Neil Landstrumm really is someone who needs no introduction.
Constantly re-configuring sounds from past halcyon days of dance music to fit his own style, he’s re-invented his own musical wheel on numerous occasions over the last decade and a half – from the Chicago House-indebted Brown by August (1995) through the hard driving techno of She Took A Bullet Meant for Me (2001), to the Sheffield bleep reverence of Restaurant of Assassins (2007), which featured contributions from that time’s top boy vocalists, the Ragga Twins.
From wonky techno, to rave step, to the heavyweight crunk and grime of latest album Lord for ÂŁ39, to everything in between, he’s a prime example of an artist – not to mention a keen observer and historian, as Landstrumm tells us in this interview – who’s taken in years of experience, and uses it as fuel for evolution and advancement. He’s one of our favourite musicians, and totally worth the two Dictaphones that broke en route to getting this interview to page. Go on Neil…
So how’s the new album been received so far?
“Well I’ve been really chuffed with the reviews so far, which is always a good sign. People seem to get the direction of it – taking in the previous influences and different production styles and blending them in with what’s happening now, and what’s going to be happening next year…”
I guess your main musical trait over the years – and I’m sure this is how every interview with you starts, so apologies – has been reconfiguring past styles of dance music into something harder, weightier, bassier…
“Yeah, that’s a fair comment. I’ve always been into history really, and that carries through into the history of music, because if you can understand the past, then you can predict the future. There’s nothing new under the sun at the end of the day, I’m magpie-picking from the past, really…”
Does that apply as explicitly to Lord for ÂŁ39 as it did Brown by August with Chicago house or Restaurant of Assassins with early 90s bleep techno?
“I think that the Planet Mu period, if you will, is more like that… What I wanted to do is show where it’d all come from to the new generation. I was slightly too young to really get the full bore of the 89/90 rave scene; I only caught the tail-end of it. So to me, [Restaurant of Assassins] is how that was in my imagination. A lot of those records mean a lot to me, so I’m just rejuvenating them and re-jigging them in my style…”
Something that’s been picked up, both by the Wire and also by a colleague of mine here, is the ground the album shares with some of the newer producers who exist on the outskirts of dubstep – Joker, Ikonika, Gemmy, Rustie’s obviously present… Are they an influence on the record?
“Well… Yes and no, it’s not like I’m going and using these guys as direct influences; it’s more just the zeitgeist, isn’t it? That’s how music works; a lot of people have the same ideas at the same time, and it’s like what you’re saying with the dubstep thing – I don’t particularly think that amount of bass in music was anything fantastically new, it’s gone round and round before…
“I do listen to them though; I like a lot of Rustie’s stuff, he’s got a lot of talent. I guess the difference between what they do and what I do is that I’m more studio-based, I’ve got a lot of hardware, so I get a weighter sound – it’s less trebly, less top-endy…”
Are you still doing a 12″ with Rustie?
“Yeah, it’s been delayed and delayed, but it’s gonna be on Stuff, the label Jagz the Smack was on. I’m just waiting on him doing a remix on him doing one of the tracks…”
Is that a track from the album?
“No, it’s three new tracks, and one’s gonna be a remix, but it’s kind of like the single from the album, if you know what I mean? It ties in with it – though it’s less techy, like one of them’s a real heavy early hip-hop style thing; like Def Jam style.
“It’s just trying lots of different things really, I dunno, I’m trying to stay contemporary… ‘Cause that’s the thing with music, once you do something that’s quite successful, it pigeon-holes you, and it’s easy to spend the next period not really doing other things. It’s actually quite good to shake off all the past and do something different…”
With this album are there any specific artists you’re magpie-ing from then, so to speak?
“I think with the Restaurant one you could pick out individual things – like there’s a lot of Shut Up And Dance, there’s a lot of early Warp in there… With this one I’m more looking towards the future, it’s more me taking a pop at different styles [than specific artists], like early garage for example, or some of the heavier dancehall, like The Bug and all that kind of stuff. There’s elements of Joker, and Rustie, and I really like those H.E.N.C.H. records. There’s a bit of Digital Mystikz in there, Plastician-y stuff, a bit of early jungle… I’ve been around all the electronic stuff really; I’ve always taken it on board. The only stuff I don’t like is trance… [laughs]”
You’ve said before that what appeals to you about UK dance is the little scenes it falls into – the way they intertwine but also the distinctions between them. You mentioned The Bug, I always view him as more of an observer in that spectrum… Is that the same case with you?
“Exactly, I’m definitely an observer… I think I’m also a producer and an artist who’s always on the fringes of things, and from my perspective, they tend to be the ones who stick around – they don’t get too heavily caught up in one scene, and then that scene buries them.”
Always evolving?
“Yeah, always evolving; and my… Not my mantra, but my thing has always been that the next record should not be the same as the last one. Yeah, you can set out a style for a couple of years, you’ve got to follow that up, but I think I’m quite hard to catch – like plenty of people have copied my techno stuff, and I’ve always kept changing. And that does piss quite a lot of people off; they’re like “why don’t you do something like Brown by August again?” And it’s like, well that was a long time ago for me. I’ve done it, so why would I want to do it again?”
“A lot of it comes from live sets as well, I’m constantly doing live performances, and do I get a lot of inspiration and ideas from that; you can try things out and see what works and what doesn’t. Because at the end of the day, I’m not just a DJ, I’m a producer…”
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