Around a year ago Plastician received a Soundcloud demo from an unknown artist calling himself Tracksuit Goth. The tunes were so well produced and rolled with such a classically-rooted timeless vibe, for a while he thought this must be a secret alias.
It wasn’t. But many people still believe it is a secret alias of a seasoned dubstep producer. Listen to his Blacksmith EP, released at the start of November on Terrorhythm, and you’ll understand why. From the rolling technoid funk of lead track Blacksmith to the mournful, glacial synths of the EP finale Like The Old Days, you can imagine these being spun at DMZ or FWD back in the day.
No imagination is required to picture people playing them at modern dubstep nights, however; with his tracks all floating on dub for the last year, he’s had huge support from the likes of J:Kenzo, Sicaria Sound, Compa and of course Plastician himself… Madly, though, he never expected anyone to play them.
A follower of dubstep since its most formative chapters and a keen hobbiest producer for years, he’s about to start unleashing the creations he’s been making for fun for years. It starts with the Blacksmith EP but there’s plenty more in the pipeline. And while he’s not ready to give away much about his personal non-musical identity, with sounds as authentic and heavy as these – and a name as brilliant as Tracksuit Goth – the music is all we need right now. Here’s everything we know about him so far…
No one knows anything about you…
I wasn’t initially planning to do it like that, but it seems to be working quite well so I might keep it like that for now and just see what happens in the future. It’s nice that the music is the focus.
Most people – myself included – suspect you’re an alias…
Haha, I get it all the time. But I’m honestly a new artist and not known under any other names. I’ve been producing for myself just for fun for years, but this is the first stuff I’ve released. No aliases mate.
It’s nice, as you say, to let the music do the talking…
I mean no one gives a fuck anyway really do they? You might as well let the tunes speak for themselves and see if people like it.
Haha, very true. I think you can hear the fact you’ve been producing for a long time in the past though…
That’s good to hear. I have been making it for years but never put it out there. It was just a hobby that I’ve really enjoyed. I’ve been following the music for a very long time too so I know what I want to achieve musically.
Are we going back to the Big Apple days here?
I’m not quite old enough to have been involved in it, but I was following the scene back then as a young teen. I went to the first System night, I follow a lot of soundsystems then got into jump up for a while in my late teens. I’ve been around music the whole time. I wanted to do something with the 140 sound and try and go back to how it used to sound. That was the aim.
Was there a trigger point for this?
I was having a laugh making some music with a mate and I played him some tracks. He suggested I send them to people. I thought ‘really?’ I didn’t think anyone would be interested. Then, a week after sending things out, Chris [Plastician] got in touch and said he’d take them if no one else had got them. He was the first guy to get back to me and he took it from there and got it out there to people.
There was a lot of support for them wasn’t there?
The amount of times I’ve heard them on Rinse is ridiculous. I think people might have got bored of them but the time they came out. Hopefully it’s one of those ones that has staying power and sticks around. But I’m sitting on so much music I think it won’t be long before the next release.
I like this. You haven’t rushed stuff out, you’ve learnt your craft before you even thought about releasing…
Yeah I’ve always wanted to make sure the quality is up there. Every release has got to feel really finished and not just be like throwaway music.
What was the best or most surprising support you had when it came out?
Quite a lot of people got in touch. Compa was supportive. J Kenzo played it on his Rinse show which was nice. Sicaria Sound put it in their Beatport top 10. I’m excited to have it out there and maybe hopefully play some sets and carry on doing this.
Was it exciting seeing it build up on dub? Or did you just want to get it out there?
I was blown away by the response! I didn’t think anyone would like it so I was surprised at the reactions. I was more than happy for it to be on dub for a while. I’ve always been a fan of trying to find out what a tune is and not just rushing it out. There’s a big of magic to it isn’t there?
The thrill of the chase!
Exactly. Remember back in the day when you’d hear a tune on YouTube and it would only had 200 plays? You’d be like ‘yeah I’m onto this early!’
Yes! Can we just expect 140 stuff from you?
Well I’m sitting on things between 120 to 160 so it’s a bit of a mixture. But predominantly it’ll be 140. There’s also a 130 bit on the EP. I think I’ll keep it aorund the 140 mark with a few tunes to mix it up a bit. Soundsystem music, basically. I’ve always been inspired by soundsystems. Following around Sinai and anything like that. I think the rise of this culture is coming up again. Raves are picking up, 140 is coming back in a big way and it feels like the right time to contribute to that as a producer as well as a fan of the music…
Tracksuit Goth – Blacksmith EP is out now
Follow Tracksuit Goth: Soundcloud
