Syz

Published on 2020-05-29 00:00:00 by Jack Rayner

### “It’s All DIY, You Know?” LL Speaks To Syz

As co-founder of multimedia collective Method Lab, Oli Samways has been throwing dances in the basements and dark rooms of Bristol since 2015. Under his Syz moniker, Oli’s singular take on intricate UK techno and unearthly bass music has seen physical release on fellow Bristol imprints Pressure Dome and Only Ruins. On new project Mindforms, tropical botany meets ethereal cyberspace through a fusion of styles. Primed to let the listeners’ imagination roam the digital environment, its organic drums, airy landscapes, and speckled 303 action create a natural experience in themselves. Jack Rayner spoke to Oli from his current home in West Sussex.**Mindforms is mostly comprised of beat-less tunes. How do you feel the challenge of making this kind of music differs from that of club tracks?**I enjoy writing the soundscapey stuff more; you can get more immersed in it. I think most producers (myself included) who write predominantly dance music do struggle with musicality sometimes. With beat-less stuff, the textures and sound design carry that along Ill gather all the textures first and then the music will build itself around that.**In your case, do the textures still come first when youre writing club-focused stuff?**Yeah. One process that I have is to start with a few strange noise loops or little details, then the beats grow around that. There are many ways of approaching it sometimes Ill just try to play chords first. I know next to nothing about theory but I know when something sounds good, so sometimes Ill start a track that way. Its good to switch it up, I think.**Was the combination of organic and digital textures on Mindforms something that you aimed for deliberately, or did it just end up that way?**These tracks stemmed from when I was at uni. I had two modules that overlapped one where I made a body of work that fell under a single concept, and another concerned with immersive environments, which involved composing for a 5.1 surround sound rig. Im interested in ecology, weird myths and realms, and AI, and Id just done a load of research about the combination of the three and how people think humans and AI will merge at some point. Thats where the concept for Mindforms came from the idea of merging machines with biology. When I started gathering materials for this project, I was sampling YouTube videos of orcas, hippos, glaciers cracking… Thats where a lot of the material came from: this idea of gathering sounds from the natural world through a computer. A lot of inspiration came from Ray Kurzweil, a futurist who thinks that humans will merge with AI at some point. That was the basis of this whole idea.**So youre looking forward to becoming half-robot?**Oh yeah mate, for sure. Ill become half a 303.**Sounds ideal.**All these concepts are quite far out, but its really interesting.**On your recent mix for Pressure Dome, you played some field recordings from a trip to Sri Lanka. Have you included your own recordings on Mindforms as well?**Yeah, some of the beat-less tracks contain the same recordings. Those were added fairly last-minute, because that was quite a recent trip. Its rewarding to include your own recordings, but a lot of the material still came from podcasts and YouTube.**It must be satisfying to translate your own experience into sound in that way.**Definitely. The whole idea of a soundscape is to immerse you in a different sort of space for a while, so its great to be able to include my own experiences in that.**The progression of the tracks on Mindforms is very coherent. Were they written in a single session?**The more soundscapey ones were made two years ago, but I never really found a home for them. Theres been maybe 20 different versions of the title track I try not to throw away ideas, and always attempt to make them evolve into something that finally clicks. Its nice to finally release a track thats morphed over a couple of years.**Youre self-releasing Mindforms, rather than putting it out on your own label Method Lab. Whats the reasoning behind that?**Weve got other plans for Method Lab were putting together a VA release at the moment. Mindforms is a bit of a passion project, so I wanted to do it all DIY. Ive learnt a lot in the process of making it, so this has become a test run for the Method Lab release. The VA will have a track from me, a track from Ghostcell who does all our artwork, another from Jimmy Decent whos the other co-founder, then perhaps a remix or another track from the extended family.**Were living in a profoundly strange time for dance music how has lockdown affected your creative process?**Youve just got to keep busy. Its quite rare to be given this amount of free time, particularly working in hospitality and events, so Ive been able to focus on this project and get some music out that I wouldnt usually push to release. Its all DIY, you know? Im starting to build a website with a friend, and getting to grips with stuff that I just didnt have time to before. Ive completely switched up my creative practice, and tried to push myself into a different way of thinking.**Which artists are you particularly enjoying at the moment?**I say this every time, but Henry Greenleaf is extremely sick. Ive got to shout out all of the Pressure Dome lot Yushh and Mish are coming through with some really nice stuff. Theres a lot of sick UKG coming out at the moment, and Im loving Holloway and Instinct Records, Interplanetary Criminal… Pugilist, Realitycheck and Em + Stav as well.**Lockdowns over, coronavirus is over, the clubs are back open, and youve got a headline slot at your favourite club. What are you opening with?**Ill probably go in all guns blazing with this absolute euphoric classic belter.**Whats next?**After this release, Im focusing on Method Lab and preparing some music for that, as well as doing some more stuff with Pressure Dome. Ive got a few more things bubbling, but nothing locked in yet.**Cheers Oli.**In anticipation of the release weve premiered the first track of the EP, 1E, an acid tinted eco-ambient piece Syz Mindforms EP.Out 01.06.2020 on limited 12″ and digital Pre-order: https://syzuk.bandcamp.com/album/mindformshttps://soundcloud.com/method_lab
https://soundcloud.com/syzuk
https://www.facebook.com/METHODLABUK/

Written by Jack Rayner