BinaryFunction

Veteran UK-based producer BinaryFunction has been honing his craft since the mid-90s heavily influenced by the B-boy and US Hip Hop scene in his youth. This summer saw him return to our dancefloors making his debut release on London based label Bade Records. We check in with one of DMC’s biggest supporters as he gets set for a very bright 2018…the boy is back in town!

Hey BinaryFunction, great to have you here on DMC, can you tell us a little about yourself to those who haven’t heard your music?

Word up DMC, first of all let me start by saying what an honour and a privilege it is to be asked to do an interview for DMCWORLD. I became hooked on music around 1985 and even more so with the explosion of the DMC World Mixing competitions. Hearing DJ Cheese’s mix for the first time and watching Chad Jackson’s winning set back in 1987 was a pivotal point in my life, I knew soon after that music would play a huge part in my life. Totally blown away by the  Hip Hop culture I fast became immersed in the whole scene, graffiti, breakin, beatboxin, mixing n scratchin, I was a full on Hip Hop addict. The breaks, the DJ’s, DMC World mixing competitions and the legendary rappers/artists of this era all helped to form the basis of my musical endeavours. I was a massive fan of acts such as PE, LL, Ice T, RUN DMC, Derek B, London Posse, KRS, EPMD, Eric B & Rakim, Fresh Prince, Bambaata, Stetsasonic, The Jungle Brothers, Daz EFX to name but a few. I had a milk round in the early 80’s and saved enough money to buy my first Realistic 2 channel mixer from Tandy, and I started to learn how to DJ – DMC style. I managed to find two old turntables from some second hand shop and hooked them up to the mixer, in to a shitty little hi-fi, and armed with a copy of Public Enemy’s Yo Bum Rush the Show album, I had my first go at DJ’ing. From that moment on I can honestly say that I practised every single day for years on end, ask my mum. My bedroom was above our kitchen and many a time my mum would use the sweeping brush handle to bang on the ceiling before running upstairs with a pair of scissors threatening to cut the plugs off if I didn’t turn it down, haha.

You grew up in Manchester fully immersed in the Acid House scene in the 80s, which clubs, tracks and artists had the most impact on you at this time, and which influence your music now?

For me it was the late 80’s when I first started going to clubs in and around Manchester. I went to pretty much all of the clubs that were playing acid house and techno at the time, but the stand out ones for me were the Thunderdome, the Hacienda, Konspiracy, The Orbit, Angels Burnley, Shelleys, The Sound Garden and many of the illegal warehouse raves in the Lancashire area. However, for me it was the Thunderdome that changed my life forever. This club was extra special; anyone who went to the Dome back in the day will know exactly what I mean. It was dark, gritty and moody-as-hell, a pretty dodgy place, but man, purple ohms, double dipped strawbs, banging shiny techno, need I say more. Some of the tracks that stuck with me from this era were Future FJP – Liaisons D, Rhythm Device – Acid Rock, Adonis – No Way Back, 808 State – Pacific State, The Beat Club – Security, Joey Beltram – Energy Flash & Mentasm Second Phase, NJOI –Mindflux, Lil Louis – French Kiss, Shades Of Rhythm – Sweet Sensation, just too many classics to list them all here. Fast forward to the present day and the music has evolved in to different genres of house and techno, I like to listen to what I call organic techno, Mathew Jonson, Silent Servant and Sebastian Mullaert are amazing producers and their music is an excellent example of this style. Around 2008 I was introduced to music from an artist known at the time as Maetrik, and before Maetrik he went under the name of Mariel Ito. Most will know this amazing guy as Maceo Plex. I’m a huge fan and personal friend of Maceo and all of his work. Maceo manages to fuse house, techno and electro in a way I’ve never heard before and he is without doubt one of my biggest influences at present. Of course there’s no getting away from my Hip Hop roots and the wide spectrum of other legendary electronic artists that have influenced and inspired me along the way. Such artists include – Kraftwerk, Pink Floyd, The Doors, Bob Marley, Hendrix, Hawtin, Mills, CJ Bolland, Arthur Baker, Vangelis, Chemical Brothers, Leftfield, and lots and lots more.

It’s clear that your music is very acid-based; do you have a favourite piece of gear you use to produce? Is it strictly hardware or do you use samples?

