Although first best known for their steady stream of re-issues and edits of what can loosely be described as disco, Tirk Records is a home for a range of styles and methodologies of modern dance music. In collaboration with critically acclaimed Hackney based DJ agency The Pool we are proud to announce a monthly residency with which The Pool and Tirk will host El Salon within Space for We Love this summer season.
Expect a showcase of carefully selected names. Legendary titans of the scene and fresh talent will be exhibited in the chic but loose backroom at We Love over four Sundays this summer. Artists appearing include; Steve Kotey (owner of Bear Funk from Chicken Lips (compilation about to drop on Tirk), Matthew Burgess – DJ History’s finest secret weapon, Richard Sen of Padded Cell – fresh out of the studio with Bryan Ferry, mysterious Brighton meets Brooklyn collective Soft Rocks, geordie nu-beat genius Phoreski. Italian horror-disco maestro (and office listening favourite) Bottin and most highly anticipated a live show from Tirk’s most recent discovery, one part King Tubby, two parts Carl Craig… Architeq. Tirk residents Matty J and Ben Terry will be on hand across the four dates to add a sprinkle of their own balearic fairy dust.
Rising like a disco driven phoenix from the ashes of the legendary Nuphonic (who led from the front in the recent disco resurgence with a pioneering output from 1995 to 2002) stable, which was revered across the world in its reputation for quality and diversity in sound, Tirk follows in that tradition of releasing cutting edge music from all corners of the dance spectrum. From the kraut-pop of Fujiya & Miyagi, to the punk-funk of New Young Pony Club and electro pioneer Greg Wilson along with other genre busting artists such as Idjut Boys and Time & Space Machine we hope by coming to Ibiza with We Love they can continue to throw their message far and wide.
Pencil in these dates for a taste of true-new-balearica at We Love… Space; June 27th, July 25th, August 22nd and September 26th. They’re all Sundays, as if you needed to ask!
Below you can watch a video directed by Steven Crichton at Duncan of Jordanstone art college in the delightful seaside “city of discovery” Dundee. The track is from Arqiteq’s album Gold and Green available on Tirk Recordings.
Our resident percussionist who performs weekly with Alfredo on the Sunset Terrace has been in high demand through the winter playing in clubs, at events and in studios throughout the world. Alfredo sums him up as an artist pretty well, “I never practice with Ian, never. I listened to him play in El Salon. He is the first percussionst to not get over the track and disturb the record. When he has to be silent he is silent. The way he keeps the beat is like a machine and melody with percussion is something I have not heard before. He is a humble guy to work with, I am pleased to know him and work with him.” Mark Broadbent belies his promotors hat like so, “I generally dislike drummers more than DJs but Ian is great.” Here are some tales and photos from his travels…
Ian C'enic
Six months since I played with Alfredo on the Sunset Terraza at Space and it’s hard to believe that Ibiza beckons already. I can remember that last gig like it was yesterday but I’ve crammed so much in since then – what a lucky sod!
Ian Frozen C
50 odd gigs since then (and some were odd) have led me around some parts of the world that I’ve never been to before… Denmark was amazing, mid-January, the sea was frozen (as was I) and I performed and partied in an old cinema with 800 or so people. In Sweden, amid their worst snow storm in 30 years we bounced around in an old church with only good music and strong alcohol for sustenance (by the if you are ever there and get offered a shot of liquid brown tar whose name escapes me, say no and run for the hills). In Austria, at a friends birthday party, I performed in a nightclub that is a coffee and pastry shop by day. Nice and randomly, as my life sometimes tends to be, I ended up staying with We Love’s Mr. Doris and his girlfriend Roxanne in Bahrain after finding out I had been booked to play at his winter residency (neither of us knew the other was there until it was all booked) – small world indeed.
Ian C of people
I’ve also been lucky enough to break some personal career records this winter and perform to 5,000 at Amsterdam Indoor Arena and a monster of a gig to 7,000 at the Dubai World Trade Center. This was rounded off rather bizarrely at an after party, with me drinking drinks I couldn’t possibly afford in the presidential penthouse suite of a well know Dubai hotel with some very nice folk indeed – in other circumstances I would have been mistaken for ‘the help’ and told to get my hair cut!
