“Damn, this dude likes sub bass,” says Tony Rolando.
I’ve just sent links to music by my newest discovery, Material Object, to Rolando and “Rodent” Chislak of the modular synth company, Make Noise.
Why? Because I’m sending links to everyone in the synthosphere. With 26 releases on Bandcamp, there’s a lot to mine and, by the way, I should cop to the fact that I haven’t really “discovered” anything. Material Object is well into his second decade of releasing music. Considering it’s right up my street, I’m feeling a little late to the party.
While some of his earlier work came at things from the machine angle, incorporating Berlin School sequences and various flavours of techno, this latest release, Cloud Chamber, exclusively for tQ subscribers, gives one the impression he’s been huffing GAS lately. Its glacial pacing sits nicely in a playlist next to Wolfgang Voigt’s best-known project, specifically Nah Und Fern, when the low-rumbling kick isn’t present, or some of Fennesz’s more smeared-out moments. The pieces on Cloud Chamber are stretched to the point where the fabric of time begins to fray.
Unlike much of his previous output, it’s in no way rhythm-based. I’ve mostly experienced Cloud Chamber by turning my home into a proper sound bath, but I was surprised at how drastically it changed in different environments. Layered with the steady “gahdunk… gahdunk… gahdunk” of the gaps under my wheels as I crossed the Golden Gate Bridge, ‘Humilis’ was a whole new experience. Deep listening, maaaaan, right there in Pauline Oliveros’ blast zone.
After living in the UK and Germany, then returning to his native Australia, Material Object started to miss the European music community. “My girlfriend is from Slovenia. I fell in love with it instantly, so we moved here,” he says. Along with its central location, picturesque landscapes portrayed in some Neue Slowenische Kunst videos, and great weather, “it’s like Narnia or something. It almost feels as luxurious as Switzerland, but not as expensive. Generally, I have way more fun in the former Soviet countries, Latin America, and Asia. Someone should write a paper on the correlation between the wealth of a place and how boring it is.”
The recent move did present one problem, however: Cloud Chamber was commissioned with a deadline so necessity drove the directive. “Without my gear all set up, I was mostly bound to the laptop. So, that affected the result; the sound. The last two things I’ve done have been based around hardware monosynths, so I actually liked the challenge.”
“When I start with a preconceived idea like, ‘I’m gonna make a techno record,’ I get average, even terrible results. Conversely, if I go in blind, play around, then zoom in on something I like, gold might jump out. It depends on my mood, honestly. Some days everything sounds terrible. I just have to give up for a week and come back to it.”
Cloud Chamber’s origin in software is unusual because Material Object has a long history with hardware. “I quit school at 16, worked at a record store, then bought a Roland JX-3P, a TR-606 drum machine, then I figured out how they worked together by making something like video game melodies. In the 90s, I put together a studio with a friend who had a Roland System 100 modular, though we had no idea how to use it.”
“Much later, I realised how good modular could be. While living in Berlin, I’d walk to SchneidersLaden synth shop to try things out. I was on a waitlist for the Cwejman S1, which had been recommended to me, so I picked up some Eurorack modules, and it became quite an addiction. From about 2011 to 2015, I’d spend all of my spare cash on it.”
It’s the Cwejman that became essential, though. “One day it wouldn’t turn on, so I took it to my local synth repair guy, who’d been a roadie for INXS. He said that without a schematic, it’s like trying to work on a downed UFO. I found a guy in Sweden who fixes them for free, but it takes forever.” Cwejman gear is legendarily expensive, “but I got a second because I don’t want to live without one.
“I don’t know music theory. I can barely find middle C on a keyboard, but I’m good with technology, so things like sound design come to me naturally,” the artist continues. As with any autodidact, sometimes happy accidents breed success. “I had the Cwejman plugged into a Strymon Magneto delay, which I’d just bought, recording things as I was learning how it worked. A year later, I listened back, and I actually liked what I heard. I edited it, thinking I’d just put it up on Bandcamp, but decided to pass it around. Surprisingly, Surgeon and his friend Dan Bean loved it and released Colour on their Old Technology label. It became one of my better-known records.”
The Editions Mego release, Telepath, was another success that came about accidentally. “I was back in Australia, bored, looking to collaborate. Through an advert, I found a violinist who lived nearby. We did some recording, then I spent my time fucking around with it, and something great just emerged. These discoveries are the most fun element of making electronic music.”
Material Object is no stranger to collaborations, including running a record label with Atom™ and, notably, making the album Elektronik X with Pete Namlook. “I was working with him doing graphic design, and we’d talk about music. In 2011, he came to Berlin, saw my studio, and suggested we record together. I can’t just jump in and improvise, so I prepped some stuff, and he came back the next day. I asked if he wanted to hear what I’d prepared. He said, ‘I don’t need to, just hit record.’ It came out great, and we did it again a year later. Then sadly, he was gone.” Namlook died six months later.
With the tools currently available, the urge to constantly release is strong. “I think it’s possible to be too prolific, though. Things begin to sound too similar. It doesn’t cut through anymore, and people lose interest.” So releases need to pass some stringent Q.C. “I try to stay conscious of not polluting the landscape. At the core of it, it has to be good enough for people to feel something. If not, what’s the point? I aspire to be psychedelic, musically. I don’t know how you turn that on, deliberately. It’s either there or it isn’t, but it’s what I hope I’m achieving.”
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