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Space-dub master Pole on acoustic dynamics and the transition to Hip-Hop.
What do you feel are the high-points of the latest album and did it require a change (if any) in the production process, to integrate Fat John's vocals?
What I really like on this new album is the way we tried to experiment and use different elements in addition to those that have already been used in Pole records.
Since the idea was to reference Hip-Hop it was not that difficult to integrate Fat John because he was open minded enough to immediately understand what the music needed, he created this half spoken word, half rap style which I really like.
"R - Raum" has to be one of the most original electronic releases over the last few years. What was the inspiration or concept behind it's individual sound?
The re-work album R goes back to a 12” I did in ‘98 which was called “raum eins” and “raum zwei”. The idea was to create a musical image of two different sounding rooms… quite simple isn’t it?!
Germany, of course, has a relatively long history in electronic music; apart from the obvious (Kraftwerk… etc); who do you rate as being the most influential home-grown artists to your musical style?
Oh, I don’t have really anybody who could fit into this, or maybe I have too many that I cant name them all - I mean everything you hear in your life is some how influential or important to you. If I drop two names and forget all the others then it is not fair.
The advent of ever faster PCs and software synths has meant many more People can now produce electronic music with a £400 (maybe 700 euro) Machine. How do you think this will affect the electronic music scene? In The future, and do you ever use software synths/effects in your releases?
There are two sides to this: on the one hand we all fight for the ability to get hold of cheap production tools, so that anybody can become a producer. However, this means that more people make music and would like to release it - even when it is not good enough to be released. Just to have a cheap computer and make one 12” doesn’t necessarily means that you are a producer and you should release records, overflowing the market can destroy things as well.
Second, it is good to have so many possibilities in synths and plug-ins, and it helps of course to produce a good track.
An obvious and stupid question now, but one that has to be asked... Where does the name Pole come from?
The name comes from my 4-pol filter, and means polarisation filter. A
filter that filters out elements you don’t want to have.
Finally what’s next for Pole and ~Scape? Are their more plans to work with vocalists and live musicians?
I am touring at the moment and I going to do some remixes. Then I am hopefully going back into my studio and start working on new tracks for ~Scape. We have a few new things coming out: Bus feat. Soom T, Cappablack, Headset and Triosk meets Jan Jelinek... so you see we are quite busy!
Check out Pole's website for a more info and a free download of his latest single "Back Home" Feat. Fat John today (the 29th September 2003) only! See Pole live atThe Cube October 17th.