This month’s Phonica Mix Series is presented by UK producer, Lone.
Over a production career spanning nearly 10-years, Lone – AKA Matt Cutler –, has carved a reputation as an old-school beat-maker with prodigious production talent. His latest album, Levitate, is a breakbeat-heavy belter, transcending the boundaries between drum and bass and classic UK House. It’s a tasty throwback to the nineties and, akin to his previous work, is peppered with several contemplative, downtempo tracks – just enough to let you relax before being swooped back to a Hacienda-headspace. The full archive of the Phonica Mix Series is available for playback right here and don’t forget to subscribe!
Tell us about the mix you’ve prepared for us today.
Basically a bunch of tunes I’m currently obsessed with – shit me and my mates have been hammering recentley, new stuff for our label (MagicWire) and a few exclusive unreleased bits from myself – some of which should be seeing the light of day early next year i reckon.
It’s pretty loose I’d say, I like to keep it as human as possible… Hopefully people will be feeling it.
You’ve got a background in hip-hop, hardcore and old school house. How did these come together and what sort of influence does this have on your production?
The genre’s you mentioned have all effected my production massively over the last 10 years or so. I tend to suck up influences from those styles and spit them back out as Lone tunes depending on what mood I’m in. Right now I’m leaning more towards dancefloor ready stuff – old and brand new forms of house being a main influence. Also working on our label Magicwire has been inspiring lately, hearing tons of new, genuinely interesting and imaginative house producers coming through is awesome. It’s the perfect antidote to all the jungle / hardcore influenced stuff i did for my album ‘Levitate’ also, so I’m going in the total opposite direction again for my next project.
Your most recent album, Levitate, is just 33 minutes long. What’s behind such a short and sweet release?
It was an experiment really, that whole project. I was getting kinda disillusioned with the whole idea of ‘albums’ and how theyre being consumed these days – It seems like less and less people have the attention span to put on a body of work and listen from start to finish these days… for the most part anyway, so i thought to myself, ‘shit how can i make a record people would want to check the whole way through and not get bored half way through?’ so i tried to come up with something so concise, quick paced and short that there was no way you’d want to switch it off heh.. Dunno if it worked but it was decent motivation for making a record. Everything had to be quick – the tracks, the tempos, even the title…
We’ve heard you’ve got 20 unreleased albums on your hard-drive at home. Is this true? Will any of them ever see a release?
I’ll put ’em out in some form at some point. I think there’s closer to 30 actually but i mean, some are way better than others! the first one dates back to 2001 and I’m not sure i’d be up for people hearing that hah. The stuff from, say, 2003 – 2006 is all pretty wicked though i reckon, mainly amen jungle stuff, kinda IDM-ish / techno and hip hop… I definitely want more of that stuff to see the light of day at some stage – Still majorly focused on new projects though so they have to come first.
Your past 3 albums have been on R&S. What is your relationship with them? Have you got any plans for collaboration with any other labels in the future?
No plans – but definitely planning something dope for next year on R&S.
We know you’ve been performing a live-set recently. How do you approach this and what equipment is involved?
Live drums, synths and laptops… all pretty basic set up wise from my side but the addition of Chris on drums makes it fucking amazing to do – he’s a drummer that can drum anything basically so it’s great fun getting him on my shit.
2017 is just around the corner, marking a decade since your first release. What can we expect from you in the coming year?
Working on lots of four four stuff at the moment and will be getting those out as soon as possible.
TRACKLIST:
01. Bludwork – Melt Them (100% Silk)
02. Jtc – Caskadia (Bopside)
03. Gnork – Influx (Magic Wire)
04. Nailbar001 – B1 (Unreleased, The Nail Bar)
05. Lone – Swangdemo (Unreleased)
06. Trp – Spinnin (Lobster Theremin)
07. J Albert – Strictly J (1080p)
08. Project Pablo – In The Locale (Royal Oak)
09. Lone – Nightside Loop (Unreleased)
10. Plaid – Yak (Warp)
11. Bruce Trail – Fly By Night (Magic Wire)
12. Lone – Untitled (Unreleased)
13. Futers – Mackin’ (777 Recordings)
14. B12 – Obsessed (Warp)
15. Nick Lawson – You Look Good (Morris Audio)
16. Grant – Lliché (Mork)
17. Neuron – In Motion (Likemind)
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