The Perlich Post: DJ Format discusses his epic new album, The Devil's Workshop

DJ Format revels in dark psych and badly bent Euro prog on his delightfully demented Devil's Workshop out now.

Perhaps best known for his funky, club-friendly hip hop records, deep digging Brighton-based DJ/producer Matt Ford aka DJ Format takes a sharp turn into the trippy netherworld of private-press psych on his latest sample-based epic The Devil's Workshop. Gone are the uptempo party-rockers which made him the standardbearer of fat-lace hip hop for a generation of aging b-boys and instead Format has chosen this Disaster Time to offer a mind-expanding Brainstorm of Strange Sensations across Mountains of Madness through the Warm Dust towards The Light. Often dark and unsettling, there's a haunting sense of impending doom throughout The Devil's Workshop which is perfectly captures the tenor of our troubled times.

Years from now, when people want to know what it felt like to live through a global pandemic, historians will simply drop needle on a battered copy of The Devil's Workshop by DJ Format. The claustrophobia, paranoia, confusion, the horrible feeling of helplessness in isolation – it's all right there.

You can get a limited-run vinyl copy of The Devil's Workshop or digital version via Bandcamp right here. Check out a few videos from The Devil's Workshop and some mixes in the links section following our Q&A with DJ Format below.

Q & A with DJ FORMAT

For years now, you’ve been running a successful British/Canadian cultural exchange program employing highly skilled though commercially undervalued Toronto rappers for your recording projects. How did that start? What’s the fascination with Canuck emcees or perhaps Abdominal and D-Sisive in particular? Are Brits and European listeners latching on to some strange exotic quality in the Canuck flow that Canadian audiences just aren’t getting?

DJ Format: "I visited Toronto for the first time in '99 and was extremely fortunate to meet the lovely Aaron Keele (Tune Up Music / therecordguys.com) who had just released the debut 12" by Abdominal & DJ Fase. I loved that record so Aaron introduced me to Abdominal and we just hit it off and started working together. I was already a big fan of Maestro Fresh Wes, especially his 'Naaah, Dis Kid Can't Be From Canada' album so I contacted him about collaborating together but it never quite happened. I later heard Fatski & D-Sisive and knew I had to work with those guys too, which fortunately they were down to do. I think ultimately it appealed to me to work with relatively unknown MCs and I couldn't believe there were such dope artists in Toronto who were mostly getting overlooked outside of Canada. Before that I was only working with UK MCs and trying to make beats that suited their style/accent and so the opportunity to make beats for North American MCs allowed me to make slightly funkier rap songs that would sit better alongside the instrumental B-Boy tracks I was making at that time."

"I can honestly tell you that most Brits & Europeans wouldn't be able to tell the difference between a Toronto accent and a New York accent so maybe that's why we embraced those guys over here more than your typical American might have done. It just wasn't something we thought about, let alone passed judgement on."

Those expecting another Format party platter might be surprised by Devil’s Workshop is not at all a beat-heavy hip hop record. In fact, the mood shifting soundscapes are closer in spirit to a dark, suspenseful horror film soundtrack. Did the worldwide pandemic play a role your decision to pursue a less club-oriented recording concept that might be better suited to isolated home listening or is it just a happy coincidence that you’ve come up with precisely the right record for the moment?

"I was really bored of the whole 'funky old school hip hop' scene that I'm mostly associated with, especially as I've always made other kinds of music which seems to get largely overlooked, so I decided to try something much more musically ambitious to prove I'm not just a one-dimensional producer. I can honestly say I'd finished about 80% of the album before any of the Covid stuff began and I spent the next few months mostly just adding subtle touches and making small improvements. And it's funny that you describe it as 'precisely the right record for the moment' because I was worried it would fall flat as people would surely much rather hear a positive/happy/uplifting record than a dark/moody/serious record after a year of lockdowns & misery. Fortunately I was wrong and quite a few people have said this is exactly the kind of record they were waiting for. The fact that I'm not able to tour the album live is kind of a relief in some ways because it's absolutely not a club-friendly record and I've no idea what I would have done to adapt what is very much a 'studio album' to a live setting."

