Track-By-Track: Ghostcast #16 (Spillway Q&A w/Polycron & Kellon)
This is an entry in the Track-By-Track series for my mix for The Ghost - see the index.
Track-By-Track is a series that looks back at records you will have heard in my mixes, one by one in the order they were played. Who made them, and when? How did I come across them? And what do they make me feel?
Today’s edition of Track-By-Track features a guest Q&A with two people connected to the Spillway label: Polycron, who produced the track that features in my Ghostcast, ‘Aroma’; and Kellon, who ran the label and provided most of its music over its brief lifespan from 2017 through to 2020.
I’ve been known to compare Spillway’s short but sweet catalogue to the likes of Big Sound Works and while that may be a little hyperbolic I stand by the idea that the label said something important while remaining remarkably concise (not to say mysteriously so). Across six releases — four solo Kellon EPs and two releases also featuring Polycron and Neuron Network — Spillway offered up a refined and authentic take on 90s techno sounds, from the multi-movement dream melancholy of the early releases to the vigorous club bangers of its final salvo, the Tycho EP. Referential but never lapsing into lazy pastiche, these were records made to stand the test of time, and they remain fixtures in my record bag.
Spillway was shelved during the pandemic, but happily for us all a new project has arrived to carry the flag: Rescan Records, whose first release is the The Second Phase EP, produced by Kellon under the name Viewfinder. Check out the samples here:
I’ve been playing all four tracks off this record religiously for the past six months and will continue to do so.
In the Q&A below Polycron and Kellon were kind enough to give us some frank and highly relatable insight into their thought processes when producing and curating the tunes on the label. Without further ado, here’s the Q&A!
Polycron Q&A
If this isn’t too open a question, how was the track recorded?
The tune was made using an Akai S1000 for the drums, a Yamaha DX27 for the bassline and the lead sounds were done using a Juno 106 plug-in and an SH-101 clone. It was all sequenced on logic and then recorded to DAT. I think I had a Midiverb for reverb.
Polycron - Aroma [Spillway, 2020]
As a DJ I’m curious about how tracks end up with what you could call unexpected arrangements — this track has 28 bars before the bassline arrives, for example. Is this something you think about when recording and arranging your tracks?
I really don’t think about that at all. I’m not the best producer so sometimes the arrangement is quite random and probably not very well thought out. I do think it’s a shame to make a tune with DJs purely in mind. A lot of the stuff back in the day had big intros and tricky breakdowns that makes them harder to mix but better overall as a song.
One of the most thrilling elements of the track is the pitch-bent lead line that comes in about 80 seconds in. It sounds so alive and dynamic, like a live solo. On relisten, I realised it appears once and never comes back. How do you arrive at this kind of improvised-sounding solo? And how do you know when to hold back?
I don’t have any musical experience and I’m useless on the keyboard so maybe that’s why it sounds the way it does. Just me messing around on the keys until I get something that sounds interesting enough. When I made it, I was (and still am) so paranoid and anxious that I was shit at making music that I told myself I must do things in order to make the tune better. I suppose I felt that not repeating the lead sound would make it more interesting and less conforming.
This track came out in January 2020, just before the covid lockdowns started. What’s your music life been like since then? And what’s happening this year?
My music life has stalled majorly because I can’t produce music that I’m happy with. It’s like torture most of the time. However, once I get some tunes recorded, I’m planning on starting my own record label. This year will be spent in my little studio trying to make music that I like and maybe playing some records out and about around Manchester.
Kellon Q&A
The discogs commentariat gives several reference points for the Spillway catalogue: “post-bleep”, As One, Planet E, Transmat, early Orbital. The first records instantly made me think of Titonton Duvanté and Morgan Geist’s early releases. Any of these names strike a chord? Or a dud note for that matter?
There is no doubt that I once wore my influences on my sleeve, maybe more than I do currently. A number of those names strike a chord… Titonton and Morgan Geist were definitely household names in the years leading up to Spillway (the label itself was named after a Geist tune on the 1994 Quadri-Locular EP). ‘Made in Eron’ from SPILL01 is probably an attempt — not a very successful one — at emulating some of the early Geist releases. There have been many references over the years; different inspirations for different releases. Certain elements can be inspired by certain tracks, a good example being the bassline from ‘Siphon’ (SPILL05) which I programmed after listening (repeatedly) to The Outsiders ‘Shu-Bop’ (MLR-003).
Let’s talk BPMs. Many of the tracks on the earlier Spillway releases hit the mid-to-high 130s, something which is commonplace in today’s weekly new release mail-outs but back then I think was a bit less usual. Why so fast?
Again, I think it was just down to influence. Dave Angel, Dan Curtin, Ismistik — fast tunes. In hindsight, I didn’t really think about my audience, or about what people might want to hear. It was very much just what I liked, and over the years you probably noticed my taste waiver and my ideas shift. Ultimately I think that’s why I chose to start afresh with a new label — I saw Spillway as an experimental phase where I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to put out. With that being said, I love fast tunes. More 130bpm+ to come!
Through SPILL04, 05 and 06 I think there’s an unmistakable turn towards a more symphonic vintage Detroit style. And now Viewfinder has amped up the funk in that sound and brought it into the mid-90s. Have you thought of your music in these terms at all? Or is this talk just me being a genre bore?
To be honest, I try not to think about genres — 94/95 has always been the sweet spot for me, in terms of what I listen to and play. It makes sense if that sound is evident in my own productions, I suppose, and there will always be a nod to Detroit in there somewhere. I think about these sorts of things more these days, so expect less frequent releases on Rescan with a more coherent sound — maybe.
Beyond music, what have been the main inspirations for Spillway/Rescan?
In the Spillway days, science fiction always played a big part — the 1966 novel Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany inspired several names/tracks. You can see these influences in the artwork too, I think. I used to work with a designer (cheers Ollie) to create the label art, and we’d go back and forth sending various old posters, flyers, magazine scans and book covers when trying to agree on an idea. Hopefully Rescan comes across in a slightly different way, and my inspiration will become clearer as more releases appear.
What’s next for Rescan and Viewfinder?
RESCAN02 is in the works and will hopefully be released before next year. Nick Kagame and GED joined me recently at Eastern Bloc (Manchester) for the first Rescan party and there's another date booked in for later in the year — hopefully there will be many more to come!
Big thanks to Polycron and Kellon aka Viewfinder for taking the time!