The first of six releases of OOH-sounds’ Decouple ][ Series dropped a few months ago and already caught one or the other’s attention (and got reviewed, for example, over here). The split-vinyl presented two duos: Georgia and Bellows from New York and Milano respectively. Their multidimensional and partly fluttering sound resembled pretty immediately what OOH are striving for with the Decouple ][ Series: a reflection of an increasing complexity, the dependencies and miscommunication within a media-saturated digital era. To achieve this reflection, the Decouple ][ Series showcases artists at the fringes of electronic music who are experimenting with these topics.

“In software engineering d e c o u p l i n g is generally all about discerning whether or not two components need to closely work together or can be further made independent. Independence is great because it makes those things easy to change or use somewhere else. Usually, you can’t remove coupling between components completely. D e c o u p l i n g in that context normally means loosening the existing coupling, making sure each component knows as little as possible about the other components around it.”[1]

With the second installment of the Decouple ][ Series, these issues are further examined. This time, it is the British producers Sim Hutchins and Dale Cornish, who team up for the split release. Once more, the role curation can play nowadays becomes apparent: The two tracks’ (de-)coupledness not only emerges because they’ve happen to be on different sides of the same vinyl, but also because there are plenty of musical cross-connections. Whilst both tracks do stand on their own, there is a special energy arising when they are put together and in contrast.

Sim Hutchins has proven already that (his) music doesn’t need a genre to be recognizable. His debut LP I Enjoy To Sweep A Room (No Pain in Pop, 2015) and last year’s album Clubeighteen2thirty (Local Action, 2018) have shown both different musical angles as well as a common feel, that is also present on “Druk Pak.” The producer and audio-visual artist from Essex (UK) has created a space that is very much his own—a space which is located somewhere between, as he puts it himself, “the disintegrating drones of William Basinksi, the cosmic synthwork of Hieroglyphic Being, and Jandek’s propensity for atonal experimentalism.”

Both in his sound and in his visual work, Hutchins is able to combine what allegedly does not belong together: a deep sense of both humor and sobriety, accessibility and experimentalism, optimism and sprawling nostalgia. Maybe lo-fi aficionado Hutchins is only making a connection between things apparent that never existed independently anyway. Coupling the decoupled? Or decoupling the coupled? Whatever! The results are through and through worth the while. Therefore, we are very happy to be exclusively premiering Hutchins’ contribution to the Decouple ][ Series. Furthermore, the artists also did take the time to answer a Q&A, accompanying the track premiere, with a good sense of humor.

Anna Froelicher It seems that within “Druk Pak,” every element of the track is walking its own path and things could fall apart easily. Somehow and without big effort, they are still in the same space and give the listener this even bigger joy of comfort in the unstable. Was there a specific space you had in mind while producing?

Sim Hutchins I’m really into thinking about music creation as a narrative. If you listen closely, each element takes its own meandering pathway. Although there is this common story tying the whole thing together, things are not what they seem by the end. I do this thing I’ve dubbed “re-phrasing,” whereby I take an element and try to bring it into a new space completely—as if an element is suddenly playing a part in a language it’s unfamiliar with. You could also think of the track being made-up of actors, performing my way of directing. These actors would then be involved in many sub-plots, unexpected turns, bit parts becoming major stars—that sort of thing. “Druk Pa” begins in this serene mood, and ends in this really emotional way (like any great story maybe). I could waffle on, but the point is that I found finishing music a lot easier since I adopted this pseudo director role.

AF The press text of the release describes the production of “Druk Pak” as something done in just one night in February with a mug of red wine. I hope I was right to take the statement as much at face value as with a pinch of salt. It may make people realize again how they like to settle for a cliché assumptions of how creation works. Still: is this your favorite working style? A very intuitive and isolated process, thrown back on your own?

SH All my music that has been released so far is usually done in one jam. That jam, however, is then meticulously worked and edited into a final piece. To say that it is created in one night is to say the essence of the track was born then, but it sometimes takes weeks or months of work to get the final sound I am after. I would never change this practice though. I have super high personal standards, and I hope fans of my music and video work could maybe see and hear new things, or gather new perspectives whenever they watch or listen. I’m in a new residence now where I’m incredibly happy to say red wine isn’t the substitute for adequate central heating anymore, but as always I’m on my self-isolation flex. Creating non-stop is how I stay happy pretty much all the time—usually, I’m only unhappy when I haven’t worked hard enough.

AF As the track builds, there is this guitar melody appearing. The appearance of a guitar kind of surprised me, as I would connect your work mostly to the sonic realm of the Hardcore Continuum. What’s your relation to guitars and guitar music?

SH I’ve often thought that guitars are one of the most expressive instruments used in modern music, but alas I can’t play one. I’ve been known to fake sounds as convincingly as possible—to my ears at least (like in the second part of “I Went Home”). And for me personally, the Hardcore Continuum is plenty warped. I got into dance music at a very early age—we’re talking like 8 or 9 years of age—but I completely shunned it in my teenage rebellion years in favor of bands like Deicide, Napalm Death and Slayer. Going to college and meeting people who were both fans of metal, punk and dance music (drum & bass namely) is what gave me the bug again. There was an awkward phase where metal and drum & bass had an even more awkward fling (I’m cringing thinking about this one track on RAM records—readers help me out?). I would have thought that in 2019, since everyone was using metal logos in their artwork, we were all on the same page with regards to our kaleidoscopic tastes of club and the intersections of metal music, right? It’s not just another trend? Right? Right???

AF Dale Cornish’s contribution to the B-side of the split release goes along really well with your track. Did you and Dale exchange ideas in terms of what you were going to do? Or was it just one big (lucky) surprise, that the tracks work in combination so well?

SH Firstly, I’m gonna embarrass Dale here (I hope) and say that I’ve been following his music since before I started producing. To flip over a record and see his track on the other side is both an absolute joy, and a surreal moment. I had the track ready for OOH-sounds before he approached Dale. Therefore, I’m not too sure how the idea came about to pair us—but it’s a killer combo if you ask me. The best bit has been Dale and I annoying everyone on social media by tweeting “SOOOON” a lot. Love a cheeky bait. Catch us on NTS together doing a back-2-back session. SOOOON.

AF Last but not least: Google told me Druk Pak is one of Poland’s biggest producer of cardboard… But the title of your track also sounds like a playful reference, some kind of a “don’t take everything to serious” seriousness. And I think the latter fits pretty well the style of the Decouple ][ Series so far! So, what about “Druk Pak” as a title?

SH I like to put personal jokes into my titles. A lot of times, it’s just on the spot and how I was feeling at that time. When choosing “Druk Pak,” I was sick of seeing the typeface Druk absolutely overused on flyers to the point where a line-up written in Comic Sans is actually less embarrassing (I un-ironically like CS, but still). I use the hashtag #FontWatch when I spot Druk and DM my mate, usually accompanied by the emoji that looks like this (-__-). I asked him how we could make a dig at a certain design practice and he suggested using the phrase “pak,” which is a remixed London roadman slang for killing off something, like a competitor for instance. Then again: I’ve never been to Poland (book me!)—but I’ve often been interested in a career as a box maker.
After thought: cutely aware here I’m perpetuating the ill use of Druk by calling attention to it… But yeah, other typefaces are available.

Dale Cornish / Sim Hutchins – Decouple ][ Series is released via OOH-sounds on Friday 22nd February 2019.

[1] Description of “D e c o u p l i n g” from the first installment of the series.