Fresh TEA - Tom Dicicco

Tom Dicicco (pronounced Dee-Chee-Co) looks to have struck a chord with those yearning for more emotive content within music geared for the dancefloor. Dicicco may be considered to be in the dawn of his musical career but his deep and meaningful productions have years on the cheap, deep and meaningless imitations plaguing many of our inboxes. This comes as no surprise as the Northampton tot was schooled by the teachings of his father preaching the word, rhythm and sound of King Tubby, Lee Scratch Perry and Yabby You, delivering the dub obsessive we see today.

University commitments saw Dicicco make tracks to Manchester where a hook up with the prolific AnD via Easter Bloc Records saw the troupe establish the Wood Bison inspired Inner Surface Music. Since his first Material Things EP on Baud, recognition of Dicicco’s talents have not gone unnoticed, attracting the attention of Pär Grindvik, Jonas Kopp and Project Squared boss Paul Cooper.

On a recent trip to London TEA caught up with one of 2011's most exciting and prominent talents, where he spilt the beans on his love of wildlife documentaries, Massive Attack and a cup of Manchester's finest brew.

How and where did you mix your podcast for TEA and what did you have in mind when mixing it?

The idea behind adding dub reggae to each end of the mix gave me the chance to do something that in most club situations I wouldn’t be able. I always like to add things like that into a podcast and dub reggae has had a big influence on me, the rest of the mix is a representation of what I would play in a club at the moment. It was recorded at home in my bedroom on two 1210’s, a pioneer and was all vinyl.

What came first dub or techno?

Dub came along time ago. It all came about as my Dad is a massive dub reggae fan and he has a huge collection of dub reggae, wherever we were going my Dad had it playing. Massive Attack is also my favourite band, I’m a massive Massive Attack fan so a lot of influence has come from their early work and still a lot to this day with Heligo Land which I think is amazing. With dub reggae, at a young age you don’t ask too many questions about the music you are listening to, it wasn't until I was a bit older that I started thinking that I should look into it a bit more and ever since then it has played a massive part in my music.

How much has the dub influence helped you produce techno?

Massively. I’ve looked into it, I don't just listen to it. I read a lot about dub and I’ve watch quite a few documentaries. My Dad has a hole bunch of DVD’s that have come with albums that he’s bought and some of them show the whole process of how that album was recorded. I really enjoy the techniques they use and the way they go about production, it’s very unique. I’m not saying that I’m reinventing the wheel but I’m trying to implement some of those things into what I’m doing and I think it has worked for me so far.

You played Dense & Pika’s Bad Back in your podcast which is an absolute gem of a track, great find.

It is. I don’t think a lot of people know about it either. I’m originally from Northampton but I live in Manchester. When I go back to Northampton I go to Vinyl Underground, I picked that one up when I was there last and I was like this is a total killer, both tracks on the EP are really strong. It reminds me a lot of WK7’s The Avalanche.

Tell us about your move to Manchester, how is it all going?

It’s going really well. I moved up here in August 2009 for university and I’m starting my third year now. I’ve met a load of people up here like Andrew and Dimitri from AnD who have been absolutely amazing, we started the label Inner Surface Music together. Had it not been for them I don’t think I would have had the chance to met a lot of other people that I’ve met up here. When I arrived in Manchester I went into Eastern Bloc Records and all the guys were there, I went in a few more times and then my Material Things EP came out on Baud, I took some copies down for them and they really liked it and it went from there.

The first release for ISM was Wireman's Monobloc/Distance/To The Sleeper EP. How did label first begin and what plans do you have for ISM?

I’ve always wanted to start a label. I have released on other labels and I always thought if I did start my own label it would be a platform for other artists too. Meeting AnD was great as they were on the same level as me. We spent some time talking about what we wanted to do and how we wanted to go about it, as in formats and aesthetic. Before we had that conversation I came up with the name Inner Surface through watching a documentary on Wood Bison, which is a bit strange (laughs). It was talking of how the Bison were made up genetically and how they use their skulls for fighting, it went into quite a bit of detail by showing all the layers of bone and things like that. It triggered something which somehow led on to the whole Inner Surface Music thing. The idea was for us to do our thing together and also bring in other artists that we like. The next release will be out in January and the one after that will be in April which will be a big release.

