In Fields – 8 Tracks With Machines That Sound Alive

 
Music

"For us, some of the best nights out have been when you end up at a club and you don't know the DJ or recognise a single tune. Clubs are all about not knowing; not knowing which record is coming next, how the feel of the dance floor will change hour-to-hour, which of your friends are coming, where you'll go afterwards. In a club, the smoke and the half light are all about the suspense and the joy of the ambiguous."

These words from In Fields sum up what the clubbing experience is all about for them as they sit on the verge of the release of their first album 'Phantoms' via Desire on 16th March. Here, Ed from In Fields provides us with his selection of 8 tracks that have a pulse instead of a beat. 


 'Phantoms' will be released via Desire on 16th March.

Surgeon - Optic

This record moves like a living thing. The way the metallic stab evolves slowly over time keeps your ears thinking. Surgeon, Dave Clarke and Jeff Mills were the soundtrack to my first days in clubs. They all knew how to make machines sound dark but so funky and their music’s always stayed with me.

  • Surgeon - Optic

    This record moves like a living thing. The way the metallic stab evolves slowly over time keeps your ears thinking. Surgeon, Dave Clarke and Jeff Mills were the soundtrack to my first days in clubs. They all knew how to make machines sound dark but so funky and their music’s always stayed with me.

  • Pete Drake Forever

    You get some of the most interesting, naive sounds from the first iterations of technologies. This early talkbox is so fragile and real. It’s also totally out of place with the old-time sound of the rest of the record, like someone’s teleported it in from the future.

  • Ricardo Tobar - Organza

    Ricardo Tobar’s album Treillis is the reason we signed to Desire. I love its vision and accidents. Even if they’re not accidents (which I’m sure a lot of them aren’t) you still get the sense of someone’s purpose.

  • Raymond Scott - Manhattan Research, Inc. (1/7)

    Kasra – a really talented vocalist we work with – got me into Raymond Scott. This whole record is a massive fight between the maths of the machine and Scott’s impulse for sonic oddness at the controls.

  • Luke Abbott - Amphis (Original Mix)

    Luke Abbott reminds me a lot of Raymond Scott in the way he sets his machines off and lets them run. But unlike Scott, he pushes them right to the brink of losing it. Its around the edges where it’s almost coming apart that I love his stuff the most.

  • Instra:Mental - Pyramid

    This sounds incredible on a big system. You can practically hear the hands on the sliders of the bassline. I get production-envy from pretty much every Intra:mental release.

  • Arthur Russell Me For Real

    I especially love (and try to steal) the way Arthur Russell uses drum machines. He finds such great, natural sounds with really interesting reverbs. I could listen to the groove from 4 minutes, on loop, for hours.

  • Two Lone Swordsmen - Paisley Dark

    I remember an interview with Andrew Weatherall where he says he always tries to get sound ‘out of the machine’. Put it through an amp or a speaker, give it some air. I do this all the time now. This was a favourite ‘back from a night out’ tune, and the sound is so full of dust and a human presence.