Welcome to the FUTURE

Have Eclectic Method changed the face of clubbing forever ?

STORY BY ONSIRI PRAVATTIYAGUL

Ian Edgar, Geoff Gamlen and Jonny Wilson, collectively known as Eclectic Method, proved to a Bangkok crowd last month that the future of nightclub entertainment might possibly be governed by innovative AV acts rather than traditional deejays. Simply put, Eclectic Method use, ahem, eclectic sources and methods to produce audio-visual (AV) mash-ups that tread on everything from Madonna to Metallica.

Flaunting their skills by mixing up musical tracks and videos, Eclectic Method lived up to the hype. If you're having a hard time picturing this AV act in action, just imagine 2ManyDJs with complementary visuals. Eclectic Method sliced and diced Eminem with Christina Aguilera while mashing up the Streets with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and they did it simultaneously to both audio and visuals - what you heard was what you saw. The well manipulated, repetitive Kill Bill fight sequences got the room going, producing shaking rhythmic dance beats, and suffice to say, snippets of films, commercials or cartoons never made this much sense in a smoky club.

But don't expect a complicated explanation from them.

"We have two CD players and two DVD players [Pioneer DVJ-XI video turntables] and we cut everything into little parts so we can jam those parts. We're jumping between the two DVD players, and whoever it is on the CD players provides music which is [also] improvisational," said Harry Potter look-alike Wilson.

"Ninety per cent of the time it's natural. You know when the time is. It's very much like live musicians. It's just like three musicians jamming because you can each play instruments very much how you want to," he added.

Still, it was evident that Eclectic Method's brand of art requires skill and patience. Besides a keen ear for spotting captivating tracks that work well together and a vast collection of material, Eclectic Method are well-versed in sampling, looping, time stretching and tempo matching techniques, helping them produce a seamlessly mixed AV spectacular.

After sending UK TV station MTV2 their first video mashing demos, Eclectic Method became involved with the station's MTV Mash programme, that ran for three series. The show put the trio, who are constantly on tour, displaying their skills to audiences around the world, on the creative map. XL Recordings commissioned them to create a megamix featuring their artists, including the Prodigy, Basement Jaxx, Dizzee Rascal, the White Stripes and MIA. They have also featured on Fatboy Slim's 2006 DVD, Why Make Videos?. Even U2 have been charmed. The rock 'n' roll statesmen asked the trio to produce three official video remixes - the last of which is due out later this year.

"The drummer of U2 saw the remix that we did on YouTube and told his management to find us, and they just called us up," said Wilson casually.

To top it all, Eclectic Method were voted No. 3 in DJ magazine's top 20 veejays of 2005, but the three would beg to differ.

"We are not veejays. We're an AV act," said Edgar, echoing the title of their 2005 We're Not VJs DVD.

"The distinction in AV is when the video creates the audio and veejaying is the video played to the audio," added Wilson.

Even more bizarrely, Wilson and Edgar first met in a recording studio in Bosnia (frequented by future fan Brian Eno) where Wilson was working as an engineer. Ex-Foreign Office music producer Gamlen left the civil service to run a studio in London, and it was there that the three began their "messing about".

"Before we met, we all independently followed musical production careers, but we were looking for something that would give us a chance to shine. And it turned out to be the video mixing aspect that really helped us break through," said Gamlen.

Gamlen further explained that the technology required became readily available around 2001, when home computers were fast enough to handle real-time AV editing. They started off using notebooks and Coldcut's VJamm software, but have now moved to DVD turntables that enable simultaneous audio and visual crossfading. "We all had production knowledge so it was quite simple to ease the video aspect in as well," he said.

But all the sampling and mashing up of well-known acts must make it an onerous task dealing with copyright issues. It's one thing to flaunt their skills in clubs, but with their We're Not VJs DVD, the story must have surely been different.

"With We're Not VJs, we didn't license. We sold a limited number of copies, and we gave most of them away for free. For those who want to do what we do - don't worry too much about copyright. The music industry is now so busy eating itself, with companies suing each other, that it can't be concerned with one or two people playing in small clubs here and there. The record labels have bigger fish to fry at the moment," said Wilson, adding that most record companies and film distributors now understand that the more exposure their products have, the better their marketability in the long run.

If you missed Eclectic Method's high energy live set in Bangkok, it's still possible to catch some of their mixes on the Internet; even though the current blocking of YouTube might make it a little troublesome. And if you finally see what all the fuss is all about, you will also witness the mix of a wide spectrum of pop culture references, from Jimi Hendrix, B-Boy dancing, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and blinging hip hop to the ever-present Britney Spears: A mishmash of contemporary cultures that are normally thrown in our faces on a daily basis, but with help from Eclectic Method, they're given a new twist, opening up a new can of pop culture worms.

"When I was quite young, I had a portable video [recorder], and I would tape little samples from TV," said Edgar. "Just little samples, but the overall effect was a cultural overload, you know. And I think that is an accurate representation of the world. I think if you're flipping channels on TV, and you're sitting around with a couple of mates, you're gonna joke about it; you're gonna find the funny bits, you're gonna create a whole new story of the film you're watching. It's not any kind of structured, deliberate satirical message. It's just a postmodern mess about," Edgar added.

"It's just as much about getting people who like techno to like Britney Spears as getting people who like Britney Spears to like techno. It's more about the way we're moving culture. We want people to be open to everything. We like to represent the world as well, not just American or English pop culture," said Wilson, adding that they usually buy local DVDs in every country they visit.

With the fast-rising fame of AV artists, one can't help wonder whether audio is simply no longer enough for a night out. Maybe, in this postmodern world, our attention spans have become so short that all our senses need to be captivated at once?

"It's also for the people who don't dance. In England, it's also about removing drugs from [club] culture. A lot of it is about taking drugs and moving to the tribal drum beats. I like tribal drum beats, but this allows people to have choices ... between dancing or sitting down, enjoying it," said Wilson.

"Every club is now installing state-of-the-art visual systems so they can have something to put on them! It's a bit like Mount Everest, you know, you have to climb it because it's there," Gamlen added.

Still, the trio conceded that their priority in entertaining the crowd shifts every night. Like good deejays, Eclectic Method rely on the energy the audience bounces back at them rather than having specific tasks in mind. Some nights, you might catch them playing just hip hop, while on other nights they may lean heavily on the rockier side of things.

"I think dancing is the main thing. Once you've got the crowd dancing, you're free to play around. Essentially, in the dancing situation, in a club, you get people going and then [you can] mess about," said Edgar.

Even though Eclectic Method seem to do a lot of "messing about", they view AV mash ups as a real gateway to prospering careers - a remarkable example of passion turning into money.

"There is loads of work in it as well. We're basically working 24/7. We're working with everyone. It covers the whole spectrum," said Wilson.

"You can be making movies, doing TV, doing adverts, among many other things. The field is huge ... get in now! It's an interesting time. It's gonna blow up everywhere," said Edgar.

Any advice for aspiring audio-visual acts, then?

"I can write a book of advice!" Edgar said. "If you're a veejay, hook up with somebody who produces audio material. AV has so much more impact. And also carve a niche, you know, make it very clear what you do, rather than trying to do everything ... try to make yourself a solid act, and then you will get booked like a deejay."

"The most important thing to get started is to be a collector, like Ian. He spends hundreds of hours on the Internet, collecting music, videos and films and picking the right snippets. And stick with it. At first we didn't make any money. You shouldn't let that get you down. You should be prepared for that, and work through it. Stick with one name and promote that name," Wilson concluded.

Bangkok Post

Last Updated : Wednesday April 11, 2007