Stephen Mallinder is certainly someone with a long history in the world of electronic music, and indeed he’s had a lasting influence on some of the directions that splinters of the genre have pursued over the past three decades. Almost two decades on from the group’s dissolution he’s still known by many as the bassist and lead singer for Sheffield industrial / dance figureheads Cabaret Voltaire. He’s remained consistently busy since then however, initially relocating to Perth where he helmed the Offworlds Sounds label alongside Shane ‘Soundlab’ Norton and released more breaks / electro-oriented music as both Ku-Ling Bros and Sassi & Loco. Since recently moving to Brighton (not before receiving a PhD in music and popular culture from Perth’s Murdoch University), Mallinder’s more recently been seen collaborating alongside Fila Brazilia’s Steve Cobby as Hey, Rube.
It’s his latest collaboration though, alongside analogue gear wizard Benge and Tunng’s Phil Winter as Wrangler that really feels closer to a ‘proper band’ more than perhaps anything else Mallinder’s been involved in for some time. It also sees Mallinder contributing lead vocals for the first time in what seems like ages, and indeed the combination of his distinctive lyrical phrasing ands stripped-down rhythms occasionally vividly calls to mind hints of Cabaret Voltaire’s ‘Crackdown’ or ‘Microphonies’ period. Ahead of the release of Wrangler’s debut album ‘LA Spark’, Chris Downton caught up with Stephen Mallinder via email.
What events lead you initially to working with Phil and Benge as Wrangler?
Well it was a series of friendships really. Phil and myself had known each other and done music hook-ups very informally for quite a few years particularly when I lived in London, and we always stayed in contact as I travelled and lived overseas. Tunng was in full flow when I moved back to the UK and Benge had the connection with Phil through that. I’d heard about the studio Benge had built and I had the ’20 Systems’ album he’d recorded. It was pretty soon after that we met up and started working. Very much with the idea of seeing how I might build into the early embryonic tracks that they’d started as Wrangler. It seemed a natural fit and we were all happy with what we were starting to make from the word go.
Do the three of you find that you divide up creative roles in any particular way within the band, or do you tend to crossover with this?
I think it starts out as soup, we all throw a bit in and see how it tastes. As it’s analogue, and pretty hands-on, everyone gets a job of turning a wheel or firing up a machine which is nice. It gets messy and we see how we want to then fine-tune everything from that point. As we’re a live band we start to think about roles and who will play what as the track takes shape. Benge very much engineers the sessions and I will throw in a rough vocal idea, Phil will identify a keyboard or bass part that he knows he will likely do live. But a lot of it is a case of who feels like having a go.
Was there any particular reason why you chose the title ‘LA Spark’ for the album?
It’s a bit of a mix up really, which is not unusual, a series of misunderstandings and happy accidents. The track was actually conceived in LA when Benge pitched up there for a couple of months last year while Soulwax were using the London studio. He sketched out the early drum and bass part and then we all worked in it. My lyrics include a line “le spark’ as a deviation from “a spark’ which is the actual line in the track. Voila we ended up with a complete hybrid term. It suited it as we we were doing a bit of a Linn drum pastiche/homage – we wanted to do a dark twist on electronic disco which lent itself to the LA vibe and name. It had an odd feel to it and suited an album title.
From what I’ve read it sounds like Memetunes studio itself had a strong influence upon the album; can you tell us a bit about the space it was recorded in?
Totally, the studio for us is a sentient being. It hums, it’s alive. We just sort of ride it into town. I love the idea of the studio being something that is barely controllable. I come from that world. Western Works (the old Cabaret Voltaire studio) was an instrument in itself and I don’ think Memetunes is any different. It is the result of Benge collecting stuff and is a reflection of a passion for the technology. I feel lucky to work there and we all get excited about messing with the toys. We keep finding things we thought were lost and bits are temperamental but that’s the character – it’s like one enormous patchbay, everything feeds into everything else.
Was there a deliberate emphasis upon using analogue and more vintage electronic equipment when you were recording ‘LA Spark’?
Yes completely, Benge is keen to emphasise that the original idea was to write a series of tracks each on an entirely different piece of technology. It didn’ quite work out like that but that principle  still guided us through the album. It was an attempt to discipline ourselves because an abundance of choices can dilute the end result. It becomes music-by-numbers if you automatically turn to a plug which you know will get exactly what you want – the important thing is to find something off the usual route, something a bit wonky that surprises even you. Music should be discovery not the realisation of expectation.
Were there any particular stylistic influences or priorities that you had foremost in mind when recording this album?
We seem to be very intuitive as a group, we all know when something’ good or when it’s a bit stinky. That’s the fun of working in a band – the bit where our venn diagrams cross over, that’s the good stuff in the middle. Rhythm seems to be a strong bond for all of us, without aiming deliberately  for the dancefloor we wanted it strong rhythmically – that’s what you get with a drummer and two bass players in a band. The dynamic of analogue technology was important – the full sonic range that you can achieve. A nod of the head to the history of electronic music but not retro. And use of sequencers – we all love it when the machines get moving. They are very loose guiding principles.Â
No chords to speak of – monophonic lines. No samples. No guitars. Well that was this album.
There’s a very cohesive (and dark) feel to the sequence of tracks; does the album have any underlying conceptual theme?
I think we would all feel uncomfortable if we made an anodyne album, I come from a position of challenging people with music. That doesn’ mean that we wanted to make some pretentious statement – it’s music after all  – but I’d like to believe we make people think, make them a little uncomfortable, and with analogue electronic music you run the risk of being merely upbeat. It’s better to use that as a vehicle. It’s a complex world out there I’d hate to gloss over it, I wouldn’ want to treat people as mugs, that’s disrespectful. But with that in consideration I like people to make their own minds up, it’s as a heavy, or literal, as you wish it to be.Â
Listening to several of the tracks on the album, I’m struck by how much the vocal phrasing and stripped-back arrangements on tracks like ‘Space Ace’ remind me of the early eighties Cabaret Voltaire. Did you find yourself flashing back to this period whilst making it?
Like it or not I suppose I have my own way of doing things, regardless of the period. I think many aspects of how we work are what made me reflect on the earlier periods – after everyone working on laptops in recent times it was great to go back to long-established processes of recording and writing. We did some things that were a total throwback – recording vocals backwards with analogue effects in real-time (not using on-screen processes or digital short-cuts). So we didn’ simply flashback we literally went back to older, often discarded, techniques. Didn’ quite get the editing block out but almost.
After the more beats and samples-based Ku-Ling Brothers, is it good to get back behind the mic and working again with lyrical elements?
Yes it was. I think the Ku-Ling Bros, and Sassi & Loco were an opportunity for me to do music without the worry of being perceived as primarily a singer. It was nice not to feel I had to be a front man and allowed me  focus on the writing, playing  and producing. It was also the way the wind was blowing at that time, I was doing lots of DJ’ing and re-mixing so it made sense. But having said that I missed “the word’ in music so to speak. I am drawn to the written and spoken word so I like the challenge of expressing things that way. And I am able to contribute in a way that many choose not too – the role of the voice in electronic music is still open for exploration so I’m enjoying it.
Are there plans to tour behind the album, and have you been playing live shows with Phil and Benge?
Yes we really see ourselves as a live band – it has been a great way of giving discipline to how we work and how we think about presenting everything. Studio is great but it’s really important to work out how that can translate to a live situation. I’d be bored never doing live shows, so there seems to be a steady flow of gigs on the horizon, here and in Europe.
Wrangler’s ‘LA Spark’ album is out May 5 on MemeTune Records
