MODULAR SYNTHESIS
Dec 1, 2002 12:00 PM, By Robert Hanson
Jack Dangers of Meat Beat Manifesto enjoys an enviable position. He's one of the most easily recognizable and quoted personalities working in electronic music. His skills as a remixer keep him deluged with requests. His live shows are legendary. Yet his work as an artist has always remained well outside the grasp of even the most ardent and informed music buyer. His toil is that of a forward-thinking artist whose motivations are deeply personal and have nothing to do with status or trend.
Unfortunately, Dangers was forced to maintain a low profile for the past few years as he struggled to free himself from an overly obtrusive contract with his former label. During that period, Dangers chipped away at a number of projects — including a series of breakbeat records called Tino's Breaks that he eventually put out on his own imprint, Tino Corp., with Ben Stokes — as well as material that would become the latest Meat Beat Manifesto album.
As the first Meat Beat album since 1998's Actual Sounds + Voices (Nothing), RUOK? (:\run, 2002) showcases a new direction for Dangers. Older material such as Satyricon (Elektra, 1992) and Subliminal Sandwich (Play It Again, 1996) focused on a dense and abrasive sound: from spoken-word passages and found-sound snippets to jazz-influenced progressions and proto-industrial percussion. But the latest offering is more in tune with mood and space. With reduced track counts, live instrumentation and use of Dangers' now-impressive array of vintage synths, RUOK? is clearly designed to inspire, as well as confuse.
An integral new addition to Dangers' studio is an item that has long been an obsession for him, the EMS Synthi 100. Only 29 of the exotic modular synthesizers were ever produced, and through an instrument dealer in Los Angeles, Dangers was able to procure what he claims to be the only working model in existence. The impressive mid-'70s synth now occupies an entire wall of Dangers' modest home studio in Marin County, Calif., where the album was almost entirely completed.
Dangers' production style is as difficult to nail down as his style of music. RUOK? includes live-musician-tracked songs, as well as the sprawling synth- and sample-heavy compositions he is known for. Dangers is an exacting sound architect with a keen sense of musicality, and he doesn't rely on the latest pieces of technology to stay ahead of the pack. In fact, much of his inspiration stems from now-forgotten avant-garde and futurist composers, as well the dub, punk and early electronic bands of his youth in England.
It's been four years since your last studio album. What was your blueprint this time around?
Prior to this album, I was in a contract with a label in Belgium that wouldn't let me do any other projects. So I finally got out of that contract in '99 and did six volumes of breakbeat records with the Tino Corp. label, which I ran with Ben Stokes. We did six of those, a Meat Beat 12-inch, a DHS 12-inch and a DHS album. Prior to that, my work schedule was such that I'd do an album and then go on tour. And then, I didn't have anyone reminding me of that, and I wanted to do these other things. I would have been doing it in the early '90s, but I wasn't allowed to for all those reasons why you shouldn't get into a long-term, multi-album contract. So over that four-year period, I would do a bit here and a bit there. If I laid the bits out end to end, it would have probably been eight months.
This album is certainly different from what you've done in the past. It has much more of a sparse and minimal feel to it. Was that an idea you were looking to address?
I don't really have a conscious flow of anything. I'll do something, and then I'll get over it. It used to frustrate the record label to hell because they wouldn't understand what I did to begin with. So I'd always be moving on to something else musically. It's the same thing with this record. Some people will like it, and some people won't. People are now using “Prime Audio Soup” [featured on The Matrix soundtrack] as a benchmark for my remixes. “Can you make it sound like that stuff?” I get that continually. And I'm thinking, “Well, that was five years ago.” I just do what I do. I don't measure it up to anything else.
Pick a song from the new album and walk through your writing process.
“Spinning Round” definitely started with the beat. It was a beat break that I sampled and processed in [Propellerhead] ReCycle and then changed around a bit. And then, I added the bass line. The Synthi 100 is all over that one, and the ARP 2500, as well. The last thing to be cut on there were the found vocal elements.
What do you use as a pool for those types of elements?
Records, radio, television, anywhere that sound is. Someone I know. Me.
Do you ever work by first creating a pool of sounds and then going back to reassemble those components?
Yeah, I did that on this record. I really didn't do too much of that before. And that was mainly because the process wasn't album, tour, album, tour. It was just, “That sounds good,” and I'd store it.
Who were you listening to when you were working on this album?
All the obvious ones, like John Cage — all the people who did this music first. I get my inspiration from where electronic music came from. What I do doesn't sound like what I'm listening to. Like today, I got this new 10-inch of Creole songs from New Orleans, which is a collection of street performers.
So when you're record shopping, are you looking just for music that interests you as a listener or are you always thinking, “Hey, I might be able to find something I can use?”
No, I'm looking for music. But then, I'll find some ridiculously crappy-looking record that I know is crap, and I'll think, “There might be a sample on there.” But it's definitely music; I'll be looking for certain things. But I've never ever taken a record player into a record shop. I'd feel weird doing it.
Talk about the sessions with Z-Trip. How did that collaboration come about?
