In this mix Kelvin gives us more of the same with tracks from the likes of Jay Electronica, Jean-Luc Ponty, Tony Allen, The Family, Zomby, Cerrone and Les McCann.

Says it all really, enjoy..

http://www.back-and-forth.net/audio/March_Mix_2010.mp3

Ira Sullivan : The Kingdom Within You

Some random Library LP track

Parlet : You’re Leaving

Jay Electronica : Exhibit C

Bil Conti : Packing Up

J Dilla : Cold Steel

Mark Pritchard : Demo beat

Tony Allen : Jealousy

Mos Def : Quiet Dog

Andres : Track 13

The Family : Screams of Passion

Liaisons Dangereuses : Avant-apres Mars

Was Not Was : Tell Me That I’m Dreaming (Extended Mix)

Les McCan : McCanna

Zomby : Tarantula

Cerrone Feat. Jocelyn Brown : Hooked On You

Jean-Luc Ponty : Renaissance

Dizzee Rascal & Wiley ‘I Love You’ Remix

Jackie Mittoo : Ayatollah

Late 80’s dancehall cut

Born in Bolton, studied here in Edinburgh and now resides between New York and Manchester, Crook has already lent his skills to various brands such as GQ, Adidas, Dazed and Confused and Oi Polloi.

His recently launched website also includes some excellent celebrity shots including David Byrne, Peter Saville, Malcom Maclaren, David Hockney and Tim Burton aswell as some wonderful snapshots around the world (including Bolton).

Please click below to see more of his portfolio, we’re sure you’ll be impressed.

http://www.antonycrook.com/

We also suggest seeking out a copy of The Rig Out II, which includes more of Anthonys excellent work.

S.E.H Kelly makes clothes in England. Designed, spun, stitched, cut, sewn, labelled, and so on. The whole lot. There aren’t any shortcuts to be found. They do this because they are founded upon a respect for the English clothing industry; it is the abiding principle of S.E.H Kelly, and they work in responsible partnership with the suppliers of  all their fabrics and components.

Their first collection has just been completed. It is called Book No. 1 and it is for Autumn and Winter 2010. The garments are based on  traditional workwear, and on English shop-worker and factory attire. Simple, modest clothing, in other words, designed to last for a long time and gain in character through wear.

S.E.H Kelly was founded in 2009. Having spent several years working on Savile Row, they have developed an understanding and appreciation of  what makes men’s clothing of good quality. Part of this is the mills  and factories that one chooses to work alongside, and they are committed to working with some of the most established and respected in England.

To this end, all fabrics and components are supplied by English mills. This includes brushed cotton from Cumbria, wool cashmere from a mill in the Cotswolds that dates back to the 1500s, cotton twills and drills from Lancashire, and wool from a co-operative of crofters and farmers on the Shetland Isles.

Now, please understand that at this moment in time they’re keeping next season’s lookbook close to their chests so for the meantime we’re only getting a small taster of what’s on offer, but I’m assured by S.E.H Kelly they will send more pictures soon..we think it’ll be worth the wait.

http://www.sehkelly.com/

Hope you enjoy and feedback greatfully received.

The XX : Basic Space [Mount Kimbie remix]

Space : Carry on, Turn me on [Architeq remix]

Quantic & his Combo Barbaro : The Dreaming Mind (part I)

Harvey Mason : Till you take my love

Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five : The Message

Tom Tom Club : Genius of Love

Stephanie Mills : You can’t run from my love

Atlantic Conveyor : We are

Motor City Drum Ensemble : Raw Cuts no.6

Falty DL : Some day my Queen will come

War : Galaxy

Eddie C : Make Change

Soundspecies : Ee pee em dee flip

The Popular Peoples Front : Space Race

Mark E : Get yourself together

Theo Parrish : I can’t take it

Marvin Gaye : Heard it through the grapevine

Thanks to Dave for hosting and Huw, this is for you brother.

They claim to use ‘honest fabrics in styles that capture a sense of boyish adventure with playful buttons and linings, but stand alone in their simplicity and fit’. Amongst the fabrics in use will be Harris Tweed, beeswax cotton from Scotland, chunky lambswool, heavyweight melton from Yorkshire and fine Portugese cotton melenge which in all will make up their Autumn Winter range for 2010.

