Interview – Current Value

On the European mainland, Drum’n'bass vies for attention from its fans amongst a swarm of diverse cultural and musical frameworks, and yet it is artists like Germanys Tim Eliot, aka Current Value, that have managed to help persuade people from across the world that the dark and eclectic side of drum and bass can attain as much soul and musical emphasis as even the smoothest tune. With glitches and often hectic, scattered drum arrangements, Current Value wields a sense of independence in his production that, over his past eleven years of production, has helped to endearing him to fans who enjoy a creative kick in the ass to the more rigid and formulaic sounds of mainstream d’n'b.

“I’ve always done my thing,” he explains, quite nonchalantly. “Almost all the techniques and skills I have were gained through self experience. I didn’t read any books about music production or anything. I learned how to use my ears and got things done my way. Most of my day to day life consists of producing sounds, mixing down and A/B drilling, and that’s what I’ve always loved and still love to do.”

Furthermore, the industrial notions and smatterings of noise-orientated snippets within his tunes, coupled with classical training in piano since his youth, gave a fresh perspective to his work. “I’ve always been making noises since my early childhood,” he reminisces on his formative years. “I was always imitating various car engines and trucks, but the piano education took it to a more musical level. It helped me to be able to read music, and I really got into Chopin, Beethoven and Chatchaturian’s work – to name a few.”

Beyond the classical training and his continuing production work, a further education in sound engineering has also allowed his creative energy to be put in the right direction.

“Doing a sound and engineering course gave me more distance to my work, I had a lot of inspiration from some very good teachers, in particularly well known mastering engineer Eckard Strauhs. I also had the opportunity to work on a big SSL desk, as well as with Protools, on a professional level. I really liked the challenge during the course – it had a “through the scope” factor to it.”

Having gained his first round of success via a local Berlin radio station before making a name for himself overseas, there is little surprise that Eliot is a prolific producer, having managed to be signed to some of the top heavy weight d’n'b albums over the years, including Evol Intent Recordings, Obscene, DonQ Records and Phantom Noise. With all the signs of a vigorous enthusiasm for his craft, the multitude of work in the Current Value pipeline is impressive with both its prolificacy as well as its diversity.

“I have finished off two albums – one for Tech Freak and one for Subsistenz – totally different from each other,” he lists amongst his upcoming releases. I’m really looking forward to that. Then I have a couple of Barcode releases, a Freak EP, a collaboration with Limewax, further releases on Subsistenz. Recently I’ve been collaborating a lot with Dean Rodell, who I started Machinecode with.”

Although the sounds within his work may not appeal to your average top 40 listener, Eliot is more than happy with the road his music has taken, as are his fans, yet he is also more than happy that he has the ability to look outside of the bounds of his own work to the influences of others, and disregards genre boundaries as anything to be concerned with.

“I’m happy to say that I always express exactly what I want,” he replies. “Looking across the boundaries includes that. I’m definitely not stuck within a certain genre. It is most interesting to explore new vibes or functions within dance music in general, I couldn’t even name a single sub-genre that I hate.”