L-Vis 1990 LIVES!!!!!

When not working on music videos for Armand Van Helden and most recently the Stereo MC's, young up-start and Brighton based agent provocateur L-Vis 1990 aka James Connolly can be found making bass fuelled dance music made for flying into war. Electrique Boutique takes 5 to talk crap with the man with bleeding ears:

ELECTRIQUE BOUTIQUE - So L-Vis 1990 … Hyper Bass - What’s in a name?

L-VIS 1990 - Recently there has been a massive upsurge in bass heavy dance music that is pretty much unclassifiable Sinden, Herve, Duke Dumont , Switch Etc. I think it is a really exciting time. Dance floors aren’t taking themselves too seriously anymore. Gone are the days when Edbanger ruled, midrange is out and bass is back! The whole Hyper Bass thing was something I came up with, kind of in jest, whilst chatting with Drop The Lime, but I think it works when referring to my music. Hyper Bass draws on all the aspects of dance music that have really inspired me over the last 6 years. Electro, Breaks, Dub step, B-more, Booty Bass and Drum & Bass… its all about the energy.

EB - Yeah, Bass and UK dance music have been synonymous since the Windrush docked; do you feel that there is particular interest from the States because of this? Their bass scene is well established but maybe because of our appropriated heritage we have a unique angle...

LV - I think since the early days of dance music the US and UK have been playing a tennis match over the Atlantic knocking back and forth different styles and sounds. The boundaries are very blurred. I think the roots of my bass sound are firmly UK, I grew up playing and raving to Breakbeat and Drum and Bass. However I tired due to the lack of variance and fun, I guess that is when I started to look at the sounds coming from the US and the rest of Europe. Until recently Electro (Electro not Electro - FOR THOSE WHO KNOW) in the UK was dominated by Europe... fucking arpegiators everywhere! But since B-more, Booty Bass and even Baile Funk leaked into our country things have completely changed. Producers are dropping their Korgs and picking up their bass stations again. I think the British scene is so fresh right now because we pluck all the best bits from US and Europe and then back here - sling it all together. The funny thing is that until say 4 years ago the only modern dance music I was aware of from the US was Crystal Method! BLEURGH! That's all changed now of course... I think the Internet might have something to do with it.

EB - One of my mates once described Breakbeat as sounding like Student Rave - he meant this in a positive way I think - it's interesting how things are almost coming full circle - we're hearing trance and rave sounds from synths in main stream hip-hop tracks, indie kids are gettin' on one and dub-step is forging dynamic ground socially and musically - is the UK dance scene on the cusp of something again? What's Brighton about in the clubs now?

LV - I think you're absolutely right I’ve had many conversations about how things are coming full circle. Its crazy how in the space of two years… I completely denounced breaks and now I’m using aspects in my own sound. Brighton used to be ruled by Drum and Bass and Breaks nights and was in the top three cities in the UK for clubbing. But since those styles have fallen out of favour Brighton has fallen completely behind. At the moment Brighton is awash with dull Indie electro nights... The kind of nights that list on their poster exactly what they are gonna play that night (Hot Chip, CSS, Klaxons etc. etc) Brighton is a tough place to do a successful underground night, because it is pretty much overrun with students who only know about stuff they read in the NME. I played this Freshers party on Thursday that had Hot Chip DJ set on the bill. The kids loved my stuff but they were there for Hot Chip... was funny when their drummer came on and played 2 hours of minimal! CLEARED the floor!!! The promoter had to pay £1400 to get that! Could have had any DJ in the world for that but that is the kind of thing that pulls here. However, there are a few nights like, So Loud! (My Night) and Square Roots which are trying to change things.

EB - Was it through your club night that you came into contact with Drop The Lime or was this something to do with Kid 606?

LV - Yeah. I booked Drop The Lime to play So Loud a couple of months back. We had the official funeral for "new rave" that night. We painted a big banner "New Rave R.I.P" and put it above the 15k rig that i got in for the night. I think that was the turning point for me, the return of Bass. Luca and me just bounced loads of ideas around that triggered me to take the direction I'm going in now. It was quite funny comparing the Brighton scene to what was going on in Brooklyn. The ideas i had for the future in Brighton were already in place over there. Luca was the one to pass my music on to Kid606.

