Mary Susan Littlepage

Although Tom Withers, better known as drum `n' bass DJ/producer Klute, was born in Connecticut and grew up in the UK, he says that his heart--in a musical sense, anyhow--is in Detroit.

"Everything I make pretty much has a Detroit element to it," he says. "This isn't forced at all. It's simply something that comes natural to me. I did, however, go to Detroit once, and yes, it certainly was dark, but then again, so is a lot of urban England. All great miserable music comes from shitty places."

Klute, 36, is taking a break from his busy DJ tour schedule to do an interview by email from Melbourne, Australia, and in a couple of hours he'll be playing after DJ Zinc at a party. His fourth album, "No One's Listening Anymore," recently came out on CD (released Stateside through Breakbeat Science).

The owner of Commercial Suicide Records and a former punk rocker, Klute has been making energetic, soul-stirring drum 'n' bass music for more than a decade. Klute's music is often loaded with relentless, driving beats intricately woven with dark, hauntingly beautiful soundscapes or sweet, airy, melodic ecstasy.

However, as melodic-heavy and soaring as his music gets in songs like "Crosby" and "Make A Stand" (with Marcus Intalex), two standout cuts from his latest album, Klute's music lacks the cheesy, soulless vibe often associated with trance music.

In fact, Klute says he hates the word "trance."

"The word has always been used within dance music to describe music that is `trance-inducing,' like a lot of techno with its lock grooves," Klute says, "[but] somewhere along the way someone decided that trance meant this tacky, frilly dance music. I've never been into this kind of music."

He says he named "Trance Format," a popular track a few years ago, completely ironically and that it refers to European techno music from the early nineties. "The name is my tongue-in-cheek reference to the mindless-sheep following so prevalent in dance music," he says.

Like the techno pioneers he admires, Klute injects so much emotion into his music that the results are breathtaking.

Some of Klute's songs, like "Saviour" and "Trance Format," have moody, melodic waves that fill you up with so much emotion that the music intensifies whatever you're feeling at the moment: If your day is going swell, the music lifts your spirits even more, and if you're bummed out, you can't help but cry--but in a soothing, reassuring kind of way.

"I'm very much into melancholic melodies," Klute says. "For me it's the most beautiful of emotions. I find melancholy an optimistic feeling, so essentially I feel the same way."

He also says, "Sometimes I can listen back to something I made and wonder how the hell I did it. I like that."

His recordings show a range of emotions, tempos and musical styles, including techno, electro, breakbeat, ambient, drum 'n' bass and assorted hybrids.

"Making drum `n' bass is always about the challenge to fit whatever elements you can into its formulaic structure and then build further upon the existing theories," he says. "I like to think there are constant variables in how loud to make certain parts. Sometimes I like to make a beat mechanical and dominating, and sometimes I like it to sound natural and constantly vary in timbre."

He may masterfully manipulate sounds, but Klute says in the CD liner notes for "No One's Listening Anymore" that he thinks the media usually exists to manipulate people.

"Hey, I'm with the media. Am I evil?" I ask him.

"You are most likely not evil, as are 95 percent of the people that work for the media," he says. "Everyone works with the best intentions, but we also all play a hand in promoting ideals to people that end up effectively `educating' people. If you take your average music magazine these days, you will see that the entire content is directed at selling something to someone. An interview to promote a new album, a review to sell a new DVD--sell sell sell. We're all involved.

"I guess what my point is, is that the real beautiful moments with music--laying on your back in the sun on a Sunday afternoon listening to music sending you off to another place--has nothing to do with marketing."

Klute plays alongside DJs MF and Radiata March 10, at Café Lura, 3184 North Milwaukee, (773)736-3033.

(2005-03-08)

Also by Mary Susan Littlepage

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