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Baker's Dozen

Not-So-Bitter Music: Ali 'Perc' Wells On His Favourite 13 Albums
Tonka Tonka , May 10th, 2017 09:26

We've sent that young rascal Tonka to interview Ali Wells about the albums that made him Perc, from Huey Lewis & The News to Pete Swanson, Aphex, and how Iron Maiden made his kick drum mockery-proof

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Various Artists - Torque (No U Turn compilation)
One of the first types of electronic music I made was drum & bass, and for a long time I was making it alongside techno. The first label that showed any serious interest in my music was a drum and bass label from Manchester. If I had signed that record with them then I wonder how different things would have been. My twin loves when it came to drum & bass were the intricate perfectionism of Photek and the dark side vibe of No U Turn and Renegade Hardware. I've always liked my darker music to be more Hammer Horror than Hostel or Saw. There is a certain Britishness to the darkness of No U-Turn. It's an internal feeling of creepiness rather than trying to outwardly shock. Music like this and also the harder, darker end of techno generally have an initial golden period, then the band wagon jumpers arrive, missing the original subtlety of the music and it becomes a race to the bottom with each subsequent release getting harder, darker and louder than the last.