Patrick Sisson - Writer, Journalist, Cultural Documentarian, Music Lover

PATRICK SISSON

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Steinski: What Does It All Mean? 1983-2006 Retrospective

Review
Earplug
May 2008

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Tight mixes, pithy dialogue, and rapid-fire vocal samples are apropos for his day-job as an ad man, but it’s Steve Stein’s delivery and sense of humor that have made him a crate-digging icon. Better known as Steinski, the DJ/producer launched his landmark “Lessons” mixes with Douglas “Double Dee” DiFranco in the early ’80s. Challenging copyright and mocking pop culture, What Does It All Mean? collects his many sampling milestones alongside an animated Solid Steel mix and two decades’ worth of solo work. “It’s Up to You (Television Mix)” — a loony and literal drumbeat to war featuring the first President Bush’s platitudes alongside media criticism and Mario Savio’s revolutionary bile — remains relevant and hilarious. Meanwhile, his Kennedy-assassination collage “The Motorcade Sped On” and somber 9/11 record “Number Three on Flight Eleven” show the Lessig-loving blogger is still in control of the podium.

Ellen Allien: SOOL

Review
Earplug
May 2008

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Breezy and incessant, “Einsteigen” kicks off Ellen Allien’s latest full-length with impatient beeps and the sound of commuters jostling inside Berlin’s Alexanderplatz station. It’s an appropriate intro, one that marks SOOL as the work of an artist in transit. While Allien’s recent Boogy Bytes mix was subdued, bubbling, and spectral — many shades removed from Berlinette’s techno-pop — SOOL often sounds like a phantasmal vision of minimal dance. Airy brushstrokes and pneumatic beats are in danger of fading away; on songs like “Out,” a solitary beat is augmented with pops, percussive strikes, and spare vocal flourishes. Going this minimal often makes a record fall flat, but, as the reams of metallic scrapes and the melancholy woodwind melody of “Zauber” indicate, Allien and co-producer AGF have lovingly sculpted what remains, creating a record with surprising space, texture, and color. It’s not always the most engaging journey, but the destination remains intriguing enough.

M83: Teen Dreams

Feature
XLR8R
April 2008
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What, exactly, does it mean when you’re 26, it’s 2008, and you still harbor a schoolboy’s crush on Molly Ringwald?

If you’re Anthony Gonzalez, the French producer behind M83, it means picking album-cover models is easy.

“When we were at the modeling agency in New York, I saw this ginger girl,” he says, grinning as he refers to the redheaded Ringwald dead-ringer on the cover of his new album Saturdays=Youth (Mute). “I knew we needed her.”

A cast of high school stereotypes straight from The Breakfast Club–preppie, geek, goth–surround the girl on the cover, creating an instantly recognizable homage to John Hughes’ 1985 classic. “I really fell in love with the atmosphere of teen movies,” Gonzalez confesses, as we sit in his recording studio in Antibes, France, which is adorned with framed posters of Pretty in Pink, Say Anything…, and The Breakfast Club. “The soundtracks were perfect and the characters were so charismatic.”

The posters are only part of the inspiration for Saturdays=Youth, a collection of ’80s-inspired electronic tracks that’s a hazy, grandiose tribute to adolescence. The record magnifies the indulgent synths, exaggerated emotions, and campy vocals of previous efforts to the power of 10, while exploring the most iconic soundtrack category of all time: high school.
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Osborne Again: Ghostly’s polymath musician/mechanic returns

Interview
Earplug
May 2008

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Ypsilanti, Michigan, resident Todd Osborn is often (semi-jokingly) compared to MacGuyver. Not only has the producer made scores of excellent house, techno, and drum ‘n bass records, but he also once designed weapons for the Air Force (“I truly cannot talk about details of that because of security clearances I’ve signed,” he says). What’s more, a list of his current projects includes voice work for a GPS system, remaking vintage Frank Lloyd Wright lamps, and “hopefully” learning falconry. This month, he’ll also find time to drop the rich-sounding, classically inspired house and techno trip Osborne, his full-length debut on Ghostly International’s Spectral Sound label. Earplug contributor Patrick Sisson interviewed Osborn via email, and was privy to the gear head’s take on vintage analog equipment, the blessing and curse of technology, and the awesome firepower of the Rephlex roster.

Earplug: We heard you’ve been working on a hovercraft for the last few years. Will it be done soon, and will it be able to beat up Aphex Twin’s tank?
Todd Osborne: No, it won’t be done for quite a while. It’s been very slow going. If I had a bunch of money, I’d have it done tomorrow, but that would take the fun out of building it and the creativeness of finding a cheap or free solution to a seemingly expensive problem. Richard and I won’t battle each other; we’ll combine forces for the Rephlex Disco Land/Air/Sea Assault battalion.

