THE ABOMINABLE MR TINKLER

The Abominable Mr Tinkler is a long-standing fixture of the Colchester music scene.  Tinkler is an act of caffeine-induced multiple sound degradation and sonic obliteration coupled with frantically spasmodic beats.

NP: Hello.  Who are you, where are you and how would you describe your music?

T: The Abominable Mr Tinkler, also known as Peter Ravan but you can call me Pete.  Currently residing in Colchester, Essex.  If I had to describe this project I would say that it came out of necessity to avoid the need to start up a new band/project for every type of music I wanted to create.  I suppose I have quite a broad taste and with this, although it tends to be primarily electronic, I feel there aren’t any genre restrictions in place so it offers me a certain musical freedom that I find very attractive.  Musically, it’s very chaotic, but mostly organised chaos.  I have a cartoon-like visual image of a large cupboard piled high with objects and if you open that door it’s all just going to come spilling out…followed by a bowling ball.  And possibly a Yorkshire Terrier.

NP: How did you get involved in the Long Division With Remainders project?

T: Enthusiastically.

NP: What approach did you take to remixing the tracks?

T: My approach varied depending on the tracks.  For the first two I played around with filters and effects, mostly reverbs.  I guess half-inspired by work from artists such as Tribes Of Neurot and Albert Ayler albeit in a more synthetic way.  Differently filtered versions of the pieces were layered over themselves or repeatedly processed, both forward and reversed, and in places the original dry sound completely removed leaving just the accumulated effect and reducing the track to mostly ambience and deep reverberations.  The second two tracks, I took a different approach.  Again running the original sounds through various processes but this time manipulating them into (mainly) percussive notes and noises, then combining them with new sounds to construct beats and rhythms which I used to create entirely new pieces.

NP: How creative is the art of the remix?

T: As creative as the individuals who make them.

NP: What do you think you brought to the compositions?

T: Well hopefully the idea that a remix can be more than just a slight re-working of source material.  That it can be a complete re-imagining from the ground up.  Of mood, rhythm, dynamics, melody, texture, etc.  And I think it helped in a way that the source material were not “songs” as such to explore that.  It’s by no means a new concept but I think it’s an important one.

NP: What is the best time, state and/or mindset for the listener to hear your work?

T: Ha ha.  I find this one quite hard to answer because things can get quite schizophrenic.  The LDWR EP in particular leads you into a state of serenity, before wrenching you in completely the other direction, so it ends up being neither purely aggressive nor peaceful, rather a combination of both.  I guess I’d have to say a receptive mindset.

NP: How long did it take you to do your remixes?

T: I find it varies track by track; sometimes pieces come together relatively quickly, sometimes not.  What really takes the time for me though, is when there are a lot of separate little sounds going on, due to the way I tend to work it can be a long process getting it all to sit in any kind of cohesive manner.

NP: Which instruments/equipment did you use?

T: Primarily a computer.  And turntables, sampler, fx pedals etc.

NP: What is your all time favourite remix?

T: That’s difficult, there are too many.  To mention just one would be an injustice to all the other fantastic ones I’ve heard.

NP: What other music projects (past and present) are you involved in?

T: Currently, as well as Tinkler, I have a more down-tempo/ambient project F-Lithium; Mother Sky, an improvisation/jam/post-rock type band in which I drum; and The Coriolis Effect, a project featuring a series of recorded soundscape pieces that build and evolve over long periods of time.  But there are others.

NP: Where are things heading?

T: With The Abominable Mr Tinkler it’s hard to say, I try to keep things diverse.  I’ve been playing live dates, not just gigs and dance events, but parties, noise nights, gallery spaces and multimedia events.  I’ve really been into the idea of spending more time working with mixed-media and collaborating with other artists since I did 1^st cut (an alternative soundtrack piece to accompany the 1929 Luis Bunuel film “Un Chien Andalou”).  I also plan to release more EPs and possibly an album in the near future as well as continuing to remix for other artists.  Musically, things have been becoming progressively harder and faster of late, but that’s not really pre-meditated.  Realistically you can only go so hard and fast, so it could go anywhere next.  I guess we’ll find out when it gets there.

THE ABOMINABLE MR TINKLER