The Stool Pigeon

Words by Zainab Jama

Photograph by Ashes57

Joker may only be 20, but already he’s emerging as the most exciting producer to come out of the dubstep boom. He hails from Bristol and unlike Croydon’s Skream, who you’ll know from his remix of La Roux’s ‘In For The Kill’, and Benga, the man responsible for ‘26 Basslines’, he’s working in a new dimension where vintage analogue synths and twisted psychedelic G-funk beats are the primary resource, melody and harmony are encouraged, and heavy-hitting basslines are the killer, added touch. Together with his two closest friends, Gemmel ‘Gemmy’ Philips and Guy ‘Guido’ Middleton, he’s creating a subgenre for the sound, and it’s a subgenre they like to call... purple.

Purple? “Purple is a colour,” states Joker mock seriously. “Purple is blue and red, so I mix blue and red to make purple. But really, my music is like Sega Mega Drive meets R&B meets grime with a little bit of dubstep thrown in and a funk twist.”

Growing up, Joker, aka Liam McLean, played video games and listened to hip hop, R&B, garage and grime continuously. Both had a deep influence on him. The first track he ever produced, he says, was a Fruity Loops creation called ‘Rachel’ that never saw the light of day. Aged 15, he moved onto Logic and began working on tunes with his cousin, then 2007 saw the release of his debut 12”, ‘Kapsize’, through fellow Bristolian producer Pinch’s Earwax label.

Pinch, who described his style as being “full of colour and character - no one else sounds quite like him” to Pitchfork a couple of years ago, has always been a vocal supporter of Joker’s and he was instrumental in drawing attention to later tracks like ‘Snake Eater’, a hip hop/dubstep hybrid with a sample taken from the Metal Gear Solid 3 video game; ‘Gully Brook Lane’, that saw him take on grime; and ‘Purple City’, which features James ‘Ginz’ Ginzburg and is on a psychedelic 8-bit, bass and synth tip.

Waves of artists across all genres are currently incorporating synths in their productions, but what sets Joker apart is how distinctly he uses them. “It’s like playing Gran Turismo,” he explains of his vision for a signature sound. “I’m on the PlayStation and I’m thinking, ‘Fuck it, I wanna go out and do this in a real car.’ So for me, instead of making it all on Logic, it’s all about using analogue synths to create something authentic; something real.”

Since 2007, Joker has clocked up releases on Kode9’s Hyperdub label, grime DJ extraordinaire Plastician’s Terrorhythm Recordings, Tectonic, and his own Kapsize label, which he runs with Ginz. He’s already remixed Little Boots, Basement Jaxx, Bristolian indie band The Heavy, and there are edits of Zero 7 and ‘Cruel Intentions’ by Simian Mobile Disco featuring Beth Ditto due out soon. He’s currently on what seems like a never-ending UK and European tour, and he’s always working on his forthcoming release with Skream (they’ve teamed under the guise Parma Violet).

But what then of Joker’s debut album? A glance down the insane schedule on his MySpace page, to which he says US dates will be added, means it’s unlikely to be released until deep into 2010. And, more importantly, he’s not even sure what kind of record he intends to release.

“I don’t know what it’s going to be like yet,” he says of his album. “It’s going to be me, but 15 years ahead. People might not get it, because maybe... maybe it will be too futuristic.”

The future’s bright. The future’s purple.

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