EP: With your mechanical and electronic background, how often do you alter your equipment? Do Detroit-area producers come knocking on your door looking for a repairman?
TO: I’ve built gear from scratch, but not my own ideas — just copying something that’s already made, but that’s hard to find or too expensive or not quite the sound I want. The last thing I built was a talk box like Roger from Zapp used to use. Besides those things, I mod[ify] gear sometimes. It’s always older analog gear, because it’s so easy to switch out resistors and potentiometers and get unique sounds. There are a lot of people, local and worldwide, I find and fix gear for, but I’m sure they wouldn’t want me to mention their names. I pretty much do it for fun, not money, and I get to play with and take apart — and once in a while get samples from — amazing gear I could never afford otherwise.
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Four Tet’s Ring Tones: Kieran Hebden makes “pummeling” music on new EP

Interview
Earplug
April 2008

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The mosaic of Kieran Hebden’s musical narrative is one of constant, relentless evolution. From his collaborations as part of Fridge to the ever-mutating sound of his Four Tet moniker and his inspired improvisational playdates with legendary drummer Steve Reid, the UK-based producer/performer re-invents any genre he’s exploring. For his expansive new Ringer EP, Hebden swapped his usually dense, cascading rhythms for something more streamlined and club-friendly. The result is a set of dynamic and effusive techno-inspired rhythms that do more with 30 minutes than most sitcoms. Earplug’s Patrick Sisson dialed Hebden up in London to discuss dinner dates with Caribou, getting into the right headspace for Ringer, and the benefits of befriending a Brazilian brewery.

Earplug: Since you recorded Everything Ecstatic, you’ve been collaborating with different people, trying new things, and going in new directions. Were you looking for something specific?
Kieran Hebden: After the Everything Ecstatic tour, I felt like it was time for something different. As luck would have it, I’d met Steve Reid a few months before. We got on straight away — did two shows the weekend we met. After that, we realized this was something we were going to take much further.

EP: How has he influenced your music?
KH: I’ve learned so much about rhythm from him. He plays this steady, 4/4 pulse all the time. For me, improvisation, rather than being some quest for freedom, is more about music being something fluid… I wanted people to get a slice of where my musical head was at that day. The stuff I’ve done with Steve, like the songs we just recorded in New York coming out later this year, don’t have any rigid format or compositions. They’ve just got set melodies and ideas and then we go into the studio and capture where they’re at now.
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The Message : Can better hip-hop diplomacy help fix America’s tarnished image abroad?

Feature
URB
April 2008
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If music trends in Morocco came up in conversation, many Americans might sheepishly inquire if things are still kicking at Rick’s Café. Outside of select examples like Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmir,” popular culture in the States tunes out this North African nation’s music.

But the cultural exchange rate looks different when viewed from overseas. Hip-hop has taken root in a country of crowded souks and chanting imams. In 2005, a three-city festival in Meknes, Marrakesh and Casablanca called I Love Hip Hop in Morocco attracted more than 30,000 fans eager to see homegrown talent. Artists such as DJ Key, H-Kayne, Fnaire and MC Bigg showcased their personal spins on the genre.

“It was the first event that got us all together performing on one stage, where only hip-hop was representing,” says Ouassim Addoula, a festival performer who raps under the name Brownfingaz.

In-between bouts of raucous applause, many rappers politely thanked the U.S. Embassy. The gratuity was an acknowledgement of support, since the Embassy pitched in roughly $15,000 of discretionary funding for the event (co-sponsor Coca-Cola provided the rest).

“Everything was positive and we got no negative feedback,” says Terry White, a career U.S. diplomat and, at the time, the Cultural Affairs Officer at the Embassy in Morocco, who funded the festival. “There were American flags at all three concerts that spontaneously appeared, were right side up and not on fire.”
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diskJokke Stays In: Norwegian producer makes music for the hearth

Interview
Earplug
March 2008

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Raised on a family farm an hour outside of Oslo, Norwegian producer Joachim Dyrdahl has a definite appreciation for the quiet life. While his work under the name diskJokke certainly has its share of raucous moments — enough so that he’s earned frequent bookings at Oslo’s famous Sunkissed club night — his music remains largely melodic and restrained. His new album, Staying In, is a set of fluid, organic beats filled with subtle and shifty transitions. It’s music so ideal for headphone bliss that some have begun to label it “fireplace disco.” On the eve of his first visit to the United States — which includes stops in New York, Chicago, and Austin — Dyrdahl rang up Earplug’s Patrick Sisson from Norway for a chat about new directions, writing the perfect track, and his Doc Brown-like knowledge of space and time.

