Kodh is someone who you might not have heard a lot of since he left the battle scene in 2003. The French DJ came to prominence in the early 2000's following the culmination of Craze's three consecutive world titles. Alongside compatriots Troubl' and Netik, Kodh dominated a big portion of the battle scene for 3 years, winning titles and showcasing across DMC, ITF and the Allies Beatdown, with an original style which hasn't been seen since. Leaving the battle scene he then went on to work with French collective Audiomicid, which regroups a variety of DJs and producers who all have in common a love of tablism and all things electronic. Audiomicid's first LP was an interesting blend of production and battle orientated tablist manipulations, and was followed last year by a new single, Sequence 6. Apart from all this, Kodh has also been busy with other solo projects, including mixtapes and productions for French rappers and artists. He broke his silence on the tablist front in January this year, with the release of his new break record, Vertigo. Never missing an occasion, we got hold of the man and sat down on the phone for a chat and to find out what Kodh's got coming up this year. Whilst other French artists, such as BNN and C2C, are currently more active with their recent releases, Kodh and Audiomicid should not be forgotten just yet. So sit back as one of France's brightest talks about the past, present and future.

So what have you been up to?

K: Well at the moment I’ve really been busy finishing off the new break record, Vertigo. I’m hoping it’s going to be the first in a series of breaks, released through our own label, which is set up in parralel to the label on which Audiomicid's stuff is being released. The idea is that it can cater for all the more tablist orientated releases outside of Audiomicid, but not just my own stuff as well, I hope I can even release breaks and stuff from other people.

So who’s label is it then?

K: Well the label was set up by me and a friend. We’ve got one label which is more general, for things like productions, tracks with rappers and MCs, that type of stuff. And then within that we’ve got a label called BBT, which is just for breaks releases and that type of thing.

So how long did it take you to put this new break together and what would you say can people expect from it?

K: Altogether it’s taken me about a year to get this one out. I started on it a year ago, it took me about 3 months back to back to get all the beats and sentences done and then putting it all together. After that it took about a month to master properly in a studio. And then another 3 months to get it ready for release. I’ve really tried to do something that’s more varied than just a regular battle break, I wanted it to be more eclectic, have stuff on there for practice like infinite loops and skip proof sentences, but also stuff you can use for battles. Some of the beats are definitely more classic battle type beats but there’s also stuff on there that’s different from anything out there I think. Like there’s one beat on there I did for these breaker friends of mine, who told me it’d be nice to have something on a record like that, which is faster and funkier then the average type of beat you get on break records and which people could break to as well as scratch.

You mentioned also that it was a bit more axed towards club DJs…

K: Yeah well actually what I meant by that is that I wanted it to sound as professional as anything you might hear played in the club. That’s where the mastering came in really. So that you can pull a beat out in a club and maybe do a little scratch freestyle over it and it will sound as banging as any other beat or track you hear that night, if you see what I mean? I wanted the overall quality to be unlike any other break record. Most breaks get put out quickly or because they’re mostly independent releases they don’t have a lot of money to spend on mastering it to a higher level then usual. So for this one I wanted it to sound like any normal release, so we spent a lot of time mastering it and getting the sound perfectly right so that it doesn’t sound out of place played in a club or on a big system. And then when you think about that it’s also hard to put a lot of money behind the mastering when you’ve got all the other aspects of the release to think of, but for this one I think we did it right and we spent enough time and money on the mastering so that it ends up sounding much better then any other break I’ve put out, or most things out right now.

Cool, and have you got any other projects or releases coming up? Solo or with Audiomicid?

K: Yeah there’s a lot of stuff in the works right now. As far as Audiomicid is concerned we’ve still got a new LP planned, which we announced like a year ago now I think! We’re really taking our time and being stuck too on the distribution front. The LP is pretty much done, but we haven’t decided on how we want to go about releasing it and where and who with we’ll end up doing it. Money wise again, we’re a bit stuck because we’ve got our label but it’s a small indie affair and we’re releasing other things like the new break, so we’re sitting on it and thinking right now about the different options we have and how we can go about getting the best release possible for it. Thing is as well we’re working a lot on the live aspect of it. For this LP we’re really thinking about taking it live in a way we haven’t really done yet, and we want to do it a bit in a reverse manner then most tablist orientated projects. Instead of working with tables in the studio and then taking that live, we’re working with pretty much all machines, hard and software, in the studio and then working at transferring that live using only turntables. We did a little show a few months back, with 3 of us and it went well. We did roughly 70% turntables and 30% machines but it came out really well. Thing is again with something like this you have the issue of having to press a lot of stuff on vinyl and then deciding if you do a show only vinyl or then double it as a release too to try and make some money back, so we’re weighting our options right now.

Have you got any plans to maybe use the new CD decks, like the CDX, to try and solve that problem? In that way you could put on CD a lot of stuff and not necessarily rely on pressing vinyl too much.