PSQ006 - AnD featuring Tom Dicicco Remix - www.projectsquared.net by tomdiciccomusic

You seem to be a fan of your wildlife documentaries as I’ve seen you have tweeted quite a few time about Frozen Planet?

Yes. It’s the new David Attenborough documentary on Antarctica. It goes into things like the seasons and the cycle of life. A lot of what they cover is undiscovered, there is a lot of footage which you’d never get to see otherwise and it’s shot so well. It can be really inspirational to sit and watch.

I know you have done a few things for labels Stockholm LTD as well as Project Squared. How important are those two labels to you?

The very first thing I did was with Patrick Graeser and quite a lot has come off the back of hooking up with him in 2005. He introduced me to a lot of people, I’d send him all my stuff and he’d give me a lot of feedback, he gave me my first remix which was my first track on vinyl which was amazing. Patrick has always helped me and is like a brother in a way now, I can ring him up whenever I want and he’ll always have time to talk and we'll run ideas past each other. I go up to Berlin quite a bit to visit him. He also remixed my track Material Things with thanks to Roger 23 from Germany. Pär and I got in touch over facebook, he mentioned how he liked my tracks suggested we do something in the future. I was really up for that as I had always been into Stockholm LTD and loved his early Drumcode stuff, it was really nice to have him take me on board with the label. The first release was supposed to be my remix of S100 but then the various artists EP dropped and my track Night Erosion was my first release for Stockholm LTD. My remix for S100 EP will be next. Pär has been amazing and has given me a lot of feedback on some of my music that hasn’t been released, he has a lot of experience and once again being involved with him has introduced me to a lot of new people. I met Paul Cooper (Project Squared) through AnD as they did PSQ006 and I did the remix. After that Paul said he could be interested in releasing some tracks of mine and asked me to send him some material. I sent Paul some originals as well as the EP I did with Joe (Kowton), he said he really liked it and was interested in releasing it, I'm really looking forward to that coming out. I’d say that Inner Surface Music, Stockholm and Project Squared are three very important labels for me at the moment.

How did the EP with Kowton come about?

Joe and I had been chatting about doing something together and then the idea came about that we remix a track of each others and then release it as a four track EP. I sent that over to Paul.

PSQ007 - Kowton & Tom Dicicco - Untitled EP - www.projectsquared.net by tomdiciccomusic

You also work closely with Jonas Kopp?

Ever since I released my EP on Baud I’ve been in touch with Jonas as he really liked it. He got in touch with me around this time last year about working on some other projects and I spent some time writing some tracks and now we are at a point where it’s ready to go. My track Dust Groove featured on Traut’s 007 which is a various artists EP.

You also did some work with Zebby from the Reggae group Mystic Crew?

Zebby and I used to go to collage together. I was always into what the Mystic Crew were doing and Zebby is an absolutely amazing singer. When I was at uni I was working on a new project, something that was a bit more broken I guess you could say. I gave Zebby a call to see if he fancied doing any vocals. I sent what I had done over to him and he came up with an idea and we bounced it back a few times and that’s what came out the other end. I didn’t really think about releasing it properly but when I was featured on Modifyer’s Process Series, Rayna asked if asked if I wanted to contribute anything and I sent her that and she really liked it.

I also saw on your tumblr that you have a quote from Giorgio Morodor.

If you can get the opportunity to sit a watch someone in the studio the value of that will benefit you more than listening to what they make, as it will put you into good practice when working on your own music. That is more important than anything. To have had the opportunity to sit in on a session in Jamaica with King Tubby when he was alive would be something that I would give anything for. A lot of the time when I listen to his music I think - how the hell did he do that? To be able to witness something like that would be amazing. I’d love for a week to just sit and watch Massive Attack in the studio too.

Whats next from Tom Diccico?

I’ve got quite a lot. My remix for S100 is next and I’ve got an EP coming up on Jonas Kopps Traut, that will be out on the 5th of December and will be two tracks with a Shifted remix. The 9th of Decemeber will also be my Project Squared EP with Kowton. I’m also working on something with Indigo.

And what is your favourite tea?

My favourite tea is PG tips.

Of course, a local brew.

A good old English tea with no sugar, I used to have sugar when I was a kid but not anymore.

Milk?

