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Slovak artist Milos releases his debut album 'No One Can Affect This' in November, composed of fourteen original compositions that meander between dub techno, glitch, microhouse and experimental influences.
Milos Fedor is a music producer, DJ and audio engineer based in Bratislava, Slovakia with a history dating back to the turn of the millennium, where he started out as a DJ in his own territory and later released material for artists such as Portable's Süd Electronic, and Multi Vitamins among others. He later launched the Leporelo label and a series of events alongside friends that welcomed artists such as Akufen, Deadbeat, Sonja Moonear and Subb-an, while the label has been home to Milos and many other talents in their circles over the years. more than a decade now.
We have had the pleasure of speaking with Milos and this has been the result.
Hi Milos, your album ‘No One Can Affect This’ is coming out via your Leporelo label, could you please tell us about this album and what the title of it means?
Hey guys. Thanks for reaching out, I really appreciate it. Well, the album title means a lot to me. In my personal life but not only, things are happening and you can not affect them no matter what you do. So the title reflects last years of my life. For example, I fought cancer for two years. Now everything seems fine but that’s the thing you just can affect in any way for example. But as I said, those are not only thing happening in our personal life but to other people or to the world or even on the electronic music scene. I learnt one thing, especially during my cancer treatment and that is, if you can not affect something, just leave it and don’t spend your time and energy on it.
How did the idea for this work come about?
What made you decide to write an album at this moment or did you simply have a collection of tracks that you felt worked together well enough to form an LP.
I’ve been making and releasing music really long time. My debut EP (called M.Case) came out in 2004 but I’ve never released and album. Maybe because most of the albums from house and techno producers have always been a bit different from their “normal” production towards more experimental music or maybe pop or whatever and I never felt like making a little different music since I haven’t released so much music. But last years I started to make more music since I found it amusing and fun again and I started to collect tracks and then I decided to release an album even today, is not really popular any more because of streaming I guess…
What has been the musical criteria for this work? Is there a theme or thread that runs through it?
There was none. I guess you can find something in each track that defines me and “my sound”. I mean, it’s not on purpose and there was no special concept for this album. It’s just how I feel it. How music that I enjoy should sound and is also a bit back to the roots approach. Electronic dance music, especially house & techno, tracks tends to be made more so people (a lot of people) like them. Originality disappeared and also in arrangements, something is always changing and tracks are so short. Drops after long breaks started to be more important than groove of the track itself… Weird times ☺ But I tried to go a bit back. What I think is original and let the groove of the track to be there and has a chance to evolve. Of course such a tracks are probably less popular to listen on streaming or on social media…
You’re a native of Slovakia, has there been any elements of your homeland that have played an influential role in the creation of this album. I understand you hosted events there and also present a radio show?
Of course. Especially when I was only discovering electronic music here in Bratislava and what brought me in. Techno used to be really strong with our city and country. We had place called U.Club (later renamed to SubClub) where I strated to go back in 1997. It was also club where I started with DJing and it was venue where I had my firs residency. DJs like Toky (aka. Rumenige), Dalo (aka. Loktibrada) and other formed me and gave a opportunity to become a DJ which led to the productions. So let’s say my sound was evolving during these times, the minimalistic and maybe more experimental techno and house music comes all from this era and I still love that sound ☺
What would you like to convey with this work to the listener?
I don’t really now. I mean there is so much music today and maybe I just try to show that not all music needs to sound the same and be done by copying some reference track or follow some tutorial “how to make techno track” ☺ That is great to be unique ☺
What are your roots in electronic music, what were some of the first artists you heard that caught your ear and how do you value the music industry in 2023?Oh man. For today’s standards I go way to far in the history… I mean the end of 1990s and beginning of 2000s was one of the best times to be involved in music in my opinion. The way people found our new music, how the appreciated it, how communities were built around record shops or clubs. I fell in love with music by Woflgang Voigt, co-founder of label Kompakt Records and other guys and labels from around Cologne, music around label Basic Channel (like Maurizio), Tresor a lot of guys from Canada like Richie Hawtin, Akufen, Deadbeat, Frivolous or Mike Shannon, American guys like Rob Hood, Sutekh, Model500, Dan Bell, of course Jeff Mills, crazy French guys like Ark or Cabanne, techno sound from UK like Surgeon, Dave Clarke, Regis, Oliver Ho and other who came to play in Bratislava quite often… And of course huge shout out to guys from Slovakia I mentioned earlier – Rumenige, Loktibrada and others… Ano now back to the present days… Man, I don’t know what to think. It’s a bit sad for someone who lived through earlier days of house and techno. Tracks sounding the same, making music to impress followers on socials, making music for wrong reasons and just so it is, with no original ideas or no soul, techno becoming a huge business and DJs becoming businessmen and not artists. I don’t get crazy visuals and 3d shows and all this. I mean it’s great that music making, releasing and DJ technology is basically very user friendly and everything can be “learnt” very fast but that is also a bit downside to it I guess…
How does it feel to run your own label in this time, do you feel the resources have become easier since you launched Leporelo all those years ago and how do you feel about the numerous new avenues of releasing music these days, like Spotify, Bandcamp direct to consumer etc?
This is great. When we started, the only digital platforms were online shops like Beatport, Junodownload, etc. Now, you can deliver your music to so much more people but there is huge BUT. Streaming platforms also hugely depreciate the music. People pay almost nothing to get everything, there is no effort to dig new music, to pay attention to it ☺ I like the idea of Bandcamp but we’ll see what will its future…
Can you tell us what are your plans for the future both for yourself and for the label?
For the label, I would like to work more closely with less artists, preferably local artists, which has been happening last years. There are 2 more releases lined up for this year. 4th solo EP by great Slovak talent called NoT and a month after my album, great EP called Ulama by Japanese artist lefthandsoundsystem is coming out. As far as myself, I’m planning to keep making music. Early next year, there is a remix coming out for another Slovak artist called Deepologic and my new track on special compilation on label Leporelo. I’m also planning to start to perform live the tracks from my album… And of course my studio will keep me busy where I have some projects for mixing, mastering or both and also I will continue to educate people in music production or audio post-production on my courses in my studio (www.theloshstudio.com).Some links you might use:Album
Listen & buy: https://bit.ly/LEPORELO057
Milos (Instagram): www.instagram.com/milosthelosh
Milos (X): www.twitter.com/milosthelosh
Milos (Facebook): www.facebook.com/milosthelosh
Leporelo (Instagram): www.instagram.com/leporelolabel
Leporelo (X): www.twitter.com/leporelolabel
Leporelo (Facebook): www.facebook.com/leporelolabel
Leporelo (Bandcamp): https://leporelo.bandcamp.com/
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