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0030 // rkss
Occupying a territory not-quite-techno, yet not wholly unfamiliar to the dancefloor, the productions of Berlin based ‘rkss’ have a highly distinct feel to them; perhaps ode to his unique approach to sampling. “I focus a lot on textures when I listen to music” he states when asked about his production process. “Though I do think some machine made music is great, we currently live in era where we can take any sound and turn it into something completely different. My friend showed me this essay John Cage wrote in the 1930s, which discusses how in the future people “will be faced with the entire field of sound”, among other things. Pretty much everything in that essay blew my mind and I still find very inspiring. As for more musical or aesthetically sources, I suppose anything I’m listening to at the time funnels into the music. Not consciously, but it ends up in there.”
His latest offering, the Reject & Fade released ‘Tunnel’ EP is testament to this, using randomly generated source material throughout the EP. “For my first EP, ‘Basement’, my sound source was all from one film - all micro samples. Similarly I used this technique for ‘Tunnel’, except this time I used Youtube samples. To be more specific I used this amazing website, which simply generated random youtube videos. As one would make field recordings of ambient sounds or real life, I did the same thing in this digital domain, of listening and cutting up random content people were putting on Youtube. All I can say is there are a lot of bodybuilders on Youtube.”
Having sent over a selection of material to Reject & Fade curator Michael Hann, it wasn’t long before plans for a fully-formed release began to take shape. “I really respected his taste and wanted to get his opinion on some stuff I had been working on” he says of their initial discussions. “He asked me to create a release for the label he was starting up. I was getting really into just sampling random things I was finding on Youtube and the internet in general - I wanted to explore this aesthetic further, so I set myself the aforementioned parameters. For me it was a success because you really can make something interesting out of anything, if you choose to. And I think the overall music has a certain and specific aesthetic, related to its sound origins, which is what I was hoping.”
Covering a range of the material he was listening to during the record’s inception, rkss’ mix for us charts an hour and twenty minutes of tripped out House, Techno and Electronica.”I feel that the album itself is a little bit all over the place” he explains. “At least relative to traditional techno or dance record, with high and low BPMs and some non-traditional rhythms, but its interesting to see a little bit of all of these elements were present in the mix. Which is to say I can see in hindsight how this music effected my music at the time.”
Tracklist
- Before I Leave - Fennesz [Editions Mego]
- Untitled 1 - Terrence Dixon [Subspec]
- Étude élastique - Bernard Parmegiani [Editions Mego]
- Autumn in New New Canaan - Lejsovka & Freund [Bark & Hiss]
- Germany - Developer [???]
- III - HOLOVR [Opal Tapes]
- Harmony - A i w A [Farbwechsel]
- The Kettle Men - Actress [Honest Jon’s Records]
- Prism - Tim Hecker [Kranky]
- Disgust - Kerridge [D/N Records]
- Pretentious Alexipharmic Acid & x0xb0x Doom Metal - Jesse Osborne-Lanthier [Hobo Cult Records]
- Actio Reactio - Helena Hauff [Werk Discs]
- Yayla - Rezzett [The Trilogy Tapes]
- Velvet Painting Of A Tiger Ortiz - Dynooo [self-released]
- Il Capoline - Madteo [Sähkö Recordings]
- The Beckoner - Minor Science [The Trilogy Tapes]
- Sunday Hotel - Moodymann [KDJ]
- A Crippled Left Wing Soars With the Right (Steal This Record remix by DJ Sprinkles) - Terre’s Neu Wuss Fusion [Skylax]
- 3001AB - Huerco S. [Cleaning Tapes]
- Come Across - J. Albert [???]
0030 // rkss by Stray Landings on Mixcloud
- Published
- Aug 13, 2014