Unlike most producers who’ve arisen from the hip hop sphere, your sample material seems to be less sourced from conventional African-American soul, funk and jazz and instead veers away towards less explored European, Asian, Middle Eastern and South American recordings. How did that start down that road less travelled?

"I realized in the mid-late '90s that if I wanted to make some original hip hop I'd need to find samples from somewhere other than America. Even British records, especially Library music and British jazz, were starting to show up on people's radars worldwide so I needed to look further afield to find something potentially untapped. A couple of friends discovered some incredible Czech records in a charity shop here in Brighton and it completely blew our minds and made us start going to Eastern Europe to find records to sample. Back in those days you could visit places like Prague, Budapest, Warsaw and find amazing records which were not only dirt cheap, they were pretty much unknown outside the Eastern Block. As the years went by, that all changed and eventually the Internet made the world a much smaller place but some of my fondest discoveries which I sampled in my own songs came from those cities I mentioned."

When you come to a new city where you may not speak the language nor know any locals, how do you find worthwhile records? From my experience, they’re sometimes hidden in the parts of town where cautious tourists rarely tread. Any harrowing tales you’d care to share?

"You know, I honestly can't recall a bad experience in all my years of travelling around in search of records. I've definitely had some weird experiences like seeing someone at a flea market in Bulgaria selling their old records alongside an old car tire, some old porno mags and an old dildo, but that's about as harrowing as it got haha! I remember visiting Budapest with a friend for the first time and having no idea where we were gonna sleep that night, let alone how we were gonna find any records....but we always did and every record trip was an adventure that I feel privileged to have had. It's amazing how you can find ways to communicate with people without speaking a word of the same language, even if it means just pulling a record out of your bag and trying to indicate that you are looking for more of these black plastic things. The more I think about it the more I can't believe how successful some of those trips were and it makes me realize just how much the Internet, and Discogs in particular, have pretty much killed the fun in searching for records in the flesh like that."

Once you get to the records and the song titles and musician names on the covers aren’t a help and there’s no turntable available, does the sleeve art sometimes provide clues to which recordings might contain something for you? Typography, Instrumentation? Colour combinations? Appearance of farm implements? Polyester suits? Interesting facial hair?

"Absolutely! You've got to use your intuition and if a record cover gets your spider senses tingling then you've gotta trust that gut feeling. That's what I used to love most of all about digging but nowadays it's very hard to find interesting looking records just sitting around. Plus if I'm being honest I pretty much ALWAYS took a portable turntable with me wherever I went because I got sick of wasting money on records that didn't quite deliver the music that their sleeves promised."

Having spent some time going through piles of 70s Euro prog LPs myself, I know that even uniformly shlocky albums can have one absolutely stunning sequence – maybe a fuzz bass riff, a off-kilter burst of harpsichord or a weird flute figure – that comes out of nowhere, lasts a couple bars and is gone, never to be repeated. Whereas I would normally pass on those, my guess is that your reaction would more likely be “I’ll take it my good man, and anything else you have that sounds like it!” Could that be part of the origin story for Devil’s Workshop?

"Yes I think those kind of records are the most interesting to sample because the idea of taking a moment of brilliance from an otherwise boring record and giving it a new lease of life is the most satisfying feeling! It's far too easy to just sample a whole chunk of an already brilliant record, something I've often been guilty of throughout my entire career, and so I did find myself wanting to utilize more of those brief moments in a creative way on Devil's Workshop. Another thing that has pushed me more & more towards that is the realization that when you sample something you can easily end up looking stupid if someone else has already used it before you...or better than you. I decided that I wanted to make a whole album of instrumental songs that are proper SONGS, not just cool loops that don't really go anywhere or do anything much. I wanted to create entire instrumental songs that take you on a musical journey with the use of multiple samples from lots of different sources so that even if someone was to recognize a sample I'd used, they'd hopefully respect & enjoy the way in which I'd used it."

After more than 20 years of amassing those brilliant little bits from obscure recordings most people have never seen or heard – stuff that wouldn’t be suitable for a live set – the natural inclination would be to use them as building blocks for something on a larger scale. Could you have made Devils Workshop 20 years ago or only now that you’ve accumulated enough suitable material. How did the creation process differ from a typical Format album?

