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CMU ALBUMS OF 2006: 'Sound Mirrors'
released 26 Jan on Ninja Tune
We suggested the other day that three years was a long time to wait for a new album from Amy Winehouse, but actually it was no time at all when you consider that we'd been waiting the best part of a decade for new Coldcut. But then in late 2005 we got word that the dynamic duo behind some of dance and pop music's greatest tracks of both the late eighties and nineties, the men behind the wonder that is Ninja Tune, and the pioneers of all things audio-visual, were coming back with another long player - needless to say we were pretty excitable about it all this time last year. And when 'Sound Mirrors' dropped at the start of this year we got even more excited, because this was a long player well worth the wait, an album somewhat removed from Matt Black and Jonathan More's past work, and more user friendly than their most recent releases, but at the same time as refreshing, musically innovative and lyrically significant as you could possibly ask for. And with some really good collaborators - including Saul William, Robert Owens, Mike Ladd and the mighty Roots Manuva. The latter featured on my personal stand out track 'True Skool', an incredibly infectious piece of work that I have discovered appeals to a very wide audience indeed, whenever I manage to play it in others' company. As we'd surely expect (or at least hope) the release of 'Sound Mirrors' was followed up by a hugely innovative Coldcut live show, complete with all sorts of audio visual shenanigans and interactive fun. Having chatted to the always busy Black about this year's return to the public domain, it's the live shows that he seems most excited about, so much so we can expect a lot more where that came from in the coming year and, hopefully, as a result of the public attention those live shows get, it will persuade Matt and Jonathan to keep all things Coldcut at the top of their priority list so we won't have to wait another decade for the next long player. In the meantime, I'm going to go and put the sound system in the room next to this one into full effect with a bit of 'True Skool', my favourite song on one of CMU's very favourite albums of 2006. |
"An elephant-esque gestation period" is how Coldcut's Matt Black describes the length of time that new album 'Sound Mirrors' was in development, it coming not far off a decade after the duo's last proper outing in 1997. Not that they spent all ten years simply working on the new album. "We felt we needed time to accumulate new experiences," Matt explains, "and being independent artists we don't have to work to someone else's schedule. And we've been pretty busy," he adds, "doing software things, radio shows, remixes, getting a life, being lovers, and dads, and bosses. And all of that feeds into the making of a new album".
Coming not far off twenty years after their debut, and nearly ten after their last long player, was the process of making 'Sound Mirrors' different than with the albums that went before? "Not hugely," Matt says, "because we've never really had a plan - let a lone a plan b - and that's as true now as before".
"But I suppose some things are different," he concedes. "We are able to afford more toys now, and that will have an affect. And, in fact, a whole load of things are easier to access now. For everyone. There is so much technology, and sounds, and effects, that you can download from the web. People can set up a studio on their PC for a thousand dollars where it would have cost you half a million to put together a decent studio twenty years ago. On one level this is a great thing, I absolutely love it, and campaigned for it. But everything has a downside, and the downside is it's now easy for anyone to set up a PC studio and make a mediocre acid house record".
"Which is probably why 'Sound Mirrors' is more music orientated," he continues, "to stay distinct from what everyone or anyone else can do. The danger with relying exclusively on all those technological tools is that the crucial elements of what makes a song good can be lost. Hooks and choruses are, after all, what it's all about. Which is quite a conventional way of doing things, but not all conventions are bad, even if you think they are when you're young. When you start out you tend to think you're being radically different to everything that's gone before, but often the fundamentals of what you're doing are the same as what the old boys have been doing all along. There's this website that analyses popular music over the centuries, and looks at what that music has in common. And there's certain things you find in most popular music - whether it be Mozart or Led Zeppelin or something current. Which is fantastic, because it means you could be as far out as you like with your lyrics, or as ugly as you want with your image, but if you have those features in your music you could still be 'popular'. Of the course the downside to all this is that record companies can use that kind of research to dictate how songs are made, which leads to less and less musical innovation".
Which brings us quite quickly to the politics of music. Black and partner in crime Jonathan More are, of course, renowned critics of many of the main commercial players in the music business, and credible critics too, given that they genuinely practice what they preach, both within their music and within their music business - making music that has often been accessible, yet is also always innovative and impactful, and by running one of the most prolific, eclectic and proudly independent record labels of the last decade, Ninja Tune.
