The Advent
From humble studio tea-boy beginnings, to nineties techno phenomena The Advent, Cisco Ferreira has been a driving force behind dance music production for well over a decade. He's experienced the whole freakshow, and enjoyed every minute of it — well, not quite... Following a logical spilt from long-term gigging partner Colin McBean, Cisco Ferreira turns down the mixing desk and lets off some steam for Overload Media.
Cisco’s old school. “I’ve been doing it since 1987 — a long time,” he recounts, enthusiastically positioning himself in tongue-in-cheek techno poses to the bemusement of our photographer. “It’s an industry that you can't look at in the short term; you have to look at doing it for a long time. I'm married, I've got two kids now, but I still want to be making music when I'm 50.”
Cisco, the engineer responsible for half of CJ Bolland's incredible album The 4th Sign, has spent the last seven years applying his studio skills to the dancefloor in production partnership with Colin McBean. “If I were to release an ambient Advent album it really wouldn't work,” he smiles, knowing that those who buy his records associate The Advent with techno, electro and a sprinkling of house, but certainly nothing beatless. “The thing that's closest to my heart is clubbing. When I was going out clubbing I used to dance and really get down if the DJ was working hard, everyone sweating... I used to love those times. You'd go out and really enjoy yourself, and the music touched you.”
DJs, press and punters alike went wild over the first EP releases on Internal, and by the time their debut album Elements of Life hit the shops The Advent were well on their way to becoming the hottest live techno act on the circuit. Five years down the line and Cisco is still busy searching for new formulas to work the floor, both as a live show and on vinyl, while Colin now pursues a more house-orientated sound under his Mr G pseudonym. The studio separation was totally harmonious. Indeed, for both of them it was the logical solution needed to move the music on. “I was more like the engineer-programmer person, and he was more the DJ with the collection. He's got at least 20 to 30,000 records now, covering everything: R&B, disco, reggae, electronic, new wave, etc. Any tune that I'd say to him “I’ve been thinking about this tune...” — he'd bring it in the following week. He wanted to get into the programming side, and eventually that started to happen and he needed his own set-up. So we decided to split. Not in terms of hatred or anything like that — he was the best man at my wedding, know what I mean?”
Further change is on the horizon, with his new label project poised for action and an imminent (albeit temporary, he says) move to Portugal also on the cards. “I’ve just started a house label in New York, Alpha Recordings, which is going to be an outlet for my G Flame stuff, but I'd like another label to [reach] other outlets as well, maybe an electro label. There's so much to do out there, tracks to be made that are going to touch people — not just me, but everyone. The best tracks are still to be recorded. If you think about the music change from now to ten years, and the quality, it's totally different.”
Like the split with Colin, the move to Portugal is a sign of moving on, temporarily displacing shadowy London with new, sunnier climes. "There's a lot of really good techno producers in England, probably more than anywhere else in the world. They're appreciated everywhere except back home. London, in terms of the club scene, is very influenced by the US. That's cool, because there is a lot of good stuff coming from the US, but they don't really look for talent at home. It's only very recently that they've been doing that, and then it's been Europe, like France — Stardust and stuff. That's just Thomas [Bangalter] doing something else, apart from the Daft Punk stuff, and they picked up on it. Some people don't even know he's in Daft Punk. The idiots in the industry are like “Oh, Stardust, very good —'70s revival band.”
Their Shaded Elements remix album project showcased many of Cisco and Colin's favourite producers. Based on material from their Internal album and subsequently released on the label in 1996, the project featured UK artists such as Steve Bicknell, Luke Slater, Mark Bell and Surgeon. “When we released Elements of Life, we got really good feedback and we decided we had to get these guys and do remixes. So we gave the concept to Internal. The only ones we didn't get were Jeff, Maurizio and DJ Hell. Mills just took a while and we couldn't wait for him. Maurizio just doesn't do things unless it's for people from Detroit, and Hell was doing his album. We had everybody else that we wanted really, and the feedback again was wicked.” But it was shortly after this release that Cisco and Colin began experiencing problems with industry mechanisms, as Internal collapsed from the inside. It all went Pete Tong, literally, as Cisco and Colin found themselves relocated at FFRR with a greener-than-grass Tong at the label's helm. As Cisco once said in an interview with Magic Feet Magazine, “Pete Tong ain't the best A&R man for techno.” And ain't that the truth. “He didn't criticize it, but you could feel that he didn't really understand it. We were like “do you know anything about up-to-date techno?” And he was like, 'Well, I'm into Kevin Saunderson, Derrick May, Juan Atkins..' They're still cool DJs, but I'm asking him “have you heard of Jeff Mills, Underground Resistance, Surgeon?” All these people, and he honestly hadn't heard of any of them. That was four years ago and now he's had Jeff doing the Essential Mix and all that. He's trying to be hip and 'Yeah, I know all about it', but he doesn't know shit. He's just into the big boys, commercial, and that's the way the industry works in this country. Because of the big superclubs, it's all become about hype and fashion, and not so much about the music.”
