Sonic Router

INTERVIEW: Ital Tek: ‘…It’s All Cyclical’

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There was a period about 3 years ago when a lot of people were heavily under Rob Booth’s tutelage. His Electronic Explorations podcasts regularly unearthed a humongous array of producers (something he’s still plowing ahead with at an astonishing pace). I used to listen to them riding to work. In fact, on the day I got cut up on Blackstock Road (down where it descends down to Highbury Corner) and almost lost a limb when the bike frame twisted around me, it was his voice that soundtracked the before and after; a memory I’ve never really been able to shake. One of the producers he introduced at that time was Ital Tek, a Brighton based producer whose music on Planet Mu was cut from a more pensive, atmospherically synthetic mould than the sprawl of techno powered, chugging dubstep of 2008. He captured that approach on his debut LP for Planet Mu, Cyclical, displaying himself to be a reliably thorough producer, even if at times it did lack a little bit of that squalling lead line bite, that made something like Joker or Gemmy’s early singles stand [so far] out.

After releasing his second album, 2010’s Midnight Colour (also on Mu), Alan Myson has reapplied the techniques he masterfully displayed across that record and on singles like ‘Spectrum Falls’ which he released on his own Atom River imprint, to a different template. And in truth, Ital Tek’s recent 180 turn towards up tempo juke music on his recent Gonga EP wasn’t really that much of a surprise given the sound’s rise in dominance this year and the producer’s proximity to Planet Mu – the label catalyst who played a mammoth part in pushing the sound to a more captive audience with compilations like Bangs & Works and artists albums from players like DJ Rashad and DJ Diamond.

With a support slot at this Saturday’s Tempo Clash event, which is headlined by Kuedo’s first London show since he put out his heralded Severant album, Tom Mullett caught up with the producer to discuss his new focus…

Sonic Router: You’ve just celebrated the release of the Gonga EP on Planet Mu. How would describe this release, and how does it differ to your previous work?

Ital Tek: First off it’s the fastest stuff I’ve released in a long time. I’ve been listening to a lot of footwork and juke over the last couple of years, for me it’s the most exciting stuff I’ve heard in a long time. Working with Planet Mu I’ve heard a lot via Mike Paradinas so I’ve kind of become kind of obsessed with it.

‘Pixel Haze’ from the Gonga EP was the first track I wrote with that sound in mind. The track ‘Gonga’ just started off as me trying to make a sort of shepard tone (constantly rising sound) style loop. I wasn’t actually going to make it into a tune, but I played it to some mates and the label and they were really feeling it, so I did.

Ital Tek – Gonga [Planet Mu]

Considering that you have been involved in electronic music for a number of years, what do you make of the way it has progressed over the last decade?

Tough one. I could probably talk for ages about my own musical tastes of the last ten years, but I won’t! I think we’re at a really interesting point, people seem to be much more receptive to experimentation in production at the moment. You can get away with playing some really weird shit and dancefloors are still moving to it. I can imagine jungle making a big comeback, it’s all cyclical. It all slowed down and now it’s started to speed up again.

Hopefully 2012 will have far less shit formulaic house. There is so much good house music but it’s just a shame that so many people decided to spend all year ripping off Joy Orbison.

Would it be fair to say that such progression has influenced the way you write music?

I guess you can’t help but be influenced by the music that you are feeling at a particular moment in time. What’s important for me is to always try and keep the essence of my sound in the production of whatever style of music I’m writing. Melody is a big part of what I do, I can’t escape it I just try and do my own thing regardless of the tempo/genre or whatever. I want someone to be able to listen to my 95bpm hip hop stuff and the 160 tunes and still know that it’s me. It’s important to have a creative identity and that certainly doesn’t mean sticking to one thing.

Ital Tek – Spectrum Falls [Atom River]

Give us a brief run through of what people attending Tempo Clash can expect from your live performance on Saturday.

I keep it pretty upbeat for my sets. I’m going to be playing a fair bit of new material that will be released next year. Recently I’ve been straddling my 80-90bpm hip hop productions with the 160 stuff. I do drop in a few old ones from my first releases, depends how i’m feeling. My attention span is really shit so my sets are always pretty diverse. It’s the same when I’m making tunes, I just want to change it up all the time.

As we draw close to the end of a really exciting year for electronic music, what can we expect from you in 2012?

I’m really looking forward to it, 2011 has gone super quick.This year I’ve probably written more music than any other, I’ve only released a tiny proportion of that and so in 2012 there is a lot to come out.

Top of that list is album number 3 for Planet Mu. I’m going to be keeping things rolling with my own label Atom River. Festivals and other bookings are coming in so should be a fun one. I should be getting back out to the states again, definitely got unfinished business there! And finally I’ve been working on a lot of production stuff for a project that will be ‘out’ in February. It will be announced soon.

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Words: Oli Marlow // Qs: Tom Mullett

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Catch Ital Tek, alongside Kuedo and the Tempo Clash residents, at C.A.M.P. in London this Saturday.