Influences: Kelpe

As 'The Curved Line' approaches...

Kelpe is a curious presence amidst British electronic music, building upon the advances of Warp's 90s run but retaining a kosmische edge.

Working to his own tastes and whims, Kelpe – real name Kel McKeown – is set to release new album 'The Curved Line' on August 28th.

A diverse, flexible and fluid return, the material lingers upon driving loops and hard-hitting percussive patterns while retaining a sharply defined emotional edge.

Clash invited Kelpe to outline of the sounds that inform his new album.

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Tortoise – 'High Class Slim Came Floatin' In'

Great track title here. I've always cited Tortoise as an influence in general, and they probably always will be. This is from the album 'Beacons of Ancestorship', where they replaced a lot of the guitars with synths – and I love everything about it, especially the production and the drum sound. Also a big fan of the way it has different movements to it. The influence of this track shows the most on my album track 'Sick Lickle Thing' (say it out loud to reveal fantastic pun).

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CAN – 'Vitamin C'

Always loved the drum beat on this, as did my first drummer Chris Walmsley who's favourite drummer is CAN's Jaki Leibzeit – they got to meet one day as we shared a stage with him once in Brussels. So on my LP track 'Canjealous' is the recording of Chris' version how he plays the 'Vitamin C' beat, although looking back it's pretty different! Recorded the drums at Andy Ramsey from Stereolab's studio, which was a great experience.

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Steve Poindexter – 'Computer Madness'

I was buying and getting into drum machines when making the new album, especially a Roland TR-707, which I think is the drum machine used on this track. I guess my own music isn't quite as acidic or fast as this but I have some more relentless and repetitive 4/4 beats on this new LP, especially on 'Calumet'. Poindexter's track is just tweaked to perfection without getting silly.

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Cornelius – 'Tone Twilight Zone'

Most of my new LP is quite full on and thick sounding but there's one track 'Morning Two' which is a much more spacious and soothing moment. Although the instrumentation is very different, the atmosphere of the track is kind of borrowed from this Cornelius song, replete with tropical rainforest sounds.

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Vangelis – 'Stuffed Tomato'

This album is far out, and I've just realised there's a few more early 70s Vangelis records that I've not explored yet. At some point during the making of my new album I think i had a note on the whiteboard in my studio that read "make something that sounds like Stuffed Tomato", but I don't think I really got round to do doing that specifically. Still, I imagine little elements of this track have come bled through in some place, I think it's a great track.

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Photo Credit: Brian Harrington

'The Curved Line' is due to be released on August 28th. Catch Kelpe at London's Waiting Room venue on September 12th.

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