M鷐 are all at sea.
揑t just kind of came out,?says M鷐抯 謗var Th髍eyjarson Sm醨ason rather sheepishly. But despite his guilt-ridden admission, Sm醨ason - one third of Iceland抯 sonic experimentalists?recently depleted core - has nothing to apologise for. Far from confessing some dreadful deed, he is merely trying to explain the genesis of his band抯 haunting new album, Summer Make Good. M鷐, it seems, are not a band in control. And that, he says, is just the way they like it.

揥e really had no idea how our album would sound,?continues Sm醨ason in his soft Morten Harket-meets-Bj鰎k voice. Although Summer Make Good is the band抯 third album proper, it抯 also the first since the departure of joint-founder, cellist Gyda Valtysd髏tir, and M鷐 had no creative intentions or expectations. Except, that is, to make something beautiful. Which is exactly what they抳e done.

Written at a remote lighthouse only accessible by sea, Summer Make Good is a powerful album of soaring wonder and deep glacial sorrow. 揟here抯 something about the calm of the place, being there with nothing around for hours and the adventure of getting there - something about having to go on a boat - that is really inspiring,?says Sm醨ason.

Like their Icelandic cousins, Sigur Ros, M鷐 weave analogue and digital sounds into intricate blankets of warm human noise. Krist韓 Anna Valtysd髏tir抯 ghostly whispered vocals lend the music a tender innocence, while fragile, spluttering electronica and wistful minor chords - accordions, moogs, banjos and melodicas, warmed through gramophone speakers and vintage amps - meld with creaking ropes, dripping water and raging winds to pierce the music with an eerie forlornness. Summer Make Good is by turns gentle and soothing, mighty and raw, a wonderful, arresting album that mirrors the band抯 splendid and dramatic surroundings.

M鷐 utterly surrendered themselves to their environment and its impact bleeds through every song. Even hijacking M鷐抯 cinematic music to tell its own sorry tale. There抯 a story running through their album says Sm醨ason, but its existence is not deliberate: 揑 don抰 think there is really any actual story there,?he admits. 揃ut it exists in the music and that is special.?

Sm醨ason thinks for a moment. 揑 hope our music can touch people in a different way. In a way impossible with other things,?he says, struggling with his broken English. 揑 hope it plants an idea or feeling that wasn抰 there before. Maybe make people think a little. If it does then I抦 happy.?He laughs to himself. 揃ut then, you have to realise you can抰 actually control anything.

Alexia Loundras 08 March 04

M鷐 - Summer Make Good, released 05 April 04 on FatCat Records.

______________________________________

listen to FULL tracks:

weeping rock, rock the ghosts you draw on my back oh, how the boat drifts

Big band jazz is the new punk.

Big band jazz is unlikely to be most people抯 first port of call when searching for radical sounds. Unless you抮e Matthew Herbert that is. Because his Goodbye Swingtime album possesses the same adventurous attitude he brought to the esoteric electronica of his Herbert guise, and the deep house he plied as Dr Rockit, despite the apparently archaic big band set-up. Far from being rose-tinted elegy, Matthew and his cohorts resuscitate big band jazz with intricate electronics. You might not expect punk to be wearing the evening dress Matthew favours on stage either but that抯 the spirit, if not the sound, that Goodbye Swingtime shares.

揊or me, punk is about not accepting things as they are,?he says. 揟he same goes for jazz ?it doesn抰 go from A to B by the most obvious route. There抯 a link in attitude but the process is much more subtle.

It抯 also a reaction against a stagnant electronic music scene Matthew perceives as far more conservative than the sounds of Sun Ra and Charles Mingus that were his guiding lights. 揌ouse never surprises me any more,?he laments. 揑t抯 very lazy and that抯 something I don抰 admire, in music or in life.

