NEW KID ON THE BLOCK
May 1, 2002 12:00 PM, By JoE Silva
When fans start showing up at your door unannounced, you know you've made an impact. With a global touring regimen and a name now attached to high-profile remixes, Venezuela-born Miguel Depedro, aka Kid 606, is now reaping that kind of attention. Such albums as Don't Sweat the Technics (Vinyl Communications, 1998) and P.S. I Love You (Mille Plateaux, 2000) demonstrate his always-challenging, ever-changing mélange of eclectic drum 'n' bass, electro-punk, emo-gabber and other danceable experimental noise.
“Yeah, weird shit has been happening,” says the quirky Kid from the Oakland, Calif., headquarters of his label Tigerbeat6. “In the past eight months, we've had 20 people walk in off the street saying they were trying to get in contact. As a whole, I'm really, really private, and I try to stay away from becoming too public.”
But Depedro hasn't been home much to greet well-wishers — or chase them off. He's recently toured Holland, Germany, Spain and throughout the United Kingdom, where he accidentally turned a series of Korg Kaoss Pads into cool-looking coasters. “If you even get a little bit of liquid on it, it seeps under the pad, and the whole thing is ruined,” he says.
Despite the mishap, Depedro appreciated how knowledgeable the European audiences were. “There's always the drugs and dangerous women and getting in trouble with local authorities,” he says with a laugh. “But the more you tour, the less things seem weird. In Europe, you're playing to people that might have seen Kraftwerk or Tangerine Dream live, and they've heard electronic music on the radio. They're much more into it for what it is. People are more picky, but they're more analytical and perceptive of what's going on and therefore they enjoy it more.”
Half thrash, half ambient, the dichotomy of Kid 606's work is illustrated by the ultrahard Ipecac label for which he records in the United States, and the elite IDM label to which he's attached in Germany, Mille Plateaux. Mute label boss Daniel Miller had to have him for the remixes following the release of Depeche Mode's Exciter (Mute/Reprise, 2001), and his unauthorized take on Missy Elliott's “Get Ur Freak On” has gotten more press and underground spins than he feels comfortable with.
“I don't want to exploit, and that's what everyone else is trying to [get me to] do,” he says. “I want to do it because I want people to hear it, but I don't want to capitalize off this person's name. I want to remix stuff that I just pick and kind of work out. Like when that Reich Remixed [Elektra/Asylum, 1999] project came out, that was such a dream. That's the kind of thing they allow new artists to do every couple of years. The more technology evolves, there's so many more things you can do with past music.”
Is Kid 606 in danger of being positioned as America's IDM poster boy? “I don't think about it much, but I wish there was someone else that was willing to take it on, too. In Europe, there are so many people — like Pole and Luke Vibert — but in America, there are a lot of people scared to speak up and make music that will really challenge people.”
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