Secret Sets with Mr Flash

Secret Sets with Mr Flash

9 November, 2009 | 3.49AM

• Written by: deliriumuk
• Filed under: Music News :

Ed Banger’s Mr Flash spins his electro and disco magic at a secret set in Malaysia’s Kuala Lumpur on 13th November.

Heineken Green Space served by Future Sound Asia
Date: November 13th 2009
Time: 9pm to 2am
Venue: Marketplace, No.4A, Lorong Yap Kwan Seng, 50450, KL

How did you get the name Mr Flash, for your superhero powers of mixing?
Mr Flash: It would take a while to explain the whole story so here’s the short version: back in the day I was called Flash Gordon for my first music releases and then I had to change it for copyright reasons.

You’re a big name in the hip hop scene as well as electro: what should audiences expect from you as DJ?
MF: It’s kind of mixed up between housey, disco and rough-edged electro.

Is there a big hip hop influence in the way that you play?
MF: Not really. Of course, I was and still am a hip hop producer but my music’s origins have changed and it’s more open right now. Even in my production work it’s more rockish and electronic as well as the hip hop kind of stuff. It’s a whole mix up. I’d say exactly the same for the way I DJ. Now I open my set with a lot of electro and not so much hip hop.

Who are your own music idols?
MF: Wow, I’ve got so many. I like lots of new and contemporary artists. Like In Flagranti and Zombie Nation. His Majesty Andre. I’m totally a vinyl junkie. Most of the stuff I listen is from back in the day. Like rock or dark new wave like Front 242, even FM rock like Def Leppard. Mainly 70s and 80s kind of music.

So there’s a big Def Leppard influence in your work?
MF: Things like DAF are amazing, and I think this is what influenced me the most for the last few tracks I did, on my new EP, which we are about to release. For now we don’t have a definitive name but there will be 5 tracks including ‘Domino’, ‘Flash’, ‘Couscous’, ‘Motorcycle Boy’.

What gives you the bigger buzz, working in the studio or DJing live?
MF: To be honest, I prefer to work in the studio because it’s a completely different job. It’s a hard thing to explain because they’re two entirely different things. In the studio you’re doing your own thing, you have the time and it’s quiet. When I’m in the studio I’m just doing the stuff I want to do.

You’ve produced three tracks on the latest Mos Def CD, The Ecstatic, including leading single ‘Life in Marvelous Times’. How did that come together?
MF: I think the collaboration came from Kanye West but I’m not really sure. As far as I know Pedro [Busy P, Ed Banger label manager] gave my mix CD to Kanye and Kanye is an old friend of Mos Def, and [I think he is] the executive producer on the [The Ecstatic] record. Anyway, he gave him the mix CD and said ‘That guy [Mr Flash] is hot. Just listen to those beats’.

Then what happened?
MF: First of all Mos Def just took one beat there and then and then he gave us a call after a week and said, right, I need another one. And then after another week, he called again and said ‘I need a third’. It’s amazing, and it all came from the collaboration between Pedro and Kanye West, which I did a remix for.

So the two of you put the tracks together in the studio?
MF: No. I sent the beats to him in the US and he rapped over them.

Why do you think Hip Hop is using more of the electro sound: A-trak, Kanye West with Daft Punk, Kid Cudi with MGMT, you and Mos Def?
MF: It’s funny how those things go in a circle. You listen to hip hop from the 80s and it’s just simple tracks, very minimal. Most of them were dark in a way. It’s funny because nowadays they copycat that kind of feeling, probably relative to the era we are living in. Everybody’s feeling the fear with the [state of] the economy. So, you have all those dark and hard kinds of sounds with strong rock and even punk elements. For me there’s a connection between that music and those feelings. And of course, electro is the biggest sound in music in Europe, so probably hip hop is probably following it back to its early roots and bearing the torch. So they’re working with producers who have that sense of futurism as a way to get more people into hip hop.

Why do you think French dance music, especially house, has become bigger internationally than French hip hop?
MF: As far as I know the French hip hop community is the second biggest seller in the world after America. The funny thing is that French hip hop only sells in France. It’s normal, I guess: hip hop is based around the lyrics and not that many people around the world understand French. Whereas, house, electro and disco is mainly instrumental, so I guess first of all it’s based on the [French] lyrics and secondly the fact that the hip hop community in France is a community of people. We have our own view of lyrics, of music, of artists, the same as in most countries. But I think the house and electro artists are probably doing things internationally: most of us are doing work with foreign artists, English lyricists. So I think that it’s mainly because of that.

The year’s drawing to a close: what’s your favourite record by a French act this year?
MF: [laughs] Great question. I really don’t know, not because I don’t like it but just because I haven’t bought a record by a new French artist for so long. I suppose Air but not anything that is specifically French.

So what’s your favourite record this year?
MF: I love the Zombie Nation stuff. Lots of different stuff. But not everything. Like In Flagranti, I like most of the stuff they are doing but not the whole thing. So it’s the same thing for a lot of things. The last Boyz Noize record I thought was great; better than the first one. And of course, there’s so much on Ed Banger [laughs]…the [Mr] Oizo thing is great.

Flash’s Retro Pop Tip
MF: Iko ‘83, it’s a Canadian electro dark pop band. It’s pretty rare but definitely worth finding. I think you’ll have to googlize it.

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