With a new four track EP out on Heist, we spoke with UK production duo Kassian about their life outside music for this month’s ‘Show & Tell’.
Since their 2018 debut UK production duo Kassian have put out a series of sophisticated releases on Heist, Phonica White and Groovance, taking soul, broken-beat and hip hop influences and working them into contemporary house grooves. They’re back with another four-track EP for Heist called ‘8th Movement’, which features three quality soul-infused 4/4 originals very much in the Heist tradition and a tasty Leo Pol remix too. But what do they get up to when they’re not producing dance-floor destroyers?
Arthur Ganson – Moving Sculptures
A super early TED talk and one of the best. The way this guy describes his art is incredible, and there are a lot of parallels with electronic music production and synthesis. There’s a lot of beauty in mechanics if you know how to surface it.
Herbie Hancock & Quincy Jones Jamming on the Fairlight and Rhodes Chroma
It doesn’t really get any more inspiring than this. Two musical geniuses talking about the beauty and scope of electronic instruments just as they were really breaking into mainstream music. We wish everyone was this open-minded about making weird sounds.
NBA ‘Highest IQ’ MOMENTS
NBA ‘Highest IQ’ basketball. After watching ‘The Last Dance‘ we geeked out on basketball for a while, the documentary made us realise how insanely complex and intelligent the game is.
Rick Rubin chatting with RZA
There’s a podcast series by Malcom Gladwell and Rick Rubin called ‘Broken Record’, it’s just Rubin chatting openly with some legendary musicians like RZA, Andre 3000, Alicia Keys. There’s no agenda or topics, each episode is fascinating.
Jim Can’t Swim
A criminology and psychology Patreon and Youtube channel dedicated to human psychology with an emphasis on crime and police interrogations. It’s not sensationalised like many of the TV docu-series that are out right now and can be really thought-provoking if you’re into this kind of thing. It’s a complete no-brainer subscribing to the Patreon to support the amount of research that goes into each video. Worth checking out and great background fodder.
Studio Ghibli on Netflix
Netflix recently released a bunch of popular Studio Ghibli animations for streaming at the start of lockdown. Between us we’ve watched quite a few. It’s been a great excuse to revisit a few classics and take in some of the lesser-known films.
Andrew Craig’s ‘How To Own the World’
A great book we’ve both been reading that breaks down the economy and the world of personal investing and the finance industry by explaining it in layman’s terms. It explains a lot of things which aren’t taught in schools or much in higher education so definitely another recommendation for financial literacy alone.
James Clear’s Atomic Habits
James Clear’s ‘Atomic Habits’ newsletter on human psychology, habits and motivation. It’s based on theory and case studies and generally gives a great insight into forming positive habits. The book is a great read.
NAACP LDF & Black Minds Matter
We recently donated our Bandcamp earnings for a weekend to the NAACP legal defence fund who are doing great work for human rights and offering legal assistance to African Americans and people of colour in the USA. We’ve also been supporting a great initiative in the UK called Black Minds Matter who are making mental health topics relevant and accessible for all black people in the U.K with workshops and therapists. Netflix also just made a selection of their Black Lives Matter series available to stream on youtube. 13th is a great place to start.
Cape Verde
Apparently, in 1968 a ship full of Korgs and Moogs disappeared and somehow ended up in Cape Verde. The synths were equally distributed among schools in the area which helped create a whole genre of African cosmic disco by that generation of students. There are a few conspiracies floating around regarding it but it’s an interesting story that produced some really interesting music, read the article here.
Kassian’s ‘8th Movement’ EP (Ft. Leo Pol remix) is out on Heist Recordings.