One-Handed and Now-Again are combining forces on the next Paul White release – a project that sees him collaborating in ways with a ‘Swedish psychadelic folk rock guru’ by the name of S.T. Mikael. In short, the best kind of concept album.

Thes One and Oh No are two beatsmiths who’ve taken on similar projects before, and turned out two of my top hip-hop albums ever. Naturally I wondered if there was some form of correlation, that the constraints that came with sampling only one catalog might have forced them to focus on the music at hand, rather than to spend the time searching for new sounds, or making one snare work with another, etc.

Thes One’s debut solo outing, Lifestyle Marketing was a concept album of instrumentals made from composer Herb Pilhofer’s Music That Works series, which originally was used as library material and pressed to wax in small numbers. Taking the television adverts, radio jingles and industrial film stock music that Pilhofer created in the ’70s, Thes flipped it to create one of the illest hip-hop instrumental LPs ever.

Similarly, Exodus Into Unheard Rhymes by Stones Throw producer Oh No was made of beats derived solely from samples of Galt McDermot, probably best known as the composer for Hair. Oh No had the Stones Throw family emcees guesting on the original release of the album, before giving up the instrumental record for the beatheads.

Enter Paul White, and his new album Paul White & The Purple Brain, dropping the first week of June. Paul’s eccentric sets and sampling habits have continually blown us away, and his debut full-length, The Strange Dreams Of Paul White, was a swift reminder to artists that all the plug-ins and sounds in the world are no match for some creativity and an MPC. With Shadow currently indulging himself in his hometown hyphy, the South Londoner has become the poster-boy for the next generation of producers, using the likes of forgotten prog and psych rock records as the basis for his music.

To be honest I’m not up on S.T. Mikael, but if the press release below is anything to go by it sounds like a perfect pairing. What’s more is that One-Handed / Now Again have actually gone to the trouble of licensing all the tracks, as opposed to the all to common practice of throwing it out there and hoping they don’t get sued. Respect due.

‘A collaboration of sorts, the entire record is based around and inspired by the work of little-known Swedish psychedelic folk rock guru, S.T. Mikael. Heavy on Eastern influences and otherworldly concerns, Mikael’s music ranges from searing electric guitar-led dirges to dreamlike ballads to ghostly atmospheric experiments – sometimes all within the same song. The strange and wonderful home recordings of this cult hero have been
issued in tiny quantities since the 1990s on the Subliminal Sounds label.

Having been granted access to S.T. Mikael’s back catalog, Paul White found a unique source of inspiration and challenged himself to create an album using the Swedish multi-instrumentalist’s work as the sole basis for his output. The result is Paul White & The Purple Brain – a remarkably diverse record that defies easy categorisation‘.

The launch party is happening in collaboration with Phonica Records, and is going down at Plastic People (again, don’t forget to sign the petition!) on Thursday the 27th of May. As well as Paul White, Bullion and Alex Chase will be spinning on the night with Tranqill going live on the mic. Danny Breaks has also been booked to play as the special guest, rounding off a killer line-up.

UPDATE: Download: Paul White feat. Guilty Simpson “Ancient Treasure.” (right click, save as, thanks to Now-Again)

PART ONE:

One Deck Wonders for Haiti

Sunday 24th Jan

Feat DJ sets from:

MR SCRUFF
SISTORS OF TRANSISTORS DJs (feat GRAHAM MASSEY- 808 STATE)
BADLY DRAWN BOY
DEVELOPMENT vs D3K
HOT MILK vs BROKE’N ENGLISH
ELECTRIKS ALLSTARS vs EYES DOWN ALLSTARS
MATT HALSALL vs JAMIE FINLAY
CONTORT YOURSELF vs ROB BRIGHT
ANDREA TROUT vs DAVE MAC

ELECTRIK BAR
559 Wilbraham Road, Chorlton
Manchester
4pm-12.

Minimum Donation £3, plus a proceeds from the bar will be donated to the appeal.

Friday29th Jan

Feat:

ZERO-7(DJ Set)
THEUNABOMBERS
BULLION(One Handed Music)
JON-K(Fat City)
KELVINBROWN (Electric Chair)
HOYAHOYA’s ILLUM SPHERE and JONNY DUB

HostedBy: TY (Big Dada records)

BAND ON THE WALL
Swan Street MANCHESTER
10pm– 3am

MinimumDonation: £4

By Scott Rapson for Back and Forth:

Soundspecies were formed by brothers Henry and Olly Keen and they released their first ‘Soundspecies EP’ way back in 2000. Geographical differences interfered in the development of the project until 2003 when they both found themselves immersed in London’s musical vibrancy and the opportunity to combine their musical ideas into their fantastic debut album.

