“Many, many times the press has written us off as being over” Octave One’s Lenny Burden declares, “but we remain a good part of the ever changing electronic culture.”
Octave One, Detroit house and techno stalwarts for over two decades, are just one of many veteran club acts firmly back in favour as the year closes out. The release of their 20th anniversary album, Revisited (Here, There and Beyond) in January is impeccably timed; and themed, offering up the Burden brothers’ (Lenny and Lawrence) immense back catalogue to some of techno’s most venerable contemporary stars – the likes of Sandwell District, Alexander Kowalski and Aril Brikha – for salient re-interpretation. Revisited is a worthy symbol of clubland’s current obsession with classic four-to-the-floor.
“We wanted to mark out 20 years of producing with something special… something really different for us” Lenny explains. “We have not really had a lot of our music remixed by other producers, and thought this was the time. We let them choose what they wanted to remix; that way they could be more involved in the process. Waiting for those first remixes to be delivered was quite nerve-rattling really, because you never know what someone will do to your work. But they were good and then we knew we’d chosen the right people.”
Octave One’s sound is a blazing, raw-edged fusion of percussive pile-drive, haunting tribalism, minimal funk and deeper, house-framed soul. Lenny and Lawrence dropped debut single I Believe in 1989 on Derrick May’s influential Transmat label. Aided sporadically by their other three siblings Lorne, Lynell and Lance, they went on to found label 430 West through which they have released all subsequent material (bar a couple of projects here and there) including 2000’s string-swept crossover hit Blackwater. Their reputation has far preceded them.
“I think it’s [reputation] down to not worrying about keeping a certain level of performance or production up all the time” Lenny suggests. “We just focus on creating what we believe in and only putting music out that has something to say creatively. We refuse to rush out music just to stay in the press; people might not know our history but they start to learn about us through our live sets. Our approach to music doesn’t always benefit our popularity but fans start to find us out.”
And that’s happening on a fairly significant scale today. Not just with the Burdens either. Fellow dance veterans Kerri Chandler, Murk, MK, Inner City and Cajmere are all swelling their fanbases – producers with ‘the’ original approach to house music. Why?
“You wait long enough and everything comes back into fashion” Lawrence reflects. “But the key is to make music that is not trendy or at least has a good song as its root. That’s what we think is really going on. Producers are looking for good songs to record or reintroduce to the public.”
It’s a point that Murk’s Oscar G develops: “Song-writing and musical skill are important tools. A lot of kids are coming in for celebrity and instant fame today, but that only gets you so far. The quality of your music… of your songs… is what really counts towards a long career. On that score, I think we have more to give. It’s what has kept us in people’s heads for this long.”
Lawrence Burden picks back up: “You need distinctive music with good melodies. That makes a dance song worth reinterpreting or just plain revisiting. Good, memorable melodies are missing from a lot of club tracks these days.”
Records like Blackwater, sweeping the listener soulfully along thanks to an inspired fusion of warm keys, dramatic strings and heart-stirring vocals (courtesy of Ann Saunderson), have more than endured. Blackwater is house music with depth, craft and, in turn, real feeling.
“Lorne was fooling around with some Latin rhythms” Lenny recalls. “We talked about what we could do with those rhythms and how clever it’d be if he tried mixing it with this string sound we’d created for another track. He added in more percussion and went nuts over the playback; that instrumental was heard by Ann and so the song was fleshed out and did its thing.
“A record like that says much about our modus operandi. We revolve around creating grooves and rhythms in music that allow you to feel something. We're really not concerned so much with what that feeling might be – sad, happy, whatever… - just as long is that there is some kind of feeling evoked. And a lot of times it ends up being very ‘vibey’; some even call it spiritual.”
Such direction goes along way to describing what it is that other classic house-makers also have and contemporary club audiences want so badly. Cajmere (Curtis Jones) and Kerri Chandler have both re-launched famous ‘old skool’ house labels – Casual and Madhouse, respectively - in recent times. Both pivot reliably on groove, melody and song; it is no coincidence, in fact, that Madhouse’s resurgence (and an alliance with international club brand Circo Loco) has helped Chandler’s acceleration into Resident Advisor’s Top 100 DJs Of 2011. The influential poll’s long-term association with tech ‘n’ minimal spinners may finally be on the verge of dilution.
“A lot of vintage sounds are being incorporated into house and techno’s future blueprints” Seth Troxler says. “Some of the fusion is really conceptual, really wide-ranging and out there. But the other side of it is immediately accessible; really musical and interesting. There’s proper musicianship on show and I think today’s club-goers respect that. Musicality will always draw people in; and it’s totally different to the track-ier stuff that has been going on for years.”
The so-called ‘classic house’ renaissance has been building throughout 2011. Whilst Murk and MK celebrated major discographies this year with high-profile compilations and increased numbers of gigs, and fellow veterans Inner City and Frankie Knuckles dropped new singles (Murk as well), promising young bloods Jamie Jones, Julio Bashmore, Deniz Kurzel and Troxler continued to knock out innovative new beats (for example, Bashmore’s Father, Father and Kurtel’s The Way I Feel EP) inspired by Chicago jack, early, disco-pumped New York house, glacial Nineties Detroit tech and a wealth of other retro 4-4 sounds. If Bashmore and co. weren’t producing, then they were playing tracks by their illustrious forebears.
Where then do we go next? “For Octave One, it’s all about focusing on keeping things fresh by keeping things joyous” Lawrence casually suggests. “If something’s not ready or we don’t feel we have something to say musically then you might not see new music from us. Guess it falls back to our parents teaching of speaking when you have something to say and not just talking all the time.”
Lenny continues: “Yes, music is totally unfiltered these days. You can produce tracks and have them on the internet in hours. Many predicted this would lead to a new age of exciting and original music the likes of which the world has never seen. It has not.
“Knowing that you will have to defend what you produce to someone, whether it be some record executive or some person who's about to spend all the money they have in the world to put out your record, is a good thing. It makes you present the very best you can do. With no one to answer to, you better hope that you can be totally unbiased when criticising your own music; for most of us, it’s impossible. In turn, a lot new dance tracks end up missing the key elements like strong melodies.”
The conditions for ongoing retro revolution – a response, at least in part, to often characterless digital saturation - would therefore seem to remain fertile. But all such talk is of little concern to the Burdens, who simply plan to carry on as before; as they’ve always done – unrushed, unstressed, totally self believing….
“We’re still getting a really great reception when we play out, which we’re thankful for” Lenny comments. “We’ve been touring quite a bit this year… about 50 shows in places like Japan, Spain, Macedonia, Italy, Australia, all over. It’s been an extraordinary experience for us. As for the studio, we have a new single New Life due early next year and then plans for a new album. What with the ongoing shows it’ll probably take a year to finish, but expect the best of the Octave One sound.”
The ‘old skool’ is very much in...
Words: Ben Lovett