That desire for discipline has spurred him to write the PCCOM (Personal Contract For The Composition Of Music) manifesto. Among other things, it explicitly bans the sampling of other people抯 music and states that mistakes must be left in. He is keen for other producers to embrace the ethics, but has no desire to become a figurehead for a movement. 揑抦 not saying I抳e found the answer to music,?he demurs. 揑 don抰 mind what other people do, as long as they抮e not just sampling old records to try and inherit authenticity.

The integrity inherent in PCCOM also motivates the album抯 political impetus, which is firmly at odds with dance music抯 usual narcissism. Famous for destroying copies of The Daily Mail onstage, Matthew lists Noam Chomsky, rather than his electronica peers, as his prime inspiration. 揂 lot of people making electronic music are intelligent, passionate people but I抦 disappointed when that doesn抰 translate into their music. When you think that every weekend millions of like-minded people all gather together, dance music has huge political potential and yet it抯 all about escapism. But in the West we抮e the aggressors. So what are we escaping from?

You say you want a revolution? Well here抯 your soundtrack. Paul Clarke 11 July 03

Matthew Herbert - Goodbye Swingtime (Accidental)
Unless you know a few neat ballroom steps you抮e likely to think of 40s big band jazz as something of a museum piece. And, at first, Matthew Herbert抯 revisiting of the sound is unlikely to convince you otherwise. On first listen, tracks like Turning Pages and Stationary are interesting but remote ?as if they抮e being performed behind plate glass. Herbert抯 contemporary updates only become apparent after a while when the electronic squiggles surface, but it抯 really Dani Sciliano抯 achingly beautiful vocals that truly blow the dust from the covers. Paul Clarke 16 May 03

Matthew Herbert, released 26 May 03 on Accidental.

LFO抯 Mark Bell talks to Collective.

The promo copy of the new LFO album arrives, rather romantically, on cassette. Whether it be a nod to nostalgia or simply a deterrent to Kazaa users, it nicely takes us back to their debut on the tape deck at a Leeds club night which Warp founders Steve Beckett and Rob Mitchell just happened to be attending. Eventually their single, LFO, was transferred to vinyl and formally introduced to British dancefloors, entering the Top 40 at number 12 and spawning the landmark Frequencies album.

Since parting company with collaborator Gez Varley, Mark Bell has maintained the guise of LFO and continued to work on new material. Taking a vacation from brutal remixes and production work (Bj鰎k, Depeche Mode), he抯 compiled a new LFO LP, Sheath. Bell抯 familiar vocoder stutter and heavy, plangent synths wash over mammoth beats on the accompanying single Freak, announcing a stark re-run of hip-hop and Detroit techno roots.

Collective: Do you think the new LFO record is as relevant as the first?
Mark: I honestly don't think about it. I never stop doing LFO music. Even when I work with other people, I have a portable set-up so I can make my stuff anywhere. I抳e got hard drives full of all sorts of crap.

Collective: In your press release you say repetition bores you. Do you think your new record is a repetition of your earlier work?
Mark: I think Sheath is all over the place. What I meant was that it bores me when people repeat other people抯 music. It's a completely wasted opportunity. It's cheating yourself really.

Collective: Has your production work with Bj鰎k influenced the way you make music?
Mark: No, I see it as two different things. I make my music the same way I always have - purely for my enjoyment. When I do stuff with Bj鰎k, it's a team thing. We both have fun. It's like training for the 110 metre hurdles with water jumps, or the 400 metres relay with hair extensions and clogs.

Collective: Did you pull any Brian Eno production shit on Depeche Mode?
Mark: I use all kinds of silly methods to get what I want out of the speakers. I just have fun. When I did the Depeche Mode album, I'd hire a little Mackie desk and set up in the live room where the band would normally play. Even though we were in Sony New York, Electric Lady and a top of the range studio in Santa Barbara, I completely ignored their big SSL/Neve desks and million-pound effects. They'd already done that excess bit. I made it so we were going back to our roots.

Collective: How do you work? Do you ever get writer抯 block?
Mark: I've got the attention span of a wasp, so I don't get time for writer抯 block. Even when I produce, I switch between tracks throughout the session. It just keeps things fresh and fly.

