AMORPHIC

It’s been years in the making, but Amorphic is finally ready for launch. And what  a start! Two heavyweight techno workouts to kick off not only the Amorphic project but also the self-titled label. The linear no-nonsense techno project is a long wish come true for Vince Watson as he finally gets his edgier, energy driven techno project off the ground. DMCWORLD grabs a wonderful world exclusive…

 

Hey Vince, thanks for chatting to DMC World, where in the world are you at the moment?

Hey! Right now I’m sitting in my Studio in my garden looking out at my family having fun in the sun and I’m sitting nursing a non-covid cold!

The first release from your anticipated Amorphic project is due to drop on March 19th. Can you tell us more about how the alias and the label came about?

This has been a long time in the making, years in fact. The grand plan was to split my music up into 4 different artists. Quart was the first one, and we did the debut LP on BBE in 2019 with that one focusing on my more jazzy and downtempo music. Then the grand plan was halted as Covid arrived, I was almost ready to launch 2 more projects, with Amorphic being one of them, it proved to be a blessing in disguise as it meant I got almost 30 tracks finished and some nice labels lined up. I’ve been wanting to find a way to express this side of me for a very long time. I have very briefly touched it in my own name over the years with releases on Tresor etc. but I now want Vince Watson releases to be focused on Deeper/Detroit grooves with their musical content, and separate my other output away into new projects. The fourth alias is not public yet, but we will launch in 2023 and be focused on IDM.

What does Amorphic mean to you and how do you see yourself and the label evolving over the coming months?

She’s a deep beast, a dark beast at times, she will take you on a proper trip, really hypnotic and powerful at the same time. All music is a form of expression, and Amorphic is quite simply my exploration into these territories that I would never get to explore with my other aliases. It took me a while to really get a flow state with it and experiment with different techniques and sounds, but I think I found a unique flavour between all the other amazing artists that are out there, which is so important, because one thing Amorphic will never be is a clone of something else. I would rather just not do it. There is already too many polyrhythmic triplet pattern based tracks out there which are great, so if I’m not adding something fresh and new there is no point. I want to try and develop a nice discography on the Amorphic label with my own releases first, and then start to build a home with up-and-coming producers who have something fresh and exciting to say, but that’s for another day…

A01, the first release on the label, delivers deep, dark, driving techno, has this always been a sound you have wanted to step into?

I always have, just not publicly, we’ll not really anyway. I have played many DJ sets with this music but it’s not what Vince Watson was about so I generally wanted to stay away from that until I was ready to go. It’s not as if I’m suddenly diving into something I know nothing about as I’m already deep in for many years. I have an Amorphic DJ set series which isn’t public (yet) but its already 10 editions strong, and we have some nice podcasts coming up.

What kinds of music did you listen to growing up and what styles and/or artists have influenced the sound of Amorphic?

I’ve long been a sucker for the sub-heavy and I have to tip my hat to Oscar Mulero as an early influence for that, he has since then gone onto develop his own home with Pole Group and look at all the great artists he inspired and now work with him. Luke Slater as PAS is another example, there has been loads of inspiration over the years.

Where is your favourite place to DJ and where can our readers catch you playing over the coming months?

Amorphic will be touring as a hardware-only lives or DJing, dates will be announced when were up and running. Favourite place? That’s a skewed question these days, I guess… Pre-covid I think a lot of DJs and artists on tour were probably a little bit less grateful than they are now, me included. Anywhere now is my favourite place to DJ, literally. After not playing for almost 2 years, I will enjoy every single second on a stage or DJ booth and never consider any of it other than being blessed to do this to people who love what you do. It’s the pure essence of the artform and culture.

Can you tell us more about your hardware only live set and what can fans expect from an Amorphic set?

I decided I did not want to use a laptop on stage anymore as I didn’t want to be looking at a screen so much and wanted it to be more about the music. So, I decided to start figuring out the best way to do it, not just for Amorphic, but also for Vince Watson sets. I ended up with a compromise that works really, really well. For Amorphic I’m using an Akai Force, which has all my mastered stems on an internal SSD. I’m using 2 Novation LaunchControl XL’s, one for 8 channels of stems, and one for 8 internal plugins, the force triggers the TR8S which has all my mastered drum sounds and I also use a Roland SE02 synth as well. Vince Watson sets will replace the SE02 with a keyboard so I can play keys live.

What else is in the pipeline for Amorphic in 2022?

We have 3 releases on the Amorphic label in 2022. There is also an EP on Modularz planned for June and other labels like Token have taken tracks. Stay tuned!

Amorphic ‘A01’  is out via Bandcamp on March 18 and general release March 25

https://www.instagram.com/amorphic_official/

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