| Q + A |
Greetings
Kevin, and welcome to your Nubreaks interview! Give us a little history
of Chi Records, where it came from… and where you are going.
The
label was founded in 2000 when a CD was made by a few chaps called Naga
& Amb. The easiest way to release that, was to found our own record
label. But as one of the really few independent labels of Hungary, the
label had to learn the way by itself, as there were no examples for us…
But it seems now we are on the way and hope there are at least a few
people who expanded their tastes while listening to Chi stuff.
Currently we are thinking of going digital for our vinyl releases and
try to start a series of internet only releases for free download, as
we have too much good stuff nowadays. Do you know of the internet
labels like Thinner (www.thinnerism.com)?
Really nice minimal, dubby, clickhouse stuff just for free, and there
are hundreds of these little labels… Maybe this will be the next step.
That
sounds very exciting! When do you see the online portion of the label
happening? Will this slow down your vinyl release schedule or replace
it?
You can’t imagine how many really
fresh-minded producers are in Hungary. We have too much nice material,
so we will try to do this alongside the vinyl releases. And I think in
some years vinyl sales will decrease enough to stop releasing vinyl. We
are not vinyl junkies (althought I go to record shops 5 times a week),
we are music junkies, so really don’t care about the format what
carries music.
The
releases on Chi are very eclectic, everything from downtempo/dub,
techno/house, and of course breakbeat. Most labels stick with one
genre, what is the motivation behind your diversion from the norm?
The
real question was, why should we limit ourselves to any genre? We are
real genrewhores, so really we don’t care much about the tempo, rhythm
patterns, etc. We are listening/playing/releasing music without limits…
There is too much good music in the world to be silly enough not to
listen/play/release everything we like. Our weekly night
(Ablak-A-Dubra) with DJ Naga is our residency where we build up the
night, so we have the possibility to play out everything! We had a lot
of different guests also, from breaks DJs to house, minimal,
experimental, downtempo. One thing what counts, the quality, as A-A-D
is a brand in Hungary where people are coming because they trust our
taste and not just for the big name artists… I just regret I don’t have
more time to listen to lot of different things, and go deeper into
other forms of art…
Speaking of which, are you involved with any other formats of art?
I
would be really happy if I had more time. As behind all formats of art
there is the same engine, the creativity, to build, create something.
So it’s not too important if it’s visual, audio, etc. My silly problem
is, I have a daily job, and have nights to play out (2-3/week), write
music, run the label (alongside Lui, Amb, Naga, Rich, Hau, Lillu, …),
booking other gigs, running our weekly night…
Chi
releases are touching on more of the psychedelic, trippy side of the
coin. Have you ever been concerned that might limit you to a smaller
audience then other styles? ;)
I don’t know how
trippy our releases are, but it’s surely not the in the main flow of
the dancefloor-banging tunes. Certainly we know this, but we are more
interested in music than how high we are on the charts… Those are
mostly hype based things, send out more promos to lot’s of DJ Anybody’s
and they will chart you (as a thanks) not depending on the quality.
Certainly this does not mean good stuff can’t hit the charts, but be
honest: breaks started to grow, because it started to be really
schematic and recognizable for the bigger audience and more DJs.
 Coming
soon is the Cinetrip Workshop EP. This looks to be a very promising
release, and also from some of the pictures, looks like a very good
time while you were creating it. Tell us more about how it all came
together.
Yeah, those tracks were done in a
workshop. It was organized by some friends at Cinetrip, who are party
organizers & a VJ company in Hungary. We are residents at all of
their events and help compile the DJ lineups. They do really good
parties in crazy venues such as Turkish baths, train museums, aqua
parks, etc… so last may (2003) they organized this workshop countryside
in a hotel, where 30 people went for a week. Without mobile phone
coverage, without the internet, only with our studio setups, computers,
and creativity… There were 3 or 4 different audio and VJ groups there
and we were working together for a week on a show what was presented
right after the workshop. Half live, half DJ sets 3 hours/groups. While
we were working on the audio side, the VJs were working on their thing,
recorded a lot of sessions, drew new animations, applied filters and
worked out how to get in sync with us. It was a really great week with
a lot of fun, a lot of wine (the place - Tokaj – is the most famous
vineyard of Hungary), table tennis, and the Palinka, just ask Chris
Carter ;) Other artists who were with us: Rich Thair (Red Snapper),
Tipper, Addictive TV, and certainly the Hungarian guys including the
Chi crew! http://www.cinetrip.hu
And
what would you say that was your personal favorite moment of that
workshop/event? Any crazy stories/moments to share with us?
