Inerview: Andrew Phillips, Grasscut

1 inch/1/2 Mile might just be one of the most interesting releases of the year. An album that is at once somehow familiar and yet undeniably new. This Ninja Tune duo (Andrew Phillips and Marcus O' Dair) are a world apart from modern British dance music, their electronic industrial rhythms and ambient broadcasts evoke the pits of South Wales, the hills of middle England and the immense landscapes of Scotland.Grasscut, like say Boards Of Canada or Aphex Twin, understand the need for humanity and nature in a world of machines. Using field recordings and recycled 78's they evoke a certain historical dimension, yet this is no retro trip with some of the most cutting edge sounds of the year in tracks such as Old Machines or Muppet (see below). I was fortunate to catch up with Andrew Phillips in advance of live dates across Europe. 

When did you first really get into your music?

I was in choirs and orchestras as a kid, got into songs and making ambient tapes as a teenager, worked as a film and TV composer after university.

How did Grasscut come about?

Marcus and I were on tour with another band, and I started making field recordings and tunes on my laptop, responding to things we were seeing around Britain. We got offered a couple of gigs off the back of those early tunes and it snowballed from there.

What's the vision behind Grasscut?

It's important that the music feels unfamiliar, experimental, not generic, and also emotional. I wanted to use a variety of voices from the past and present, to keep the sound changing.
 
You clearly have a sense of Englishness in your work. Is that a conscious decision?

Well all the songs are about Britain really - Sheffield shopping centres, Welsh mountains, Sussex Downs particularly. It's not conscious, as such, it's just where I spend most of my time. Not the shopping centres, actually.

You achieve a fine balance between nostalgia and innovation - which is most important in what you do?

I don't think using sounds and voices from the past is necessarily nostalgic - I always think of nostalgia as a bit self-indulgent, as though you're trying to revisit or recreate the past in some way. In Britain our past is everywhere - it's an old country, but at the same time, we're living with an unprecedented speed of change. For me, putting those old sounds and voices in a contemporary electronic musical context just feels right. It feels like now.

How do you work in the studio? What kit do you use?

Lots of live instruments and mics - harmoniums, pianos, gongs, drums, synths. I use an old version of Logic, Ableton, lots of little bits of software, max msp. And I use my phone a lot for vocals, or street recording.

The cover art is lovely - is that important to you?

Thank you. Yes, incredibly important. We were fortunate to work with Pedr Browne, a designer and all round renaissance man, who did the artwork, and helped design the walk map within. It really sets the right scene for the music.

How do you perceive reaction to your work?

We had almost universally lovely reviews of the album in the press and were delighted. I think sometimes it takes people a few listens to get it, and we don't expect everybody to like it, but if most people who hear it get it in some way as you intended it, that's great. 

I see you're doing live dates - how's that working out?

Gigs are really fun - quite hard to take something so layered out live initially, but we've come a long way already, and had some great gigs - we have a full video show that accompanies  the music too. we're playing lots in Europe and really enjoying it.

What next for Grasscut?

We've got some British shows coming up, and are going to Holland and Prague in the next few weeks. I'm working on the next album already, and we're touring in France next January February and March.

Album review: 1 inch/1/2 mile - Grasscut (Ninja Tune).

An attempt to define what it is to be English has been omnipresent in popular music from these Isles since at least the Kink's 1968 masterpiece Village Green Preservation Society. Artists from Jethro Tull through Blur to the Streets have sought to recapture the essence of what it is to live in Albion.

The latest such effort comes from the world of electronica. Grasscut's debut is released on (the as ever excellent) Ninja Tune and combines old 78's, spoken word samples and ambient techno to excellent effect. The period it evokes is the post war era through to the dawn of Thatcherism and the decline in manufacturing. 1946 samples a woman talking about the effects of rationing while glitchy beats create the feel of rusting production lines in the excellent Old Machines .

The most obvious influence that springs to mind is Lemon Jelly, but this is to do Grasscut a disservice. Like Lemon Jelly they build up collages around spoken word samples but there is a degree of forward thinking here which is often sadly lacking in their predecessors. The Grasscut sound is, on a number of occassions, considerably more upbeat. Having said that, a number of tracks feature what can only be described as a 'music box' breakdown - think of the sound of a ballerina in a velvet cased box and you get the idea. The track Muppet is just one that utilises this effect but also manages to combine an edgy dance sound and climaxes with an ambient choir.

Tin Man and In her Pride are both lovely. Tin Man starts with a piano and cello before giving way to what sounds like an Indian vocal and a Flaming Lips style rythym section. The Lips are clearly another influence of Grasscut, as is Beck, most notably on opener Highdown and on The Door In the Wall which is undoubtedly the most commercial track on the album and wouldn't be out of place on an indie radio station playlist.

It goes without saying that 1 inch/1/2 mile has the feel of a soundtrack. Library music, Krautrock and classical sounds are all also in the mix somewhere and yet over the course of the album one feels that this Sussex collective could have pushed things even further. I await their live dates and second album with relish.