Return-Path: From: rsgour@aol.com X-Mailer: America Online Mailer Sender: "rsgour" Reply-To: "rsgour" To: bzs@world.std.com Date: Fri, 29 Oct 93 00:15:03 EDT Subject: Chaos4.DigitalPoodle >From the forthcoming For Crying Out Loud issue #4 by Bobby Silver Assembled in the late eighties as first the lone project of Mouth 392(Heiki Sillaste) Digital Poodle later enlisted the aid of Pupka Frey (Jean-Claude Cutz) & Redukt (Dave Faris ), thus gradually expanding their ground from industrial experimentations to the mighty wave of hard-beated elektro. Encompassing the keys to mass appeal, Digital Poodle churn their rigid formula of sheer energy with expressive power unlocking the temple of elektronic purification. As Digital Poodle now prepare to release two CD's simultaneously, Heiki Sillaste describes the technical process to Digital Poodle's inescapable presence to the elektro realm. How would you summarize the history of Digital Poodle? Digital Poodle began as a solo project for myself in late 1987. Using available equipment, a few keyboards, a primitive drum-machine and various tape machines. I began piecing together "songs" or sound pieces, which eventually were released on the first D.P. cassette "....Pay Attention". Between 1987 and 1990, a total of five D.P. cassettes were released on our own Shadow Canada label. These tapes were distributed worldwide through the tape trading network, as well as at local concerts. Since 1991, we have been releasing music in the CD format exclusively. The band line-up has also expanded to a five piece for live concerts. Since the beginning of Digital Poodle, the conceptualized visions have changed along the years? Yes, quite definitely! The first few Digital poodle cassettes were more sound experiments, while trying to establish some sort of clearer vision. By the time our last two cassettes, 'Live Death' and 'Baltic Work Force!' were released, the music had become predominantly rhythm oriented and lyrically, the themes became more focused. Since my ethnic background is Estonian, many of the concepts centered around the illegal annexation of the Estonian state by the U.S.S.R. during the Second World War. These themes carried through to the first D.P. compact disc 'Soul Crush', and the subsequent German only 'Work Terminal' remix album. Our 'Elektronik Espionage' CD5 and the new 'Division!' album thematically deal with the break up of the Soviet Union and especially the new found freedom in the Baltic States. Have there been frustrations going along as a group or for you individually as an artist? Frustrations...Well they've been fewer than the accomplishments and the rewards gained. It is somewhat frustrating not being able to record new material regularly, but we all have our outside careers to occupy our time. A lot of the material that we record is scrapped...I've got a strong aversion to repeating ideas or structures that we've previously used in a track. Due to the advent of two new albums about to be released simultaneously, what can you relate about them? I guess releasing two albums around the same time has been sort of a rock and roll fantasy of mine... It's a very 70's bozo-rock, Kiss kind of thing to do! 'Division!' is the 'main' album, continuing our explorations of hard beat disko beat structures. 'Noisea', the second album, is all instrumental music, quite self-indulgent for the most part, I guess. What brought on the idea of doing two albums with separate musical concepts? Due to the large amount of music that we've recorded, as well as the wide diversity of music that we listen to! Actually, Gerald Belanger, the president of our main label, DOVe (Death Of Vinyl), suggested re-releasing some of our older cassettes in CD format. After listening to much of the older material, it was decided that many of the noisier tracks could work well together compiled onto one disc, hence 'Noisea'. Hey, if Controlled Bleeding can release seven albums of completely diverse music, so can we! Do you think that someone listening to both albums would get a general sense of what both genres Digital Poodle present forth are about? Well, a pretty good idea, I suppose. We've began branching out into other types of 'sounds' as well. 'Ninja Tune U.K. , a label run by 'Coldcut' will be releasing a 12" e.p. by us entitled 'Crack', featuring a twenty-odd minute acid-trance piece. Digital Poodle have always explored the possibilities of combing tekno house rhythms with hard-industrial dance. We did it with 'Free Men' on the 'Soul Crush' album, "Solid State" on the 'Work Terminal' CD and with "Red Star" on the 'Espionage' e.p. Maybe the only difference with 'Crack' and several newer pieces that we've been working on , is that we've thrown out a lot of the cliched "dog brained" industrial motifs, and concentrated more on pure trance-inducing rhythms. How long has the recording process been for these albums? While developing new systems, exploring new structures and learning to use new equipment, the 'Division!' recording took almost a full year to complete. We released the 'Espionage e.p. to break up the long break between our last album. How do you feel about the more electronic aspects of Digital Poodle's music these days? Are you coming up with any new edges or angles? We've employed a lot more sampling in our music and in fact, the entire new album is recorded in a virtual digital environment. None of the music hit traditional analogue