"I couldn't have made Devil's Workshop at any time before, I just wasn't ready to do it until now. I've made quite a few songs in the same vein before ('Copper Canyons,' 'Mayor Of A Ghost Town,' 'Black Cloud,' 'Little Bit Of Soul' being the best examples) but on reflection I think all those songs were slightly missing something. Instead of using samples that already contained several key elements like drums, bass, guitar & organ for example, I wanted to use separate individual samples from different records layered on top of each other to create something new and more original.

"There were so many records I sampled over the course of the album that I could have taken more samples from, but I tried to limit myself and be more creative. It's hard to explain it without sounding a bit pretentious but I just wanted to make an album from 100% samples that would be considered as a great body of work, not just a bunch of stolen property. I have no idea if anyone will consider it as that but at the very least, I feel 100% satisfied with everything and that's why it took me so long to complete. Some of the songs like 'Strange Sensations,' 'Mountains Of Madness' and 'The Light' were ideas that I'd started years ago and kept returning back to. For some reason I wasn't initially able to make them into proper instrumental songs that did what I wanted but I knew they had the potential to be something special so I persevered....and almost drove myself mad, hence the title 'Mountains Of Madness' on that particular song ha!

"Other songs like 'Warm Dust' came together really quickly, despite being one of the songs with the most samples in it. It's funny how it goes that way sometimes but I just had a mad creative burst and couldn't sleep much while I was working on that song because ideas just kept popping into my head day & night. I don't know how many samples from different records I used over the course of the whole album but it was a lot, WAY more than any album I've made before."

It now looks as though the mixtapes/compilations you’ve released over the last few years, particularly European Vacation (2006), Holy Shit (2008) and DJ Format's Psych Out (2016) were signposts for what we’re hearing now on Devil’s Workshop. How much of a role did they play from an arrangement and production standpoint to the work you’ve done on Devil’s Workshop? Did putting together Holy Shit inspire any religious revelations?

"It's funny how often I return to songs I've used in a mixtape for things to sample years later. I can't think off the top of my head if I used anything from Holy Shit or European Vacation when making Devil's Workshop but I definitely used several samples from 2 different online mixes of weird psych records that I did a few years ago. The more familiar you are with your records, the more likely they are to slip into your subconscious mind and so I find myself naturally going back to certain songs from certain mixes I made because I've heard them so many times. If I've only played a record a few times occasionally at home without ever recording any of it in a mix then it's probably not gonna be ingrained in my memory. As for religious revelations, personally I'm not religious but I do love how singing about god seems to bring out such gut-wrenching emotion in some singers and although I won't name it, the vocal sample I used for the chorus of my song 'Brainstorm' is sampled from a religious record that really touched me very deeply."

There’s definitely a cinematic quality to the tracks on Devil’s Workshop. Were you thinking in terms of a film score? Any aspirations of getting involved in the movie business? Perhaps supplying creepy background music for video games or the many cold case murder podcasts out there?

"As much as I'd love to make music for a film, it's just not possible to do that with samples because of the legal ramifications. There were so many times during the making of the album that I just wanted to call a friend to come round and play a bass or guitar riff for me when I'd got stuck on a song but I'd already made up my mind from the outset that I wanted the album to be 100% samples so I just kept searching for samples until the right one came along.

"I gave up any ideas about making money from music years ago and it's a labour of love for me. I've never had any of my songs used in commercials, let alone films, because of the samples and I'm totally at peace with that. It's my choice to 'creatively repurpose' old records so I can't then be a hypocrite and expect to make money from other people work. Sure, I make back a little money through record sales but I self-release in very limited numbers so if I was to add up all the hours I've spent and calculate an hourly rate for my work it wouldn't even come close to minimum wage. As long as I can continue playing enough occasional DJ gigs to pay my bills, that'll give me the freedom to keep making records that I'm proud of."

Have you thought about the visual side of Devil’s Workshop? Are there plans for videos to be released?

"I'm fortunate to have some very kind & talented friends who between them made a video for every song on the album. For anyone interested, you can watch/play the whole album in sequence on my YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1erZt_t_kBo2E10KJPhpCzBIuKH5W_wp

Also, Devil’s Workshop sounds like it could be the title of a 70s sound library recording from Music De Wolfe. To what extent was your album inspired by the audio and/or visual aesthetic of sound library releases. Any particular favourites?

