As you may or may not be aware, tech-funk pioneer, breaks master and all around electronic music sage, Elite Force, released his smashing album of mashups a la Elite Force entitled Revamped on Monday. Fortunately, the gods smiled upon me and I was given the opportunity to ask the man a few questions! I'm a huge fan, but I tried to come up with some unique questions that were a bit more probing. See for yourself in the interview below, and don't forget to check out Revamped!
UNIQUE REVAMPED STORE (with enhanced content): http://www.eliteforcemusic.com/storerevamp.htm
BEATPORT (for all digital downloads): http://bit.ly/uanda
JUNO (for postage-free CD): http://bit.ly/forcejuno
The Interview:
Whether it be breaks, techno, electro, dubstep, or, more recently, mash-ups, there is a distinct presence in all of the music you create of a quality guided by a hand wise enough to understand the power of the groove; it's what makes and drives tech-funk. When you sit down to produce a track, what artists, genres and sounds would you cite as your most important musical influences?
Very hard to say specifically. I'm a strong believer that we're influenced by everything we hear (for better or for worse) and as time goes by and you develop your own production peculiarities, little tricks and nuances just slowly make their way into the very fabric of what you do and it's very hard to step away from that (and if it's working, why would you!). When I tell people the music I'm really passionate about (Sparklehorse, Sonic Youth, Primal Scream, Underworld, System of a Down, Massive Attack, Velvet Underground, Elbow ... but equally .... The Meters, Renegade Soundwave, Depthcharge, The Fall, UNKLE ... but equally ... Englebert Humperdinck, Angelo Badalamenti, Philip Glass, Penderecki, John Coltrane, Fela Kuti etc... etc.... ) it doesn't really make sense of what my music sounds like!
Although I have unfortunately not been able to see you live, you have quite the reputation as a crowd-wrangler, working hard to provide a seriously classy experience for your audience. It seems, and is often discussed, that many DJs don't fully grasp the dynamics of electronic music or the club they're playing in; they blast peak-time music for an hour. What advice do you have for DJs who are catering to an audience unfamiliar with the nuances of the beats and breaks?
I don't think that's ever really a problem to be honest - a lot of the nonsense that people talk about the beats and the breaks is just hot air spouted by a few self-appointed-armchair-generals whose lives would be incomplete without spouting their opinions on this that & the other. On the ground, it's seldom an issue ... I did a show the other day where I played after the Hacker and before Dusty Kid and the place erupted - people in clubs are far less up themselves than people on forums :)
The other part to this question is more to do with the problem with short sets, and that's more a question of educating the promoters to promote evenings where music takes the lead and not the volume of the line-up (this is something I'm going to try to redress in my own way later this year). As a DJ you can only play within the confines of what's set in front of you and if you only have an hour, you have little choice other than to bang the shit out of it.
The Re:Vamped album and your re-fixes are lauded as revolutionary, inspiring and the thing that could save breaks. Those claims are not without merit. Yet, it has been a while since we last heard an artist album from you, let alone an original production (Sweet Control and Engine being the last I can think of). What's next?
That's not entirely true to be fair - there were three separate Zodiac Cartel singles last year as well as two Elite Force singles with Meat Katie, both of which topped the Beatport charts. I see many of the tracks on 'Revamped' as original productions as they're so far removed from the originals, and 'The Law of Life' is also a completely original track. There are only so many hours in the day really, and the traditional 'artist album' doesn't really have a massive role in today's music marketplace ... the fact if in order to write one, you have to take yourself out of the game for months & months on end, and more often than not the music itself doesn't really translate into a form you can promote very well as a DJ (unless you do an album of club bangers ... which brings us back to Revamped!).
Do you see yourself as always a producer of electronic music?
That's what I do, yeah.
When are you coming to Chicago?
Well I'd love to hit Chicago soon - I've been there a few times and really liked the city, but at the moment there's nothing in the diary with Chicago's name on it!
Bonus Free Track!
Benga - 26 Basslines (Elite Force Re-Fix) http://t.opsp.in/EUt7
