Legowelt – Occult Orientated Crime

How do you feel about being described as ‘weird’? You seem pretty normal to me.

In the mostly mundane, colourless world of techno music it isn’t so hard to be seen as weird or ‘eccentric’ if you’re not some boring artistic wanker or shallow hipster expat from Berlin or something.

Neville Watson told me you’re a big fan of Danny Dyer and that you like watching British TV dramas like Midsomer Murders. Was he winding me up?

I have no clue who Danny Dyer is. I don’t think I have ever seen Midsomer Murders. I only know that one with the old guy, some kind of conservative old git wearing a small hat. I used to watch that one, it was kind of sad… and I like that Belgian guy detective series for old people, Poirot, that’s just great… this slow meditative tempo it has.

I’m always excited if I play at Fabric in London because the hotel they put the artists in is right across from the Florin Court building, which is where he lives! (Well, not in real life but in the series.) Also, a few years ago, I think in 2011 when the BLOC festival was in Minehead, they put us in a hotel in the quaint and beautiful village of Dunster, Somerset, on the old square. I immediately recognised it – it’s where this Poirot episode ‘The Cornish Mystery’ took place. Then we would walk around imagining I was Poirot and my friend Orgue Electronique was Captain Hastings, or the other way around. I guess I rather would be Captain Hastings – he seems like a guy that hasn’t got any problems and lives in some kind of naive fairytale bubble.

In the mostly mundane, colourless world of techno music it isn't so hard to be seen as weird or 'eccentric' if you're not some boring artistic wanker or shallow hipster expat from Berlin or something.

How’s your martial arts training going?

The other day I ordered a ninja outfit, like a real professional one. It has everything – even those little socks – but the outfit is too big for me so if anyone needs a ninja outfit for a 1.9 to 2-metre tall person let me know.

In the new Shadow Wolf zine there’s a list of ‘hot producer tips’ from S Hadowwolf and DJ Overdose. What’s the best production tip you’ve heard recently?

Well people always come up with interesting angles and tips. A good one I heard from my friend Jimi Voltagio is if you are mixing down tracks you should put the mix down in mono mode, somehow you can make a much clearer mix down that way.

Shadow Wolf draws on the early internet cyber zines. What was your own first experience of the internet? When did you first get involved in it?

In the early 90s I got a 2,400-baud modem for the Amiga and started to roam around on the BBSs. There were a lot of BBSs connected to electronic music somehow, and then I already had started to get into producing. Through the BBSs I would actually meet some people who helped me with equipment and stuff. One of them was the Random XS guy from Utrecht who used to record for Djax-Up-Beats and had his own label too, called U-TRAX records. That was truly a great label – lots of different great music came out there, from Connection Machine to Fanon Flowers.

The Occult Orientated Crime Album by Occult Orientated Crime

If Doggerland still existed you could drive from The Hague to Ipswich in about three hours, traffic permitting. How would you take advantage of that incredibly convenient access to East Anglia?

It would probably be a province of Holland then and you wouldn’t have to deal with your perfidious politicians and royal family. I am not sure if the Dutch version is any better, but you could at least smoke weed in relative freedom. And your houses wouldn’t be so grimly brown coloured, and you would drive on the normal side of the road. And you would have a better football team.

If England was a province of Holland you wouldn't have to deal with your perfidious politicians and royal family... and you would drive on the normal side of the road. And you would have a better football team.

What style of music are you going to make next? You said something about ‘Ethiopian techno’…?

Well I kinda did that with Nacho Patrol, using Ethiopian jazz scales and stuff like that. I would like to delve a little deeper into Ethiopian music – it’s really fascinating how they use certain scales for certain moods. It’s very mysterious, like alien music or music from man’s ancient forgotten past.

I’m currently working on a new ambient album which is going to be called RISING SUN SYSTEMS – OBERHEIM SPACE, which uses, as the title suggests, mainly the Oberheim Matrix synthesiser and a lot of ancient Japanese scales. These Japanese scales really fit the Matrix, which has a warm, crystal, almost koto-esque magic to it. There is also a bit of G-funk vibes in it. It’s going to be a very melodic and trippy album… if I say so myself.

The Occult Orientated Crime Album is out now on Bandcamp. Find Danny on Facebook, Twitter, SoundCloud and his own excellent website.

The Occult Orientated Crime Album by Occult Orientated Crime