Braindancing with Cylob

by Alias

Rephlex Records is one of the world's more innovative and challenging labels. Their style is known as Braindance -- a genre that encompasses all known genres -- to make things simpler. Intelligent happy hardcore? Psychedelic handbag? Progressive bluntcore? Uplifting trance? Power house? Fuck the labels Rephlex is about the music.

One of Rephlex's more celebrated artists is Chris Jeffs. His releases under Cylob and Kinesthesia have helped the Cornwall-based label gain international exposure and recognition. So much so that some of the crew from Rephlex toured Australia under the "Rephresh" banner. While Jeffs' output may not be as prolific as his closest contemporaries Mike Paradinas (u-ziq, Jake Slazenger) or Richard James, he has released an awful amount of records during his career with three releases as Kinesthesia (including the "Volume One" and "Volume Two" collections) and under Cylob (most recently he has triumphed through the excellent "Lobster Tracks" set) -- not bad for someone who first began experimenting with electronics in 1991. Jeffs has also remixed Aphex Twin ("Ventolin"), Bochum Welt and Immersion, and while nowadays his style leans towards frantic cerebral techno and breaks, he is extremely capable of tackling almost any style. If you want real innovation don't buy a Sasha and Digweed by numbers mix CD, check out a brother like the Cylob.

Alias: Rephlex is often referred to as the sound of Braindance. Cerebral music it most certainly is, do you feel there is a community of artists all around the world who write music for the head as opposed to the feet?

Cylob: Braindance isn't about the concept of head music versus dance music, it's [about] both. I sometimes hear Rephlex music referred to as if it's difficult to dance to, this is not the case. Most of the time when the Rephlex posse gets together to do a night, we see people dancing their tits off with huge grins on their faces. I wouldn't know about a world community of artists but as far as Rephlex goes, there are artists from UK (mainly), Germany, Italy, USA, Finland, Switzerland, France off the top of my head.

Alias: Do you think the wider public will ever embrace this sound?

Cylob: No. For things to be embraced by the wider public, they need to be in fashion, but the way of Braindance is to not care about that, even sometimes to be purposely out of date. If it ever does become very popular it will be by accident.

Alias: Does it ever amaze you that places as far away from Europe as Australia have a large enough collective of people interested in your music for you to be able to tour?

Cylob: Speaking for myself, it baffles me that even one person has ever bought one of my records. I mean, as far as I'm concerned I should be number one in the charts with every release but there are relatively few people who bother to stray from the path of the mainstream. Of course on a planet with six billion souls on it, that can still add up to quite a few people. So yes and no at the same time... well it's always a nice surprise.

Alias: What does music mean to you? You obviously invest an enormous amount of time in it, which can be seen through the amount of records you have released and the intricate detail within all of them.

Cylob: It's an important means of self-expression for me because I'm generally not very articulate any other way.

Alias: I found "Lobster Tracks" to have an incredible amount of machine-executed groove. I guess what makes your work special, and also the work of people like Autechre, Squarepusher, AFX, and Mike Paradinas, is that it creates a unique and inspired groove, ten times more powerful than any house track and not necessarily a groove that will make you dance. Is this something you look for?

Cylob: Oh I've seen people dance to all those tracks well enough! I aspire to make my music to be funky, but in different ways... basically just to keep myself interested.

Alias: Where do you turn for inspiration?

Cylob: Other people's music and my own emotions.

Alias: What can people expect from a live Cylob set, do you cover the whole spectrum of your work?

Cylob: It tends to be stuff from the past year or so, sometimes an oldie or two. As for playing, mostly it's just pressing a few buttons and moving faders up and down.

Alias: What would be the standard procedure of a day in the normal day-to-day life of Cylob?

Cylob: Wake up about midday, eat a sandwich, check my email, play around with some music, have an afternoon nap, wake up a few hours later, watch some telly, have dinner, do a bit more music then go to bed about 3 a.m. I'm the laziest person I know.

Alias: Although you have made some extremely violent records, you are apparently a really peaceful and mellow person, how do these sonic outbursts come about?

Cylob: Sometimes I just lose it you know!