Ian C'eiling
The over-riding factor at all of the gigs (and many many previous events) in all the countries I have been lucky enough to visit over the years, is how universally, whatever our backgrounds, politics or colour, we all just want to have a bloody good time! So to the 30,000 + people that were at the gigs I’ve played at this winter, I salute you!
Ian C for yourself
The summer is nearly here, I can’t wait to get back on that outdoor terrace every week with Alfie again, Ibiza ticket (one way) is booked and a lot of my friends and all the We Love family are poised cat like for action, well, poised anyway… how about you?
Check out a mix created by Ian C and Jem Haynes, here. It’s a dex / percussion / fx mix recorded live and off the cuff by the duo. The busy pair have also just completed a bootleg of a classic Gorillaz record, check it out below…
The Black Rabbit gang are descending on the White Isle for a summer residency with us at We Love. The idea behind the move is for all their guests to play alternative and unconventional sets in El Salon throughout the summer. Expect the likes of Shaun Reeves, Pete Herbert, Thomas Gandey (Cagedbaby), Luca C, Ali Love and a slew of other established and upcoming producers and DJs to be gracing the decks. El Salon (by day, an unassuming white lounge bar / back room, but the minute the sun starts to fade, it turns into a retro-inspired groove-tastic rave space for the Black Rabbit crew) will be swaying to the sounds of leftfield disco, analogue house and live vocals once a month starting on our opening party and ending fortuitously at our closing. In rabbiting style, expect the odd bit of 80′s party pop thrown in for good measure.
Bones and Guy, balearic bunnies
Formed in 2006, the Black Rabbit contingent of Chris Bones, Kelly Love, Justin Robertson and Guy Williams quickly gained appeal by their renowned residents Bones and Guy playing a refreshing, uplifting mishmash of musical styles. Highlights of the summer look to be Luca C and Ali Love live on the 13th of June, there’s sure to be a few unreleased licks from Chemical Brothers collaborator Ali Love’s anticipated new album. The 4th of July aptly brings Detroit native Shaun Reeves of Wolf + Lamb out to play his distinctive mix of American and Kraut House, both classic and contemporary. On Sunday the 1st of August be advised to expect the unexpected with Paradise 45, brainchild of Thomas Gandey (Cagedbaby) and Guy Williams dropping everything from italo, dub, funk and beyond. Also out that day will be disco king Pete Herbert – a constant force in dance for the past 15 years. The Rabbit’s final date, 5th September brings fellow Londoners DDD Simon Morell and Ryan Shaw, as Kelly says it’s going to be “fun, messy and Balearic all the way!”
Guy Williams has kindly provided a mix to give a taste of things to come this summer. You can download it here. Thump thump thump.
You can tell the opening party is only a matter of days away from Julie’s dancey picks this week. Ruairi supports his anarcha-feminist comrades and keeps up the strive against patriarchy as an essential part of post-Marxist class struggle. Mark selects some “real” sunny Balearic beats from the Boys Own catalogue of cool. The reason for the long wait between the last listening session and this one was Andy trying to find the title of one of his choices. By humming, whistling and mumbling the melody to anyone who would care to listen, after four weeks of thought, we got there.
Over the past decade, Tom Findlay and Andy Cato have established themselves among the planet’s most loved dance acts, storming charts and stages across the world. Through the years Groove Armada have moved through moody ambient electronica, urban riddims’ and with their latest offering, the album Black Light a sort of new-wave mesmeric pop. They find a fanbase in everyone from angst ridden youths to parochial minded adults and admiration from other musicians for their uncanny ability to create music that can live on radio and music television while still be able to get guys and girls boogieing on the dancefloor until the break of dawn.
