Soulwax have joined forces with Riton and graphic designer Fergus Purcell (AKA Fergadelic) for their latest musical project, entitled Die Verboten.
"Live In Eivissa," their first recorded output, is set to come out next week as a limited vinyl pressing on The Vinyl Factory, who have been busy designing and manufacturing premium quality wax packages for the likes of the Pet Shop Boys, Primal Scream and Damon Albarn. The single 12-inch release comes at a whopping retail price of £30, but there's plenty more on offer than just the music. "Live In Eivissa" will take up one side of the vinyl, whilst the flip will hold a specially etched design. In addition, fans who purchase the record will even be able to erect a 3-D pop-up pyramid by folding the sleeve correctly, and also be safe in the knowledge that only 300 stamped and numbered copies have been manufactured.
But what about the track? As well as designing the artwork, Fergus takes drumming duties on track, an 18-minute Krautrock-infused session recorded live in the lads' Ibiza studio, with nods to both Balearic and space-disco sounds as well as more hypnotic German fare. The group plan to follow this release with both an album and DVD, which will drop later this year. We spoke to David and Fergus by e-mail to ask them about the recording, artwork, and what the future holds for Die Verboten.Who does what in Die Verboten?
Fergadelic: Me Drum.
David Dewaele: We all do a bit of everything. Since none of us are amazing musicians, the only fixed role is Fergus as drummer. The rest just kind of do what is necessary for the track, depending on which piece of gear is standing in front of them at that moment.
Is the songwriting process quite improvisational?
F: It's entirely improvisational. We work from the studio and our compositions are constructed on the fly. We use a lot of analogue gear, but it's the digital recording that gives us the freedom to constantly record, compose, collage as we go. There's no red light fever, no worrying about how it could be played live, etc. I call it "posh jamming."
D: Yes, a lot of the time we just let the machines guide us, but perhaps somewhere down the line we will use completely different methods. The point is that there is no system.
How did the hook up with The Vinyl Factory come about?
F: 'Cos they do the best shit; there's no-one else. They arranged an amazing field trip to the factory where the records are pressed, which sealed the deal!
D: They were also interested in some of the more unorthodox ways of promoting the release.
Who designed the pyramid artwork?
F: Me Pyramid.
What can we expect from the Die Verboten visuals in the future?
F: Oh, I don't know... I just feel really privileged to be making music that I'm SO proud of, and so I pledge to honour that by designing the SICKEST stuff that I possibly can!
D: You can expect the next release to be a DVD (DieVerbotenDisc) which will include everything we have recorded until now - two albums worth of material.
The Vinyl Factory will release Live in Elvissa on June 29th, 2009.