Unkle Ho is not really an uncle, not yet anyway. And no he ain’t a ho either. Although he is a bit of a ho to his music making machines, and not enough of a ho to his girlfriend. He is slightly obsessed with music and is has often said that he will make beats till he drops dead.
He has been writing electronic music since ’96, in the heady days of the tracker revolution. In 2005, after threatening to do so for many years, Unkle Ho finally released his first initial debut solo album ‘Roads to Roma’. Yes, it took him bloody long enough.
Unkle Ho wasn’t sitting on his hands the whole time though. He was invited to submit a song for a compilation called ‘Cursive Writing’ back in ‘98. Those who are familiar with Elefant lore will know that this was the first Elefant Traks release. Unkle Ho was called Killswitch back then, however due to threats from metal band Killswitch Engage that they would send CDs to him, he changed his name to Switch, 4switchit and then finally to the very original non-liable name Unkle Ho.
Unkle had just finished uni by then and was awarded a short scholarship with centrelink. Traksewt roped him into doing odd jobs for the newly created Elefant Traks label, as well has flyer, poster, CD, website and Flash stuff that Unkle is still trying to get his head around.
In 2001, Elefant Traks the label decided that they were sick of releasing compilations. So the idea was hatched to release a collaboration album imaginatively called ‘The Herd’. Three albums in, The Herd is the most successful artist on the label. Which is a bit of a relief because The Herd run the label and have big egos.
Unkle is neck deep in many aspects of life as a Herder. He samples, produces, records and tech-solves, he also complains a lot about his workload especially the day before mastering. He also performs on a laptop and MPC pads with this crazy 9-piece hip hop frankenstein of a band.
Unkle lived in the Czech Republic in 2000 for a few months with fellow Herder Bezerkatron. This is the place where Unkle got Gypsy fever and he is determined to get Gypsy/Romani music the attention it deserves. Although he is not sure that being a Taiwanese/Chinese immigrant has anything to do with it, Unkle is also lover of music all over the globe, especially if they are in minor scales. His strategy for world peace is to write a song that has every culture in the world represented, so people will drop their guns and dance till they can’t dance no more.
Unkle uses samples in most of his music. Anyone who says that sampling isn’t music should not raise this issue with him. Anyway, he dabbles around with various instruments, but lack of musicianship has never stopped him from writing songs, nor should it stop anyone else. He does actually perform with a real musician called Senator Jim who plays trumpet, accordian, theramin, melodica and runs it all through fancy-like effects.
Unkle has released his second album ‘Circus Maximus’ in 2007. He is busy working on the next Herd album, but is doing the odd show around the traps.
Источник: lastfm.ru
Подождите...