Video Guest Mix: Kypski – Kyptape 2018
If this new video mix doesn’t get you ready for the weekend, I’m not sure what does. It’s done by six-times Dutch turntable champion Kypski, who reached the DMC World finals back in 1999—but let me stop here before we all feel old… He got behind one of his studio setups to create this 25-minute mix of bass music, footwork, future beats and hip hop.
Watch Kypski in action below or listen to the mix on Mixcloud, or read along for the tracklist and a quick catch up with the Dutch turntablist and producer. Including a chat about the Syntablism technique he’s currently working with.
Video Mix:
Mixcloud:
Tracklist: Kypski – Kyptape 2018
1. Taurus Scott – Smoke Good
2. Danny Scrilla & Kromestar – Like Thunder
3. Tsuruda – Slippin’
4. Kesmo – GITG
5. Kabuki & Ticklish – Homework
6. Salva – BBB
7. Dj Big Hank x Sirr TMO – Don’t Just Stand There
8. Kypski – Rudiments
9. Titts – Raccoon
10. God. Damn. Chan. – Smoke Break
11. Siriusmo – Wixn
12. Mr. Carmack – Angel
13. Gina Jeanz – On To You
14. God. Damn. Chan. – Drugs (Dregs)
15. J Dilla – Y’all Ain’t Ready
16. Kypski – Insekts
17. God. Damn. Chan. – Syrup Bath
You keep on seeking new ways to use your turntable. From The Clocktave to scratching together with a string quartet, and now there is ‘Syntablism’; using a turntable to create or manipulate sounds of a modular synthesizer. Via whom did you learn about this technique?
Through a guy named Luigi ‘Sircut’ Comito from Germany. He’d put a patch idea on YouTube in 2016 where he explained how he was using a turntable to control all aspects of his synth, calling it ‘Syntablism’. Although the video was a fairly dry, technical and schematical one, it blew me away when I started thinking about the possibilities in sounds for a turntablist. I decided this was going to be my focus for the next decade, at least. Luigi and I are working on a Syntablism live video now, which we will be releasing later on.
Apart from this, it all makes perfect sense for me as a music producer and sound designer, too. A lot of times I’ve heard famous turntablists say they’re “creating new sounds” through scratching. I don’t necessarily agree with this: you’re just moving a sound sample back and forth. Using Syntablism, one can actually create new sounds through scratching. And to me, the turntable has come full-circle with Syntablism.
Think about it: the most used, most famous and also most over-used scratch sample is “Aaahhh Fresh” from Fab 5 Freddy’s Change Le Beat: a vocoder sound, a synth sound. How beautiful would it be when the turntable can become part of the synthesizer itself…?
Did it change your approach to producing music in any way?
Yes, in a huge way! For example, my recent track Insekts is mostly a one-take live recording. Sometimes it’s crazy: I just turn the system on, and if I feel it sounds good, I play live with it, record it… and BAM – a new track! And I was just getting used to making tracks with Ableton & Maschine…
Any recent albums, mixes or live sets worth mentioning that blew you away on the turntablism front?
Well, just yesterday Mr. Switch from London dropped a nice scratch bomb by creating a Turntable Orchestra for Technics in Japan!
How big of a “hip hop head” do you consider yourself to be still? As I can imagine people feel like you’ve kind of drifted away from hip hop, when they hear your more recent work and mixes.
I’ve been pretty much always about good music in general, not hip hop per se. I hear Jazz today and think “Is this jazz?”, and I hear hip hop and think “Is this hip hop?” So many interesting things are happening nowadays. For DJ’ing, I really enjoy playing deep bass music and to combine that with the more melodic electronic music that’s out now.