Mastering Mayhem
[Originally published in BMA Magazine, April 13]
‘R&B was The Temptations, a four-piece vocal group that did their own choreographies. But you know those kids with their fucking revved up cars? They listen to R&B. Can you associate the two together? I can’t. Frank Ocean is R&B, but would you put him in the same box as that cheesy Top 40s shit? Fuck no.’ While on his way to Katoomba to support singer friend Ngaiire and promote his latest EP Play My Hits, Antonio Rosselli Del Turco aka RIBONGIA questions the relevance of genre tagging in today’s EDM scene.
‘I’m not against classifications – I think they can be useful – but I don’t think it’s really up to the artist to go, “Oh, well I’m this”, ‘cos then you’re defining yourself and you might even build walls around yourself so you can’t move. I just spend hours in the studio and listen to what comes out, then it’s completely up to whoever listens to it to call it what they want. And if someone wants to call it gypsy or whatever, if you can hear gypsy in there then go for it, I don’t really mind.’
While ‘gypsy’ might be a stretch, it’s one of an ever-narrowing range of sounds that this Sydney-based beatmaster hasn’t yet sampled in his experimental style of producing, which in principal involves ‘just getting flavours that are common to different groups of people, trying to mesh them together and seeing what comes out the other end.’
Although this ostensibly haphazard method suits the Italian-born producer’s namesake to a tee (‘Ribongia’ being ‘a slang Tuscan word for chaos, stuff that’s messy’) it is systematically implemented and reflects a deeply rooted music philosophy about which Antonio is anything but ambiguous.
‘I always try to keep it interesting for myself. Always moving, always learning. I know it sounds really clichéd, but I just really try to go for the tastes that feel good, like I really was in there. I feel like I belong to a movement of producers who are experimenting with different things and it’s just this constant search. With the software that’s available and everything getting cheaper to make music with nowadays, we’ve got this virtually infinite power of sounds to work with – and there so much music out there! With the internet you can access sheet music from Ethiopia or samples of a capellas from Los Angeles hip hop artists – it’s infinite what you can do. So, I guess to me, because all that is available, the game is not, “Oh, I want to write folk music”, it’s: “What is the new genre?” What are you going to make it into? What’s the next step?’
Of course, as anyone who’s experienced a live experimental DJ set would agree, quirky sound grabs and off-kilter rhythms – while excellent headphone chin-stroking material – often translates to a dance floor that’s about 98% more floor than dance (if spasmodic fidgeting and confused head-nodding really even counts). It didn’t take long for Antonio to recognise this for himself, and subsequently realise his own fundamental motivation to produce. ‘It was only when I first started gigging that I realised that you can go all weird and experimental as you want, but I felt this barrier between me and the audience, like people couldn’t really get involved, and I realised that I just wanted to make people dance.’
At this, Antonio has undeniably succeeded. By staying constantly tuned and responsive to his crowd’s reaction while remaining true to his own unique style, Antonio has managed to strike a delicate balance between avant-garde and party-friendly – and, with regards to dance music culture, seems to have done so with perfect timing.
‘I think electronic music has progressed and now dance music is not just cheesy house. With dubstep, as well, it was cool how all of a sudden beats didn’t have to be four on the floor and straight ahead; it could be half-time and there could be all these kinds of variations. That got me really excited and I started finding my niche.’
Having recently completed his latest EP, Play My Hits (a mix of ‘a bit of glitch, a bit of blinding synth lines that might be referred to as dubstep, and a bit of gangsta hip hop’), the next step for Antonio is to raise enough money to realise his longstanding dream of pressing vinyl. And for a producer who places such value on his audience connection, what better way to do so than through the web-based crowd funding campaign, Pozible.
‘It seems like a natural progression in terms of music promoting. Only a few years ago, if you wanted to make music, the only way was to try to lure in a label to support you and then they’d buy the rights to your music. So, yes, you get to do stuff and they promote you but then you also lose a lot of rights. Then independent music started happening, where artists would own all their stuff but use distribution companies to get their music out there. I think this is sort of the third step: there’s no more intermediates, there’s just the artist and the crowd. And I think that’s beautiful. And it helps me to remind myself: you can’t write music just for yourself, you can’t write music to impress other musicians, you’ve gotta write music for the people. That’s it. And that’s the best kick you can get out of it.’
