you heard the Lesser + Kid 606 stuff? that track Catnap (speaking of
people
that is hot.. (to me) the track hydrophycyclic feels like your coming
in fast over mos eisely in a sky ambulance
OW.. that is HOD.. catnap is pure bootytremor, its all booty:
Kid 606 is one of the pseudonyms of 19-year-old Michael Trost
Depedro, a nine-fingered electronic musician living in San
Diego, with releases on the Vinyl Communications imprint. His styles
range from abstract Merzbow-like noise and digital
ramblings through obnoxious hardcore/gabber, grating techno,
media-error FX, the occasional fucked beat/break
combination, and, more often than not, combining most of the above in
one track. He attributes the diversity "to
something like musical multiple personality disorder or creative
short attention span."
While the music suggests a repressed individual exploding
cathartically, the Kid stresses he is "a really nice guy,
addicted to diet soda and Miami bass, with an obsession over Opposite
of Sex-era Christina Ricci." His first release,
Don't Sweat the Technics, was a 70-minute excursion delving into
diverse expressions of audio-fuckery. Glimpses of
gabber, abstract noise, and digital mucking about all come through,
incredibly noisy and obnoxious, yet almost hypnotic.
Nothing is spared the treatment, not even a cheeky department store
advert for a teen fashion show. Taken as a whole,
the Kid seems to be way ahead of himself on this one. The music
evokes the bizarre feeling that you've caught a glimpse
of future nostalgia.
The music is from the 21st century (not so far off anymore), yet
viewed from the perspective of a music historian of an
even later time. It's like catching a glimpse of the degradation of a
CD-R of mind-blowing music from the future, with
the sonic glitches and drop-outs not being intentional but part of
the decay process over the years. Confusing. His
other two releases, one split CD each with labelmates Lesser ("my
bandmate/mentor/best friend") and Omnibot , are
outward extensions of what's found on his first release. The
LSR/KID-606 CD travels a more pounding, rhythmic route,
whereas the Omnibot release, ("not my most inspired moments, some
from when I was 16"), while keeping with an aggressive
rhythm, travels a harsher, crunchier route, and ends in a cacophony
of white noise. Kid 606, a.k.a. Tigerboy, Scsi Bear,
Ariel, Compact Digital Audio, and 1/3 of Disc with Matmos and Jay
Lesser, is set to unleash a bunch of new tracks and
remixes for labels Vinyl Communications, Alien8, and more . The Kid
was nice enough to engage in an interview via email
with Grooves.
Grooves: Wassup with the titling on your releases? They seem to be
really personal.
Kid 606: Absolutely, most definitely. I get all personal with song
titles, because if I wrote poetry, I would feel
extremely troubled! I am very sensitive, and to quote the Big Worm
(who was the big fat drug dealer/ice cream truck
driver) from Ice Cube's marvelous epic movie Friday, "I don't like
people messing with my emotions." Pretty much the
only way I know of venting or at least thinking I am getting
something off my chest is by getting all Bukowski on the
song titles. All my song titles are about experiences and mainly
about being young (and dumb!) and weird relationships.
I also like them to not ever have a chance of showing up on another
artist's record, especially since I am super against
different artists using song titles over and over again (examples:
"lies," "fire," "pain," "despair," "red," "love"),
so...
Grooves: Are you trying to excise demons with tracks like "Fuck off
Sarah" or trying to convey a message/emotion, or am
I reading way too deep?
Kid 606: You can definitely never read too deep into any song title
or liner note on anything I do. Lots of musicians
just use random things and expect or hope people to attach meaning to
them or have it just be vague, but absolutely
everything I do has intricately planned and carefully placed messages
or emotions I am trying to convey. I kind of think
I get way too obsessive about it and am weirding out people
(definitely myself!), but I am pretty sure most listeners
don't even notice or care. It's also a comment on how electronic
music has almost done away with the need for song
titles, and they might as well be numbers that carry no meaning to
people and just signify the order which they are in.
