Ceephax: "Cassettes are cool!"

Museon Moscow Park this summer promises to become one of the main open concert venues in Moscow. The next weekend, on July 12 and 13, the two-day festival of the embossed and neoclassic Fields will be held , where the German pianist-experimenter Hauschka , Icelandic cellist Hilder Goodnadottir, as well as a participant in the Pan duet will perform Sonic Mika Vainio. And in the last weekend of June, another electronic event took place - Parkotronika, which was Endy Jenkinson, better known under the name Ceephax , the key figure of the British Acid Revival movements, and at the same time the younger brother of Squarepusher 'a.

If there is some kind of “new sincerity” in electronics, then it is Jenkinson Jr. that personifies it. Andy is an antipod of a modern techno-meja with a stone face and an ideal hairstyle. A shaggy and awkward Englishman is not shy about the fool on stage, and his set of tools for tours is not a shining macbook and fashionable controllers, but a mountain of battered “Rolandes”. He does not have a laptop or even a smartphone with him at all, and for communication with domestic, Andy uses a “public” computer in a hotel. But most importantly, Jenkinson does not surround himself with a staff of managers, press agents and designers and does absolutely everything-writes out music, draws covers, removes clips and even sends records to stores.

This approach does not prevent Andy from achieving success. He has no end to publishers ( Planet Mu , Rephlex , LO Recordings - It is far from a complete list of labels where his plates come out), his name regularly flashes among participants in different -sized festivals. But perhaps the most important thing is that Jenkinson Jr. has a devoted community of fans, which surrounds him with a halo, something similar to the one around GratEful Dead . Like, this must be seen alive, and numerous notes are only a pale shadow of concerts.

A couple of hours before the performance at the Parkotronika, we met with Andy and talked about the British rave, about the sense of humor, about Vinille and Cassettes - and, of course, about relations with the older brother.

- You began to record music in the mid -nineties, right?

-Yes, in 1997, to be precise.

- And it was Acid right away ? Why did you choose this genre at all, then all this was not all this acid Revival movements, and the Aisid House by that time has already ended?

- It’s just that I had such a set of synthesizers from the very beginning. This is Roland now TB -303 and TR -909 are a whole fortune, and then it was the cheapest that could be bought. Computers and all digital iron then were beyond what I could afford, I could buy only simple dramas-machines and the like. And nothing else on this iron was simply not playing, so the choice of the genre was dictated by equipment.

- Okay, but then how to explain all this surge of interest in Eisid now? After all, many of those who are now passionate about this genre began in completely different music, the same Global Goon , and Richard James? In general, where did this habit come from to revive old genres, about which, for example, Simon Reynolds writes a lot?

- No ideas, honestly! It seems to me that this is just good music, so people still want to deal with it. It doesn’t occur to me any other reasons, well, I myself started playing Acid , so I play it all my life. It’s not that I was such a retrograde, I was interested to record the music more fatal, but I was too attached to these synthesizers. It is so cool to compose on them, twist everything with my hands that I just did not look for anything else. Perhaps others find pleasure in this. In general, it seems to me that this topic is somewhat inflated, many people record modern music, but there are just always people like me who do not like it.

-Now you often play with the old rave heroes like Mark Archer from Altern 8 . How much do you feel in touch with the Ray Scene of England in the early 90s?

- More! True, I was too young to go to the raves, but in this form the "raver experience" also works - I listened to all this at home, on the cassettes recorded from the radio. I was a fan of Mark Archer from twelve, long before I met him personally. This was the first electronic music, which I became interested in, it was a year, probably 1991. And the altern 8 “ Infiltr 8 202” was one of the first to buy. So, when I began to compose myself, all this was already in my head, so, of course, I feel the connection, I owe this culture much.

The choice of the genre was dictated by equipment.

- For several years in a row I went to the BLOC festival Weekend , and there your performances have always been one of the best, all these jokes like Acid Karaoke , where you performed pop hits, or acid Bingo , where under Hardcore they played with the public in Loto. Do you even practice it on tour?

- Oh, this is a separate story. BLOC organizers Weekend are my friends, and they really wanted to do something special for the festival. Well, I am an obvious candidate for such an action, because I like to have fun and put a fool and I'm not afraid to try something new. In general, all this was not seriously. Since then, I have not done anything like that, because it is much more difficult to arrange such things than just play concerts. You never know what will happen the next moment. During acid Bingo all around were under alcohol or under drugs, there was a complete chaos. And if it’s just music, you can start the bit and you know that people will dance, and you can relax.

