ireallylovemusic vs martin dust
martin dust is one of the driving forces behind the superb dust science collective, part of the ever essential the black dog, as well as dropping in the odd system 23 track, and setting up the fascinating ds:93 label, so its freak of nature that he has managed to find time to set aside a few minutes to answer some questions for ireallylovemusic.
23 questions in fact.
(note : these questions were set down prior to the launch of ds:93, hence no questions re that whole side of the game)
1. dust science – from richard h kirk release to the revival of the black
dog. quite an achievement so far. have things gone according to plan?
things have gone well for us but we’ve had some major hills to climb, 3
distributors have gone bust on us taking all our stock and money, so we’ve
learnt a lot from that and as a group of people it’s made us a lot stronger –
shit like that really tests the group dynamic and kinda did push us to the edge.
i wouldn’t say it’s been a revival for black dog (aka tbd) either,
tbd has always been
active in some way or other – just not always in public, they never really went
away.
looking back over the last five years, i happy with what we’ve achieved so far,
there’s a lot more to do but i can sleep easy for a little while
2.with all that in mind, what was the original plan and reason for dust
science, the origins of the label name, and what are we to expect from the label
going forward ?
the plan was and still is to release the music we love, to bring through new
artists and enjoy doing it. when that stops, so will we.
i don’t really want to explain what the name means, everything has to be
explained these days and i’d rather not. not that i want to be snotty about it
but i don’t think everything should be explained
going forward, we’ll release the music we believe in, work with new artists and
continue to support the scene we’re involved in. where we go next depends on
what drops through the door and who we find but next years line-up is looking
pretty good.
3. if you could get any artist onto dust science who would you sign up to
join your gang, and why ?
erik satie, he was a master a simple keyboard melodies and as mad hell, i would
have enjoyed working with him. people who do things different or “perceived”
difficult people are always more interesting to work with.
4. analogue toys vs digital computers ? i know you like proper synths to play
around with, but i’ve seen pictures of your live set up – and that’s all
laptops. which is the preferred method of making music and why ?
we’ll use anything and for different reasons, the analog vs digital debate bores
me to tears, we use both. taking our old kit into a club isn’t for us tho, we
can’t replace it and getting it full of sweat is no way to look after kit you
need to make music. the laptops, mixer and plug-ins work well live, if it’s good
enough for kraftwerk, it’s good enough for us.
5. is the music first created using real equipment and then once sorted, do
you drop it all into a computer to mess around with? tell us a little of the
process behind the making of a black dog track?
we use both as mentioned above, many of the songs are live jams in the studio
and then restructured/taken apart using the tools we have available. we don’t
have a fixed method of working. sometimes i’ll pick up some loops and midi from
ken and rich and finish the track or just add to file and put it back in our
active archive and sometimes i’ll do the drums and bass for the other to
complete. i think the main thing to change is that one-one really does tracks on
their own any more.
6. other than you working on your own, do you approach things any different
for a system 23 track then?
system 23 is about hard tribal drug induced party music, still is come to think
of it. the project is on hold at the moment while we focus completely on tbd.
7. is the 23rd release by the label to be one of your own then ie under the
alias system 23 ?
the number 23 with never be used on dust science, if it does get used it will be
for our last ever release.
8. will dust science ever go down the same route as kirk and release music
only via itunes, or, are you firmly of the opinion that techno music is a music
that needs vinyl and cd releases to be loved properly ?
no, we’ll always make “objects” – there’s something so final about them and i
enjoy that. but people are moving away from “solid” format towards files but
it’s not the golden age everyone seems to think it is.
9. the kirk 12” was easily one of the best records of 2006. will we get a
full rhk release via dust science in the future ? after all, rhk must still be
making tracks a la urp seies. and there was hardly a duff track across those cds
!
i’m not sure if we’ll do anything with richard in the distant future, we’d love
to and he is without a doubt one of the most important artist in the electronic
scene, without him things would have never kicked off in sheffield for a start.
but we’ll wait and see what happens, he’s an amazing artist and has the respect
of everyone at dust.
10. how do you feel with the current blog heat over minimal techno? has the
sharp focus on certain producers been beneficial at all to you, or do you think
the attention has been about certain hipster connections and not really looking
beyond the haircut ?
coverage for the scene is good and i don’t really get that involved with the
who’s who, if the music kicks it kicks. magazines have to write about something,
it’s just a pity they get the history and some of the real originators wrong but
that seem to be just a fact of life – i don’t really lose any sleep over it.
11. do you feel that so far dust science have yet to get the recognition the
label deserves, or are you just waiting for the right time to fully expose the
glory that is the ds catalogue?
never really thought about it, i’m not really doing it for recognition. we do
what we do and that’s kind of it, people find us and we have a good crowd of
people who support the label. i’m not sure who said it but it’s a great quote
“if you want to make a million in techno, start with two”. the reason we are
involved is we still believe in music and all the formats it comes in, plus
going out to a party and meeting people is still a great pleasure for me – i
really love that side.
