— specifically dubstep. That space- cool sounds,” he explains. “They
Natural Rhythm
his label Beartrax and then a string
echo, disembodied, halftime skank is would do a radio show for the week
Jackson first became interested in
of production aliases, among them
reconstructed into a house template and everyone would listen to it, it
music proper as a young teenager
Napoleon Solo, a downtempo project,
on ‘Another Fine Mess’, while the was like Coronation Street in the ’50s,
when his initial classical leanings
and his collaboration with a then-
stunning ‘Rogue Element (Surprise)’ and they had all these insane kind of
and training gradually gave way to
unknown Mylo — The Pretty Boys —
is a spun-out swirling cyclone of acid sound effects. The BBC Radiophonic
an appreciation of dance music and
which resulted in his countryman’s first
bass, vocal samples and heartbeat Workshop, I like that kind of vibe,
nightlife.
appearance on wax.
rhythms . They’re both perfect these were people with original
“I studied classical music from about
Teleport back to the future and it looks
examples of the deeper end of the samplers. And they used tape, they
the age of 14, got really into that,” he
like Milton Jackson has quite a year
dub-wise sound consciously infiltrating actually had to chop up tape and
remembers. “For my 18th birthday my
in store. ‘Crash’ is primed to make
his work. all the rest of it. People like Delia a powerful impact and his new label
“People like Martyn, Burial, 2562, all Derbyshire, who used to work for the
those kind of dubstep guys, I really BBC. If you want to make house music
“I always want a little hook.
love their sound so I’ve been trying you have to look a little further afield
to incorporate some elements of that for inspiration to make it original,
That’s what I try to aim for.”
but still keeping it 4/4,” he tells us. rather than just bashing stuff out.”
“Over the course of an album you need Coaxing soulful sensations and smoky
dad got me an Akai sampler. I started
Dark Energy Recordings, launched last
to mix it up a bit as well. I didn’t want funk from a purely electronic set up,
going out to clubs and then got into
September with fellow house head
to do downtempo things or anything Jackson’s musical raison d'être is
electronic music, the kit and all the rest
Shur-I-Kan, is committed to finding a
like that, I wanted to keep it above 120 to bring an organic human quality
of it. It just kind of went from there.”
new generation of producers as well as
BPM.” to the often-constricting rigidity of
Diving headfirst into his own
putting out more of his own techno-
But for those after a little bit of that dancefloor music — to invest it with
production pool, Jackson began
fuelled fare, like the first release, the
straight-up house heat, ‘Rhythm that all-important mood-to-swing
to generate tracks that seemed to
suitably-titled 'Dark Energy EP'.
Track’ takes it back to the essence — a that’s too often lost in music made
build on both the Glasgow deep
“The first release did really well, so I’m
fresh, crunching beat with more bump entirely with computers. Moving away
sound, purveyed by the likes of DJ
going to concentrate on that for the
than a foetus and packed with the from software programmes, Jackson’s
Q, as well as beginning to embrace
first half of the year,” he informs. “And
kind of Chicago rudiments that Sneak begun to use mainly electronic
the more metallic noises emanating
we want to try and find somebody new,
and Derrick Carter would doubtless hardware again, reacquainting himself
from America, specifically Michigan’s
rather than just put out EPs by people
approve of. with vintage synths and drum boxes.
wintery enclave.
you’ve already heard of.” There's more
He believes it has allowed him to give
Sci-Fi Hi-Fi
“I think there was a definite distinctive
music imminent, and beyond that, the
the electronics a soul, to release the
Glasgow sound back then, not so much
next step is to strip back his hardware,
Beyond the more obvious musical ghost back in to the machine and make
now, “ Jackson believes. “Back in 2000,
invoke the old ghosts, and let them
influences that Jackson brings to the music live and breathe, take on a
guys like DJ Q were doing well, Soma
possess his equipment, to keep him
‘Crash’, he drew on the atmospherics kind of life of its own.
were putting out deeper stuff and
creating the freshest, most soul-soaked
and far-out ideas of another kind of “I was using the computer a lot. You
the Sub Club was still going strong. I
cuts imaginable.
passion to pump vitality into its all- start using the computer on its own
think production-wise more people in
“The computer is quite constrictive,”
encompassing sonic world: science and then you say, wait a minute, all
Glasgow are producing techno now and
he concludes. “I want to get more
fiction. It’s an influence that is even those boxes, synths and machines had
that definitely influenced me in going
old skool. I was reading about these
boldly ingrained in track titles like a lot of soul in them anyway,” Jackson
forward.”
Deepchord guys from Detroit, and they
‘Orbit 3’ and ‘Prototypes’. believes. “There’s always gotta be don’t use a computer at all, they send
“I like the vibe of sci-fi. You can go in some soul in there. A lot of it comes
Back To The Future
each other their parts on a CD-R by
and sample stuff — they used to do from the old jackin’ sound, the old
His first album ‘The Bionic Boy’
post. I want to get back to that, and
those old sci-fi stories on the radio, Mood II Swing days, I used to love all
surfaced in 2002 on Glasgow
see where it takes me.”
there’s a lot of them available online, that. They had that swing, and it’s
Underground and soon after Jackson’s
Get on a crash course with Milton
and some of them had some really difficult to get that, but I love it.”
prolific output increased. First came
Jackson forthwith!
034
www.djmag.com
DJ470.MiltonJackson.indd 34 19/1/09 22:53:25
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132