tape. All of the music, including the vocals , were sliced, diced and edited on a digital hard drive system, existing only as data on a computer screen. A couple of the tracks employ 'guitar-type' sounds, mostly generated by distorting the fuck out of old analogue gear. Too many bands, and it seems mainly American ones, have taken the safe route of producing Ministry-like guitar rock, while ending up sounding like second rate Def Leppard party rock. Send them back to the adolescent suburban basement party! The year is 1993, not 1974! What would be your expectations for these albums? Well we're negotiating a U.S. deal at the moment, so that the albums will receive better North American coverage. Look for Digital Poodle in your local K-Mart. The Europeans are only now seeing the release of the 'Espionage' e.p. to closer coincide with the release of the new albums. Hyperium Records will be pressing for most of Europe, and Ninja Tune will be releasing for the U.K....on vinyl too! Obviously we'd like for more people to hear the music! Is Digital Poodle looking to a tour in support of the albums? Whats a representative Digital Poodle performance like on stage? The Digital Poodle live shows are far removed from the studio setting. We hardly, if ever rehearse for live gigs, preferring to keep each show somewhat spontaneous and different from the last. As I mentioned earlier, we employ two live drummers so the shows are quite high in adrenaline levels. We've been talking of doing a limited tour in support of the new discs. We are not the type of people who would undertake anything longer than that really. Only the major cities in Canada and the U.S. Aside from Digital Poodle, numerous other projects have been develop from collaborations and individually such as Din & Parade. Could you update these projects and any further new projects? Din is the solo disko-fantasy project of Pupka Frey. The new album is pretty much complete, and is awaiting final mixes. Musically, it doesn't stray too far off from the debut CD 'Fantastic Planet'. A four track 12" is out in the U.K., featuring the brand new tracks "Mellon Balls" And "Water Sports". Parade is not a side-project, but a completely separate band from Digital Poodle. Their CD 'Icarus' was released a few months back and I believe is in it's third pressing now. Under the Command Co. name, which is a collaboration between myself and the members of Mona Lisa Mescaline, we'll be releasing a 12" single in Europe, as well as appearing on several compilation CD's as well... You also run you own label 'Shadow Canada'. Tell us about that & what the future looks like for the label? Shadow Canada has slowed down it's role as a label, though the occasional release will continue to appear, when appropriate. Over the years we put out thirty two full-length cassettes of predominantly electronic-ambient-industrial music, as well as three twelve inch singles. Dave Faris, of the band Parade, has compiled a new tape of instrumental/ industrial soundtracks, featuring musicians from around the world. D.P.'s live drummer Kris, will be releasing a tape of his ambient-house material under the name 'Trafalgar Project' soon. For the most part, I feel that the tape trading scene has stagnated somewhat in the last few years. The initial excitement is gone. The entire 'Shadow' back catalogue is still available via mail order. What types of music & bands do you generally listen to when your not in the process of making your own music? Lately I've been listening to a lot of the new acid-trance of C.J. Bolland, Sven Vath, Source and Underground Resistance. The new Numb album is quite amazing...very brutal. There does seem to be a good number of electro realmed bands up & around Canada? Am I correct or does it just seem like there more happening then there really is? It does seem so doesn't it... Toronto, where we are based in, has it's fair share of groups who have releases on various labels. Dogpile and Masochistic Religion are both signed to KK records. Malhavoc are on Metal Blade in the U.S. !Bang Elektronika are on DOVe as well... I can see why there are more electro groups from Canada, since we have always had a strong European influence, as well as the American one. Alot of the early new wave/alternative groups found popularity in Canada LONG before they were ever noticed in the U.S. The States have always been far more rock influenced. It definitely reflects in a lot of the 'cock-rock' U.S. industrial type groups. Now how do you foresee the future for Digital Poodle? where would you like to go? Well, in the near future, we will be recording some new tracks for a mini-album. We're going to try some songs with the full live band, including our two drummers. Something along the lines of early D.A.F. or Die Krupps, where 'live' percussion is integrated with programmed sequences. As long as we continue releasing new products on a semi-regular basis, I'm satisfied... What's been your reaction to the success of Digital poodle? Did you ever expect to be known world wide as one of the premier electro generated bands? Well no, not really, but since the beginning we immediately thrust ourselves and our music into the global network. Digital Poodle will always continue to retain elektronik purity... Contact: Shadow Canada, 5 Admiral Road, Toronto, Ontario, M5R 2L4 Fax: 416-923-8989 DOVe Inc., 2 Bloor St. W., Suite 100-159, Toronto, Ontario, M4W 3E2 Tel:416-533-7887