Boy Eats Drum Machine is Jon Ragel, who is a turntablist, analog synth lover and musical innovator from Portland. A while back he teamed up with Gang of Four bassist Dave Allen for some live mashup action, mutilating Michael Jackson, Talking heads and other luminaries in the best of all possible ways with live bass and guitars plus the ever-present turntables.
But that’s the past–the here and now has Boy Eats Drum Machine funkier than ever with a new collection of excellent, danceable tracks–20 in all.
20 Beats is hot off the presses as it were, on Bandcamp, iTunes and elsewhere. Turntabling wanted to know how the vinyl fits in with Boy Eats Drum Machine’s latest and get the skinny on this excellent new BEDM album.
Turntabling: Give us the lowdown on 20 Beats. What’s going on here?
Jon Ragel: This is a collection of 20 brand new instrumentals, all of which started out as breaks grabbed from Bridgetown Breaks 1 and 2. I worked pretty fast, so there’s a raw edge to the parts, as well as more bite in the guitars and synths than anything else I’ve done. Each track has it’s own album cover too.
Turntabling: You list ‘turntablist’ as one of your specialties–how does turntabling factor in on the new record?
I only pull breaks and sounds from vinyl. It’s an aesthetic thing. Also, I like the limitation of working with vinyl. You have to use your hands to make it fit. It always ends up being a tad imperfect. I like that. Most electronic music sounds way too perfect to my ears.
Is 20 Beats coming on vinyl? BEDM has released material on vinyl previously–what are the challenges of recording/mastering/getting an album ready for a vinyl release is like compared to doing it for digital distribution?
It’s just a digital release for now. I’m still trying to recoup on Booomboxxx and Hoop and Wire, both of which came out on vinyl. My desire to make art currently outweighs the money it brings in, so I’m thankful for this whole digital angle on releasing music. It’s cheaper, for sure. This album has been free, basically.
Rainbow Records made the vinyl for both Booomboxxx and Hoop and Wire. They send 5 copies to inspect. In both instances I felt good about the way they sounded. No hassle, really.
I think vinyl naturally sweetens the deficiencies of 16 bit, 44.1k recording, as well as it’s lack of depth. I can’t wait to get something more robust, but I still think the motu 828 is a nice piece of gear, especially considering how inexpensive it is.
What advice do you have for someone contemplating putting music on vinyl who has only done digital releases prior to vinyl?
Oddly enough, I’m not much of an audiophile, so my knowledge on this topic could use a little spit-shine. I tend to listen to music at the day job or during long drives. I love my vinyl LPs more as a historian.
That said, I really appreciate sweet lows and dynamic range, so my gut instinct is that recordings with those two qualities are going to sound best on vinyl. Basically, with an mp3 you’re trying to make it really damn loud.
You don’t have to do that with vinyl because audiophiles like dynamic range and have systems designed to sound musical, rather than simply “bassy” or “loud”. So I’d say leave more dynamic range in a vinyl master than you would a digital master.
20 Beats—available on CD? What’s the future of the shiny disc? Some say it’s dead already and doesn’t know when to lie down, but some bands I know insist that you still need a disc to be taken seriously at shows and by reviewers. What’s your take from a musician standpoint?
I’ll do a boutique run of cd’s. I’ve never loved CDs mind you, but if you tour CDs are a no-brainer. People give you money for them. Money is good. Also, it seems to me a lot of radio/press peeps still have stacks of cd’s on their desks. We want them to hear our music, so we should give them music the way they like it. I’m talking mailing out 550 CDs.
That’s expensive. That’s inefficient. That’s…sounding like the music industry. Of course, I won’t be doing that with 20 Beats. 20 Beats is an experiment. Also, I’m too broke to do that again this year.
I really like digital. I wish more people would catch onto buying lossless files. The technology is there. The technology is exciting. The technology is simply way ahead of people’s ability to take in information.
You can send someone an email but you can’t give them the time to read it, along with the other 99 emails they get that day. It’s impossible. So technology isn’t the issue, but rather a simple industry-wide changing of the guards over the next 10-20 years. Watch a teenager text their friends while eating a sandwich and following So You Think You Can Dance and you’ll know what I mean.
Also, I think the internet is misunderstood as a tool. People need actual human contact. People want to feel cultural. People want to feel…well…human. There’s only so much nibbling around on the internet someone can do before they need to go out, hear some music, bump asses with a few people, and get a good buzz.
So long as we musicians are out there being a part of that we’ll be culturally relevant. We might even make a few bucks in the process.
You can find 20 Beats by Boy Eats Drum Machine at Bandcamp. Check out the two free tracks Silverskate Gateway and the current Turntabling favorite, Josh Skins, which is funky as all hell.
