Sydney-based four-piece Entropic stand distinctly apart from many similar live dance acts in that they play ‘electronic’ music using a combination of live Fender Rhodes, guitar, drums and double-bass (all treated / manipulated by the band) rather than the expected arsenal of laptops, sequencers and samplers. Filtering their mutual love of drum and bass, breaks and electro through a shared classical / improvisational musical education, Entropic’s not-easily pigeonholed sound has seen them rock audiences over a wide range of diverse venues, including Queensland’s Woodford Festival.

Entropic’s debut album ‘Braille’ (released last year through local imprint Vitamin Records) successfully captured the outfit’s improvisational flow on disc, the group electing to focus on live-to-tape recording methods), with the ‘Rendezvous’ remix project that followed a few months later showcasing inspired reworkings of album tracks by the likes of Peter Hollo, Deepchild and Meem. ITM’s evilchris caught up with Entropic’s Robbie Mudrazija on the eve of their appearance at the Bellingen Global Carnival to find out how sessions are going for the upcoming second album, just how you play electronic music with non-electronic instruments, and how to avoid that pesky drum stool system crash.

ITM: I understand that you’re currently hard at work on your second album, with The Necks’ Tony Buck in the producer’s chair. How have the recording sessions been going so far? Are there any particular reasons why you were keen to work with Tony Buck?

RM: So far we’ve been working on pre-production with our own little recording setup. It’s great because we can take as much time as we need, and we even head down to Jervis Bay every once in a while, we set everything up at a house down there and do a few days recording and writing. We’re really excited about working with Tony Buck, he’s always been a big influence on our music, both on his own and as part of The Necks. It’s an arduous process at present because Tony lives in Berlin, so we’re sending him our material and communicating via email, but he’ll be visiting again next year for the final sessions.

ITM: Have you chosen to follow the same sort of improvisational recording approach (i.e. performances recorded ‘live-to-tape’) used when recording your debut ‘Braille’, for this upcoming second album?

RM: Yeah, the improvisation in our music really means that we always need to record in that way. When we made Braille, we avoided doing overdubs and cutting and pasting too much, we wanted to keep it all very organic and retain a live feel. I think this time we might be a bit more embracing of live technology and open to messing with the processing of the sounds more, but that all happens later on, the tracking will still be a live affair.

ITM: How would you describe the sorts of sounds featured on the upcoming second album, as compared to ‘Braille’ – are there any unexpected sonic explorations in store? When is the second album expected to emerge?

RM: Well, nothing is set in stone yet but there’s certainly a progression in sound, we’re still focussed on getting some unusual sounds from our instruments and creating textures. We’ve been writing in some new styles also, and trying to put a unique spin on styles like drum’n’bass. Luckily we have the opportunity to road-test a lot of new material over the next few months and hopefully form and refine the album along the way. It should be finished not too far into 2005.

ITM: How did the various members of Entropic first meet up and start playing together as a band? What sorts of influences do you pick out as exerting an effect on Entropic’s music?

RM: We all met studying music at Western Sydney Uni, and were playing in different groups at the time. There was a gig going down in Wollongong that had to be filled at the last minute, so we all went to play together for the first time (as Entropic). The engineer recorded the night and listening back we decided to stick with it. There’s lots of influences involved, both from electronic music, artists such as Matthew Herbert, EZ Rollers, Roni Size; and also from bands such as Medeski, Martin and Wood, who do an amazing job of melding jazz with dance styles and hiphop.

ITM: I understand that you modify / treat your instruments, through the use of latex, plastic and metal objects – how exactly does this sort of acoustic manipulation work?

RM: There are lots of sounds you can get from a conventional instrument in a non-conventional way. Campbell plays a Fender Rhodes keyboard with the top taken off so he can get at the tone-bars inside with clamps, Blu-Tac and a drumstick, for example. Sometimes it’s just about using a different playing technique.

ITM: Last year’s ‘Rendezvous’ remix project featured reworkings of tracks from ‘Braille’ from the likes of Deepchild, Meem and Mutante Frequante. Are you keen to explore remix collaborations with other artists in the future, or perhaps even look at doing a second remix album project?

RM: We’re definitely interested in continuing and expanding what we began with ‘Rendezvous.’ The remix is such a great tool for collaboration and exchanging ideas. I think in the future we’d like to go even further and collaborate through performance both live and in the studio.

ITM: Entropic have had a packed live performance schedule over the past year, which has taken in Adelaide’s Fuse Festival, the Woodford Folk Festival and Sydney’s Opera House – any particular favourite memories of playing live / touring over the last 12 months?

RM: Yeah, there were some amazing shows, the Fuse Festival was great, we got to hang out with bands and artists from all over Australia. Woodford was a definite highlight, one of the best nights we played alongside Deepchild, and Tony (Buchen) from The Baggsmen dropped in with his flute, so at the end of the night we all played a combined set. Festivals seem to breed that kind of collaboration.

ITM: Do you find that some electronic-dance music oriented audiences are initially surprised by your live-instrument oriented line-up? I imagine it must be quite a surprise for some people to see a band playing two-step and breaks off Fender Rhodes, guitar, drums and double-bass?

RM: You definitely get a reaction in that kind of situation, playing in a nightclub, or even on a bill with mostly DJs or electronic acts, and also in a kind of similar situation playing to a rock crowd or hiphop crowd. We try to respond to the crowd as much as possible and pick our tracks based on their reactions. It’s great because we have some really intimate gigs and some really rockin’out gigs and everything in between. Most of the time people get past the initial reaction and end up dancing.

ITM: I can certainly see several advantages to using a live instrumental line-up as opposed to samplers / sequencers in that these elements don’t crash mid-set – obviously this sort of live configuration would lend itself more to live improvisations ‘on-the-fly’ and deviations away from recorded versions?

RM: I guess it’s natural for us because they’re the instruments we play and electronic is the style of music we like to play. It’s nice not to have to worry about software crashing and the like, although our instruments are just as susceptible to damage and breakdowns (the physical kind) especially considering the way we play them sometimes. I remember the legs of my drum stool used to unscrew themselves as I played and I would take the occasional backward fall mid-song (that’s a crash).

ITM: What do Entropic have planned now for the rest of 2004? Will there be an extensive tour to accompany the release of the second album?

RM: We’ll be playing plenty of shows between now and 2005, we’re off to Bellingen for the Global Carnival soon, and we’ll be doing plenty more writing and recording in preparation for the album. Touring is definitely on the books following the (album) release and we’re hoping to make it to all those places we haven’t been yet like Tassie and Western Australia.

Entropic’s ‘Braille’ and ‘Rendezvous’ are available locally through Vitamin Records. Entropic play the Bellingen Global Carnival – for more information, check out http://www.entropic.com.au