(idm) irresistible force interview

From henrik str0mberg
Sent Tue, Sep 8th 1998, 20:57

I interviewed Mixmaster Morris just after "Nepalese Bliss" made it into the
BigBeat list, so obviously he was in a good mood. Here are some soundbites:

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[Major labels]
They're all dinosaurs, quite honestly. They do not understand the new
technology, just like they didn't understand it ten years ago. There is
some good records on major labels, but it's because they're having some
good people to remix for a change. The state of the british dance-scene
makes me weep sometimes. It's commersialized to the n:th degree. Like the
last days of the Roman Empire.

[House]
House music seemed to bring a lot of people together when it started. But
since then it's like the christian church, it's like a million schisms and
they all hate each other.
        I was fortunate enough to be there at the beginning and to be able
to watch everything and even to write quite a lot of it down, so I have my
opinions as to what really happened in the mid eighties. They're not the
same as the official story. I think that what you here in the british music
[press] is very different the rest of the worlds opinion. I don't think the
germans believe that the british invented house music. The germans have had
techno clubs open since 1982. Far more continuity in electronic music in
Germany than in any country in Europe.
        Nobody is ever criticized for anything in the press anymore.
Everybody know it's all going wrong, but they don't know who to blame for
it.

[Ninja Tune]
Nobody else but Ninja Tune would have dared put out my record, or Cliffords
record or Amons record. Everybody else would have said, "No, here's the
number for a mental hospital." And this is why I like Ninja Tune, because
they give the freaks a chance. Matt Black is a very good judge of character.

I think nowadays people are bored with everything the same, and if you play
something different people come into the room and say "Wow! What's that
strange music?" which is like it was ten years ago! I think, in a way, it's
a very positive time. The fact that all the majors are screaming in pain is
a sure sign that people are bored with the shit that they've been given and
they want something new, and that's the best sort of time, isn't it? That's
when new things happen.
        When something's not fun anymore you move on and create something
new. And that what's happened to house music really, a lot of people
thought, "Well, what's the point?" The house music that I do like you never
get to hear anyway. I'm not prepared to go and listen to six hours of
rubbish in the hope of hearing a Moody Mann record, maybe. Because people
don't play the good stuff, you can't be bothered to sift through that much
compost to find the diamond.

On the whole, the records that I like are the ones that don't fit easily
into genres.

[Flying High & Global Chillage vs It's Tomorrow Already]
There was a lot of angst coming out of the first two, because I was going
way out of the music industry and doing something really unusual, but I
think the music industy's now grown out so far that I'm probably just about
on the pitch.

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hs

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