensuality that bleeds through the open space in the mix. A touch here, and riff there, all washed with a careful balance of spatial effects that soak into the tone of the brass. Altogether, this trio absolutely smashes all expectations and standards with their vibrant compositions and time-tested musicianship.

Prior to the release of Connections, the Phantom Ensembles embraced the addition of two new instrumentalists; Harriet Riley, a vibraphonist and percussionist, and the Bristol-based guitarist Chalky White, a Rust fan favorite. Upgrading the Ensemble to a five-piece was a bold endeavor, surely changing the fundamental chemistry of the band. By all accounts, especially the response to their recent live performances, these additions have been like perfect ingredients spicing this already sultry dish.

FOLLOW Simiah & The Phantom Ensemble:   Bandcamp / SoundCloud / Facebook

Lo-Fi Sundays 063 - upper class

If you aren’t familiar with Germany’s well-rounded sonic culture, you’d be forgiven for overlooking their abundance of stellar Lo-Fi producers and rhythm junkies. This week, we’re giving the spotlight to one such germanic beat shuffler; upper class is a straightforward, no frills producer with beats that send the head rocking back and forth between the roaring 20s, the R&B/Hip-Hop laden 90s, and the spice of modern sampling power.

There’s a distinct spread to upper class’s repertoire of various stylings and flavors; blistered trap rhythms, boom-bap slappers, a few tasty 4x4 dust-kickers, and a handful of savory tunes that exude a palpable weirdness in its best form. He flips samples like hotcakes on Sundays and dishes out a groovy, space-aged anthems that feel like an ode to hip-hop from some far off civilization. Prominent throughout his discography is a bevy of juicy bass lines, eschewing the typical sub rumble of his contemporaries, and instead utilizing mid-range tones sauntering in syncopated rhythms.

In 2018, upper class combined forces with nalim. to form the DIY label and collective CASSETTE NOIRE, focused specifically around the cultivation of beats music. With over 3 years of nonstop releases under his belt, as well as the aforementioned label initiative, upper class is clearly poised to continue pushing out content in no time at all. Keep your ears pealed on this fine-tuned player of the Lo-Fi, or miss out on the guaranteed freshness it is sure to project.

FOLLOW upper class: Soundcloud / Bandcamp / Spotify / Instagram

Withoutside - Istanbul

Outtallectuals has maintained a long-standing reputation for purveying exploratory music. Withoutside, the musical alias of Brooklynite Carey Clayton, is a fairly new project with an aptitude for ambient, phosphorescent music that now finds a home with Outtallectuals. His most recent endeavor, Istanbul, is an absolute gem of an EP, built from the ground up via a hardcore, back-to-the-roots methodology. Istanbul is composed mostly through the sampling of foley sounds from its namesake city, creating a culturally-fused vibrance that is its fundamental attraction.

“Beating feet for sampling meat” is an time-tested method to collect the wondrous textures and atmospheres of the surrounding world. Utilizing the urban sprawl of Istanbul to create a vast assortment of foley and musical material, Clayton left no stone unturned in his quest to capture the aura of this old-world metropolis. Street musicians, vendor bellows and business chimes, crashing waves smacking against port-bound ships, and a cornucopia of percussive trinkets and happy aural accidents populate each track. Accentuating the bevy of sampled gold, Withoutside also flexes multi-instrumental talent, laying down phrases from guitars, basses, synthesizers, additional percussion, and a particularly airy Cura saz. Vivacious undercurrents carry the attitude of the EP along sweeping mind-states and massive aural vistas, capturing not just the sound of Istanbul, but the bravado of this historic city as well.

Withoutside demonstrates remarkable creative vision coupled with brilliant execution, easily earning himself a place in the formidable Outtallectuals catalog. With skin in the game for eight years now, the UK-based Outtallectuals team has proven time and again that they have more than one finger on the pulse of experimental music, with over 90 international artists spanning the sonic spectrum. Istanbul couldn’t be more on par with the label’s sonic dimensions (or lack thereof). Keep Withoutside on your radar. A release such as this surely demarcates a lush, musically-pioneering future.

