Portland. A simple word that describes a beautiful place and an entirely different one associated with the sound sculptor, Spencer Lytle. Born and raised in San Diego (California), Spencer’s moniker states the halfway point between his brother and his current location. Sawn with threads of abstract electro and expressive ambience, Spencer Lytle crafts a blanket of digital beauty with relative ease, and has been doing so for the past 14 years. Unique electronic experiments are diluted with emotional debris, while Portland displays love, sadness, and anger in one swift motion within each of his tracks. Could it be the conversations with his CPU or the fact that his music is infused with unforgettable sheets of mechanical electricity? Take both elements, add equal parts passion and creativity, and you’re elevated to a definitive place and sound; that of Portland.
With a debut Mini-Disc release called Distal on the burgeoning and genre-defying n5MD record label based in Oakland, California, Spencer Lytle unleashes a poignant mix of crackling electronics with a sincere and emotional edge. Distal represents the label quite well; with a focus on IDM influenced sound escapes, this latest offering on n5MD (released May 13, 2003) continues in the tradition of warm digital manifesto’s from unique artists all across the map. That’s not to say that Distal veers too far into the scattering effects and trickery that some of today’s artists have been producing on the fly. Instead, there’s a concentration of engineered melodies that run loose with tormented beats, and pleasant rhythms. A sound that is both unique and motivating.
When designing a track, one has to wonder if the end result is what the artist desired in the first place. When asked this question, Spencer replies, “When I write, I write with emotion in mind first, sounds second. I start with a feeling. Most of my songs are launched from a feeling or event. I try to envision the song capturing this feeling or event and I’m pretty confident in my writing now that I will accomplish this. If I do not, then the project I am working on gets tucked away or scrapped depending on how far along I am or my feeling with the end result.”
A theme is present throughout Distal that captures the audience by the heartstrings and chugs away at the feet. Is there any particular focus that Spencer had in mind? His reply is quite simple, “1. Emotional 2. Crunchy 3. Melodic; the only real theme or philosophy attached to the release would be what I put into it. A lot of the tracks on it are very personal. A few in particular were hard for me to put on the release and I struggled with that. In particular “TBLRBL”, “I’m Not Like Me,” and “Cind.” My thoughts and feelings at the time I wrote these songs are the real binding theme. The tracks themselves go from soft and static like to abrasive and disjointed. I try to combine both organic and mechanic sounds when writing music, using strictly software now. I, however, came up using hardware and found that I was able to achieve a lot of the same feelings with my hardware that I was with software –with the software there’s more freedom to do this. When I write a song I have an idea of what I want it to sound like, and can usually do this quite well.”
Portland has performed several times in a live setting both in venues and on radio, most recently traveling to Northern California as well as British Columbia. We asked Spencer how he felt about these performances and if he enjoys the live aspect and/or studio work: “Performing for an audience has got to be the single coolest thing ever. I have worked hard over the last few years to find a way that I can perform my songs to a crowd of people and let them feel what I’m feeling. I like to move and dance (as much as I can) on stage. Over the last year I’ve been using some software (including Albeton) that gives me the tools I need to do what I want on stage and have a good time doing it.
I also like writing in the studio (currently my living room). It is calm and peaceful and lets me explore different areas of my music. That doesn’t sound as cool as playing for others but in its own way it is.”
Spencer’s online affiliation with music groups has fostered several relationships with fellow musicians in a similar mindset. “It is almost impossible to not be online anymore,” he adds, “I find that, like in the real world, I gravitate towards other like-minded people. Right now it is a means of communication but there have been a couple of bites of sound from people I have wanted to work with, and a there are a few that stand out. I really want to work with Lackluster (Esa Ruoho) –he writes the toughest beats. AEM (Another Electronic Musician) is another good friend. I’ve been trying to get him (AEM) to finish this drum’n bass track we started writing in a bar once. I have done one full collaboration with All Ordinaries that is featured on Distal, and one other with a friend of mine from the Bay Area (San Francisco). There are a lot of others I’d like to work with but the list would be too long. Hell, email me, I’ll work with anyone!”
With online communication in full force, Portugal based Enough Records picked up one of Portland’s tracks as part of their MP3 series. The Dreamers of Dreams compilation featured a sophisticated yet short melodic piece called “One.” Spencer reinforces his sentiments about Enough Records: “Enough Records kicks ass; Fred is one of the coolest guys ever. If I remember correctly, I was sitting at home jobless chatting with all kinds of people (online). My friend and I were talking about music and labels and my music and other stuff. He gave me the link to the Enough website, and I downloaded a bunch of the music there. I introduced myself to Fred over an instant message and asked if he would listen to some of my stuff, and he agreed. The result is the track “One” on the Dreamers of Dreams compilation. That track is actually a piece I was working on using some ideas and samples that a friend of mine in Orange County gave me. There are no current plans with Enough, but I would love to work with them again in the future. They put out some really quality music.”
