teshno

when i reviewed samoyed‘s spit ep on astro:dynamics for ra, the first draft got sent back from the editor with a note that it ‘needed more context.’ i was aware of that already, but was unsure how to best describe it. i added the words ‘lo-fi trip-pop amalgamation’ and that sort of worked, but really the scotland based phd student’s music operates in a world of its own: a world of fluttering, flickering sounds, oceans of echo and tape hiss and plenty of melancholic ambiance.

that said, the man known to his mother as andrew cook is about to release a new ep on lukid’s nascent but excellent glum label. this one finds him operating in a fuller world of sound, it’s still dishevelled and dusty, but techno and house seem to be the starting frameworks in stead of beatless hip-hop or anaemic r&b. it’s great, frankly, and so when it landed i was glad i’d already bugged him for a mix.

and so to teshcast p, a 45 minute mix recorded on tape which is as roughly put together as you like. tracks start and stop randomly (and in fact the thing starts with a trippy tape squeal as if it’s getting chewed up by the machine – a nostalgic sound people of a certain age will know/love/hate well) whilst at times there are simply large voids of tape hiss and the whole thing is rather dreamy and hypnagogic, jumping from here to there like a broken stream of conscious in your most tired moments. it’s one you need to listen real close to, on a sunday morning or late at night; one you need to allow yourself to dissolve into and swim around in. missing track titles are either unknown or samoyed isn’t allowed to share them, so sit back and enjoy…

my wife-to-be wants to know if you are named after this stupid cute dog?

yeah, i am. i came across a couple of them in a forest in sweden and that was me infatuated.

i want to know why you are so brooding nowadays? according to the new glum pr you used to be a happy chap? what changed?

ha. i don’t want to negate glum’s carefully constructed image of its roster, but i’m generally happier now than i have been for a long time. or at least more balanced. the last year has been a rough one for all sorts of reasons, the big ones being coming out of a relationship after the best part of a decade and my dad spending a long time in hospital really quite ill. i went in every day for a couple of months expecting him to die. it’s a cliché, but it made me reassess my life and realise who and what is important, and i’m really very lucky to still have those.

is it really you? or is it, as bill hicks might have said, the “tortured artist dollar” you are going for?

there’s definitely some of me in there, but a lot of it is just me finding it funny, compounded by my friends goading me into playing up to it. it’s just always been in my personality to be self-deprecating and make fun of the personality traits that i know are ridiculous but that i can’t stop. i’m not sure if everyone else sees it that way. i’d hope that people don’t think the internet me is the real me. it’s just 4thelolz.

what or who makes you most angry?

it would be unseemly to say in a public context.

do you use music making as a way to vent anger, or does it make you angry, or do you make it to escape or?

not anger so much – it takes a lot to make me angry really (although i realise the last couple of weeks directly contradicts that). i’d say that whatever comes out, though, is an expression of how i’m feeling at that point. which is mostly sad and/or hungry.

you recently tweeted that everything you’d made for weeks was shit – how do you know? what are you aiming for? is it just a feeling?

yeah, it’s a feeling. i’m looking for something that resonates with me, and nothing i did was.

are you out of that rut? how did you get out?

one day i just did something that worked and that was that. i realised that for me it’s all about having an idea before i sit down, no matter how vague, otherwise i’m just fumbling around in the fog and that’s just frustrating.

when did you write this new glum ep? it sounds quite full and housey /techno-y for you… do you listen to such sounds? it always hard to pick influences out of your stuff…

yeah, i listen to a huge amount of house stuff. it’s the people that make dance music with a real emotional depth that i really admire though – larry heard is the biggest that springs to mind. there’s real beauty there. i think ultimately that’s what motivates all the music that i do. i know i sound like a bellend but it’s true.

are you happy with it now you look back? would you change anything?

i tend not to listen to my own music that much once i’m reasonably satisfied that it’s finished. i’ve got to leave it alone for the sake of my sanity. i’ve had some really lovely feedback from people that i respect, though, and that means i’m happy with it.

so about your apparent love of knackered old sounds – why is that do you think? where does it come from? does it take ages to get them sounding so knackered?