FOLLOW Withoutside: Soundcloud / Spotify

Resonant Language - Laminar Flow [Single]

Of the sounds echoing out of Colorado, none bear the banner of “weird” quite as dynamically as Resonant Language. Though he has only released a scant two EPs over seven years with a smattering of singles, the utterly unique structure and sound of his body of work is immaculately crafted and untouchable by words like “genre” or even “format”. While concepts like IDM or Bass Music might have some sticking power, the gravitation towards under-explored or novel areas of magnetic manipulation constantly defy expectation and often totally stymie any effort to describe him.

The new single, “Laminar Flow”, available now on Addictech and next week on Bandcamp, is no exception. With a broken beat that teases stability, he rides the line between holding predictable elements and totally subverting them. The most unusual aspect of the track, however, is the final third, in which natural drum samples creep in - suddenly the track drops into a jazzy space with a humble bluesy guitar melody. Smooth and drawn taut by the drums' occasionally breaksy stance, this is a calming wave after the storm of frenetic sound design and wandering notes. The track is mastered by Skyler Golden (Jade Cicada).

One never knows quite what to expect next with Resonant Language, which makes his music less accessible to some listeners. “Laminar Flow” is certainly more sedate than most of his released work, hence the streamlined implications of the name. With a singular devotion to his sound, he wrings unbelievable expressiveness out of his labor, truly exhibiting the emotions and struggle of making something new and challenging. While Resonant Language is often a struggle to dance to, the challenge is always worth it.

FOLLOW Resonant Language: Soundcloud / Facebook / Spotify

Dystopik - Squat Juice [Single]

Bending frequencies with blistering aggression, Dystopik reaches maximum energy levels with his latest single “Squat Juice”. This one comes of vicious label Wonk#Ay Records where Dystopik is a mainstay. He’s spent the last year and change producing all manner of bass tasters ranging across the rhythmic spectrum in both full and half-time interpretations. Within this steady string on destructive wave-bending, “Squat Juice” is another notch up on his own boisterous scale.

The meat of “Squat Juice” is it’s bone-shattering bass line. The synthesis is crushed with oversaturation and compression, resulting in a mutant tone that bangs out of speaker cones. Blasting in tandem with the bass line, the percussive design and arrangement is hair-raising and high-octane. Massive kicks propel each phrase into a bevy of heat-seeking snares that ping-pong around the tonal elements in the track. As for melody, there ultimately isn’t much. What we’re dealing with here is pure, unbridled sonic force.

Wonk#Ay Records has an reputation for fostering unconventional bass music. The raw energy that exudes from their catalog is a testament to their extensive research and scouting of underground sonic bruisers. Dystopik has certainly earned his keep with their lot, having been featured on numerous compilations and releases, including Pull Up, Feed The Contagious, and The Tronic. Stay tuned into his beefy frequency, and you might just get tossed around in a torrent of sound.

FOLLOW Dystopik: Facebook / Soundcloud

Lo-Fi Sundays 062 - mora.

Grainy, wavering, echoing notes are a hallmark of the ascendant lo-fi hip hop sound. Mora., a producer based in Buenos Aires, Argentina who’s been at it for approximately three years, hits these notes effortlessly. His sound surrounds the listener. The lead melodies in his music are set against a backdrop of pads which sound like a music box that’s been dropped into a bucket of water; shimmering echoes carried on crisp drums.

One, two, one, two marching forward to eternity in a dreamscape. His best songs are like blurs of emotion or vague feeling, like an idea or essence brushed up against but not fully captured. These beats encapsulate a sort of quintessential lo-fi aesthetic. Some, including “gone” and “laika” utilize certain samples that are flipped by many other beatmakers. This may agitate some, who believe too many producers are using the same samples. At the same time, certain samples simply lend themselves well to hip hop beats - “the standards” if you will. Mora executes these standards with class and creativity.

The producer has been featured on prominent compilations from Inner Ocean Records and lofi.hiphop. He does his own graphic design, or, as he calls it, “graphic design”. In spite of his apparent modesty, his work is quite good (see the cover photo for this article). He captures in this artwork the same grainy, wavering subconscious haze that surrounds his music.

