 |
Then and now
|
by JACK OATMON Launching your career through co-productions with Thomas Bangalter is a pretty safe bet to guarantee your musical nucleotides end up in the permanent DNA of the club canon. But Alain Quême, aka Alan Braxe, whose second single was the ubiquitous 1998 anthem “Music Sounds Better With You,” is a far cry from a footnote of the first wave of French house. Over the past decade, Braxe has been one of the most consistently excellent house producers in the world, as well as a key stylistic architect of the post-millennial electro boom. But like any great producer, his work has strayed into new realms over the years and, most recently, it has a detectable hint of R&B and hip hop about it. Alan Braxe: It’s something I want to be doing more of. For a while now, the music I’ve been doing has been getting more mid-tempo, slower. I’m making rhythms closer to 100 BPM. Even if I’m still interested in doing more standard house and electro, I like both universes, so it’s been drawing me in a lot more. Mirror: Hence the Kelis remixes and “Addicted.” AB: Yeah. They’re really a test I’m doing for future stuff. I’ve been listening to a lot more hip hop for the past two years, so it’s natural. It’s easier and easier as a DJ to try out different styles and not get blocked into one genre. It’s the same for production. You can do electro or hip hop or R&B, and people are more open to that for the past few years. The borders aren’t well defined. So I want to do more tracks that switch tempo and the style fluctuates. M: I have to ask. Is “Addicted” a response to what Timbaland’s been doing? AB: Oh it was completely a response to that. I listen to it a lot while I’m driving and it’s been on the radio here quite a bit. So it’s gotten stuck in my head. M: Will you produce an album showcasing some of these new directions you’re going in? AB: I’m going to be releasing an EP in February or March, and perhaps a follow-up solo album featuring some singers. M: Are you working mainly with analog machines? AB: I’ve got plenty of old analog machines, and I had put them aside for a while. But now I’ve brought them back out and I enjoy working with them a lot more. I used to only use computers to record the final mix and that’s it, so now I’m going back to that way of doing things, all hardware. M: You’ve usually got collaborators on your tracks. Who have you been working with lately? AB: This summer, I worked a lot with a British beatboxer named Killa Kela. I’m doing a few tracks for his album. I’ve been working with an English singer named Vikki O’Neill [aka Fallon], producing her album. But mostly I’m starting to work alone. I’ve done so many collaborations over the years, so I really want to do something 100 per cent myself. I’m also going to be releasing more regularly on my label Vulture, and releasing other artists as well. AT TIME SUPPER CLUB ON SATURDAY, |
