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 to access audio and video on collective you need real player.Hi-concept house music straight out of Derby. Andrew Brooks is not your typical house music producer. There’s no sign of an Ibiza tan or tales of large-ing it at God’s Kitchen. Nor is his music likely to grace Pete Tong’s Essential Selection. It’s an altogether more complex proposition. A dark and disorientating brew of chuggy beats, dirty funk, deadpan vocals and live instrumentation. “It has a dance beat, as your parents might say, but I’m not sure if even I’d dance to it," he laughs. "If people do, l’d like to see them.”Red Tape is Brooks’ second LP. His first, You Me And Us, won him international DJ sets and remix offers from Outkast. But Red Tape sees him move into different territory, alongside the likes of his label boss, Matthew Herbert, and he’s still just 22.  “Ooh, it’s the difficult second album,” he sighs when I ask how he’s progressed. “It’s definitely a lot more song-based, with more live instrumentation, and it’s quite a lot darker. Well I find it dark anyway.” The darkness is in part a reaction to the frustrations of being a gay man in Derby, and the portrayal of gay life in this country “We see a very fluffy representation of gay people in the media these days, and it doesn’t have anything to do with my life. It doesn’t represent me. So I thought I’d turn it on its head to show that there’s a dark, not so glittery and sparkly side to it all.” Trips to Berlin, DJ-ing, have reinforced this aesthetic. The experimental nightlife, architecture and “the heartbeat of the place” have each made their impact on Brooks. And that’s not all. “I’m really interested in ‘synesthesia’, the linking of senses where you can smell colours or visualize something and make a sound to go with it. It’s trial and error really.”  PJ Harvey also has a part to play. Brooks’ cover of Mansize is a jerky techno chant made from sounds conjured from real mansize tissues. “After I’d made it I looked at the floor strewn with used tissues. I was just keeping my fingers crossed that no one would barge in and ask me what I was up to.” With the album finished, Brooks is DJ-ing a lot and working on his live show. He’s looking for a “curveball instrument that people wouldn’t associate with electronic music.” Clarinet is current favourite. “Playing live is important,” he says. “Especially nowadays, when there’s a lot of downloading going on. Live music is possibly one of the only areas which is going to stay sacred.” While we talk, Brooks is fingering a peacock feather. It’s an elegant symbol of decadence. Camp but with a hint of otherworldly menace, and it fits him like glove.
Alastair Lee
Brooks – Red Tape, released 27 September 04 on Soundslike records.
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