Il bello de Le Cannibale è che una settimana ti porta le leggende della musica, quella dopo invita uno dei tuoi artisti preferiti. Nomi che sembrano minuscoli rispetto all’altisonanza di certi capi saldi dell’elettronica che salgono sul palco più blasonato del venerdì a Milano, ma terribilmente ingombranti nel tuo immaginario fatto di hip hop, french electro e varsity bicolor. Questo ponte disdici la partenza intelligente, arriva Teki Latex ad occuparti il weekend.
1) Hi man, how are you? I looked forward to interviewing you! How does it feel like to be Teki Latex?
I’m good! It feels pretty good to be Teki Latex. Sometimes i feel absolutely great about it like when i’m eating in an awesome restaurant in an exotic country with some people i love, but sometimes my feet hurts and i have bills to pay and i see people getting props for stuff i did before them and better than them and i wish i was a little less slept-on. But overall life is FIIIIIIINE. Mighty fine. But i’m not like an absolute optimist so you know i’m always bitching.
2) Well, in France there’s a bizarre music scene, at any rate talking about electronic. The most representative exponents of this scene, in which i include you, Brodinski, Gesaffelstein, Club Cheval, Surkin, etc, are all friends and collaborate each others. Isn’there any kind of competition or an alternative scene that the rest of Europe ignores?
Yeah i guess there’s a bunch of people doing stuff but is there really a french sound at the moment? It’s more like a thousand multiple french sounds, that’s why it’s hard to pigeonhole us like people did in the first two waves of French Touch. All the people you mentioned are doing quite different things with no relation to each other except maybe a couple of labels in common and the fact that we’re all friends. There’s also Clek Clek Boom (French fries, Bambounou) doing awesome things, and Joakim with Tigersushi, there’s Feadz, then there’s the deep house guys from D.O.P and Circus Company to Amine Edge and DANCE, there’s the techno heads, the Get the Curse guys and Kill the DJ, then on a slightly more beats-infused vibe you have Onra and Debruit and Fulgeance and Walter Mecca, there’s like a million people doing things that have nothing to do with each other, some collaborate, some don’t. But i think it’s exciting that there’s a lot going on in Paris i wish more people paid attention to that instead of always glorifying the same scenes in the same countries over and over again, and only looking at France through the prism of Daft Punk or Justice.
3) And what about the actual hip hop panorama? You were a member of the TTC, did rapping in french work?
The hip hop panorama i’m not so interested in anymore, i’m kinda stuck in the mid 2000’s in terms of my rap tastes, and they never really included french rap. But i know these big french rappers all have beef with each other nowadays, which generates a lot of press so there you go, beef. I was a member of TTC but we were never a central part of the french hip hop thing, we did our thing on the side, and then one day some of us wanted to put that on hold and do different things, and for now i don’t feel the need to come back to the rapping aspect of my carreer, i’m good with the electronic stuff and focusing on Sound Pellegrino.
4) When you decided to close the Institube label you wrote a long letter where you explained all the real reasons behind this agonizing choise. A particular passage of the letter stuck me at that time: ”Ours is a struggling industry, where 90% of your time is spent staying afloat”. What lesson did you learn from that experience?
The letter was written by J.R. Etienne who was the CEO of Institubes at that time. We did learn a lot of lessons from that though and Sound Pellegrino exists within a very different economy where record sales aren’t as central to our existence as they used to be, but this is all quite boring to explain in an interview isn’t it? I think no one cares as long as we put out great music without compromise, which is a thing we intend to keep doing.
5) 2012 has definitely been the year of hip hop/trap/r’n’b influenced productions and maybe also 2013 is going in this direction. What artists are you listening to in France at the moment? What are the hot topics on blogs as DLSO?
Yeah that trap thing i’m not too sure about. I mean instrumental-dirty-south influenced beats have been and will always be around but sticking the “trap” tag on them with all the ravey sirens that go with it didn’t do it a lot of good in my opinion. I’d rather listen to things that are on the fringe, and that can’t be put that easily into the “trap” box.
And when it comes to blogs…. i must say i don’t really read them, most of the stuff that blogs are into bore me to death nowadays! I trust DJs more than i trust blogs. But i’ll tell you some stuff that i liked recently: that track “Nothing More To Say” by Sophie. Most of the recent output by Boddika, Pearson Sound and Joy Orbison, and i also like the recent evolutions of the Skwee scene with people like Eero Johannes, Ben Butler & Mousepad, and the Donkypitch label. Also i’m real excited for the launch of my friend DJ Orgasmic’s new label, Expect No Less. Orgasmic already co-runs Sound Pellegrino with me but this is his new thing, a vinyl-only label with limited releases and semi-anonymous artists, all dedicated to DJ tools, whether it is techno tools or very sparse grime riddims.
6) Let’s talk about recent released hip hop/rap albums. For example, i appreciate a lot last Tyler, The Creator’s Wolf.I believe it’s a mature and rich work that demonstrates Tyler is not only an insane joker, but aslo a learned rapper. Any new albums to suggest? We really trust your taste.
Tyler’s funny to read on twitter but that stuff doesn’t really move me, I really don’t care about a lot of rap albums nowadays. I like some songs sure, but fuck albums and fuck rappers! Like i hated Kendrick Lamar and all that stuff. Also i’m just not an album guy, even with rappers who i worship, like for example Cam’ron, i listen to a selection of songs taken from many albums but never the same album top to bottom. To be completely honest the only rap album i really really enjoyed listening to from top to bottom was the Chronic by Dr Dre in ’91.
7) No girls on your label. Are you working for any new feminine talent out there in Paris? What do you think in general about the lack of women in the clubbing scene?
There’s a girl in Nouveau Yorican! She’s called Gina Turner. We’re also releasing an EP by japanese group Crystal soon, and there’s a girl in that group, the awesome Mars. My girlfriend Betty is part of an all-girl DJ group called GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS and they are running shit right now in Paris, i’m sure you’ll hear from them soon. The group also includes Piu Piu who’s a super talented DJ and songstress. It’s true the girl/boy ratio in electronic music is absolutely unbalanced but it’s a tricky subject, which came first, the lack of interest from girls to participate in that scene or the general climate of sexism which doesn’t encourage girls to participate in said scene? I think more and more women are getting into it though and it’s going to be exponential because they’re setting more and more diverse examples for the generations after them.
8) Future projects? See ya on friday Julien. Thank you very much!
I’m currently working on a new album supervised by Para One (who just recently released a brilliant EP “Every Little Thing” featuring me alongside one of my rap heroes Cam’ron) but that’s not going to be ready in a while. Before that there’s going to be a big compilation on Sound Pellegrino which is going to be a mixture of everything you would like it to be, and more. A blend of the past, the present and the future of the label, with elements from the spirit of our crossover series, classic label heads coming back, and some exciting new faces. So there you go! and see you friday!
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