getting into the odd brains of duo Hype Williams. First heard them on the Benji B show for Radio1, live set put me in a trance and I passed out. Now i’m listening their “One Nation” album and this FACT mix (perfect for what I’m feeling). Now signed to Hyperdub Records

http://www.mixcloud.com/FACTMixArchive/fact-mix-216-hype-williams/

You gotta accept that things change, and sometimes you feel the empty space of what’s not there so brightly anymore. The music is always constant.

– jimijaxon

Taking you to another place, Midwess style. dude’s very kind to share these songs for free, enjoy and get to know the man below..

INTERVIEW 

DD: I’m listening to Phases V 4.0..at about :20 it really hits! Very smooth, whatchadoin right now? 

M: Thanks dude, I put a lot of time and thought into my tunes, glad you like it. Right now I’m relaxing after work and catching up on some music-related goodness. It feels really good to finally release Phase V 4.0. I had been working on that track on and off for a few months, owing mostly to demanding work/life schedule, and I’m really happy with how it turned out. Things are exciting right now musically on all fronts.

DD: How do you feel about yourself artistically compared to say, a year ago? 

M: I feel confident, I feel happy. I feel like my sound has matured and arrived somewhere original and downright pleasing — art for art’s sake. The big difference has been abandoning genres and pre-conceived notions and just making stuff that I think sounds tight. A big part of that was feeling comfortable actually letting go. A year ago I was bedroom-producing drum n bass, jungle, dubstep and trip-hop under a different name and that was sort of my main gig. I originally started The Midwess as a side project to make badass artsy beats for a local Cleveland MC. Looking back, you can hear that intent reflected in the sturctures of some of those earlier songs. The idea of an MC collab never fully flushed out for one reason or another, and The Midwess became my solo baby where I could mashup and free form all these beats and ideas I had floating around. My style of production tends to be extraordinarily time-consuming and meticulous, so all these ideas eventually got processed and re-processed until they started to form songs. Not just beats, but songs, and surprisingly to me, songs that started to ‘gel’ and coalesce into a sound I really liked. They didn’t really fit into any specific genre, but I knew they sounded good so I released them. Been happy ever since!

DD: SOOOOOO. What do you think of Adventure Time?

M: Um…is that a TV show? I don’t watch a lot of TV, but I know an animator for the Regular Show on Cartoon Network. He’s a pretty cool guy and has a sandwich blog (http://mysandwichchronicles.blogspot.com/) where he extensively reviews sandwiches. It’s awesome.

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DD: Haha sandwich blog! That’s sweet. Who are some artists you’re really loving right now? 

M: Been diggin the new sounds from Mount Kimbie and James Blake a lot a lot. Also been jamming to some old school 1930’s-60’s jazz/swing/doo-wop stuff. We have a great radio station here in Cleveland where 70+ year old DJ’s spin the old goodness 24/7 commercial free. That era was such a high point in musical production and quality and it really makes for some great and unintentionally wonky cruisin’ music, highly recommended.

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Overall though I love my soundcloud crew. There are some really fantastic and talented artists on there, and it’s all ground-breaking all the time. Far too many to name but Repeat Pattern, Akryte, Bugseed, Handbook, MuSs℃k, Dungeons and DJ’s, yahnLOOKEpicard, AL_PD, The Get, Monotrenaut and Chocolate Girl are a few of my favs.

Far to many to mention dude….farrrr to many! Some of these peeps I’ve known and produced alongside with for years, they feel like extended family.

DD: It is a very special thing. If you could put together a dream lineup of artists to collaborate with, who would they be? 

M: Me and Will Smith. Just the two of us.

Anything beyond that is purely speculative but would probably involve Time Exile on sound design, Deru on ambience, Flylo on live drums, vintage Oizo on synths, Madlib with a bunch of dusty jazz samples and myself drinking scotch.

Really though I’m ecstatic to collab with anyone I fancy. I recently got a remix offer from an underground idol of mine, and I’m super excited to work on it. Keep your ears posted.

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DD: mmm you have fine fine taste. What impact would you like to leave with your work as an artist?

M: Music is such an awesome thing and its given so much joy to me over the years.  I want to give back.  I want to push genres and make people think.  I want to rock your socks off.  You know those rare and select songs you can listen to over and over again and still get floored by?  I want to make those for people to listen to and genuinely enjoy.  Its as simple as that.

DD: Any final words? It’s been very nice chatting with you, keep me up to date on your new productions and I’ll have you back on Disco Droppings soon! 