Earplug: What do you think of the “fireplace disco” tag?
Joachim Dyrdahl: I think it’s pretty accurate when you’re thinking about the intention. It’s not down in tempo, but down in intensity. It’s pretty melodic. My girlfriend listens to it at home.

EP: What is a typical night in for you?
JD: I’m going to have to say I go out, a lot. No doubt about it. I’m playing out two times a week. Good things happen here Sundays and Thursdays, so I play Fridays and Saturdays. My newer music is more club-oriented, like the remix I did for the band Lil’ Wolf for a label called Rebirth. When I put the album together, I had a lot of melodic stuff. I want to focus on the club stuff from now on. I’m not playing my own stuff at clubs. When I play out, I feel like it’s a bit messy.

EP: You just finished eight years of studying mathematics. What’s the most complicated thing you know?
JD: It’s the notion of dimensions. One dimension is a line; two is a plane; three is a space; four is space and time. But beyond that is abstract — all theories. Fifth-dimensional space theory is coming, but I don’t know if anyone really understands.
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Seed Bank: Sperm Fest imports edgy art and electronics

Preview
Prague Post
March 5, 2008

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Coming from Berlin — a nexus of electronic music and minimal, streamlined techno — Modeselektor might be expected to sound cerebral and sleek. But the music made by the production duo of Gernot Bronsert and Sebastian Szary, among the headliners of this year’s Sperm Festival, is raucous and unhinged. A bubbling, spicy concoction of prickly analog licks, jackhammer bass and sleazy melodies, there’s nothing minimal about it.

Now in its third outing, Prague’s Sperm Festival is demonstrating a similarly unfiltered and all-encompassing attitude. Expanding to three nights of music and multimedia, the event has managed to pull in a wider variety of artists this year without losing its curatorial-like focus on new trends in electronic music.

This year’s lineup includes a live set by the eclectic Frenchman Joakim and His Ectoplasmic Band, dub-heavy bass by Deadbeat, a night of frantic mash-up music organized by Jason Forrest, programs dedicated to the intersection of visuals and sound and an 8-Bit Festival of music created with lo-fi electronics and repurposed video game consoles. Kicking off Thursday and Friday evening at La Fabrika and ending with a four-stage blowout Saturday night at Abaton, it’s a bold mix of music, design and audiovisual exploration.

“We’re always trying to bring something new to the Czech scene,” says Michel Brenner, the festival art director and one of the organizers.
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Pop by Numbers: A bedroom producer takes his act on the road

Interview
Prague Post
March 5, 2008

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The blissful electronic melodies of Caribou, the alias of Canadian producer Dan Snaith, put a personal spin on sunny ’60s pop — psychedelic beauty, blinding sunshine and lyrics about all-consuming attractions to beautiful women. It suggests a certain easygoing demeanor, but it would be a mistake to assume that Snaith is as laid-back in the studio. A devoted musician who relishes the chance to solve a complex melodic puzzle, he spent a year on his latest album, the lush Andorra.

“I was more like a mad scientist than a sociable musician,” he says about the long recording process in his apartment. “I started maybe 600 tracks over the course of the year. If you consider that I ended up with only nine, most of that time was spent being frustrated.”

Snaith’s background suggests a certain caliber of intellectual firepower. His father and sister are math professors, and he received his PhD in an abstract branch of mathematics, algebraic number theory, in 2005 in London, where he now lives. But if there are comparisons to be drawn between computational and compositional processes, he says, it’s in the area of creative problem-solving.

“It’s like learning scales on a piano,” according to Snaith. “You learn the logical framework, and then you can forget that and think about things in a more creative way.”
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Digital Music: Past and Future

Story
XLR8R
February 2008
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Radiohead’s self-issued, internet-first, pay-as-you-wish release of In Rainbows is perhaps the best-selling digital album ever, according to unofficial early sales figures. But the stunt’s revolutionary appeal was tarnished when it was revealed that the files were released at a sub-par bit rate.

It would be interesting to hear what Dr. Jürgen Herre would have to say about such a fanatical debate over bit rate, as he’s probably been involved in a few during his career. As Chief Scientist for Media Activities at the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits in Erlangen, Germany, Herre is as clued-in to the history of the MP3 as his title suggests. Since joining the Institute in 1989, he has worked in the lab where MP3 technology was developed and finalized just 15 years ago. He remembers the jury-rigged devices used to test the technology in its infancy, and has seen the nascent format perfected, popularized, and retooled into multi-channel surround MP3 technology. Here recently spoke to XLR8R about the format’s creation and continued development.
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