I met Z-Trip at a show we did in Portland [Ore.] with Cut Chemist. And it turned out that he had DJ'd at a show we did in '91 in Phoenix. He just came up here and did his stuff all live. He's pretty much one take. If I did do a couple of takes, there wouldn't be any editing. It would either be use this one or use that one. There's no comping, which is great.
Like many of your albums, RUOK? has a lot of live bass. Is that on purpose, or is that just the first thing you reach for when you're stuck on something?
If I've been sitting in front of the computer, messing around with some program, I'll want to pick up a real instrument. I've never really gotten along with a guitar. Keyboards are okay. I play drums and stuff that's rhythm-based. That's why the music is so rhythmic. I discovered when I was 16 that I had a sense of rhythm. I started playing drums and played them better than the guy who had them. You have to understand rhythm to understand dance music. It's not a case of turning on the computer or even getting a loop from a sample CD. You've got to have a sense of rhythm to make it work.
What do you consider to be the essential tools in the studio?
Definitely a computer, but you can make music without a computer. I managed without one, doing the first couple of albums. But [Emagic] Logic and ReCycle are pretty important.
When you're recording live instruments, like bass, what signal chain do you prefer?
I'll usually bring it through the Neve [preamp]. If I'm adding compression to it, which I usually like to do instead of relying on plug-ins, I'll use the Summit DCL-200. And with the Mackie, I've just got keyboards and things normaled to it, so I can bus them all through the Neve, straight into the back of the [Digidesign] Pro Tools hardware.
You are a big analog aficionado. Do you ever record to tape first?
It all depends on what I'm doing. If I'm doing musique concrète — type music, I'll use tape because I've got the two ¼-inch machines. But not for this. For the more experimental stuff, I do everything on tape because you can't get the same effect without it. But I do run all my masters onto tape; I just don't use tape as a multitrack. But I did record the drums that way at Toast [Studios, San Francisco]. I recorded there and then transferred it and brought it back here.
Were you playing drums?
No, Lynn Farmer was. I was playing bass when he was playing drums. There is a track on there called “Supersoul,” and we're actually playing that live. I was in my little booth playing bass. He also has a set of [Roland] V-Drums. On “Horn of Jerico,” the third track, he's playing an 808 patch through his V-Drums. We used the V-Drums on a lot of things. I've got a [Roland] Handsonic, as well. I don't use the sounds; I tend to put them through the little Synthi [AKS] or the big one [the 100], and I use the ring modulation on both of those. It's the best ring mod ever. [The Synthi AKS] is just a sound-treatment device, and it's set up for this permanent ring-modulation setting. I just send things though it off an aux send and then straight into Pro Tools.
Meat Beat Manifesto have always been classified as a sort of dance act. Is that important to you? Do you look to maintain that element?
I think it's more electronic than dance, though you can dance to anything. It's such a broad spectrum. But I don't even think about it. I mean, I look back at the things that I remember sticking out and liking, and it had a dance beat to it.
Do you still enjoy that tempo and feel?
Yeah — even though I don't dance.
Parts of this album don't adhere to that expected 4/4 feel.
There are different time signatures in there, but it wasn't a deliberate thing that the whole album was going to be like that. There are some in there that are more straight.
Do you go for a certain sound, something you can define?
I've always liked dub, growing up in the '70s in England with reggae in the charts. And the whole dub thing was just a natural progression of that. There were a lot of punk bands in the '70s mixing dub, bands like The Clash and even Cabaret Voltaire. That was an impressionable time for me musically, and that element has always been there.
For more about Jack Dangers and Meat Beat Manifesto, visit www.brainwashed.com/mbm.
MEATY SOUNDS
Jack Dangers breaks down the EMS Synthi 100
“It has a six-layer sequencer, and you can record all the information in the Synthi unit — stuff you wouldn't be able to get to via the computer. You can do your work on the sequencer and then have the computer track the sequence. I can't control the actual modulation process from the computer. All the computer is doing is just giving it clock. It's a very powerful feature to be able to control all this modulation via a click track and record it as digital audio.
“The main thing that makes it special is the way that it sounds. If anyone has used EMS equipment, this will sound completely different. I don't think there are any contemporary people who have used it, because they were sold mostly to universities and radio stations. It is really one of the most sought-after synths because it sounds the best. They only made 29 of them, and it gives you a sound you don't get using software or other synthesizers.”
A CLOSER LOOK INSIDE
A selected gear list with commentary by Jack Dangers
Akai S3200 sampler
Apple Macintosh 9600
ARP 2500 “You can get some crosstalk, but I actually like that. It's a mistake that I like.”
Digidesign Pro Tools 888 “I only use the hardware, not the software.”
Emagic Logic Platinum 5
EMS Synthi 100
EMS Synthi AKS “It's not just for the people making the music, but it's for the engineers to treat sounds.”
E-mu E4 sampler
E-mu Modular synth “Moog-style, ¼-inch patch-cord modular synth. Very messy.”
Genelec 1032 studio monitors
Lexicon PCM 70, PCM 80 effects units
Neve custom preamp “Originally a channel strip from a BBC desk that was made into a single rackmount unit.”
Propellerhead ReCycle
Roland System 100m
Summit DCL-200 compressor/limiter
Technics SL-1200s “A part of everyone's studio nowadays.”
Yamaha GC2020 compressor/limiter
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