The Badical

We first came across Alex Godoy and Andrew Marsh, known collectively and musically as the Badical, about two years ago. Around the time they released xxx. At the time their sound was an unholy mash up of all kinds of techno, dubstep and acid house styles with definite glitch leanings. Reaktor 5.0 had just come out and the Badical were as much about somehow harnessing its impressive power to benefit their live show as their DJ and studio work.

2010 was a busy year. We had a few singles, a couple of YouTube vids showcasing strange homemade instruments, lots of gigs alongside such luminaries as Bogdan Raczynski, the Squire of Gothos and Jamie xx and the abandoning of the old setup in favour of cycling 77’s new MAX / Ableton coupling, MAX 4 Live. All this, along with LOADS of new mixes and the passing of two science-related degrees.

Which brings us up to 2011 which has seen the return of the Badical to a few select parties dotted around London. We caught up with the guys and sat down for a chin wag when they were DJing for 52 Commercial Road down at the Lock Tavern recently.

Might as well start at the start. How did you two hook up in the first place?
We met at school and formed in 2005. Alex was making music anonymously using The Badical name and eventually got asked to do a live show which is when Andrew got involved.

You've both been in the game for a minute now. How do you feel about the current state of UK dance music?
There's certainly a huge output of high quality music, and a lot of new sounds coming out of the UK. There's more great music than we have time to listen to, which I think is a good measure. It's a shame that this output is often not reflected in club line-ups or in bigger label signings. I would definitely like to see more live electronic music in the clubs.

A lot of artists are branching out into the 'bass culture' anything-goes-tempo-wise scene at the moment. Is the new Badical about any particular style or speed?
We're definitely not about any particular genre. We've always been into a huge variety of music, so the 'bass culture' thing is great. Hopefully things won't get too homogenous.

So what’s with the new live set-up? Could you explain exactly what software you're using and what it does?
The new live set up is based around Ableton Live as always but with Max for Live. M4L is amazing for doing the live stuff because the live element is something we've always been interested in and it's now suddenly possible to do everything we'd like. It’s not about mangling audio into all kinds of new fangled noises with 1000 custom glitch plugs but it’s allowed us to create a flexible, expressive way of performing our music live without losing the club element. We use max for live with some controllers and a pair of Monomes (monome.org) to allow us to navigate and mix between different clips easily, whilst adding sequencing, percussion and live synths. So maybe that’s still quite ambiguous but probably much more detail would get boring!

Do you find there is a different reception to your live setups than your traditional DJ sets?
Definitely - the adaptability of live set allows us to tailor it to the crowd much more effectively. The reaction is usually a lot better, because the sound is a lot more unique. You get some people who get really, really into it, which doesn't happen anywhere near as often when DJing.

What production technique do you think is really overused / annoying?
That’s hard to say really. We listen to loads of different genres and try to listen out for things we like and follow those and I wouldn't say I notice any particular production techniques that annoy me. O can think of things that should probably be used more often as much as possible, like a 303 (definitely over used in the past though) and probably more Amen breaks. Actually that reminds me, breaks is often quite annoying. also wobble is a bit overused (but still fun in small doses!)

How do you feel about social networking and its effect on the underground scene in general? There are people like BMT who adapt perfectly to the internet and then there's Doc Scott squarely putting his foot in it everytime he updates his Twitter.
I think that a lot of people use 'handbags on Twitter' as a way to gain publicity, which is fine if it works for them but it’s not something I pay attention to. I think what's interesting about social networking's impact on music is how it supports scenes/subgenres in becoming increasingly more niche as they can spread out over a greater distance.

What do you know now that you wish you had known when you started out?
Even if it’s free, don't drink so much vodka you leave your equipment in a cab.

Eeshk. Anything else you'd like to mention whilst you're here?
We've got a (bootleg) remix of the Modeselektor track Dark Side Of The Sun which is up on our MySpace now. The original is amazing and we hope you like what we've done!
ALSO, check out the exclusive free download for DT readers of our new track Crooked Billet below!

www.myspace.com/thebadical - Data Transmission