We like what we hear and think you’ll like what you see, here’s a great video of their collection from Alex Turvey also featuring the wonderful Daisy Lowe.

Percival from Alex Turvey on Vimeo.

http://percivalclo.com/

It’s now starting to appear in various online emporiums around the globe in dribs and drabs, but its Sweden’s finest Très Bien that seems to have stocked most of their range. It seems A.P.C target their market towards the slender of the species, but that doesn’t leave out their outerwear and their popular jeans for us somewhat..erm, rounder gents.

As always it’s more of that ruthless simplicity that they do so well.

http://www.tresbienshop.net

This years Spring range from BoO isn’t groundbreaking..suppose, they dont want to rock the boat (arf).

http://www.bandofoutsiders.com/

The significant downside to some specialist titles is that beyond the product guides, the level of journalism and production could be somewhat lacking. Titles from small independent publishers with low circulation don’t always have the best resources available to them. That’s the trouble with a niche interest, there’s not always the money circulating to fulfill certain requirements.

Fortunately, hunting, shooting and fishing in the UK is well serviced by Fieldsports Magazine. This is so much more than a buyer’s guide to the latest Barbours. Covering the gamut of traditional outdoor sports, it offers both a outlet for enthusiasts to extol the virtues of their sport and report the latest events. The majority of the writing is first-hand accounts from active participants, offering a fascinating insight into sports that may seem shrouded in mystery to outsiders. If you’ve ever wondered what motivates someone to load up their Land Rover with dogs and guns and go pheasant shooting early on a Sunday morning, the writing is testament to their passion.

Fieldsports Magazine is proud of the traditions that go hand in hand with the sports and makes no attempt to gloss things over to appeal to a younger market. It’s not politically incorrect like the crude jokes your uncle still tells, but neither is it ashamed of what it represents. There’s product reviews extolling the virtues of shotguns that run in to several thousands of Pounds, photos of proud Estate Managers stood in front of their Subaru Legacys and even space devoted to events and what can only be described as society pages.

If only all chance pick-ups were this rewarding.

A young Northwest based DJ, Greg Wilson, embraced this new sound and applied new DJing techniques that the more regimented electronic beats allowed him to use, such as mixing two records together to perform a perfect segue. Greg’s electrofunk nights at Wigan Pier and Legend in Manchester are now legendary. Having created something of a stir, Greg hung up his headphones and retired from DJing at the height of his powers in the mid 80s.

For nigh on 20 years, Greg’s legend remained just that – a legend. Something talked about in hushed, reverential tones by those in the know. Until, of course, he unexpectedly returned to DJing some five or so years ago. These days Greg melds together both old and new to create a unique party atmosphere, standing apart from his contemporaries through the use of custom re-edits as well as a Revox tape machine for effects and samples.

It is with great pleasure to us that Greg has agreed to answer a few questions for Proper Mag, giving us the full story as told by someone who is a dance music legend not once, but twice. Over to you,
Greg…..

Anthony: How did you first get into music? What are your early memories?

Greg Wilson: I grew up in a seaside town, New Brighton (across the Mersey from Liverpool), during the 60’s, so there was a constant soundtrack of great pop and soul around me. My family ran a pub with 2 functions rooms above, so mobile discos were coming to play wedding receptions, 21st parties, every weekend – I lived there between the ages of 6 and 13. Further to this, I had an older brother and sister who were buying mainly soul singles, on labels like Stax, Atlantic and Tamla Motown, so that was a key influence, with soul becoming my first love.

AH: So how did a young chap from New Brighton get into Djing? Did you start by going to clubs, or did you always have an interest in playing music to other people?

GW: My schoolfriend, Derek Kelsey (aka Dee Kay, aka Derek Kaye) built his own somewhat primitive mobile disco when he was just 11, using an old drawer to house the decks and incorporating a single switch to go between one and the other. It was as basic as you could get, but still highly impressive at the time that someone my own age could put this together. This, along with the fact that I’d probably seen every mobile DJ in a 20 mile radius, when they came to play the parties where I lived, would certainly have influenced me towards deejaying.