With an attitude like that, it’s no wonder Canberra fans are getting excited for Antonio’s EP launch at Hippo Bar this month – and they aren’t the only ones. ‘I love playing down there. Canberra, to me, is very unpretentious, very open to new ideas, just soaking it all up, while Sydney is kinda like a hot chick in a club, where she’s more concerned with the way she looks than having a good time and interacting with people; after a while you just can’t be bothered. You just want to have good conversations and interact with people, and that’s what I feel in Canberra.’
‘I’m not against classifications – I think they can be useful – but I don’t think it’s really up to the artist to go, “Oh, well I’m this”, ‘cos then you’re defining yourself and you might even build walls around yourself so you can’t move. I just spend hours in the studio and listen to what comes out, then it’s completely up to whoever listens to it to call it what they want. And if someone wants to call it gypsy or whatever, if you can hear gypsy in there then go for it, I don’t really mind.’
While ‘gypsy’ might be a stretch, it’s one of an ever-narrowing range of sounds that this Sydney-based beatmaster hasn’t yet sampled in his experimental style of producing, which in principal involves ‘just getting flavours that are common to different groups of people, trying to mesh them together and seeing what comes out the other end.’
Although this ostensibly haphazard method suits the Italian-born producer’s namesake to a tee (‘Ribongia’ being ‘a slang Tuscan word for chaos, stuff that’s messy’) it is systematically implemented and reflects a deeply rooted music philosophy about which Antonio is anything but ambiguous.
‘I always try to keep it interesting for myself. Always moving, always learning. I know it sounds really clichéd, but I just really try to go for the tastes that feel good, like I really was in there. I feel like I belong to a movement of producers who are experimenting with different things and it’s just this constant search. With the software that’s available and everything getting cheaper to make music with nowadays, we’ve got this virtually infinite power of sounds to work with – and there so much music out there! With the internet you can access sheet music from Ethiopia or samples of a capellas from Los Angeles hip hop artists – it’s infinite what you can do. So, I guess to me, because all that is available, the game is not, “Oh, I want to write folk music”, it’s: “What is the new genre?” What are you going to make it into? What’s the next step?’
Of course, as anyone who’s experienced a live experimental DJ set would agree, quirky sound grabs and off-kilter rhythms – while excellent headphone chin-stroking material – often translates to a dance floor that’s about 98% more floor than dance (if spasmodic fidgeting and confused head-nodding really even counts). It didn’t take long for Antonio to recognise this for himself, and subsequently realise his own fundamental motivation to produce. ‘It was only when I first started gigging that I realised that you can go all weird and experimental as you want, but I felt this barrier between me and the audience, like people couldn’t really get involved, and I realised that I just wanted to make people dance.’
At this, Antonio has undeniably succeeded. By staying constantly tuned and responsive to his crowd’s reaction while remaining true to his own unique style, Antonio has managed to strike a delicate balance between avant-garde and party-friendly – and, with regards to dance music culture, seems to have done so with perfect timing.
‘I think electronic music has progressed and now dance music is not just cheesy house. With dubstep, as well, it was cool how all of a sudden beats didn’t have to be four on the floor and straight ahead; it could be half-time and there could be all these kinds of variations. That got me really excited and I started finding my niche.’
Having recently completed his latest EP, Play My Hits (a mix of ‘a bit of glitch, a bit of blinding synth lines that might be referred to as dubstep, and a bit of gangsta hip hop’), the next step for Antonio is to raise enough money to realise his longstanding dream of pressing vinyl. And for a producer who places such value on his audience connection, what better way to do so than through the web-based crowd funding campaign, Pozible.
‘It seems like a natural progression in terms of music promoting. Only a few years ago, if you wanted to make music, the only way was to try to lure in a label to support you and then they’d buy the rights to your music. So, yes, you get to do stuff and they promote you but then you also lose a lot of rights. Then independent music started happening, where artists would own all their stuff but use distribution companies to get their music out there. I think this is sort of the third step: there’s no more intermediates, there’s just the artist and the crowd. And I think that’s beautiful. And it helps me to remind myself: you can’t write music just for yourself, you can’t write music to impress other musicians, you’ve gotta write music for the people. That’s it. And that’s the best kick you can get out of it.’
With an attitude like that, it’s no wonder Canberra fans are getting excited for Antonio’s EP launch at Hippo Bar this month – and they aren’t the only ones. ‘I love playing down there. Canberra, to me, is very unpretentious, very open to new ideas, just soaking it all up, while Sydney is kinda like a hot chick in a club, where she’s more concerned with the way she looks than having a good time and interacting with people; after a while you just can’t be bothered. You just want to have good conversations and interact with people, and that’s what I feel in Canberra.’