For The Dreams and Aspirations Issue, i-D collaborated with the fab folk at New Power Studio on an extra-special musical extravaganza…
Pop here to find out much more about the project and read on for our catch-up with Bok Bok, one of the artists who kindly lent his beats for your delectation. Experience the soundboard in all its wonder on newpowerstudio.com.
What was the song that really got you thinking about making music? I’ve spoken at length before in interviews about Burial’s influence on me wanting to start making music so I guess it would have to be one of his tracks and, out of all of them, the track that has probably had the biggest and most lasting effect on me is Near Dark.
What do you think about the ever expanding, mutating world of electronic music in 2011? I think its a pretty exciting time to be making electronic music because I don’t feel that producers are relying on a specific genre or formula to write their music. Influences are coming from over the place and the continual shift in styles and sound that happens as a result of this is why I’m into so much of the music around at the moment.
Which DJ or producer did you used to stand by the box and gasp in admiration at? The first electronic artists that I got into when I was in my early teens were people like Boards of Canada, Global Communication, Aphex Twin and Four Tet. Before then I was mainly listening to hip hop or more instrument-based music and they showed me that there was a whole world of music out there that I hadn’t even begun to discover.
Does electronic music struggle to find a visual identity? I wouldn’t say that electronic music has as strong a visual identity as, let’s say, something like black metal which, for me, is probably the most visually striking genres of music. That being said, black metal is incredibly niche and ‘electronic music’ is an enormously broad term but even when looking at individual genres that exist within electronic music I can’t think of any off the top of my head that have a visual identity that unites all labels and artists who are working within that specific genre. Of course, like with all other kinds of music there are always labels within electronic music that have very strong individual identities that is almost always achieved by keeping some sort of continuity in the artwork for each release. This is something that has always drawn me to certain labels because no matter how much the music may differ sonically, there is still a strong visual element that links it all together.
What sounds are you excited about now? My current obsessions are droning, loop-based music and stompy, dark house music that sounds like techno.
pariahmusic.com
newpowerstudio.com
Text: Thom Murphy
Experimental Programme Developer: Kevin Howbrook
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