K: Yeah we’re looking at that, but we’re all vinyl boys from the start so it’s a bit hard to break the habit of using vinyl only. We’re reluctant to throw everything or a lot of it towards CD, quality wise and sound wise too it’s very different, there’s a depth missing with CDs I find that vinyl has. When we did the live show a few months back, we used the machines for all the beats and the backbones of the tracks and then all the melodies and other fillings were done on the tables and it worked really well. We’ve got to juggle everything and see what the best options are in the end. Right now in France, like everywhere I’m sure, things are a bit bad on the music front. Loads of labels, companies going down so we’ve got to be sure that we do our thing right because we need to make the live show as best as possible but also monetarily viable in as many ways as possible.

Apart from that I’m still doing some productions on the side too, a lot of rap stuff mainly. And then some more personal bits, things closer to tablism, instrumentals, things like that. Thing is, I’m not forcing myself to do anything I don’t wanna do, and that’s it. I want to do things well and I’ve got to think about money at the end of the day, so I do things I like, do them well and hope I can make enough money from them to carry on doing what I like and want!

That’s really a major focus for me right now, having gone the independent route solo, with Audiomicid and the labels, you’ve got to constantly think that what you do has to make enough money to allow you to do the next thing you want. That’s the downside of having a small operation, you’ve got to constantly bring money back to allow you to move further down the line. For example Vertigo was made possible because I did a bunch of more mainstream mixtapes and club nights last year that allowed me to put money into Vertigo, which is a more personal project and has a totally different audience to the tapes and nights. But that’s the way it goes and I’m happy doing it! Artistically I think it’s good to do what you want without compromising your vision, and that’s why the indie route is the best for me and us.

Whereas a major deal might require you to change your music or dilute it

K: Exactly. I don’t see working with a major as anything wrong as long as you don’t end up compromising, but 9 times out of 10, that’s the case with them. I’d love to work on a major as long as I get to do what I want without any artistic limitations. Maybe it’ll happen one day, but right now the small operation we’ve got is perfect for us.

And if we switch quickly to the eternal DJ battle subject for a second, do you still follow what goes on with that?

K: I follow stuff still. Personally I still work on battle type routines, a bit different but still on that tip. Right now I’m doing quite a few club nights and so I like to include small routine segments and bring that to people in a different environment then battles. In France the battles have fallen a lot off the media radar so it’s good to be able to remind or introduce people to it by doing it in clubs as part of a set. I still love it but as far as me battling again I don’t think it’ll happen anytime soon. I’m happy with what I did and achieved, I won two world titles and battled for a few years. But now I’ve moved on and got to another level, where I want to concentrate on my music and moving further along without having to battle or think of it. Music is where my mind is at now.

Yeah when I spoke with Tony Vegas a few months back he mentioned that people like you have suffered from the lack of media interest in battles, that peaked in the late 90s. And ultimately now you can’t just live from battling, you’ve got to learn to move on and do what you want.

K: Totally, he’s hit it on the head. When you’re young and living with your parents, battling is dope, it’s a great way to let out steam and get to grips with music and what you wanna do in life. But then you grow up and you have to realise there’s more to life then things like that and that ultimately if music is what you wanna do for a living you must move on and get yourself set up outside of battling and the whole scene around it. You’ve got to make money and do what you want and in a way it’s another form of competition!

And you been following much of what goes on outside of battling? The more musical side of things, like in France what BNN and C2C have been doing and releasing?

K: Yeah that shit is dope as well! Because of what I do now, I listen to less scratch stuff then I used to before. I still practice regularly and follow techniques and things like that. Actually I heard the C2C track on the Hocus Pocus single (ed note: recently released on the On and On label, the track ‘Feel Good’ by C2C is the b-side of a hip hop single). And I thought that was dope, it’s really open musically, you don’t need to be a scratch nerd or know anything about it to enjoy it. I also heard parts of the BNN album and again I was really impressed with how they’ve managed to make music that is very scratch light in a way but impacts musically and still has the scratch edge to it that pleases fans. But it can also attract other people who might not fully understand all that is going on. It’s like what they did is the direct descendant from what the Piklz did which was very scratch heavy in its execution, where as their stuff is simpler on that side but still musically interesting and complex on a scratch tip. It’s getting us closer to what people might wanna call scratch music and that’s a good thing.

For me personally, scratching has really just become another tool in my production arsenal. I’ve very much shifted my mind frame away from just thinking about scratching and looking at it as another thing I can use to make music. When people can feel music made with scratching without hearing and/or knowing that it’s all scratched then I think it’s perfect. Mission is accomplished and you don’t need to argue the turntable as a musical instrument, just listen to the music.

When we last spoke a few years back in London, you mentioned how the French scene was very different from the UK and other countries in the way that DJ culture is very much not recognised as a valid musical part of the country’s culture and that it can be hard for people like you to do their thing without facing criticism or problems from the media, clubs etc… Would you say any of that has changed since then?

