Recloose: Carl Craig's Sandwich Man Steps Out Of The Shadows
Author: Jonty Adderley
Friday, June 14, 2002
Matt Chicoine aka Recloose, recently released his debut album Cardiology, a jazz fused with techno style album that merges real instruments and players with the purest electronic grooves and sensibilities. "A white boy from the suburbs" (as Matt puts it), his big Hollywood-style break came the day Carl Craig walked into the sandwich shop he worked in. Instantly recognising him, he slipped a demo tape inside a sandwich and popped it in Craig's bag, who three days later called him up and invited him along to the studio. Craig promptly took him under his wing and three years on Matt is one of Detroit's favoured sons, both as a DJ and producer in his own right.
Since then he's also moved on, geographically and mentally, relocating to New Zealand's Kapiti Coast and leaving Carl Craig's Planet E for the equally prestigious label Studio K7. Skrufff's Jonty Adderley caught up with him recently as he passed through London for a brief series of dates and chatted in the lobby of a West London Hilton hotel, otherwise packed with aircrews presumably working out of Heathrow. Quiet and initially reclusive, his withdrawn persona rapidly unravelled to reveal a fiercely intelligent and dry individual with an unusually dry sense of humour.
Skrufff: Dance music's still dominated by singles rather than albums, what was the approach you took with Cardiology.
Recloose: "The EPs I've done in the past have been quite varied and I've basically tried to make longer Eps. I've incorporated a lot of different influences and I see myself as a vessel for those influences. I'm channelling ideas and inspirations and putting them all together. I wanted to do something a little less cerebral and literally more based on the logic of the heart. I wanted it to be more emotional as opposed to something that a listener might hear and wonder what gear (electronic equipment) I was using."
Skrufff: Did you record the album in New Zealand-
Recloose: "I do live in New Zealand now but I finished it in Detroit, just before I left. The biggest reason I went there was my girlfriend who I met while touring in Australia. Coming from Detroit to new Zealand was also a good move for me; New Zealand's a beautiful, lush, enjoyable place with a great standard of living, whereas Detroit is kind of a blown out, post industrial, urban landscape, which to be honest, I was a little sick of. Not the people, just the city itself and also the States, in general. America. . . (sighing), what more need I say-"
Skrufff: In New Zealand, I guess you're pretty much the only Detroit producer/ DJ in town, do the New Zealanders treat you as a star-
Recloose: "Nah, just a little bit, sometimes at the bar strangers might say to each other "there's that DJ from Detroit, who the fuck does he think he is-' but in general it's been a warm reception. The people I've met have been very hospitable, I've been up to the radio station a few times and met some musicians, it's a good vibe; way laid back."
Skrufff: New Zealanders and Australians are renowned for disliking people with airs and graces…
Recloose: "Yeah that's right. It's fucked for me because I don't think I do, I really keep to myself, in some ways I am a recluse. I don't like going out that much and going into the city isn't always fun for me because I have to deal with some of that shit. On top of that, I'm American, so even if I don't get the DJ-from-Detroit thing, I can go into a shop and get the Yankee Go Home shit."
Skrufff: Do you come across a lot of Anti-Americanism-
Recloose: "Er, not in New Zealand particularly, just in general. Our accents our fucked up and generally we're a pretty loud and obnoxious group of people. I'm trying to do my best to lessen that image through my travels, though without muc Tags