Monthly Archives: August 2007

dB Magazine, Interview, Music, Writing

Digitalism

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Born in Hamburg, Germany, signed to French label Kistune, and distributed throughout the world by Virgin and EMI, Digitalism seem to have the world at their feet. Like the mighty Daft Punk before them, from who they draw influence and are often compared to, their strongly European irrelevant sense of fun gushes from their electronic instruments onto the vinyl of DJs and then to the dance floors of the world.

Jens Moelle and Ismail Tuefekci met in a record store when Moelle was behind the counter and Tuefekci an eager punter. “I had known the record store owner for a number of years and was really good friends with him,” Tuefekci says is a smooth German accent. “It was a really cool atmosphere in there. When Jens had exams I worked there in his place, and when he came back I found out Jens produced at home and I produced at home.”

“The owner had a party, and because Jens and I come from the same generation he billed us to play together. And that night was so funny because Jens knew what I would play and I knew what he would play and that. When we DJ we need some exciting stuff,” Tuefekci explains. “I’m not looking for particular labels or artists. I’m interested in music, not who’s producing this song or which label that. We like to throw different types of music in a mix, not just keep it one way for a whole night. We might throw in some punk, rock, electro, dance or whatever.”

In 2002 Digitalism formed their studio. “We and another friend had a stupid idea to start a studio,” laughs Tuefekci. “We were bored of all the records, you know working in a record store so long we were just searching for something new.” That studio was set up in a bunker in Hamburg, Germany, which helped to create an unique atmosphere to record songs that have an irrelevant feel. “We play a strobe light when we are producing, we don’t have windows, and after three or four hours there’s no fresh air. We can’t take it seriously,” he chuckles again.

Hamburg, being a small German town, has a big influence on Digitalism. Tuefekci explains that Hamburg doesn’t have a big dance scene, but it’s the home of German hiphop, but unlike in other places the hiphop is influenced by electronica and vice versa. “We’re not in a French scene or London scene or Berlin scene. We know the people there in those and are talking to them a lot, are friends with them, but we aren’t in a scene. And we don’t want to focus on one scene, we want to take all of that and mix it together. It’s really cool because we have friends in those scenes, but we are very isolated, not in a bad way but in an interesting way.”

After wooing crowds DJing and doing a few bootlegs including The White Stripes’ 7 Nation Army and the Cure’s Fire in Cairo, their catchy electro-pop caught the ears of French label Kitsune, “After Zdarlight,” one of their first popular singles, “they sent a girl from the label to talk to us and they were really excited and were looking for more and more.” That led to their debut album ‘Idealism’, a fresh take on the booming electro scene spearheaded by Justice and Australia’s Presets. “We were helped out by Kim from the Presets on Pogo,” Tuefekci mentions. “We have a prodigious output and the label helped a lot with choosing songs and graphics. It’s not like they are a major label, we feel like it’s an independent and it’s a really cool feeling for us as artists.”

Digitalism are keen to hit Australia for Parklife, which is hitting Adelaide for the first time this year. When asked about their set up for the gig, Tuefekci explains that they like to keep it simple. “Our sound is between a band and electronic artist, you know? Jens and I are a duo and it’s important for us to stay together without four or five in the whole band thing when on the road. When on stage Jens is singing and I am on E-Drums and then we play on our electronic gear – synthesisers and sound controller and samplers,” he says, but stresses that even so they contain a lot of energy and like to have a lot of fun.

Digitalism play Parklife alongside Adam Freeland, Justice, Scratch Perverts, Stereo MCs and more, held at the Botanic Gardens on Sun 23 Sept.

dB Magazine, Interview, Music, Writing

Jamie Messenger

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When your knowledge of classical music comes from Disney and Warner Brother Cartoons, it’s  hard to conceive questions for one of Adelaide’s foremost classical composers. However, Jamie Messenger doesn’t fit the mould usually conjured up by the words “classical composer.” He plays keyboards, guitars and sings in bands, has produced and arranged numerous pieces for the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra (ASO), including shows ‘All You Need Is Beatles’, ‘Zeppelin Flies Again’ and ‘Orchestral Pink Floyd’, and of course is the composer behind the incredibly successful ‘Hard Road Restrung’ album with the Hilltop Hoods.

He even laughed heartily at my suggestion the Simpsons may have been an inspiration for the merging of hiphop and orchestration, giggling at the idea it was thought up whilst someone was stoned. So, what did inspire him to merge the Hilltop Hoods and the ASO? “Essentially it’s just a good idea,” he smiles. “I heard a lot of the Hilltop Hoods music before and I thought it had a chance of working – I didn’t know for sure to be honest,” he chuckles, “but I thought it was worth a try. When we did some work with the string quartet to start with (for the ARIAs) from that I got an indication of what they’re like and what they’d be happy with, which gave me a good grounding to do the orchestral score.”

“There’s certainly a lot of scope in rock, and even more so in hiphop, to add orchestral elements,” he explains. “With hiphop there’s not as much melody to clash, you don’t have to switch to a melody, and that, so you’ve got the whole gamut of melody and new harmony you can add to the music. Certainly with a lot of rock music there’s not a lot you can do with it and you have to chug along with the chords, but there is some rock music that gets more intricate. Hiphop music is based on samples repeated through the piece so you’ve got the option of writing one section and looping it or you can take the option I did and expand the piece right to the end and write the dynamics into it,” he continues. “Rather than take the sample and say ‘we’ll turn it up here’, I’ve used those techniques and put it into the actual orchestration, so instead of using a filter or effect, I get that sound just through the way I orchestrate it.”