There is an unusual blend of influences in each of their albums, spanning house (of course), big beat, reggae, disco and funk. Production wise they definitely have the knack of combining a traditional range of instrumentation with modern rhythms and technology. Their DJ sets however are most definitely rooted in house. Cato and Findlay remain two of the most passionate and knowledgeable fans of the genre you are ever likely to meet.
Although they have played in venues as diverse and remote as Romanian beaches and WW1 aircraft in Los Angeles, the duo always return to Ibiza. With a prodigal sons type vibe in the air, it’s promising to be a special season on the Terrace at We Love.. Space this year for Groove Armada as DJs and as live performers when their Black Light show rolls into the cavernous Discoteca.
Take note in your diaries ladies and gentlemen. Groove Armada will be DJing at We Love on the following dates: 20th June, 18th July and 19th of September. Expect that spectacular live show on the 15th of August.
For now we’ll leave it to Andy Cato (he’s the 6ft 8 Yorkshireman) to give us some insight to his musical history and hopes for the future. Genuinely interesting and insightful – thank you Andy.
Is there one book that you have read that has been life-changing for you?
Several. On the Road by Jack Kerouac, Chronicles by Bob Dylan, Anna Karenina by Tolstoy, The Manual by Bill Drummond, The Revenge of Gaia by James Lovelock, etc.
Did your parents encourage you to work in music?
My dad was a blues player so he got me playing blues on the piano as soon as I could sit up. He also rigged up a bag of nails hung over a hook in the roof so I could start playing the trombone before I was old enough to lift it.
How did you begin to work professionally in music?
I was doing jazz gigs, weddings, funerals and the like from age 13 onwards. When I could get out of school, I used to spend afternoons in a studio underneath Wakefield Snooker Club, working out how it worked in exchange for releasing the tunes via the son of the club owner.
How do you apply your past experiences to what you do today?
I can’t tell you which bit of my musical life I’m drawing on when it comes to sitting down to write a song. I’m sure it’s all in there somewhere. But when you walk out to play to 50,000 people, it helps to have spent most of your life on stages, however small they were. And as far as DJing goes, there’s a big part of the sound at the moment that’s rooted in where it all started for me. The sound of Basics, Kaos, Soak and DiY parties in ’89/’90. A lot of the old tunes are coming back up from the basement. There was also a real importance back then in working your tunes in the right order – before fx and loops could cover the gaps – and that’s stayed with me.
Where is your current studio and what is it like?
It’s in an old cowshed. It’s actually the first proper studio I’ve ever had. I’ve been quite nomadic and have had studios in various cellars, bedrooms and boats up until now. It’s got some nice gear and pair of speakers I bought from Mike Oldfield that could rival the Terrace soundsystem.
Black lights
How much have you had to consider marketing issues since embarking on your career and how has that affected your creativity?
It’s been more lack of marketing issues for us. Until recently we were stuck on a major with Britney and NSync, with little attention coming our way. This meant we put a lot of work into the live show, the DJ sets, things we could get out there and do ourselves without hanging around waiting for answers from the label. In this way, GA has always been a DIY project. It’s meant less time for studio work over the years, but given that making a living in music is all about the gig these days, it hasn’t worked out too bad.
How would you describe your work?
A game of four halves. A lot of people only know the big singles and have no idea about all those deep and weird album tracks, the GA house sound, the amazing vibe of the live show, or the fact that Black Light (the new album) is the best music we’ve ever made. So we’ve still got a way to go.
Who were your teachers?
Studio-wise I just went for it from the off and worked it out. It takes a long time but it’s the best way to do it. DJ-wise, Sasha at Shelleys was one inspiration, and my cousin, Digs DiY the other. As a result I’ve always been sowewhere between the big breakdown and the hypnotic groove. In terms of playing instruments, it was my dad and Grimethorpe Colliery Band for the trombone, Stan who now plays with Faithless on the bass, and a woman down the road whose name I can’t remember for the piano.
Your home is burgled but fortunately the culprits are caught and your possessions returned to you. What would you deem a suitable punishment for the burglars?
Carry my records back upstairs.
You have to make one species of animal extinct. Excluding insects, which species would that be?