FOLLOW mora.: Spotify / Soundcloud / Bandcamp / Twitter

Universal Language - ANKO [Interview]

The same ingredients that construct music also construct linguistics in everyday speech; pitch, rhythm, and tempo. The column Universal Language was first inspired by a deep appreciation of music that speaks on emotional levels. The concept blossomed into a practice of collecting thoughts from musicians about how the music culture and scene in their country may impact their sound and artist persona. Sometimes, listeners may misinterpret cultural differences and miss concepts that are beyond an individual’s awareness. The intention of this column is to bridge that gap by sharing artists’ insights.

To kick off this project, Nicolas de Ferran and Antoine F. Martin, based in Paris, France and better known as ANKO happily boarded the journey of Universal Language. Nicolas and Antonie started their career together writing and producing music for primetime TV shows and documentaries in France. The duo came together to birth their creative brainchild ‘ANKO’ to begin sharing an original, personal song sculpting.

In March 2018, ANKO released their first EP titled Waved. This five-track release offers various sound textures that unfold eargasmic sensations.  Synthesized electronic sounds are coherently blended with raw acoustic instrumentation, allowing us to travel a wide spectrum of emotions through the duo’s music. Projecting light to heavy and soft to powerful within their music,  Nicolas and Antoine are true audiophiles who understand sound engineering and composition. We were honored to share notable words them.

The Rust: You two started working together as songwriters and producers for primetime TV and documentaries in France. What are the notable differences in approaching sound design as work versus a personal project?

Nicolas de Ferran: Both are very interesting, and even though we have more freedom when working on personal projects, we still need to create under some kind of constraints that we set for ourselves. We need to match a style, a structure... I think that constraints are good for creativity. So in a way, the process of composing and producing music for ourselves or for someone else (TV, etc.) is kind of similar! The real difference is that you have more room to express yourself when you do a personal project.

Antoine Félix Martin: It's true, to work under constraints or search for a musical direction as a band is pretty similar. Even though the goal is different, in both cases you need to adapt to the project's aesthetics and be at the service of the music. You can say that ANKO is kind of a "auto-commission" haha!

The Rust: The music of France reflects a diverse array of styles. What it’s like to be musicians/producers in France working with the musical style and direction ANKO has taken?

Nicolas: I think we are very lucky in France to be surrounded by a bunch of amazing artists. Our musical style is pretty roots when you think about it: we play everything ourselves or record additional musicians that bring their own personality to the project. It's nice to be surrounded by so many influences.

Antoine: Yes, there's a lot of good musicians from every horizon here, we're lucky to live in a capital for that. It's easy to connect to a lot of people. We've got everything we need to make good records in every style, so no excuses!

The Rust: Are there particular styles/soundscapes you guys are interested in exploring musically, other than your current direction?

Nicolas: Yes, we would like to explore even more acoustic textures. In "Waved" there are a lot of beatmaking and synths and even though we like it and are proud of what we produced, we'd like to dive more in the acoustic realm. I studied classical and jazz for years and Antoine has been working as a sound-engineer with some of the greatest jazz musicians in France so we feel very comfortable working with acoustic elements.

Antoine: Exactly, we'd like to take a little break from the computer on which we spend too much time and come back to a more acoustic sounds for the next release. As we were saying above, we've got tons of excellent musicians here, it'd be a shame to not take advantage of it.

The Rust: Can you elaborate on the music scene and culture in your country? What kind of characteristics are found in the scene that are unique to France? Are there any recurring events or collective movements that congregate the community?

Nicolas: I think we are lucky in France to have a big heritage that influenced the music industry worldwide, from classical composers to electronic musicians. And you can feel that music is an art that takes a huge place in the everyday life of French people and on a larger scale as well: recently we have the Philharmonie de Paris which opened and this is one of the most acoustically amazing concert halls I've ever been to. Jazz clubs are going strong, there's a lot of festivals all year long, orchestras are getting more and more attention... I think it's a good country to live in to be a musician.