By the time I was a teenager I had a relatively large record collection, including those 60’s soul singles I’d ‘inherited’ from my brother and sister, so I suppose that deejaying was a logical next step. Derek eventually upgraded his mobile, then upgraded again, so I bought his second console and, along with another friend started ‘Dancin’ Machine Mobile Disco’ (named after a Jackson 5 track) – ‘good service / reasonable charges / always reliable’! I was only a mobile DJ for a few months though as I landed the Saturday night residency at a popular local nightspot called the Chelsea Reach in December 1975. I was 15 at the time and still at school, so I had to be careful to conceal my age. By the time I left school I was deejaying most nights, either at the Chelsea Reach, or another local club, the Penny Farthing, so it all stemmed from there.

AH: Did you still tend to play Soul/Disco/Dance music at this point? Or was there an element of compromise? Talk us through how your career developed over the next few years.

GW: I always aspired to be a black music specialist and would do Funk nights (playing Soul, Funk and Disco) at the Penny Farthing and, later, the Golden Guinea (where I was resident from 1977-1980). However, most of the time I was playing a wider spectrum of stuff, as the majority of DJ’s in the UK did. When I started at the Guinea it was pretty much like every other club in the area with regards to what was being played, but I gradually, over a period of maybe 6-9 months, changed things around, introducing newer records and an ever-increasing amount of US imports, building myself a reputation for being a DJ who played tracks other DJ’s played later down the line. Eventually the Guinea would be regarded as one of main clubs on Merseyside when it came to hearing the latest black music, and Blues & Soul (then the quintessential magazine for serious minded DJ’s), via reporter Frank Elson, came along and wrote a glowing review in 1979, giving the club its seal of approval. It was a proud day for me!

I worked in a cellar disco in the Guinea. The upstairs room was a throwback to the past with a DJ playing between bands (of the cabaret variety, who would play covers of pop and rock & roll hits, doing 2 or 3 spots a night). This worked in my favour, as if someone asked me to play a record that was too poppy for my room I could simply send them upstairs where the DJ would be quite happy to play their request.

AH: You’re most famously known as a pioneer of Electrofunk. How did that transition occur from the Soul/Funk/Disco that you had been playing to this ‘new’ music?

GW: That happened a bit later. In 1980 I landed the residency at Wigan Pier, which was one of the most impressive venues in the country back then. I deejayed there 4 nights a week, including the Tuesday Jazz-Funk night, which would subsequently result in the Pier winning the Blues & Soul award for best club in the north. By this point, Jazz-Funk and Fusion was being played alongside Soul, Funk and Disco on specialist nights under the catch-all term Jazz-Funk.

The reason the vacancy had come up at the Pier was because the company that owned it had opened a new club in Manchester, with the previous Pier resident moving over to there – this was Legend. Legend held its Jazz-Funk night on a Wednesday, but, after a successful period, the night began to alarmingly lose numbers when the DJ, John Grant (then one of the leading black music specialists in the north) switched to a rival night co-promoted by Blues & Soul and Piccadilly Radio called The Main Event (at Placemate 7, where the old Twisted Wheel used to be). With numbers slipping below 100, when it had previously been pulling in more than three times as many, I was offered the opportunity to see if I could turn things around, given how well things were going for me in Wigan.

Legend was an incredible club with arguably the best sound and lighting in the country. I took over in August 81 and slowly but surely we began to attract more and more people, until, the following May, we hit the 500 capacity, with Legend now at the forefront of the black music scene and people travelling from Birmingham, Huddersfield, Leeds, Bradford, Sheffield, Nottingham etc, even as far as London. The crowd was predominantly black – the best dancers into the most upfront music. It would remain packed to the rafters right through until I stopped deejaying at the end of ’83.

I was fortunate in 2 major ways. Firstly, I’d made a conscious decision to place the emphasis on mixing when I started at Legend. It was the first British club I’d worked in that had SL1200’s (3 of them). At the time only a handful of DJ’s in the UK were regarded as mixing specialists, and I was the only DJ on the Jazz-Funk scene up North to embrace mixing. Further to this, a new style of electronic based black music, utilising drum machines and synths (later samplers), which would be termed Electro-Funk, began to appear towards the end of ’81. This was a type of music suited to mixing, so I found myself doing the right thing with the right crowd at the right club, playing this new music – everything fell into place. Although I took a lot of criticism from the purists, who felt that electronic music had ‘no soul’, this new direction placed me, and my clubs, at the cutting-edge. Things really exploded in the May, when Piccadilly Radio also began to feature my mixes (on Mike Shafts Soul Show) – this was also the month that the seminal ‘Planet Rock’ came in on import, and The Hacienda, then very much an indie / student venue, opened

I guess in many ways, changes in technology would drive what happened thereafter – whether that be in the music, like you say through drum machines and synths – but also for the DJ.