It would have to be the mosquito, but you can bet that there’d be an unforeseen outcome and we’d lose all our chickens or something within the year. That’s the thing with species. Once they start going, the rest follow.
If you could spend one week in any period of history, which period would you choose?
I’d repeat the 13th – 21st July, 1991 at the DiY free party, Morton Lighthouse. It doesn’t get any better.
Thanks again to Andy Cato for taking time out of his busy touring and production schedule to answer our 11 Questions, you can find the archive of everyone else who has kindly answered here. Check out the video below for a taste of Groove Armada live incase you haven’t witnessed it before. And remember, the full Black Light live show will be out in full force for We Love… Space on Sunday 15th August.
By luring the likes of Pilooski, Toby Tobias and Retro/Grade to deepest darkest Dalston, the Disco Bloodbath gang have built by word-of-mouth their monthly fixture which has helped to shape the phenomenal global renaissance of disco music within underground club culture. You would be hard pushed these days to find a club which does not have some kind of disco tinged offering on at least one night of the week. This is true not only in London, but in Sydney, Barcelona and now thanks to We Love, Ibiza too. However, it’s well known that the Bloodbath crew are responsible for bringing disco back from it’s trainspotter status to the hip, young and gender bending hordes of East London.
Expect everything from screaming high-energy bangers to sleazy downtempo morning music, classic New York into Italo and deep, repetitive proto-techno-disco. Things should be as balearic as they come, a speakeasy feel with a tight-knit but large turnout and no grumpy collector types stroking their beards and demanding original French pressings. As Dan describes the party in London, “all of London’s tribes are there; There’s the fashion crowd, music heads, people that mainly go to gay clubs, or indie clubs or minimal clubs, there’s no one tribe that dominates our dance floor. I think a lot of people are fed up of what “club music” has turned into … the music policy does it’s own job of filtering out that dickhead element.”
As the flyer says, Disco Bloodbath will be taking over our neat little back room El Salon on the 20th of June alongside the likes of Hercules & Love Affair and the 11th of July, also appearing on that day are Hot Chip and The Juan MacClean. The Bloodbath lads have kindly provided us with a mix described by a wise man thus, “Gay vampire disco for the blood sucking hordes!” … download it here.
White noise is what you get when you combine the complete audible spectrum into one incorporate sound. The name derives from white light, made of all the different colours (frequencies) of the visual spectrum. In the same way that a prism or a rainbow separates white light back into its component colours, white noise is a combination of all the different frequencies of sound. You can think of white noise as 20,000 tones all playing at the same time.
White noise is used extensively in electronic and synthesized music. It can be used directly or as an input for a filter to create other types of noise signals. Direct applications include synthesis of instruments such as cymbals which have a high noise ratio in their frequency band.
It is used to generate test tones for concert and performance venues. Short bursts of white noise are sent through a PA system which are then monitored with microphones and spectral analysis so an engineer can tell if the acoustics of the building naturally boost or cut any frequencies. It’s also used for frequency response testing of amplifiers and signal processors. The genre of noise metal also benefits extensively from copious amounts of white noise – a type of music you can only love like you would an abusive husband. Hella, a band hard to get into but harder to get out of.
It’s said that white noise can help aid both rest and concentration, as it can mask irritating noises such as tinnitus. It can sound like a rushing waterfall or wind blowing through trees. Devices known as sleep aids do not produce actual white noise, which has a harsh sound, but pink noise in which power rolls off at higher frequencies. White noise is frequently used to mask other sounds since the brain can not differentiate between the thousands of frequencies and the “voice next door”. Masking devices are often used to protect privacy by screening distant conversations, for example, in a psychiatrists waiting room.
Our theme of soundtrack reviews goes boldly forth into Sean Penn related territory today. Vedder has a unique musical stamp which features in all his recordings from early Pearl Jam through to the present day. Certainly, very few American bands were as explosive, influential and clearly talented as that group. Singer-lyricist Vedder has matured in his endeavors since their 1991 debut Ten. If you are familiar with his usual subjects of poetic trauma and chaos, this tale of tortured masculinity will come as no surprise.
