This week we wanted to introduce to the newest member of The Turntable team, Joe
Hall. Joe is originally from Croydon in South London. He’s just finished studying
Contemporary and Pop Music in Newcastle and it’s safe to say that music is his life.
He spends most of his time writing, producing, listening to and buying records (when he can afford it). We chatted to him about which artist he’s listening to at the moment and why.
- Which artist has impacted you the most musically?
Four Tet – it’s an awful name, but there we are.
- Do you remember how you first discovered them?
I first discovered him during my first year of uni which was about four or five years
ago now. At the time I used to be super snobby and annoying, as I’d only listen to
new music, but when I started to check out what the other people on my course were
listening to, I realised there was good music everywhere, especially if you dig through the archives. It doesn’t have to just be four-person, guitar driven bands.
- Which particular album do you believe to be their most iconic and why?
The album Rounds. I really like his approach to production. Everything sounds distorted as nothing is recorded live, it’s all reconstructed from samples. It’s a really
different way of producing music. It’s twenty years old now, but still sounds so fresh.
I’ve found that electronic music ages really well.
The samples are snippets of his life at that moment, so when he listens back, he can
remember exactly where he was and what he was doing at that time. As a listener,
you know there’s a story there, you just don’t know what that is. I really like that
sentimentality. There’s a deeper thread running through it. It’s not just a banger, it’s
got meaning.
- ‘My favourite song on the album is’... and why?
‘As Serious as Your Life’. It comes towards the end of the album where you feel
things are starting to wind down. He’s definitely hitting victory lap territory. It’s almost like he’s saying ‘I’ve written an amazing album, and now I’m wrapping it up’. The title of the track is from a book about 1970’s free jazz and the power of music at that time. It’s not a jazz track or anything like that, but it’s more about sentimentality, there are reference points scattered all over this track so you can take a deeper meaning from it.
There’s an amazing remix of this song by Jay Dilla – he’s also a renowned sampler,
but from more of a hip-hop perspective. He distorts the genre, so it’s great to see
that cross over.
- What draws you to this genre of music?
I like electronic music that isn’t overly macho. It’s not about trying to get the fattest
kick or the most jarring synth line that will rattle your speakers. It’s about electronic
music that has meaning. You don’t have to listen to it in a club, you can listen to it at
home in a wound down atmosphere and still get the same impact.
- Why should other people listen to this album?
It might be a sort of different approach to electronic music compared to what you
might typically think of. It subverts a lot of the tropes of the genre in a way that
makes it more enjoyable to listen to. You should listen to this as well to see just what
you can do with sampling. It doesn’t have to be a four-bar-loop of a band from the
60’s, it can be meticulous slices, rearranged and given a new meaning.
- If you’re into this style of music, who else would you recommend
listening to?
Floating Points – This guy does his own DJ-ing but he’s more techno so the music is
heavier. He also runs a reissue record label where he finds and re-issues old,
forgotten soul classics. He resurfaces really good tracks that would have been lost in
time if he hadn’t have found them.
God Tet – These are from the Aussie jazz genre. It sounds similar in the sense that
you can sit down and listen to them at home but it’s still a groovy vibe. They’re a real
eclectic mix of Australian session musicians. They’ve got about 3 or 4 albums out
now – A trilogy of just wicked jazz stuff and well thought-out arrangements, and an
album that’s been recorded completely live in just one take. The Aussie jazz scene
from the past 10 years is really good. I’m just starting to discovering it now – there’s
lots to dig in to.
Finally, I’m really excited to hear 'Mordechai remixes,' the new Khurangbin album that drops on the 29th of October. It looks like it’s going to be a really great album.
Written for The Turntable by Hannah Robinson-Wright. Hannah is a 24-year-old aspiring author and poet from Huddersfield, West Yorkshire. After achieving a first-class degree in English Literature, she is now completing a Masters at the Manchester Writing School and spends her free time exploring Huddersfield's idyllic countryside, maintaining a vegan food blog and performing around the UK with various musical projects.
