Richard Devine

I'm sure everyone has noticed my love for Schematic Records and it's roster of artists. The first things I heard that were released on Schematic was Richard Devine's self-titled EP and the Lily Of The Valley compilation, home to Richard's incredible track Anthracite T. Vari. So I thought it would be cool to ask Richard some questions about projects/releases that he is involved with that may or may not have seen the light of day. I sent him some questions via e-mail and he responded with the answers, all of which follow below.


Me: I got a copy of something labeled the Asect:Dsect EP from someone on soulseek. Two of the tracks are on the A:D LP but the rest of it seems to be unreleased. Rom (from Phoenecia/Schematic) didn't know about this but said I should definitely check with you about it.

Richard: Not sure what this could be. At the time that I was throwing around a few tracks to make up the Asect:Dsect record I know we had a large collection of stuff, and some of the earlier tracks might have leaked out somewhere. I made several versions before I decided on what the final record would be. For the Japanese release I did an extra track that wasn't on the US version. This track is now uploaded to my myspace page and is called Amber's Prelude.

Me: I remember and album labeled Lipswitch showing up a while before the finished version was released. It has a few tracks from the finished album, at least one of which is incomplete as it cuts off early. There is also a lot of ambient sounding stuff on it. You released a track or two from it on Native Instruments website back in the day and I think something else ended up on Cautella, but the rest of this is unlabeled and I don't believe was released.

Richard: Yea, there was a lot of tracks floating around during that time period. The original Lipswitch album was actually supposed to be more then the mini-album release. I originally intended it to be around 14 to 15 tracks. In the end, Warp decided to narrow it down to 8 tracks. I then took what Warp didn't use, and released them on other compilations/albums. There was some stuff that never was released. This was an interesting time for me as most of these tracks I wrote between 1998-2000 and I was in a transitional period from making music with hardware based machines to computers. Warp did a super limited run of 50 aqua clear colored vinyl copies of this release.



Me: There was also a collection of tracks labeled Lipservice floating around online prior to Lipswitch's release. It has three tracks, two of which were released on Lipswitch, and one which was an ambient piece. Apart from the mp3s, I've never seen any information about this release online.

Richard: Lipservice wasn't me =), I think this was something that someone must have misheard, or misread. Something that someone else came up with.

NOTE: Rom confirmed that Warp had mislabeled some early Lipswitch materials Lipservice. The content is definitely Richard, but the title is all wrong.

Me: A lot of people have been wondering about Sculpt/Audio Sculptures album. I have a decent quality rip of it but no one seems to know much about it.

Richard: Sculpt was a triple pack full album release I did for Woody McBride's Tape/Communique record label. This collection of works was some of my first recordings from 92-94. It was mostly music made entirely on hardware using only the Roland Drum machines, TR-808, 909, 707, 727, and TB-303. I was heavily influenced by early Detroit techno during this period. I remember hearing the music of Jeff Mills and his Purpose Maker series, Richie Hawtin, and Surgeon (Downwards Records).

Me: I've seen people wonder about the Polymorphic EP too since it, and Sculpt, sound so different from your later works.

Richard: The Polymorphic EP was my first release on the Drop Bass Network's "Six Sixty Six" Limited Record label from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I actually wrote these tracks before the Sculpt record, early 90-94 era. It was my first attempts at making music I really liked. Extremely crazy, mechanical violent machine music. It was heavily influenced by the early music of Richard D. James (Aphex Twin) and the legendary Rephlex Records label. I also loved Chris Jeff's (Cylob) first two Kinesthesia records. No one was making music like this in the states during this time, and I wanted to be able able to DJ a full set of music that was similar in this style. I didn't think that this release would do as well as it did. It sold out quickly, Drop Bass did a limited repressing of 300 copies in November 2002 to celebrate their 10th Year Anniversary. I was only 17 years old when I recorded these tracks, I remember recording these during my junior and senior years in high school, good memories this brings back."



Me: I know the Richard Coleman Devine EP came out on Schematic, but I've always wondered about it's mastering. I asked Rom and he told me it was mastered at the same facility as the other early Schematic vinyl releases, but I've always thought it sounded very tinny without much bass, especially when compared to the tracks you released on the Ischemic Folks compilation. Was it meant to sound this way?

Richard: I think this release was mastered by another mastering house we did business with in the beginning. If I remember correctly it was someone in Nashville, Tennessee. They never heard music like what I was creating and didn't know how to master it. Funny because it was so odd even I didn't know at that time how to go about mastering this type of music which was extremely heavy on the high end =). I don't think it was meant to sound this way. This was an interesting release for me. One of the first tracks on Side-A was my first track ever created with Cubase. The first track on side-B was the first track I ever wrote with Logic Audio. We did a short run limited clear colored vinyl (50 copies).



Me: I haven't met anyone who has heard the Digital Rawhide or Coefficients Of Friction EPs. Also, the Sort/Lave record didn't come out, did it? Can you give me any information on these and their availability? Oh yeah, whatever happened to the DVD?

Richard: The Digital Rawhide EP, was a release on Tommy Sunshine's record label, Xylophone Jones. It was a split EP with Chris Brann (Wamdue Productions ATL). I did the A-Side with two tracks, Burnt Toast and After Morning. Both produced and written in 1998, on just a Roland TR-909, Akai-S3200, and two Roland TB-303's. The sound of this record was purely acid. I was really into the late eighties acid. Big influences for me during this time was the sound of AFX, Kosmik Kommando (Mike Dread), and Universal Indicator. I was making hundreds of acid tracks, and still have tons of unreleased tracks that one day I will have to transfer from DAT tape to digital format.

