Double trouble, Chris Watson and Chris Coupe (better known as FYI Chris) have been releasing music together for the better part of five years. Their debut release, a 2014 white label on Seb Wildblood’s CHURCH, has garnered a fair wedge on Discogs and set the duo up for a fine few years since; releasing on Rhythm Section Intl, Lionoil Industries and their very own, West Friends.
Fresh from releasing their “Songs About People’s Feelings” EP on Toy Tonics, FYI Chris guide us through the artists and tracks that have shaped and moulded their own distinctive take on electronic music.
From Black Sabbath to Aphex Twin, this edition of the Roots & Influences mix series offers an especially personal insight into how the musical direction of two of the U.K’s finest up and coming producers came to be.
Our favourite aspect of the Roots & Influences series is the diversity of different approaches we find artists take with their mix. Whether it’s the uber meticulous track listing of Bosq (R&I012) or the slick mixing of Stamp the Wax’s Harri Pepper (R&I003), it’s refreshing to see artists take to a mix in their own unique way.
Pushing on with this trend, the FYI Chris chaps tell us that their outing has: “No mixes, mostly non-dancefloor cuts from personal heroes of ours. 1 turntable and a bunch of guitar effects. Mostly because we only had one deck set up at the time.”
Touching on the influences scattered throughout the hour, Chris and Chris share that they: “Grew up listening to sludge rock, gutter post-punk and MPC hip hop, as well as dance stations like KEY 103 and obviously DnB – we wanted to shine a light on as much of that stuff as we could. There is definitely a lot of stuff we missed out here. It was mostly a bunch of records we loved growing up and have found their way back in to our record collections.“
The mix is a real blend of old and new, and also comprises of: “Stuff that’s been on the home playlist recently but we could also have been listening to in the back of cars driving around with our mates back when we were fresh faced teens.”
“This is the kind of stuff we always go back to and certainly influences the way we make music. S’all dance music at the end of the day. With some choice added Youtube gold in-between (the internet definitely has played a crucial role in our musical development after all!”
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Black Sabath – Sweet Leaf
MF Doom – Go With The Flow
Nina Simone – West Wind
Pepe Bradock – Peer Pressure
Throbbing Gristle – Maggot Death (Live In Brighton)
RSD – Pretty Bright Light
Calibre – Let Me Hold You
Theo Parish – Dance Sing
A Guy Called Gerald – Voodoo Ray (Ballroom Mix)
DJ Clent – Hit It From The Back
KW Griff – Bring In The Kats
Aphex Twin – 4x Atlantis Take 1
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FYI Chris | Toy Tonics | Buy Songs About People’s Feelings on Bandcamp