M: Thanks for the opportunity bud, its been a real pleasure.  The underground music scene is phenomenally exciting right now, hosting music and talking about it is where its at!  I think more than ever we’re getting back to what music really is: the art of thinking and emoting with sound.  I mean that both from the technological perspective of sound design and the insane amount of accessibility and freedom to share it with anyone instantly.  You can wake up with an idea, produce a fresh genre-bending song, upload it and get feedback from other artists and listeners that day.  And that is effing awesome!  The level of development and sheer speed of musical evolution and has never been this exciting, ever.

Think about past and current pop music… any genre, doesn’t matter.  By the time that song gets to your ears, its probably been written year(s) ago, produced, approved, released, and finally promoted by someone enough who thought “I can make a buck off this” for you to ever hear it in the first place.  Thats not exciting. Thats not free and genuine ass kicking art, and its certainly not music to make you think.  I remember years ago I used to drive an hour to a tiny record store on the east side just to get my teenage mitts on underground hardcore/death metal because it was the only place that had a solid selection of music.  I was so drawn to that sound because it was such a free and genuine artistic expression that kicked my ass and made me think.  That kind of feeling was hard to come by.  That level of excitement ya know?

Things are so radically different these days, and it’s really pushing the art form in a great direction. What you hear in the underground is pure thought and expression, music for music’s sake and its always exciting because its changing and growing every day. This is where it’s happening, this is where it all begins: the current and future sounds of the underground. Don’t be afraid.

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Stay fresh!

http://soundcloud.com/the-midwess

http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Midwess/215279475153134

– jimijaxon 

Hudson Mohawke brilliantly remixes Jamie Woon..

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Reppin Crooked Teeth and 7 Deadly Records. It’s a slick mix, gets very trippy!

* Design by: Mac Dobbins

http://soundcloud.com/discodroppings

– jimijaxon

After a long and action-packed weekend..sit back, relax and let this squirrel do the talking (get your mits on this track).

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INTERVIEW

DD: 2011 has been a busy year for you so far yes? What do you have in the works for the listeners out there?

MS: Hey! Yes 2011 has already spun itself into a whirlwind of activity and sounds. At present I’m finalizing and mixing down two Mr. Squirrel records, working with a good friend mastering an ambient album I recorded last fall that will be the beginnings of a new moniker, and am heartily along in writing the next record which will also be a new beginning and much deeper. Also some EP’s in there too…it’s profoundly busy now for sure, haha.

DD: Busiest squirrel around x). What got you introduced to electronic music? Did you know you wanted to produce your own music from an early age?

MS: Heheh! Well my first introductions to electronic music came over from both my dad who would bring back random records from business trips– he’d bring back everything from Antiloop to Speedy J (who’s “G Spot”) record was my first electronic record– and from my aunt, who whilst in school in London would supply me with mixtapes of Bjork, Talvin Singh, Beck, The Chemical Brothers, Tin Star (who I might be the last soul who remembers) and others along with ridiculous mix cassettes she’d get DJs to make on random club nights. It all expanded and mesmerized me as I continued discovering the astronomic span of emotion and tonality that electronic music offers. I started making mixtapes and the little band I’d recruited my little sister in as a young kid was soon setting one boombox up to play radio and song bits whilst recording those samples and guitar and sounds and singing with another boombox. Getting a computer soon got me into mashing up bits of tunes into “ideal” personal moments. Nicking favorite bits from the jazz and techno and funk and rock, disco or whatever tunes that moved me deepest and lovingly rearranging. Eventually that ear training process led to writing my own tunes.

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DD: Sounds like it’s been a very long and rewarding process for you. What keeps you motivated, putting your own productions out in the open, and just trying to establish yourself in this very big electronic world?

MS: It’s been eye opening and I have been extremely fortunate with the lovely people I’ve had the continued fortune to meet and resonate with. I think what motivates me most really though is the chance to capture emotions and moments.  Every tune I write is in some way a love letter to a specific moment in my life or to family, friends, feelings, really deep conversations with buddies, daydreamy walks or just whatever. In a sort of selfish way I make tunes so that I can always revisit those elements of my life, and so that in some little way I can share those things with everyone.  Certainly, you know, sometimes I go in thinking of a concept or a groove and I go “oh that’s it! That’ll get people bopping!”–there’s that little bit of the hungry young producer trying to flex newly formed muscles– but in truth I think it’s the most raw, naked, and simple expressions that are the ones that really grapple you. There’s a tune by Underworld that is absolutely one of my favorite pieces of music on the planet: it’s a b side from their Hundred Days Off record called “Like A Swimmer”.  The mix is so delicate and sparsely laid out but each note is a brutally emotional tone that wraps you up and the words that Karl Hyde (of Underworld) sings are so painfully honest that every time I hear them I am moved to tears.  “Your eyes…Your green, Just you: I’m shaken with you”. It’s the tender words with the delivery as of someone from across a pillow and it feels like a memory that you had and want desperately to keep. That’s where I hope to always be heading: the place where music and emotional memory snap together and you feel the world for a moment as you haven’t in ages.