Yeah Milk, no sugar. Sometimes I’ll have a green tea with grapefruit or apple, some of the Twinnings range can be quite nice but usually it’s good ol cup of PG tips that does the job.

Download Here

Tracklist

1. Prince Jammy - Life Is A Moment In Space [Pressure Sounds]

2. Aiken - Conclusion (Architectural Remix) [SEMATICA 38]

3. Badawi - The Axiom (Andy Stott Remix) [the Agriculture]

4. Reagenz - The Labyrinth [Ostgut Ton]

5. L.B. Dub Corp - Lurcher's Dub [Mote Evolver]

6. Dense & Pika - Bad Back [Dense & Pika]

7. Rivet - Running (Edit) [Naked Index]

8 Mike Dehnert - Rgs2 [Echochord Colour]

9. Delta Funktionen - Silhouette (Marcel Dettmann Remix) [Delsin]

10. Mondo - Work Me Baby (Marcelus Interpretation) [Deeply Rooted House]

11. .#.4.26. - Whativa [Frozen Border]

12. Area Forty_One - Mjölnir [Ann Aimee]

13. Moerbeck - 006.MK [Vault Series]

14 Jolka - Five (Silent Servant remix) [Sect Records]

15. Tom Dicicco - Night Erosion [Stockholm LTD]

16. Mark Ernestus - Meets BBC Version [Honest Jon’s Records]

17. Rhythm & Sound w/ The Chosen Brothers - Mash Down Babylon [Burial Mix]

TEA with AnD

What would in most cases be a mildly amusing joke of ‘A Greek and a Northern Irishman walk into a bar’ would at the moment translate into AnD entering a club ready to seduce its inhabitants with their predatory bass lines, sassy percussion and Dave Clarke inspired techno.

The two are yet another faceless and covert production unit to have released on the equally enigmatic Horizontal Ground and Black Sun Records imprints. 2011 has been a year that has garnered them most attention since first releasing on Manchester label Mindset in 2009. With an unstoppable amount of techno seen from the two this year it’s clear that a release-less 2010 was the bi-product of being left to their own devices in an abandoned air raid shelter beneath the streets of Manchester, the city the two currently call home.

The duo entrusted the launch of their vinyl only imprint Inner Surface Music earlier this year with the relatively unknown Wireman aka Andrew Langfield. With rumours of ISM002 being just around the corner, TEA caught up with the unidentified techno objects for talk of hitting the clubs at fourteen, two Australian migrations and one making it through to late Sunday night after opening for Frozen Border’s Berghain Klubnacht in March.

So your both Manchester lads at the moment, a city well known for its music. Tell us a bit about how you guys met and where you both grew up.

We have both lived in Manchester for the past 7 years, but I'm originally from Belfast and Dimitri is originally from Thesaloniki in Greece. We first met each other about six and a half years ago through a mutual friend and we both happened to be studying music production at the School of Sound Recording. We never really started working together until two years after we first met, Dimitri gave me a CD and I said to him we should hook up and do some work together, everything clicked from there really.

Andrew - Growing up in Belfast was cool, it was never really a massive musical city but certain DJ's and certain nights really helped shape the sound that I'm into today. When I was growing up David Holmes was a massive influence for me as he played trip hop and funk one night and then the next time you'd see him he'd be playing acid house and techno. I always found this fascinating and really inspiring even though I didn't DJ or produce at the time. I also made my first trip to Shine in 1997, I shouldn't of been in there as I was only 16, I remember Dave Clarke was playing and as soon as I heard a 2 hour set from one of the masters I was totally hooked and fell in love with the genre that I still love today.

Dimitri - I grew up in a typical city environment. Thessaloniki is the second largest city in Greece and is a lovely place next to the sea with a nice harbour with loads of bars and clubs. There was always a lot of interesting things going on in the city, from art installations and exhibitions to live theatrical performances and full philharmonic bands on the street. I was lucky enough to live a little bit out of the city centre, near forests and parks. It was nice to experience tranquil places like that on a Sunday morning, I used to enjoy taking in the scenery and isolation, left only with my thoughts and music. This only satisfied me so much and I decided to move to the city for some new experiences. It was there that I got some part time work and started going to school which inevitably lead to experiencing the nightlife. After a while I started going out more and more and not long after this I started DJing in a club at the age of 14. From then on I started playing in more clubs across Greece and that's where my musical journey began.

