Pat Stormont is one of those artists that forces you to realize just how many hidden treasures of talent that we have in Australia. Talents which are yet to be fully discovered by the international world but on the verge of something a lot bigger than a local profile. His music is deep, thick and lusciously textured, from experimental to minimal techno with dollops of dub, ambient and IDM.

Pat has been making music for about 6 years and playing live at various events in Melbourne for about 4 of those. Some would also know him for his DJing as part of Melbourne minimal techno collective Midgetfidget and also for his promotion in the Deep Chord party series.

Pat’s live sound defies definition, falling between experimental, acid, industrial, electro and minimal, and his influences are similarly diverse, from the minimal sounds of Tomas Brinkmann and Twerk, through IDM/xpera like Tomas Koner, Fennesz and Apparat, through to industrial artists like Merzbow and Scorn, and even classical artists like Arvo Peart and Seve
Reich.

The latest development in Pat’s work is the founding of his net label Luddite Recordings which he co runs. He’s currently finalising some tracks for release and ITM’s Drexciyan catches up with Pat for a quick Q&A before his support performance at Blow Your Own Way featuring Robert Babicz.

Hey Pat:) What have you been up to this cold Autumn morning?

Mostly studying for some upcoming exams, and drinking coffee

Who or what would you say is your most greatest influence and why?

That’s hard for me to answer, if you asked me on different days you’d get a different answer. Today I’ll narrow it down to Matthew Herbert, not necessarily for his sound but for his loose approach to producing and performing. The whole idea of being a perfectionist is something that I don’t really relate to, and his ideas of ‘accidental’ music are something that had a big effect on me when I started producing.

If you were to describe your sound to someone who was not familiar with the minimal/techno genre, what kind of descriptive every day words would you use?

Hmmm….I would say my music sometimes focus on ambience and warmth, sometimes on harsher noisier elements. Sometimes it is playful, sometimes aggressive. It usually focuses on only a few elements at a time and the way they evolve and change, or stay static.

Can you tell us a little bit about your set up? What gear do you use at home and does it differ to what you use in your live sets?

I’m mostly software orientated; I use a laptop running lots of different software and a few midi controllers. When I play live I’m using pretty much the same setup, but I add my xoxbox which is replica of a Roland tb303.

How did luddite recordings come about?

Luddite records is a net label I am starting with a friend. We sometimes write music together and we came up with the idea to start a free netlabel a year or so ago.

Can you let us in on what releases you have planned for this label?

We’re getting close to having our first release ready. It’s going to be four track ep, with music by me and Subcode. It’s kind of dark, with some industrial influenced remixes. Ongoing releases will include tracks from other Melbourne based producers we know and hopefully some from abroad. We’re not aiming at being a minimal label, we want to put out a more diverse range of stuff.

Will we be seeing the Deep Chord label of parties return to Melbourne?

We have been quiet of late, we have been talking of doing another event in the not too distant future, so keep an ear out!

You have supported quite an impressive range of artists and will be supporting Robert Babicz at the next Blow Your Own Way… What is your most memorable gig/international act that you have supported?

My favourite international support gig I’ve done would have been Thomas Brinkmann at Liquid Architecture, his ‘click’ set was amazing.

But my favourite gig so far would have been Messy Creations on new year’s day this year. It was a beautiful outdoor space with great people, and I was really pleased with my set.

Do you write your sets to suit a certain vibe or party?

Yeah certainly, I have a lot of material and I will add and remove bits to suit the set as much as I can. I’m also writing lot of material that doesn’t really fit into my more techno based sets, so I’ll be compiling this stuff into a new alias soon.

What can we expect from your set at the Babicz show?

I’m putting together a set which will have a variety of stuff, most of it more minimal techno based ranging from some deeper, spaced out tracks to tougher, noisier acidy tracks.

Do you have any words or wisdom or thoughts that you would like to share?

If I had any, I would keep them all to myself.

Ok now for something a little bit more controversial… What are you thoughts on the whole minimal up rise? Is the immense popularity a good thing?

On one hand I think it’s a little frustrating, as a ‘genre’ minimal is becoming clogged up with lots of similar records, focusing on a specific sound. I’d like to hear more diversity coming from minimal labels and DJs.

But at the same time there is still a lot of interesting new artists and labels popping up, so in my opinion it hasn’t stagnated as a genre, it’s just become more narrowly defined than it has been in the past.

For more info on Ludite Records, keep tuned to www.luddite-records.com and you can catch Pat Stormont LIVE at Blow Your Own Way with Robert Babicz LIVE on Sunday 10th June at Ffour and at Local Extracts #2 on Saturday 7th July at Ffour