By embracing this new state of the art music, whilst working in the region’s most state of the art venues, I’d set myself apart from all the other DJ’s on the scene, the chasm made even wider by the fact I was mixing. I suppose that everything else seemed a bit old fashioned once someone had experienced the Pier on a Tuesday or, even more so, Legend on a Wednesday, hearing this new electronic music over a sound system that was second to none as far as this country was concerned. By comparison, most clubs that held specialist black music nights were rundown ramshackle venues that had seen better days, with tinny systems, basic lighting, and a DJ talking over the microphone, as was the norm in the UK back then. I was only 22 – a young upstart in many peoples’ eyes, with totally different ideas to the old guard, well and truly rubbing them up the wrong way as a consequence (although I’d never intended to cause such controversy). However, the most important people, the young black audience that made up the majority of those who attended my nights, were totally receptive to what I was trying to do, enabling me to, in a sense, turn the scene on its head, placing myself and my clubs in a position of power and influence. It was very much a revolution that took almost everyone by surprise, myself included.

AH: You yourself began experimenting with reel-to-reel tape machines. How did that occur, what were your influences and where many other people experimenting in the same way?

GW: Contrary to the impression that a lot of people have of me, I’ve never been technically minded. When I started doing my mixes for Piccadilly Radio in ’82, Mike Shaft would bring one of the stations’ portable Revox B77 reel-to-reel machines to Legend during the daytime, where I recorded the mix as live. A technician at Piccadilly would then top and tail the tape, readying it for broadcast. Then one day there was nobody available at the station, so I went into an editing booth myself and, before I knew it, I was turning bits of tape around to create backwards sections, and trying out other rudimentary edit effects. I’d been shown the basics of editing 5 years earlier, when a presenter from BBC Radio Merseyside, Dave Porter, helped me prepare a demo for the station, but I hadn’t actually cut tape since. Other than this I was totally self taught – there were no other DJ’s doing what I was doing in this country.

From that point onwards my mixes became increasingly intricate as I incorporated editing as a vital element of how I prepared them. By the end of the year I’d put together my own home DJ studio, with a B77, two SL1200’s and a Matamp Super Nova mixer (this was the equipment I used when I mixed live on Channel 4’s The Tube in Feb ’83). All subsequent mixes were recorded at home, including the ‘Best Of ‘82’, which was a major landmark for me, comprising of 52 tracks (some just snippets) in less than an hour. Although it’s very raw by today’s standards it was regarded as something of a masterpiece back then!

AH: You demonstrated some of these techniques on a now legendary appearance on the channel 4 television programme, The Tube. Talk us through how that came about and how it was received by a largely unsuspecting TV audience.

GW: The record companies used to regularly bring acts to Wigan Pier and Legend for personal appearances when they had a new release coming out. This was then considered part of their promotion and we never paid for anyone to come to the club (unlike later, when PA’s became quite a lucrative sideline). Most of the British based artists on the black scene, as well as some US visitors – Kool and the Gang, Gwen Guthrie and Oliver Cheetham – came to Legend.

Anyhow, in February ’83 we had David Joseph, the former vocalist from Hi-Tension, in the club for a PA and, given that he was about to appear on The Tube, some of the researchers from the programme had travelled down from Newcastle (where The Tube was based at Tyne Tees TV), to see Joseph perform. One of the things I was known for was ‘doubling-up’ with two copies of the same record, altering the arrangement by switching between different sections of the two, whilst running one behind the other, be it one, two, four beats or more, to create what might now be described as live edits. I generally did this with tracks that I’d been playing for a while on import, which had just been released in this country (getting the UK labels to send me two, or even three copies – Legend and the Pier had three turntables, enabling me to ‘triple-up’ with the odd track, most notably ‘Buffalo Gals’).