I feel rebellious having a song title that has deep personal meaning
when the music is just me trying to figure out how
to make a beat sound as fucked as possible and have no bassline or
something. I have had people tell me that think a
certain song title means something to them or they think it is really
funny every now and then, but I hear from a bunch
of people that say they listen the CD a lot but don't even pay
attention to song titles because they think they are
unnecessary in electronic music.
Grooves: What's your view on recent electronic music?
Kid 606: I think there is lots of uninspired garbage made by people
who have too much time on their hands. Commercially
viable electronic music (like Crystal Method) is lacking lots of the
new sonic experimentation, which has been a staple
of electronic music since its birth. I think the underground of
electronic music seriously needs to infuse itself with
more emotion and stuff like vocals (I know, I know, sounds lame) and
personality though, because just plain sonic
experimentation is going to be cheapened and exploited by all the
people doing it who don't really have anything to say.
Too much of it is unimpressively one-dimensional.
Grooves: Musically, where are you coming from, and how did you hook
up with Vinyl Communications?
Kid 606: I think I am both tone deaf and have the whitest sense of
timing on earth (I also can't play basketball worth a
poop), so as far as a "musical" background I don't have much to brag
about. I have a guitar and bass that I use. (I'm
starting a hardcore band, Kid 606 and the Fluffboys, if anyone is
interested - no experience or talent necessary to
join, but you must have a mod haircut and Misfits tattoo.) I studied
piano and violin in junior high school, which was
lots of fun, but it was kind of just to convince my mom to let me get
a sampler, which occupied most of my time. (Look
mom, it is a piano, AND it can sound like a violin! Ohhhhh, ahhhhhh!
Very impressive to the average classical music
listener who thinks Vangelis is like using black magic to make "all
those crazy sounds.") I got my first sampler (an
Ensoniq Mirage) when I was 14, and I have been down with digital ever
since. I am also classically trained in filter
tweaking, 808 programming, and busting open Speak and Spells! When I
was young, I listened to a bunch of noise and
experimental stuff, and I got in touch with VC through a friend to
help put together Merzbow CDs when I was like 16. I
spent a whole day getting my fingers tired and glue on my clothes in
the VC studio with a bunch of weirdos just for a
copy! Definitely not within child labor laws. A better name for VC
would be "sweatshop" communications. Some VC projects
(the Lesser/Kid 606 CD is a real good example) would make Kathie Lee
Gifford's clothing line look like charity for the
underprivileged. I also went to this extremely wacked out K-12
alternative school in San Diego, where a lot of people
had connections with VC, so I kind of knew about them from early on.
Grooves: What does the 'reconditioned towards unacceptance and
thievery' quote (from DSTT) mean?
Kid 606: Quite a bunch, but to keep things brief - it kind of has a
double meaning, one related to a person's place in
society and the other to contemporary music making. It is kind of
about how lots of people or musicians my age have been
brought up to willfully do things that will never gain public or
commercial acceptance or are for themselves first. In
the past, it would have been unheard of to release music that would
be disliked or even be considered offensive by the
vast majority of listeners out there; now, it is common. We as a
society have enabled ourselves to create and do things
of an extremely deviant or uncommon nature, partly just because we
are always trying to outdo the people who came before
us, which in 1998 is a lot. It hurts to even imagine what a kid who
grows up listening to Farmers Manual or Disc like it
was Metallica will be creating in the year 2010 if they are trying to
go further and even more fucked up. I think when
you are young you "steal" or adopt a lot of things you see in popular
culture, 'cause you want to be more than you are,
or you want to be part of what something or someone else is to make
yourself feel more comfortable or less alien,
although what you adopt for yourself from the media or culture isn't
actually true to who you are - so you kind of
become a "thief". The theivery part can also be about contemporary
music making and especially digital audio and
sampling, due to the massive library of sound our culture has
created, which is basically there for the taking as
copyright law is a joke. You can get by by just "stealing" other
people's music and becoming a thief in the way that you
are reliant on other people's possessions. Thievery can be wicked:
steal from the rich and then get stolen from.
