Amp//Xist draws on decades spent immersed in electronic music, from the early acid house and rave scenes to years behind the drum kit and in the studio. His new EP, Shadow Jerk (Ya Body), brings those experiences together across two tracks of unconventional percussion, restless rhythms and experimental techno. We caught up with him to discuss his early encounters with house and techno, the influence of London’s underground club scene, his approach to production and the ideas driving his new project.
You’ve been involved with dance music in various ways since the 1980s. Where did it begin for you, and what first pulled you towards electronic music?
Hello Techno Mood mag, thanks for having me. So to talk about where it begins for me, I have to talk about where it begins for House and Techno music itself. In 1986, I was a young teen listening to the fresh new sound of hip hop and electro, along with dub, reggae toasting M.c’s, anything with electronic beats, weird sounds. I would visit my home town vinyl store after school (if I had actually gone to school) to hear the latest U.S. imports, which were rare and exclusive. Very different today, there is everything on tap, which is not half as exciting. But anyway, the store would also start getting this other new sound in from the U.S. … Detroit techno, early acid tracks. So I was exposed to it there, and it only took one listen to be utterly enraptured by this even stranger, exciting electronic sound, the pounding drum machines. I could not stand still! It resonated immediately. The first 12 I bought was probably Steve Silk Hurley, or possibly Phuture Trax? At the same time, the Streetsounds and Serious labels started putting import tracks on U.K. release compilations, the House Trax album, the Upfront albums, and made available once hard to get House and early ‘techno’.
You’ve seen house and techno change enormously over that time. Which periods, scenes or records had the biggest impact on how you hear and make music now?
1987-88, the Warehouse and acid party scene exploded, along with the first rave scene, and I threw myself into it wholeheartedly. The wave of energy, excitement and mystery was addictive. 89 ish, I would get into the Balearic sound and into the early 90’s I was now fully invested in the London underground club scene, travelling up from Ashford in Kent. For me, that time was the best music, Balearic to Belgium New Beat and then into an edgier, harder progressive sound. Sw1 club was a fantastic venue that had many varied nights and you could hear a lot of different styles. God, that venue was amazing then. I feel this was a time when House and Techno would cross borders and blur the edges of definition. One record I must namecheck from 91 is Break of Dawn by Rhythm on the Loose. It was made by a dude in a bedroom and it encapsulates everything about the time. It became the ‘rush’ record of that year. When it was dropped in the club, the energy surge was visceral. Subsequently, I also participated in the free party scene, mostly DIY Soundsystem, known for deeper house cuts. I left the U.K. after the criminal justice bill and landed in Holland… A whole other story… hearing more experimental and psychedelic sounds. Upon returning to the U.K. in 99, I would put on events, also had a rig and put on some amazing free parties around Brighton. So my music is an amalgam of all that history! I’m not chasing a genre, rather trying to get those feelings the music gave me.
Amp//Xist is a new project, despite that much longer history. Why did you want to start something new at this point, and what did it give you space to do differently?
Starting Amp// Xist happened quite effortlessly. I’d had a drum machine and cheap sampler in the 80’s, I’d gone through an Atari, all sorts of hardware and synths and Akai’s in the late 90’s onwards when I returned to the U.K. Parallel to that, I’d played drums and percussion also since my teens, and through the 00’s in Brighton and 10’s in Bristol I was busy drumming with various dance acts of varied persuasions, be it global dance, weird funk, dubstep, dub… improvised techno… jazz! The odd stint percussing in Ministry and places. Alongside that, I had various tenures in studios as an assistant engineer. I got Ableton in 2012 and made some stuff in the background whilst I was busy drumming. When covid hit, all my festival and club gigs came to a grinding halt. I’d had a voice for a while moving me to focus on producing what I wanted to hear, as opposed to being a part player in someone else’s thing, and around 2024 I just found myself getting down with the process, pulling out old ideas and writing new ones. I was using Ableton 8 up until last year when I moved straight to 12. You can do everything in 12, it’s incredible. I also have a small selection of third party plugins.
After hearing several decades of electronic music come and go, what still excites or surprises you? Are you looking to contemporary producers for inspiration as much as older records?
I absolutely take inspiration from old and new music. I’m trying to create a vibe and if I hear another’s vibe deeply, it is irrelevant from what time period it comes. Young producers now blow my mind, I have to be careful not to be intimidated actually. I must say my go to D.J to listen to now is Ron Trent, even though I’m not producing music of his flavour, it does rub off on me. He just plays such a vibe, eh. I’ll give one producer I rate, Danny Wabbit. I could go on and on.
Percussion seems fundamental to the Amp//Xist sound. Where does that interest come from, and has playing drums always been part of the way you make music?
As I’ve mentioned, I’ve drummed forever. I built my garden studio just after covid in order to soundproof my drumming, but pretty immediately I was sitting down to create 4/4 music. I didn’t need to think twice about playing and recording drums, be it loops, hits or percussion phrases to incorporate into my music. I like to use mic’s, push air into them, it gives something else to an in the box production, which mine currently is. And just to have something that no one else has because it’s not on a loop cd or splice etc feels good. I don’t actually use splice or loop cd’s. I don’t use A.I. either, again that is another conversation.
Resodrum starts with hand-played drums that end up heavily processed. How much experimentation happens between recording the original percussion and finding the finished sound?
With Resodrum, and with tracks yet to be released, I feel the drums don’t always want to be too ‘normal’ or ‘drumkitty’, they should be a bit ethereal, odd, so I do throw lots of plugins on and off the audio tracks and busses, until I get what I want. Distortions, autopans, filters, vocoder, resampling, resonators, E.Q.s, Valhalla’s, editing and chopping, various heavy compressions, all of it, until I get what I like. Currently I am just using one overhead mic on my kit, or one closer mic on percussion. I don’t need a big studio level of recording as I’m going to smash them, and having one mic entirely removes any phasing problems. I can widen them and bring them forward in the mix if I need with verbs and delays, a mono recording leaves space for all the other stuff. Of course, some tracks may actually need a fairly normal drum sound, so I’d go that way if it sounds better.
Diffusion Network gets a lot out of repetition and relatively small changes. With something that stripped back, how do you judge when a loop has enough to hold your attention and when it needs something else?
I think, hopefully, I know internally when a change needs to happen, just purely from absorbing so much music for so long. I’ve only used a reference track once, and it wasn’t to get an arrangement. Also, I can listen to a version I’ve made endlessly for a few days or weeks. If a section is boring, it will definitely show up. As soon as I’m finished with an arrangement, that repetitive listening will stop.
These two tracks already suggest quite a broad space for Amp//Xist, from warmer, looser sounds to something more abrasive. Where do you want to take the project next?
Moving forward from my first E.P., I have quite a few tracks ready to go, I just need to choose the tracks that don’t stray too far from this vibe whilst also bringing a fresh sound to the fore. I’m not genre focused, so invariably my tracks are going to evolve differently. I am putting a new identity out there so I don’t want to confuse people, but at the same time I want to hopefully surprise people. Contradictions… that’s what music is. In the end, as long as the tracks can get close to that feeling I’m chasing, then all is good.
