Skiddle Mix 070 - Claremont (This City is Ours)

Something a little different for our latest instalment of the Skiddle Mix, where following on from our recent house offerings from Makes No Sense B2B Truth Be Told, David Zowie and Tedd Patterson we go left of centre with Manchester producer Claremont (stream it below).

Skiddle Mix 070 - Claremont (This City is Ours) by Skiddle on Mixcloud

The mix takes in smoky hip hop from A Tribe Called Quest, Jim Morrison on loop, searing social activism from Marvin Gaye and much more in just shy of an hour. The beatsmith brings this eclectic range of sounds to the launch of record label This City is Ours' clubnight in Manchester, at Salford's Eagle Inn on Friday 19th June.

Ahead of that we wanted to peer further into this exciting new artist's musical pyshce, who also plays in the band Spring King, so we got him on the blower to talk the influence of jazz on 

So you've recorded a mix for us, thank you. How would you best describe it?

It's basically is a bunch of different music that’s influenced me over the last few years, plucked from the shelves of my record collection. 

I’ve tried to put across my love for rock, pop, and disco, not to mention a huge amount of hip hop (both old and new). From Marvin Gaye, to A Tribe Called Quest and Scott Walker, I feel it’s fairly representative of what makes me tick, away from the electronic side of things.  

Is this reflective of the DJ sets you've been playing recently, and can we expect more of the same when you play the City is Ours party?

To be honest, this isn’t at all like most of the sets I usually play. You’ll usually find me with a mixed bag of 140bpm dubstep, grime and similar, alongside some faster tempo footwork, juke and jungle.  

I’m really exited about this show in particular, it’s such a great group of talented and varied artists, so it’ll be an opportunity to try something new and experiment! Expect frantic tempos and skittering percussion. 

Where else can we catch you DJing in the future?

I’m not booked in for any future shows, due to touring commitments with my band Spring King, but I’ve played a couple of great gigs recently (including playing alongside DJ Sticky at Joshua Brooks, and Dub Phizix & Strategy at Antwerp Mansion), and I am looking to play out a lot more often.  

We've read that you've got a strong affection for jazz music, how much has this influenced your production style? Do you think with the influence of the sound on the likes of Flying Lotus and Kendrick Lamar we're seeing a new resurgence in jazz's impact on modern music?

It’s influenced me massively. My favourite hip hop groups are the likes of A Tribe Caled Quest and Digable Planets (alongside Flying Lotus himself), who sampled jazz and birthed a whole new appreciation for the style. The kind of progressions and grooves you hear in a lot of jazz are incredible, and super moving, definitely something I try to emulate in my music. 

Absolutely, they’re proving to be such influential figures, not least in hip hop. Especially when large portions of Flylo’s album were co-written with Herbie Hancock, and with George Clinton appearing on the new Kendrick Lamar LP (read Skiddle's To Pimp a Butterfly review). 

Hats off to those guys, they’re absolutely slaying it at the moment. 

What release info can you let us in on?

I’ve been working on an EP for a little while now, so hopefully that’ll see the light of day pretty soon. Otherwise, just got one or two little bits, which I’m hoping to share soon. It’s been too long since I gave anything new a public airing! 

And finally you've been given an unlimited budget to record your next EP, with three collaborators allowed. Who do you pick and what does the music end up sounding like?

Wow, tough question….

I’d go for Sam Ray (Ricky Eat Acid), Panda Bear (Animal Collective), and Pat Mahoney (LCD Soundsystem… Who’s like my favourite drummer EVER!) 

I’ve got this dream of making a kraut-inspired psych band, with 10-15 minute long tracks driven by straight, simple grooves. What I hope would come out of this would be a euphoric, distorted branch of psychedelic music inspired by the likes of Neu!, Can, and more modern artists like James Pants and LCD Soundsystem. If only…