Grooves: Upcoming plans of releases/remixes?
Kid 606: There will be a big Kid 606 remix/collaborations two-CD set
called Technique, which will be superfun digital
tagteams with laptop rockers the world over. Some participants
include Matmos, Aube, Electric Company, Jake Mandell,
Seutsi and Underwood, Lesser, Lexaunculpt, Marumari, Phthalo, Hershel
Gar from the Interpreters (he is the guy who sings
on that Josh Wink song "Simple Man"--no joke, btw!), Operation
Reinformation, Christoph de Babalon, Disc, Kurt Ralske,
and a bunch of people I wouldn't want to brag about, 'cause they
might not finish in time. I am working on an EP for
Phthalo, which I am really excited about, 'cause his label is
extremely wicked, and he seems to have really good taste
in music. Also, [they'll be] a split 7" with Lesser that will be
quite hip-hoppish, a Kid 606 12" called Thee Wildstyle
and Havoc EP, a bunch of remix and comp stuff, and a Tigerboy full
length. The official Kid 606 website, which will be
guaranteed to entertain, should also be up soon, and Lesser is
working on a Disc site. As far as Disc goes, there is a
full-length CD out now called Brave2ep, and we are working overtime
on a 12" called Transfer, which will be all locked
grooves and other vinyl weirdness and will also be pressed on clear
vinyl. Disc also did a remix for the David Kristian
Woodworking remix CD, which will be on Alien8 recordings from Canada.
There's also supposed to be a V/VM-Disc split 7"
on red vinyl for this IDM guy's label sfwd [productions]. I am doing
a 12" for a jungle label called Kultbox (they did a
wicked drill n bass 12" from Casey Rice of Tortoise) and also will be
working with Christoph de Babalon's Crossfade
Entertainment label. And the infamous Christina Ricci tribute
compilation, working title Christina Ricci--The Other
White Meat. I have also been talking to friends about doing a tribute
comp to the equally infamous Hyperprism [audio
software] plug-in called the Sonic Decimator, which is why I got a
computer.
Grooves: What do you listen to in your spare time?
Kid 606: Leonard Cohen, Motown, Velvet Underground, Michael Nyman,
classical, and lots of musique concrete and truly
experimental stuff like Ryoji Ikeda, Fennesz, Harry Partch, Steve
Reich. I am not down with ambient music with beats in
it at all. Hip-hop: Mase is cool, the Jungle Brothers and Sensational
are tight. This U.K. label Praxis, Ambush, and
also Subversion do some cool stuff. I like female voices a lot if
they are different. I like ragga jungle and booty
electro. Lots of four on the floor or heroin house stuff. Joy
Division. Lots of wicked sonic stuff like Main. Aretha
Franklin. Brit revolution, and psychadelic stuff. The Zombies. Old
punk--Germs, Sex Pistols, Misfits. Lots of
underground stuff. I hate goth more than country. I have to always be
listening to something...
----- Original Message -----
From: "phanero" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <WRYTING-L@LISTSERV.UTORONTO.CA>
Sent: Saturday, December 17, 2005 5:09 PM
Subject: Re: NEW [N]+Semble MP3 Album
well, lounge lizards or medesky martin wood it aint
but i kinda like the spacey organ sounding ones
you ever think of doing something a little more korla pandit
it needs a little more Korla Pandit i think,
or maybe KP by way of Conlon Nancarrow
then rub in some Chaino.. then i think.. (just kidding)..
I'll throw it in the rotation.. :)
you like KP?
CN?
C?
lq
----- Original Message -----
From: "Talan Memmott" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <WRYTING-L@LISTSERV.UTORONTO.CA>
Sent: Saturday, December 17, 2005 12:31 PM
Subject: NEW [N]+Semble MP3 Album
Blue Node // [N]+Semble
Seven, count 'em seven new tracks from [N]+Semble.
A little jazzier than the previous album, PulpCycle.
http://memmott.org/nsemble/
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