‘Classically trained.’ It’s a nice, vague little phrase that crops up in press statements for musicians of any genre. “Yeah,” says Alex Menzies, better known as Alex Smoke. “It’s one of those classic bio lines, and then you find out they played recorder until they were seven.” For Menzies though, ‘classically trained’ isn’t a token bid for musical legitimacy, but a prominent commitment, part of his life and musical thinking. “I played cello for 16 years, and piano and drums. I sang full-time in a choir for five years. Singing in the choir, you’re aware of the other parts, the way they interact and the way that harmonies play off each other. For me, even at the very start of my production career, I knew that was what I had to bring to the table.”
As a teenager, Menzies gravitated from classical music into dance culture and electronic sound. “I first discovered Detroit techno and hip hop off the radio, as well as all those big albums like Leftfield’s Leftism and Daft Punk’s Homework. Once I had my first computer I realised there was nothing stopping me from just ploughing in there and making it myself.” And that’s exactly what Menzies did; using a computer his grandmother bought him, he taught himself the software.
Menzies has released three full-length albums under his Alex Smoke alias: Incommunicado (2005), Paradoelia (2006) and 2010’s Lux, on which Smoke’s compositional prowess is particularly evident. The album is filled with gorgeously introverted techno, clockwork percussion and subtly shifting harmonies. There is also a prevalent fascination with microsound, those tiny, digital clicks and pops created by deliberately clipping various waveforms. “It’s something totally new to someone whose background is entirely classical,” says Menzies. “It’s a refreshing way of looking at sound and music, where the parts that would traditionally be thrown out are now centre stage. The joy of error!”
In 2008, Menzies was offered a chance to reacquaint himself with the classical world, receiving a commission to write a piece for a prominent string orchestra, The Scottish Ensemble. “I’ve never been more nervous than the first performance, because you feel that you’re walking in someone else’s field and that maybe you’ll make a fool of yourself.” Classical music, though, is as much Menzies’ field as electronics. “If you listen to a lot of minimal classical composers like [Steve] Reich and [Philip] Glass, you could well believe that they wrote with a sequencer. Ironically, my background in classical music was more traditional, so my writing is not as technically taxing as many modern composers. I still love strong melodies and flowing passages, as well as the more sequencer-led ideas of repetition and looping.”
Menzies is currently unveiling the next in his long series of musical projects: Wraetlic. This new project extends Menzies’ electronic aesthetic into the visual realm. “There is a strong visual element which was included from the conception, and written by an amazing talent from Japan called Vokoi. Wraetlic is much more experimental in outlook, and is also entirely focused on the vocals. The songs are all very short, the production is non 4/4 and experimental, and the live show is fully audio-visual.”
From the first online glimpses of Wraetlic, it’s clear that there’s a distinct sonic difference to Menzies’ other music. And yet amongst the stuttering beats and glacial projections, Menzies’ diligently trained ear is still recognisable. “The other facet [of my classical training] which probably played a big part was the discipline involved to just keep going and learning. I used to work [on my music] for eight hours a day, every day, and I couldn’t have been happier.”
BY HENRY ANDERSON