Collective: What do you think Steve Wright would make of Freak? He was fairly against your first single.
Mark: I think he'd love it. My mum pointed out to me that in the Guinness Book Of Hit Singles it clearly states I抳e had more hits than Liberace in the UK. So up your bum, Wrighty. James Rutledge 19 September 03

useful link: www.warprecords.com/lfo

The funk soul brother.

Jamie Lidell bounds into the kitchen at Warp Records, wearing white shoes and singing as he switches on the kettle. The 32-year-old producer, multi-instrumentalist, b-boxer and singer is in cheery form after an energising gig at London's Royal Festival Hall. 揟he idea was for me to be dressed as a fisherman,?he says. 揃ut I'm not sure if it came across.?The costume philosophy (he previously performed in a plastic suit covered in money) is typically Lidell - off-the-wall, art-angled and at least 10 degrees left of his peers.

There's good reason for his bounciness: his new album, Multiply (released on Warp), is an energetic hybrid of southern soul and electronica with the occasional analogue boost. The first single, When I Come Back Around, flagged up Multiply as one to watch, and has become a bona fide club hit. It contains all the elements that make the new album such an enjoyable listen: Lidell抯 letting loose on the microphone underscored by monster b-lines and mash-up sonics.

The follow-up to 2000抯 angular Muddlin Gear is soaked in soul, with tunes like the title track coming across as a straight-up homage to Otis Redding or Sly Stone, a love letter to the deep soul talent of 60s Memphis. 揑 like the sheer vibration of singing,?says Lidell. 揌umming, singing chills me out.?It was co-written with fellow Berliner, Mocky (揗y spiritual guidance?.

Lidell has lived in Berlin since 2000, making music in a converted factory in the old East Berlin zone. 揑t's chilled and cheap,?he says, relaxing back into a leather chair. 揑t's no metropolis but has all the trappings of the big city.

If you haven抰 seen Lidell live, don抰 worry. Warp are releasing a DVD, Live At The Albert Hall. It抯 an extraordinary combination of laptop hijinks, scat vocals and Lidell's molecule-vibrating voice, as well as the eccentric costumes created by his in-house designer, Pablo Fiasco - hence the fishermen. It抯 the kind of loose, chaotic performance kick-started by Matthew Herbert when he went on tour wearing spats and making beats out of crisp packets in the mid 90s. 揌erbert did influence me,?he says. 揌e抯 a brilliant performer.

It has always been so. Lidell learnt xylophone and drums at primary school before writing a melodrama for music and voice which attracted the curious charge from the school of 損laying with the devil? And next? Well, he's taking his twisted R&B and own-brand southern soul to all corners of the world. There抯 a new Super_Collider record ready to roll and more songs percolating inside Lidell抯 frame. 揜eally,?he says. 揑t抯 just about getting to the heart of the song.

video DL :

interview video

'multiply' acapella in the warp records kitchen

at the ether festival, royal festival hall, 2004

How to DJ in two places at once.

Compared to Justin抯 abs or Kylie抯 arse, your average DJ does not offer much to look at. And yet at every gig Jeff Mills plays, groups of punters crowd around the booth scrutinising his every move. Now, Mills is no pin-up ?despite the feverish fantasies techno trainspotters undoubtedly have about this Detroit techno legend ?yet as a DJ he抯 a true performer. Largely eschewing the boring beat-matching and segues of most techno and house jocks, Mills tears through 4/4 rhythms like a hip-hop scratch DJ, rarely playing any record for longer than two minutes before he rips it from the deck, hurls it over his shoulder and slams another beat in perfectly in time. It抯 his spontaneity and intuition that sets him apart from most overpaid record changers, yet Mills has now tried to capture that spur-of-the-moment feel on his new Exhibitionist DVD.