The film itself focuses on the dour and bold figure of Chris “Alexander Supertramp” McCandless. Vedder encapsulates the heroic ideal with his forceful but plainspoken lyrics. The true-life subject of the film, McCandless is an overprivileged kid who rejects materialism, his family and his earthly possessions to wander the vacant expanses of North America only to die, starving and freezing and alone in Alaska. Pearl Jam frontman Vedder who wrote and performed the soundtrack has obviously empathised in some way with the Supertramp character in his search for isolation and harmony with nature.
I would recommend against focussing too much on the slightly pretentious lyrics which try to change the actuality of a pointless death of a young man. McCandless died in an abandoned school bus only 30 miles from the nearest road, the coroners report stating he probably ate poisonous berries because he intentionally didn’t bring enough food with him.
The best song on the album is undoubtedly Tuolmne possibly because it has no lyrics, just Eddie plucking his guitar, the kind of riffs you could imagine a kid like the Supertramp strumming away as he camped in the desert or sat in a frozen bus waiting for death. We’ve posted the highly limited edition vinyl only release in high quality MP3 especially for you, enjoy. More soundtrack reviews and recommendations here.
From a cultural history of hearing, we know that hearing, as a sense of information and orientation, was ranked before seeing. The gods, first and foremost, could be heard (if one could set eyes on them at all). From the sounds of thunder and lightning – though one can not see their origin – one reads the wrath of the gods. The invisible fires one’s imagination. Ulysses does not succumb to the singing of the sirens since he has allowed himself to be tied up at the mast of his ship. He does not see the sirens, he only hears them. Its invisibility renders the singing dangerous. It is the potentiality which the invisibility attributes to it, that which is not used, the innominated attender. It is this which drives Ulysses wild. Cristoph Korn
What is the difference between noises and music? Does every sound that is not recorded for scientific purposes automatically become music? Field recordings have only recently been recognized as a bona fide artistic genre. A field recording is generally used to describe any recording captured outside of a recording studio, it often involves the capture of low level, complex and ambient noise. Field recordists and sound artists listen to sounds of the world and record them. They can present their recordings unedited or sometimes collage and manipulate them – arrange them into compositions, create installations and sound sculptures.
Our series on online PDF magazines continues with a publication which focuses solely on the subject of field recording. The first two issues have many interesting articles and essays from a diverse range of artists, philosophers and academics. It also contains some pleasing pictures of locations in which field recordings take place. So go ahead and download those first two issues here. Or check out their website if you would like to download the German version.
Here is part 3 of our radio transcription of an interview Jeff Mills gave to RBMA. You can check out parts 1 and 2 here. You can listen to the radio show in full here or download it here. The accompanying tracklist is as follows:
Jeff Mills – Landscape (Utopian Dream) – Tresor
Jeff Mills – Blue Print – Tresor
Underground Resistance – Eye of the Storm – Underground Resistance
Underground Resistance – Predator – Underground Resistance
Underground Resistance – Base Camp Alpha 808 – UR
Underground Resistance – Final Frontier – Underground Resistance
X-101 – G-Force – Tresor
X-102 – Ground Zero (The Planet) – Tresor
X-102 – The Rings Of Saturn – Underground Resistance
Jeff Mills – Perfecture (Somewhere Around Now) – Tresor
Jeff Mills – The Bells – Axis
Jeff Mills – Transformation B (Rotwang’s Revenge) – Tresor
Jeff Mills – Robot Replica – Tresor
Click the vinyl sticker pictures to hear the tracks.
