Oslo based, London born Tony F Wilson has been steeped in bass pressure since early childhood. Born to Jamaican parents in Croydon, his dad was a member of reggae band Black Volts and his earliest musical memories involve studio sessions. His new mix, exclusively for tQ subscribers under the moniker Spykidelic, involves a dense plethora of his own myriad collaborations – revisited and (sometimes) remixed – a chopped and screwed journey through the depths of projects including Echo Park and Knives Ov Resistance, featuring collaborators including Thurston Moore, Justin K. Broadrick and Loop’s Robert Hampson.
Sub low bass pressure? We’re talking the On U Sound, The Bug, Broadrick school here, a dense but comforting sound world, as enticing as it is foreboding. Make no mistake though: Wilson goes way back – originally hooked via the orbital raves of the early 90s and the exploding music press of the time.
“My dad was in a reggae band” he says. “Croydon. Both my parents are Jamaican. There wasn’t a lot of interest in British reggae back then but I used to go to the sessions.”
At secondary school, Wilson was an avid reader. NME and Record Mirror in particular were mainlined and writers like Stuart Cosgrove were particularly influential on his formative tastes. Wilson absorbed hip hop, early house and industrial of all stripes during the late 1980s. Sending cover letters to NME, Melody Maker and Record Mirror, he received a response form editor Eleanor Levi at the latter, soon conducting a period of work experience.
“I’d be sitting in editorial meetings and, aged 16, say directly to writers ‘oh, you’re such and such! You’re Johnny Cigarettes!’” he laughs
Beside making the tea, Wilson was put to work writing reviews of the expanding early 90s UK dance scene. Out raving on the weekends, he absorbed nascent breakbeat hardcore and bleep techno. But while most of the journalists at Record Mirror covering electronic music were into American imports, Wilson was resolutely British in taste. ‘I was like ‘UK UK UK’’ he laughs. After Record Mirror folded, he wrote for Croydon based club magazine Club Land after popping into the office with his portfolio.
“Orbital were from Sevenoaks. I was up the road in Croydon, right? They were local legends. So I got in touch with their press officer. He got me into the Live At The Brain Club compilations – that was down Wardour Street, Soho. Mixmaster Morris and all that lot. Before IDM was a thing.”
Electronic music was the galvanising force in his journey, but it wasn’t the only strand. Reggae and dub had of course been there since day dot. But metal was a vital influence, too. In his late teens he got a place at The Brit School (the notorious alma mater of Amy Whitehouse, Jessie J, Kate Nash et al). For Wilson, however, it was a means to get involved in rudimentary production – as well as broaden some heavier horizons.
“It was because I was actually from Croydon” he laughs. “It was one of those things. They have to take a certain quota from the area. To my eternal shame… I was one of that cohort. But they were impressed that I’d done the work for Record Mirror at such a young age.” Making use of Roland drum machines, an early version of Cubase and other rudimentary machines, Wilson started making rough beat tapes with his peers.
“Most of the stuff on this Quietus mix is stuff I’ve been involved in,” he says “but it’s not like ‘oh, this is my solo stuff’” he explains. “You can think of it as a bit of a retrospective, some of which I’ve chopped and edited and spliced and so on. A lot of what I do is influenced by metal. For example, I met [tQ editor] John Doran over here in Oslo years back, right. We went to some bar. And we were both like, ‘look! there’s Necrobutcher; there’s such and such!’ All the black metal guys! But, actually, the first guitar music I got into was metal – via hip hop; through Def Jam.”
He describes the mix’s name Nyabinghindustrial II as (mildly) tongue in cheek response to the Scandinavian arts funding world. “A lot of my friends talk about afro futurism,” he laughs “and I’m like, ‘that’s fine but it’s an academic term’ – it’s just my way of saying DUB: it’s coming from dub: it’s coming from industrial; I’m not saying ‘oh, I’ve invented a new genre’! It’s the realm of Meat Beat Manifesto, Techno Animal, Mark Stewart, Scorn, Justin Broadrick – also, the crusty stuff’.
What follows is an impassioned discussion of the vital importance of mid 90s multi genre crusty rave Megadog; name checking Experimental Audio Research, as a crucial pipeline, as well as Broadrick and the mid 90s Earache Records nexus.
“Megadog at the Rocket. Stoned out of my head. What is this?! Godflesh were a big thing in that scene. Carcass. And because we were BRIT School students we went to The BRIT Awards with KLF and ENT. Have you ever seen that Carcass clip on Red Dwarf!? Amazing! And Gunshot – this really hardcore hiphop group – they did stuff with Nic Bullen from Napalm Death. It was all crossover. Godflesh’s Slavestate EP, hip hop vibes; 303’s….
“But this mix? There’s always something that is UK. Like, if I took out the dub elements, or if I took out the breakbeats then it wouldn’t be me. On this mix the earliest tune is probably 1994. Harsh Truth – but then I did an edit of it. The Echo Parc stuff? About 1998. The Necessary stuff? 15 years back. It’s all over the place. It’s a mix that is retrospective – but it’s a bit chopped and screwed!”
To hear Spykidelic’s Nyabinghindustrial II, support the Quietus with Subscriber Plus.
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