We
went into a wine cellar to taste different wines and shorts. At the end
we bought 1.5 liter of Hungarian special shortdrink called Palinka, and
back in the hotel we drank it in half an hour with Amb, Raster,
ChrisCarter, and Tipper… you can imagine us after…. but I can’t tell
more! We tried another silly short that had written “whiskey-like
drink” on the label… That was really great when we presented our show
on the final gig! Huge moment.
What is in the
future for Chi Releases? Will we see a continued wide range of styles
on the releases? Are there any new projects or artists that we should
be on the lookout for?
We will definitely
continue our way. Maybe we will try to widen our styles! One thing we
don’t want to do is release DJ tools. We are always searching for new
guys, fresh minds… Our artist roster currently has 8 signed acts,
including the basis of Amb-DJNaga-FCB, the old members: Raster-Cord and
the new guys who will blow up the floor: Ferocious Mullet, Flack.su and
Molomekaniske. All of them will have an EP released in the next months,
so everyone can check how different they are, showing interest from the
dance floor bombs to the minimal stuff. We give a chance to all of the
Chi posse to release not only the big tunes, but showcase their talent
across the genres.
As technology is introduced
and evolves, it affects the performing element and the composition
techniques of the composer. What do you have in the studio, and how do
you choose to present your art to the public?
I’ve
built a small studio in my flat, and to give a chance to sleep for my
girlfriend, it has soundproofing. I’ve a lot of synths & fx, but
nowadays I work more and more computer based. I usually play out as a
DJ, but currently working on a halfLive/halfDJ setup, so…
Very nice of you to provide soundproofing for your girlfriend…What are your favorite synths right now? Are there any new toys that you have your eyes on to buy for your studio?
I
could tweak out some crazy samples from my Sherman Filterbank, but
usually recycle everything to reprocess loops, create a lot of
different samples and variations to find the best for my taste. I don’t
have a real favorite synth or fx, I really like Ableton live, my Nord
Modular, Waldorf MicroWave and my personal sample collection. While I’m
working on a track usually have 10 times more samples that I’ve created
for the track then what will be used, so a lot of really crazy sounds
are collected…
How is the breakbeat scene in Hungary? You guys have some amazing lineups at your parties...
I
think it’s healthy. A year ago Freeland played on our night
openair-thursday, and we had more than 2000 people, so it should be! We
worked a lot (booked lots of breaks DJs) on that in the last years and
it seems now it has the basis for a good future. But to be honest,
really don’t know how big the break beat scene is, as our nights are
not exclusive break beat parties, so our crowd will come to the A-A-D
parties without depending on if our guest plays breaks or not, they
just know it will be great! They were there for Fink’s hip hop set,
they were there for Switch’s house set, they were there for Shack,
Chris Carter, Meat Katie, etc… and I’m sure they will be there for Ben
Mono’s technoidjazz, or Serge Santiago’s, Paul Woolford’s electro
house… as it’s healthy. Breakbeat.hu
One
of my favorite remixes you did was of Muddyloop’s Boomspot. I’ve always
wanted to know…. what is she saying in that sample?!?!
Thanx,
although it’s not a real dance floor killer track, and was pressed
really badly… But to be honest I always hate my past productions, so…
The first 2 Fine Cut Bodies tracks were released, because of a lot of
good reactions and a license requests for a mixed CD, but I really
wanted to reject their release. When I work on tunes then its okay, but
as I finish something and start a new one…. I’ll feel that had bad
production, lack of invention, boring, schematic! Not a good feeling,
but helps me improve my skills track by track. The sample? It says:
“***”...
You’ve been nice enough to give us some samples of upcoming tunes… tell us a little bit about them…
I’m really slow in producing, as I don’t have enough time, but these are some clips of past and current FCB stuff…
Thanks for the interview Kevin, are there any words of wisdom that you’d like to give the Nubreaks posse?
There
is a plenty of really good music released in the world nowadays in
breaks, and in other genres. So we at Chi usually tell everyone: “keep
your ears open and enjoy music as it is, not just that genre in which
scene you were dropped by your social life… those are just pseudo
borders!”
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