Jamie Lidell is like a caged animal that has been given too many amphetamines in some sort of lab experiment. He is a manic genius who did great things for techno, back when techno was still exciting, both by himself and with Cristian Vogel as Super-Collider. Live, he channels the energy, personalities and costumes of an entire circus and assaults his machines in order to produce the glitchiest glitches and noisiest noises. It’s a damn good show but it’s all we’ve had for five years since he released his last album in 2000.
He has recently broken the drought with
Multiply, an album with less of the spazzy elements than his others and more a pure collection of Soul and R n’ B tracks—a move which has left music nerds around the world scratching their heads in confusion. He called on a bunch of his buddies, including Mocky and Gonzales, to help write and play and the result is an album that is the perfect soundtrack to lazy Sundays.
VICE: You grew up in the country so must be used to being around lots of animals yeah?
Jamie: Yeah, I wish I could have a pet, but it would be selfish of me as I live in the city in Berlin. I saw this guy the other day who was surrounded by animals—a cat in front of him in a little cradle, birds all around him and a mouse in a shoe. Maybe when I go completely crazy I’ll get lots of animals.
You could get a goldfish.
It would be funny if I just carried around a goldfish. I’d go out and get drunk and be like, “Where’s my fucking goldfish”?
We have these birds here called Lyrebirds that can imitate any sound they hear precisely. You need one of those for your show.
Yeah, that would be awesome for the live show. I’d get them to do my backing track. I’d put headphones on the birds and just pipe the music through, as I wanted it on queue. I’d have a whole lot of them so I could create delays. I think they do a kind of dance too, so we’d have a full show.
I think they are endangered though, so it’s probably not going to happen.
Yeah, I don’t need more activists on my case.
BETTY BRUE
Multiply is out now through Inertia.
