Zodiac Cartel Gives Us Some Answers [Exclusive Interview]

Music is something that brings us together, but is also powerful enough to drive us apart. Genres exist within specific subcultures that are reactionary to other cultural movements and styles. For example, during the early ’00′s we saw the revival of a dead supergenre, notoriously known as techno. This time around, techno had some new moves, and became it’s own successor, commonly known as minimal. During this time, there was a sharp opposing force, which some may not directly attribute to being reactionary towards minimal techno, but nonetheless, the maximized sawtooth onslaught dominated by the likes of Parisian Ed Banger Records and Berlin’s Boys Noize, had a massive thrust in the complete opposite direction to that of minimal. Concurrently, a multitude of subgenres and crossgenres emerged, each trying to make it’s own path, individual from the rest of the pack [think indie electro, crunk, nu rave, fidget house, b-more, ghetto tech, dubstep, grime, glitch, micro house, arguably even the resuscitation of tech house and all other forms of wonk/wobble bass music].

Zodiac Cartel, or Lord Zod to the minion, is a producer that has laughed in the face of all this primitive sub genre rivalry that has existed within the spheres of electronic music in the past several years. He burst onto the scene in ’07, and within the next few years he went on to do many mammoth remixes and original productions on renowned labels such as Wearhouse Music, U&A Recordings and Coco Machete. His sound was and remains to be impossible to pin down. Some have tried to slap the ‘fidget’ tail on his tracks, but then he would drop acid anthems like his remix of Fukkk Offf’s Rave is King, and just when you thought it was safe to go back to the rave, he unleashed a dancefloor shredder mix of The Subs’ From Dusk Till Dawn, and then a lazy bassline house stinker in the form of his own Stay on Top. The man is fucking elusive, having kept his true identity concealed for an eternity, and I get the feeling that the more the masses try to box it in, the more mischievous and obscure his sound will get.

According to his Myspace ‘The Zodiac Cartel ethos is simple. ‘Jackin’ House Music With A Techno Soul’

And according to IDJ Mag ‘Zodiac Cartel is so far ahead of most of the other producers pushing the warehouse sound it’s almost embarrassing!’

Us geeks at Dont Party are ecstatic to have been able to catch up with the accused for a heart to [dark] heart.

DP: The past few years have been a real roller-coaster ride of trend based genres coming and going, how have you managed to keep your somewhat ‘untouchable’ status?
ZC: I’ve never been interested in following trends. What tends to happen is someone will come up with a great sound or riff and within a month 1,001 people will have ripped it, imitated it and basically ground it into a bloody pulp. It’s the simple law of diminishing returns, basically. The perfect analogy for this is the Oozlum bird from Anglo-Australian mythology which flies in ever-decreasing circles until it disappears up it’s own anus.

DP: Aside from the actual styles of music changing, this past decade has seen loads of innovations on the way music is being played. We know that you remained cloaked and indoors for a while, but would you say that new technology in playing music out is a big part of the Zodiac Cartel experience?
ZC: The new technology is wonderful in many ways, but counter-productive in others and the worst thing you can say about it is that it’s made people incredibly lazy in how they throw their music together. I’ve seen massive DJs just come on & press play on their laptops then spend the next hour getting as pissed as humanly possible. I prefer to use two or three CDJs and a DJM-800 when I play out – that’s more than enough to engage the crowd with and also keep you on your toes.

DP: What software/outboard gear do you use for gigs? And for producing music?
ZC: No software for shows – I’m a DJ rather than a selector. Production-wise a mix of hardware & software all going through a 32 channel Mackie desk with Apogee & MOTU soundcards & converters. Understanding the space you work in is the main thing, and understanding the way that your sound translates once it leaves the studio is the other. I could give you a list of plug-ins & suchlike but that would tell you nothing at all – it’s what you do with them that counts.

