‘Head-nodding unstoppable marching dancefloor fun’.
Have you heard a better D&B description this decade?
Berlin’s mighty MachineCode – AKA Current Value & Dean Rodell – give us the measure of Velocity, tell us what they get up to after hours and – considering they’re so technically-savvy – how they’d react if actual machines were banned in the studio? But first things first…
Velocity‘s blazing and underhanded: creeps up behind you. When did you guys start making it?
Nice one! Glad you like it!
We started writing Velocity as soon as we finished Under The Sun to be honest. We were happy with the way UTS was received but felt we wanted to push on with the transition of the sound that we are feeling at the min and take it a step further. Resting on our laurels isn’t something that we will do.
There’s too much to discover as MachineCode.
Stand-out tunes for me: ‘Drunken Master’, ‘Velocity’, ‘Tekkers’, ‘Others’, ‘Earth’… what about you, which ones would you talk about?
Dean: My fave track on the album for no real reason other than I seem to play it the most is ‘Ready’: it breaks up sets well but still keeps an intensity of machine-funk! Was also fun programming that one!
Tim: Mine are ‘Scanners’ and ‘Tekkers’… ‘Scanners’ providing 80s melodies combined with head-nodding unstoppable marching dancefloor fun and ‘Tekkers’ exploring a harder side of jump up …rolling on and on.
What are some random mental snapshots of writing this album, mentioning fun programming.
We don’t do normally do fun in the studio: No talking – No Smoking – No Drinking – No Fun.
To be honest this album was made in a makeshift set up as we are in-between studios at the min!
Through this winter the room would be as low as –5 in the building would play havoc to the analog synths pitching!
Still makes for some interesting results! That we did use!
It was literally a tune-per-meetup spending a couple of hours on each of them. We might have gone back to this or that song refining mix-downs or adding ideas. Very effective and fun and keeps the ideas fresh for us.
There’s two of you: has this material grown from your respective pasts?
We would say so: I think if you know some of our past loves in music you can def hear that it’s in the new works, whether it’s 70s program, 80s productions, Techno or modern day D&B it all comes together into what we do.
And how does it come together?
I think the beauty of MachineCode is that we do what we feel at the time and it comes out very naturally. We said from the start it should never be one thing or another. Allowing us to be a bit more creative in the studio. And never dismissing an idea because it might not fit what we have done in the past.
Is there anything in the studio that you do that is unusual? For eg, if a non-electronic-based musician – but studio-savvy – was to watch you, they would be scratching head.
Depends just how savvy they are! Also I think there’s some electronic musicians that would scratch their heads, not because we are SO technical that their brains would be fried but that we are not always that orthodox in the way we do things. It could be said that we have a very ‘American’ approach to mixing and producing, a ‘Fix it in the Mix’ style!
If you were banned from using samples and electronic noises but had to create all instrument sounds manually to create your style… what would your approach be?
Mmmmm well I think we all know that Tim would take the pots and pans and I would probably take a wash board and triangle. A modern day skiffle band!
Dean I hear you have… a Darker side?
Dean: I used to like going to Goth parties after raves in the early 90s. Plus Emo moments do seem to creep in and out of MC these days.
And Tim?
When I was six I used to sneak out of my room, down the stairs and walk 10 minutes down the road to get new percussion caps for my toy gun!
TEN!
I was addicted to that thing and so I was making all kinds of noises with my mouth. I was especially good at air planes and tanks.
On the military front, how do you align yourself in D&B? I mean: who are your allies in the scene both in Berlin and world wide?
We have a lot of support from many different artists and labels in various scenes. In D&B especially with Velocity we have had great support from the likes of The Sect, Concord Dawn, Mindscape, CounterStrike to name a few. But labels like Ad Noiseam and Tsm are always very supportive to what we are doing! More MC releases for them also coming this year.
And when did MachineCode actually form? I never know.
MC was formed in 2008, After a good curry, a natter and a couple of studio sessions; soon after we realised we had a good horde of tracks with a sound that sat more as a project than as a general ‘vs’! The first fruit of the loom was sparse lands on Subtrakt in 2009 before we finalised the name being MachineCode. ‘Environments’ was also done around this time.
Speaking of Environments, where in the world do you like to play live?
Bristol is always a good craic! The crowd is always very responsive and know what they want. So is Russia… with much larger crowds! Making it fairly rowdy!!
But to be fair there are MANY countries that have blown us away, and ‘Subland’ Berlin has a very receptive D&B crowd for Germany. Always had good nights when we do a thing there as well. Subland is owned By Dean Rodell & Species.
What’s next for MachineCode?
We have another two albums coming this year following Velocity. All very different but all very MachineCode
Any live dates in UK?
Boomtown will be our next visit, can’t wait!
