We talk synths, vinyls and artwork.
Ed Upton, aka EDMX, aka DMX Krew, is one of UK electronic music's true cult heroes. Since the '90s he's been tapping away at his drum machine and caressing his dusty old synths, gliding between electro, house, boogie or techno, refusing to be pigeon holed into a genre. As well as releasing 6 albums on Aphex Twin's Rephlex Records, Upton's own Breakin' and Fresh Up labels have been staples for top quality, creative electronic music for years.
You still make music using analogue equipment, have you ever tried giving software a go?
Yeh I've done some computer tracks, it's fine, just not as much fun and harder to get a feeling going compared to playing actual instruments. Music is about expressing how you are feeling and I feel different if I am walking around a room, playing a synth I have owned for 20 years that smells of dust, dancing around, compared to if I am sitting in front of a screen with a mouse. Then I mostly feel like watching Youtube or going outside.
This is a bit out of date but maybe interesting to some.
Tell us about an underrated or under appreciated producer, past or present.
How about Rich Cason? He produced lots of amazing west coast electro funk stuff, very stripped down drum machine and 2 synths, maybe a singer or a vocoder. His best known tune is "Bad Times (I can't stand it)" by Captain Rapp but he did lots of good stuff as Rich Cason & The Galactic Orchestra and produced electro stuff for Rappers Rapp etc.
Do you still buy vinyl, if so, what was the best discovery you've made lately?
Yes, all my discoveries tend to go on the Fresh Up blog.
We only DJ vinyl so I am mostly buying old records for that. I'm also into techno a lot. I don't buy much new stuff. I think the last new thing I bought was a spacy disco thing called BonVoyage on Stendec Records.
Your artwork is always spot on, are there any artists or graphic designers, past or present, that you're particularly influenced by?
That's kind! I am basically inspired by old-fashioned record label design from before computers took over, whether it be funk records, disco, house and techno.
I like things that are either very simple and clean, well-balanced layouts, or else things that are hand-made like the design on the Fresh Up labels which I just scribbled with a marker pen. Sometimes it's nice to combine those two things, very carefully balanced text layout with something jarring that is too big or off-centre. Actually I like the same thing in music production, a really well-produced punchy track but with the handclap way too loud or the guitar only on the left speaker.
What goes down at your Fresh Up parties
Me & Martin play our favourite records, starting with synthy or funky library stuff and then moving on to funk, disco and boogie as the club fills up.
It's a very small place underneath a Japanese restaurant. You can get great sake or plum wine cocktails there. It's always a real party, everyone having fun and dancing, it's not trainspotters and beards like a lot of more electronic/techno things I play at. Even though I DJ for a living, Fresh Up is like my night off.
Fresh Up is this week's Editor's Choice.
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