Antoine: Yeah, no doubt. The French mentality has a tendency to think that "the grass is always greener elsewhere" but in reality we all agree on the fact that it's an amazing place for artists.

The Rust: Could you speak on the relationship between the two of you? What clicks between you two, and what caused you to pursue an original project as a team?

Nicolas: We originally started as a composer/sound-engineer duo in the TV field. We really liked to work together and we realized that we had a lot in common and one day we decided to create ANKO because we both wanted to do a trip-hop project for a long time. I guess I'm more on the composition side for this project, I come to the studio with ideas, sketches or even fully composed tracks and we work together on it. Antoine is more focused on the production side of things, which a huge part of what makes this music good. The composition alone is definitely not enough. But we both equally make decisions on anything. It's a real collaboration, we work together closely on every aspect of our music.

The Rust: Can you walk us through ANKO’s workflow? What are some of individual roles you guys take under the project? What digital tools are used in the process of executing ANKO music?

Nicolas: As I said above, I usually wear the composer's hat. I come to Antoine's studio with my ideas and we work together on them. Sometimes I take what we did together back in my own studio to do some additional strings or brass arrangements. I also do all the scores/parts when we need to record musicians.

Antoine: For this first EP our main DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) was Pro Tools. We sketch, record, produce and mix with it. For beats and synths, I use Ableton Live in parallel which is more powerful to create loops. I do all the beats myself with an Akai MPD to obtain a more natural result.

The Rust: I noticed that you utilize a combination of hardware instruments in conjunction with conventional production methods. Could you share the process of capturing audio from organic instruments? Do you collaborate with other musicians during the process?

Antoine: Hell yeah! They come to Krispy Records —my own studio— and we give them directives on what we want. But we like to let them bring their own view to the music. We value greatly their input and that's why we like to collaborate with other musicians. They bring their own musicality to the project and it makes the music even richer. For "Waved" we recorded strings, brass, woodwinds, percussions, drums, electric bass, double-bass, acoustic guitars...

The Rust: ANKO’s first EP ‘Waved’ was released on May, what are some concepts behind the EP?

Nicolas: It was a bit experimental because it was our first release. We wanted to create a sound that was powerful and soft/chill at the same time and explore our influences whether they are jazz, classical music or electronic music. What was important for us was to have a consistent and homogenous music, we wanted the EP to feel like a whole, not just a simple train of tracks. Also we wanted to avoid using samples as much as possible.

The Rust: What are your collective visions for the future of the ANKO project?  Do you have any plans for live performances in the future?

Nicolas: Yes! We are starting to work on a new release, maybe a full album. We don't know when it'll be finished though because we are both very busy with our careers besides ANKO, but now that we have already one EP under our belt the process will hopefully be faster! We don't have any live performances planned for now, ANKO is a studio project. But we're not against the idea! We'll see what the future holds for us!

Antoine: Of course, we got tons of plans! It's just the beginning so stay tuned!

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We thank ANKO for opening up their world to help us understand the visions behind their musical playground . All the songs featured on Waved were executed, produced, recorded and mixed in Krispy Records Studio. The studio is also open for up-and coming-musicians in Paris to get some professional aid from the duo themselves. It’s apparent that ANKO is a group worth knowing and staying connected to. If you appreciate music that holds extraordinary life forces by channeling a full-spectrum of sounds that your ears can grasp, stay chooned to ANKO.

FOLLOW ANKO: Soundcloud / Bandcamp / Facebook / Instagram

Lo-Fi Sundays 061 - Mononome

This music speaks directly to the notion that hip-hop has no boundaries. Mononome draws inspiration from the crate digging forefathers and lends a vision that is all his own. This native of Greece has spent years digging for the right records to mold his sound. The approach is one that’s familiar, but it’s accomplished using an entire body of music from Greece that’s gone largely unheard this side of the world. The end result is a sound that is truly unique to Mononome (also to Greece). You can feel the culture teeming within the vinyl, and he does a proper job bringing that to the forefront of the compositions. This is another great example of when an artist takes a customary idea, and turns it into a novel concept.

