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If this world was right, 2007 would see the recording artist mostly known as Cylob, living in some kind of salubrious Baroque palace on the outskirts of Paris. Yes boss, the man mroe normally known as Chris Jeffs would be spending his days overseeing preparations for a run of sell out shows at some swanky arts institute to massive critical and popular acclaim... He’d be getting fatter by the day, whilst smoking fine cigars, ordering a succession of bottles of fine wine from his ample cellar, hurling irrational and narcissistic abuse at his staff, and considering whether his evenings fun and dirty games was to be hosted by Candy, Randy or Shandy... In short, given his work, Cylob should be sitting very pretty and worrying about which of his many children is going to get his millions and he certainly shouldn’t be struggling to make ends meet....
But as we all know, this world isn't right, and so much of it isn't right, that rather than warming up his throne and fussing over vintage vino 1872, 2007 see’s Cylob not so much stinking rich as sick and tired of being poor... Yes boss, with the record business and economy in general, in the kind of vague turmoil that makes bankers and venture capitalists shockingly rich, and everyone else continually alooking over their shoulder, Cylob's so tired of the daily scrimping and saving, he’s considering giving up making music altogether to do god knows what? You can only struggle so long..
Well, though it might not always seemt hat way, I guess there are some thing’s good in every situation, and the upside of this one is that rather than being in the kind of financial position that allows him to forget making new and important music and concentrate instead on COMPLETE FAT INDULGENCE and COMPLETE FAT INDULGENCE alone, Cylob's STILL on the case of making fine and innovative electronic music. Yes boss, now recording exclusively for his own Cylob Industries label, as well as guesting vinyl releases to WeMe records and hosting downloads to sites like Bleep, Cylob now has his own mutli-faceted musical empire. Furthermore, he's on a release frenzy, and as a result, those of us who give a shit are continuing to receive top notch music on an even more regular basis than at any other time…!! HIP HIP HOORAYY!!!!
A Rephlex...
Well many of you will know of the publicly reluctant electric genius The Aphex Twin aka AFX aka 301 other names aka Richard D James. Such as it has one, Mr Twin is the public face (a rather scarily human face at that) of the genre of complicated and original music often referred to as Electronica or IDM…. Basically, Mr Twin is a big fish and he has fingers in many pies.. Yes boss, alongside releasing his wares on Sheffield label Warp, making a mint on advertising and grooming a rather clever public anti-image, The Aphex Twin has co-owned and promoted the always quality and generally BIG ball breaking electronic label Rephlex.. Set up way back with long time friend Grant Wilson Clarridge (AKA DJ Rephlex Records), Rephlex, has put out an astonishing and quite probably unparalleled and diverse selection of artists from the sublimely ambient, to the vicious CCGHHHGGHHGH BANG!! to the just plain clever, classic and very good wierd.. Rephlex really is an allsorts kinda label. And so good and consistent is it’s output, I reckon it’s one of the few labels, that, had you have bought every release since day one, you’d be able to sell on and still make a decent net profit on the prices originally paid – even in this time of thoroughly depressed record prices.... |
'GET BACK ON THE JOB GIOVANNI!!' I determine the following Cylob is not keen to discuss anything to do with Rephlex or The Aphex Twin. Indeed, by the end of the ‘interview’, I remain unclear as to why he's now releasing material on his own label, rather than via his ancestral home - I don’t know if there’s been a fall out, or a simple need for a change, minus any kind of animosity…
I could, and with hindsight, perhaps should, have pushed him further on that one, but I saw a pretty hefty wall on the first time of asking, and elected not to try and batter it down - out of respect as much as anything else... But, I’ve often wondered how the artists on Rephlex feel about the labels somewhat reluctant approach to promotional and marketing work. On the most fundamental level, it’s an attitude I admire - let the music do the talking and if it’s good enough it’ll come through sooner or later, and the rewards will come if not to you then to your progeny and your legacy as an artist.... Yes boss, it strikes me that Rephlex want their artists to work for love and for the love of music and that’s exactly the way it should be… Furthermore, there are plenty of labels that whore themselves around and do anything for the money, whose artists are similarly skint. I mean, would those released by a more businesslike underground label like MoWax, really be that much better off?? I guess the flipdownside, is hearing Cylob talk of his annoyance of his financial struggle. It makes me wonder how many other superb quality acts must be a similarly bad financial shape and once again wonder whether it really has to be so?!? Thing is , the longer I spend hanging around with musicians – for that matter creative folk of all shades and styles, the more I realise this is just par for the course with working with integrity in art. Contrary to all beliefs, being a creative success is as much about strength and durability, as any other career - it's about persistance and putting up with no money most of the time.... It’s just another job - a magical job, but a hard and poorly paid one at that…
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The Music... When we finally talk of music, (and that is indeed what we’re supposed to be doing) we generally discuss the scenes today and yesterday - our likes and dislikes of these scenes and sounds.... We soon agree to the rather pessimistic opinion that the state of the playing surface and the players on the pitch isn't worhty of top flight pop... In particular, Cylob feels there’s something essential missing from both the underground and overground scenes of today that DID exist in the 80s and 90s - that things have become a little tired and boring - that the fun and innovative quality has gone out of pop music and out of the underground scene as well. We discuss ‘Grime’, and agree that for all it’s reputable undergroundness, it’s rather harsh and relentless nature makes it a tough cookie to chew on, day in day out. Yes boss, whereas Rephlex was always been about true diversity of sound, very few labels of today seem to have that same open agenda or the same quality and originality of sound and energy …
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And Cylob??
