MASAL – The Monday Is OK Mixtape

Please introduce yourself…

Who are you: 

We are Masal (pronounced Ma-Sal)

Where are you: 

Essex , Leigh on Sea

What are you: 

Harp and synth duo

If it were to be drawn what would it look like?

A rural landscape with alien life forces living in tiny pods you can wear around your neck. When you let them out for their lunch break they have a deep dive into the barley, painting the fields a metallic lilac until you can catch them again. Credit

If it were a food what would it be?

It would be a cocktail made from Mezcal, peach schnapps and amaretto.

What would be the ideal setting to listen to the mix?

A flotation tank.

What should we be wearing? 

Your birthday suit with a little Vaseline on any cuts if you just shaved.

Where was it recorded?

In a Second World War bunker deep in Hockley Woods.

How do you feel about Mondays in general, excited…or?

Indifferent, it’s just a day.

Who got you hooked on electronic music?
Oz: Orbital, Massive Attack , Portishead, Tricky, Björk, Aphex Twin, Cocteau Twins, Japan, Erasure.
Al: Japan, Visage, John Foxx, Talk Talk, Tangerine Dream, early Human League.

Who would you say are your biggest influences and what are you hoping to achieve with your music?
Al: Don Van Vliet, Chris & Cosey (CTI), Coil, Jah Shaka, Lee Perry

Word Domination in the #HarpSynthDuo realm 😊

What were your original aspirations as musicians and how do you think you’re shaping up?
Oz: I am in competition with my younger self! Not bad so far!

Some self-help questions for a Monday:

Am I excited to dive into the challenges that i have lined up for the week?

Bring it on! I live for new challenges.

Am I looking forward to engaging with the people i am meeting or working with?

Er, give me enough coffee and I’m willing to chat for a little bit.

Am I going to my dream job?

In the studio, YES!

Am I being compensated fairly for the value i bring to my job?

I am rich in ways you won’t even imagine.

Do I feel energised, rested, and confident?

Depends on the Sunday I had.

If you were trapped on a desert island with one other person, who would you choose? How long would it be before you eat them?

Oz: My cat, I would become his dinner.

Your doctor says you need more exercise….what do you take up for exercise?

Trampolining.

If you could travel in time…where in time would you go? Why? 

3000 years into the future to see what has become of us and the planet.

What was the first electronic record you heard and how did it make you feel?

Oz: One of the first was Kraftwerk’s ‘The Man Machine’, a new gateway opened up in my mind I’d not accessed before.

Al: ‘Travelogue’ by the Human League was my gateway to the dark side of electronic music. It made me think I could do that, it was punk.

How does your brain work when making music?

How does it work when you aren’t?

Oz: It’s like self-hypnosis and my senses all turn inward. I rarely end up giving eye contact when performing for this reason, especially if I’m improvising.

Al: I have a type of Synaesthesia where I see music in my head as a series of interlocking viaducts or tessellations. As I work, I add layers of complexity to the mental image – quite hard to explain in words.

If I was a kid now I would be on Ritalin – my brain is 100 miles an hour all the time – it’s exhausting 😊

What were the first and last records you bought?

Al: First – ‘Kings of the Wild Frontier’; Last: Coil – ‘Moon’s Milk’ Box Set / Kim Gordon ‘The Collective’

What are you obsessed with at the moment?

Al: Masal (Really!)
Oz: Lisa O’Neill’ ‘Old Note’

What’s your answer to everything?

“I’m listening”

Anything else we need to discuss.

How much time have you got?

Tracklisting as follows:

Alice Coltrane – Blue Nile
Donald Byrd – Kofi
Kofi
Flexxx – It Was All a Dream
Dorothy Ashby – For Some We Loved
Mulatu Astatke – Yègellé Tezeta
Spectacular Diagnostics  – Class
Nathan Fake – The Sky Was Pink
Photek – T’Raenon
Masal – Black Beads
Tangerine Dream – Movements Of A Visionary
David Bowie – Moss Garden
Müslüm Gürses – Kış Oldum
The Electric Prunes – Holy Are You
Juicy Lucy – Just One Time

masalbanduk.bandcamp.com