Life in the Jeff-set
We started with Saturn, we chose it mainly because of the physical aspects of the planet, in that it resembled a record. We were interested in using very small things to relay certain messages so the label design was used as the main part of the explanation of the release and the music would explain or support it – in the grooves. So the Rings of Saturn was a perfect release. The rings, like a tree when you cut it open and look a the rings of time it tells the history of the tree itself. We looked at the planet as the rings telling the history of it. Months and months of research about the planet, and then we began production in the summer of 1992. From X-101 we learned that each of us have a very unique way of producing music. We designated who would do what for that particular release. Rob didn’t have that much experience at the time. He had set up a small studio in the corner he had very small pieces of equipment but very interesting sounds. So we designated that he produce very simple, very minimal type of tracks. Mike would produce more orchestrated strings because he could player better than both of us. And my job would be to have the more experimental parts. We would put all these things together and that would be the album. X-102 would be something we always wanted to finish we never thought that we ever finished that release. So that brings us to the year 2009 so we decided to go back and revisit it, update the album and create a performance.
Ring ding
I got an offer to move to New York as a resident DJ at a couple of clubs. Part of the deal of my moving to New York was that I would have to have an office so that I could run the label from there. When I moved and realized that Mike did not want to bring UR to New York, I had all these resources – and office, telephone, all these free things that this club had given me. With all this I should start a label myself! After a few months of thinking about it and thinking about the type of music I would like to do I came up with the idea of Axis. Until then the music was very song structured so you would have the introduction and bridge, even though they were instrumentals you got the idea that if someone was to sing on top of these songs that would be OK, they were structured in that way. So I thought that being a DJ it would be great to produce music that was more simplified so that you could manipulate it more. By limiting how layered the tracks would be – it would be better. Back then as DJs we used to really seek out dub versions and instrumental versions so that we could extend and create our own songs. I thought that producing in this way would set a tone with DJs. It was always my intention to make a label where the music was more simple, easy for the DJ to play and program. I asked Rob who was recording on his own label in Detroit, if he would do the first recording on the label jointly with me. It was called Tranquilizer, it was so different it did not take off so well. The second release which was Inner Sanctum by Rob only, did a little bit better as it was more danceable. By the third release which was Step To Enchantment, the Mecca EP, things began to take off, at that time.
Mecca steps
The label Purpose Maker was created soon after I had moved to Chicago from New York. I had no friends, I was basically alone, so I had plenty of time to produce a lot of music. I thought I can produce so much that it would be interesting to produce a case of records just for me. So records that were even mastered, pressed. But no one had any copies, I had all the copies. I had begun to make music just for me to play. Things like The Bells, Alarms, they were just for me. I had begun to play them as I was making this box, as I was playing them DJs were asking what these songs were. I got the indication that The Bells was something people really responded to and DJs wanted to have. So I said ok. Maybe I should make it available to release these tracks. That’s how I started the label Purpose Maker. Once I got he notion the DJs understood exactly what the music was for, and began to hear other producers and DJs try to emulate it. I thought the task is done, now I can move on to the next.
The bells, the bells!
Metropolis is an epic film by Fritz Lang that was produced in 1929, it’s become on of the most popular science fiction films of our time. There were many years that brought me to the point of working on that project. There were many discussions about how electronic music could play a role in cinema, where it might serve cinema the best and vice versa – what type of films it might work the best for. After so many discussions with so many people I thought that someone should do something, so I’ll try to produce an entire soundtrack for an entire film! Just to see what happens, even if it doesn’t turn out too well at least the news that I tried to do something, if that news got round to other producers, maybe it would give them some indication that somebody’s trying to do something to broaden and expand electronic music into different areas. So without permission from the film company I just went and bought a VHS tape of Metropolis, took notes, divided it into 12 different parts and produced music for each section. Many different versions for each section and chose one that would work. I went to an editing studio, taking the VHS tape and put the music that I produced to this tape. Then I began to search and find out who might have a contact to the film company in Munich that maybe IU could show this film to them of what I did and maybe that they would allow me to show it to other people. I did that, being lucky enough find a contact through Tresor Records in Berlin who knew someone who knew someone, who knew someone that worked at Transit Films in Munich. Luckily someone in that office was young enough, maybe an intern or something to know who I was as a DJ. They decided to say ok, they would give me rights to show the film for academic reasons, just for the example of putting electronic music to this film, we could have one of rights to show the film. That’s how the project came. That’s how I did it.
