Today, Sotones Music Co-Op releases the debut full length album from rude_NHS. The album, titled A Hundred Sides, covers more terrain than a transatlantic flight; eschewing genres, instead taking the listener on a musical journey over an electronic landscape. This album is a departure for rude_NHS from the Tango 6 ep material, somehow managing to be both more orthodox and experimental at the same time. The songs feel more structured, yet keep you guessing to the direction their heading. Now I've had the pleasure of listening to A Hundred Sides many times in the last few weeks, since rude_NHS mastermind Duncan covertly sent me a copy. And thru Facebook and gmail I've been able to ask him some questions about this release. So let's call this an intereview...
A Hundred Sides starts with the funk banger - "Roy Orbital" this song features the kind of keyboard lines that would make Herbie Hancock proud. Programmed or played?
I actually played the bassline on a bass guitar and the main lead line on guitar into the computer via a guitar to midi converter. They were snips from a much larger jam. Some monophonic ideas i come up with sometimes get put into the sequencer this way.
- One thing that really strikes me about A Hundred Sides is the diverse sounds. What software/hardware did you primarily use making this album?
All Ableton, plus some Sugar-Bytes and Native Instruments gear. It was mastered in Logic 8 using some top end outboard EQs which sadly i can't remember the make or model of...
- Speaking of diversity you genre hop with ease on A Hundred Sides, covering electro, acid, techno, dubstep, drum and bass, glitch and I'm sure a few other genres I'm not aware of... Yet the album feels like a body of work and not a jumbled vision. Did you set out to make this an assorted chronicle in the beginning?
I don't really think about genre when i make stuff, its more grooves and tempo really. I mean there are clearly 'drum and bass' tracks on there, but the plan wasn't strictly to make an eclectic album, it just turned out that when i picked out all the tracks that i clearly liked based on how much work i'd done on them, it turned out they were all a bit different, but really thats just the tempo or the beat. i think behind that they all have a cohesive hue that makes it work i guess.
- The tracks that make up A Hundred Sides flow really well together. Was song placement a major decision or a happy accident?
I did fiddle around with the track listing for a while, in fact there were more tracks i had planned for it, but i couldn't get that flow i wanted so took i some out and left the ones that sit nice next to each other. i knew which would be first and which would be last, but the stuff in the middle took a bit of time to work out i guess.
- This record really uses the spatial field well. When listening to "A China Wiring Porno" I kept thinking some of the sounds were coming from my surroundings and not my iPod. Who mastered the album?
David Wallace
- Lastly, are you going to do any touring in support of A Hundred Sides?
I'm pretty hopeless at sorting out gigs for myself unless they are my own nights. I have a few dates coming up over the summer months but no tour. If they book me I will come.
In closing A Hundred Sides is a fantastic driving record. And no wonder, as Duncan mentioned on the Sotones website the album was inspired by traveling to university lectures:
I would drive to Southampton and hear blokes zooming past in their cars listening to really bassy stuff, and it just clicked. I need to make a really fat car album.
Pick up A Hundred Sides today from Sotones or iTunes. And if you happen to be in the Southampton area of England, rude_NHS is headlining the Sotones Spring Social on April 30th at The Hobbit!
1 comment:
awesomeness.
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