Temple of Sound and humanized technology

Hera Diani, The Jakarta Post, Singapore

The interview with Neil Sparkes and Count Dubulah of UK DJ outfit Temple of Sound was quickly added to my most-favorite-interview list.

We met recently on the sidelines of the World of Music, Arts and Dance (WOMAD) 2002 in Singapore, where they performed together with Pakistan's Rizwan-Muazzam Qawwali -- a performance that was a crowd favorite at the three-day event.

The interview just clicked from the first handshake to the end. They were friendly, warm and sincere. Not over friendly with huge grins on their faces and super tight handshakes. It was just alright.

Both answered each question thoroughly, but not over elaborately. In the end it turned out to be very educational as I broadened my vocabulary about dub, beat, dance music and stuff.

"Hey, I'll send you our CDs. Is it OK to send it via post?" asked Sparkes in his deep, bass voice.

So, then the sincere little me (not) had to say that I would send them some Indonesian traditional music.

"That's great! We know Indonesia has a rich variety of music," said Dubulah.

"Recently my friend went to Bali and bought this huge set of gamelan (traditional orchestra). It took him six month, though, to get the whole set delivered to London," he laughed.

The discussion extended from that point, from England's music scene ("exciting"), to 80s fusion ("Ugh, that has to be put in the cage"), to Dubulah's obsession with volcanoes ("just how far is Mount Krakatau from here?").

Sparkes, a poet/percussionist/painter, had already been working with Dubulah, a bassist/guitarist/programmer, for several years in Transglobal Underground projects, before they both decided to form Temple of Sound in 1996.

"We wanted to develop our interest in world music, Latin music for example. We wanted to make a unique sound. There is a lot of music out there," Sparkes said.

"As for the name, we just like the image of the temple. Temple of Sound means this structured, strange place, where musicians can celebrate, study, build something together."

Before releasing their debut album Black Orchid in 1998, they traveled to Cuba, the "island with amazing, beautiful music culture which is so unlike many places in the world."

Or, to quote author Gabriel Garcia Marquez, "the most dance orientated society in the world."

The journey reflected a highly eclectic debut, where a diverse mixture of bongo led percussion and drum 'n' bass combined with big beat, guitars, rap and dub. It is an Afro-Cuban, Latin amalgamation with a strong urban dance flavor.

Brought to the attention of Peter Gabriel, Temple of Sound were invited to collaborate with Rizwan and Muazzam, the nephews of the late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.

The result is 2001's People's Colony No. 1, the much acclaimed album which took up the Qawwali story where it was left after Massive Attack's remix of Khan's Mustt Mustt.

Early this year, they released two albums Shout at the Devil and First Edition. The first one is a collective album with bass legend Jah Wobble where they blend Eastern and Arabic influences with dub and Bollywood sensation.

First Edition is also another love affair with Latin and Eastern, hip hop and grooves.

Sparkes has also released a solo album titled Burning Mask which contains everything from dub, Caribbean flavors, jazz, breakbeat, poetry and Afro-Cuban percussion.

In blending the sound, the band, however, is careful not to lose the roots of the music as they first find deep information about it.

"When we work with other artists, it should be an equal collaboration. You know, many Western projects just take samples. A lot of bands just access their sound from other people's CD libraries and then work completely in the studio. We don't do that because it will lack texture," Sparkes said.

"We mix songwriting, live performance and studio work, and mix it with technology."

Technology is the key word. While they create music generated from computer and machine, they prefer the beats to be unpolished to produce "humanized technology".

"Today's dance music is very polished, like milk in the container, you know what I mean. We prefer it straight from the cow," laughed Sparkes, whose art works can be seen on the covers of all their albums.

Dubulah analogized the unpolished beat with a kitchen where "it's not clean and edgy, not structured but more exciting."

"We like to combine the raw with the technological but we should not be slaves to it. The use of technology is great but it's not an excuse if it lacks human touch. The sophistication of technology lies in the application of the human touch. (The result) won't be maximum, it will be different if it doesn't involve living, breathing organism," Sparkes said.

They both then asked whether audiences in Indonesia like what they do in case they pay a visit and perform.

Yeah, sure, just come, man.

"I mean, looking at the audience here, they're very enthusiastic, and not just young people but all ages. While they're probably never heard of this kind of collaboration (with Qawwali)," Sparkes said.

"That's just the kind of impact we want on people, not in a bombastic way but in a pragmatic way."