The journey starts in 2011 with the release of Dream Sequence, followed shortly by The Secret Melody via Bulgarian netlabel, Dusted Wax Kingdom. The label has been a solid source for all things downtempo and abstract since 2007, and has hosted all of their releases for free listen and download on their website since its inception. In 2012, a partnership was made with Beatquick records, based out of Athens, Greece. This record label would become an integral part of a bourgeoning trip hop scene emerging within the country, and would go on to release music from some of the most prolific Greek artists. Henceforth his compositions have continued to be released via Beatquick, StillMuzik, & DLOAW & Co.         

This is the sort of sound that likely emanates from dark alleys in coastal towns surrounding the Mediterranean. There is a strong maritime feel, which owes itself to the music’s proximity to the sea. This is old world rustic boom-bap that tells a new tale using snippets of the past. Tracks like “Don’t Come Back” & “Leaving” offer the best examples of this sonic link to antiquarian styles of music. While some songs resemble a soundtrack for a day trip at sea, others might have you spooked walking alone at night. “Pitch Black Sun” and “Lie”, for example, are more suited for a trip to the graveyard, with dark, mystical undertones. “Dancing Scissors” is a track that inspires no comparisons. Off-beat drum patterns garnished with haunting vocal samples anchor a unique sound and style that deviates from most known patterns.      

In 2013, Mononome helped form an international trio with producers Jenova 7, Mr. Moods. This placed three stylistically disparate producers in the same room, and led them to create a sound that highlighted their individual strengths. Using a mix of vinyl sampling & live instrumentation Wax Triptych cycles through numerous genres and moods to paint pictures in the mind’s eye. Their album “A Tale of 3 Heads”, which would serve as a benchmark to the European trip-hop scene for years to come.

Most notable about Mononome’s work is how it’s created. All of his tracks are entirely produced, mixed & arranged with an AKAI MPC 2500, and the rightly producer takes great pride in this. The music is without digital influence, a nod to all of the pioneers who have brought us to where we are now. In this way Mononome is a link to the past, both through his music and his means of production. Allow yourself some time on this sleepy Sunday to settle into this masterful body of work.

FOLLOW Mononome: Soundcloud / Spotify / Bandcamp / Instagram

Kercha - A Very Strange Man

The beginning of the new year typically brings a wide swath of musical releases from artists looking to offload last year's final creative products, and Kercha is not about to miss out on this high-octane release season; based out of Gelendzhik, Russia, Kercha has been a mainstay contributor to SmallPrint Recordings, and excels in the design and composition of exceptionally vibey system music. His latest EP, A Very Strange Man, delivers his sonic vision with an acuity that is a testament to his meticulous production process.

The initial draw of the EP lies in the tangible difference between musical aggression and musical abrasion; eschewing abrasive tones and wide-berth frequencies, Kercha allows the rhythm to drum up the aggression of the music, as in the case of the track “Rope”. Pounding 808s and modulated sub frequencies enhance the stereo image, permeating an aural aesthetic that is both brazen and succinct. Taking a step away from large-bore sub weight and eclectic rhythmic shuffles, “Ghosts Don't Exist” instead meanders in a playfully slapstick direction. Flipping the idea of tonal dissonance on its head, the main melody lick is a subtle drop across a distance of semitones, foregoing harmonic interplay for eclectic note choice. All throughout the EP, the percussion programming and post production shine culminate in voluptuous spatial dynamics. Demonstrated to maximum effect in “A Very Strange Man”, the top layer percussion fills the top of the frequency spectrum, and serves as the focal point of the track. Terse melody elements and stabs of rounded synthesis fill in the gaps to create a stereophonic listening experience that saturates the aural spectrum.

The sea of system music covers a rapidly growing territory of genres and musical attitudes, and Kercha seems to thread in between those constantly re-established lines. Regardless of the mood or atmosphere, his catalog has grown to include a vibe for a diverse range of listeners and enthusiasts. A Very Strange Man is but the next step in an ongoing journey that has seen Kercha's music spread from the other side of the globe and back, and with SmallPrint Recordings backing the process, the guaranteed quality of his musical output is assured through and through.

FOLLOW Kercha:   SoundCloud / Spotify   / Facebook