One of the most anticipated remixes of the year has landed. A re-work of Tony De Vit’s ‘Are You All Ready’, it has reached out beyond hard house with the likes of Alan Fitzpatrick and others, offering their heavyweight support. We speak to Pul maddox and Filthy Rich, the duo behing Spektre who have remixed it…
You are both established producers and DJ’s within your own right… how did you come together to form Spektre and where did the name come from?
We were already frequenting the same club nights and knocking around in similar circles when we were introduced by a mutual friend, who knew we were both looking to broaden our musical output.. We got in the studio together and after the first few tracks we could see that the chemistry and ideas were free flowing, so we decided to make the project a collaboration and continue experimenting with our new sound.
With a fusion of house from Rich’s background and Hard House and Tech from Paul it was a formula that was destined to be successful. How easy or difficult did you find it to become established under the name because you rapidly gained the support of DJ heavyweights such as Carl Cox, Adam Beyer and a whole host of others?
Despite being known for producing different styles as solo artists we definitely had very similar musical backgrounds, so the fusing of the ideas came really naturally. The momentum we gained early on seemed to occur organically and was just a natural progression for us following our early successful releases. I think the combination of contrasting styles helped us to approach the techno spectrum from a unique angle, and allowed us to make something a bit different from our peers at the time, which was appreciated by many of the big artists around us.
How would you describe the sound that you make?
Dark, atmospheric techno with a nod to the rave.
I think it would be fair to say that the Mystery Land remix was the track that put you on the roadway to success with your sound. Would you agree and did you expect the response you received for it?
Yeah I would say that following our first solo single release on Kraftek ‘Another Life’ and the ‘Mystery Land’ remix which followed definitely marked the start of a new phase of the project. After moving away from the early (more minimal) spektre sound, we had a period where we struggled to fing our new identity a bit, but these releases definitely mark the point where things coalesced and it clicked again.
How do you go about putting a track together… do you have an idea to work on or is it pretty spontaneous?
Yeah we usually have a solid idea discussed before we hit a studio session, as we find that going in and starting with a totally blank canvas can be a bit uninspiring. We both keep notepads of ideas too, so there’s usually plenty for us to dig into when we sit down together. That said, there are many occasions where the original idea never actually makes it to the final version, but it still will have served as the catalyst for the new ideas that popped up in the session.
Do you think you have become better known as Spektre, than under your original names?
Spektre has definitely given us the best following and been the bigger brand in terms of followers and fans. Having our own record label brand Respekt has also helped us to grow as artists and acted as an outlet for our own music whilst being able to grow our own family of label artists too. That said, whilst they may be smaller in number, the Tidy fans are hard to beat in when it comes to loyalty and enthusiasm!
Paul you were originally a hard house producer when this track first surfaced. When you were offered the track… what thoughts initially went through your mind?
Any of Tony’s catalogue is hallowed ground for someone who grew up listening to Hard House, so of course the first thought was to make sure we did the original justice. The old Belgian rave sounds that inspired Are You All Ready have been making huge inroads back into the present day techno sound though, so there was actually a huge amount of common ground to work with, so we felt that we could stay true to the original, whilst still repackaging the idea into something that we could play today.
What challenges did you face on the new Tony De Vit remix for Untidy UX?
The main decision really was whether to do something drastically different, or a more subtle rework, and it only took us a few minutes to decide on the latter! Technically, the trickiest bit was getting the hoovers to sound as good at 130bpm as they do at 150 – We ended up dropping the key slightly to avoid having to timestretch them, which ruined the feel.
Have you managed to road test the remix and if so what kind of response have you had?
The response to the remix has been awesome. It’s become a huge moment in our sets and the support from other artists has been immense. It’s such a timeless classic that still does the damage on the dance floor 20 years on so we are buzzing to have brought the remix up to date and given it our Spektre flavour.
How was Tidy Leeds for you Paul…?
I had a ball! Always good seeing old friends in the Hard House scene, and of course the crazy Tidy Faithful!
What is forthcoming from you guys?
We have a lot of new music finished which we are dropping in our sets. We also have some awesome festival gigs in the pipeline including Mint Festival in Leeds and some big plans in the US. Things are still uncertain with regards to travel restrictions at the moment so we are waiting until our diary can be at maximum capacity again before we go back to full steam ahead.
Download & Stream this release here: https://untidy.fanlink.to/AreYouAllRe…
