Guest Mix: Fur- Controlled Reverberations Mix

Those of you who are regulars to the site will know we featured FUR (aka Bryce Isbell) back in November.

Since the free downloads of the “Black Castles” & “Blood” EP’s became available Fur has been getting more & more attention. He was recently featured on Pitchfork and XXJFG amongst others- all with glowing reviews.

This has led to him being spotted & signed to Sacramento based label Waaga Records for the release of his 52nd album (!!) (the first 51 being self released).

“Witches“, which is due for release on February 23rd, 2010, is a full length electronic/ ambient/ IDM/ album. Having recently listened to it in full there are a number of stand out tracks for me-”Lackadaisical” being one of them, while the opener “Faces” wouldn’t be out of place as music on Blade Runner in my opinion.

If you fancy grabbing a copy, come the release date, it should be available to buy digitally on iTunes, InSound, I Heart Comix, Amazon, and other online stores, along-side a limited physical release of 125 jewel-case copies of the album. Artwork duties for the album have been carried out by Joe Bastardo.

In advance of the release date we thought we would ask Bryce to put together a wee Phuturelabs exclusive mix for us, which he called “Controlled Reverberations” and ask him a few questions……..

Kieran (PL)- “Tell us a bit about yourself- how did you start writing music?”

Fur- “I never really made any huge effort to write music, it always kind of happened; when I was young (before I could play any instruments) I would sit in front of my parents computer with the default windows audio recorder and sing whatever came in to my head. It sounded awful but it taught me experimentation at a young age.
I have an old computer from when I was a young teenager that has probably two thousand (give or take) 60-120 second songs consisting of improvisational lyrics and instrumentation.

Eventually (circa 2006) my paths crossed with Matthew Gray (Matthew and the Arrogant Sea) and his brother Caleb Gray (Verülf) and the three of us really started to develop our song-writing skills in that ‘collective’. We never wrote down any lyrics or instrumentation, we would just hit record on Caleb’s laptop and improvise until we made something that felt right. This is when my song-writing skills really started to develop; and when I made the transition to electronic music, everything fell perfectly into place.
In electronic music, I have the ability to improvise and perfect.”

PL- “Who (or what) are your influences?”

Fur- “I’m not really sure; I’m very influenced by life and the things that surround me on a day-to-day basis. I don’t really have any strong musical influences; I’m really into opera and sound collage right now. I’ve always had an affinity for soundtracks as well.”

PL- “What does your studio set up consist of? How do you go about composing?”

Fur- “My ‘studio’ isn’t much. These days I generally use a Mac running Ableton Live 7 & Reason 4. Before I fixed my laptop (which was only a recent event) I worked on tracks from computer to computer, which was cool in its own way, because I ended up with lots of collaborations.

As far as the actual construction of the melodies, percussion, atmosphere, et cetera, there is somewhat of a process I usually go through, and it generally consists of chiaroscuro lighting, and a syrupy synth sound.

I usually begin with an idea, an appropriate synth, and/or a sample, then add onto it for several hours, piece-by-piece, until the puzzle is finished.”

PL- “What are your personal favourite tracks on the “Witches” album & why?”

Fur- “Lackadaisical” and “Haunted”; I don’t know why exactly, I guess I like the way they make me feel.”

PL- “What was the idea behind the Phuturelabs mix “Controlled Reverberations” & how did you put it together?”

Fur- “The idea behind the mix was to enhance the altered mind (more or less). I was working on a dance mix at first then eventually settled with what you have now. I had a few rules going into it though; I wanted to keep most of the tracks deep or minimal, with an accent of micro-house (Coyote Clean Up, Bibio, and Faux Fox are the few exceptions).
Everything ended up coming together really well as a chilled, head nod, mix, rather than the usual “dancescapades” I put together…

Enjoy!”

Big thanks to Bryce for taking the time to do the mix and answer some questions for us- all that’s left now is to say… turn the volume up and enjoy this Phuturelabs exclusive mix from the man they call Fur.

You can also subscribe to our mixes podcast on iTunes.

FUR – Controlled Reverberations
(Phuturelabs Mix)

01 – xxx xn thx wxxds/so mucheyeseyeseyes – Coyote Clean Up
02 – Der purpurrote sonnenuntergang am schilfumsäumten bergsee – Dominik Eulberg
03 – Carosello Ellitico – Bibio
04 – Kardamom – Oval
05 – Mädchen mit Hase – Isolée
06 – Domina (Carl Craig’s Mind Mix) – Maurizio
07 – Der judaskuss des sonnentaus/Untitled – Dominik Eulberg/Moodyman
08 – Personal Best (Weird Tapes Remix) – Faux Fox
09 – Bohemian Forest – Pantha Du Prince
10 – Von Nicht-Wollennach Nicht-Kön – Oval