K: Well it’s evolved and it hasn’t… (laughs) Right now it’s not so much the DJ culture aspect that’s missing, it’s the musical side of the culture that is very lowkey and non existent. It’s here though and there is still an audience for it and things like that but in many ways it’s harder to get at then it used to be. For me having got involved with a label and all its different aspects, like what goes on behind the scenes, the things that aren’t obvious until you start working on them, has helped me a lot to do what I want. It’s good to be able to make music and have a talent for it but ultimately you also need to, I think, know the rest of what happens, the business side of things. It gives you another view of music and the scene. It’s important to be structured I think, to know other stuff, because you need talent, but on its own it might not get you very far.

And also for me, having a sizeable international reputation through battling has been a big bonus too. I can go overseas and make money to bring back to my own projects and label. I get people in Australia and places like that hitting me up and they know about me and want to bring me over, which is great. And then also you have to be able to show them that you’ve got other stuff too, not just a battle rep and being able to cut over beats and shit. They know you through your titles and you can use that to bring your new work to the table and to their shows and give people something good and different. You’ve got to do what you do well otherwise things will fuck up. As someone once said, I can’t remember who, you’ve got to stay focused in the now. No point in looking ahead or behind, because then you might miss your time in the spotlight and once it’s gone, it aint’ coming back any time soon! That’s what I try to do, think of the now and work on what I want and do it as well as I can. Otherwise no point in bothering.

And actually going back to prods and stuff, what do you use in the studio equipment wise?

K: Well… I use a computer, an MPC2000, S950 and a EMU expander for the computer too. Software wise, I use Reason, Cubase and Samplitude as well as a whole bunch of Vst plug ins and effects. Oh yeah and two decks and a mixer of course! (laughs)

How do you integrate the tables in your work now then?

K: I kinda integrate the tables after I work on soft or hardware. A few months back I spent a couple of weeks just transferring all my vinyls and samples onto the computer, so that I’ve got some good soundbanks to work with. So I’m not looking at my vinyls much these days, unless I remember a sample or a little riff that I can use. Apart from that it really depends on the production as to how I use the tables. Right now I use them less then my MPC for example. Last year on the first Audiomicid LP I was using mostly my turntables to add to the prods and the finished tracks. This year it’s gone the other way like I said, we’ve done the whole thing pretty much on machines only. Thing is as well, it’s kinda like a new learning process all over again, having to learn how to use the soft and hardware, all the things that come with production full time. Using new tools, it’s like learning to scratch and be a tablist all over again but on a different level.

Yeah, like you have to learn about frequencies and eq-ing and things like that, which you might not necessarily know about if all you do is DJ and fuck around with vinyls.

K: Well that’s it, I’m still learning even though I’ve been using some of these machines for a while now. It’s like from the music you hear in your head to the music you make with these machines, there are a lot of stops along the way, new things that you must learn in order to make the music in your head come out of your MPC for example. In a way once you’ve mastered the turntables to a certain level you can keep using them as a pastime, learning new things but with machines it’s much more technical, so you must learn to use them and then they’re pretty much mastered, whereas the turntable can take longer to master. Seeing the new break being mastered showed how much I still have to learn, about eqs, frequencies and so on. Scratching is very rhythmic for me, much more direct, you learn your patterns, your techniques and then it’s on, you can use those to do all types of crazy shit. But on a production angle you have to learn stuff that is way more technical. But then it’s also very useful to do that so that you can go back to your turntables and apply what you learnt in production to what you do using turntables. For example I still use the rhythmic influences from scratching when making drums on the MPC. So I try to make a beat that is very rhythmically similar to what could be achieved on turntables but then if you want to add melodies and other layers to the beat, you require production knowledge that isn’t as straightforward as you may think. Something like a classical music background will help you then, like being able to read and write notes. I’ve also been working with a drummer recently, a guy who does a lot of salsa, we’ve done some jams and I’ve learned so much from him rhythmically it’s amazing.

So do you enjoy working with musicians then? Is that something you think you guys might work towards?

K: Yeah you learn a lot from working with musicians like I was saying. Right now for me my main focus would be looking at integrating them into my productions and then have them live with us. We might do that on some of our new tracks, already we’ve had parts of track replayed live by musicians, to give them a more organic feel, take the mechanical feel you can get with using machines. It’s good to give stuff a human feel I think. We did some live stuff with the drummer, me and an MC and it was good, we were able to take away a lot of the loop based feel you get with most rap music and create something organic that I think is more interesting for those involved and for the audience.

As a special treat, Kodh has given us a video of his set at the French ITF in 2001, which you can download, right here.

So there you have it. You can find out more about the new break, Vertigo, and purchase by clinking onto Kodh's site or World DeeJay. Look out for more news on Audiomicid and Kodh's forthcoming releases as we get it on Spin Science and Turntable Radio. Many thanks to Kodh for his time. All photos courtesy of www.djkodh.com.