Brooklyn-based disco stalwarts Morgan Geist and Darshan Jesrani – otherwise known as Metro Area - are the latest in the line of artists to step up to the plate with London’s Fabric mix series.

Fabric 43, which is due for release in November, showcases the duo’s love of obscure disco, soul, house, and electronic music, spanning from the late 70s to the mid 80s, and reflects the substantial body of music they’ve produced to date. (See the end of the post for the tracklisting – they’re all quality choices.)

Morgan and Darshan’s first joint entry into the music scene was in 1999 with their self-entitled 12″ (featuring “Atmospherique”), and the duo moved swiftly on to the release of debut album Metro Area (Environ Records) in 2002. Although Morgan and Darshan have produced a number of singles since, they have not embarked on a major MA project like this until now.

I had a chance to talk to Darshan earlier this afternoon – unfortunately I talked a load of rubbish but he quite kindly discussed the Fabric mix, their next album, the global economic meltdown, New York nightlife, remixes, re-edits, and um, how to mix original disco records without making a complete mess of it – which neatly came back full circle to the Fabric mix again.

AN INTERVIEW WITH DARSHAN JESRANI, ONE HALF OF METRO AREA (15th October 08)

A: Can you tell me about the mix that you put together for Fabric? Obviously I listened to it and it was really cool. How did they approach you? What was it like – did you scream when you got off the phone? (laughs) I’m just joking! If I get this recording back, I’m just going to go ‘oh why did I say that?’

D: (laughs) We wanted to do a mix CD and Fabric had offered us a chance to do one a while back and we didn’t take it. We were kind of sitting on our hands a little bit – we didn’t know if we wanted to do one and we’d never done one before so we decided to do one with Fabric because they’re great. And because they’d take care of all of the licensing, which was save us a hell of a lot of time. We knew they’d treat the mix right and give it proper press.

D: We just wanted to represent all of the different angles of what we were into musically, which is something we try to do with our productions. They’ll be a little bit of soulful organic disco and then there’ll be some new wave angular synthesizer side to it. And then also there’ll be some contemporary weird tracky stuff going on. It’s what we do, from all different angles. It’s all about contrast. For every soulful element, we try to have something off to counter that. We try not to make anything totally homogeneous.

A: Yeah, I can really feel it. It just forces your brain into something else. I don’t know if people want that continuous three-hour club mix….(laughs), but if you want to listen to music, well….

D: That was another consideration – people taking it into their homes. There’s also a party mix tape feel to it. You’re right – a lot of mix CDs are continuous, which is just like one sound. Which is cool, but we didn’t want to do that.

A: There was loads of stuff I liked. There was this one section where you put a few tracks that had really great bass riffs – “I Can Feel It” and cloud something…. “Cloud Nine” ?

A: Yeah, and it was interesting, right at the end, the tempo sped up – it was like edging up to the diving board – it really builds you up to something else….

D: You mean it ramps up?

A: Yeah.

D: It speeds up because we wanted to include that Devo song “Freedom of Choice” and the tempo is pretty high. We didn’t want to stretch it – we wanted to play it as close to the original tempo so we had to work up to it and gradually increase the tempo. But that would be really cool if we did a sequel but start at the tempo that we left off and then gradually work back down.

A: (laughing) Yeah, fuck with people’s heads.

Album covers from www.environrecords.com

A: I just wanted to ask, because I know it’s a question that’s on a lot of people’s mind – when is your next album going to come out?

D: We’re looking at the second half of next year (2009). We’re going to be finishing new material at the beginning of the new year. So we’re hoping to have it all done by the end of the year.

A: Yeah, it can take a while to gestate.

D: There’ve been a lot of factors since our first album. I relocated to Brooklyn and built a studio from scratch. Morgan had to move also. So it’s logistics and also there’s also the art stuff – gestation, letting all the material from the first album really sink in. There’s also the right timing. Business-wise, it would have been better to do album years ago, right after one, but we weren’t really in the right place to do it. Hopefully it will be good timing.

A: I’m sure your fans wouldn’t have forgotten about you.

D: These days it’s amazing how voraciously people go through music trends. There are so many names out there now.

A: Oh god, yeah, tell me about it. It’s not flavour of the month, it’s flavour of the day.

D: It’s like every new movement is worthy of a two-page piece on it. It gives the impression of its importance but then at the same time it just fades away. It’s hard to tell what’s important.

A: I’ve kinda got the same thing – I write for two different blogs. I don’t really want to hype anything – it’s nice if you like something, but it’s also interesting to watch artists develop.

A: It makes me think about something you were talking about – I think you were referring to remixes? It was just in the press release and you said you were less interested in people doing re-edits? Do you mean remixes and stuff?

D: There’s been a market in the past two to three years of taking forgotten disco classics and editing them and putting them out again so it’s not like people are remixing. It’s pretty much like rearranging stuff and selling it again. I don’t think that there’s anything wrong with doing it – people have been doing it forever. But it’s just when you introduce commerce that it gets kind of weird. It’s like that whole idea of quick consumption as opposed to talking to the time to making a record from scratch.

But I think people are doing the edits first and foremost to satisfy this desire to get back to some of this old disco stuff. But they won’t make the records from scratch. They’ll do the edits and stuff because it’s a lot easier.