The Coefficients Of Friction EP was a record I did with my friend Dan Kurzius of Sidereal Records. It was just two tracks on a B-Side with a heavy influence from the Basic Channel/M7/Chain Reaction dub sound. I was going for more static deep complexity for this release. It was only a white label, that never saw a proper release. I still have the original white label test pressings of this release.



NOTE: Richard didn’t talk about Sort/Lave in the original e-mail response so I wrote him another message about it. Here is his response:

Sort/Lave was to be a collection of tracks to be released after Asect:Dsect. Most of these tracks ended up on Cautella, although there were a few that didn't make it. I was going to release Sort/Lave as an EP, but never finished it completely, so most of those tracks ended up coming out on Detroit Underground, compilations and EPs. I was originally going to release them with Sublight, but when things went under I figured I would take the best of what was left over and release them on other labels.



Me: Last but not least, are you planning on releasing any more music or are you not really working in that field any longer? I know you're probably extremely busy with the new business and the sound designs, but I love your stuff and would love to see something new released.

Richard: I have been doing a lot of remixes for other artists (Ryuichi Sakamoto, BT, Kiyo, Mike Patton, and Telefon Tel Aviv), and have a new album of 5.1 material that I was planing on releasing. Unfortunately many of the labels that I was previously working with have all gone under within the last three years. Sublight Records closed its doors in 2007, and Asphodel went under soon afterwards. I was originally planning on releasing the DVD with Sublight. I was pretty bummed when I heard the news, so I have been sitting on this new 5.1 release trying to decide if I will just release it on my own, or somehow release it for free for all my fans to enjoy. I have gotten very busy more recently with working on sound design projects, and pushing my new boutique sound design company devinesound. I have been doing everything from doing music for TV/Film, Video Games, and music software/hardware. In 2007 I signed a deal with Sony Media to release my first two Sound Effects libraries, Pulse and The Electronic Manuscript which won 2009's Best Sample Library by Remix Technology Awards. In 2008 I was nominated the Cannes Lions Award for my sound design work on the Halo 3 Believe Site for Microsoft’s gaming division.



I'd like to thank Richard for taking time out of his schedule to answer these questions for me, it's truly appreciated! Also, while it would be cool if the 5.1 release came out for free, I'd certainly pay for a copy and I'm sure others would as well. Maybe you could take orders privately and press them in batches for mail order?

Make sure you visit devinesound and check out Richard's catalog as it will blow your mind! Lipswitch or Cautella are great starting points and are both available for purchase at Bleep.

I told Richard that I would like to upload some of the rarities that I've found floating around online and he was very cool with it, so cool in fact that he wrote some info for each track contained herein! Link and info below.


Richard Devine - Selections


01 Refractor
This is one of the tracks off the Drop Bass Network "Six Sixty Six" record.One of the first noise core recordings, pretty bad quality mp3 of this =). Funny to hear this again.

02 RSL-COM (Asect:Dsect Outtake 3)
This is actually track six, RSL-COM from Cautella. Although this track was written during the Asect Record, it actually didn't get chosen in the end to be put on this release, so it went to the Cautella record. Recorded this track late night at my old studio.

03 Ascisei
This is taken from the Scuplt record on Woody Mcbride's "Tape Record label" Side A2. created in 1995

04 Lipswitch Outtake 6
This is indeed an outtake of the track Route Increment, track 3 on Lipswitch. Don't know how this got out =).

05 Metval 72 (Asect:Dsect Outtake 2)
This is actually the track Metval 72 which was released on the Shitkatapult 50 - Special Musick For Special People compiliation DVD. This too was originally an Asect:Dsect track which didn't end up on the final release, so I released it on Shitkatapult.

06 Lipswitch Outtake 4
This is another DSP short processing outtake that I did in this software called "composer's desktop project". Short outtake here, from the Lipswitch file archive.

07 Necteric
This is taken from the Polymorphic EP on Six Sixty Six Records. It was taken of the B2 side. Another noisy Gabber Core track. This is another bad quality mp3 =).
(Sorry Richard, best quality version I could find!)

08 Chris De Luca - Two (Trapezoid Mix)
Richard did this remix that was released on the Chocolate Industries version of Chris De Luca's Unknown EP, Choc-04, released in 1999. Richard was nice enough to send me the proper track for me to post here.

09 Clear
Taken from the Sculpt 3xLP on Tape Records, TAPE 005, Side D1, 1995.

10 East Flatbush Project - Tried By 12 (Trapezoid Mix)
This was my Tried By 12 Remix that was released on Chocolate Industries/Ninja Tune. It was released in 1998. One of the most challenging remixes I had ever done. My first remix syncing vocals to beats, was a very interesting learning experience. I received praise from Sean from Autechre for this mix. I remember this being a wonderful moment for me =).

11 Amber's Prelude
This was an unreleased track that I released on the Japanese only version of Asect:Dsect. The Japanese version was released through P-vine records Tokyo, 2003-Schematic/Asphodel. Originally was just a little track I wrote for my girlfriend Amber, who I am still with. We will be getting married next year, it will 10 years we have been together. Nice little tune I wrote for her, back in 2003.
(Congratulations Richard and Amber!)

12 Horizontal Deflection Plate excerpt (Lipswitch Outtake 5)
This is actually the track Horizontal Deflection Plate, Track 11 on Aleamapper, Schematic Records 2001. Was originally a piece I wrote that didn't get used for Lipswitch and was later used for the release of Aleamapper. Strange experiment, trying to emulate the sound of Morton Subontick, but using completely digital computer synthesis. He was a huge inspiration to during the creation of this record.