Lanner

Like Buses

You know how it goes. You wait an age for a bus and then three turn up at once. Well, to an extent, that’s how the interview process for Lanner has gone. Nothing for months and then WHAM.

docoDom tells us more in his own inimitable style…

‘Monday July 15th 2024, London town, downstairs at the Taschen book store on the King’s Road. Two cameras hired, the other three from my arsenal that are always ready to go. I go through the usual pre-shoot prep—questions written, memory cards emptied, batteries charged, props assembled. Lucas is my assistant for this one. It will end up being a shorter day than the one I had with Wik for the Daniel Poole interview.

‘The docoMobile gets packed and I head to London. An hour or so to set up the cameras should suffice. Lucas is on time, he picks up some milk on the way as they seem a little low at the Taschen store. Manager Andre greets me and I start bringing the equipment in. This space at Taschen was provided courtesy of Josie and a director at Taschen, this director being based in Belgium. No fee is required. I offer a token gesture to Josie and the director. There seems to be no need for this. I buy a book after we have finished. I hope that’s enough.

‘We are left alone to get on with what turns out to be an over 2 hour chat on camera with Tom Middleton, Paul Nicholson, designer of the Aphex logo and Mixmaster Morris, long time DJ and tunesmith of the acid house scene. Paul and Morris are here due to Tom’s suggestion. All I had aimed for was an interview with Mr. Middleton. Bonus.

‘Paul is first to arrive, the ice is quickly broken, helped as Paul and I have already had an hour and a half chat on the phone. Browsing the large-format books at Taschen help us all to settle in. Morris arrives, then Tom. The three of them start talking. They chat about a contemporary of theirs who is understood to be remixing most of if not all of the Joy Division back catalogue. Nice work if you can get it. I continue to tweak the camera set up, check audio recording levels. Lucas gets on the Betamax. I clap the clapperboard and away we go. 

L-R: Morris, Paul, some doco bloke, Tom.

‘I do not so much interview Paul, Tom and Morris as direct them a little to confirm any details. I do my best to add something to the conversation but they hit their stride and I just go with the flow. Obviously these three know their onions. The chat goes so smoothly that Lucas can be spared to top up the parking. As the conversation is ongoing the Betamax deck takes a little spill but keeps recording. They built them tough back in the day. I leave my seat to check the Z7 is capturing Tom’s voice well.

‘It seems that the three of them could have kept going for another hour or even more. But I feel aware of not pushing things too much with Taschen and Tom had said to me before the shoot that he had an hour and a half window for the interview. We get to what feels like some kind of end point. I ask the three of them to say Richard D James, Aphex Twin on camera. We end up with a sung, harmonised version of this. It’s quite possibly one of the best things I have ever got out of one of these encounters.

‘I can’t stop myself from filming the glorious Ferrari book by Taschen. It went onto the market at £6000 and £10,000 a pop, all editions sold now. There’s a link between this book and Richard—R&S records who signed RDJ with his track Digeridoo use the Ferrari prancing black horse as their logo.

‘Lucas dutifully helps me pack up and load the car. We are done. We say our goodbyes and head back to Bristol. I stop to take a photo of Hitchcock’s blue plaque on the Cromwell Road, not far from where my father lived in the 80s. I have that post-shoot warm feeling. Just hoping that it all looks and sounds as I expect. Now for some editing and a possible screening of this longer version at the Portobello Film Festival this summer. 

‘Come on Richard, do something on camera for this film!’

Amen to that. Good work Dom and Lucas, let’s see what we can get together for Portobello.

Meanwhile, the marketing department for Lanner keeps on pushing. Take a look at these cool new stickers, fresh from the printers! Ask nicely and we might be able to get one to you if you promise to use it wisely.

 

Fits And Starts

Making a film is hard. At the high end it is a wildly expensive, horribly convoluted process involving the sort of logistical heavy lifting comparable to a military campaign. It takes years to organise, shoot and post-produce a movie that the idle viewer may have on in the background while you’re scrolling the ‘grams. Personally, I don’t know why anyone does it.

