Later this month, Simian Mobile Disco’s Jas Shaw will support Swans at their biggest ever London headline show at Camden’s Roundhouse. Shaw is set to premiere a new analogue synth set for the show and tQ has an exclusive in the form of one of his works in progress for the set, entitled ‘Sic Semper Tyranis’ – play it above. The track, Shaw is keen to stress, is a rough, first take done in the early part of writing new solo material away from fellow SMD cohort James Ford. He says: "I decided to make upcoming show with Swans and Okkyung Lee a catalyst to write new material and push myself to find new ways to use a synth that I’ve toured with for almost 10 years. Quite a few of the patches for this show are based on ideas that I read about in Allen Strange’s book on synthesis, Electronic Music: Systems, Techniques And Controls. One of the things that I took away from that book was to treat the entire studio as a part of the synth. In line with this I plugged a microphone into my mixer, the idea being that the room becomes an integral part of the feedback network. I had planned to ride the level of the mic but I found that it was more effective to control the feedback by changing where the mic was pointed. In the process of doing this I heard a strange chorusing effect and quickly found that it was due to the doppler effect of shifting the mic around. So, during this take I found myself swinging the mic around my head, trying not to smash it into my synths while trying to make some sort of structure with the other hand. Fun, slightly ridiculous, interesting (to people like me), quite possibly unrepeatable elsewhere. That’s what I’m aiming for. It won’t be a polished show but anything you hear will be new and the result of a system that’s deliberately disobedient."
Shaw supports Swans at the Roundhouse on May 21, as well as Okkyung Lee (read our interview with Lee here), where he will debut a clutch of solo pieces as part of his new set. You can find tickets for the show here.
