Ahead of the release of his much-anticipated debut studio album, Defected’s Harvey Tatsu Jones caught up with Bulgarian techno producer, KiNK, to discuss the album, his influences and the secret behind his explosive live performances.
Against the background of antiquated analogue hardware, KiNK – AKA Strahil Velchev – is in the middle of what many musicians considers their eternal endeavor: composing new tracks.
KiNK first began attracting attention in the late noughties with some noted collaborations with UK producer Neville Watson and went on to release on Ovum, Systematic and Dirtybird. With a reputation for old school Detroit-Chicago sounds and energetic live sets, his new album is a big step in a new artistic direction.
“The original plan for the album was to make something more danceable, a bit more functional.” Strahil explains. “I had all this analogue gear that didn’t work very well for my live sets, and so I started to experiment with them in my home and somehow came up with these sounds. The whole thing was a mistake, but what I found was beautiful and decided to build the whole project around this mistake.”
The ominously titled Under Destruction is a product of solitary experimentation, late nights on the road and what he has coined ‘Post-Socialist Techno’ - a term he says goes hand in hand with the reverse engineering of electronic music in a culturally isolated Bulgaria.
If you go back to KiNK’s 2010 Rachel EP, one could easily imagine KiNK branching off into the world of electro pop. The music found in Under Destruction is unexpected and daring – twelve tracks of experimental club trances enveloped in a cavern of minimalist noisescapes. The opening track, ‘Dama’, is distorted like a short-circuiting nursery rhyme while ‘Vodolaz’ is the soundtrack to a gently sleeping android's dream. This is music to disappear to.
Growing up in the Eastern Block in the 1980s, state media promised a future of scientific and technological progress. The influx of Western pop culture was limited, and the small amount of music that did come though was eagerly dissected and imitated. “I’m known as a producer who makes music based on classic Techno, sometimes copying things that I like. But somehow in the process of copying and learning, I stumbled across something more valuable. Through the destruction of other people’s music, I’ve created something new. That’s what I’m trying to show with this album. That’s why it is called ‘Under Destruction’” he explains.
The cover art for Under Destruction is as unconventional as the music. Taken in China by Velchev’s good friend and photographer, Nikola Mihov, it is part of a series, which captures a bittersweet consequence of China’s rapid economic progression. Shot under the neon construction lights of a city whose population skyrocketed from 50,000 to 12 million since 1979, Strahil reveals the concept behind the photograph and how it serves as a visual declaration of the album’s artistic manifesto: “They are from a city called Shenzhen. The government wanted to build newer apartment and business buildings, but some of the residents refused to sell their homes. Out of this destruction we see these strange buildings, ghost buildings, which I find interesting and beautiful. At first it looks absurd, but if you look at it as an artistic immigration, it is actually something amazing. It’s the same for my music.”
Although KiNK does not plan on playing his new album tracks in his usual club-focused performances, he does toy with the idea of organizing an all-analogue set for more intimate settings. In an age where DJs can be seen traveling only with a few USB flash drives, Strahil took a chance investing in a gear-heavy live set instead of pursuing a more traditional DJ path. “I’m a big fan of regular DJing” he quickly clarifies. “In the beginning I really didn’t want to make a live act. There were a lot of requests for live shows and not so much for DJ gigs, and I saw my chance to travel. My original plan was to do a couple of live shows and go back to DJing, which at the time I was better at. But then I liked it.”
The live set’s popularity does not lie so much in his technical wizardry, but in imagining himself as part of the audience. Having been curious as to what was going on in the DJ booth as a clubber, KiNK let’s audience members actually press buttons and participate in his shows. “If I can do something to make myself dance, then it should make others dance” he says. “I also like to interact with people. There are other people like me who are curious so I give them a chance to truly participate, and it works.”
Words: Harvey Tatsu Jones
Under Destruction is out on Macro on 05 May