On the night David Joseph appeared, performing his then unreleased debut single ‘You Can’t Hide (Your Love From Me)’, I followed up the PA by playing the track later in the evening, but this time ‘doubling-up’. The Tube people heard this and were impressed enough to ask if I’d do this live for the programme, with them switching from Joseph on stage at London’s Camden Palace, where they were doing an outside broadcast, to me mixing the track in front of the studio audience at Tyne Tees.

It was a daunting scenario. This was the first time a UK DJ had mixed live on TV and, although excited to be asked, I was also terrified that things might go wrong, leaving me looking stupid. Rehearsals confirmed my fears as there was a cameraman with a hand held who was getting far too close to my equipment for comfort. Finally I got both records cued-up and ready and, feeling like some kind of condemned man, listened to the ten second countdown until we were live on air. My eyes were constantly darting to the turntables as I waited for Jools Holland to interview me, and I could barely concentrate on his questions when it began. Finally I was given the go-ahead to start my ‘demonstration’ and, thankfully, all went well, despite the cameraman bumping into the console that housed my decks (which was picked up on in the commentary). Fortunately the needles held firm and I wasn’t faced with the indignity of the record jumping, and the panic that would have ensued had i had to deal with that nightmare!

The Tube would serve to greatly enhance my reputation on a national level, given the large TV audience the programme generated and the fact that pretty much every DJ in the country worth their salt was tuned in. Many people, however, would have been somewhat bemused by it all, mixing being a totally new concept to them, as it seemed to be for Jools Holland. It was telling that he asked me to point out what a turntable was, as he felt that a proportion of the viewers wouldn’t be aware of what this might be (record player being the widely used term back then). It was also clear, looking at some of the people in the audience during the clip, that they had little interest in what I was doing – no doubt awaiting the appearance of The Tourists (Including Dave Stewart and Annie Lennox) who were set up and ready to go on the opposite stage.

It turned out to be brilliant promotion for David Joseph, and the record would go on to be a big UK chart hit, as well as a club favourite.

AH: On your website (www.elecrofunkroots.co.uk) you are almost evangelical about the music and how it was a door-opener for all that followed (hip-hop, house, techno). How important do you think it is for the kids of today to know where the music they are currently dancing to came from?

GW: The reason I’m so keen to continually bang this drum is because I know I’m constantly playing catch up in an attempt to draw peoples’ attention to the crucial influence of the black scene in this country. For years and years the myth has been continually perpetuated that the beginnings of UK dance culture were tied in with the much celebrated Ibiza trip in ’87, or, on a more localised level, that the Manchester dance scene started at The Hacienda. This is what has, generally speaking, been passed down and continues to be passed down in all areas of the media. As an individual I can’t hope to stop this flow of misinformation – for every person who I can connect with, thousands more buy into the same old story, having no reason to dispute a source that’s supposedly reputable. However, it’s encouraging that now an increasing amount of dance historians are looking at the big picture, rather than taking 1987 as some sort of year zero, enabling them to help piece together the true lineage for those who are interested in learning about the foundations.

To know the future first you must know the past, so I feel that it’s important for people to know and respect the full richness of their cultural heritage, in order to properly move things forward – if the past is false, then the future will be also.

AH: There must have come a point when you began to see the music you had been playing starting to move from the underground and become more generally accepted…..

GW: There were always records that crossed over to the more mainstream clubs, having originally broken via import plays on the black scene – a lot of now classic dance tracks emerged in this way.

The biggest change in dance culture was once ecstasy arrived on the scene, as this resulted in a tidal wave of people, who would have probably told you dance music was shit before they got on one, taking to the dancefloor in their legions, hands in the air, believing they’d discovered a new style of music when, in reality, this was a direct continuation of what had gone before, but with the addition of MDMA. The black kids weren’t into ecstasy, chemicals weren’t generally consumed by the black crowd, for the overwhelming majority it was strictly herb back then. Although ecstasy was the catalyst for the late 80’s House explosion, it also resulted in the original House enthusiasts up North, the black crowd, moving away from clubs like The Hacienda, where they’d sowed the seeds for what happened in 88/89.

From their perspective, their dancing space had been invaded, and a ‘House music all night long’ policy was not what they were into, having been used to hearing a spectrum of dance music in the club previously, including Hip Hop and Street Soul alongside the House stuff.