12. with the city in which you are based, have you ever felt the urge to get
tdr to help out with your design? was this ever discussed, or did you know that
you had the skills to do you own thing and not fall back on expected options?
not really, i know all the guys at tdr but as 4 of us at dust science are
professional designers so there really wouldn’t be much point involving them. we
did talk to them at the beginning of the project but ian suggested we do
everything ourselves – at the start of the project we were unsure about doing
the artwork because we are very close to the project and sometimes it’s
interesting to get outside forces involved, plus ian has always been helpful and
pretty open with me so that’s of great value to me.
13. with that in mind, who designed the excellent northern soul appropriation
logo, and have you had any grief off anyone for the visual sampling?
i did the design while talking to ian anderson from tdr about dust, i’ve always
loved northern soul so it made sense to use something i already loved. we’ve
never had any grief from anyone over it and don’t think we ever will to be
honest. i showed ian the design and he just said “that’s it – you don’t need
us”.
14. so tell us, how did you coerce ken to allow you and richard to become
part of the black dog set up ? after all, the black dog was happily ticking over
on his own. what was the reason for the expansion of the collective, and just
how does it all work, does ken have the final say so in the way a track is to
sound?
this is where most, if not all journalists get it wrong, black dog has only ever
been ken on his own for one short period (music for adverts) the rest of the
time it’s always been 3 people. so there’s been 4 phase to black dog but most
people can’t get past the warp years, which amuses me no end. when we became
part of black dog, ken had just split from his label and the other band members,
we didn’t do any music for a couple of years. we mostly talked about what we
wanted to do and how to achieve it. at some point we’ll document this because it
seems that this comes up in just about every single interview or review.
no one has final say on the music, things evolve and some of us are better than
others at certain things, so we kind have our own levels. we send ideas back and
forth, but if one of us believes in that track, then it goes.
15. which leads to the following question, have you managed to get ken to
accept beats over 90 bmp yet ?
he likes to work below that, but there’s no real rules – we work at the speed
that is right for the song and some of the new songs are at 145 bpm, i don’t see
how you can really set rules.
16. the original dogsquad website was a maze of addictive weirdness, that you
now replaced with a more manageable blog style site. surely in the process, a
little of the beloved mystique has been lost. was this ever a concern, or, was
it time to release the hounds and have the world open to the beauty that is the
music you all create ?
it hasn’t been lost, we have it all saved but we decided it was time to change
and document more of what where up to, the site is slowly evolving and it will
have more stuff as we move along
17. did you ever feel some wariness over becoming part of the black dog given
the groups known weighty and influential history. that’s quite a responsibility
you have taken on ?
never considered it, but people do expect black dog to conform to “rockisms” but
it’s never going to happen, sometimes when we perform it may be 1, 2, or all 3
of us and some people do cling to 1992 or whatever era but i don’t really care
about that. we’ll drop some old tunes because they still stand the test of time
18. you have spent the summer doing the festival season – how has it been ?
learnt anything out there in the mud ? rejigged certain tracks at all ?
the set isn’t really fixed, there’s over 4 fours worth of music we can play in a
black dog live set and under that is a 3 hour dj set. each crowd is different
and what works for one crowd doesn’t for another but we don’t let that bother us
(much), we do what we feel is right. it’s much easier to play a dj set because
you have certain records you know that will never fail but i like playing tbd
stuff as it’s more of a challenge.
19. surely, 3 grumpy un-young men, on stage in front of a rain splattered
tent full of pill popping dancers sounds like hell on earth to many sofa
surfers, (i’m playing devils advocate here of course!) – what is about
repetitive beats and such that keep you still inspired ?
everyone likes to party and it’s very tribal, something we don’t get much of in
modern society, and something as simplistic as dancing to a beat really appeals.
grumpy? we have a really good laugh and can keep up with the best of them. you
have to make the effort
20. using laptops and suchlike, were the gigs pre-conceived thus allowing
little room for improvised movement, or do you have it set up so that you can
change certain aspects of the music on the fly?
nothing is pre-conceived, we can change on the fly and often have to as the dj
before us has been “tonning” it but it’s what it’s all about and we’re not
afraid to clear the floor and start again. we are often still editing files on
the plane or just before we start, couple of times when there’s 3 of us we’ve
been able to cut and loop things on the fly.
21. how have the gigs affected the new forthcoming album, will the music be
more upfront in the sound ?
it’s more upbeat but that’s the same with all the stuff we have released with
soma, some of the songs are pretty mental but if you are looking for bytes or
spanners 2 then you’d better look somewhere else, for us that sound and those
days are gone.
the sound has been developing since silenced but i don’t know how to describe it
22. tell us something you have to tell anyone else about the new album. give
us an exclusive ?
i once had a shower in someone’s house without them knowing.
23 questions – one more, a serious one to finish off with ..
23. what’s your favourite colour, and why ?
red, white and black – come on the blades!
more detail : dust science