Influences: object blue

This title track is single-handedly the biggest influence on FIGURE BESIDE ME. The submerged kicks bring to mind an image of body falling heavily into water, air bubbles, almost an orgasmic intensity. The sub and shiny high frequencies mimic the vision of being enamoured so well. Everything glitters when you’re in love, you see reflections when there aren’t any, and your heart beats so hard. Digital sound design and experimental beats always get called “dark” but this song is so energetic and transcendental, that’s very much something I wanted to put forth with FBM.

I actually tried to mimic the distorted falling melody shining through the wall of watery sound (at 2:28) in “Ecstasy of Saint Teresa” but couldn’t manage to make it sound half as good as her track and gave up!

Lighght is a friend of mine, and he’d sent me the masters for his album ‘Gore-Tex in the Club, Balenciaga amongst the Shrubs’ months before it came out (coincidentally on 16th August, the same day as FBM). I’ve played this track in every other DJ set since then, and always get asked for the ID — Paul Woolford asked when we shared a bill in Lyon!

My love for this track is an example of my growing interest in that euphoric, rave sound as opposed to more serious-face black & white techno. Also it’s just such good songwriting/production. How do you put steady rolling motion in a track with no drums, just tactical melody writing? You need both wonderful intuition and analytical skill for that. Hats off to him.

The synth melody in FBM’s “Fuck the Stasis” is very much inspired by this track.

Olivier Alary’s sound design, which opens and runs through the entire track, haunted me enough that I cried about it to my therapist when I began producing.

“He made that with a sample of her whispering, and it’s the most beautiful, harmonious, emotional shimmering I’ve ever heard. Why do I even bother producing when I could never replicate that sound!” My therapist wisely advised me that Alary got where he was with time, experience, and probably help and influence with lots of people. I shut my melodramatic mouth and continued to study production — really glad I did!

The Canal+ live version is not on YouTube, but personally it’s one of her best live performances ever. She elevates that emotional, fragile sound in this live performance — her adlibs are sublime. Please watch here: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4o4gy

And I’ve never tried to replicate that sound after that, but I have a feeling I might be able to with Operator and a lot of bitcrushing…

Continuing the Meduúlla theme, here’s a street performance of Dokaka intriguing pedestrians with “Smells Like Teen Spirit”. My favourite YouTube link in the world, since I was fourteen!!! Not only is his arrangement and improvisation brilliant, I think it’s a great introduction to the Roland loop pedal. Please admire the camerawork too, the absurdity of it is incredible, too funny. This kind of Doing My Own Shit Despite the Surroundings is a big part of my ethos.

Been rinsing this release since it came out last year. The layering and atmosphere are incredible. People whack the term “ambient” on anything that’s beatless or monotonous, but this album betrays that categorisation by how much depth and movement it harnesses. No matter where I am or what I’m feeling, this album effortlessly envelops me in its own world.

I hum this melody constantly, and I think her work must have subconsciously inspired how vocal-laden FBM is. The ascending phrases blitzed by feedback — so beautiful. The transparency of her process where she layers her delicate vocals with amplified noise to create a thick, rich wall of sound will never cease to inspire me. I always send people this live performance (live at Guggenheim https://vimeo.com/122308468) when I want to introduce them to her work.

I knew about Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring” through Wikipedia and school music class before I’d actually heard a rendition I liked — I listened to a few, going to the blackmarket CD shops in Beijing to buy different versions, but none of it really impressed me as much as the concept of this grotesque ballet. Then I found Ozawa’s interpretation with Boston Symphony Orchestra and it changed everything. From the opening note, it’s so distinctive — it sounded just as perverse and wretched as I’d wished for. My favourite is the seemingly simple “Spring Rounds”. It’s slow and formulaic, which is hard to execute as brilliantly as the flashier parts of the ballet, but Ozawa’s genius really comes through. When I had bleached platinum blonde hair, I got it cut to mimic his wild white hair.

I can’t think of anyone who’s making music like Oli’s, a real visionary. You hear references to everything — dub, bass, club, but the result is just so uniquely his. This beat just makes you sigh and groan, it’s gutteral, and on top of that each sound is so fine tuned! Sound design inspiration for sure. Despite the sparse beat I always find an opportunity to bang this out on the dancefloor, and it catches people by surprise until ten seconds later everyone’s losing it. Very excited to see where his new label Bloom will go.

What can I even manage to say about this performance? The robot-performance at the beginning, to her faltering and grieving the painfulness of the song, her telling the audience “well clap, damn it, what’s wrong with you?” The improvisation at the end is like nothing I’ve ever seen. If I could go back in time to experience anything, this show would be it. I love Nina Simone so dearly, and this video is a good summary of why. Always brings me to tears.

NB: I got goosebumps all over while listening to each of this videos as I wrote this list up. I’ve heard all of these a million times, but good art never loses its power!