AH: By 84 you’d retired from DJing. Why was that?. And did you retain any involvement with the music scene in the years thereafter?.

GW: This is probably the question I’m asked the most, but not something I can explain without going into time-consuming detail – there just isn’t a quick way to answer. With this in mind I actually wrote a piece called ‘Why Did I Quit?’, which anyone who’s interested can read on the electrofunkroots website:

http://www.electrofunkroots.co.uk/misc/why_did_i_quit.html

Throughout my ‘retirement’ I was always involved in music, in one capacity or another, be it running record labels, production, management, promotion etc. It was certainly a rollercoaster ride of ups and downs, but I generally had some sort of project or other on the go. I’m best remembered during this time for my work with Manchester’s Ruthless Rap Assassins, who I managed and produced. We released 2 albums through EMI, the ‘Killer Album’ in 1990 and ‘Th!nk – It Ain’t Illegal Yet’ in 1991.

AH: I guess it follows that the question that you are asked second most often is ‘what made you come back to it’?

GW: It was all to do with the fact that UK dance culture was now being documented from a historic perspective – a significant period time had passed, and by 2003, when I returned to deejaying, it was 15 years since the whole House / Rave thing had begun to explode. Books were being written, TV and radio documentaries broadcast, websites appearing etc, all concerning themselves with the evolution of dance culture in this country, but there was one huge glaring omission almost everywhere, and that was the pivotal role of the black scene in laying the foundations.

I made a conscious decision to do everything within my power to address this situation. I fortunately had all my archive material up in my loft, so I spent time going through everything and piecing it all together. The result was the electrofunkroots website, which focused on the early 80’s period, which would underpin what happened subsequently. As I’ve often said, Electro-Funk was the hybrid – the missing link. It was the catalyst that enabled the previous era of Soul, Funk, Disco and Jazz-Funk to morph into the Hip Hop, House and Techno movements. Electro-Funk rung out the old and brought in the new.

Now I was active again and had an online presence, people began to approach me about deejaying on their nights, and in Dec 03 I made my return at Manchester’s Music Is Better. Everything snowballed from that – it was all a very organic process, which was the only way it could have properly come together. Had I made some great comeback masterplan, it could never have worked out as well as it has. I feel that this was because I was doing it for the right reasons, with a greater purpose providing the driving force, which was the draw people’s attention to the crucial role the black scene in this country played in sowing the seeds for all that followed.

AH: How do you think the club scene compares between ‘now’ and ‘back then’?

GW: It’s impossible to make direct comparisons because the dynamics were completely different. When I was working with a mainly black crowd in the early 80’s it was at a time when there was still a lot of racism, both in everyday life and on an institutionalised level, so the people who came to my nights really needed a release from the day to day problems they encountered, with dancing holding a far deeper significance. The atmosphere at a club like Legend was really intense – you just don’t come across the equivalent nowadays. The level of dancing was something to behold – it’s a real shame that this has been largely lost in more contemporary clubbing. The black kids were always the ones into the most cutting-edge music, and with the best moves, so I was blessed to be able to work with them in such great clubs as Legend and the Pier. I’m often asked the question ‘what were the parties like at Legend’, parties being a widely used term for club nights now, but these certainly weren’t parties in the ‘hands in the air sense’ people might visualise, but something altogether more profound given the social conditions this audience were subjected to.

Club culture has obviously come into a more mainstream context since those times, the hedonistic Rave era setting the agenda for the last 20 years, with the majority of young people embracing dance music (whereas previously this was a more specialist area). What’s great about now is the amount of knowledge many of the younger heads have, fed by a real fascination with what came before, often before they were even born. It’s also a global community now, with the internet revolutionizing how we connect and interact, enabling someone like myself, who once regarded the midlands as an exotic location in which to DJ, to now appear in clubs throughout the world, finding likeminded people wherever I might be, even though I’m still on the fringes with regards to my place in the greater scheme of things.

AH: Your current sets seem to embrace a wide range of dance music, frequently through the use of re-edits – are you still cutting tape?

GW: I don’t do my re-edits on tape – it’s totally impractical given the options computer programs allow. However, the Revox is still a key element of my live presentation – I use it to spin sounds, textures and samples, which I’ve recorded onto tape, over the top of the tracks I’m playing, and also to create dub / echo fx.