Yes boss, for years, Cylob alongside other artists like Mike Dred and Ed DMX has been a good few vertebra in the reliable backbone of this -a label, that together with Warp and Skam, has defined a whole new genre - no: several whole new genres of music… Basically, if Rephlex were a football club, Cylob would be it’s solid and committed Central Defender. He’s the fans favourite, the local hero, the reliable and the ever present!! More than this, to many who love electronic music, Cylob is a cult legend - a man who, when the PR poo poo of this guitar ridden age dies down, and the hard and certain tacks of musical progression and innovation are revealed, will be seen to be a pretty vital character in the leftfield scheme of the last 20 years music.
Rendezvous....
So, it’s late July 2007, and I find myself sitting on the couch opposite Cylob. Yes boss, a few inadvertent myspazz clicks have led to an interview being arranged, and before I even know my arse from my paperback pen, I’m sitting on the sofa next to a key and proper player from one (of what I consider to be the more important scenes) and frankly I have no real idea as to what I’m doing or how I'm doing it..… No boss, I have a laptop, but I don’t want to record the interview because I doubt I’ll ever play it again. Furthermore, I have very little disc space and don’t have any predetermined questions or real idea about what I want to ask the man... I mean I’m really not bothered about his shoe size or what he thinks about the fate of The Rainforests or The Paestinian situation, and I figure that if we talk technically, I’ll soon get lost in the clever detail… “WELL, REALLY!!! HOW UNPROFESSIONAL!!!” |
Living in the 1980's Moving on, one of the main surprises, comes when Cylob talks about his own influences. Yes boss, contrary to what you might think, Cylob says that most of what inspired him to get in the musical ring and the sounds he’s produced was late 80’s pop music. We fondly discuss The KLF, Kraftwerk, Frankie Goes To Hollywood and other pop acts, the like of which seem to be beyond compare of anything in the pop world of today. We breathe a collective sigh.... On first listen, you could put Cylobs most recent LP Rock the Trojan Fader next to more or less anything except late 80’s pop... Perhaps when you hear the dancing joy of the below track that sits neatly amidst the sprawling sprangling BLAST chaos that is Rock The Trojan Fader you can hear that fun pop sensibility, but the link is far from obvious...
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The Programs...
Despite my fears about getting lost in the techno termland of top level electronic music making, this technique is certainly something that interests me and for this reason (and because it must surely be part of what makes his sound distinct and important) I was keen to question him on how he makes his sounds.... Discussion reveals, that in the very main, Cylob doesn’t use traditional sequencers or sound generators at all.... Instead, he’s developed his own software to both generate and then sequence sounds – software that isn’t available to anyone else except perhaps the odd friend or two…. It's information like this that fascinates me. Yes boss, in the past, I've tried making electronic music and to a small degree have succeeded, but the concept of building software to MAKE the sounds and THEN different software to sequence them is something I can barely comprehend...
Well, after an hour or so of talk, my computers disk is becoming uncomfortable and I get the feeling Cylob has had enough... Things get wound up. It’s time for dinner time? |
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| So, as per usual, I figure a few drinks will put me at my ease and on the case - we can then chatter and see what comes up… I decide I am going to record the interview and as I set that up and glug comfort wine, upon invitation, we carefully and completely study our house hosts thigh high red stiletto boots. These boots are a colossal pair of footwear. Cylob and myself admire them and the legs that will wear them. We think our own depraved thoughts and I try to get my mind on the job…. The laptop running, the microphone primed, the boots away and the drink flowing, I try and focus by doing what I do very well – I start talking about myself - yes boss, the whole affair quickly turns into the Paul Giovanni roadshow… Cylob tolerates my self-importance well, but I start to get drunk and the conversation rambles further away from any kind of specific Cylobian points. At a certain stage, I realise I am in fact supposed to be doing an interview and that instead I'm chatting and rambling on about this that and the other as if Cylob another wannabe rather than an already made man.. (And I'm doing it again now)
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Conclusions…. Cylob isn’t joking when he says he’s thinking of quitting. The look that says ‘I’M SO FUCKING TIRED OF BEING SKINT EVERY FUCKING DAY!!!!’ is genuine and one I can more than relate too. Yes boss, Cylob has clearly thought very seriously about a life without music making... But I reckon he'll find it hard to quit. I mean, how can you throw off something as big as countless years of music making for one of the best and most innovative labels of it’s day?? What can replace the thrill of hearing new sounds for the very first time, that you’ve generated yourself from software that you’ve made yourself??? That he's tired is clear, but maybe I caught him on a bad day of a bad patch?? Will he still be making music in a year?? I reckon so....
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