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Chris Carter and the coloured vinyl progressive rock behemoth

Author: chloe burke
Thursday, January 9, 2003
Musician, Producer and DJ Chris Carter has been responsible for some monster breakbeat tracks. Currently nestled in with breaks heavyweights TCR, Botchit and Scraper, Forged and BLIMs Track Records and with the recent release of the quirky 'Ladybird' Chloe catches up with Chris to discuss plans for a new album and even bigger plans for playing live.

When you first entered the scene you worked quite extensively with Adrian Sherwood, how much of an influence has Adrian been in your career-
Its been quite a while since I have done any work for Adrian, about 5 and a half years, but obviously I did learn a hell of a lot in the time I was at On-U Sound (about 18 months), and that sort of experience always stays with you and influences your approach to making music. I think its important to try and put any kind of background into what you do because hopefully that is what will make each individual's style unique.

A lot of collaborations take place in the breaks scene, (perhaps more than most scenes) is there a preference to working together as opposed to being in competition with one another-
I can't say that I've come across too much rivalry - generally everyone is pretty respectful of each others different styles, even if it might not be the sort of thing you are into. The diversity of breaks is one of the things I like most, it keeps things fresh. Its always nice to collaborate because mixing different approaches together can throw up new results, and everyone gets bored of their own company once in a while...and of course you get to nick each others ideas...ha!

How do you feel the community aspect contributes to the quality of music produced-
It's important to get feedback from other people - sometimes fresh ears can spot something that tired ears miss, which can save a lot of time. Breaks shouldn't be too self indulgent - if its designed for DJs and dancefloors then it has to be immediate and connect with people quickly - that's where the fresh ears come in, to tell you what the first impression of a track is. It can get tiring when you've been listening to the same bit of music for days on end.

Your music has ended up on some pretty impressive labels, (Forged, TCR and Botchit). What do you believe it is that makes your sound attractive to these labels-
I think I've been very lucky to be quite honest, just a matter of meeting the right people and coming up with the goods at the right time, maybe when they are looking around for something a little less typical of what they usually do. Also, different tracks work for different labels, you have to fit in somewhere with what their 'sound' is. A track I do for TCR might not be right for Botchit, and vice versa.

Which track are you most proud of and why-
It's always changing - sometimes when you haven't heard something for a while you can get a totally fresh impression and think ' shit, that's actually alright! ' I like different things about different tracks, very hard to choose a clear winner...probably a toss up between 'What Sounds Are' which came out on Forged, and a track I did with BLIM on Track called 'Check it Out'. Current favourite is a new track I've done for TCR called 'Ladybird', I think it works well on the floor but has a few quirky little things going on in there...

You have a few radio gigs on Kiss and Groovetech, how important do you find radioplay in the breaks scene-
Difficult to say if the influence reaches beyond a hardcore that regularly tune into Breaks shows at the moment, but if it continues to cross over in to the mainstream then that's where it could have a big effect - often people are not really into something purely because they have not had enough exposure to it. Not long ago the majority of people didn
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