Initially I make re-edits to play myself, they’re pretty much a means to an end in this respect – I usually share them a little bit later down the line.

AH: We discussed earlier how developing technology (drum machines/synths) had been behind changes in the music in the early 80s, resulting in electro. Do you feel the same applies now – changes in technology (or rather the low cost and easy availability of hardware and software) are driving forward music and DJing?

GW: Music always needs new impetus. This either comes from the fusion of 2 or more existing styles to create a new direction, or technological advancements. The fact that home computers can now offer options that were once only available by hiring a recording studio has obviously made an impact. The internet also allows artists to make their music available without, as it once was not too long ago, being dependant on the support (and often interference) of a record company. The goalposts have most certainly moved and I feel that we’re experiencing a period where everyone is trying to make sense of these changes, and how best to step forward from here.

With regards to deejaying, there are now many ways to skin a cat – it’s no longer a case of vinyl and turntables (although this still remains a valid option). Then there’s the current re-edit movement, which gained momentum due to the possibilities presented by the many programs now available that enable you to digitally manipulate existing recordings, putting a contemporary spin on the past, allowing older tracks to find a new audience and be appreciated in a non-nostalgic setting.

Sometimes it’s a case of looking back in order to move forward, and this is where I feel we are at the moment – technology helping a new generation to connect with what came before and thus gain their bearings. The new Beatles Rock Band game is a perfect example, as this will introduce their music, as well as their story, to so many younger people who might have been previously under the misconception that this wasn’t relevant to their lives when, in reality, it underpins our understanding of popular culture and the vast riches it offers.

AH: Have you ever given any thought to making music yourself (as an artist)? Was ‘I was a teenage DJ’ a step in this direction?

GW: I’ve made lots of original stuff down the years (in collaboration with various musicians), but since I came back to deejaying I just haven’t been able to find the time. It’s very much something I want to do, but I’ve no idea when this will be possible.

‘I Was A Teenage DJ’ was basically an edit. It’s built around the intro of KC & The Sunshine Band’s ‘I’m Your Boogie Man’, weaving in and out of a series of loops, with additional loops from other tracks plus further sounds and textures added. I actually put this together a good few years before I got into deejaying again, as with all the other stuff pressed up under Teenage DJ – I initially referred to these as my ‘Acid sketchies’. When I first got a computer and was learning how to use the Acid program, which, being loops based, is ideal for my way of working, I experimented by cutting up stuff I liked and making these ‘sketchies’. The Teenage DJ project evolved from this.

AH: You’ve been involved with dance music now for 30 or so years as a DJ, remixer, producer and manager. What does the future hold for Greg Wilson?

I’m just going with the flow. There’s so much I’d like to do, but it’s a case of taking things one step at a time. The past 5 years have snowballed along – I couldn’t have dreamt that people would want to book me to play in far flung places like Japan, Brazil, Australia and the US. I’m still getting my head around that!

I definitely want to produce and write, so hopefully this will be the next step, but as things stand there’s simply not enough hours in the day – there’s always something waiting to be done.

Given that there are never enough hours in the day, Anthony then left Greg to get on with what he should really be doing – making great music and DJing – rather than blabbering to us. It only remains for us to thank him for his time and patience in answering our questions. Further details can be found on Greg’s website (www.electrofunkroots.co.uk). If you’re interested in dance music then take time to have a look, it really is worth it. In addition, Greg has released a further collection of re-edits, available on a ‘long player’ as ‘Credit to the Edit volume 2’ (featuring re-edits of Roxy Music, A Guy Called Gerald, OMD and others). Available in all good records stores, as they say. And maybe a few crap ones too, you never know.

Anthony Heslop

Thanks to Anthony for the great interview and Mark and all at Proper Magazine for making this happen.

ULCA.

B&F: To start off, tell us where you come from, where you’ve been and where you’re at now.

Lone: I’m originally from a real small town on the outskirts of Nottingham. I moved to the city about 6 months ago.

B&F: For the person listening to your music for the first time, what’s the lasting impression you’d like them to take away?