It's not surprising that The Advent do very little press. “I don't do interviews,” states Cisco, somewhat wrongly, before launching into a tirade about the commercialisation of dance music and the tabloid-style exploitation of drug culture. “It's fucking cheap. A cheap PR stunt. They know it's going to work and that people are going to buy it. But our scene's about the music — that, to me, is important, but with these twats it's like 'We gotta get drugs, we gotta get T-shirts made with pills on. We've really gotta think of good PR for this month's mag — I know, we'll get the Gatecrasher kids on the cover, totally out of it…' It's boring. Like [Judge] Jules saying he can't stand people with glow sticks… Well, stop playing at their parties then. They only look like that because they want to look like you mate, and you look like you might have glow sticks hidden in your back pocket! I think the only person out of that whole scene who's giving any decent exposure is Coxy. He'll go to a techno club and play techno.”
You know that, given the chance, Cisco could talk for weeks about his experiences on the road with Colin. From the Liquid Rooms in Tokyo and The Omen in Frankfurt, to Berlin's Love Parade, Tribal Gathering, the Orbit, Atomic Jam and, er, Cream. “We played at Cream once for Carl [Cox], me and Colin a long time ago, and it was the worst experience we've ever had. They put us right on the fucking corner, and only about three people could stand there. We were right under the smoke machine, with it pointing at our faces. The music went down, but they just didn't know how to put us there. It was like 'live show? We don't get many of those. We get PAs, but what, you're bringing your studio?' They're just not used to that. The live house acts that come over, like Ultra Nate, that's not live music.”
Ask Cisco, or a seasoned Advent fan, which experience is the better — The Advent live or DJing — and there'll be no hesitation. “I like live. You can communicate with the crowd in a different way than when you're DJing. When DJing you can only utilise plastic, live you can utilise what's in the plastic, extend certain sections; if there's something that's really driving the crowd mad then you can carry that on and really fuck them up if you want to. You have total control. With records you can have control, but that's down to your skill, how you can cut records in, how you can mix two constantly to make it sound like another record. I hate these people who say a techno live act is just a guy on stage banging his head up and down. I don't see anything wrong with that, because if you've got a live performance from one guy and his little setup kicking arse, and then there's you with a guy playing the drums, a guy playing the congas, and the music's shit...”
Seizing the opportunity, I ask him about the leaders of the new school. “I like Frank Hunter from Birmingham, I really like his style. He's part of the Regis Camp, the Downward Crew — I really like his flavour. And Angel Alanis, I'm beginning to like more his house stuff than his techno stuff. Chris McCormack is just slamming; everything he does is just really well produced and well thought out. When you play it, it just kicks arse. He's there. His records are on fire.”
Through discussing new talent, the recent Miami music conference enters conversation. “I spoke to a few guys who came back from there and they said it was really kind of just, you know…” I ask Cisco if he ever attends such events. “Not at all. If I was to go there it would be from a raver's point of view, it wouldn't be to chat, everyone talking on the poolside with their G-strings on... “Oh, nice G-string David Morales, where did you get that one from?” Instead of talking about white labels they're talking about fucking G-strings. It's not about music now.” With his level of insight into the industry, he doesn't seem particularly phased about the recent UR/Sony cover version controversy. “Major record company — it's typical, they shouldn't do that,” he moans, “but at the end of the day you're getting people cover records all day long. All Saints do it, Spice Girls do it. It's part of the industry — “Oh, we love that song, we'll cover it.” I think they've taken the same approach with this track, but they've picked on the wrong record. The original is such a beautiful piece of music — there's nothing out there that sounds like it. It is its own piece of work, and when you hear it out in a club it's such a wicked feeling, it's just got that vibe to it. I went to some shops in the States three weeks ago, and they were all refusing to stock it. That's good. It's fucked up. There are not too many rules in the industry. If somebody wants to bootleg your track then they can do it, release it, black label, no information. It's in the shops, some guy out the back of a van — 'how many do you want? 20? No problem, done.' There's no rules, it's a dog-eat-dog industry.”
Since the problematic launch of their New Beginnings album on FFRR, Cisco's Kombination Research label has been the output source for most Advent material. You can almost see the scars across his face from many years of involvement with the industry. “I’m not going to go into a big deal, not for a long time, because you can do it yourself. The rewards are better as well. They're not on a bigger scale, because a major record company will pump money into your adverts, get you into the press and all the right magazines — but I'm not really into that. We've played that game and I'm not sure if I want that ever again. Everyone who is making cutting music is doing it on their own labels. It does work because you can portray your image exactly how you want it; there's no stupid arsehole saying to you “the hi hats are too low, can you turn the hi-hats up please!” It's like HELLO, if you want to make music then go into the studio and make your own fucking music. You make music for yourself and what you want out of it. I'm lucky and fortunate that I'm getting paid to do something that I love. Music is an important part of life. It would be a fucking strange place without it.”