Since then, Soundspecies have continued to work towards finishing and releasing material, improving their skills and sounds, drawing on the talents of their other brothers Nat and Barney as well as others…

Henry and Olly kindly took time out to discuss their album, loves and influences..

B&F: Hello gents, firstly I would like to say when I first heard your album what struck me more than anything was how mature the sound was, has it been a long time in the making to get to that point or was it a natural progression?

Henry: Well thanks very much for saying that, first of all! It makes me feel like we have been getting somewhere over the years. We started fiddling with music production around ten years ago and if I listen to some of the stuff from back then, I do know that we’ve improved so much. I guess you develop technically, instrumentally and also hear lots more inspiring music along the way, which helps your sound develop. Obviously, finding CDR helped- giving us a place to monitor our developments, make mistakes and get inspired to improve.

Olly: Yeah, as Henry says in pulling the album together, I guess we used all our production knowledge from those years of making tracks to make each of these tracks sound as if we’d just made it, as crisp and well balanced and deep as we could.

B&F: So who were your musical influences growing up are and who led you in that direction?

O: So many! For me, in the world of electronic music, Henry was guiding me from early on – I remember I would lie in bed hearing him mixing in his bedroom upstairs, Techno, Jungle, Hip Hop and all that stuff. I picked up bits gradually but it was secondhand at that stage.

I got into playing bass in bands and was listening to; The Beatles, Hendrix, The Chilli’s, Jamiroquai, rock and funk, then Jazz and Jazz Funk came along – Herbie Hancock, Miles Davis, Weather Report… my concept of making music and how its arranged is quite firmly rooted in this kind of music from playing in bands. But now that only really covers a small (if important) bit of my musical journey of discovery.

H: Personally, I can remember being excited and inspired by anything that sounded futuristic and space-like (eg J M Jarre) as I approached my teens. Before that, we would listen to whatever our parents were playing-lots of Beatles, Folk, World Music, anything really. They had a pretty eclectic music collection.

Remember chipping my front tooth, trying to do the caterpillar to old skool hip-hop sometime in the late 80’s I was really excited by rave/ house music of the late 80’s/early 90’s but a bit young to go to raves. Got into the Detroit/Chicago techno/house sound when I started DJing around the age of fifteen.

I’ll name a few major influences from my youth otherwise this unordered ramble could go on… Jean Michael Jarre, Herbie Hancock (& the Headhunters) ATCQ, De La Soul, the Pharcyde, Jeff Mills, Larry Heard, UR, Kevin Saunderson (& Inner City), the Beatles, King Tubby, Bob Marley, Roni Size & the Full Cycle crew. I know that Olly and myself have influences that differ, but we do have a lot of shared ones too.

B&F: You seem to be very close as brothers..touching on that you obviously get compared to Oasis quite a lot (arf)..seriously though, what’s it like making music as a family?

H: Ha, Ha.. Well fortunately we get along really well for a start, so I guess we’re totally different to Oasis in that respect…

O: We actually prefer The Jackson 5, naturally!

H: Seriously though, it’s really nice that we can create together. There are several different projects going on between all of the brothers. Olly, Nat & Barney have been gigging together for years and have got an amazing understanding of each other’s playing and talents. I’m not really an instrumentalist so trying to develop the Soundspecies Live project has not always been easy and enjoyable. It’s usually the technical side that can cause a bit of tension. Mainly cos the rest of the band are ready and I’m still fiddling with Zip Drives for my MPC!

O: Yeah, don’t we know! What I will say is I’m very lucky to have that connection with my brothers and most of the time its a good thing but, if I was to put another angle on it, I think sometimes that there is a conflict between us trying to come together on a band concept or direction and the pull of us wanting to assert our differences as people to each other and the world! That’s why our albums, as long as they’re brotherly collaborations, are always going to be quite varied in sound and style across the album.

B&F: Talking of the album, what track haven’t you tired of?

O: My favourite might be Purple Halo, feat. Ninkisun…..

H: That’s a tough one for me. I go through phases of really liking one or two of the tunes more than others. I really like Mask, it was one of the ones we finished last and added the brass parts right before the end of the session to finish the album. We had a really great time in that session too, and I guess the memories of that day stay with the music we recorded. Also love the vocal Hip Hop trax. I’ve been making beats with MCs in mind for so long, without actually recording any. It was nice to work with Foreign Beggars & Black Spade. I’m really happy with how the lyrics complemented and completed the songs.

