A talk with Dimlite
In search of the simple, not shallow
North Sea Jazz festival 2010. For one night the Yukon stage is transformed into Hyperrhythm, bringing together four descendants of the beat generation, each with an individual style. After Mike Slott, Dorian Concept and Hudson Mohawke, the final part will be in the hands of Dimlite. His music feels superconcentrated, looking for new shapes, without losing the emotion. Unknown rhythm patterns, haunting voices, always relevant – the Swiss musician was often ahead of his time, but never much on the forefront. The people who know, know. Before Dimlite goes on stage, we have a little chat. While his early releases from 2005 still sounds fresh, I ask what has changed recently.
Dimlite: So much has changed. The music itself has changed ofcourse. And I have changed, I guess. Hopefully, no certainly. I can’t even describe because it’s my own music, it’s very subjective and personal.
R: I wonder if the older things were more sampled?
D: Simple?
R: No sampled.
D: Yeah, the older things were more half/half. And now there is no sample at all anymore, but not for the reason I would hate samples. I did this one song recently, where I took a whole song from the sixties and I kind of extracted the vocal track of it and I made a beat underneath it and a couple of chords, very simple. I released it as an mp3, as a gift for people who bought a digital single, and it seems people like this song more than the stuff that is closer to my heart. That is I think partly because I uses portions of someone else’s music, which is kind of funny.
R: And maybe a little bit painful too…
D: No it’s not painful at all, it made me grin. My flatmate asked if he could release the song on vinyl. And I explained him I don’t want this to come out on a serious format because I don’t want to sample anymore, I don’t want to release music that Continue reading »