Cisco, the engineer responsible for half of CJ Bolland's incredible album The 4th Sign, has spent the last seven years applying his studio skills to the dancefloor in production partnership with Colin McBean. “If I were to release an ambient Advent album it really wouldn't work,” he smiles, knowing that those who buy his records associate The Advent with techno, electro and a sprinkling of house, but certainly nothing beatless. “The thing that's closest to my heart is clubbing. When I was going out clubbing I used to dance and really get down if the DJ was working hard, everyone sweating... I used to love those times. You'd go out and really enjoy yourself, and the music touched you.”
DJs, press and punters alike went wild over the first EP releases on Internal, and by the time their debut album Elements of Life hit the shops The Advent were well on their way to becoming the hottest live techno act on the circuit. Five years down the line and Cisco is still busy searching for new formulas to work the floor, both as a live show and on vinyl, while Colin now pursues a more house-orientated sound under his Mr G pseudonym. The studio separation was totally harmonious. Indeed, for both of them it was the logical solution needed to move the music on. “I was more like the engineer-programmer person, and he was more the DJ with the collection. He's got at least 20 to 30,000 records now, covering everything: R&B, disco, reggae, electronic, new wave, etc. Any tune that I'd say to him “I’ve been thinking about this tune...” — he'd bring it in the following week. He wanted to get into the programming side, and eventually that started to happen and he needed his own set-up. So we decided to split. Not in terms of hatred or anything like that — he was the best man at my wedding, know what I mean?”
Further change is on the horizon, with his new label project poised for action and an imminent (albeit temporary, he says) move to Portugal also on the cards. “I’ve just started a house label in New York, Alpha Recordings, which is going to be an outlet for my G Flame stuff, but I'd like another label to [reach] other outlets as well, maybe an electro label. There's so much to do out there, tracks to be made that are going to touch people — not just me, but everyone. The best tracks are still to be recorded. If you think about the music change from now to ten years, and the quality, it's totally different.”
Like the split with Colin, the move to Portugal is a sign of moving on, temporarily displacing shadowy London with new, sunnier climes. "There's a lot of really good techno producers in England, probably more than anywhere else in the world. They're appreciated everywhere except back home. London, in terms of the club scene, is very influenced by the US. That's cool, because there is a lot of good stuff coming from the US, but they don't really look for talent at home. It's only very recently that they've been doing that, and then it's been Europe, like France — Stardust and stuff. That's just Thomas [Bangalter] doing something else, apart from the Daft Punk stuff, and they picked up on it. Some people don't even know he's in Daft Punk. The idiots in the industry are like “Oh, Stardust, very good —'70s revival band.”
Their Shaded Elements remix album project showcased many of Cisco and Colin's favourite producers. Based on material from their Internal album and subsequently released on the label in 1996, the project featured UK artists such as Steve Bicknell, Luke Slater, Mark Bell and Surgeon. “When we released Elements of Life, we got really good feedback and we decided we had to get these guys and do remixes. So we gave the concept to Internal. The only ones we didn't get were Jeff, Maurizio and DJ Hell. Mills just took a while and we couldn't wait for him. Maurizio just doesn't do things unless it's for people from Detroit, and Hell was doing his album. We had everybody else that we wanted really, and the feedback again was wicked.” But it was shortly after this release that Cisco and Colin began experiencing problems with industry mechanisms, as Internal collapsed from the inside. It all went Pete Tong, literally, as Cisco and Colin found themselves relocated at FFRR with a greener-than-grass Tong at the label's helm. As Cisco once said in an interview with Magic Feet Magazine, “Pete Tong ain't the best A&R man for techno.” And ain't that the truth. “He didn't criticize it, but you could feel that he didn't really understand it. We were like “do you know anything about up-to-date techno?” And he was like, 'Well, I'm into Kevin Saunderson, Derrick May, Juan Atkins..' They're still cool DJs, but I'm asking him “have you heard of Jeff Mills, Underground Resistance, Surgeon?” All these people, and he honestly hadn't heard of any of them. That was four years ago and now he's had Jeff doing the Essential Mix and all that. He's trying to be hip and 'Yeah, I know all about it', but he doesn't know shit. He's just into the big boys, commercial, and that's the way the industry works in this country. Because of the big superclubs, it's all become about hype and fashion, and not so much about the music.”
