DJ Spotlight - EYE Weekly

WHO Thanks to DJs like Scotland’s Alex Smoke who keep on building beautiful minimal techno, there’s an enduring sense of awe in digital music’s emotional capabilities. Inspired by classical music (in which he has training), hip-hop and avant-garde electronica that “sounds like insects fighting,” Alex Smoke has consistently been streaming out deep, moving rhythms since his 2002 debut single “Random As” on Savalas Underground Developments. An artist on Glasgow’s Soma records since 2004, his highly acclaimed, boundary-blurring productions and remixes (that sometimes make innovative use of his own vocals) have appeared on numerous compilations including Marco Carola’s Fabric 31, Canadian expat Jeremy P. Caulfield’s Dumb-Unit imprint, and Soma’s famous Sci.Fi.Hi.Fi. series. In a few short years, he’s infiltrated Europe’s meccas of minimal — Berlin and Barcelona — while impressively juggling the demand for his live set and diverse productions such as a hip-hop project under the name Fool, a classical composition under his birth name Alex Menzies and (likely another smokin’) Alex Smoke album.

WHAT “Mainly I play my own music live — melodic house, techno, electronica — but when I DJ, I play everything from Detroit techno to weirdo spank-hop,” says Smoke, whose best DJing experience would be comprised of “a small club with a musically educated but unpretentious crowd, including all my friends, a case of beer in the DJ booth and a late flight the next day.”

WHERE Breakandenter, 842 College W. Sat, Dec. 15 with Kero, Noah Pred, Intrepid Traveller, more.

FAVOURITE RECORDS OF ALL TIME Schneider TM The Light 3000, Beach Boys Good Vibrations and “Bucephalus Bouncing Ball” by Aphex Twin.

FAVOURITE RECORD RIGHT NOW Burial, Untrue LP (Hyperdub)

FAVOURITE WEBSITE RIGHT NOW “I’m a nerd, so probably something like www.symbolicsound.com, which I’m on a lot.”

WHAT IS YOUR MOST SURREAL DJING EXPERIENCE? “Playing in the hills north of Tokyo at a hippie festival for three days. Beautiful and super-atmospheric — and the insects were massive.”

WHAT IS VITAL TO YOUR DAILY ROUTINE? “Tea, walking nowhere in particular, staring.”

WHAT GLOBAL ISSUE CONCERNS YOU MOST RIGHT NOW? “Pfff. Where to start? I guess the fact that we’re all moving backwards in so many ways when we should be doing positive things and moving forward. Politics is unerringly cynical.”

WHAT IS YOUR RING TONE RIGHT NOW? “I always have my phone on silent. I’m one of those grumpy bastards that hate to hear them anywhere anytime.”

WHAT IS THE LAST GREAT FILM YOU SAW? The Lives of Others

WHAT ACTOR WOULD PLAY YOU IN A BIOPIC? “That would probably be the most boring biopic in history. A pallid Scotsman walking about his house in his pants, drinking tea and playing with his computer. Whoever it was wouldn’t need any acting skills.”

WHAT ARE YOU READING RIGHT NOW? A biography of Freud, A Prayer For Owen Meany by John Irving, and the Kyma [sound design software] manual.