A: That’s the thing that I find. When people send me stuff, I kind of like ‘Well it’s great that you’re doing remixes of these tracks that have been remixed millions of times and that’s good but what have you been making yourself?’ Obviously it takes a lot more craft and a lot more time.

D: It’d be great if people wanted to push in that direction, but also learn how to record from scratch.

A: So can I ask about the new album? Are you guys introducing new elements to it? Have your heads shifted in any kind of direction? Is there anything that’s really sparked you off?

D: If there was a new direction, I’d have to say we’re pushing more towards song writing and also to broaden out our sound. With our first album, I guess we set the parameters by putting together a certain kind of palette and a certain kind of approach, a bouncy feel to the tracks. So I’d say we’re trying to extend that but also develop it more. Even like the new singles, it’s along those same lines. Also trying to be a little bit more colourful.

A: In some of the stuff I was reading about you guys, you were talking about how people are saying there’s a disco renaissance and I just remember in the late 90s still loving disco and I remember my first attempts at mixing were disco and house music together and going ‘FUCK!’

D: I remember my first attempts – and they were simple tracks – like drum machine tracks – “Ride the White Horse” for example – I’d try to play that with house records and I really couldn’t get the mix to gel. It took me a while to figure that out and also the influence of other djs to figure out how to play the two together at a club. Especially stuff that had a lot of live drums in it.

A: How do you do it then?

D: The essential thing with disco records and even house stuff is to always keep your hand on the pitch control and to tune the record to the one you’re playing. Tune it actively. Keep moving the pitch. Even if temporarily you’ll find a good section, with disco records you need to constantly ride the pitch because the drum sections are not electronically sequenced.

A: Kind of like driving stick shift?

D: Or tuning a guitar. It’s a very analogue way of mixing. Whereas a lot of today’s club tracks, the drum tracks are synched and if you get those two tracks timed, you can step away from the turntables.

A: So when you guys did the mix for Fabric, how did you do mix it?

D: We processed all the tracks in a Urei 1620, a classic New York club mixer, and it gives those records a particular sound and galvanises them together. And then we recorded all of these things into our computer and did all of the pitch matching and then edited all of the tracks together in a Digital Performer. So it wasn’t like a straight turntable mix. It’s good for listening to a on a CD. You’ll start to listen to the mix and stuff, whereas in a club we can gives ourselves a little more room for sloppiness.

A: (laughs) I think everyone has to.

A: So final question – what are you thoughts on the economic crisis and its impact on the music scene in New York?

D: I feel like in New York, which is representative of a lot of other cities, the real estate has gotten really expensive here and some of my life has taken a back seat to real estate concerns. Even for venue owners, the high costs puts a lot of pressure on venue owners to make their nights commercially successful and you see club owners and promoters haphazardly jumping from trend to trend and not encouraging consistency. I feel like New York is on its last leg – like they don’t have very many venues left. There are a lot of good parties but not enough good venues.

A: I always feel quite nostalgic for all the house parties we used to have (in New York in the 90s).

D: Yeah, remember when people used to play different kinds of music in one night?

A: Yeah, definitely (laughing).

D: Can you imagine that happening now?

A: Yeah, if it’s done now, they say it’s like selling out. ‘You can’t play more than one genre!’

D: I used to go to this club around 1997 and they had Body and Soul there. They played hip hop and r n b in one room and dancehall in another room. It united different crowds of people who normally wouldn’t go to the same night. Nowadays people keep it really consistent.

FABRIC 43 (METRO AREA) TRACKLISTING & RELEASE INFORMATION

Babla’s Disco Sensation – Ghar Aya Mera Pardesi (Intro)//World Premiere – Share the Night (Breakdown Mix) // Ministry – Work for Love (Dub Mix)// The Disco Four – Move to the Groove (Instrumental) // Skratch – You Should Have Known Better (Instrumental) // Barbara Norris – Heavy Hitter (Dub Version) // Gary’s Gang – Makin’ Music (Dub Mix) // Voyage – Souvenirs // Five Special – Why Leave Us Alone (Long Version) // Ray Martinez – The Natives are Restless // Dreamhouse – I Can Feel It // Mascara – Baja (Instrumental Dub Version) // Play by Numbers – Cloud Nine (Ready Mix) // Midway – Set it Out (Funky Breakdown Mix) // Heaven 17 – Penthouse and Pavement // Data – Blow (Remix) // Atmosphere – Swede’s Scandal // Wiretap – X-Rated Man // Plez – I Can’t Stop (Acid Rainforest Mix) // Baby Oliver – Feelings2 // Jean Luc Ponty – Open Mind (Special Dance Mix) // Premiere Class – Poupée Flash // Devo – Freedom of Choice

Release dates: Fabricfirst members 3rd November – UK 10th November – USA 25th November

Buy the CD direct from Fabric **** Saturday 6th December: Metro Area are playing at Fabric alongside Horsemeat Disco ****

Related posts

• TRASH MENAGERIE SEPTEMBER RECAP
• Note to LCD Soundsystem – Germany does NOT mess around
• Movin’ & Shakin’ It Treasure Fingers