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Klute (not the Leaether Strip project) is
an American-born Englishman by the real name of Tom Withers who
debuted in a skate-punk band, the Stupids, that released three albums.
In the mid 1990s he found his true mission and began releasing the singles
that would define modern drum'n'bass:
F.P.O.P., Right or Wrong,
New Form Of Life, Leo Nine, Laser,
Perceptron/Illuminated, Silent Weapons.
The EP Total Self (Certificate, 1998) was the first attempt at
turning that sound into more than dance material
(Hang-Up and Blow Cold can hardly be defined jungle)
and the album Casual Bodies (Certificate, 1998) bridged his art of
intricate beats, techno locomotives, deep basslines and psychotic arrangements
(Faceless, Totem) with otherworldy neurosis (the heavily
distorted Secret Love) and eerie atmospheres
(Blood Rich, Out Of Silence).
Phone Call and Moving Finger are the standout tracks on
second album Fear Of People (Certificate, 2000).
in 1993
After four years at Certificate 18, Tom released the debut KLUTE longplayer,
'Casual Bodies.' The album extended on the singles, coupling a complex blend of
sounds sourced from the vaults of Detroit Techno with complex beat programming,
which worked with as opposed to pulling against the atmospherics. The resulting level
headed feel allowed the more unusual tracks to leap from the system with liquid
agility, abstract sounds built into molten landscapes of percussion. Adds Tom;
"Casual Bodies is a reference to the mass of people out there without referring to
them as individuals. For me and my musical background I feel that the first album is
often the burning one - tearing it out of the garage and getting that fury out of you
and once completed it is almost as though you're free to expand and develop what
you are doing a lot further."
He feels his recently completed second album, 'Fear of People,' is quite different
from the first. "It's difficult for me to offer a perception of this one as I'm still settling
on it, other than I am more relaxed with what I'm doing and feel able to do more on
the musical side of things." In explaining the curious title he adds, "Again it's not
necessarily a negative or paranoid thought, more two fingers to the pretentiousness
which seems to accompany a lot of the dance music scene and an observation of the
reluctance of a lot of people to take their music a step further. The real reason
behind the title is to reflect what seems to be a prevalence of fear in modern day
living, whether that's a fear of crime or missed opportunities and we almost
encourage ourselves to be equipped with this fear. I wanted to move away from that
and adopt a deeper and emotional outlook within my music. I think a lot of people
have been turned off by certain elements of drum & bass, and I would hope that
'Fear of People' demonstrates a side of the music which doesn't exclude anyone and
shows that there is still much that can be done within the genre."
This is demonstrated in the album, with the introduction of vocals acting to further
humanize the electronics while the instrumental material is as focused as ever with
multi faceted rhythm sections balanced by melancholic low end and thoughtful
melodic leads.
From skate punk to the "intimate terrorism" of Drum 'n' Bass!
From the earliest recordings to his forthcoming second album for
Certificate 18, the sound of Klute has remained at the cutting edge
of drum & bass for close to a decade. Tom Withers, the production
force behind the project, fuses elements of techno with intricate beats
and emotive arrangements to form a distinct hybrid.
Although now eclipsed by his work as Klute, Tom's induction to the
music industry came in the eighties with his role in the notorious skate
punk band The Stupids however, after three albums, ever-increasing attention got the better
of the band and they split. Following the break up Tom took some time out to travel around the
US, where he first discovered "electronic" music, as he explains. "I started listening to a hell of
a lot of techno, but when I came into it all of the strands were pretty much lumped together so
that if you went out you would hear anything from Belgian rave to progressive house."
"Becoming involved in the music was never a calculated move, more something which just
ended up happening. I bought a drum machine but found that I was more interested in having
my own sounds and it seemed a logical step to buy a sampler - I haven't really picked up the
guitar since."
On returning to England in 1993 he settled in Ipswich,
with his early material surfacing on Deep Red although it
was his recordings under the Klute pseudonym (the word
has aesthetically pleased me since I was a child, he
laughs) at Certificate 18 that brought widespread
attention. Already enjoying considerable success with
artists such as Photek and Digital, the label suited
Tom's techno influences.
His singles have stretched the genre, with the eerie,
deep space maneuvers of "Total Self" contrasted against
the seminal "Leo Nine", which captured the essence of
Speed with delicate synth constructs propelled by
tumbling percussives and an unforgettably deep bassline.
"I've tended to just do what I do and not think too heavily about the
concepts behind it," says Tom. "It's those times when I'm lost in the
space of a track that it really starts happening for me. Different things
please different minds, but it is the challenge of making something new
and avoiding things that are perhaps too obvious or familiar that keeps
me interested. I listen to quite a wide variety of music but have always
tended to be quite marginal; outside looking in - so a science fiction feel
for me is more abstract than buzzing computers and dark sounds. I'm
very much into portraying an image, but try to present that image in a
distorted manner so a track or a title could mean any one of many things. I guess my music
isn't the easiest to get into, and if I had to provide a description it would be as intimate
terrorism, in that I try go out of my way to stretch the expectations of music."
After four years at Certificate 18, Tom released the debut Klute long player, Casual Bodies.
The album extended on the singles, coupling a complex blend of sounds sourced from the vaults
of Detroit techno with complex beat programming, which worked with as opposed to pulling
against the atmospherics. The resulting level headed feel allowed the more unusual tracks to
leap from the system with liquid agility, abstract sounds built into molten landscapes of
percussion.
Adds Tom: "Casual Bodies is a reference to the mass of people out there without referring to
them as individuals. For me and my musical background I feel that the first album is often the
burning one tearing it out of the garage and getting that fury out of you and once completed it
is almost as though you're free to expand and develop what you are doing a lot further."
He feels his recently completed second album, Fear of People, is quite
different from the first. "It's difficult for me to offer a perception of this
one as I'm still settling on it, other than I am more relaxed with what I'm
doing and feel able to do more on the musical side of things." In
explaining the curious title he adds, "Again, its not necessarily a
negative or paranoid thought, more two fingers to the pretentiousness
which seems to accompany a lot of the dance music scene and an
observation of the reluctance of a lot of people to take their music a
step further. The real reason behind the title is to reflect what seems to
be a prevalence of fear in modern day living, whether that's a fear of crime or missed
opportunities, and we almost encourage ourselves to be equipped with this fear. I wanted to
move away from that and adopt a deeper and emotional outlook within my music. I think a lot
of people have been turned off by certain elements of drum & bass, and I would hope that Fear
of People demonstrates a side of the music which doesn't exclude anyone and shows that there
is still much that can be done within the genre."
This is demonstrated in the album, with the introduction of vocals acting to further humanize
the electronics, while the instrumental material is as focused as ever with multi faceted rhythm
sections balanced by melancholic low end and thoughtful melodic leads.
"To me drum & bass is a form of music which has always been out on a
limb and the tracks that have shocked me are those that have
expanded on what went before them," explains Tom. "Whether that's
people using the technology in ways that you're not supposed to or just
turning around sounds in different ways. As far as I am concerned
people taking chances is the future and I would like to think that my
material falls into that category."
Essential Klute
"Leo 9" - Klute (Certificate 18)
"Future Paranoia EP" - Override (Octopus)
"Burnt Offerings" - Phume (SSR)
"Tribunal" - Klute (Certificate 18)
"Breakers/Depattern" - Spectre (Partisan)
More Klute: www.kluteproductions.co.uk
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FunKeyJ said on 11/18/2000 04:23 AM ...
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