It's not surprising that The Advent do very little press. “I don't do interviews,” states Cisco, somewhat wrongly, before launching into a tirade about the commercialisation of dance music and the tabloid-style exploitation of drug culture. “It's fucking cheap. A cheap PR stunt. They know it's going to work and that people are going to buy it. But our scene's about the music — that, to me, is important, but with these twats it's like 'We gotta get drugs, we gotta get T-shirts made with pills on. We've really gotta think of good PR for this month's mag — I know, we'll get the Gatecrasher kids on the cover, totally out of it…' It's boring. Like [Judge] Jules saying he can't stand people with glow sticks… Well, stop playing at their parties then. They only look like that because they want to look like you mate, and you look like you might have glow sticks hidden in your back pocket! I think the only person out of that whole scene who's giving any decent exposure is Coxy. He'll go to a techno club and play techno.”
You know that, given the chance, Cisco could talk for weeks about his experiences on the road with Colin. From the Liquid Rooms in Tokyo and The Omen in Frankfurt, to Berlin's Love Parade, Tribal Gathering, the Orbit, Atomic Jam and, er, Cream. “We played at Cream once for Carl [Cox], me and Colin a long time ago, and it was the worst experience we've ever had. They put us right on the fucking corner, and only about three people could stand there. We were right under the smoke machine, with it pointing at our faces. The music went down, but they just didn't know how to put us there. It was like 'live show? We don't get many of those. We get PAs, but what, you're bringing your studio?' They're just not used to that. The live house acts that come over, like Ultra Nate, that's not live music.”
Ask Cisco, or a seasoned Advent fan, which experience is the better — The Advent live or DJing — and there'll be no hesitation. “I like live. You can communicate with the crowd in a different way than when you're DJing. When DJing you can only utilise plastic, live you can utilise what's in the plastic, extend certain sections; if there's something that's really driving the crowd mad then you can carry that on and really fuck them up if you want to. You have total control. With records you can have control, but that's down to your skill, how you can cut records in, how you can mix two constantly to make it sound like another record. I hate these people who say a techno live act is just a guy on stage banging his head up and down. I don't see anything wrong with that, because if you've got a live performance from one guy and his little setup kicking arse, and then there's you with a guy playing the drums, a guy playing the congas, and the music's shit...”
Seizing the opportunity, I ask him about the leaders of the new school. “I like Frank Hunter from Birmingham, I really like his style. He's part of the Regis Camp, the Downward Crew — I really like his flavour. And Angel Alanis, I'm beginning to like more his house stuff than his techno stuff. Chris McCormack is just slamming; everything he does is just really well produced and well thought out. When you play it, it just kicks arse. He's there. His records are on fire.”
Through discussing new talent, the recent Miami music conference enters conversation. “I spoke to a few guys who came back from there and they said it was really kind of just, you know…” I ask Cisco if he ever attends such events. “Not at all. If I was to go there it would be from a raver's point of view, it wouldn't be to chat, everyone talking on the poolside with their G-strings on... “Oh, nice G-string David Morales, where did you get that one from?” Instead of talking about white labels they're talking about fucking G-strings. It's not about music now.” With his level of insight into the industry, he doesn't seem particularly phased about the recent UR/Sony cover version controversy. “Major record company — it's typical, they shouldn't do that,” he moans, “but at the end of the day you're getting people cover records all day long. All Saints do it, Spice Girls do it. It's part of the industry — “Oh, we love that song, we'll cover it.” I think they've taken the same approach with this track, but they've picked on the wrong record. The original is such a beautiful piece of music — there's nothing out there that sounds like it. It is its own piece of work, and when you hear it out in a club it's such a wicked feeling, it's just got that vibe to it. I went to some shops in the States three weeks ago, and they were all refusing to stock it. That's good. It's fucked up. There are not too many rules in the industry. If somebody wants to bootleg your track then they can do it, release it, black label, no information. It's in the shops, some guy out the back of a van — 'how many do you want? 20? No problem, done.' There's no rules, it's a dog-eat-dog industry.”
Since the problematic launch of their New Beginnings album on FFRR, Cisco's Kombination Research label has been the output source for most Advent material. You can almost see the scars across his face from many years of involvement with the industry. “I’m not going to go into a big deal, not for a long time, because you can do it yourself. The rewards are better as well. They're not on a bigger scale, because a major record company will pump money into your adverts, get you into the press and all the right magazines — but I'm not really into that. We've played that game and I'm not sure if I want that ever again. Everyone who is making cutting music is doing it on their own labels. It does work because you can portray your image exactly how you want it; there's no stupid arsehole saying to you “the hi hats are too low, can you turn the hi-hats up please!” It's like HELLO, if you want to make music then go into the studio and make your own fucking music. You make music for yourself and what you want out of it. I'm lucky and fortunate that I'm getting paid to do something that I love. Music is an important part of life. It would be a fucking strange place without it.”
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