Thoughtless Times with Noah Pred at Mutek

Thoughtless Times with Noah Pred at Mutek

5 June, 2008 | 8.13AM

• Written by: Amanda Connon-Unda
• Filed under: Music News: noah pred, shen

This past weekend in Montreal, Canadian producer Noah Pred performed on the main stage at Metropolis during Mutek.

Noah Pred is a producer who makes music in several genre camps, sometimes making deep downtempo digital dub, and other times minimal electro tech house.

One thing is for sure, he’s Canadian at his core.

He’s lived in nearly every major urban center in the country – sampling life and music in Montreal, then Vancouver, and now Toronto.

At Mutek, Noah’s performance came across as thoughtful, simple and elegant.

Often, it’s hard to tell what’s happening on the other side of the stage, so I asked him about his perspective of the gig and about his latest projects.

Noah said, “The crowd seemed to be into it and I was really happy with the flow of things—I was happy to share some of my music.”

Noah is also genuinely an ardent music lover.

He told me enthusiastically during Mutek, “I was really blown away the most by Kode 9 and Space Ape doing their bass friction performance at Metropolis.

“It was all live dubstep.  Normally they play dub plates, but this was an actual live electronic jam.”

As a devoted musician, Noah’s life mainly seems to revolve around his art.

His technical expertise and music business knowledge facilitates his work at Moog Audio, and at his own digital label, Thoughtless Music.

Regarding the artistic direction of Noah’s label, he said, “First and foremost we pick the music.

“I consider everybody on the roster to be superbly talented.

“Evan Marc, who also helps with the label A&R, just put out an astounding full length.

“I think Kilowatts, a producer from Philadelphia who has been working with Tanner Ross, is definitely poised for greatness.

“And there are also a bunch of great Toronto people – Myers Briggs, Eric Downer, Jamie Kidd, and Caspian Rabone.

“It’s great to have an outlet to release all of this great music we believe in, on our own terms.”

The name ‘Thoughtless’ itself brings to my mind serene Zen connotations.

Noah explained, “The deeper meaning for me is that when I’m in the zone when I’m DJing or playing live, or producing in the studio, the process becomes thoughtless.

“I don’t have to think about what I’m doing next—it all just flows naturally.

“It’s a reference to that state of mind.”

Many of Noah’s productions, particularly those produced under his moniker Shen in 2006 for Native State Records, evoked the theme of nature, with deep, dubby, and organic sounds.

Noah recalled, “I did the Ecocosm full length on New Kanada last year, originally from a live set that I did at New Forms Festival.

“That one was a full length techno album generated entirely from the ground up, done with field recordings that I took in the wilderness of the British Columbia rainforest where I was living at the time, but I haven’t done anything like that in a while.”

True to his word, Noah’s latest releases have been strictly techno.

For example, his track “Get Cozy” (on Mutek’s 2008 compilation) is glitch techno.

Noah clarified, “There’s no overriding concept in all of my work.

“I think over time every artist develops their own unique identity that becomes recognizable without being too restrictive.

“As you’re working on a piece of music, you can be listening to it over and over, so it has to be something that really matches the headspace you’re in.”

Coming up soon, Noah’s new three-track EP will drop on July 1st on Thoughtless Music.

This ‘variety pack’ features three very different sounds, suited to different contexts.

Noah said, “The title track, ‘Why Do’, has a vocal on it that popped into my head one winter day while walking down the street.

“The second track is a minimalist electro late-night groove machine, and the closing track is deep and breezy minimal house.”

This month Noah will be going to Europe and attending Sonar Music Festival.

He said, “It should be a good opportunity to promote my new EP overseas.”

Starting on July 11th Noah’s new Thoughtless monthly night begins at CiRCA Nightclub, with Myers Briggs and Karri O performing live, and Eric downer and Noah Pred DJing in the Skyy Lounge.

“It’s a big space to fill and I think they [the club] have started realizing that they can’t rely on the same crowds week in and week out.

“I think they realize they need to start drawing on other communities to help fill the space.”

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To keep up with Noah’s Release when it drops check:
Thoughtless Music

Photos by Jeremy K - xanuradio.com

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