Lone: Hopefully a melody would get stuck in their heads, like when you hear a good pop song. It would be nice to imagine someone humming one of my tunes and thinking to themselves “where the hell did that come from?” Hopefully not in an annoying way, but I like the idea of planting hooks in people’s heads without them realising where it came from.

B&F: You’ve got a new album about to release, what can you tell us about the development of your sound since Lemurian?

Lone: More structered and drawn out this time I think. Lemurian was all about little snap shots to soundtrack imaginary places. That’s why the songs are all so short on that one. This time I guess the tracks are more leaning towards proper ’songs’. Also the inspiration is from real people and real places this time.

B&F: Do you follow a typical procedure when making music? Is it a planned process, or do you only get down to it when the moment’s right?

Lone: I think I’m getting better at preparing myself these days, as in, I rely less on good accidents happening. I can pretty much make whatever comes into my head now and most of the time it sounds pretty close. Having said that, it changes all the time. Some of the best tracks come about when I’m just jamming around and some wicked accident happens that creates ideas, like a snowball effect. I love it when that happens actually, way more fun.

B&F: The cover art for Ecstasy & Friends is very different to Lemurian. Can you talk us through the changes?

Lone: This one was designed by Davin Gormley who handles all the artwork for Werk Discs, I think he summed up what I was trying to do with the music perfectly. There was no intention to make it totally diffrent or anything, we just went on instinct I guess. I’d like all my sleeves to be completely different every time though.

B&F: Do you think you are nostalgic in your tastes and interests?

Lone: Yeah I’m totally nostalgic, to the point where I think it’s slightly unhealthy. I spend way too much time looking back and not enough looking forward. That always comes out in my music. I guess I’m obsessed with holding on to memories which are fading away. It’s quite sad really, that beautiful memories from childhood are slipping away as we get older. Making music is a good way for me to hold on to those things I guess.

B&F: Do you view Lone as your chance to make the sort of music that you couldn’t with Kids In Tracksuits, or does one feed into the other?

Lone: That never entered my head to be honest. I was making Lone stuff years before K.I.T. so this was always there in the background. Doing the K.I.T. stuff sounded the way it did because there were two of us – with Lone I get to dictate exactly how it sounds because it’s just me. That’s the only way I can explain the difference in style really.

B&F: Where did your interest in music production begin?

Lone: Listening to bootleg rave tapes and the altern8 album. I could tell that stuff wasn’t created by live instruments or anything and was fascinated by what exactly it was made with. As I grew up, I started to find out how it was all done. I’m the sort of person that when i get interested in something I want to make my own version of it, so I think I was probably always going to end up doing this.

B&F: How’s the music scene in Nottingham? Does the City play a part in the music you make?

Lone: The music scene is wicked at the moment to be honest, there seems to be more and more producers coming up and parties which are a lot of fun. The beauty of it is it’s a small city so all the producers, DJs and promoters know each other which I think is totally healthy. The actual city itself doesn’t have an effect on my music – its more the people and the atmosphere.

B&F: Name an album or artist you like that people wouldn’t expect you to be into?

Lone: That’s a bit of a tough one because my music’s pretty strange at times so I guess people wouldn’t be too suprised to hear I’m into all sorts of shit. Last year there were two pretty commercial albums that I liked a lot. I kinda suprised myself with getting into them actually. The Horrors album I thought was wicked, Geoff Barrow’s production was nuts. I also liked the Friendly Fires record – genuinely good pop music on that one I thought.

B&F: What do you get up to when not involved in Lone projects?

Lone: The usual stuff really, hanging with my girlfriend and my mates, going out and talking shit. Talking shit is a big one for us actually – I think it’s healthy. We’re pretty much constantly trying to make each other piss laughing, almost like a competition. It gets pretty surreal at times too. To be honest though I’m pretty much thinking about tunes the whole time, so in a way, the Lone project is ALL I do. Ha!

B&F: Where can we see you playing live in the next few months?

Lone: I think there’s a Werk Discs night happening in London soon, but I cant really go into that right now. Other than that, I’ll be DJing in Nottingham quite a bit then doing a load of live shows for festivals in Summer. Check the Myspace for details.

Ecstacy & Friends is out now on Werk Discs and is available from Cargo, Boomkat and Chemical amongst others.

As an added bonus, Lone has provided [Back and Forth] with this exclusive free download of an unreleased track.

Lone : Douche