This was a phenomenal night! I was turned on to Javelin from my buddy Cael and was pleasantly surprised to not only see a performance from said band but also catch openers Big Spider’s Back and Weekend!
I’m a fan of trying nu things, so I’ll be capturing my experiences at shows/parties and sharing them with all ya’ll, here on Disco Droppings.
Big Spider’s Back – Ambient, made me know I’m a part of something huge. It was kool to hear so much sound coming out of one performer. www.myspace.com/bigspidersback
One of the most solid, mature and sexy posts for Disco Droppings- Tom & Zip are taking you back to the classroom..The masterful Brodinski has been driving clubs wild with Homework’s upcoming song “Fissa Tune”, and they have kindly agreed to do this feature for my blog!
Brodinski playing our track ‘Fissa Tune’ at Winter Music Conference 2010 in Miami, Florida:
INTERVIEW
1. How were you two first introduced to electronic music?
We work in a record store, so that more or less presented us to a gold mine of electronic music. In the beginning we were both very much interested in so called ‘intelligent dance music’ and we still like to listen to music from artists like Aphex Twin, Boards Of Canada and Autechre. Via producers like Jeff Mills, Kraftwerk, Biosphere and others we started to touch on all different grounds of electronic music. When we began dj-ing we started with mostly electro, but through the years that changed into… well, you can call it contemporary house music.
2. The strong House vibe running through your music is superb! How has your music-making process progressed up to now?
Tom has been producing off and on since 2001. Going through different genres and styles. But dj-ing brought us to the music we produce nowadays. That’s a natural process, because the music that you play is the music that you love and, as an artist, you always try to give your own flavour to what you hear from your idols. Most of the time, you hear something amazing from another artist and you think ‘Wow, I wish I could do that too!’ Most of the time you can’t, haha. I’m not saying one tries to copy something from another artist, but it’s funny that you can make something original by pursuing an unobtainable goal.
3. How would you describe the music coming out of the Netherlands?
Well, of course there’s a lot of Dutch House coming from Holland, from the likes of Gregor Salto, Afrojack and Franky Rizardo. The funny thing is that that kind of bouncy, booty house is considered to be quite commercial in Holland. While people seem to absolutely adore it outside of our country! It probably influenced a lot of foreign artists. When we have artists over from f.i. France they always tell us Dutch House is really big there.
We ourselves have left Dutch House behind in a sense. We’re playing lots of house and tech-house stuff from producers like Tim Green, Jesse Rose, Renaissace Man, Uner & Coyu, etc.
4. What’s in the works for Homework in 2010?
We’re working on getting our original material released! There’s been some hype surrounding our track Fissa Tune, which Brodinski seems to play in literally every set. So expect those tracks to hit very very soon!
“Yeah I guess you could say it’s a side project. I kind of riffed on the name LZR MTN my friend came up with. The idea would be dance music based on Star Trek. Boogie on the Battlebridge is based on the thing they command the enterprise from when they separate the main dish from the rest of the ship. Glam’hadar is a riff on the scary guys from Deep Space 9 the Jem’Hadar. The Prophets are gods from DS9 and the Fire Caves are where the demons live, so when I named the song Fire Caves I decided it should have “fuck da prophets” in there somewhere.
The inspiration is I’m studying to be an electronic engineer, so I spend a fuckton of time sitting in front of my computer doing math homework. While I’m doing that I watch 10+ episodes of star trek a day. So, it kind of came together.
Disco Droppings is very happy to team up with LIFT, a bomb diggity promotional company…keep your eyes out for upcoming (often unreleased) songs from electronic artists!
AutoKratz, keepin’ it tough with the single “Always More”-wonderful producers jump on board for remixes (Yuksek is fantastik!) www.myspace.com/autokratz
Initially thru gangster rap . I loved that they talked about murder and blow jobs . the beats were always hard to me as well . later on of course i got more into earlier industrial noise and IDM . .. that pretty much started me into making it .. and now some 11 years later I find myself full circle .. I spend more time making rap beats then anything else ..
2. How has your music creation process developed over time?
At first it was all made with hardware .. complex midi chains and simplistic patterns with heavy consideration to melody ( I think this is something that most producers do at first .. they want everything to sound like Philip Glass or LPD or something) I used to play piano for hours and hours .. at one point even cutting my finger tips so that I could play faster .. fast forward and I started getting into Circuit bending (because I couldn’t afford to buy new gear) . After I moved to Seattle I started getting into creating music with a laptop .. which of course has its strengths and weaknesses . .. these days I’d say I work on a much more conceptual basis (I’ll do a song about a book or dream or whatever) with special attention being made towards the live set .. nothing worse then a jerk with a laptop not moving or anything ..
3. Have you always been handling so many sounds in your music?
No . my first few Syphilis Sauna albums were rather simple .. though definitely still related (by which I mean they still are pleasantly annoying). I think that as you listen to more and more complex music the ability to understand and thus create it your self increases ..
4. Currently, who are some of your favorite artists?
Well I haven’t had much time lately to really dig in .. so mainly have been listening to old staples : Goblin , Coil , Crystal Castles , NWA , DR Octagon , Necro etc.. though recently was turned on to Die Antwoord and Jack Parow .. really like what’s going on in South Africa currently .. I feel like modern American hip hop is total garbage (the beats are progressive but the raps are drivel) .. it’s like the golden era over there or something ..
5. What is the electronic scene like in your part of Pittsburgh?
Pittsburgh has a long history of being electro-centric . and Ive had the chance , since moving here about 7 months ago , to meet some people that are definitely very dedicated to underground electronic music of all different sorts . I’ve heard it’s in a bit of a lull and indeed its hard to get big numbers of people at shows versus club nights .. though I have heard some amazing live sets here and also think that this summer will be one of joining forces to make shit happen .. Pittsburgh is a PRIME location . so would really like to create something similar to what we’ve done in Seattle and Denver .. a place where producers and musicians of all sorts of underground electronic music can play to a decent crowd that loves weird shit .. I have a good feeling.
dd 