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Straight out of the Record Box Surfin the seas with a trip
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HEAR HERE!
Josh Wink makes music that pushes people out of their psychic ruts whether they're grooving on a crowded dance floor or meditating in private. Wink's innate spirit of adventure has always attracted him to the most ambitious musical challenges whether he's DJing at a massive party or crafting tracks in his home studio. On HEREHEAR, his full-length debut album on Ovum/RuffHouse/Columbia Records, he's risen to the occasion with his most audacious, most masterfully-realized effort to date.
Wink's eclectic style incorporates house, techno, drum 'n' bass and avant-garde experimentation and has earned him a rabid following around the world as evidenced by European (world-wide) chart-toppers such as "Higher State Of Consciousness," "Don't Laugh," and "I'm Ready." HEREHEAR -- his second full length album and first for his own Ovum Recordings imprint (distributed by RuffHouse/Columbia) -- finds Wink pursuing more daring aesthetic goals while exploring an exotic aural terrain.
"I'm more of an album-oriented artist on this project," confesses Wink. "With HEREHEAR, I was visualizing people listening at home, at work, out driving, not just at the club. Yet, I was careful not to forget the club aspect of things. Balancing the two was very important."
Though the principles guiding the writing and performing on HEREHEAR were different from those behind his many club anthems, they were created with basically the same rigorously Spartan amalgam of funky equipment Wink's used for ages. "My studio is basically the same that it has always been," he says. "No state of the art stuff; it's really raw and basic. Every now and then I get a unique, weird piece of gear, but otherwise it's the same setup I've had since '92, except I use a more powerful computer. I (feel that I) have a personal sound, and I wanted to keep it, so I didn't change my setup. It's not always how much stuff you have, but how you use the stuff!'
And does he ever know how to use it. After striking hard with Left Above the Clouds -- his critically-acclaimed independently released '96 full-length album, an artful melange of pumping club tracks, poetry woven together with outright experimental passages -- Wink's come through with a streamlined sonic self-portrait in HEREHEAR: the sonic saga of a DJ who's lived and learned from a world full of endless musical possibilities in the two years since his first record. The result is a thought-provoking, often heady musical journey, continually offering up something new for your mind, body and soul.
Resembling one of Wink's classic live sets full of subtle twists and surprising thrills, HEREHEAR is mixed as a seamless whole. While incorporating an eclectic range of styles, moods and textures, Wink wisely divided the effort into two distinctive, cohesive halves: first, an impressionistic, free-floating "listening side" that recalls jazzier, R&B flavored takes on the seminal electronic music of Eno, Jon Hassell, et al. This slowly builds into a rousing, beatcentric "DJ-friendly" frenzy with songs including the acid/breakbeat flavored "Back In That Day," the chaotic "Git Up" and the frantic '97 club smash "are you there..."
On the preceding tracks, among the other challenges he set himself, Wink went about colluding and colliding with an array of provocative vocalists and musicians. Often recorded on the fly in between gigs and the crush of daily responsibilities co-running Ovum, these collaborations which proved to be thoroughly rewarding on a multiple artistic and spiritual levels.
Featuring erstwhile This Mortal Coil/Shelleyann Orphan singer Caroline Crawley, "I'm On Fire" is a lush, utterly divine organic composition. Wink's smooth, ebullient production creates a plush psychedelic cloud bank for Crawley's heartfelt vocalese to wind through. "6th Sense," the first single released from HEREHEAR, was cut with noted Philadelphia poet Ursula Rucker (who's contributed to the albums of King Britt's Sylk 130, The Roots and Bahamadia). This is a frenzied, relentless techno banger, wherein Wink kneads Rucker's voice like a sculptor passionately molding and remolding clay into wildly abstracted shapes similar to the audio collages of Laurie Anderson.
