Out Of Context _ Interview With Lag

Well, that brings us on nicely to the next question about how you got interested in electronic music? I know from chatting to you and seeing you post online that you have a wide taste..

I can’t really put my finger on the moment, I kinda just slipped into it. I have a “bug” where I can’t understand words in songs. Even if there is only one instrument playing in the back, I seem to be unable to distinguish what the singer is saying. It kinda makes sense to me to find myself in music which concentrates more on sound and music than lyrics. I grew up on punk because my older brother was a punker, and even though I couldn’t understand the words, I could feel the energy, as well as the attitude radiating from the songs. Then I started playing the guitar because I got into music school. I remember hating it but I went through with it. I won a state award and remembernot caring less so I just sold it as soon as finished the basic 6 years. I started watching MTV, discovered a lot of cool stuff and really appreciated it because of all the garbage I had to go through. I remember seeing the video for Unkle’s “Eye For An Eye”, also “Setting Sun” by Chemical Brothers and many more. Then came the first techno party… It was surreal. I’ve heard DJ’s before, but never one who played techno. I was hooked instantly. I mean, I do really like to listen to all kinds of stuff, but only techno get’s me going as it does. I don’t know, it’s really got something special.

I’ve developed a taste both for the obscure and for the pop stuff. I’m currently listening to a lot of guitars (a bit ironic I guess). Currently I’m a lot into bluesy, americana stuff. Here is a few of my fav ones at the moment: Alt J – Breezeblocks, Timber Timbre – Magic Arrow, Brian Jonestown Massacre – Anemone, Unkle – Natural Selection. There is also a lot of very cool stuff happening in the hip hop scene, especially with the OFWGKTA crew. Tyler’s “Yonkers” is still hip-hop track of the last 5 years for me.

Cool. I heard Alt-J at the awards and have been meaning to check them out more. I like what I’ve heard so far. So in terms of electronic music or techno.. what tracks first made you go “wow”?

Oh, I really couldn’t remember which ones were the first. The ones I can remember, I still carry around and play at parties.

Umek – Lanicor

This one is really something special. I mean it has been played out for so long and at so many parties that for many people it became the symbol of something obvious and worn out. Still, it’s significance is indisputable:

Serbia was fucked up back in the day when this came out. Socialism is a funny thing – it is a system which is very dependent on having an ideology that is followed nationwide. For that reason people are educated in a way which makes them very prone to ideological influence. This proneness was abused and, mostly due to outside influences, people were moulded to become quarrelsome and discordant. You can still feel this mentality through the ex-Yu countries, everywhere you go. It even reached into the Serbian club scene, which you wouldn’t really expect as the entire scene consisted of like-minded people.  This track was something special though – it attenuated the discord in a way only music can do. I mean even the trance-heads loved Lanicor, and it gave people from different scenes something to agree upon and to enjoy together. Now this might have all been in my head, but it is still very dear to me as experiencing that kind of unity; or at least being under the impression of it, invokes a feeling of saudade for Yugoslavia and the idea of unity it represented.

Nitzer Ebb – Murderous (Phil Kieran remix)

I’m not even gonna start talking about how powerful this track is, because I won’t shut up any time soon. I still play it and enjoy it as much as the day I first heard it. There is something in industrial music which reminds me of the punk attitude I grew to love so much, but while punk is like “I’m trash and I’m better than you, because what I am is normal and what you are is fake”, industrial is more like “Fuck you” and sometimes “Arghhahghg shhhhhxhhxhh”. Simpler, more straight to the point and thus easier to incorporate into the loopy nature of techno.

Jeff Mills – The Bells

Haha – Good choices! And nice rabbit.