One of my recent big favourites, Metropolitan Soul Museum were kind enough to share a mix with DR. If you are unfamiliar with their sound, drop everything you are doing now and head to their Soundcloud page!
With appearances on such quality labels as Toytonics, TrunkFunk, Rawax and Normals Welcome, it won't be long before their music get the wider attention it deserves. Music like this made rediscover the joys of DJ'ing after a long spell of being bored with music.
Nick & Filippo, thanks for taking the time to have a little chat with us. I've been a big fan since 2016's "Tesla" ep on Toy Tonics, which is still on regular rotation - such a timeless release! From what I gather, you two met back in 2012 when Nick was running his Teng Records and Filippo helped later on, before moving into music production.
Nick, what motivated you back then to start a label?
N: I have had record labels since the beginning of the 1990's starting out with hardcore on white labels and stamping them individually.....proper cottage industry style and progressing to an assortment of house and downtempo labels to use as vehicles for various projects of mine over the years.
I always enjoyed the buzz of writing a tune in the studio and manufacturing the vinyl and getting it distributed and promoted and seeing how far I could take it... the whole process was very exciting.
Teng was another example of setting up a label as an opportunity to get my Akra project going and was originally only meant for that but Fil got in touch and wanted to bring his influence into the label and A&R other likeminded artists so we found ourselves releasing a more varied repertoire. It was an interesting journey and we had a lot of fun supporting and promoting artists and music we loved.
Can you pinpoint a specific time when you decided to start Metropolitan Soul Museum?
N: It was around 2013/14 when we started making music together. We experimented with some different styles and the ideas started flowing easily which is always a good sign. We quickly found that what worked best for us is sort of no boundaries and whatever takes our fancy which is quite enlightening.
Tracking back a little, how did you get introduced to dance music? Did you guys start out as a DJ's or did go straight into producing your own music?
N: I have been making music since I was 15. I started as a keyboard player playing in bands and progressed to owning a commercial studio until I discovered house music and from then on it was full on writing, producing and releasing lots of different styles of club / electronic focused music projects.....some successful and some not so successful. I have been very lucky to have been able to do what I love for so long and MSM is very much a part of that ethos.
Today, how much are you involved in the UK's electronic music scene?
N: I have always been more into the studio and writing side of the scene. I used to go clubbing a lot and be more involved but less so these days. I did get the opportunity recently to play live all over the world for a while with one of my projects, Mock & Toof which was a lot of fun and have done the odd bit of DJ'ing but I'm more of a player and writer.
We have done some live performances with MSM and we are into composing and constructing our tracks live so we don't know what will happen but its cool to freeform in front of an audience...
Let's track back a little further. Do you two come from musical families? The reason I ask is the fact how rich and genre-defying your songs are.
N: I started learning the piano as a child and always wanted to be a musician. My family are quite musical and I grew up with classical, jazz and popular music being played at home. I was always interested in synths and the noises they could make and when I was able to play drums, bass and any instrument I fancied then that was me sorted.
I loved the freedom to be able to construct music how I wanted and use whatever sound took my fancy so when sampling and sequencing became available there was no stopping me. I still have and use my early synths that I bought when I was starting out back in the day. It would be really hard to part with them now.
Do you have any fond musical memories from your childhood?
N: Music was the soundtrack to my childhood... the radio or the stereo was always on and although I wasn't totally conscious of it at the time, it was fundamental to my upbringing.
What was the first record ever that made a lasting impression on you?
N: The Doors 'Strange Days'.
Tell us what are the five most personal records to you and why?
N: The Doors 'Strange Days' see above, Pink Floyd 'Wish You Were Here' & 'Dark Side Of The Moon' I just loved the 3 dimensional sound of their music and that production bliss., Kraftwerk 'Autobahn' electronic synth music nirvana...,Freddie King 'Larger Than Life' blues legend and for some reason I always loved the blues....
As a bit of a vinyl nerd, I have to ask: are you avid record collectors yourself?
N: No, I was always more interested in making music than listening to it. I was much more interested in making vinyl. I do have a lot of vinyl though which Ive accumulated over the years. A lot of it was great sampling sources though.
Describe a perfect MSM track, what are tthe he ingredients?
F: I think the melody and drum programming are the key in our music production.
MSM has been active, what, 4 years now? What has the reaction been like?
F: It's always nice to see our music getting some good feedback and having labels interested in releasing it is definitely a great achievement!
Any surprises?
Honey Sound System's support from our Album was definitely an highlight!
Your latest release was "Misunderstood collection" on Dionysian Mysteries. Can you tell us a little bit about that? I almost feel that the album kind of slipped under everyone's radar in June.
It comprises all of the tracks we didn't manage to get released on other labels. Some of these tracks are our favourite to date and we're so happy to have them all in a collection!
The mood of the album and of the art are definitely melancholic and dreamy and we're very proud of that work. It's musical and not so easy listening which is what we love!
What does the rest of the year 2018 hold for MSM? Lots of new music & gigs in Europe, I hope!
Well that would be great! We have a few releases in the pipeline with some of our favourite labels and we hope to see more of those out in the future!
So the mix, tell us about that. I really love how it starts bubbly, takes a slightly darker & more repetitive turn and then, as your own music, just has loads of surprises around the corner. Any particular tracks you'd like to point out?
We like to play a bit of everything in our mixes... As much as we like to do that when making music... In the mix I really love that Pional - Tempest on Permanent Vacation!
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Next up from the MSM camp is a superb release on Rawax, don't sleep on it! Previews here:
Also, out on sept 28th, appearance on Beat of No Nation's excellent compilation series "Dance Ideas Four" - very, very cool stuff.
playlist
00:00 Gilbert - Birds of Paradise
03:10 Javonnte - Aquarius Swing - Second Hand Records - 2017
06:34 ---
10:08 Pépe - Inflexion (Point Thereof)
13:44 Bogdan - Parovoznikov
17:41 Trinidadiandeep - Love Song (ANMA Records)
21:31 Angie Stone - Wish I Didn't Miss You (See Other's Cut The Power Mix)
24:58 DJ Koyote & TSC - Modern Action - Supergenious Records
28:10 DJ City - Teenage Sexdrive
31:40. Metropolitan Soul Museum - No Pressure (Dionysian Mysteries)
37:13 Move D - Gleeko drive
40:21 AKRA - Black Sands
43.58 Maheras - The Man From Another Place (Timothy J FairPlay remix)
48:13 Iron Curtis ---
51:24 Metropolitan Soul Museum - Rapid City
54:46 DJ Senior Vasquez - Air
57:41 Mark Blair - 84 King Street
60:52 Flight Facilities - Crave you feat. Giselle - bootleg?
64:35 Pional - Tempest - Permanent Vacation
68:20 TVe - Noa's Statue (dOP remix)
71:40 ---
73:55 Unknown Mobile - Valerian Slip
76:25 Drexciya
79:53 Roni Size Reprazent - New Forms
84:57 END
DJ profile
Metropolitan Soul Museum
Location: 00830
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MSM are Nick (Mock & Toof / Akra) and Filippo. The pair used to run Teng Records before start making music as Metropolitan Soul Museum.
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