It’s a pleasure to have such a masterful artist on Disco Droppings. He’s got a lot of wonderful things to share with you. The tracks I’ve chosen to showcase start off slow and steady, followed by some massive tunes and ends with a diverse Skyence live set. P.s. The above picture is his sexy studio!

DD Welcome back! What’s going on in Hamburg?

S Thanks for having me! ;] We’re just having the last snowy hours for this year in Hamburg. The first flowers are out and the cherry tree in front of my balcony is in full bloom.

 

 

DD The new remixes collection on your Soundcloud have a dark and emotional feel. I was struck by the delivery with your “End Scene” and “Eating At The Void” remixes. Some forward thinking shit right there. What attracted you to these original songs?

S Troels Abrahamsen‘s “End Scene” has been one of my favourite songs since it was released in 2009. He offered the vocal tracks to remixers on MySpace one day around the WHT album release and since then, they have been laying around on my hard drive. Until end of 2011, when I wanted to backup older projects and stuff and stumbled upon the file. Some hours later I found myself with a finished remix, snow outside, foggy hamburg – melancholy, haha…

As for the Taprikk Sweezee Remix – Nikolai is a good friend of mine and I love his productions as he always pushes the boundaries of what I can take regarding glitches, clicks, cuts and crackles, but he delivers that chaos with a shitload of soul which glues it all together and totally makes sense. So when he asked me to do a remix for his forthcoming REPOLYX Remix EP, I didn’t have to think about it for one second. When remixing, I mostly like to use just the vocals of the original track – same here. I had that piano progression in mind and recorded it with a lot of reverb as a main element on which the remix is built, besides the vocals. I really like the idea of having a heavy bass on a smooth and soulful track and so I developed that whobbly bass sound for the chorus which is always a little surprise to the listeners, haha… Take that with a lot of handmade glitches and stereo modifications on the vocals, some minimalistic drums and there you go. Nikolai loved it and so it got released digitally and on casette via Error Broadcast on the REPOLYX EP, alongside remixes from B-Ju, Pixelord, Montgomery Clunk, kidkanevil, Digi G’Alessio and many more.

DD On to the Encheladus EP with Hecq..the track “Instaheat” is tough! What is your relationship like with Hecq? For fans of your individual work how would you describe this collaboration?

S Working as a sound designer for commercials and films myself, I’ve always been a big fan of Ben’s work – he’s able to put so much detail into music and sound that I always think of giving up when I hear his stuff, haha… I did a 1mn piece of heavy bass music for an audiovisual project in early 2011 which worked well as a temp-track but didn’t make it in the final film. But I really saw some potential in that short piece and so I sent the tracks over to Ben for a collab and told him to do whatever he likes with it – and some days later, I have that absolute BANGER in my inbox which was an early version of “Enceladus”. I see myself sitting there with headphones on, not even able to nod my head to those crazy edits he came up with – goose bumps. Basically, after some more changes we sent it to Nicolas who is running the Ad Noiseam label in Berlin and he was into it. So, backed with “Instaheat” and two remixes by the Knight Riderz and Mobthrow, the Enceladus EP was born. Regarding “Instaheat”: I only knew an early version of this tune Ben sent me one day and the whole thing just got me confused – those uncontrollable whobbles really made my braincells clip, haha… And the final version tops that again. This track feels like absolute chaos for the first 5 rewinds – and suddenly you begin to hear detailed structures behind the chaos, and more and more… I love it!

 

DD I have seen some awe-inspiring videos from YAK Films. Your track, “String Theory” is featured in a performance by Neguin. So rad! How much do you follow the YAK Films? Did Neguin personally contact you about using your track in his video?

S I’ve tried breakdancing when I was around 13, but after some time it was more bruises than fun and I had to admit that I’m not gonna be the best dancer, haha… (But I still have my old school Adidas dress with the superstars in blue and gold, hahaha….shit.) Seriously, I don’t know what it is, but good “street”-dancing always leaves me stone still and amazed. I really like that the movement or scene seems to get more and more attention and I have great respect for all the dancers. And if you show just a bit of interest in what’s happening on the parquet, you’ll end up with YAK Films sooner or later – those guys have a lot of love for the scene and you feel that in the movies. One day Ben of YAK Films contacted me, asking if I had any music to share for their movies as he’s been really into my stuff. Yessir! So I sent him some tunes and “String Theory” is the first one they used for the introduction of Neguin in the latest vid. He’s unbelievable! We’ll see if there will be more features with YAK. ;]

DD After hearing the Skyence Live piece on Mixcloud, I’m especially fond of the second half. Has a nice edge to it. When you recorded this live set in Hamburg, what was the party like?

S It was the 12th birthday celebration of the Hoch10 party series, which is founded and organized by a friend of mine, Gerald Steyr. He’s one of the few organizers that don’t just focus on big acts and hardcore rave hours – he’s up for experimenting with styles and genres, all covered by the word “bass” maybe, hehe… Honestly, I was a bit scared to stand in front of a crowd that is maybe 50% dubstep heads, desperately looking for “the drop” and 50% drum & bass heads that came to see what Rawtekk has in his pockets. When Roluxx, who played before me, had the crowd shaking and screaming I had to get me a beer because I knew that when I start my 3 minute intro, they’ll be like “WTF? We want to paaaaarteeeey!”. But just the opposite happened. I found myself playing my live-set in front of a really open-minded crowd of all ages and got a lot of positive feedback afterwards – I loved it! And there is no better feeling than playing the intro of INSCT and hearing someone in the crowd scream “Yeah, that’s the tune – he’s playing it, whooohooooooo!” Hahahaa…I was laughing out loud on stage at that point. Lovely night!

DD Last words?

S Hmm yeah, I’d love to thank you and all the other blogs, websites and music lovers for supporting my music! I feed on that! And second, I want to point you to some future releases: First we have a forthcoming remix for Triberg, which will be out soon on Hiperbole Records, a small and lovely label from Germany with a taste for Jazz and everything beyond. You can get a glimpse of the remix in the Live recording we were talking about. Later this year there will be a 12″ EP of myself on Origami Sound featuring two original tracks called “Azoic Zone” and “Pain Call”, including remixes of Hecq and others… I’m really looking forward to this!

Besides that, my new studio is almost finished and I’m really looking forward to making the first tunes in there. More soon, hopefully… 😮 Cheers!

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– Jimi Jaxon