Andrew, you were in Perth, the western part of Australia for a while too?

Yeah I lived in Australia for about 18 months when I was 14, my family decided to emigrate to Perth as we had family living there already. Things didn't go so well first time round so we moved back to Northern Ireland. My family decided to go back when I was 20 so I spent another year in Perth and this time had alot of fun, but it wasn't for me and I eventually moved back to the UK.

How influential has Manchester been on you?

Manchester can be very influencial as it's an industrial city with plenty of old mills and warehouses all over the place. It can also be very grey with a lot of rain, so it can help put you in the right mood to make some dark moody techno (laughs). The music scene here is really good, there tends to be loads of great artists performing here on a regular basis. The thing that makes Manchester what it is, is the amount of really talented young producers all doing their own thing. Manchester never gets the props London does, but there are enough talented people here doing a lot of amazing things at the moment. You can really draw a lot of inspiration from the music that your friends are making, no matter what the genre.

Manchester seems to give off a vibe of being a tight knit community when it comes to techno, is this true?

Manchester is a very tight knight community in the sense that it's not actually that big, so you get to know everybody pretty quickly. I would say it's the same as everywhere, certain groups of people really help to push each others sound, and others don't (laughs).

Is Manchester where you plan to stay?

For the foreseeable future yes, but who's knows what is around the corner. If the opportunity comes up to do something else in a different place we are not the sort of people who would ever say never.

Wireman was the first release on your new label Inner Surface Music. How long have you had plans for ISM and how did it all come together?

We had been in touch with Wireman for about 3 years and we've been holding those tracks tight for a long time. We had always wanted to start a label and the opportunity came up to start one last year with Tom Dicicco, we all felt the time was right to get things moving. We had talked about some ideas and what we felt was going to be the right direction for the label to move in aesthetically and sonically. So we were already on the same page when it came it choosing tracks and artwork etc. We all like very similar styles of music and we all have a very similar ethos when it comes to music so there wasn't too much to work out.

B2 Wireman - To the Sleeper by innersurfacemusic

What plans do you have for the label?

As we are all 100% vinyl when we DJ, the label is only going to be vinyl only. The next Inner Surface Music 002 will come from ourselves and should be coming out within the next 2 months, later in the year we will also have an EP coming from Tom Dicicco. We have some great EPs planned for next year already, we want to keep people guessing so watch this space.

Tell us about your relationship with Tom Dicicco.

We met Tom a few years ago through Eastern Bloc Records in Manchester. He gave us a copy of his first EP on Baud and from there we became really good friends. As we said Tom's into very similar music and has a very similar ethos to us when it comes to DJing and production, so we all hit it off very quickly. A very talented guy and an all round nice bloke.

Black Sun Records 002 recently dropped. Tell us about those 3 productions and how your involvement came about with BSR.

We had our first Horizontal Ground release in August last year and had been sending loads of material to Jeff, the label owner. He wanted to take quite a few of the tracks off us but he felt like these productions were too hard for the Horizontal Ground label. So he asked us if he could pass them on to Black Sun Records on our behalf, so everything stemmed from that. The A side and B1 on that record are alot more traditional techno than some of our other deeper chord driven tracks, but they are essentially us making techno similar to the styles we grew up listening and dancing too in the club.

Do you guys have more plans for work with BSR?

There has been nothing planned as yet, but we will certainly hope to have some new material out with them in the future.

AnD ep Black Sun Records BSR02 clips by AnD

How is the dynamic between you two in the studio.

We work well as a duo, as one of us is extremely calm and relaxed and the other is very impatient, this tends to work very well. (laughs) We spend alot of time writing together and we also write a lot individually, we always throw all of our ideas into the one pot, that way you are always twice as creative. Plus it's always nice having someone else to bounce ideas around rather than getting stuck in rut, when you've listened to a set of elements on loop for 20 hours it's very easy to lose the plot. The best thing about working as a duo though is that you get to share the experiences with someone else who also happens to be your best friend.

Do the two of you work on any solo material.

No.

You opened proceedings for Frozen Borders Klubnacht at Berghain in March of this year. How was it and how did you go about opening Berghain? That set time can allow for quite a bit of experimentation.