If I was asked what is my favourite sound it would most definitely be the unmistakable squelching sound of bubbling warm analogue acid. Of course the original famous 303 would be my weapon of choice, naturally, but it is highly priced and waaaay out of my budget. I have dabbled with a few different emulators both hardware and software, my first being the Roland MC303 Groovebox which I had to have when it first came out. Unfortunately this machine did not live up to my expectations and so I turned to Propellerheads ReBirth VST software. I think this software did an excellent job of emulating the 303 bass line sound although I use an alternate emulator today. I tend not to use samples in my productions; I like the thought of knowing that I created that sound myself from scratch. A lot of the sounds you can hear in my more recent tracks come from my trusty Novation Ultranova synth which is an absolute beast. I’ve had it a few years but it is only now I am starting to understand its true power, it really is an amazing bit of kit.

You relocated to Mauritius from Manchester, why the move and how did this affect your digestion of underground music, what was the scene like out there?

We would need a whole book for this part of my life but I’ll try to condense it as best I can fo. So at the height of the acid house era and especially in Manchester where I lived, drugs were rife, acid, ecstasy, speed amphetamines etc. I decided I didn’t want to continue down that road. My father came to England in the 60’s from the island of Mauritius, we had been over once on a family holiday back in 1985. I was introduced to a family friend who was totally in to DJ’ing but had never seen DJ’s from outside his country. He was one of the very few to own a pair of technics turntables on the island and so I asked if I could have a go. He was so excited to see a DJ scratching and mixing in a style he had only ever witnessed on television or heard on the radio. He was very well connected in the club scene and in 1991 when I decided to leave the UK for a new life in the sun he had managed to secure a peak time residency for me at one of the top clubs on the island. From here on in I was known as DJ Panik and played the whole club circuit over a period of 12 years. During these years I organised many events of my own and word spread to the neighbouring island of Reunion. In 1998 I was contacted by a friend named Sylvie asking if I would like to come and play a techno set on the island. I said yes of course and a few years later Sylvie placed me on a huge event DJ’ing alongside the legendary Laurent Garnier. It was from here that I started networking and becoming friends with some big name DJ’s from Europe, Jack de Marseille, Charles Schillings, Stéphane Pompougnac (Hotel Costes albums) to name a few. I started a small DJ school in Mauritius which helped the number of new and upcoming fresh DJ’s to increase. It was around this time that I thought about the idea to sell records on the island. Having being a regular customer at most of the top record shops in Manchester, Spin Inn, Vinyl Exchange, Fat City Records and the famous Eastern Bloc Records I saw an opportunity and put in my first order of tech house and techno from Eastern Bloc Records. Unfortunately this venture didn’t last for very long and I decided to stop selling. However, having one of the best contacts for techno music (the great John Berry – Eastern Bloc Records) meant that I was always kept up to date with the very latest sounds coming out of Europe. The underground music scene in Mauritius was pretty much non-existent before I arrived, with the exception of Palladium Club resident DJ David Posse who played a few bits here and there. To this day some of the locals and close friends who were partying during those years remember me as the pioneer of the underground scene on the island of Mauritius. After marrying my Mauritian girlfriend and having children, my wife and I decided it would be best to return to the UK and start a new life, better education for our kids, better careers etc. In 2004 I returned to my hometown of Manchester with my family to start over. Since then I have continued to DJ (at home) and have become much more serious about producing.

You won a DMC DJ’ing competition in Mauritius almost 25 years ago, what were you playing and who were you competing against?

Yeah so in 1995 I saw a flyer for a DMC competition from the club where I first started out in 1991. Unfortunately I never kept a copy of this flyer but I do remember it saying the competition would be judged by French DMC officials and hosted by 1991 French DMC Champion DJ Crazy B. I had one thing in my head at the time of seeing this and that was to win the competition. It was mentioned on the flyer that the winner would go on to represent Mauritius in the DMC world competition and would be flown over to Reunion Island for the preliminary heats. I did win the competition in the club, with a trophy to prove and some great photos, but unfortunately the promoters of the event in Mauritius did a runner with the takings and I never made it to Reunion. I am very happy to say that I recorded my set live from the competition using a small portable minidisc recorder and it is currently up on my Soundcloud page if you would like to take a listen, it’s a 25 year old piece of personal history for me and it has received some great feedback. Artists in the mix include, LL Cool J, Apache, Bionic Booger Breaks, Public Enemy and more. I was competing against some 10 or so local DJ’s.

How did the release on London-based label Bade Records come about? Was it a chance encounter? We understand you’ve been producing and DJ’ing for a long time, but this is your debut release?

