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It's been a couple of years since the "Control data" LP, so why
release the remix wars now?
In the last year I've been working on loads of new beats and have
really been inspired by, and working with, programmers and musicians
from a number of specific genres, e.g. heavy duty anarcho hardcore
gabba.
It seemed to me that the remixes were done with a lot of respect
for the original, did you choose the remixers on the basis of
mutual respect?
I personally chose the remixers from a real love of their work: Alec
Empire (and the whole of the digital hardcore label) is very close to
the spirit of why I'm involved in the music/information war in the
first place. Ultraviolence, who I think is perhaps the best British
gabba artist, has also been helping me with tracks for the new
LP. Didg, who is Nico's right-hand man in The Program has also been
giving me a hand.
Are you working on new material now? Do you think it will sound
anything like these mixes?
I've been collaborating with Ultraviolence and Didg as I said above,
also with Nico and Ed Rush, who together with people like John B have
been really inspirational in the mutating darkcore secnce which I
love. Another collaborator is Decoder---a brilliant darkartist.
These two specific scenes (gabba and darkcore) along with a deep-felt love of really rough speed garage, jungle, some Japanese noise stuff and obviously "bad" speed thrash metal like Fear Factory and Machine Head, have been the musical nutrients that have been in my life-support system lately.
I interviewed Asian Dub Foundation just after "Control data" was
released. We talked about the LP and they were fans of yours, have
you heard them? Do you like their music?
ADF are, again, close friends and I think they are one of the best
live bands in Britain at the moment. Their campaigning is great---all
power to them.
ADF had a pretty traditional take on the meaning of "dub",
basically that it's a way of making music with the mixing desk being
an instrument, but you've said before that dub is an attitude. Can you
elaborate?
When I say that dub is an attitude, it's liek the old lyric: "truth is
a feeling, but it's not a sound". I find dub's destruction of a
structure a political as well as a musical statement. If you are
trying to question things lyrically, you should also question musical
orthodoxy.
The title, "Control data", is it an instruction or does it mean
that the LP contains the data that will enable you to take control? Or
something else?
You can either control data or the data controls you.
What is/has been you lyrical motivation? You often been described
as serious and paranoid, to which you respond that a paranoid is someone
who is well-informed. Is that your motivation, to inform?
To me, I am just commentating on things I see around me, to ignore
these things, I would have to be an imbecile.
Interestingly, I was reading "1984" while I was listening back to
your older albums and the music and book seemed to slot together
beautifully, reflecting moods perfectly.
Thanks.
Talking of books, did the "Control data" book or CDI ever
come out? Is it available on the internet at all?
It's a work in progress but I'm snowed under with music stuff at the
moment.
Mark has promised us some text from his "Control data" book later in the year. Watch this space...
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