I was surprised when Messenger told me the Hilltops were quite hands off. “The songs they really liked were those I had changed a lot and added some new melodies and things like that, so from my point of view it was great!” he grins. “The Hilltops didn’t really have much input or knowledge of what I was going to be doing but they weren’t checking up and saying we want this or that; they had enough faith in me and trusted me enough,” he laughs. “I was always a bit hesitant at how well it would work,” he confesses. “I was uncertain to how diehard hiphop fans would take to having an orchestra with the band but I’m really glad people enjoy it and get into it.”

And boy, did people enjoy it! ‘The Hard Road Restrung’ debuted at no 8 on the ARIA record charts, and the sellout concert at Adelaide Entertainment Centre saw 7,200 fans smashing attendance records for a local act. I asked Messenger if he had talked to any of the orchestra since and what they thought of it. “They were certainly blown away by the magnitude of the crowd and how they knew all the lyrics and singing along at the right time. The crowd certainly doesn’t act like that at a normal gig the ASO will play. The audience don’t jump up and sing along with the operas,” he laughs. “I think they can see how much people appreciate what they did, and who doesn’t want 7,200 people screaming and cheering for you,” he chuckles again.

If there was one criticism I could have levelled at the show it was the fact the orchestra were tucked behind the band and weren’t brought to the forefront of the show. Messenger assures me this was for the best. “We never had done anything to this scale before and the logistics of the concert meant it’s better to keep them back there. They have to be able to see the conductor the whole time, and the sound on the stage made it very hard to hear what was going on. Timing-wise it just makes it easier if they’re all together in one place.”

Messenger just finished doing the ‘ASO Plays Queen’ shows in Adelaide, and is taking it to other states, “although Freddy couldn’t make it unfortunately” he laughs. He says after this he will take some time off to concentrate on writing music for his band the Scholars, and it will be very interesting to hear what this talented musical maestro will come up with next.

The Hard Road Restrung is out now through Obese Records.

dB Magazine, Interview, Music, Writing

Benga

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Now, I don’t make these types of calls often as I hate coming across as a wanky music journalist, but it’s not very often these days you witness the birth of a movement of fresh sounding music. Sure, there are sub-genres of the popular standards that do very well and can sometimes evolve their own scene, as witnessed with “emo”. And there is music that simply sounds like older music, like “nu-gaze” which imitates and expands the genre a little but keeps so much essence of the original to be unoriginal in and of itself.

But it’s my opinion that Dubstep is a new form of music, different enough from its roots to be its own genre, and fresh enough from all the other music out there to not be a subgenre of something else. Although it has been around for a number of years, Dubsteps roots lie in UK dance genres Garage and Drum & Bass, but the music expands from its influences so much that it finds a wider and different audience, and is becoming more popular outside its UK homeland, expanding its reach into Europe, America and Australia.

One of its leading lights is Beni Uthman, better known as DJ Benga, a South London DJ who along with DJ Skream is at the forefront of the Dubstep movement. Uthman started off mixing Garage from an early age, but also listened to a lot of Drum & Bass. “I never really had a preference – I liked everything. When I started mixing it wasn’t because I liked garage more,” he explains, “it was because I had more garage around me at the time. All my brothers were MCs, and would MC to garage, and that’s how I got into it.”

He also got a lot of help from the guys at Big Apple Records in Croydon, South London, his home town. “Whenever I went in there when I was younger they were like “can you DJ, can you really DJ?” and I could. I remember one time it was quite late and it was shutting hours, so I said to them let me have a mix. So they let me have a mix and they were shocked because I was only 12 or 13! I could barely reach the top of the counter,” Uthman laughs. “They came out and saw me DJ out as well and were so impressed they gave me sponsorship and that,” he smiles.

Knowing the sounds he liked, they helped Uthman find tunes with the subbass and broken beats he liked. This was found mostly on B-Sides of garage and grime tunes, but wasn’t exactly to his liking. He had a passion for the darker sounds of drum and bass, but loved the dance beat of garage, and couldn’t find exactly the sound he wanted to play on other people’s records so with DJ Skream he started producing his own material, releasing tunes on the ‘Big Apple Records’ label. “My sound, I would say,” he muses, “come from drum and bass style synths, drum and bass style baselines, with a garage tempo drums. Because of my UK garage influences I have the rolling drums, but I still have that half-time beat… with a little bit of techno in there as well,” he chuckles.

Radio has been very important in promoting dubstep to a wider audience. BBC Radio 1 DJ Mary Anne Hobbs championed the sound on her show ‘Dubstep Warz’ in 2006, and Skream’s own show ‘Stella Sessions’ on the infamous pirate radio station Rinse FM also fills the airwaves with the subbase synonymous with dubstep. But it also reaches a global audience via the internet. “When people couldn’t lock into a show, barefiles would host it so they could download it at any time,” Uthman says, talking about www.barefiles.com, the probably-not-legal website which hosts radio shows from around the UK. “Because of this, I’d go to Amsterdam, and be shocked because the people would know the songs I was playing. I expected to have to warm them into it, but they already knew what was big and that sort of thing.”

It’s Uthmans first time to Australia, and he’s looking forward to coming. Being the first dubstep international to play Adelaide, he’s especially keen to pop our dubstep cherry. “I remember Skream (who’s played in Australia but not Adelaide) telling me the people are really friendly and the scene will get bigger and better because the people really love bassline. Bassline’s an international language,” he laughs, “Everyone loves bassline, innit?”

Benga plays at Rhino Room on Sat 8 Sep alongside DJs Jayar, Stagga4wrd, Bennie Raw, Macro & Audioopticon