Ace's High

Mantronix twelve inches,

precarious breakdance moves, Ian Rush’s marvellous ‘tache, and a variety of Phil Oakey fringes – all these things will spring to mind when you first establish contact with the multi-coloured pop universe of Jupiter Ace. It’s a place where the bleeps sing like an R2D2 lullaby and the choruses yearn to be played at a party where Molly Ringwald is in the DJ booth, pretty in pink. The man indulging in the heavy-eighties-petting, while still finding time to slink off to give contemporary Francophile disco a good seeing to, is twenty one year old Gregory Ferguson – an amalgam of Handy Andy and Jacques Lu Cont – who, after youthful flirtations with groups exhibiting “worrying dad rock leanings”, has now come out as a fully electro boy.

Gregory’s conversion occurred after handing in his cards to his last band, when, left with some old equipment and a yen for experimentation, he decided on a spot of DIY.

“I sat down and just started messing about with a delay pedal that had a kind of sampler function on it. It was very basic, like, but I had that and a couple of crappy wee Casio keyboards, a few guitar pedals and some tape recorders, and I just started making tunes for my own personal pleasure and to be able to record something. When you’re in a guitar band getting something recorded is like a major achievement, whereas like this I can do it at home, myself. I didn’t have much in the way of gear – a few wick programmes on the computer and really rudimentary equipment, but I found out that I really liked making music that way. It was hell at the start, I spent half the time with a soldering iron trying to weld things together to make my own multi-track, but I was surprising myself with some of the sounds I was creating, and I’d complete control for the first time, so I really enjoyed it.”

From out of this mix came music that had much in common with the arch stylising of Les Rythmes Digitales. Had you been listening to more electro stuff or was the direction a result of the new method you’d stumbled across?

“Well it was a bit of both, but primarily it was a result of the new way I was writing. I kept hearing little snippets of records that I really fell in love with, which hinted at the type of music I wanted to make. There were five seconds at the end of a Boo Radley’s b-side that had a specific Moog sound and I was like ‘God, that’s what I want to do – have a big, fat Moog’. And then, the first time I heard Aphex Twin – not that my stuff sounds like Aphex Twin at all – but that really affected me deeply. But it was just that the new way I was writing seemed to open up a lot more possibilities, and I’m really happy with how it’s developing.”

To check out his progress for yourself, get a copy of the new Jupiter Ace three-track demo. If Daft Punk’s Discovery, filtered through the imagination of Zack Hanson sounds like a diverting alternative, then it would be well worth the investment. If not, then be patient, Gregory Ferguson is quietly plotting to pick as many pop pockets as he can get away with. It won’t be long until he comes up with something that has you moonwalking.

“A couple of months ago I was really into old disco records, which is fairly evident on then new EP, but at the minute I’m sort of getting into Housier stuff. But the main thing is classic electro pop – Yellow Magic Orchestra, Kraftwerk, Gary Numan. Numan is a really important influence. I mean he was from a guitar background, but was fascinated with almost mechanical sounds. His music is very cool and dark, whereas mine is colourful and perky. I never went to clubs when I was younger, I’d go to indie discos and go mad to Beck and The Super Furry Animals. But my way of working is very much cut and paste – go mad – go mad a lot – experiment, record it all and find out what works. Because of the very wonderful thing that is hard disc editing, I can record all the sounds I want, arrange them, and then just wig out. Just wig out completely. It’s brilliant.”

www.jupiterace.com