From abenn Sent Tue, Oct 13th 1998, 00:36
From abenn Sent Tue, Oct 13th 1998, 00:36
"Mixing It" was certainly the word, a most strange but interesting concoction of a musical cocktail! It was funny listening to radio 3 waiting for the programme to begin, as a beautiful piece by Schumann was playing with a mournful lament from a mezzo soprano, from Schumann to Squarepusher in one fell swoop! yehhhhhhhh, push out those musical boundaries, Big up da BBC! After a short introduction to Tom, the interviewer played 'Ill Descent' off the new album. Followed by a track by Kevin Ayers & The Whole World, after which the interviewer asked if Tom had ever explored Prog rock or was he perhaps too young? Tom said that at the age of 12, he was into Thrash metal, which progressed into Prog Rock. Then a track by Kaffe Matthews, 'Red Room' where she was sampling herself playing the violin, improvising it, sequencing the sound up. Next came a hauntingly beautiful track by Alim Asimov ? (ooops, probbly bound to have got the spelling wrong here!),the English translation being 'I know you will never return', a track from a double cd done as a tribute to Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan ... still remember that mournful day, when seems the whole world was mourning the loss of Diana without a thought for the music lovers of the world's great loss. :( Then, Tom talked briefly about some of his musical influences, Miles Davis's 'On the Corner', 'Bitches Brew' and 'Jack Johnson'. Next up was Tom's 'Curve 1' and '137 Rinse', after which Tom was talking about how he played all the instruments, improvised the drum parts with no click track. Then, a piece by Alisdair Galbraith from New Zealand, famous for his 2 minute songs, apparently, a song here called 'Hospice'. Followed by Squarepusher's "Shin Triad' after which Tom explained how he got lots of his mad names for tracks from the language he talks to his brovs in! (I've seen 2 of his brovs on stage with him, so I can well imagine what they must be all like together, whilst at the Essential festie in Finsbury Park last summer, and they're totallyotally Mental, were going absolutely barmy ravin it up on stage whilst Tom was playing, both verrry beautiful lads with all this long pre-raphaelite hair, both headbangin away whilst their bods were going all aciiiiiieeed! yehhhhhh, and then when Kelly Rephlex joined em, & Tom's made mate with the tinfoil in his hair who was bonkers as conkers, totally off is ed! ohhhh twas somethin else, & Kelly is just me fave dancer I've EVER seen! Respect!) ooops sorry I"m ramblin again ... Tom was talking about how he had Jamie LIdell jammin along with him on this one, singing ... and i"m wondering if it was Jamie Lidell who was jammin along with Tom at one of the early Anokhas, where a guitarist joined him onstage when he was jammin with Talvin? He said it was also called Triad as the piece is in 3 parts, and the interviewer and tom thought that this track was a succint summation of the album as a whole. Then, Tom talked of his Music Concrete influences, from Stockhausen, Ligetti and Tod Dockstader. OHhhhhh I got soooo excited when he mentioned Tod Dockstader, as last Saturday, I was at this jumbly and got this totally wicked record, called 'Electronic - Boosey & Hawkes, Recorded music for Film, radio and Televison' (totally blinding graphics on the front too, this whirling vortex of colours being sucked deep into the note, into the very heart of the beat ... with the sound waves slicing thru it ...) the music is all short 1 to 3 minute pieces of electronic music by Tod Dockstader, and I love how on one side of the lp sleeve they have the title of the track, then on the other, they have the classification .. ie: seance ... ghostly, Pond Dance ... Oriental, Steam Megawatt ... Scientific, industrial ... tis good fun to try and listen to em and decide which one is which.) Next came a track which Tom described as 'Idiotic funk vibe' which he likened to his own personal vibe, by Yop. "Mixing it" concluded with Squarepusher's 'Last Approach', before it played, talking of how he only wanted to use a few sounds, have a sparse arrangement and felt it was all well scary but laughed and said ' yehh, Lets be Scared'. This was the first interview I have 'heard' with Tom and he made a most eloquent and highly articulate, stimulating interviewee (with a lush, deep voice too to get Aless swooonin again after seeing him last week! ;) Aless