Podcast 855: Kessoncoda

For West London’s Kessoncoda—the collaboration of drummer Tom Sunney and keyboardist Fil Sowa—it has taken more than 12 years to craft their debut album, Outerstate, which will land next month on Matthew Halsall’s Gondwana Records. They first met in school and became the rhythm section in a heavy metal band, and in the years since—working from the shed in the bottom of Sunney’s garden—they’ve been developing a sound which “presents a vision of jazz revolutionized by developments in electronic music,” we’re told. To that end, they’ve been drawing on their array of musical interests, including rock, electronica, ambient, breakbeat, and soundtracks for film, plus artists like Squarepusher, Radiohead, and Clark. You can file their music next to label mates including GoGo Penguin and Portico Quartet in that it sits between acoustic tradition and electronica, while incorporating different themes and moods, with an ebb-and-flow of intensity. In support of the album, Sunney and Sowa have delivered an XLR8R podcast, showcasing some of their finest finds during the recording of Outerstate and since its completion.

01. What have you been up to recently?
We’ve been adapting our upcoming debut album into different length sets and for different environments. It’s been really cool making considerations that might work for festivals as opposed to club shows and vice versa. Also we’re been tackling new music which is albeit quite different from album one but pretty cohesive in mood and timbres already.

02. As you mention, your debut album is incoming. What can you tell us about it?
Outerstate is an ode to our tucked away dwelling out in West London. We wrote all of the music over the course of these past two years in our garden shed-cum-studio. It’s an instrumental record but our headspace at the time of writing was also a bit “outerstate” in the sense that we found ourselves at a bit of a remove from our personal lives and the music is a bit of a reflection of that time.

03. Where and when did you record this mix?
We just whipped it together last week in the shed after a day of working on tunes. It was a lot of fun compiling these tracks, some of which we’d only heard recently, and it sort of felt like how we might cool off after a day of work in the shed!

04. How did you choose the tracks you’ve included in it?
A lot of these have been sweet finds recently through YouTube deep dives and also hearing this stuff out and about in clubs. There are some recent record store snags in there too! Tom just started off with Louke Man and we just continued on the breaks theme from there.

05. Where do you imagine it being listened to?
Kind of pre-party for us. A lot of these are tunes we’ve been sharing between us and friends. Or even late at night; there are lots of darker themes in the music that might connect with people around that time. For us this is an anytime playlist. Who says no breakcore and Detroit techno in the morning?

06. What’s next on your horizon?
We are super excited to be touring in October around the UK and a couple of European spots too. Ahead of that we’ve got live shows here and there; With this new music we’re trying to develop the visual concept and world building around the same time we’re making this music itself. We’re really excited by the idea of shaking things up every time, not just for an audience but for keeping things fresh for ourselves. With this in mind we might experiment with wider collaborations and are interested in dirtying up the sound; this mix might give you a hint at where our heads are at the moment!

XLR8R Subscribers can download the podcast below. If you’re not an XLR8R subscriber, you can read more about it and subscribe here.

Tracklisting

01. Louke Man “Differently” (Harsh Riddims)
02. SW. “Untitled A2” (Apollo Records / Sued Records)
03. Sons of Scientist “Spartan Riddim” (Selectors Assemble)
04. Vintage Future “Dookie Machine” (Underground Resistance)
05. Kevin Saudnerson “Just Want Another Chance” (BEAT Music Fund)
06. MIA “Bucky Done Gun” (XL Recordings)
07. Nookie “T-Three” (Phuzion Digital)
08. St. Germain “Funky Attack” (F Communications)
09. Skanna & Jody Wisternoff “This Way” (Anjunadeep)
10. Skanna “Find Me” (Classic Skanna Mix)’ (Self-Released)
11. Art2Work “Lounge N Chill” (Unreleased)
12. South Street Player “(Who) Keeps Changing Your Mind” (Strictly Rhythm)
13. Shogun “Artemis” (Renegade Recordings)
14. E-Z Rollers “Toca 2 Intro” (Codemasters)

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