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8 Tracks: Songs I Was Told About in Prison with Kai Whiston

 
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19-year-old producer Kai Whiston has been making quite a name for himself over the past couple of years, with EPs on TAR and Big Dada providing the perfect introduction to his madcap, lunatic soundworld. Think Aphex Twin via HudMo via SOPHIE via Linkin Park and you'd be… actually fuck it, you wouldn't even be close to be honest. Kai's one of those originals who seems to draw from everything and yet sound like nothing else.

Released last week on the GLOO imprint that he runs alongside Iglooghost, his debut album Kai Whiston Bitch is a frenzy of controlled chaos that follows his brief false imprisonment. Earlier this year, Kai revealed via Twitter that he was likely going to prison for up to 16 months, having been charged with criminal damage and vandalism, though after eventually serving two weeks he was re-trialed and released after the emergence of new evidence supporting his innocence.

Kai has used his 8 Tracks selections to paint a picture of some of the colourful characters he met while serving at Her Majesty's Pleasure. From The DJ Producer to Biggie Smalls, get stuck in below.

Kai Whiston Bitch is out now via GLOO and you can buy it here.

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Heinrich At Hart - Vocal

The second day I was in prison I made friends with a group of three 30-year-old crusty raver blokes from Cornwall. I told them I was a “DJ” which was a criteria for them to talk to me about old rave shit. They would mention some ’90s DJ and I would always reply “I’ve heard the name” so I could look clued up on what they were talking about. They had definitely done too much MDMA in their day and were completely wired. Anyway they told me about Heinrich At Hart, sounds pretty much exactly how I imagined.

  • Heinrich At Hart - Vocal

    The second day I was in prison I made friends with a group of three 30-year-old crusty raver blokes from Cornwall. I told them I was a “DJ” which was a criteria for them to talk to me about old rave shit. They would mention some ’90s DJ and I would always reply “I’ve heard the name” so I could look clued up on what they were talking about. They had definitely done too much MDMA in their day and were completely wired. Anyway they told me about Heinrich At Hart, sounds pretty much exactly how I imagined.

  • The Notorious B.I.G. - Who Shot Ya?

    A man with cannabis socks played this song really loud on his mp3 player in the library once and I found it well funny. He was wearing earphones but they may as well have been unplugged. He replayed this song about 10 times or more as well.

  • Mc Ace - Raoul Moat R.I.P

    Another one from the crust blokes. Apparently Mc Ace is a friend of theirs.

  • The Dj Producer & Tanith - Mind, Body, Soul & The Universe

    Not technically from prison, but my mum told me about this on the phone because she found her old photos from this rave. My mum has multiple personalities where she is both a goth and a ’90s acid raver at the same time. Her playlists are literally HIM b2b Faithless b2b Adele, it’s fucking unreal. When I was staying back home for a bit we got in a super heated argument about how this Linkin Park and Slipknot mashup wasn’t real and she stormed out the room, it was fucked.

  • Carl Cox - Fantasee

    In my initial interview this cunt asks me, “What do you do to keep you busy?” and I said, “Make music.” He hassled me further and asked, “What kind of music?” and I replied “electronic” for some reason. He goes, “What, like Carl Cox?” and him and his other ugly mate laugh. Fucking tosser. Fuck Carl Cox.

  • Radiohead - Creep

    Some people get musical instrumentals as part of a mentoring/educational scheme that was going on. I overheard this bloke called Spud playing ‘Creep’ on his acoustic guitar. He couldn’t sing very well.

  • Imix - Loaded (Reloaded By Batusim)

    This bloke from Belfast was a producer under the name of Batusim. He didn’t mingle with the crusty blokes but i sparked up a convo when I heard him listening to DnB. I don’t know an awful lot about DnB, but he was quite big and I was eager to not get beaten up by a lot of the bigger blokes there.

  • Kai Whiston - Your Secrets (Ft. Clarence Clarity)

    Okay this one is proper fuckin’ cheeky but give me a chance. When I was feeling fucking totally fucking hopeless I used to think about the tracks I made for the album and write notes on them. I couldn’t listen to them which was hard, but I would try and remember what they sounded like in my head. Anyway I wasn’t happy with the song I did with Clarence Clarity so I ended up writing a whole new version in text format – “bass from ____, drums from _____, arrangement from _____” etc. – and I did this with all my tracks. When I got out a year earlier than I expected (new evidence in my favour came out) I went to the studio and everything surprisingly fit together exactly as I imagined. Definitely beats some crusty blokes talking to me about how pingers used to be the size of wagon wheels for an hour.