Interview with Future Music 2005

They have a tough name to remember but their blend of (possible) laptop weirdness and classical arrangements could propel them to greatness. Guy Bartell and Nick Talbot are the core of Bronnt Industries Kapital. If their name doesn't get you, their live show (where they are joined by Max Milton and Tom Bugs) is one you will not forget. With various members hunched over laptops, playing classical instruments and other gizmos (and, it has to be pointed out, each able to swap between one task and another) they manage to create a truly unique look and sound. Could 'classtronica' be yet another new genre invented by them and championed by us? Let's talk damp studios and witchcraft.

1. What were your early musical influences?

Joe Meek, Bach, Roxy Music, Rob Hubbard

4. What inspires you to create new material?

Fear, bitterness, dread.

5. What was your earliest music set-up?

Two ghetto blasters with built in mics. We operated a very primitive form of multitracking by placing them very close to each other, playing one whilst recording on the other and overdubbing a part simultaneously. The results were the tracks "Song of the Grange Hill Strangler", and "Daleks of the Black Forest". It was mainly spanish guitar stylings with dub reggae basslines and portions of "Male Strangulation #3" from a BBC Radiophonic Workshop sound effects record.

6. What hardware/software/equipment do you use now?

We have a fond regard for tracker programs, resulting from exposure to the crude Amiga Octamed hardcore of our youth. Cubase and its ilk offer no creative challenges or accidents. There is no greater joy than seeing the beauty of your composition scrolling across a screen as a complex and meaningless stream of alpa-numeric characters. The raw sounds themselves are generated from a mixture of acoustic and mechanical processes. Some of the instruments such as the harmonium (see below) and the Bronson Quartet are too cumbersome and fragile to transport so at live performances we have to make do with tape cassette loops of their sounds. We augment these with a selection of live instruments such as bass guitar, violin and clarinet. We try to play as many parts live as possible, so there is a respectable degree of creative indeterminacy. For ritual purposes this allows greater evocation of astral signifiers. We also keep a laptop onstage for checking email, etc.

7. What is your favourite piece of gear?

Lepping's Patented Lapwing Harmonium. We discovered it at the Cornwall Museum of Mechanical Instruments. They gave us an hour to record on it and sample it up, but we later broke in and stole it. It's a reed harmonium from 1888 that you operate with your feet, like an old pianola, and it comes with punch card backing scores which you feed into it on a revolving drum and play along to. It is the natural grandaddy of the Casiotone. It is notoriously temperamental. It needs to be re-greased and calibrated regularly.

8. Anything on your studio wishlist

The mundane truth of it is that right now we need an industrial dehumidifier to combat the damp problem in our studio. It is built inside the inspection booth of one of the main tunnels of the original Victorian sewer system beneath the city of Bristol. Though long disused the water table is very high. We would move premises but the National Trust put a Grade II listing on the whole network and as we have lived there for twelve years we invoked squatter's rights and now own it.

9. What sort of music do you listen to? ?

We recently abandoned listening to music as such. Nowadays when we buy a CD we rip it to a hard drive, convert it into a midi file, encode it as binary, store it on microfiche, project it onto a wall, and read it.

10. How would you describe your sound?

Ultimately the music is for ritual purposes and we think this is reflected in the booty shaking basslines.

11. Who are your favourite current artists?

Recently we’ve been listening exclusively to Music For Estate Cars volumes I-IV, a set of casette tapes designed specifically for Guy to enjoy in his Peugeot 405 Estate. The tracks were chosen to fully compliment the acoustic space within the vehicle, working in harmony with the natural frequencies of contemporary motoring. None of the artists have anything in common musically.

12. What’s the best piece of advice you can give to up and coming producers/artists?

We cannot stress enough the importance of running a tight ship. Sloppy administrative practices jeopardize many a fledgling project.

14. Any studio tips that you’d like to share?

Back everything up.

15. What are your musical ambitions?

To achieve and maintain a 33rd Degree connection with the Older Gods.

16. What have you got planned for the near future?

A few years ago we composed and performed an original score for the 1920’s Swedish silent film ‘Haxan’, a history of witchcraft. Some of the music was included on our album ‘Virtute et Industria’; the rest has been collated into a 20 minute montage which we plan to release soon. We are also recording another full album.

17. What is the future of music?

Modified visions of a half-imagined past.

‘Virtute et Industria’ is available now on Static Caravan Records

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