At the front of the “New Breed” movement, Allied Vision have been my favourite Artist and music project for some years now. They impressed me when I heard “Demon Sect”, and since then I bought the other two albums “Unburied” and “MMBO”.
I always liked them more than others because they took the sound of EBM and made it sound more extreme and intense than any other acts around. There are other acts similair like DISMANTLED, but Allied Vision is determined to push the musical envelope. With the imminent release of “O.S. Bandwidth”, Which I have to say is already one of my favourite albums of all time, I finally got the chance to Interview my friend Oscar Storm….
1) Why did you form ALLIED VISION and what were your goals and aims to do with the project ?
I think one of the aims of AV is the mistery and the experimentation of the senses with all the elements available in this world of technology. I want to bring something that takes you away, mixing and creating sounds, melodies, basslines, samples and pounding rhythms and anything sounds interesting for me, may be it is not a commercial kind of music, but I prefer to bring something unexpected and deeply dislocating that touches my soul, I like to go extreme or mysterious music , rather than simple dancefloor music, I always have enjoyed this kind of music and that´s why I decide to make my own pulsating vision, so my passion to electronic disorder brought me to make my own project and here we are.
2) What equipment do you use to create your futuristic music with?
I have gone to a lot gear through the years. I think the gear is important, at least for me, because it is the key to make everything possible. How you use it is important but when knowledge and technology get together the results can go further, to make some sounds you need that gear and I want those heavy sounds in Allied Vision. my first synth was a Roland D10. It was expensive at that time and limited compared to the current gear,hopefully I could change it for a Roland JUPITER 6 ,which was the first good synth I had in this non electronic scene where I live. I started to buy monophonic, analog synths in the UK, like the Sequential Pro 1, Korg MS20 ,MS10 , but then sold them because I prefer to have analog with Midi , so now I have things like Oberheim OBMX, Waldorf Microwave , Alesis Andromeda (mainly used to make the new album with a lot of new sounds for the new album) , The Studio Electronics Omega is the latest synth I got sounds so warm and so good picture old analog sound. Also, I have a Yamaha TG77. Many sounds from Unburied and MMBO came from this one, and some others I had in the past but no longer use them. It is remarkable that I don´t use any virtual or analog modeling synths at the moment. I used a Virus on a couple of tracks on MMBO but then it I sold it , also I remember the nice Oberheim OB12 used on “HIDDEN” , for me the OB12 is the best analog modeling synth ever seen , for samplers I trust in my Akai S1100 fully expanded to 32MB , connected to SCSI ZIP drives, and of course my complete set of Eventide processors connected to a MACKIE 24.8 mixer. Of course these high tech toys are important but it’s also in how you use them. Without the right direction and coordination when using them, you don´t get anything interesting.
I want to bring something that takes you away, mixing and creating sounds, melodies, basslines, samples and pounding rhythms.
3) Will other acts ever appear on your own label Intracraneal possesion or is it just for Allied Vision?
No plans at the moment but we´ll see what happens though. We´ll be releasing a
Remix album with many bands from many countries appearing in the album, so this will be an interesting remix album as I chose the people I liked to work with.
4) You are releasing a new album this year ? What does the new album sound like and how is it different from the other two albums ?
I think this album has a new mixing approach on the last songs. It has evolved from the start to something very polished and pulsating. I think the basslines have gone further in this album and the mixing is also different , as well as sound details , it has some distorting sounds but they are different kind of distortion, the vocals havent not been recorded yet but I will try to make them sound a bit different, I think the evolution of this album has been very interesting. Unlike my other albums, this one has a climax.
5) Do you have a tracklist for the new album?
- Clockwork life
- Selfthinking
- Oxide paradise
- Coaxial hardware
- Xenon viewer
- Vivid scape
- Aftermath
- Deliver us from evil
- Alienate
Something is happening because bands are losing the spirit of making something ARTISTIC and VALUABLE, to make something softer to be more consumer friendly.
6) How do you see the future for ALLIED VISION and where this project fits in the EBM/industrial scene?
I don´t know where it´ll go, but I hope it goes ahead and succeeds where it should. Here in Spain I don´t see a future for Allied Vision , but it should succeed in Europe. I don´t know exactly where it fits; I think that´s something the listener should decide. I like the mystery and the climax , so where ever the senses can flow and touch and elevate your soul. We could say in in a sentence like this. “ART is the language of souls and EBM is its voice”.
7) What is your opinion on the current state of the EBM/industrial scene?
The scene has grown a lot since years, but only in quantity not in quality. There a only a few innovative things coming out now. There are more things that are easy going in order to catch more people, but i don´t share that idea. I make music that really pleases myself rather than a commercial market. I think the scene was smalller before but was more open 10 years ago. I could go to the disco and listen to electronic bands back then. Something is happening because bands are losing the spirit of making something ARTISTIC and VALUABLE, to make something softer to be more consumer friendly. That’s what it looks like to me.
8 ) What are your future plans for doing Allied Vision live and will you ever tour with other bands ?
I have something being prepared in Germany , but it is not confirmed yet. I would like to tour, but that depends on organizers and agencies which are very hard to get. We are kind of hidden band, but we will show up with our releases anyway this summer.
Interview by;
C’tan Worldkiller
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