"Yes Library records definitely played a big part in influencing the sound of my album, some of my favourite composers are Janko Nilovic, Nino Nardini and Nick Ingman. I've sampled a few bits from Library records over the years but some of those companies are still active today so you've got to be a little careful. Aside from not wanting to get sued, I really don't like the thought of upsetting people by sampling their music with clearance/permission. I always try to sample in a creative & respectful way but sometimes it wouldn't even matter if the composer/artist approved and would be willing to let it slide because it's the companies who own the rights and wouldn't care about things like that, it's just business to them."

The sleeve art courtesy of Rough Stuff 77 looks like something off a Balkan gypsy LP although the background scribbling on the wall referencing different hallucinogens like psychoactive toads (Bufo Alvarius) and mushrooms seem to suggest something else. A raven, squirrel and owl also make an appearance – your spirit animals? What exactly is going on?

"Mike (Rough Stuff 77) is a huge talent, not only as an artist/illustrator but as a DJ & producer too! He sat down and sketched the incredible album cover whilst listening to the music so whatever you see contained within is his interpretation of what he heard. We had conversations beforehand about the fact that I wanted the album cover to reflect my slight departure from anything close to old school hip hop and how it was especially important to me that anyone looking at the cover would know that. Fortunately we are on a very similar wavelength and I think Mike was even more keen than me to send a clear message out that this wasn't exactly a hip hop record. He even talked me out of including a song that was originally intended to be on Devil's Workshop because it was TOO hip hop haha! I'll probably re-work that song and use it for my new album but he was absolutely right, it would have upset the balance of the album and pushed it more towards what I was trying to get away from."

Why did you choose to feature Croatian, French, Arabic, Turkish, Italian, Japanese, Spanish and Russian translations of the title on the front cover? Related to places which contributed in some way to the album, popular Format sales strongholds, a clever marketing scheme or something else entirely?

"No, to be honest I got the idea from a Russian soundtrack. The export version of the soundtrack had the title written all around the boarder in different languages in an effort to appeal to foreign markets and I just loved how it looked....so I 'borrowed' the idea;) I contacted various friends from all around the world to translate the title into their own language and left it to Mr Krum (my friend who did the layout & labels) to use whichever ones he felt worked best visually. We went back & forth a bit because there were certain ones I definitely wanted to include because of how they looked, the Russian & Arabic text especially, but anyone who's familiar with the Russian soundtrack will recognize it immediately."

The basic label design and paste-on jacket is more reminiscent of 70s private press psych and religious LPs. Were you going for a particular overall look? Also, it’s released on Project Blue Book Records… anything we should know about you and UFOs?

"Yes I really wanted the album to look like an old psych record from the late '60s, something that anyone with a keen eye for quirky records would pick up and say "I've gotta hear this" It cost me a lot of extra money to get it manufactured like that because there's nowhere in the UK that makes those proper quality paste-on jackets so I've gotta say a big thank you to Timmion Records in Finland for manufacturing them and doing such a beautiful job. The name Project Blue Book came about when I was making music with my old friend Simon James (The Simonsound) and we needed a label name to self-release a 45 we'd made together in about 2008. The whole project was very influenced by space and things of that nature and we both grew up reading books on UFOs so for some reason we used that name and I've used it again for a couple of releases since."

Who exactly is the target audience for The Devil’s Workshop? Who do you hope to reach?

"I'm not sure if I've really got a target audience in mind but I probably get the most satisfaction when I find out that like-minded record nerds are digging it and appreciate the hard work & creativity that went into it. Having said that, you can't choose your audience and I'm genuinely grateful if anyone is still talking about it more than a week after its release because that seems to be the shelf life of most new music in this day & age. I guess I just want to reach as many people as possible because I feel very proud of my work and naturally want everyone to hear it."

Do you have enough recorded material remaining for a Devil’s Workshop 2 or will the next album be something completely different?

"I have quite a few half finished songs in the same vein and a whole load of ideas sketched out that I just need the time to execute & experiment with. I think it will be largely the same because that's still where my head is at right now but that could change, only time will tell."

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Watch the videos for "Brainstorm," "Mountains of Madness," and "Strange Sensations" below.