- For you, it seems that this whole humorous aspect in music is important?

- I'm just trying to be honest. And I have such a sense of humor that I really find many things funny - not that I did it on purpose, it goes out like that. But I definitely do not see any point in pretending to be such a serious techno-artist. There are a lot of them around, I'm not at all like that, and this is probably not bad. In the end, music should be pleasure, everything else does not matter.

- And how are the guys who organized BLOC , they came to their senses after Fiasco with the festival in the year before last? (In 2012, BLOC stopped the London police after the number of spectators markedly exceeded the capacity of the site.)

- Yes, it was a very difficult moment for them, disaster. Fortunately, everything is getting better, they are now taking monthly events in London, I hope that the festival will be restored over time, they have always been great in Butlins .

I see no reason to pretend to be a serious techno-artist.

- Let's get back to your music. For such a productive musician, you somehow do very little remixes ...

- From time to time they order remixes from time to time, but, as a rule, I just do not like the music that they offer to repair. I tried to make an effort on myself, but in the end it comes out somehow unnaturally, and I just don’t want to publish it. So it’s better to spend this time on your own tracks.

“But at the same time you have a remix onPatrick Wulf - a rather unexpected choice, this is a musician not at all from your party.” Are you friends with him?

“We are good friends with his sister.” She showed Patrick some of my notes, he really liked it, and he suggested that I make remix for him. Everything turned out somehow by chance, but I enjoyed working with vocals, it did not look at all what I usually do.

-You have no end to the publishers, your records seem to produce absolutely all the labels involved in the ACID scene -Rephlex , Planet Mu and so on. But at the same time you have your own. Why did you need Waltzer Records ?

- I just like to publish music on my own. No need to run for anyone, demanding money for the released record, you can publish exactly what you want, and so on. In addition, now, with the advent of the Internet and digital releases, this process has been greatly simplified. I uploaded music to the network and sell it - that's all things. But there is still a lot of work - go to the mail every day, send all the records to everyone ... So it is also useful to publish on other labels.

-And the Internet releases do not contradict your ideology? You seem to be a sequential retrograde, even computers use it reluctantly ...

-Well, of course, I try to release every album on Vinyl or in some kind of analog format-on the cassette, for example. But if there is a record or a cassette, at least 200 or 300 copies, then why not make an Internet release? I myself am listening to MP 3 , so it would be stupid to publish my own music only in vinyl.

- Oh, well, here you are talking about cassettes. The return of cassettes is seriously and for a long time?

- Cassettes are cool! I published my first cassette release in 2000, and it was right before the death of the cassettes as a carrier, no one had released them. Then I had cassette albums in 2006 and 2007, and this was exotic, and since then the cassette has become more and more. The cassette is, first of all, a pleasant thing, it seems to me, that's why they are now in fashion again. But I really like the sound of the cassette, it is perfect for analogue music.

- You not only compose music, but you also make up the covers yourself and even shoot clips. Is this such a Pankovsky DIY approach or do you want to control the whole process?

- I like to do everything myself, because the result is a more holistic product. I like to do different things if I see something that is pretty-a video or a beautiful cover, I immediately want to do something like that myself. I start to try and in the end I do everything myself. The process itself just gives me pleasure. The only problem is taking more time. One thing is no longer enough for me, or something, it is necessary to train someone to work for me (laughs) . Or maybe I'm just a FRICA control, it may very well be ...

- This is not the first time in Moscow; How do you play here, how do you feel from the local audience?

- This is my third visit. For the first time I played at the Abracadabra festival, and it was very cool. The second time was a “hodgepodge”, and it was strange-it was difficult to say if anyone knew me there at all, well, in the end, I just got drunk. I really look forward to how it will be today, at least, the weather has improved, and the rain has passed. The main thing is that my luggage came, which was not overloaded yesterday. There were all my tools! Otherwise, instead of a concert, I would have to play with CD , and I hate to do it.

-You are not playing DJs at all ?

-Very, very rarely. In fact, I love to DJ, but I have little music, somewhere around three different sets, so I am embarrassed to ask for money for it. The "real" DJ should have more choice.

- Finally, the question, without which, excuse me, can not do. What are your relations with your brother Tom, friendly or rather competitive?

- No, there is no competition. Now each of us manifests itself in some kind of its own area. Previously - yes, perhaps, I was too often compared with Tom. But now each of us has found our own path, we sound very differently, and I relaxed about this. Rather, the music of Tom inspires me, it is always interesting to listen to what he did there.