B&F: You named some of the guys you’ve worked with in the past, who would you like to collaborate with in the future?

H: See my answer to my influences!! No seriously…There’s some serious vocal talent in London, for a start. Would love to do a track with TY. Loving Eska (her set with Matthew Herbert at Big Chill ’08 blew me away) and Fatima! Would love to collaborate with Kaidi Tatham, although I’m not sure what with- he can do everything!

O: I’ll keep it simple, just a really great rapper/singer that no-one has heard of.

B&F: So with some of those names in mind, what contemporary music inspires you?

O: There’s so many mad fusions of music, people are just doing anything they want now, its exciting and impossible to keep up with. Just this weekend I was at The End Of The Road Festival – saw a lot of inspiring performances – picking one from the mix I’d say a guy called Peter Broderick, who really took the whole solo Loop pedal performance thing somewhere new.

From London I really like Micachu, I think she’s really original, and generally stuff Matthew Herbert is involved in. I think Tony Allen is still taking Afrobeat into new territory and making it contemporary, He’s a giant of music obviously and a big inspiration…I love everything Tortoise have done, including their latest album…

H: I have to be honest and say I’m pretty out of touch personally with contemporary music, other than the artists I’ve met through the underground scene in London and CDR heads..Loving Paul White, Bullion, Floating Points, Mr Beatnick, Ahu, Oriol, Breakplus, Bergs, Om Unit, and Kay Suzuki to name a few folks I’m lucky to have got to know.

B&F: So what’s constantly on your iPod/Record Deck/CD Player then?

H: There’s always gotta be some quality Dub, Afrobeat and Jazz but I’ve never really got into the iPod thing. My youngest bro Barney did me a cracking Brazilian compilation from tunes he discovered in Brazil. That’s definitely a mainstay!

O: Yeah..he’s been hogging our kitchen CD decks system recently, as Henry says playing loads of great albums of Brazilian music from his collection, so that’s ok. Jorge Ben has been a regular.

B&F: You spoke earlier of CDR, for a band to evolve from a clubnight isn’t common, how did that happen and please explain to the (non) CDR people what that night’s all about..

H: I’ll get this one..yeah, I guess it’s not that common. The direct benefit of CDR would probably be to our production/ engineering skills, really. Over time, it seemed an obvious step to try and take it to the stage, considering how many great musicians we are lucky enough to have in our family and collective friends. Certainly it’s a great option to have a live show, it’s just not very easy to have a live band that is similar to your studio sound and still gives the audience the experience of real musicians playing.

For those who don’t know…CDR, to be simple is an open-mic night for producers. It was the Brainchild of Tony Nwachukwu & Gavin Alexander and has been running now for around six years. It’s become a family, almost a mini-scene in itself with a committed bunch of regular attendees who all come to hear new and exciting music on an amazing rig (Plastic People). It’s a place to talk music (techy or not) and hear stuff you probably have never heard before. It also inspires me to get a track finished every month and know I can hear it publicly, judge the crowd reaction, check the mix etc. If you’ve never been, you must!!

B&F: Are you in the process of working on the (awkward) second LP and if so, any idea of it’s direction?

O: We haven’t officially started a new album, to be honest..but, we’re definitely going to do one. There are enough tracks existent already but I want to make sure it has a homogeneous album sound, like all the best albums. I don’t think its going to be awkward because we haven’t given people much of an idea what to expect from us!

H: Personally I’m always trying to do as much music as possible. Its been hard in recent years to actually get much creative time with Olly and other band members other than in pressured situations, like the run up to a show. Things called jobs seem to get in the way quite a lot as well as geographical locations. I just want whatever we release next to be tracks we feel are the best we can possibly do, and stuff we are proud of. I’d hope its still a mixture of different styles but has a common thread.

B&F: Finally Gentlemen, would someone please provide us with their top 5 records of the moment?

H: I’ll do the honours..

School of Imagination : Tale of a Waking Man

Paul White : The Strange Dreams of Paul White

Bullion : Young Heartache

King Tubby & Friends : Dub Gone Crazy

Carlos Nino & Friends : High With A Little Help From

B&F: Olly, Henry..thanks.

Here’s something special, Back and Forth have an exclusive and unreleased free download:

Soundspecies : Psychedelic Xylophone [Live for just five more days!]

to hear some of Soundspecies live session from Maida Vale Studios visit Back and Forth.

Buy the Album here: Soundspecies : Soundspecies

Props to Mr Benson for the graphics