揈xhibitionist is a document and an exploration of the art of DJ-ing,?Mills explains. 揃y allowing the viewers to see more clearly the techniques of DJ-ing I will hopefully attract more attention and a better understanding of what I do.?/P>

The first official Mills mix since Live At The Liquid Rooms eight years ago, Exhibitionist is like a techno equivalent of turntablist videos ?showing Mills?magic hands in motion as he selects and spins tunes from his Purpose Maker and Axis labels, alongside other cutting edge records. The idea was originally conceived in response to the sheer number of DJ bookings Mills receives ?making a DVD of his performance seemed a good way to be in three different places at once. But, reasoning that some might see sending a promoter a DVD while he sits at home twiddling his thumbs as being a bit slack, Mills has instead incorporated DVD footage into his sets ?spinning alongside a filmed projection of himself and cutting between the recorded mix and actual hands-on DJ-ing. This isn抰 the first time Mills has integrated images into his art, either, having performed a live score to Fritz Lang抯 silent movie Metropolis at the Royal Festival Hall.

揥ith Metropolis I discovered something that was missing from the projects I'd created in the past,?Mills says. 揂nd that抯 the communicative vehicle of sight. For many years, it has been rather difficult for me to express certain ideas and concepts with sound only. I think working with visuals more often will strengthen my awareness of what it possible.?This is one exhibitionist who deserves your attention. Paul Clarke 30 January 04

Jeff Mills ?Exhibitionist, released 02 February 04 on Axis.

useful link: www.axisrecords.com

We approached Theo Parrish for an interview with these questions?BR>
1. Why do you think house is often regarded as having less 搈eaning?than jazz, for example? Do you agree? Is your music an attempt to redress this?

2. Do you see your music as conceptual?

3. Or political, in the sense of reaffirming the music's black roots? Kenny Dixon Jnr has quite militant views on people sampling black music. Do you share these?

4. Do you see yourself, Dixon, Pittman et al, as part of a unified movement - the much talked about 搕hird wave?

5. What current artists/music would you recommend people check for?

This is his unedited response?/B>

If the music formerly known as 揾ouse?has less or more meaning than any other music conveniently categorized into a one-word catchphrase, it is because of weak, uninformed, uninspired, lazy music journalism. Perhaps, if you actually commented on something I have said, as opposed to offering a blanket statement for me or any other artist to co-sign on to, this unbalanced view of any music in any form might change.

Any practitioner of music that passionately expresses themselves finds meaning in what they do. These expressions came from inside me and through my faculties, out into the world, and my mind has a significant role in that process. So yes, it is conceptual. Yes, concepts from the mind of a 揵lack?man. But my race is not a choice, so I find it disrespectful to label anyone 損olitical?or 搈ilitant? or any one-word catchphrase, simply because they happen to be 揵lack? Most of the world has a tendency to lump 揵lack?in with those adjectives you mentioned, the second a person of colour decides to publicly or privately speak their mind on any given subject.

Furthermore, we are not one monolithic group of people. Just because a 揵lack?man that I know has a point of view doesn't mean I share it, or the opposing view either. There are so many types of 揵lack?people that the term 揵lack?doesn't even apply. My skin colour is a dark, reddish brown so understand the ignorance you are putting on display to the folks of African descent by the manner of your questions.

Anyone you regard as 揵lack?is of African descent. All music is 揵lack?music, all of it - anything you have ever heard - has African roots. Any musician from any culture knows this, whether they admit it or not. Millions of artistic waves have reverberated across the world and back in call and response. The attempt to capture, imitate, package and sell them at any given moment is the foolish attempt of those who should just watch and enjoy, to do what they simply cannot. That cheapens the efforts of those dedicating their lives to catching a reverberating frequency and expanding on it. These artists are plentiful and cross time, gender and geographical location. They can be described as anything that sounds subjectively essential and you can find their recordings at your local record store. Not online.

PS. Do not print or display this interview if it is to be edited in any way, shape or fashion. AGAIN - DO NOT EDIT!

Theo Parrish,
Sound Signature