Madtone is in fact the One Deck Pete of One Deck & Popular (see Black Country Route — Label Profile). Support from Radio 1’s Rob da Bank (Sunday Best/Bestival), Denise Benson (CKLN 88.1fm) and Doctor Strangedub is leading up to the release of a limited edition 7” single on Blossoms Kitchen Records.

with me crouched over the eMac swigging a bottle of cherry beer from Sainsbury’s, headphones on so I didn’t wake the kids who were in bed in the next room. Beats all that ‘Sting in the studio for 12 months’ malarkey!

Are you, like Pete, inspired by the world of dub, New Order, D’n’B, offshore pirate and shortwave radio and other assorted bleeps and noise recorded on C90s over the years? Recently Pete has mastered the tracks in the studio and is getting on with the test pressings so it seemed a good time to catch up with him and ask, where did Madtone come from?

“Simply, Madtone comes from when I was working on the first track, ‘Emerald’ and I put a sample through one of the effects in Reason and it sounded mental and I said to meself “Fuck me that’s a madtone” and it stuck. The stuff I do under the Madtone guise is a lot darker then the stuff I do (with Steve) with One Deck & Popular”.

That’s true enough and you can hear ‘Emerald’ via the link below courtesy of Denise Benson’s ‘Mental Chatter’ radio show from Toronto. So, what are your electronic dub influences?
“I’ve been into Reggae since hearing it through my elder brother who was one of those ‘skinheads’ in the early 70s. I love stuff like Deadbeat, Sudelectronic, The Bug, Pole, Wave, Jah Wobble, PIL that sort of thing and New Order ‘cos I love the way Peter Hook carrys his bass so low and he plays it almost like a lead guitar. Classic dub stuff as well King Tubby’s, Jammy’s, U Roy, Keith Hudson is a big influence also check out Holger Czukay’s ‘Persian Love’ it’ s got an eastern vocal nicked off the short-wave with Holgers music behind, great stuff. Also listening to for years to the late great John Peel so very much been influenced by that as well”.

Did you use any shortwave radio recordings in the tracks?
“As for shortwave recordings, I do as often as possible, but they usually get messed up beyond all recognition and sound like a bass drum or something. I was one of those kids who was always detuning the radio at home (and pissing off me old man) and sticking me fingers into light sockets and that, and always found the sounds of radios between the stations well mad. I’ve got a couple of cassettes of some old shortwave stuff that I pilfer off but there’s loads on the web. Have a look on the web or at Simon Masons website under Shortwave Espionage very mad stuff indeed. Also, there’s a CD Collection called ‘The Conet Project’ that has lots of stuff on the numbers stations, have you ever heard of them?

Erm.. can’t say I have, although I had a fairly surreal time in Hull on a Tuesday night once so I’ve got an idea where Simon is coming from. What do you transform the sounds with to make the dub?
“Just an eMac with Reason, Oxygen 8 keyboard and a cassette deck, nothing grand. It was like the other week when Rob Da Bank played ‘Dark Dread’ on the Blue Room I was well over the moon. I was listening to it at that ungodly hour thinking — shit! That was made on a Friday night in the small room upstairs with me crouched over the eMac swigging a bottle of cherry beer from Sainsbury’s, headphones on so I didn’t wake the kids who were in bed in the next room. Beats all that ‘Sting in the studio for 12 months’ malarkey!”

Well that’s a good plug for classic Belgium beer. Is there anyone else to mention apart from Benson’s show and the Blue Room?
“Yeah, you could give KFAI’s the ‘The Echo Chamber’ a plug as the show is brilliant and Dr. StrangeDub’s Home page,” (see below for both).

And Pete had some news on the gig front. Firstly there’s BREAK/THE/STEREO! (Defying Expectation, Denying Limitation, Down-The-Road-From Angel tube station!) on Saturday 30th July 2005 and then with Steve as One Deck & Popular, “with a box of scratched reggae seven inchers” at Bestival on the Isle of Wight. He says, “we’re hopefully going to get Hay-eer-yah to join us and play his harmonica over the top.” That’ll be a real treat and don’t forget, Fat Freddy’s Drop are also confirmed; September 9-11 at the Robin Hill Country Park, Newport, IoW “100s of Live Acts.” Increase the Dark Dread.

Madtones new single ‘Dark Dread’ c/w ‘Emerald’ is out this summer on Blossoms Kitchen Records.

Links:
Blossoms Kitchen Records, P.0.Box 48421, London SE15 4XF
Sunday Best presents Bestival
MENTAL CHATTER: ON DEMAND with Denise Benson
14th March Madtone - ‘Emerald’ @2hr 17 mins into the show (with One Deck & Popular’s ‘Son of Stitt’ following as a bonus)
May 30th Madtone - ‘Dark Dread’ (Blossoms Kitchen) @ 1hr 37 mins into the show
Radio 1, Blue Room with Rob da Bank
Shortwave Espionage
The Conet Project - For more than 30 years the Shortwave radio spectrum has been used by the worlds intelligence agencies to transmit secret messages. These messages are transmitted by hundreds of “Numbers Stations”.
eMac
Beginner’s Guide to Belgian Beer by Tony Green
KFAI Echo Chamber, “primarily focuses on DUB…” Minneapolis, USA.
Dr. StrangeDub
BREAK/THE/STEREO! Saturday 30th July 2005 with DJs: MISTAH BROWN (Tighten Up) and ONE DECK PETE (One Deck & Popular/Madtone) Info: drink@thewarwickbar.com
Venue: The Warwick, 45 Essex Rd, Islington N1 : Free Entry : 8pm - 1am