At the other end of the scale, the space that doco occupies, things are no less difficult. Documentary film-making is significantly cheaper and less resource intensive—you can make award winning movies with a couple of people, a camera and a cheap editing package on your home computer. What becomes more of a factor is time. Chasing leads, getting people to talk on camera—it’s a grind. You blink, another year’s gone and the project is maybe one interview further along.

All of which leads me on to this affirmation—yes, we are still working on Lanner. Our time has not been spent idly, or without reward. Allow me to offer you a quick nose around the last 24 months in Lanner-world.

An interview was carried out with musician and DJ Ali Wade (no relation, although he has a brother who lives very close to the doco-dome in Bristol). His music is very influenced by the work of our elusive main subject, but he makes bangers flavoured with his own special blend of spice. More context here: https://frequencydomain.bandcamp.com/

Meanwhile, doco has been to Richard D. James’ home county, chasing a whisper of a home location for our pal and checking out the Bowgie Inn, where he first rattled the rafters with his homebrew electrical chaos generators. The pub is still vibrating faintly. If you go for a pint (and you should, it’s a lovely place) put your palm to the stone walls and feel the thrum and whisper of electronic ghost emissions. One of the folk who was present at these sessions, Tom Middleton has, after much gentle persuasion, agreed to be interviewed. Next on the shooting schedule? Let’s hope so!

Which way to Bruul?

You never know who will become part of the Lanner Express. Sweet-talkin’ doco has recently secured the help of an actual Hollywood producer to keep the project on track. And doco continues to make overtones to the good folk at Warp. Meanwhile, a Bristol base means you never know who you might bump into. A nice chat with Grant from Massive Attack? Why not? Can’t hurt, can it?

The Portobello Film Festival and doco have always played nice together—they share the same enthusiasm for the skewed and unusual, the same love for the rough aesthetic. So, should we be surprised when a short cut of Lanner won Best Music Documentary towards the end of 2022? No, not really. It looked great, crammed in plenty of interesting interviewees and moved like a glitchy express to the centre of your cortex. A big, bold burst of black-edged energy blasting into your brains. As a promo, it couldn’t have been better received. Another Trellick for doco’s award shelf.

But doco never sleeps, and the Lanner train keeps on a’rollin. With the help of a contribution from a benefactor, a stack of white labels with some homegrown techno madness were pressed and sent out to anyone who wanted them (and quite a few who had no idea). These still do the rounds and rumours exist that the tunes have snuck onto the playlist of a few underground DJ sets. Our doco has always been one for building a myth.

AAA

As part of that process, doco has been gathering materials for interesting cutaways and textural embellishments. A brown vinyl copy of selected ambient works II. A We Are Rewind cassette player.  Blank audio cassettes. Input computer programming magazines. The Downfall game that is on the cover of the Mike and Rich: Expert Knob Twiddlers album.  Vintage, new old stock betamax tapes and a back up Beta deck to record onto them. Meanwhile, Aphex online fan forums have twigged there is something happening. The storm of stickers and records are having an effect.

And we have more interviewees! A recent chat with rave fashion legend Daniel Poole involved a 14-hour day and the transfer of equipment up three flights of stairs to his studios. Once we were in place though, Daniel was a generous host, speaking on camera for the best part of two hours and giving doco and new recruit Vik a tour of the archives. A fascinating if tiring day, and a baptism of fire for Vik—she passed the test with flying colours, according to doco.

So, what next? Well, more of the same. We are still chasing the great white whale of interview subjects that is Richard D. James, as well as other folks affiliated with the man and his scene. Rough Trade in Bristol serves as a very loose production office for Lanner, with friendly staff like Josh and Adrian always happy to welcome doco in for a coffee, beer and quite possibly some more vinyl to add to doco’s ever growing tune library. Seems like a fair exchange of goods and services.

How long do we go? How far can we take this? Will Richard ever pick up that bloody phone? One thing’s for sure—Lanner is not done yet, and doco keeps his eyes on the future. The ride continues.