Illum Sphere
From: Manchester. Tracks played by: Martyn

Manchester’s Illum Sphere, one of this year’s Red Bull Music Academy participants, runs the Hoya Hoya nights in Manchester and makes hardware-driven music of various tempos that has no qualms with live instrumentation, wild time signatures and general thrilling messiness: tracks that, like the best hardcore punk, sound within an inch of breaking down before pulling themselves together.

Your man articulates all this much better than me in the below interview, and his mini-mix features 14 of his own productions in 15 minutes, so what are you waiting for?

Illum Sphere, introduce yourself.

“I’m from Manchester, my name is Ryan, but I’ve been known to go by Illum Sphere from time to time.”

How would you describe your music to the uninitiated?

“Mutant shit that your grandma would hate.”

What’s your musical background? And how have you got from where you started to where you are now, musically? Big question, I know.

“Oh man…right, well, I started playing various instruments aged 11 and started writing/recording instantly…then started buying records when I was 19, got into DJing and a couple of years ago I started making more electronic based music and here I am.

“Since I was 19 I have worked in record shops and for labels etc so it exposed me to an insane amount of music…from early techno through to Polish psyche soundtracks through to dancehall through to pretty much everything else, so I have a pretty wide taste and therefore more to draw influence from.”

What’s influenced your music most over the years? Artists and experiences both.

“Well, with reference to the above question anyone from Fela Kuti to Mahmoud Ahmed to Drexciya to David Axelrod and more. But the biggest ‘moment’ I’ve had was listening to Dabrye’s Two/Three. That changed my whole perspective on modern music. I’ve never had a moment like it from any other album, certainly in this millennium. Tadd (Dabrye) is in my opinion definitely one of, if not, the greatest electronic producer alive today, with his versatility and constant quality hard to match. That kind of versatility is definitely something I aim for. Anyone who hasn’t checked the music he does under other guises (SK-1, Tadd Mullinix, James T Cotton/JTC, 2AM/FM, TNT, X2) definitely needs to.”

Do you feel closely aligned to the FlyLo / HudMo / Rustie wave of hip-hop producers, or do you see your music as something else altogether?

“I feel aligned in the fact that we all make stuff of various tempos, feels, energies etc, definitely. And also the fact that those guys don’t really give a fuck about what’s current, they’re just doing their own thing, which is what I’m trying to do. I don’t wanna be a dubstep or funky or any type of genre specific producer. I’m not dissing anyone who is, some of my favourite producers focus on a certain genre or style, but I wanna make music that draws from my various influences to make something different, which I think you can hear on the mix.”

What do you build on?

“Various bits of hardware…Moog MG-1 Concertmate (which needs to go to the doctors actually), Roland MC-303, Boss SP-303, Casio SK-1, MicroKorg, MPD-24, various pedals/ delay units and I just throw everything together in Logic.”

Are there any particular aesthetics / themes that you find cropping up in your music?

“It’s pretty atmospheric, and a bit sinister. Boomkat said that I’m creating ‘my own brand of murky dystopia’, which I like. Crackles, hisses, little breakdowns…I grew up writing songs, so I try to make songs, not necessarily just beats or whatever.”

Tell us about the Hoya Hoya nights you run in Manchester.

“Me and Jonny Dub run it, it’s coming up to its second birthday in February. We basically started it cos we weren’t getting many club gigs or seeing a lot of our favourite producers, so we just thought fuck it, let’s do it ourselves. This was before I’d released any music.

“We’ve had people like Daedelus, Dam Funk, Ikonika, Brackles, Ras_G, Gaslamp Killer, Mark Pritchard, Rustie, Benji B, Paul White, Bullion, JTC, Tokimonsta, Danny Breaks and more play, and have done stuff that featured FlyLo, Martyn, Mary Anne Hobbs, Nosaj Thing and Samiyam. This month we’ve got Kode 9, Hudson Mohawke and Actress for this thing we’re doing with the RBMA, all in The Roadhouse, which only holds 250, that’s our home.”

You’re at the RBMA this year too – how’s that worked out so far?

“It’s been good so far, and I haven’t even got there yet. I’m on the second term which starts beginning of March, definitely can’t wait.”

Tell us about the releases you’ve got out now, and what you have in the pipeline this year.

“The debut entitled The Incoming EP came out April 2009, followed by the Producer 7″ with Mono/Poly, then the first part of my album, called Long Live The Plan has just dropped, all on Fat City. Coming up this month are the remixes I’ve done for Martyn on 3024 and Om Unit on All City, then I’ve got the second 12″ sampler of the album The Plan Is Dead (which will feature a collab with Lorn and a remix from Ikonika) and the full CD album (Long Live The Plan, The Plan Is Dead) dropping in a couple of months.

“Ummm…also, me, Blue Daisy and Tokimonsta are all dropping remixes for a Kidkanevil 12″, and I’m gonna be doing some stuff with other labels, who you’ll probably be aware of. Oh…and we’re setting up the Hoya:Hoya label soon which will feature exclusive music from people who have played at the night.”

And tell us something we won’t already know about Illum Sphere.

“He never tells me anything.”

Tracklist:
Illum Sphere – Illum Go Kill ‘em
Kidkanevil – Real Wild (Illum Sphere Remix)
Illum Sphere – A Meeting With Medusa
Illum Sphere – Psycho
Illum Sphere – Never Lie Twice
Illum Sphere – FCKUNURCRU
Illum Sphere – Shadowman
Illum Sphere – Chasing The Midnight Moth
Illum Sphere – Nerves
Illum Sphere – Slow Down Brazil
Illum Sphere – Cardiac Arrest
Illum Sphere – Better Late State
Illum Sphere – Agent White
Om Unit – Lightgrids (Illum Sphere’s Get Off The Grid Mix)

This entry was posted on Friday, January 22nd, 2010 at 2:15 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.