Walking down East Wall Road in the rain, conjuring and discarding ideas on how to spin this interview, my feet splash through puddles in time to Seventeen. Wild piano mirrors my urgent state of mind while traffic finds itself dubbed to rumbling drums. As track seams into track, I realise that this music was made to walk, breathe, live to: filled with purpose and intent, it will take you where you need to go.
Lube: Project X began as a three-piece in 2004 to eventually whittle down to LPX, moniker for Leigh O’Gorman’s singular work as an experimental electronic musician. Regular gig/club nights of scintillating Irish talent were established under the Electric Fix promotions label until its demise in the former half of 2007 when Leigh moved to High Wycombe in Warwickshire, England to complete a degree in music management.
A lengthy muffler of influence and personality peel away to reach the core of this man and his methods. Dig the ten-foot scarf: it’s his second, the first having been stolen at a gig in Cork.

“Maybe the scarf will resurface in a decade, a la Bono’s stetson?”
I ask, ever mindful of the value in potential-celebrity garb.
“That’d be amazing - at least then I can stitch the two together. You always knew in (Doctor Who) episodes that when Tom Baker fell in a hole, the scarf would be used. Only once did that not happen!”
Trust him. Aside from encyclopaediac knowledge of BBC’s finest vintage, Leigh is also an authority on Hollywood teen stars. “I worked in a video store for four years ’til August 2007. Dullest. Job. Ever!! We had to push new releases yet at the same time were not allowed to watch anything above ‘12′ rating. So I watched nearly every Lyndsey Lohan and Hilary Duff film repeatedly for the last four years…and I’ve still never seen any Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, ET or Matrix films!”

At the launch of Seventeen at the BoomBoom Room, January 7th.

“As with TV and music, I’m more drawn to films from the Thirties through to the Sixties. I’m just not pushed to write much in the way of classically structured pop music (intro-verse-short chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-verse-chorus-refrain-end).
I love Sandinista! by The Clash: it’s a lesson that you can do anything with music and you should never confine yourself within a structure.”

Citing influences from ’70s punk, early U2, ’20s ragtime (”free form percussion-driven jazz drives me wild!”) industrial, electronica, folk, funk, soul and ’60s garage rock, it comes as no surprise on listening to his new EP Seventeen or its precursor Experiments in Dub and Hi-Fi (released free through Alphabet Set, home to T-Woc and Prince Kong) that this is no ordinary electronica. What’s noticeable about Leigh’s taste for genres are the timescales: possibly the most exciting developmental peaks are mapped out here. Would it be fair to say they’re as close as it gets to perfect music?
“Yes to a degree but when you examine them you also have to take into account what was going on directly beforehand and often there’s a (social climate) level of drudgery that leads to temporary musical upheaval.
“One thing that annoys me about the current climate within the industry is this idea that a musical revolution can be forced with heavy marketing and to be honest you won’t find that on MySpace. Although it’s a nice spot to come across the odd good band, I still think the best way through it all is to gig like fuck…but also to dress well!
“So many believe a few tracks on the net will do wonders…what worries me is when artists record something, it’s often on the net a day or so later - no matter the quality of the recording. Of course the net is there and it’d be crazy not to use it, it just needs to be used properly.”

Experiments… begins with Some Decent Fucking Music For Once, a 24-second loop so truly hardcore, headspace is instantly transformed into a techno paradise only missing semi-naked, euphoric Germans. Followed shortly by the original Seventeen, one of the titled dub experiments, difference in songs is marked by original melodies of startling clarity (LPX believes in high standards with all tracks a delicious 320 kbps). Bass frothing deep below, the song truly grabs the knackers with its afore-mentioned urgent piano, although this doesn’t kick in until mid-song, unlike the newer version which begins with tinkling ivories, a commanding introduction to say the least. Exceedingly clear is the effort and time spent perfecting details.
“A lot of basic work can be knocked out in a couple of hours but it takes time to refine it. Seventeen took ages - the bass and drums were down and for about seven or eight months I was thinking “what next?”. Then one day I was at the piano and played it accidentally while bass was rumbling in the background and that was that. I’m often surprised when I hear it. I hate to sound pompous but there are only a few tracks of mine that I hear and can say “Jaysus, did I do that?!”
Pomposity can be waived on some occasions surely; aside from piano and keyboards, LPX also plays guitar, harmonica, bass, drums and plans to pick up a trumpet soon. “I also thoroughly believe that the voice is an undervalued instrument. For example, I’ve a few tracks that are purely vocals messing with tonal ranges, four or five people singing in different keys which is of course what barbershop is built on. Unfortunately I can’t do that on stage. There are a huge number of songs that I’d love to play but can’t (won’t) because there’s a necessity in using natural instruments. I use a lot of acoustic basses, violins and brass sections and just feel that I ‘can’t’ play them live…that’s why some of my stage stuff is rather sparse.
“Frustration also comes from the fact that I often sing and play piano or keyboards on stage and when I finish people ask me how long I’ve been DJing. A good few ‘laptop musos’ around at the mo’ are actually classically trained.
“That said, I find most electronica/dance really, really boring. It’s like the Road review…I couldn’t really understand the dubby electronic bit, I thought I’d moved on from that. My new stuff is geared towards the acoustic sound of Jake’s Lament and When the Gods Punish Me….”
Leigh’s bewilderment regarding Road Records’ review (”five slices of subtle dubby electronic sounds”) is understandable: the contrast between Experiments and Seventeen is stark. Gone are the overt bass and beats, replaced for the most part by ambient guitar and strong keys which strike the listener as simultaneously gentle and baleful, particularly in When the Gods Punish Me… which should certainly appeal to lovers of intelligent, contemporary music. In fact, the only song to retain the dub format is the title track, deliciously crisp in the rhythm section and so unique it reverbates through the brain for hours. What brought on such an about-turn in technique?
“Boredom. I’ve never been a big laptop-music fan, I got sick of a scene that loved itself too much. Electronic music is a huge movement that came about late nineteenth/early twentieth century and I love the inventiveness of it all but there is something horribly dull about the whole laptop shindig. A lot of the knowledge, theory and science of the original sample doesn’t travel well on a laptop and I feel it’s like using a sound as opposed to using an instrument. It’s not the music I’m criticising but the mindset behind it. I personally find that a lot of the evolution is not that inventive. However Herv and Prince Kong really pull it off.”
So while we’re on the subject of good electronica, who cuts the mustard?
“I really dig T-Woc (co-founder of the Alphabet Set), Lakker and The Last Sound… Super Extra Bonus Party are also class but that’s cheating because they’re mates!”

LPX, The Electric Fix, Lube: Project X, Leighton P. Xavier or plain ole Leigh O’Gorman: here is a man of many tastes and demands in sound. Armed with iron-filing ingredients necessary but seemingly unsure of his aim, this scientist’s conclusion appears to be a test-tube of coleslaw: unparallelled, volatile and absolutely delicious….

Download Experiments in Dub and HiFi from the Alphabet Set.

Buy Seventeen from Road Records.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008 at 8:49 pm and is filed under EPs, Freeeeee Stuff!, Interviews, Music, Photography, Unsigned Bands. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.