Leftfield musicianship, right handed titulature, put both hands together for Dextro.
Known more, or less, formally to his kith and kin as Ewan Mackenzie, this 28-year-old Falkirker-cum-Glaswegian has been music-making from the age of fourteen. Dabblings with Atari STs led to MAs in Music, the Dextro project and a pair of virgin EPs in 2004.
“It’s true that I look to Celtic references. I enjoy drone music, and sometimes this can sound very Celtic.”
/blockquote>Having dropped his debut album ‘Consequence Music’ with its Neu-meets-Air stylings on independent big smoke label Gronland Records late last year, he follows things up this month with a four tracker EP of his original ‘Hearts And Minds’ composition compounded by three diverse but successful remixes.
Dextro produces highly textured and complex pieces with a sound that swells with the synthetic and organic, something that can make for disorientating listening if you aren’t focused on where you are or should be. Referencing bands such as the Cocteau Twins, Joy Division and perhaps more discernibly My Bloody Valentine, Dextro’s leanings are counter-pointed by his own new and randomly “found sounds” of field recorded samples: “Many of the found sounds I record are designed to give character to a song, and yes many are recorded accidentally. It’s true that you often stumble upon special things when you don’t know exactly what you are doing, and it’s important to keep looking for that experimentation.”
Combined with intoxicating, melodic bass – the driving, untethered structure of Ewan’s creations are held close by his repetitive but natural percussion just about keeping things from being carried off to the seven corners.
The music aches with a sense of being and place. A solitary composer of soundscapes, often, rather lazily, likened to Philip Glass or Brian Eno, he is want to disappearing from his home city hubbub into the wilds in search of inspiration, new sounds and challenges to his creativity. He says: “These places are the kind that enable me to forget the day to day human problems and therefore appreciate the more important things like nature, and the wonders of existence.”
The more discerning may pick up a whisper of these comfort zone escapes, less kilt ‘n’ shortbread and more high hills and moor, in a sunshine through rain way. “It’s true that I look to Celtic references. I enjoy drone music, and sometimes this can sound very Celtic. I also like a lot of Scottish Folk Music and I take a lot of inspiration from the more beautiful parts of the country,” he admits.
Homegrown in inspiration but certainly not parochial in outlook, the new EP comes remixed by Gronland labelmates Arkham, a krautrock beat-driven track that pays respect to original, whilst doing something completely original, a second offering by Alias of the Anticon collective resulting in a very pleasurable use of the softer and singing parts of the original and finally an “intriguing” reworking by Warp’s Clark (formally Chris Clarke), one which Dextro himself confesses to dig: “He really has done his own thing and I think that is part of the beauty of having people remix your work. I love it and I told him so.”
With a second album pinned down for 2008 it seems Ewan Mackenzie is set to push himself and his music forward, continuing to make records that people will be taken in hand by. Expect more band-like live shows throughout 2007, further collaborations with other artists and new explorations into the visual side of his work for the Dextro project.
