Introducing: Walls

Introducing: Walls

28 June, 2010 | 8.20AM

• Written by: Dan Cole
• Filed under: Music News: allez allez, banjo or freakout, kompakt, walls

Good ol’ Krautrock. Some five decades later, sounds pioneered by the likes of Can and Tangerine Dream still swirl through popular music, uniting rock instrumentation and electronic processing in a psychedelic embrace. Kompakt’s Walls is the latest group to find inspiration in Krautrock’s steady pulse and wooly textures, even though neither member is German. They don’t end there, roping in elements of disco, Balearic pop and minimal techno.

Sam Willis hails from Manchester and Alessio Natalizia from Vasto, Italy; both live in London today. They bring a diverse set of experiences to their music. Willis has been DJing since he was 18, and for the past five years has been a member of Allez Allez, a DJ team and recording act who also run their own blog, home to mixes from a staggering array of contributors (Ewan Pearson, Animal Collective, Nathan Fake, Four Tet, et al). Natalizia is best known for his Banjo or Freakout project, responsible for avidly re-blogged cover versions of Burial’s ‘Archangel’ and LCD Soundsystem’s ‘Somone Great’.

Following Walls’ self-titled debut album in April, they recently released the ‘Hang Four’ EP. The title track is a slow-motion disco daydream; diverse remixes come from the Field, Loose Fit, Xaver Von Treyer, Banjo or Freakout, and Allez Allez.

We caught up with the two in a tag-team interview.

How did you guys get together and what was the motivation?

Sam: We met after I’d been asked to do an Allez Allez remix of Alessio’s Banjo or Freakout project; he asked me if I’d be up for working together on some music. It just started off as a fun experiment, sending loops and ideas back and forth, but we started finishing tracks very quickly and before we knew it, we had made our first album!

Will Walls be a long-term project?

Sam: Definitely. We’re already working on the followup. We have a very natural and easy collaboration, also we both have very different, but complementary, skills, which helps make the Walls stuff something that neither of us could be doing independently of the other.

Alessio: We really want to release a second album ASAP, and can’t wait to tour Europe.

How would you best describe your music?

Sam: Just, “Listen carefully”.
Alessio: Boring!

Do you DJ or play live (or both)?

We’ve only been playing shows until now but we want to do both. We’ve been talking about creating a hybrid live/DJ set which will be more full on dancefloor and allow us to integrate other music that we love in with live vocals and effects.

Where do you record?

Sam: We’re lucky enough to have a studio in my spare bedroom, not much equipment, but it suits us just fine!

Alessio: We often record things separately in our homes, swap files and then finish the track together in Sam’s studio.

Preferred piece of kit/software?

Sam: I must admit I love my KAOS pad and my Electribe sampler; it’s so much more fun to be hands-on with real hardware as opposed to clicking a mouse.

Alessio: My Gibson Marauder and my DOD DFX pedal.

Morning people or night owls?

Alessio: Morning owl?

What inspires you when you go into the studio?

Sam: Good coffee! Working from home is also a great inspiration as it gives you the time and freedom to record when you like.

Who are your main musical inspirations behind Walls?

Sam: We’re both big fans of Kraut rock, but we try not to make any conscious efforts to deliberately reference other records; the goal is to try and create something fresh and original that we don’t feel we’d heard before.

Which record do you wish you had made?

Alessio: ‘World Of Echo’ by Arthur Russell

If the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse were to descend upon your house, what three records would you salvage?

Alessio: The first This Heat album, Can’s Tago Mago, and ‘World of Echo’ of course.

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