The signing to Bade Records came about from a YouTube clip for FRAK, a trio from Sweden who have been meddling with analogue kit since the 80’s. I had watched the clip and left a comment together with the all-important link to my Soundcloud page. Bade Records had watched the same clip and were also reading some of the comments when they stumbled across mine. They decided to click on my hyperlink to my Soundcloud page and had a listen to some of my demo tracks. I check my account daily on the off chance someone has left a comment or sent me a message, the usual. Back in April of this year I received “THE” message from Bade Records saying they had been checkin out some of my sounds and really like what they hear and would I send them some more demo tracks, the rest is history. Yes, I have been producing my own material for several years but I have never really had the chance or opportunity, competition is fierce in the music industry and I have never been one to go asking to DJ somewhere, maybe I should have, but that’s just me, “if you want it I got it, if you don’t want it, I still got it.”

The record has been supported by artists such as Adriatique, who we saw drop the track at We Are FSTVL. How does it feel for your music to be granted the seal of approval by such big names in the game, and to be appreciated by crowds of music lovers?

I received a private message from one of the members of Adriatique on my FB artist page saying that they had received a promo of C0NTR0L, adding that they are huge fans of the “USER EP” release. A day later a video clip of Adriatique playing the track at the WEAREFSTVL appeared on my Instagram.

Adriatique test driving our latest release – BinaryFunction's C0NTR0L – in front of a whopping crowd at the OFF Sonar Barcelona x DIYNAMIC MUSIC Open Air 🔥 * courtesy of the Be-At TV livestream – goin awwwwf

Posted by Bade Records on Monday, June 19, 2017

I started to network with Adriatique and the next thing I know they are playing Sonar Barcelona and open their set to around 7000 party goers with this very track. I was driving home from work at the time and the festival was being streamed live on FB via BE-AT TV, so I pulled over and literally as the stream began my track was just coming in. I actually can’t put in to words to describe the sheer excitement, joy and sense of achievement I was feeling at this precise time, I thought I was dreaming. I called my kids to tell them to tune in on the family pc. When I arrived home, my daughters were at the front door, they were like OMG dad this is mental, I had the biggest smile and I can honestly say it lasted for several weeks, no joke. The support has continued to grow from all corners of the globe and I am totally humbled by it all. I am fortunate to have made some good friends along the way, some of which include, Izan Hesse, JP Sanchez, Carlos, Eric & Christine, Mike Manic Moogi (Iconic Underground Magazine), Claudio Capo (Tanzgemienschaft Magazine), Scottie & Jimmy of Audiophile Deep and Kane Michael (Magnetic Magazine LA) who have offered some insane support recently. I’ve been loving the music, the scene, the DJ’ing, the clubbing; all of it for over 35yrs, it’s in my blood. Suddenly out of the blue my music got spotted and BinaryFunction is now on the radar, these last 6 months have been quite hectic and extremely exciting to say the least.

What are the 5 records that never leave your bag?

Laurent Garnier – Jackin Zone – Coloured City EP

Jeff Mills – The Purpose Maker EP

Joey Beltram – Jazz

Luke Slater – In From the Night

Technasia – In Motion – Motion EP

Claro Intelecto – Peace of Mind EP

If you were to introduce a friend to your music tastes, which artists and labels would you recommend?

My music taste is hugely varied, so let’s just stick to some of my electronic music favourites for this part:

Artists – Of course Maceo Plex is right up there at the top of my list, Richie Hawtin, Jack de Marseille, Mathew Jonson, Sebastian Mullaert, ERP, Dez Williams, Claro Intelecto, Silent Servant, Lewis Fautzi,

Okum Grazer (Unsigned hint hint), Jon Gaiser, Odd Parents, Kraftwerk, Brassica, Dino Lenny, Tale of Us, Paranoid London, Coli Dale, Maetrik, Mariel Ito, Silicon Scally and tons more.

Labels – Bade Records, ELLUM, Sandwell District, Warp, Skam, Sapiens, Drumcode, CLR, Kompakt, Dekmantel, Minus, Lone Romantic, Clash Lion, Audiophile Deep and more.

What can we expect next from BinaryFunction?

My debut release did better than I could have ever imagined charting at number 18 in the Beatport Top 100 World Techno releases chart and being placed at number 7 in Dino Lenny’s recent Beatport Top 10. My feet are just about touching the ground again and it’s back to my humble home studio to work on the next release. I want to ensure I deliver the goods with my 2nd release and with a few up and coming guest mixes that are due to be featured by various sources I hope to secure a couple of gigs here and there, hint hint….to all you promoters out there..

 

BinaryFunction’s ‘USER’ EP is out now on Bade Records

Tracklist

1. ACKF1N

2. C0NTR0L

3. C0NF1GERR0R

www.soundcloud.com/binaryfunction