i just think there’s something special in sounds that don’t have that gloss that pervades so much music at the minute. it sounds like it’s never left a computer until it goes to get mastered, and i’m not into that. i try to get as much of the outside world in there as possible.

mostly though, it’s just a function of me being an absolute idiot technically. i haven’t got a clue about engineering and mixing down and stuff, but i’m quite happy with that. i’d rather things sounded like samoyed than like some studio-obsessed borderline autistic johnny mixdown type.

so you seem pretty tight with lukid – you seem to like being obtuse and miserable together – is that fair?

luke is a very good friend of mine. he’s a very funny, warm person and he just happens to make some of the finest music around. he’s got just about the most finely tuned sense of sarcasm and self-deprecation i’ve ever come across though. we’re certainly not miserable people, we have great fun. there’s a really great little community of music folk that hang round together taking the piss out of each other in a very supportive way. i think it’s very healthy.

did you finish your phd yet? did you do it with a view to a career in the field, or with a view to not having to get a proper job after uni?

yeah, it’s in product design. i did it as an apprenticeship more than anything, the chance to learn how to be a proper designer from someone i really respect. design is definitely the other love of my life apart from music.

do you have any goals? will you push to do music full time or?

i’m in the fortunate position of being able to do two things that i really love, problem being that i make barely any money out of either at the minute. as long as i can keep doing both and getting by, though, i will. i teach undergrad product design students at the minute which is great fun and pays the bills. but yes i think i need to make some plans and work my life out…

would you ever compromise your sound to get gigs, releases, fame, blow jobs, whatever? sure everyone would say no but if offered a deal on, say, defected that could keep you out of an office job… would you be able to justify it?

if i thought i could i wouldn’t have any problem with it at all. but i don’t think i have the skill or detachment to make music other than the music i make – whatever comes out comes out. i’d give it a bloody good shot for some decent coin though. are you offering? i want 50 quid at least.

do you think all the constant chatter about dance music is ok? the reviews, the categorising, the hype, the backlash, the pseudo intellectual debates, the hardcore fucking continuum? do you give a shit?

i’d love to say that i don’t give a shit, but i care deeply about what people think. of course i do. it’s difficult not to get sucked into considerations of how your music will or won’t fit into that landscape – will it sound tired already by the time it comes out? i think there’s a lot of very earnest people motivated by a deep love of music writing about things, and some of them have said some very nice and on-point things about me. it’s just a shame that it’s so difficult to navigate that over-crammed space.

to be honest, it’s the ‘big’ writers that get to me, the ones that over-intellectualise everything and write impenetrable prose littered with references to a million obscure artists you’ve never heard of. i fucking hate the wire generally. i know writing about music is difficult, but stop treating it as an exercise in showing your own intellectual faculties for fuck’s sake.

tell us a bit about the mix, your aim and why you did it on tape…

there’s a lot of music out there just now that i think shares some sort of aesthetic, but that wouldn’t fit into a ‘mix’ as i’d normally do one (two decks and a mixer). mostly it all just strikes a chord with where i’m at just now. i love the sound of tape so much, and it just seemed to fit with the music. also rather than trying to beatmatch i could just press stop and record when i got bored of something. that was nice.

want to big up anyone or anything else?

oh lots of people, but i’m trying to do that on a personal level. suffice to say i am very lucky to have the people around that i do.

finally, what do you look for in a good jumper?

good question. i don’t think you can separate out the components of a good jumper – fit, material, colour and pattern all coalesce into a perfect whole. you’ll know it when you put it on. stop searching. it’ll come to you.

listen below or download teshcast p ~ samoyed

tracklist:

1991 – reborn ice horn
? – ?
theworld – ᑸᕔԇᕔԃ҂ϟѯ⇜ ̵̷̡̃́̓ͭ̐̓͜͜ ̵̡ͦ͐̿ͦ̓̅ͯ̄ͨ҉́⇝ใไใ
? – vhs generation loss
inga copeland – trample
oval – happyend
ross 154 – til my heart stops
1991 – open to the dark
? – ?
jhene aiko – stranger
samoyed – a small good thing
lil noid – death row
? – ?