Surfing down the side of a volcano? Lowri Clarke meets Lazer Sword.
Lazer Sword are Lando Kal and Low Limit. Or Antaeus Roy and Bryant Rutledge. They are also one of the most pioneering electronic acts to come out of West Coast America. Their roots can certainly be heard in the prevalent hip hop, glitch hop, crunk scene which is so incredibly massive over there right now. But their music has mutated and gone beyond the realms of the definable. It drags in elements of ghetto house, techno, hip hop, future garage. Crunky as hell, heavy, low-end synths, electro subs: it touches many bases at once and flies above them all.
They have jokingly described their sound as 'future blap'. Like most music labels, it's an attempt to describe something impossible. Is it helpful? Does future blap actually mean anything? The most direct route to understanding the Lazer Sword sound is to see them perform it. These guys are not just DJs turned producers. They are a live show. Blap or no blap, I saw them doing their thing at Earnest Endeavours last month, and caught up with them afterwards to try and make sense of it all, outside the darkness and away from the wall of futurism.
Do you write your tunes for the dancefloor? Are you ravers?
Yes and no. Generally tracks that we make are produced with the dancefloor in mind, although there are instances where that's not the case. I think there can also be times when music works great in a club environment, but carries enough depth to hold its own in the headphones or at a dinner function. As for the ravers question, definitely no.
You're both artists in your own right, performing individually often. What does two of you bring?
In a lot of ways, because we grew into the role of performers alongside one another, we do bring many of the same techniques and flavours to the table. Even musically we've both grown beyond our electro and hip hop starting point to a shared interest in a lot of other shit like house, UK funky, juke, grime, etc. But we do dive deeper into some areas in our respective paths – for instance Lando is getting more into techno lately, where I'm experimenting with the rap and hip hop tempos and weird slow-mo house.
How do you strike a balance between performing your art and entertaining a crowd? Do you respond to the dancefloor reaction?
I feel like it's always been a balance between the two since the beginning for us, even more weighted in the 'performing art' side at first. In time, playing our own material for a crowd of people shaped our productions and live show into something that's more suited for the club, but there's never been much of a drop in emphasis on the art. Creation and improvisation is key for us in putting on an entertaining show.
You guys have loads of energy behind the decks – bouncing off each other and loving it. Is your live show entirely (or partly) planned? Or is there quite a bit of on the spot improv?
I'd say 20% of our live show is planned – more than anything a general tempo scheme for the evening (based on the kind of party/crowd), and maybe a few important transitions at most. I think that's one of the more exciting things that stands out about a Lazer Sword show, both for us and the crowd. We've played so many shows together we really have a system down as far as reading each others signals and crucial on-stage communication.
In your live show, do you generally play all your own stuff?
We play mostly our own material, but do incorporate material from others as well. Being a DJ long before ever performing 'live', I definitely enjoy stepping outside of just my own catalogue and working music from others into the set here and there, whether a chopped up edit of the original or simply playing the tune straight through. We keep up on a lot of the new shit going on in music – sometimes you just wanna hear your homie's new song in the club.
The more forward-thinking factions of UK clubbers are loving the Lazer Sword sound. Are you surprised by the mega response to your material?
Rad. I mean, we're very much tuned into what is going on in the UK, and we both take influence from the old and more current UK sounds alike, so I suppose it crosses over. We definitely feel a lot of love there, more than many other places. I'm happy.
We publish a feature on Spoonfed every Friday called Dancefloor Bombs. Could you add one each for us? A couple of failsafe bangers?
Chrissy Murderbot featuring DJ Spinn – Bussin' Down
Araab Muzik – Always Made It (Instrumental)
Studio or gigging? Which best transmits the Lazer Sword sound?
I'd say a toss up. You can't really go wrong with a live show as an introduction to what we do, but if we've done our job right it should translate well to recorded version.
What's next for you guys?
We've just finished up a couple of commissioned things – production for a new Foreign Beggars single, as well as a remix for (Modeselektor's label) Monkeytown Records' artist Elan. Otherwise there's a handful of our solo material, which we've put on the backburner for some time, to see release in 2011.
Any up and coming artists I should look out for?
Salva, Ghosts On Tape, Clicks & Whistles, P-Fang…
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