What Analogical Force are doing is releasing a wide range of electronics with definite nods to the past whilst searching for new talent. What they are doing is bringing international music and talent to the Spanish capital, the next being B12 performing Electro Soma live.
90s Britain and electronic music are synonymous. Skam. B12. Warp. A.R.T. Likemind. The list goes on into this day and age. If you stroll around the streets of the Spanish capital that electronic omnipresence is paved on the streets, or stenciled to the walls.
Analogical Force started out a decade back with Rephlex co-founder Grant Wilson-Claridge, the unmistakable emblem of the enigmatic imprint is still etched on the walls off Gran Via (Madrid’s central thoroughfare.) The night fell away, as many do, but ya can’t keep a good one down. Analogical Force has been resurrected as not just an evening of live music and DJ’s but as a record label. I caught up with events’ man and the boss on the scorching streets of Spain’s capital in the Summer.
The imprint is the obvious evolution from the club setting for Sergio JM aka DJ Pervert. “A night, a DJ set or a live set are for the moment but a record is forever.” Those who have played at AF have often gone on to release. Stalwarts of the UK scene have already found their way onto the imprint. Italian brothers D’Arcangelo got the vinyl spinning with Periscope. Reid W. Dunn is another who has tread the same Rephlex boards, putting out the seminal Shimmering under his best known moniker Wisp. For Pervert’s platform Dunn’s focus is innovative and thought-provoking electronica with a touch of acid devilment. Dwallicht’s shunting sounds are proof of this, challenging and coarse in the same pattern burst.
Throughout our chat Sergio is candid. He describes Madrid as “alive” but you need to sort the “wheat from the chaff” when it comes to decent parties. But he’s positive about the future, of his club night, city and label.
The third release was another trip back to the heyday of braindance and electronica. Although Anodyne has hardly been prolific in his decades of music making , the last five years have seen a huge surge in output. And interestingly Nothing Lasts feels like it could be part of a resurgent series. Following in the footsteps of D’Arcangelo and Dwallicht, Anodyne continues the shifting and squirming style. Lighter keys and brightening chords counter darker echoes as electro and techno bleed into IDM and broken beats.
Sergio mentions how much he learned from these trailblazers, seeing them as a “mirror” to reflect upon and look through for the future. He notes the demos coming in to AF HQ and the number of unknowns in the pipeline, but one the most recent release is from a pair of brothers that will be familiar to many: Echo 106. Described by Pervert as a sound “most similar” to what is explored by AF, Shifting Multiverse is a 12” of tightened 303 coils and piston like percussion built for the dancefloor. Ceephax Acid Crew, who played a few months back in AF’s home of Sirocco, closes with banger of melted 303 fire that will obliterate floorboards.
Voiceless is the latest series of AF. Compilations of red bull, or something stronger, fueled braindance bounce. This first, in a three part run, is as pure expression of AF as you´ll find. Hyperactive percussion scattered across messy beds of churned 303 squawk, glassy notes giving a soulful balance. And it was this style, on Voiceless propounded by the likes of EOD, Microlith and Kettel, that Pervert pursued in blazing warm-up set before Mike Dred dowsed Calle San Dimas in napalm acid in late October.
I ran into Pervert on the street, after three hours of his turntable mastery, over a late evening, or maybe more early morning, cigarette. “This is Analogical Force. The club. The label. The music.” And he says the future is clear, “to continue doing what” they “are doing.” And what they are doing is releasing a wide range of electronics with definite nods to the past whilst searching for new talent. What they are doing is bringing international music and talent to the Spanish capital, the next being B12 performing Electro Soma live.
What they are doing is what they do; and may it long continue.
