Brighton-based DJ, producer, and label head K-Lone joins us for the 80th edition of the Phonica Mix Series.
Joe Gladwell, better known as K-Lone, has been on our radar over here at Phonica for quite some time, with a solid string of releases passing through the shop on labels such as Dr. Banana, Idle Hands, his own label Wych, and Wisdom Teeth, which he co-runs with Facta. Be sure to check out our feature on Wisdom Teeth here.
His impressive debut album Cape Cira was what really caught our attention in 2020 – so much so that we named it as one of our favourite LPs of the year. In contrast to his clubbier productions, Cape Cira sees Gladwell explore the full melodic and textural potentials of his sound, drawing influence from ambient, fourth world, and modern classical music. If you haven’t yet heard it, we urge you to do so immediately.
Demonstrating his versatility as a DJ once-more, K-Lone treats us to an hour-long, fast-paced journey through all things footwork, jungle, bass music, and techno. Enjoy!
Hey Joe, thanks for contributing towards our Mix Series. Can you tell us about your recording and what the idea was behind it…
Thanks for having me! Since the album release last year I’ve been doing a lot of home listening chilled out mixes so wanted to do something a bit more lively. Before covid I was finding the funnest part of my sets was doing a lil 160 bpm section at the end so these are some of my favourite Footwork/Jungle bits to dance in the living room to. I’ve been writing a bunch of stuff around that tempo as well so wanted to give those tunes a bit of context to the sort of stuff I’ve been loving.
Could you tell us a little bit about your background, perhaps where you grew up and what first got you interested in electronic music?
I grew up in London, tbh probably my first intro into electronic music would’ve been something like Ministry of Sound’s ”Sound Of Bassline”, I think wobs naturally appeal to any 14 year old and they’re filled with so many good vocals and melodies. It definitely led onto my intro into Dubstep, Grime and UKG.
Can you tell us a bit about your record label, Wisdom Teeth?
I started Wisdom Teeth with Oscar (Facta) about 6 years ago, I’ve known him since we were at school, starting making tunes around the same time and it had always been something we wanted to try. It’s come a long way since when we started – waiting for one release to make enough money back to do the next, dropping records off at shops sale or return and doing all the artwork ourselves with some pretty limited photo editing skills. I feel like now we’ve got some great artists that fit really well with what we’re trying to do and it’s amazing to have an outlet where we can do whatever we want. There seems to be so much cross pollination with sounds at the moment it’s great to have a label we can easily release something a bit more floaty and melodic like my album or some of the stuff by Duckett alongside dancefloor oriented things like the Lurka & Piezo records.
Your debut album Cape Cira was one of our favourite releases in 2020. What was it that made you decide to release an album and how did it differ from making music for an EP?
Thank you! 🙂 I hadn’t quite planned to write an album, I’d got into a flow of writing in a certain way where I could finish tracks quite quickly and was just trying to write nice stuff for me to listen to at home then ended up with a body of work that all seemed to make sense together.
What’s your preferred method for finding new music – do you still enjoy digging around in dusty crates or do you prefer to buy online?
I’m getting a bit more into shopping online now but you can’t really beat flicking through stuff in a shop, its great getting recommendations or stumbling across stuff just because you like the artwork.
And what about these crazy lockdown times we’re facing today. What’s been keeping you going through it all?
Tbh haven’t really got any advice, just holding tight until this all blows over!
What does 2021 have in store for you?
I’m setting up a new label for my productions called Sweet N Tasty, it’s gonna be vinyl only and first release should be out in summer, 001 will be some UKG and 002 is all 160bpm with some of the tunes from this mix. Also got some exciting projects coming out on Wisdom Teeth, with Facta’s debut album out in April and an EP from my good mate and talented producer Iglew, it’s his first record since his acclaimed EP on Mr Mitch’s Gobstopper imprint 5 years ago.
Thanks, Joe!
