Radio Slave‘s label Rekids is on a generational run, dropping some of the best long players in the underground over the last several years.
Released just prior to the calendar flip is another excellent LP, the latest from acclaimed DJ & producer Oliver Dollar. It features a rousing roster of collaborators and a soulful, funk-driven house aesthetic that feels both out-of-time and right-on-time. Naturally, he calls it Contemporary.
Hey Oliver! Where are you at right now and what are you doing this week?
Right now I’m in Berlin, I just got back from my weekend gigging in London.
Contemporary was first an EP series released over a year before coming together as an album — had they all been done and submitted at once and were broken up like that by Rekids?
I was asked by Radio Slave to do a short album and I sent Rekids a sting of ideas and they were pretty pleased with them, so we started developing them. Of course they were tracks made along the journey too, but it was all a part of the plan to release them as 12 inches in different parts, which is what I personally prefer these days, because it would be a waste of tracks to release them all at once. I guess times have changed, and I did this with my first album on Classic Music Company too.
What do you think about that as a release strategy?
I think it’s great for people who don’t wanna buy it as a 4x vinyl record set, so they can basically choose which part of those four they most defiantly need. But of course there’s a deluxe double vinyl out now too.
Where music is going right now is never why I started this in the first place. It’s sad to see that everything these days is more important than the music. But I stick to what I love.
So let’s go through the journey of making this record. If you could find a ‘start’ date, when was it? Was there a track that was written first?
Yeah, there’s one track I wrote 7 years ago but every other track is made in the last 3 years.
What gear did you use on this album, is there anything notable in terms of software or modular kit that is a cornerstone of the sound here?
To be honest I did this album how I always work, no secret ingredient here. I usually start all tunes in a hardware sampler and finesse it with a Class A Preamp into the DAW so nothing really unusual here for me.
More generally, what do you start with when you write? A lot of producers in dance music start with the drums, but your best tracks are often very melodic, you’re really good at coming up with very hooky, very captivating melodies.
I always start with solid drums which is the foundation, and from there I build and play around with samples or basslines etc. Then they just come together… like magic.
When was it finished? How did you know it was finished? How, in general, do you know a track you’re working on is ‘finished’?
Ha! That’s a great question. We never all really know when the picture is painted right? But sometimes your gut tell you that’s it, and I feel like 11 tracks is a good number of tracks for an album.
I love the Chicago vibe of ‘Funked Up,’ which I think is also the only track without a collaborator. Was that a late addition just to throw some spice in the mix?
That is the track I mentioned before, which was aging like a wine for 7 years before I decided to release it as part of Contemporary. Because I’m playing it out for such a long time and it still feels fresh since day one, it’s fair to release it now. It’s been well-tested!
I usually don’t read press releases before listening to records, so I hit PLAY and just started listening to ‘that new Oliver Dollar joint.’ After about four tracks I thought that this was such an anti-modern album — there’s no copping the sounds that are trendy, like generic, bouncy techno that’s trendy among DJ influencers at the moment, or that progressive-influenced deep house, or that sanitized Afro house that sounds like the new Lion King soundtrack. You don’t have to agree with me that all of that stuff is terrible, but you definitely seemed to double down on soul, on groove, and on underground house music. Would you say that’s accurate?
Yeah I totally agree. I feel like where music is going right now is never why I started this in the first place. It’s sad to see that everything these days is more important than the music. But I stick to what I love.
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Also the collaborators appear to have been selected based on talent rather than their social media reach. I mean it’s always been true that remixer’s names help sell records, even back to the vinyl days. But these days it often feels like dance music collabs have all the spirit of a Nike x FIBA board room luncheon — I’ll bring my follower count to your follower count and oh, if you want to do some of that jazzy stuff to the track, that’s cool too? And then I flip to the cover art and see ‘that new Oliver Dollar joint’ is titled Contemporary. Funny! I’m not saying it was tongue-in-cheek, but Contemporary certainly hits different than the way most ‘contemporary’ albums are made. Your thoughts, Mr. Dollar?
I chose my collaborators on this album based on talent instead of what I can gain online to look good on social media and streaming sites. For me it is important that these tracks are being played in a club environment and make people dance and feel good instead of being forgotten tomorrow.
I called this album Contemporary in a kind of ironic way, but also wanted to show what I’m currently working on, and by having all these talented collaborators with me along the way. So this is Contemporary O.D.
You started your career making what I think were essentially DJ tools, certainly tracks for DJs to play at parties (one of which, ‘Do Ya Thang’ with the Moodymann vocal sample, blew up beyond what anyone expected). Are you still making tracks for DJs? Do you think of a wider audience — someone jamming at home with a bluetooth speaker?
I still make tools but I wanted to work more with vocalists and musicians to show a different side of my taste instead of copying over & over the same formula to make a straight up tool. Don’t get me wrong… I love to do straight up DJ tools but an album is a deeper project than a 4 track DJ tool, so you have to expand it musically to make it more interesting, and I think this is a bit different. I’m super happy with how it’s come together.
Contemporary by Oliver Dollar is out now on digital and 12″ vinyl from Rekids.
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