Homegrown Issue 74
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REGULARS !"th Century German Back in the 1980s, the world experienced the of electronic music as a genre – Australia’s own birth of a completely new musical breed of electronic music artists began realising poets and chance phenomena. Punk had seemingly run its course greater popularity. One such act was Itch-E meetings with rap and the world was growing weary of guitars and and Scratch-E, who made their debut at one of rock. The breakthrough genre was a cacophony of Sydney’s seminal outdoor raves – Happy Valley 2. artists in New York trance-inducing music, composed entirely from This gig was the first to host Paul Mac and Andy can result in some electronic instruments such as drum machines, Rantzen’s slant on electronic auditory hedonism, samplers, synthesisers and sequencers. The and the early morning time-slot saw the first favourable outcomes. inspiration had developed from sounds forged by airing of an amiable little tune by the name of Not to mention throwing acts such as Kraftwerk and the quirky 1970s disco Sweetness and Light. The track went on to win culture. It was stark, simple, and brash. an ARIA award for the pair – the presentation featuring the somewhat notorious incident where everything you know The movement had started in mid-1987, taking Paul thanked Australia’s ecstasy dealers during about collaboration out its lead from the acid-house movement and tracks his acceptance speech. Perhaps not so politically such as Steve ‘Silk’ Hurley’s TR808-infused Jack correct, but it certainly made it clear who the the window. Paul Mac Your Body. A couple of British club owners had listeners were. Fast-forwarding through the spent their summer in Ibiza, and had, in turn, and Andy Rantzen talk remaining ’90s, we witnessed Paul Mac enjoying introduced friends and DJs, Paul Oakenfold and what he describes as “a modicum of success,” about their love affair Danny Rampling, to the hedonistic mixture of acting as producer and remix guru for a number ecstasy and electronically produced music. The with fortuity. of acts including Silverchair, Powderfinger, The guys thought it was a rapturous way to spend the Mark of Cain, Grinspoon, The Cruel Sea, INXS, Text: Brad Watts night, and when Danny returned to London, he Placebo, and of course, his own inimitable brand opened a club called Shoom, closely following of electro exploits with Daniel Johns and Presets the Balearic islands theme established in Ibiza members, Julian Hamilton and Kim Moyes – The during the summer. In fact, it was Shoom that first Dissociatives. Quite a journey from the early days used the yellow smiley face logo on promotional with Itch-E & Scratch-E cohort, Andy Rantzen. flyers. By the very early ’90s, the rave concept had infiltrated Australia, and a few English ex-pats Recently the pair rekindled this early relationship, were organising parties every second weekend with their management no doubt drawing upon or so. At the time there were countless unused the recent 20-year turnaround and interest in warehouses around Sydney, so it wasn’t hard to early ’90s dance music. That’s not to say the pair find a large space in a semi-industrial area on the are attempting to ‘cash in’ on the current electro cheap, install an incredibly large stereo PA and a craze, as you’ll see from the following interview. bunch of lights, and get stuck into it for the night. I caught up with the pair at Paul’s Panic Room With a regular following of around 1000 punters studio and as the evening advanced into the wee at 20 bucks a head, it was a lucrative proposition small hours, the three of us discussed things like: for the entrepreneurial DJ. Inevitably, the just what was it that made the two tick when lawmakers got wind of these ‘private functions’ it came to producing their inimitable electro and began a gradual crack-down, but in the wake stylings, and how do you remain progressive in of all of this – and also due to the higher profile such a saturated market? AT !" SCRATCHING AN ITCH the paisley shirts faction and that whole ’60s vibe, Brad Watts: So how are you settling into Paul’s which really horrified me. I remember thinking Panic Room, Andy? at the time: “Have you not heard Kraftwerk? Why are you replicating something that’s been done Andy Rantzen: Well, I’d have to say that the one before?” For me, the idea of futurism was always thing I dislike about modern studios, including the answer. Paul’s, is that there’s no mixing desk. It’s the funnel that channels everything down. Paul and BW: What brought you two together then? The I found a way around it but we both miss it a lot. Evening Star days? I remember that’s where I used No desk, no knobs… it’s like the pot you cook the to see the Pelican Daughters and The Lab [Andy dinner in, but in this case there’s no pot. It’s just and Paul’s respective bands at the time. They the way technology is going, I guess. People miss played in one of Sydney’s premier alternative pubs analogue tape as well; but that’s mostly gone too during the ’80s – the ‘Evil Star’]. now. And in my experience musicians never really AR: …a Pelican Daughters album actually, talk about this or understand it; it’s something although we’d met briefly before then. We’d you hand over to engineering guys really. met once or twice and I remember Paul saying BW: Meaning? we should do something one day – that was about 1989. But I honestly didn’t think we’d do AR: Well, someone like Paul, or many of his anything. colleagues and people he knows, know about the esoteric world of what happens after the mix, what happens in the desk, the technology and the electricity and how it all works together – exactly the stuff AudioTechnology magazine focuses on. I think the edges have That world is very outside where the magic really “ happens for me. washed off us both. We’ve BW: So Paul, what moved you in the direction of become more like pebbles electronic instruments rather than sticking to, say piano and keys? and less like jagged rocks. Paul Mac: Well, I kind of took over every other band I was in. It was like a coup every time, which I got quite tired of. The move was certainly due to technology. I used to go to Venue Music PM: Once again I shovelled my way in. Andy where they had a Roland TR606 and an SH101 on ”wanted to borrow my mixing desk. One display. I had no money so I used to go in there gear-swap led to another and it was like: ‘You’ve with a set of headphones and just write a song. I got a 303? Cool! I’ve got an 808, let’s sync this remember thinking, “Oh my f**king god, I am stuff up and do something’. So we eventually master of the universe!” I was actually in control combined gear and got something happening. and could do anything I wanted. AR: And about this time we both started getting The 101 had a 64-note sequencer that you could into acid house (this was slightly before techno) trigger from the 606 and I eventually worked – but none of our bandmates or friends were. my arse off at McDonalds and bought it. Then I So eventually they all drifted away because they realised it had two trigger outputs so I bought a didn’t like what I was doing. As far as we knew Roland JX-3P which had a 128-note sequencer. At there were only two people in Sydney that wanted that point I had the bass and drums covered, so it to play dance music with a twist. We’d been was like, ‘sorry band, I’m taking over’. doing obscure stuff for years really. The Pelican Suddenly there was no need for a drummer. You Daughters was going since ’84, and The Lab and know that guy that’s always annoying you to Smash Mac Mac went back to ’83. So we’d been get his reggae track into the set? (Laughs) The around and had a few bands before we started music seemed to bloom right there in your hands working together. without having to deal with anybody! I could have SYNERGIC EFFECTS a vision and create it on my own or with one other BW: What’s made the relationship so beneficial in person, so suddenly the machinery represented a musical sense? freedom for me. You just got a bass synth and went for it. PM: Well, Andy has always got ideas, and I know BW: Sure, but you were an accomplished how to make them happen. I don’t always know if musician as well of course; you’re a great player. my ideas are as good as Andy’s, but together we’re It’s presumably relatively easy for you to pull stuff quite useful. like that together. AR: Yeah, often I’ll think of something, and PM: But still, for me, the revolution was instead of trying to play it, I’ll just sing it or do it Kraftwerk and Public Enemy. Up until then with my mouth and Paul fills it out. I’d been listening to Rick Wakeman where the BW: Yeah I was quite surprised when you were more notes and faster you could play the better explaining the notes in Sweetness and Light to musician you were.