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Music

Sydney's Cliques and Thomas William Link Up For A B2B Interview

A meeting of minds, a mining of YouTube gold.

Ahead of our THUMP party taking place at Sydney's Chippendale Hotel this Thursday December 3, Cliques and Thomas William join minds and share a treasure trove of fire links. Check out the meeting of minds below, and RSVP to the free party – featuring Cliques, Thomas William, Strict Face and Melt Unit – here.

Thomas William, as interviewed by Cliques

Cliques: As T.Morimoto you've been doing these live chop and screwed sets. What tracks inspired that?
Thomas William: The last couple of years I've been doing amongst other things a live set that involves playing pitched down loops from various rap tunes - all heavily auto-tuned. There's a sort of heightened emotional charge to that music which I think is especially interesting because of the way the emotion is a step removed from the vocalist - coming from the software itself, machinic emotion, you could call it. There are too many to mention but these are two I really like:

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You've been playing a few Tarraxo DJ sets lately, what are some favourites?
I've been listening to a lot of this stuff for a while now. I love their approach to drum programming and rhythm in general, very loose but also very accurate. Wild swing, polyrhythms and a brutal approach to arrangements. Also their use of canned acoustic drum sounds - I really like the contradiction inherent in using sounds that approximate 'real' instruments badly, and end up being something else entirely.

You've been making some more four to the floor oriented stuff lately, what inspired that?
125-130BPM, straight rhythms, loops and percussion. I've been quite inspired by some of Randomer's recent material. Thanks Jon Watts for that recommend. I've included a track from Jon's Lush Walkman project that I convinced him to upload for this article. This is the type of thing I'll probably play at the upcoming THUMP party:

What Sydney music are you feeling right now?
Corin's recent album is great. I saw her play a couple of weeks back - so good. Refreshing to see an instrumentalist doing something really special with their instrument. I've also been listening to Hurtsville, who're super interesting.

On the new ep there is some drum patterns people might not expect from a TW release, was there any tracks in particular that influenced the drum programming on the new ep?

A. Yes I was going for something minimal, and sort of hypnotic. Initially I thought I would only use drum sounds - but I couldn't help adding stuff. I recorded pretty much all the drum sounds except some of the kicks - with this set of little instruments I've collected on my various travels. I guess I was going for something that would hint at different rhythmic approaches but remain unaligned in genre terms. Definitely DJ Firmeza, who's recent success I'm happy to say I predicted a couple of years ago. Also a lot of footwork around that time too.

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Cliques, as interviewed by Thomas William

Thomas William: Tracks you would most like to play in a cliques sets but haven't quite found an appropriate moment?
Cliques: Heaps to be honest, there is a lot of rap that I listen to and would work in a Cliques set but have not had a chance to play… yet.

2. and some tunes you listen to but wouldn't really play out?

There is so much that I listen to that wouldn't work in Cliques set. Here are a few of my favourites from this year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lX1cSr63TYA

3. track most likely to make you tear up:

Hands down this is the most emotional track for me, although it could be a number of tracks from Monster.

4. What Sydney music are you feeling right now?

Kid Kairo

Raz K

LKB - these guys need to stop getting in trouble and finish some music!

Dj Plead is just generally killing it and his new haircut is very on point.

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Ahead of our THUMP party taking place at Sydney's Chippendale Hotel this Thursday December 3, Cliques and Thomas William join minds and share a treasure trove of fire links. Check out the meeting of minds below, and RSVP to the free party – featuring Cliques, Thomas William, Strict Face and Melt Unit – here.

Thomas William, as interviewed by Cliques

Cliques: As T.Morimoto you've been doing these live chop and screwed sets. What tracks inspired that?
Thomas William: The last couple of years I've been doing amongst other things a live set that involves playing pitched down loops from various rap tunes - all heavily auto-tuned. There's a sort of heightened emotional charge to that music which I think is especially interesting because of the way the emotion is a step removed from the vocalist - coming from the software itself, machinic emotion, you could call it. There are too many to mention but these are two I really like:


You've been playing a few Tarraxo DJ sets lately, what are some favourites?
I've been listening to a lot of this stuff for a while now. I love their approach to drum programming and rhythm in general, very loose but also very accurate. Wild swing, polyrhythms and a brutal approach to arrangements. Also their use of canned acoustic drum sounds - I really like the contradiction inherent in using sounds that approximate 'real' instruments badly, and end up being something else entirely.

You've been making some more four to the floor oriented stuff lately, what inspired that?
125-130BPM, straight rhythms, loops and percussion. I've been quite inspired by some of Randomer's recent material. Thanks Jon Watts for that recommend. I've included a track from Jon's Lush Walkman project that I convinced him to upload for this article. This is the type of thing I'll probably play at the upcoming THUMP party:

What Sydney music are you feeling right now?
Corin's recent album is great. I saw her play a couple of weeks back - so good. Refreshing to see an instrumentalist doing something really special with their instrument. I've also been listening to Hurtsville, who're super interesting.

On the new ep there is some drum patterns people might not expect from a TW release, was there any tracks in particular that influenced the drum programming on the new ep?

A. Yes I was going for something minimal, and sort of hypnotic. Initially I thought I would only use drum sounds - but I couldn't help adding stuff. I recorded pretty much all the drum sounds except some of the kicks - with this set of little instruments I've collected on my various travels. I guess I was going for something that would hint at different rhythmic approaches but remain unaligned in genre terms. Definitely DJ Firmeza, who's recent success I'm happy to say I predicted a couple of years ago. Also a lot of footwork around that time too.

Cliques, as interviewed by Thomas William


Thomas William: Tracks you would most like to play in a cliques sets but haven't quite found an appropriate moment?
Cliques: Heaps to be honest, there is a lot of rap that I listen to and would work in a Cliques set but have not had a chance to play... yet.

2. and some tunes you listen to but wouldn't really play out?

There is so much that I listen to that wouldn't work in Cliques set. Here are a few of my favourites from this year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lX1cSr63TYA

3. track most likely to make you tear up:

Hands down this is the most emotional track for me, although it could be a number of tracks from Monster.

4. What Sydney music are you feeling right now?

Kid Kairo

Raz K

LKB - these guys need to stop getting in trouble and finish some music!

Dj Plead is just generally killing it and his new haircut is very on point.

<

Also keep an eye out for new Moon Holiday!

What's some drum programming that has inspired Cliques lately?

Stripped back Funky stuff; we actually made quite a few tracks on this tip with our friend Dro Carey, hopefully released early next year.

Also inspired by older tunes like these.

Also a special mention, Parris who's hands down my favourite DJ!

Also keep an eye out for new Moon Holiday!

What's some drum programming that has inspired Cliques lately?

Stripped back Funky stuff; we actually made quite a few tracks on this tip with our friend Dro Carey, hopefully released early next year.

Also inspired by older tunes like these.

Also a special mention, Parris who's hands down my favourite DJ!