DP: We’ve noticed many different elements in your tracks spanning many genres. Is this non-genre-specific approach purely an experimental process in order to find the true sound that is Zodiac Cartel, or would you say it is this experimental nature that is at the core of what you do?
ZC: Well I’m not really a preset guy. I don’t set out to ‘find my sound’, save it as a preset and then rinse it out for the next couple of years – that would be immensely uninspiring, and given the number of remixes I have done (all of which I take quite seriously), it’s only to be expected that the sounds will vary from track to track. Recently I remixed a trad jazz-based fidget track and then the following week I was doing a very mellow ambient Moby remix so it kind of figures that if the components are that varied, so will be the final outcome.

DP: A couple of years ago, it would have been safe to say that the UK [more specifically London] was the global epicenter of electronic music. Focus may have shifted substantially over to Berlin, yet the UK still retains a sound that is distinctively it’s own. Why do you think this is?
ZC: I don’t know – I never really trust those kinds of generalisations. All of the producers I know who lived in London a couple of years ago (bar two perhaps) still live in London. That whole minimal Berlin thing obviously blew up a while ago, but thankfully blew itself out pretty quickly – ultimately a lot of that stuff is just too cold, knowing and clinical to put a smile on people’s faces at the weekend, which is still a primary reason for making club music, right? The UK has such an incredible, rich heritage of innovative and very personal music that speaks to each ‘tribe’ in a unique and direct way, that we’re just never going to be that easily led … plus of course our superiority complex, which most creative-rich nations suffer from.

DP: Having toured the planet under your various guises, would you say that quality electronic music has crept into most corners of the globe? Do you sometimes have followings in unexpected places?
ZC: Yes that is absolutely the case, and these shows that happen right out there on the fringes of the world (as you know it from a Western European perspective) are almost always the most spectacular and the people are both the hungriest, and the least judgemental of all crowds.

DP: You remained behind the smoke screen of your hidden identity for some time. Would you say that the days of the superstar DJ are over?
ZC: No, far from it. I think they are now as entrenched, branded, corporate and ‘establishment’ as the most conservative of political systems, but they’re also still the most successful people in the game, and in many cases they are now standalone brands in their own right, which means they are no longer playing on the same playing field as many of us down here in the filthy mire.

DP: You have shown that success in this industry is not always formulaic. What factors would you attribute to your success?
ZC: The point of the ‘hidden identity’ thing was really to allow the music to do the talking, and nothing else. The Zod imagery evolved around it quite organically & continues to do so, but ultimately it just comes down to the simple fact that people seem to like the music, and that’s the main thing for me.

DP: What can we expect from Zodiac Cartel in future?
ZC: This year I’m looking to develop the DJ side of things further as I haven’t had that much interest in doing too many live shows until now, and I am working on some bespoke visuals with some of the Pixel Addicts crew.

I recently launched the website at http://www.zodiaccartel.com which includes some free downloads as well as an online store where we’re doing custom bundles of all the singles with added remix parts & other bonus content.

I also have a new single coming on U&A Recordings around May time and remixes coming out shortly for Moby, Lee Coombs, Emanul Kosh and this brand new thing for Tai on Coco Machete.

Thanks very much to General Zod for checking in with Dont Party. Check out some of his dancefloor bombs below [some of which are available for free download], as well as the above mentioned websites for MORE free tracks, exclusive purchases and various other explicit goods.

And remember kids, Dont Party cos you might start worshiping false idols. Hail Lord Zod!

Emanul Kosh – Make My Music (Zodiac Cartel Mix) TASTER by Zodiac Cartel

Sweet Control (128k TASTER) by Zodiac Cartel

Zodiac Cartel – All Day (TASTER 128k) by Zodiac Cartel

Zodiac Cartel – Stay On Top (128k TASTER) by Zodiac Cartel

The Subs – From Dusk Till Dawn (Zodiac Cartel Mix) TASTER by Zodiac Cartel

Franz Ferdinand – No You Girls (Zodiac Cartel mix) by Zodiac Cartel

['No You Girls' is part of Zodiac Cartel's Weapons of Choice series, available for free download]

Decoder & Healey – Echoes In My Head (Zodiac Cartel Mix) [TASTER] by Zodiac Cartel
['Echoes in My Head' available for free download here]

Fukk Off – Rave is King (Zodiac Cartel Mix) [TASTER] by Zodiac Cartel