Big Beat Diatribe - Vol 2 Issue 3 Nov 1998

Josh Abrahams may be better know in techno rave circles as one third of ARIA winners FSOM, and as the one-time enfant terrible of Carl Cox’s Worldwide Ultimatum imprint. He’s also produced more commercial dance fodder than he’d to remember. It’s with a more freestyle mindset that Josh has approached his latest body of work, an album that encapsulates the broadest elements of electronic sounds.

The fact that ‘Sweet Distorted Holiday’ dips and dives all over the place is in fact one of its inherent strengths, because the man holding the reigns is such a producer. While there might be stabs at acid, big beats, jazz, breaks, drum ‘n’ bass, abstract ambient vignettes and suitably bizarre takes on R&B, Josh Abrahams never allows the material to get out of hand or go off on self-indulgent tangents. He’s also not afraid to use vocals here - both samples and free-form - and again these elements are used to good effect, no more so than on ‘Open Sesame’ and ‘Addicted To Bass’; more to the point this album isn’t just a collection of dancefloor-oriented tunes but a listening experience that traverses several different avenues. After living, producing and working in Melbourne for years, Josh has now moved his Fishtank Recordings studio to Sydney. "My major reason is the soundtrack I’m working on for Baz Luhrmann [of ‘Romeo & Juliet’ notoriety]. They’re just at the writing stage at the moment, but there’s the possibility that I’ll get involved in the latter stages. Then there’s the artist development work I’m doing for Festival, which I’m doing for seven months in the year and I get the rest of the time off to pursue my own goals." Those goals include working with other artists, but more particularly shaping his own sounds and working with new ideas. It’s these ideals which helped him to shape his latest album which is possibly the most freestyle Josh Abrahams offering in years. Josh’s own impressions of his finished album are an interesting thing to elicit. "Well, I’ve known the album for so long it’s hard to put my finger on it," he muses. "I mean I have my own personal favourites, but that’s because I’ve had those tracks on the CD player for the shortest amount of time. The album is definitely diverse, and that can be both a good and a bad thing. It’s a complex journey that goes lots of different places." Some of the music on ‘Sweet Distorted Holiday’ veers in the direction of hardstep drum ‘n’ bass and even, at points, its techstep off-shoot. "I’d heard some of the drum ‘n’ bass being played, especially on Triple J, the stuff with vocals, and while it was smooth and jazzy I didn’t really like it; it was a bit too much like acid jazz. Basically it was a bit piss-weak. I liked the harder bass, with a bit of a full-on edge, but I looked at it from a pop perspective rather than a really underground jazz perspective. I found that angle far more attractive and it’s the thinking behind a track like ‘Addicted To Bass’." While some people have waved off this album as generic, I beg to disagree. Its abstract tendencies and knowing reconsideration of existing styles capture one very talented producer who’s so slick and confident with his material that it’s sometimes startling. ‘Thrillseeker’ is the most obviously formulaic track here, and that’s why it warranted its place as a single with Triple J, but the rest of the album goes in ulterior directions. "Yeah, I’d have to say I agree, and one thing I considered putting a banner on the cover was that there is no obvious four-on-the-floor kick-drum to be found anywhere here." He shrugs. "I mean when I started out, like most people, I wrote dance music and had an eye on the underground where there were no vocals at all, and ‘Satyricon’ was a reflection of this mentality - vocals in those days meant crappy house and not much else; the vocal loops were annoying, done really badly, and I didn’t want to associate with that." However, since ‘Satyricon’ come out through Carl Cox’s Worldwide Ultimatum imprint over two years ago, vocals have made a comeback in Josh’s sounds. For instance there have been his live Acid Opera experiments with Honeysmack and vocalist Lani - first for IF? then Revolver - and work with side-projects like Bassliners. "It’s been a really long, slow journey back but I’m now rediscovering the human voice," he says. "It’s an amazing instrument, and if you take it away the tracks still work - but the dynamics of the vocals add an extra element. And the fact of the matter is that if you add the human voice you make the music more approachable no matter how distorted or crunched up the beats might be. It gives the music more of an emotional connection." Here Josh approaches an issue close to my own heart. "Some people think that if you utilise vocals you’re no longer underground, but what actually is ‘underground’? A good case in point is Daft Punk, who at one time personified the French underground but then went to number one in the charts just for the fact that their music was so good, without changing their style. So if you’re approaching any music including my own I have one very good recommendation: have an open mind."



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