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2005/06: Metro News: Danny McFadden
Vitamin Enriched. An interview with B12
Recognised as pioneers of IDM [Intelligent Dance Music], the B12 duo eventually disappeared following the catalogue of proto-electronica releases that stretched back as far as 1991. Their disappearance was even reported as “mysterious” with whispers circulating throughout the techno fraternity that they’d been prompted to withdraw from the scene in reaction to how the genre was developing. These contributors to Warp Records’ groundbreaking Artificial Intelligence albums were then assumed to be demonstrating some disdain via the quietest of protests. So when B12’s Michael Golding breaks that silence in 2005 – just prior to his and Steve Rutter’s live set alongside Skam’s Posthuman at Sequence – we’re just a little disappointed at his oh-so-simple explanation.
‘Personal circumstances,’ he shrugs. ‘We both got married, had kids and were no longer living in the same place. Honestly, there wasn’t much more to it.’
Still, he will go on to hint at some past label frustrations. Noting how their earliest releases through their own B12 logo were ‘more fun’ and ‘simpler’ and, in fact, may hold the key to their future work. That they may even bypass such activities by making some of the twenty or so new, non-ambient/Detroit-recounting tracks they’ve made available solely as downloads. Even suggesting that their old Warp home may play a part via the company’s Bleep.com MP3 haven.
‘Maybe we won’t even release a proper record again,’ he adds while probably upsetting all those who swooned over the pair’s Electro Soma and Time Tourist long-players. ‘After all, this scene’s so analytical. It’s so difficult to have the freedom just to put out music that you really believe in.
‘It’s like there are those rumours going around that Aphex Twin won’t be making another record for Warp and, if it’s true, I can understand why he wants to put out more low-key releases. You should be allowed to avoid the expectations of label personnel and the public and just use your gut instinct to create music.’
While Golding also respects how, former roster-mates, like Plaid and Autechre have continued without compromise, he confesses that B12 always struggled to maintain the very same high profile. In fact, Metro almost didn’t even try to speak to these innovators as rumour was [and how those message board-hogging electronica buffs love their rumours] that this twosome were incredibly media-shy.
‘Part of the reason we didn’t do interviews was because other people were so much better at it than us,’ he says modestly. ‘No, we’d read something about Aphex and then bump into Richard James and ask him about some of the things he’d said. He’d just laugh and tell us how he’d made everything up.
‘But then the other reason why we rarely got any coverage was because everyone believed that we were secretive. People just didn’t approach us. Perception, it seems, is nine tenths of the law.’
Danny McFadden
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