With the mass of electronic music being released, it (obviously) becomes increasingly difficult to find quality content in the abundance of music available in stores. Spencer suggests that there really isn’t a problem with what the labels are releasing, but rather an issue with the amount of material being released on sites like mp3.com (as an example): “The majority of it isn’t too inspiring. Everyone, it seems, has a cracked version of some software and thinks they can write music; It’s not always as easy as that. There are some good musicians out there that can pull this off but most of it isn’t too memorable.”
Many musicians have found it difficult to prosper in the “music-industry” especially in a genre where a small quantity of any particular title is released for the world to seek anxiously. The consumer is continually inundated with limited pressings and hard-to-find copies of titles they’re interested in. We asked Spencer if his Portland moniker was his first priority; His response leaves a definite mark to note: “Music is definitely not my first priority, but it is up there. I was playing with synth’s and drum machines when I was 12 and started “writing” music when I was about 17. The reason I started was because I’ve always had music in my life. I was in the school band when I was younger. My mother kept a piano in the house and she played the flute. My family was always dancing and going to concerts, so music was a big deal in my household. My brother also introduced me to some electronic synth’s, drum machines and a couple of sequencers. He’s the main reason why I write today, and the source for where I am at and why I write the way I do.”
Igloo Magazine is always curious to tap into the minds of musicians and their thoughts about where they feel experimental electronic music is headed. Spencer adds, “I think that the mainstream of electronic music will stay where it is now. More experimental sides of electronic music will blend into other genres of music completely, as we’re already seeing that today. Traditional pop music and hip-hop are starting to show that electronic music is a big influence on them. I also see more experimental electronics in classical styles of music as well.”
The attraction of any particular piece of music is usually dependant on a local and/or international audience. Some artists veer into subterranean territory that baffles the locals, while others tend to focus on the mood of their environment and the influences it fosters. “Personally I think (my music) has an international appeal,” notes Spencer, “I don’t see why it wouldn’t. I get better responses from audiences away from home than I do in San Diego. The crowd in San Diego is way too diverse and into different things to be strictly loyal to electronic music.
I have always written music that inspires me –music that sounds good to me. If a track doesn’t make me smile then I won’t finish writing it. I want my music to make me smile (even if it is not a happy sounding track). If I can dance to it or bob my head to it, then I’ve succeeded.”
Hip-Hop has been an inspiration to several artists including labels like Chocolate Industries, Schematic, Eastern Developments, Merck, and a slew of others that take elements of hip-hop and transform it to their liking. Oftentimes, the destruction of a particular genre is the starting point for several musicians. This is also the case for Portland’s musical approach: “Hip-Hop has been a huge influence on me. I don’t listen to it much anymore but the old school hip-hop crews were sick. BDP and KRS, Tribe, old gangster type stuff. That material was so raw and real. Also the early Warp era was so important to me. I was heavy into the rave scene in the early 90’s and when I got my hands on LFO, Polygon Window and Autechre, I was simply stunned. I remember sitting around with my brother and both of us going crazy over what we were hearing. It was a great time in music history. That time and those artists doing the early IDM stuff was the single biggest influence on my music even to this day.
Life is my biggest influence, however. The people I surround myself with and the situations I am in on a daily basis affect me in a lot of different ways. From being happy to being depressed, my friends and family all influence this and that comes out in my music. I often think of a moment with one of them, or something someone did or said and will base a song on that point in my day. All of my songs are written with a thought or feeling that was generated by those around me.”
Future projects for Portland include an upcoming 7″ (on the n5MD 7ransparen7 Series) called Carqyness where one side is produced by Portland and the other is Spencer Lytle (according to Spencer, there won’t be any stylistic differences in the moniker-switch). Portland also released a promotional 3″ CDR-EP entitled Fragile Constitution in the middle of 2002 (Full review here). Fragile Constitution was a limited release, made available to people who purchased through the n5MD site at the time it was pressed. A contribution to the upcoming MD8 compilation series with n5 is also under way, so it’ll be intriguing to see where Portland takes his musical journey next.
Distal is currently available as a Mini-Disc only release on n5MD. As Spencer accurately describes, “There is loss and love. There is anger and defeat. There is pride and joy. That is what I tried to get across as a theme on the album. Hopefully you are able to feel these things too when you listen to the album.” We couldn’t agree with him more, Distal swivels from DSP-driven rhythms to constructive melodies and doesn’t try to express more than it reserves. Be sure to have your boarding pass while listening, and enjoy your flight to Portland.