EB - What do you mean, what in particular do you see happening over there which is missing in Brighton? Let me re-phrase that - what has inspired you about BK?

LV - I couldn't really pass true judgment on Brooklyn because I haven't been there, but from what I have heard from Luca it seems to be a really exciting place right now. A lot of people with similar ideas throwing parties and making really forward thinking music... what the Trouble & Bass guys have going on over there seems like a movement, that really appeals to me. Starting something like that in Brighton is pretty much impossible.... but I’m going to give it a good go! Brighton is really small place in comparison to Brooklyn. Can’t wait to go over in the New Year!

EB - Will you be celebrating more vinyl releases - what's the scoop with the record?

LV - The thing with Tiger Bass is going to be my first release. I don't have a deal with them - we are gonna put this EP out and see what happens. I’m very excited though, I’ve been buying Kid606's records since I was 16 and I love everything else that comes out on the label. I’m gonna have to start playing vinyl again just so I can play my own 12" out!

EB - How long has it been since you used vinyl - I see you are quite heavily involved in various creative digital media - what is this exhibition you are curating?

LV - I stopped using vinyl about two years ago when I discovered Ableton Live. I love mixing on decks but there is only so much you can do with two records. I have about 5 or six channels that I use in my Live sets… I try and put my own signature on all of the tracks I DJ, using extra beats samples and hooks. The creative freedom within Live is incredible; eventually I want to hook it up with visuals software. The exhibition was planned for summer last year, but it did not happen, it was to focus on London club fashion. The scene had a great energy and buzz, kinda like NY club kids. But the press got all over the "New rave" thing and it killed it, so I decided not to go ahead with it in the end. Shame.



EB - Do you think some as of yet unknown technology will usurp Serato and Ableton... "Aliens dude ;) " - The VDJ is a rising force in club culture and the new version of Serato is specifically catering to this market - in your experience how is this effecting club goers night's in an underground context..

LV - The guys at Ableton are now working with Cycling, the makers of Max MSP… I think that partnership will create something truly amazing! With Live V0.6 they tried to add the video thing but I think they miss-judged peoples requests. People wanted to be able to use the video aspects live… but I imagine CPU usage would be crazy had they done that. I think over the next 5-10 years we are gonna see a massive change in the whole clubbing experience. I find the whole VJ thing at the moment quite strange, DJs and VJs are performing in parallel but there is no connection. I’m sick of seeing cut up images of b-boys and crappy stock footage whilst I’m playing a real dark set. The future definately lies with the dj controlling their own visuals or working closer with the VJ to create a fully immersive experience. Whilst I was at University I studied Audio Visual Synthesis and started experimenting with it, I was obsessed with TV static so i started cutting it to music. I made one video for a Kid 606 track! Haha! Here it is.

EB - Was that an official video? What tracks are aching to be used in a multi media set in your opinion? What would Hyper Bass look like? What is the smell of Bass? What would 303 taste like?

LV - That video was just an experiment not official at all, just quite funny how I used a 606 track and now I’m getting a release on his label! I think minimal really lends itself to the multimedia thing because the sounds are so defined making it a lot easier to translate to visuals. Ritchie Hawtin is killing it. But the bass music sound is a lot more complex and varied. I have this thing in mind for my AV set. There is a Japanese film called Tetsuo, a really dark, hyperactive, industrial film about guy whose body mutates into to a machine… it’s fucked up! Check the trailer:



There are some incredible visual snippets that I'm going to try and match to my sounds. Its gonna be intense audiovisual assault! Bass smells like the Volks in Brighton the place where I first discovered DnB and 303 tastes of toxic jelly!



L-Vis1990 - Waltzer (preview) zshare



Rusco - Cockney Thug (L-Vis1990 re-hash) zshare



L-Vis1990 promo mix zshare

1/Change The game
2/Hyper Bass
3/Mr Wobble
4/MetroArea - Miura (L-Vis 1990 Remix)
5/Playing with Tom

(All tracks by L-Vis1990 unless otherwise stated.)