DD: You are an eloquent man. What’s the electronic community like in your location?

MS: Perhaps you caught me at a good time, I mostly articulate in a series of wild emotive grunts. Heheh. The scene here in Madison (Wisconsin) is one of mounting interest I think. The city has a really fresh and encouraging attitude toward creativity, and though I think it is still a bit harder to explore the inner depths of electronic music whilst out and about–it’s an American college town so more than a few DJ sets I’ve been a part of have seen kids accosting me to switch out the Alix Perez or Holden tune for their Lil Wayne impregnated iPod touch, but there are a lot of local venues and DJs who get it: there is hope.

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DD: You write so well. Are you studying to be a writer?

MS: Thank you!  No, I’ll be moving shop to England this fall for audio engineering, but writing is certainly a part of my family in a deeply personal and rooted sort of way.  My mom is a novelist and my dad has loads of poems and short stories that he has written: largely, in his case, for himself or loved ones.  In my family I suppose the presence of art, as well as it’s creation, has always been that of personal exploration and attachment.  I grew up memorizing every nuance of John Coltrane’s “Giant Steps” and Dave Brubeck Quartet’s “Take Five” or even just “Walking On The Moon” by The Police on repeat as I fell asleep at night after I stole them from my dad’s record collection (and never truly gave them back), and stayed up late with tea steaming watching PBS’s Mystery and Masterpiece Theater with my mom.   All of the various sources of inspiration through wondrous works and the content tranquility that they bring you quietly permeated into my consciousness and burrowed into the kind of place that you guard with heated passion.  If you can really absorb the work of others, in a pure state, to the point that you are internalizing and swaying with their nuances and expressions and traveling with them as they dig in deeper, I think the whole process of expression just becomes something that you learn to value on a basic soul affirming level.  As I think of it maybe that didn’t answer your question…or maybe it did and then kept rambling…blah blah, then, I really love art, blah blah…

DD: Dude, your so awesome. I’m amazed by what you’re writing. If you could envision a visual backdrop for your music, what would it be composed of?

MS: Cheers man! Man what a brilliant question… a good friend of mine and I were having a chat the other day about how to describe a vibe in some tune or something thereabouts and we came to the memory of a time you were looking into the sun.  I suppose that might be the best description of my tunes thus far: they are snuggled in the diffuse bright light of memories.

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DD: Lights, mmm. Is a squirrel your power animal? I haven’t found mine yet..

MS: I’m not sure! The name came originally from a figure of my childhood: as a little kid in a town of college kids I would try to impress these cool old kids with being easy going. One guy lived down the street from us and I’d wander down and make paper airplanes with him and throw them at walkers. His name was probably Scott but I had a lisp so I said it in such a way it became squirrel. Eventually I realized I was not respecting my elders sufficiently and I started calling him Mr. Squirrel. Since accepting the name upon myself, however, a lot of squirrel behaviors have become apparent. I do, for example, write poems and lyrics on scraps of paper: receipts, the sides of cards whatever, and horde them in my pockets. I keep my surroundings in organized (barely) chaos but seem to dig out what I’m looking for based on intuitive memory. Perhaps I’m just obsessive compulsive but squirrels are neurotic bastards too…

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Maybe a moment to turn the interview around: if you turn off the thinking center of yourself and consider your habits what creature do you feel affinity toward? What makes sense? It’s not like I go out on squirrel causes or feel the pain of each flattened roadside “brethren” but I do perk up my ears at mention of them certainly now, and understand how my behaviors are similar. Though I’d not be caught running on telephone lines. That’s foolish.

DD: Hmmm what’s an animal that’s only focused on a few things, and can be a bit hermit-ish working those few things?

MS: Beaver probably. Super focused on the development and upkeep of their dwellings so you know they’re probably loathed to leave.

DD: This is such a fun conversation. Is their any last words you’d like to say? It’s been a pleasure for shizz!

MS: Certainly man this has been a joy! Last words…hmm I truly feel there is nothing more important than finding, expressing, cherishing, and enjoying love in all its forms. I hope you and everyone reading enjoy the sun and those they care for. Love light and balance, be well everyone and massive cheers to Disco Droppings!!

– jimijaxon