"Black Bomb" is full of throbbing experimental raw tension featuring Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor. The song is like nothing like Wink has ever done before, a full-on pugnacious assault boasting Reznor's speaker-shredding vocals, pounding martial drums and ecstatic bursts of static noise. "I didn't physically work with him in the studio," says Wink about the experience. "We sent tapes back and forth; we talked on the phone about ideas and things and it just flowed. I sent a couple of things to Trent and he liked this cut and wanted to do it. I thought the original track was unique and that he could enhance the song and move it to another level. It worked out pretty well."
Wink also worked with long time friend Herschel Gaer, of the Philly-based rock trio The Interpreters, on the album's closing cut and second single, "Simple Man." Anchored by huge, rolling bass lines 'n' jungle style beats and caterwauling vocals by Herschel, the track shows another fresh, previously unheard aspect of Wink's musical vision.
"Hard Hit" placed the talents of Wink and local jazz expressionist Elliott Levin together. The combination of the funky beats, pulsating tones, and live saxophone creates a modern electronic "free jazz" soundscape. The lush, aquatic feel of the drum n' bass tune, "Young Again," incorporates Elliott again on sax, Herschel Gaer on bass and John Wicks on guitar.
"It was great to be able to network and collaborate with all different kinds of artists on the album," acknowledges Wink. "The LP is diverse because that's how and who I am and it reflects parts of my persona as a DJ. I've always had an open mind for all styles of musical expression. So, why hold myself back from growing, experimenting and learning different aspects of music? That's how I progress as an artist, and as a human. I just feel a bit more mature as a producer. The first LP was important for me to do. Now I'm just progressing to my next level. All I want is for people to be able to listen to the LP with an open mind."
Wink got his start in music working for a mobile DJ service in his hometown of Philadelphia, beginning to learn the basics of the business at the age of 13. The precocious Wink soon began spinning at small parties around town. The gigs weren't glamorous, but he used the opportunity to learn how to make the temperature of a party soar past the boiling point.
Raised in an open-minded environment by parents who encouraged him to explore the arts and sounds of his native Philadelphia, the clean-living Wink was weaned on a disparate musical diet. Having been exposed to everything from Depeche Mode to Run-DMC, his ears were constantly open.
Then in 1988, Wink met up with a kindred spirit and fellow Philadelphian: King Britt. Their interests were extremely similar. Pooling these common interests and blending their differences, the duo waxed E-Culture's "Tribal Confusion." The record was a underground classic. Wink quickly hit the burgeoning U.S. rave circuit, driving for days on end with his record boxes in tow to play packed one-off parties from coast to coast.
Though his DJ career was taking off, Wink's restless spirit led him into cutting records of his own. After forming Ovum Recordings as an independent label with Britt in October 1994, Wink recorded the cult classic "Liquid Summer." He went on to release singles for a wide variety of revered European labels. He also began remixing for Moby and others. Invitations to spin at prestigious nightspots all over the world soon poured in but as his career progressed, he stayed true to his roots, always maintaining his integrity, always coming home to his beloved Philadelphia.
In 1995 he scored three consecutive European smashes -- all produced out of his modest 16-track bedroom studio -- "Don't Laugh," "I'm Ready," and "Higher State Of Consciousness"; a gritty electro romp initially cut as a B-side, "Higher State Of Consciousness" soared to the top of the European charts and hit the U.K. Top 10 all in the space of a year. He capped all this off with his full-length debut album Left Above The Clouds.
Instead of capitalizing on his popularity, Wink decided to trim down his DJing commitments and spent 1996 solidifying a distribution deal between Ovum Recordings and RuffHouse/Columbia Records. In the past year Ovum has released much-heralded albums from King Britt's Sylk 130 collective, as well as New Jersey-based junglist Jamie Myerson. Somehow, in the midst of all this activity, Wink found time to craft HEREHEAR.
With big ideas and the talent to realize his dreams, Wink has just written and recorded a unique aural soundscape for the new millennium. Indeed, it's all right HEREHEAR |