Playing at Berghain was the best experience we've ever had DJing! The club, the staff, the crowd and of course the sound system are all amazing, it was very special and something we really hope that we have the opportunity to do again. There was no plan, we packed two record bags worth of tracks that we love and from there it was all working completely off the vibe that we got from the crowd. We don't think you can plan for a gig like Berghain as the place has a life of its own and you just have to go with what feels right at the time.

Did you make it to the end Sunday?

One did, one didn't. Long story! (laughs)

Psq006 clips AnD ep with Tom Dicicco Remix by AnD

In may of last year FACT Magazine interviewed Frozen Border, a label shrouded in secrecy in which it made a statement about its roster “At the moment it’s 6 artists and I have never met one of them in person, so I would say it’s quite a loose collective” How is it to work with mysterious labels such as Frozen Border and Black Sun Records?

The reason why we first contacted Frozen Border / Horizontal Ground was because we loved the music that they had released. I think the one thing a lot of people forget these days is that if the music is good who cares who releases it, makes it or plays it. If the music is good enough it will stand up by itself. Too many DJ's and producers are only interested in being superstars whenactually they aren't, they are just ordinary people who happen to write music or play other peoples tracks. We think Frozen Border, Horizontal Ground and Black Sun Records all work as mysterious labels because the music is good. If it wasn't, no body would care.

Dubstep seems to influence British techno producers most. You have just released on Project Squared which dabbles in stepped styles, should we be expecting anything different to what you have previously produced?

Our first release back in 2009 was actually a dubstep and techno influenced track on Mindset Recordings, so we have actually been writing dubstep and techno for a while now. The release on Project Squared does lean more towards dubstep, but what people perceive as dubstep and what we perceive as dubstep can be two completely different things. We are really happy with the EP and have been getting some great support from people like Surgeon, Lucy and Forward Strategy Group. It also features a great remix from Tom Dicicco as well.

Whats next for AnD?

We have some great EPs lined up for the rest of the year with Inner Surface Music, Sect, Hidden Hawaii Ltd, Idle Hands, Krill and more. Apart from that we will be working hard in the studio on some new material and playing lots of great parties.

What is you favourite tea?

Chai

Download AnD TEA Podcast #11

1. AnD - Intro
2. Forward Strategy Group - Inside The Shadows (Dadub Metropolis remix) [Stroboscopic Artefacts]
3. Tom Dicicco - Night Erosion [Stockholm Ltd]
4. AnD - Transparent [Forthcoming Krill]
5. Iori - Lapis One [Prologue]
6. Peter Van Hoesen - Defense Against the Self (Lucy remix) [Time To Express]
7. Handahofi - Tioni - Untitled A - Forthcoming Handahofi [Tioni Musik]
8. Sigha - Politics of Dying (James Ruskin remix) [Our Circula Sound]
9. Pfirter - Vasodilatador [Stockholm Ltd]
10. Shifted - B2 [Avian]
11. Truncate - Truncate 16 [Enemy]
12. Unknown - A1 - [Horizontal Ground]
13. Giorgio Gigli - Indifferent Sight (Terrence Dixon remix) [M_Rec] (Forthcoming)
14. Delta Funktionen - Miss Communication [Ann Aimee]
15. Sandwell District - Grey Cut Out [Sandwell District]
16. AnD - Non Compliant - [Inner Surface Music] (Forthcoming)
17. Coefficient - Vacuum Instability [M_Rec]
18. Shifted - Control [Mote Evolver]
19. Cosmin Trg - De Dans [50 Weapons]
20. Objekt - Clk Recovery [Objekt]
21. Sigha - I am Apathy, I am Submission [Blueprint]
22. Phase - Dome Argus [Token]
23. Traversable Wormhole - Exiting the Milkyway (Surgeon remix) [CLR]
24. Tommy Four Seven - Sevals [CLR]
25. Surgeon - Those Who Do Not [Dynamic Tension]
26. Henning Baer - B2 [K209]
27. O/V/R - Post Traumatic Son (MDR Version) [Blueprint]
28. Albert Van Abbe - NCS 0007121210 (Sleeparchive remodel) [No Comment]
29. Truncate - Focus V2 [Truncate]
30. DVS1 - Departure [enemy]

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