Jimpster’s RanSom Note

We’re a big ole fan of Jimpster round these parts. 

Jamie Odell aka Jimpster and Audiomontage has been producing mighty fine bits of black plastic for the last 19 years and co- running his Freerange Records label for the last 15 of those. He’s also a supremely great DJ. 

A musical upbringing and early introduction to production led to his first release on UK label Jumpin & Pumpin in 1990. He was also a member of the hugely great live outfit The Bay. All this has helped him forge a sound that is at once warm and deep as well as being innovative and also club friendly. 

We were discussing with Jimpster about doing a Random Facts… and then from out of nowhere he wrote this whole diatribe of a note about random things that have inspired him through the years… we’re aptly titling it Jimpster’s Ransom Note – you see what we’ve done there yeah? – and in turn launching a whole new series… what a great picture too. 

Breakdancing

Round about ’83 the whole breaking thing exploded in the UK and became a big part of my life.  I was 10 at the time and began collecting the Streetsounds Electro compilations and started trying to recreate similar beats on my ZX Spectrum and Casio keyboard.  By ’84 I had access to a TR808 drum machine and an SH101 synth and started to make complete tracks by layering stuff up on a 4-track cassette machine.  Cybotron’s Clear, Hashim’s Alnaafiysh and of course Planet Rock were the soundtrack of my life at that point.

On-U Sound, ULU and Subterrania

Through my teenage years I was lucky enough to be hanging out with a lot of older guys who were already going to gigs and who also had brothers or sisters working at record labels like Mute and Rough Trade.  This meant we were getting our hands on pre-release copies of a lot of Depeche Mode and Renegade Soundwave stuff.  I started going to On-U Soundsystem gigs at Subterrania and ULU checking out people like Dub Syndicate, Gary Clail and Mark Stewart and it was round about this time that the whole sampling thing became more easily accessible and I managed to borrow an Akai S900 and learnt the basics of sampling.

The Essex Barn, Braintree

Its been closed for over 20 years but the Braintree Barn was a huge influence for me aswell as many other music producers and DJs from Essex around the late 80?s and early 90?s. Me and my mates would go down on a Friday to listen to the likes of Frankie Bones, Mr C, Matthew B and Conan but we also saw very early live sets from the Prodigy and Shades of Rhythm who were both just starting out. We were only 16 when we first started going and we would be the ones just sitting very stoned in the corner amazed at everyone else going absolutely mental and wondering how they had the energy!

DHS – The House Of God EP

If I have to name just one track as the most influential and as having the most impact it has to be The House Of God.  Listening to this track brings back memories of being hell bent on discovering the tracks we were hearing on the radio or on mixtapes and also my first trips up to London specifically for record shopping.  I bought this record on my 18th birthday and that night I managed to convince my mum and dad to stay out for the night so we could have a house party/rave.  I was DJing in one room on my own while everyone else was chatting in the other rooms and I remember playing the $50 mix of House Of God again and again for about 3 hours until everyone left.

New toys

There’s nothing like a new toy in the studio to inspire and get the creative juices flowing.  The simple act of plugging in a couple of wires and playing an analogue synth through a new stomp box can be enough to create a whole track from.  The Electro Harmonix Memory Man with Hazarai is my latest gizmo and lets me build up loops almost like a sequencer but you get this lovely drifting in time and can reverse the audio too which provides lovely moving pads or weird glitchy melodic lines.

Catch Jimpster at brand new event and launch Giant on Friday 4th October at Bussey Building, Peckham.  Tickets can still be purchased here.  Also headlining will be Greg Wilson, Severino, with support from Thunder, Stuart Patterson & many more.

www.freerangerecords.co.uk