Yunx :: Reimagining the future with experience

Iain Law and Darren Taberner, a Manchester-based electronic duo, worked on many projects under various aliases, but their primary focus was Yunx. They released several IDM masterpieces on labels like Void, Pitchcadet, Meson Octet, Ai, and their own Yunxrecordings imprint in the late 90s and early 2000s. They have now enrolled with Touched Music and in honor of their recently released album Imagine The Future and a “best of” collection called Never Underestimate Your Experience, which was chosen by Martin Boulton of Touched Music, here is our Q&A.

Tracking down the past, and looking ahead

Chris Amell / Igloo :: It’s been quite some time since we saw the last Yunx release which was in 2004. What happened 20 years ago that caused the project to come to a sudden halt?

Yunx :: Well we were both doing side projects for a while and then suddenly I was made redundant from my job. This caused a catalyst of things, one of them being I sold my house which had a studio in it and moved in with my partner. There was nowhere to put the gear back up so it stayed in storage. Then there was the financial crash of 2008, and after that, life just took over. Darren had a growing family too, so we just kind of drifted apart.

Igloo :: And what prompted you to resurrect this project here in 2024?

Yunx :: One day I got a message on LinkedIn from Martin at Touched Music. It was a bit weird as he said he’d been trying to track us down for around 10 years. He was asking if we had some old tunes for some of his projects and no doubt, like most musicians, we had amassed a fairly decent amount of unreleased tracks. Anyway, one thing led to another and suddenly we’re back up and running. We’re both in our early 50’s now, so we were both searching for something to while away the hours, so it made some sense to kick it all back off. It helps when you have a very enthusiastic label boss.

Igloo :: Lets talk about the new Yunx releases on Touched Music. Imagine the Future is comprised of “new” material that was from the Yunx archives. How did you go about selecting which tracks you wanted to use for the record, and what era are these songs from?

Yunx :: Martin asked for a bunch of tunes from the archive. That was interesting as we had a lot of tracks from way back. Some good and some (in our opinion) not so good. The thing is, what we might think is a bit crap, someone else might love. We went through and graded them based on personal favourites and we ended up with around 25 tracks. They were a mixture of stuff from around 2004 to 2006 and a couple of earlier tracks around the millennium. I really enjoy very spacey tracks with tight repetitive drums and little melodies floating around. Darren is more electro. I always throw so much at them I can’t even work out what I’ve done sometimes so they are best listened to on headphones. In the end though Martin chose the new album and as we’d been out of the game for so long we were happy for him to do that. I mean what do we know?

Igloo :: So obviously Martin has played a pivotal role in the revitalization of Yunx—always good to have someone supporting your work, whether its new or old. I suppose it was also him who compiled the track listing for Never Underestimate Your Experience—which is being released alongside Imagine the Future as a sort of companion record.

Yunx :: Actually that was a mixture of all three of us. Martin had his favourites so we let him choose those and then we added a couple of our favs too. Martin has been a huge force in getting getting us back up and rocking. On the back of this I bought some new kits (much easier nowadays with most things digital) and Darren got his studio set back up and we’re both working on brand new material. We had spoken for 20 odd years but it was like old times. Some new tunes will see the light of day on some of Martin’s compilations but we should release a “new new” album this year as well as getting the back catalogue on Bandcamp.

Igloo :: I was actually about to ask about fresh material from the Yunx camp. Glad to hear that you’re still working together even after a lengthy hiatus. What type of gear were you using back in the day as opposed to now? Is there a huge difference in your creative methods?

Yunx :: Ah, lots of physical kit in the old days. We both had Yamaha SY22 synths, along with some rack stuff, Waldorf, Alesis and Akai samplers and effects. Honestly I can’t quite remember everything we had. In the end I pretty much gave it away to someone I used to work with who was trying to get into making music. Darren kept hold of all his stuff. When Martin came calling, it was like, shit, I’ve given all that stuff away. You don’t need much now though. I bought a Mac and Juno X, signed up to a few bits of software, bought a few others and off you go. It’s actually so easy now. You used to have to save everything individually and you almost worked on a track until it was finished. Now I’ve got 5 or 6 tracks on the go as you just press save. Genius! I was never much for tinkering around too much, Darren was the methodical tinkerer. I just smashed a load of tracks together until it sounded half decent. I still use the same old tricks for layering sounds and with digital synths sounding pretty awesome it’s so nice to create tunes with depth without too much faffing around. Which is the way I always like to work.

Igloo :: Yes, the ease in which you’re able to create something inside the box is astounding. Having that background using analog equipment certainly can give you that perspective. Are there any artists you can cite as inspiration?

Yunx :: We both grew up in the electro era, so Mantronix for me and many tunes from the classic electro series. As we grew up Darren was a big fan of Drexciya and Model 500 and I veered towards more Chicago house with a bit of Detroit techno thrown in. When I was a student I got massively into The Orb and the more chilled side of the KLF along with a lot of other things such as Pink Floyd, Steve Hillage, Caravan, quite hippy music I suppose. Then I heard some of the early Warp artists and when I heard Bytes by Black Dog Productions I really got hooked on that album. From then on I searched out all the older tunes in 2nd hand vinyl stores and was really really inspired by the two Rising High EP’s by Balil and Black Dog Productions. I still go back to these with my favourite track of all time being “Island” on the Parasight EP. The melody and production on that track, well it’s something to aspire to even after 33 years. Big shout out to Kirk Degorgio and As One too. He did some belters on his ART label. There so many more inspirations over the years though it’s so hard to mention them all. Nowadays I really love Lindstrom to get me moving and Seahawks to stop me moving.

Igloo :: Really cool to hear about the origins of your musical journey and where it all began. You mentioned that the Yunx back catalog would be available via Bandcamp in the coming months, allowing access to discover your early works, and classic releases. I for one will be looking forward to that so I can dive a bit deeper into the Yunx discography. Any plans for live gigs just yet?

Yunx :: You know we have never ever played a live gig. When we started we had no real desire to go out and gig. We kept ourselves to ourselves and somehow I can’t see that changing in the near term. To be honest, I’ve no idea how you even go about doing a live gig. It would be like us pressing play and then pretending to do some knob twiddling or worse, doing some knob twiddling and it sounding shit. Plus, now we’re a bit older; it’s more pipe and slippers than venues and loud music!

Igloo :: Ah yes, that’s totally understandable! Well, it’s been great to chat, Iain—really appreciate you taking time to discuss the past, present, and future of Yunx! All the best from Igloo!

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Imagine The Future and Never Underestimate Your Experience are available on Touched Music.