"The economic situation for the music business is difficult", Black admits, as we talk about the growing relationships between the music world, the advertising and sponsorship industries and global conglomerates galore - phone companies, internet service providers, and pretty much every kind of brand you care to mention. "As independent artists we have complete control over those kind of things," he says, "and we always pass that kind of control over to artists signed to our label too. But having that control means you sometimes have to make difficult decisions. We just worked with Nokia on some live music events. They are great people to work with, and I happen to use a Nokia phone, so I have no problem saying so in public, and discussing features I like. But you are sometimes presented with opportunities that might be great commercially, or even creatively, but you have to think about the relationship carefully".
"Some Ninja artists have worked with brands we personally wouldn't as Coldcut", he adds. "And there are occasional deals you later regret. On one occasion we did licence 'Timber' to Ford. I said 'no' initially, but was then persuaded otherwise because we, the company, needed the money. We agonised over it before saying yes, because, I mean, car firms really do have a lot to answer for in the way the planet is being screwed. We spoke to Greenpeace and they suggested we do it but pay half the fee to a relevant environmental group, which is what we did. But you know with hindsight I still regret doing it". Of course such decisions are all the more difficult for Black and More because they own the record company - which means that deals like that with Ford are not just about earning money for themselves, or even to enable one Coldcut project or another, it's about keeping a record company afloat and its team of people in jobs. "Definitely", Black says, "it's much harder when you have a tribe. I mean, right now, we have recently turned down a deal because we couldn't justify it politically, but that money would definitely have helped the label. And when you make a decision like that you take on the responsibility of any future ramifications in your business".
While the politics of music affects Black directly in his professional life, he also has a passionate interest in the role music has in politics and the wider world in general. "There is no real political opposition now, because the socialists have adopted this awful neo-liberal space," he observes, "so it's important that music and the culture around it provides some opposition. It's the job of youth to challenge the status quo, and artists have an important role in doing that. I always go back to the Sex Pistols. I was a pretty straight middle class kid, but I went to a couple of Sex Pistols gigs, and the revulsion at those events, this spirit of positive anger, was immense, and that kind of thing has wider political significance and we need more of it".
Is any one making that kind of difference now? Does Black reckon much to the indie bands that publicly back the Stop The War or Make Poverty History campaigns? "I think anyone who thinks about these things and then says something, or does something, should be commended. But I think commodification is so much part of the capitalist society we live in today you have to be careful - capitalists and politicians tend to adopt rather that outwardly oppose rebellious movements these days, and use people from those movements as spokesmen. So you end up with these old fat guys using the young as their spokespeople, to help them sell products or ideas. Basically you're cutting the balls of the youth movement, and there's more of that now than ever before. Hip hop especially often makes me angry, given its background, given its affinity with the streets, because a great deal of new hip hop isn't saying or doing anything politically, the genre has been commodified by the major record companies".
"We've done 100 shows this year", Black tells me, as we move away from the politics of 2006, and back to the year through the eyes of Coldcut, "it was our biggest tour ever and we really enjoyed it, it was like playing at one party after another" he says.
"I want to do more of that in the coming year," he adds. "And we are still working on our audio visual projects, which is an area where we are in pole position, and it's an exploding phenomenon just now, which is very exciting, and I am keen to bring more of that into the live show. So that our show is totally different to everyone else's".
"I am always interested in expanding the show," he continues, "in learning what we can do with the showmanship side. We've always said that John and I are unlikely pop stars, but here we are. But we have to deal with the fact that we are essentially pretty introverted geeks, yet we want to put on an extravagant show. So in the coming year I think we will look to do more live shows, but to expand our pop sensibility, while keeping it cutting edge".
Which sounds like a perfect mission to have to me. And if they can find time in all of that to ensure we don't have to wait another ten years for another Coldcut album, then so much the better.
Matt from Coldcut's favourite artists of 2006:
"Oh, too many, and I can never remember them. Let's see. Volkhard Sturzbecher, he's a German chemist and artist who does these cool reactions and visuals. The DJ Logic track on the Nina Simone remix project. Qemists, Pop Levi, Nathan Fake, Ishq. And those are just the few I can think of now".
Matt from Coldcut's New Years Resolution:
"Blow the mind the entire planet".
chris@unlimitedmedia.co.uk - published dec 2006
