Ben hauke
̸
バイオグラフィ
- Ben Hauke, a genre-blending artist, boasts a decade of relentless, electrifying music production. From deep house to UK garage and techno, Hauke's work defies categorization. Ben Hauke is about groove.Ben Hauke’s music has always possessed a coiled electricity. Since his first release, a scything relentless intensity has cut through his production. He’s released a slew of EPs in the past decade which have spanned genres. From deep house to UK garage to four-to-the-floor techno, Hauke’s productions have become hard to burrow into a particular sound. Parsing through his oeuvre, Hauke’s musical universe is endless as he touches upon every corner. His experimentation here has culminated, like the completion of a circle, in ‘Club Cute’, his debut album, released on future-facing label Touching Bass. Propulsive rhythms underpin the 12 tracks on the album. Melodies bounce with drunken bravado, apt for the smoky dance floors Hauke has spent the better part of the last decade within, honing his skill set. On ‘Club Cute’, he takes the listener on a seamless journey through genres, skipping through UK Garage, bass, house, four-to-the-floor techno, old-school hip-hop and UK Funky. He manages to never make it sound disjointed, masterfully weaving in moments of tranquillity and ecstasy. Featuring the likes of Goya Gumbani, Shy One, Jadadsea, Katy B and many others, ‘Club Cute’ features individuals Hauke acknowledges he is lucky enough to call both “friends and collaborators”. The album signals a closing of a loop, an ode to the dance floor where fully realised visions were able to come to the fore. “It felt like I had been experimenting up to this point,” the 32-year-old says softly over tea in central London. “Now, it feels like I’ve got a superpower where I can decide to do something and just hone in on it. Working with different people, I’ve seen how versatile I can be as a producer and I think it’s opened up doors into new worlds.” Stand-out track ‘Made to Measure’ is an anthemic tune where Katy B’s vocals soar above infectious production. ‘Like That’ and ‘Moooood’ are dance-floor-ready tunes made to make hips move while ‘Another Ghost’, with its ferocity, and ‘WIVWIV’, with its off-kilter bass and snappy drums, showcase Hauke’s range of production. ‘Is Still’, featuring Jadasea, ties the album off nicely with the UK rapper spitting effortless bars over a slinky synth. “I get bored quite quickly,” Hauke explains. “I don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing, but I end up weaving around all of these different sounds quite quickly. When I stand back from the album, it shows that, yeah, ‘this is what I like to do’.” Hauke’s relentless desire to keep pushing himself stems from a childhood in Lewisham surrounded by a musical family. His father “was a bass player in bands in the 70s and 80s” while his brothers played various instruments. “Dad had a lot of equipment in the house, like a little Tascam drum machine, so I played around with his equipment quite a lot.” Those early years led Ben to fall in love with drums, joining indie bands before enrolling at the prestigious BRIT school and learning how to produce. By the end of his education, he had immersed himself in the world of hip-hop and rap, learning how to produce with an MPC - a core instrument which still makes up a lot of his production - and found that all of his early production had to be “centred around it.” “I thought you had to use gear to sound good,” he says, “which is silly because, now in hindsight, it was very limiting. But, it meant it allowed me to focus on what I’m good at because you can’t do much mixing on it: the sound of the beat either works, or it doesn’t, so it’s more of a musical approach to it. I’m attached to it now.” Early beat tapes were released to some fanfare, but Ben grew tired of the repetitive beat-making practice and wanted to challenge himself. Finding inspiration from the likes of Theo Parrish, Moodyman, Kyle Hall, 22a and others, he decided to start his label, Woop Records to release his first forays into electronic music production. Over the next decade, Ben Hauke became a producer’s producer. Those in the know became familiar with the work of a shy and reserved individual whose tenacious beats spoke volumes. When he played out in clubs, Hauke approached each set as a unique experience. Constantly looking to refresh his sets, he wanted to ensure that someone coming to one show didn’t hear the same set as the next time they might see him. It’s this consistent desire to keep things fresh which makes its way into his production as well. “For every gig, I make at least one fresh dub for it,” he quips. “It’s a real nice process of making because when you’re in the studio, it’s a question of ‘will this make someone happy for five minutes?’ Because that’s the only time they’ll probably hear it.” Hauke aims to develop live shows and focus on them. He wants to approach each one as a unique experience, as “it’s a bit more fun.” “The live show is a sketch pad of ideas that I’m testing out,” he explains. “It develops according to the reactions I get. There is an idea to add more elements, like a Roland hand drum, to the show to help with the performance aspect. However, I like keeping it simple so, for now, I won’t change things too dramatically in the setup, but the style of music will always be changing.” As the songs “are unreleased, made just for that show, as its own thing”, it allows him the capacity to go out and produce without the stresses of releasing a project while catering to an audience eager to hear more from the South London native. With ‘Club Cute’ wrapped up and ready for release, Hauke is coy about future projects but excited to venture down new paths. “I’m intrigued to see what happens next.,” he says. “I like this album. It’s great. It’s made me want to do another album, but it’s definitely given me thoughts about how to approach it differently next time.” “Recently, though,” he says, “I realised that there’s people who are way more into DJing than I am. My strong point is making music as when I like a tune, I want to dissect it, rather than go out sourcing more tunes that sound like it. So, I thought I might as well lean into that.” ‘Club Cute’ epitomises that notion. Across its 12 tracks, the album cuts through genres like bread through butter. At no point does Hauke rely on a certain production technique or - like his past releases - rely too heavily on his MPC, but rather, there is a natural sensibility and flow to the release, as if Hauke has finally been able to produce the sounds he’s been hearing his entire life.