Bognor Regis doesn’t have the same musical pedigree as Berlin or Detroit, but for the past decade, it has been home to Transparent Sound, aka Orson Bramley and Martin Brown. Together, they comprise one of the UK’s freshest electro production acts.
Weaned on the deep-space atmospherics of Detroit’s electronic legacy, the bowel-shuddering thud of Miami bass and the frenetic breaks of their purist peers, the pair have mapped out their reflective, emotive route.
Their work has appeared on labels such as Mass Transit, Electrix, Crayon and their own Orson imprint.
Brown and Bramley were around long before the eletroclash/electro house stampede of the past few years. They’ll still be there when the hype has died down.
Despite its daft name, Fantasy Haircut is a brooding, acid—soaked affair, bristling with the production techniques of modern minimal techno and the dark bass growl of the hardcore/ebm era.
However, Brown is reluctant to agree that it signals a shift towards a new, darker style.
“Sure, the album has deep and dark elements, but the last one wasn’t a jolly day out in the park either,” he laughs. “Our music always reflects how we're feeling when we’re writing it. We’ve obviously turned into grumpy old bastards!”
While they make brooding, reflective music, Brown and Bramley are an easy-going, relaxed pair, finishing each other’s sentences and cracking in-jokes as we speak.
They are radically different to the archetypal image of the moody electro producer and have a more laissez-faire attitude to music than their more militant, rhetoric-spouting contemporaries.
“We don’t class ourselves as an electro act, we make electronic music with a strong electro influence,” Brown proffers. “The scene must have progressed, because no one was talking about electro house two years ago, but who really cares? If people are making music they and others enjoy, isn’t that what it’s all about? If you don’t like a scene, don’t slag it off, just avoid it.”
Now, the years of hard work, when Bramley and Brown had to hold down drab day jobs and pursue music in their spare time, seem to have paid off.
They gigged relentlessly around the world in support of their last album, Emotional Amputation, and will do the same with this one.
“I think more people are open to all types of music and don’t want to dance to the same beats all night," Bramley interjects. "This gives acts like us, who experiment, a chance to play our stuff to a wider audience. We recently played our first hometown gig, back in Bognor. Five or 10 years ago, we wouldn’t have had a big enough following to do that."
They're also garnering airplay. ‘Variations Of An Attitude’, the single that preceded the album, was supported by Laurent Garnier, Andrew Weatherall and Hyper and was playlisted by London’s XFM and Radio 1.
“We knew it was strong,” Brown admits. “Before its release, we played it to mates and got very positive feedback. The main melody draws you in, and once you’re hooked you have to see it through to the end, just to see where you end up.”
Transparent Sound are already writing the next album, as well as remixing some Orson Records acts.
Then, there’s the competition accompanying the album release, where fans are invited to draw a ‘fantasy haircut’ on their website – www.transparentsound.co.uk – to win a prize.
This is a million miles away from the furrowed brow seriousness of electro. It also begs the question – what are their fantasy haircuts?
“Mine is a back-permed, multicoloured, feather cut mullet with a rat’s tail,” Bramley admits. Brown adds: “Mine is a textured comb over swoop with tramlines!”