speedy j, aka jochem paap, is a cantankerous type.
always shifting the boundaries, forever questioning the norm, this rotterdam producer has for over a decade now produced some of the most startling electronic music to be recorded in the last ten years.
He was initially lauded as a technocrat extrordinaire courtesy of his debut album releases "g spot" and "ginger", both lessons in fluid, functional techno. However, he quickly established a reputation as the enfant terrible of the electronic scene thanks to two albums of astonishing originality "public energy no 1" and "a shocking hobby".
Gone were the smooth lines and sleek rhythms of yore, to be replaced by brutal, yet strangely human, caustic beats that defied convention and introduced new lexicons into the techno dictionary.
Returning with his latest album, "loudboxer", he has utilised his decade's
worth of
knowledge to produce a harsh and direct album that is on first name terms
with
the rhythms of the dancefloor.
like many of his contemporaries, paap found a route to where he is today via
the concurrent
growth of both hip-hop and electronic music in the early 1980s. an
adolescent fixation with the
stark modernity of groups such as kraftwerk and depeche mode and their, at
the time,
idiosyncratic approaches to music making created a sense of intrigue in the
young speedy j.
armed only with a rudimentary understanding of the processes of music
making,
he set about creating basic cut and paste efforts looping sound backwards
and forwards on antiquated and outdated machinery.
undeterred by the primitive nature of his work, by his early teens in the
mid ‘80s, he had notched up his first production credit.
equally important at this early stage was his love of hip-hop and its
attendant dj culture and he was soon to garner an alias, courtesy of his
ferocious djing skills,
that would hang around for the rest of his career.
yet the catalyst that would ultimately shape the next 15 years was a dutch
pirate radio station, ‘night moves’, which introduced paap to the acid
sound.
sensing his destiny, he began in earnest a voyage of discovery which would
ultimately see
him proclaimed as one of the leading lights in european techno and beyond.
even while djing, paap often seemed more concerned with the possibilities of
sound rather than its fundamental function to get people dancing.
his inquisitive, scientific mind proved to be ideally suited to his
burgeoning interest
in crafting futuristic electronic music as he quickly mastered the finer
points of the
armoury of equipment he was quickly amassing.
by the early ‘90s he was up and running and within a couple of years had
found refuge under the watchful eye of canadian richie hawtin and his then
fledgling plus 8 label.
early output such as the legendary 'pullover' single marked speedy out as an
original,
unique and highly talented individual not afraid to challenge expectations
and
explore far beyond the edge of the map.
by 1997 speedy j began to move the goalposts. signing to london based
novamute in
the same year, he set about forging an album that would ultimately see him
rightly proclaimed as an alchemist of sound.
both "ginger" and "g spot" may have been revolutionary at the time, yet paap
ultimately sought the freedom to explore far beyond the rigid confines of
the 4/4 beat. novamute's liberal attitudes proved fertile ground as set
about recording what
would become "public energy no 1", his debut album for the label.
recorded in his rotterdam based home studio, it somehow falls between
ornette coleman,
kraftwerk, otis redding and the swans.
unrestrained, untethered, yet ultimately deeply soulful, the album sees paap
assuming
the role of the insane conductor of a bunch of unruly machines let loose for
an hour.
every glitch and every mistake is captured as cold functionalism gives way
to a
humanity so often absent in much electronic music. brutal, forceful and
extreme it may be,
yet within lies a beating heart and warm refuge; its approach and disregard
of convention and form is almost jazz-like.
critical acclaim followed with the uk press quick to praise the unique
quality of
this stunning piece of work.
the next couple of years saw paap explore the furthest musical galaxies
possible playing around the world at many major dance festivals including
sonar and i love techno.
live shows proved incendiary and soon he began to examine the role of
electronic music far beyond the dancefloor.
he began working with michael shamberg on the movie soundtrack to
‘souvenir’,
joined forces with the dutch wind ensemble on a televised event,
collaborated with japanese visual artist diazaburo harada and contributed to
various television commercials.
returning to the studio in 1999, the follow up to the revolutionary "public
energy no 1"
was a more relaxed affair.
"a shocking hobby" was still as non- conformist as its predecessor, yet its
gentle
ambient washes and often mogadon pace proved a less intense experience.
far from a dumbing down exercise, its eno-esque moments are with hindsight
the
logical conclusion to an exploration that took paap far beyond the chartered
territories of electronic music and deep into the unknown.
after all, "public energy no 1" had taken him so far out even well trained
translators were useless. by the end of the last decade, like many explorers
before, speedy j was faced with some tricky questions. he had navigated far
beyond where others had charted, and returned with a rich knowledge of the
unknown.
making an about turn he returned to almost where he had begun revisiting the
stark functionalism of dancefloor orientated tunes with a new found
knowledge garnered
from his far reaching musical voyages.
last year's single release, 'krekc', marked a return to basics.
harsh, direct and ragingly hard, it was nonetheless a universe away
from his formative outings way back in the ‘90s.
recorded entirely in his home studio in rotterdam "loudboxer" is a startling
return.
cold and brutal, speedy utilises a decade's worth of experience to produce
an album of unrelenting ferocity. an album in two parts, the opening six
tracks,
beginning with 'reenter' unfold around a central theme with each track
melding
perfectly into its successor.
dense, deep and atmospheric, the first half is reminiscent of
berlin sound scientists basic channel.
'inter zil' is a logical half way house with its dreamlike snatches of
speech
and washes of sound before the mayhem of the second half
begins with the petrifying 'krekc'.
the final half sounds like a full blown riot, 'krikc live' in particular
is the sound of civil unrest put to music.
without doubt "loudboxer" is a more dancefloor friendly outing, a trend he
hopes
to continue this year with his pan-global live shows and collaborations with
the likes
of gert-jan bijl, chris liebing and george issakidis, yet rest assured,
speedy is still
as far out as a space tourist who's taken the wrong turn.
