Rudolf C: Synaesthesia and the Suburbs

Basing himself out of a Coburg studio bunker in Melbourne's north, Rudolf C is the co-founder of cool label Salt Mines and an executioner of grimy lo-fi techno.

But his highly anticipated debut EP Synaesthesia comes out this week not on his own label but through London based imprint X-Kalay. Known for playing with strictly live hardware, both on stage and in the studio, Rudolph serves a masterclass in everything from jazzed electro to blissed out broken backyard furniture house. It all sounds pretty lo-fi. It's all great.

Take a listen to the track "Blacked" from the EP and read a brief chat we had with him.

Noisey: Coburg! What are the best and worst things about life in 3058?

Rudolf: Coburg is great, the rent is cheap and the food is good. Living right on Bell St can be taxing and having a frequent noise-complaint-maker subletting our garage isn't ideal, but I live a stone's throw from Mr Funny Kebabs so what have I really got to complain about?

Where did the inspiration for "Blacked" come from? I'm curious about the name. Does it have any particular meaning?

"Blacked" was the first track I made for the record. I was trying to write heavier music at the time, and while it's not particularly heavy compared to some of the unreleased tracks I have, I think it still holds its weight. The name is just what I associate with the sound of the track, I have synaesthesia, so the pad in that track jumps out as a deep blackish purpley colour in my mind. That along with the low slung acid line just really stick out as black in that sense. "Blacked" was also readapted for my first live set, I have the recording somewhere but I think that's one for the vaults.

Do you need complete isolation when working on a track or can friends and housemates be hanging out around you?

I usually prefer to do it alone, I do feel quite shy when people walk in on me writing a track, but that's usually because I'll be huddled over my MPC doing some sort of ridiculous dance haha. But it's not a crippling thing, it can be done around others, I just like doing it solo.

How did you hook up with X-Kalay?

It started on Soundcloud! I got a message from Sam about a new label he was starting. At the time I had a few other EPs lined up as but they fizzled out as I ended up putting all of my time towards the Salt Mines release XK003. I preach a lot of good about X-Kalay, such a great label to work with.

How is Salt Mines tracking? What do you have on the horizon?

Salt Mines is going great. Geordie and I didn't really expect it to ever gain this much traction, especially after only two releases, in fact, even right now it's bigger than either of us ever imagined it to be. This has only further motivated us to push it harder. Release-wise, we'll be heading into solo artist EPs, with really great music from some familiar faces plus a few new friends. We're also heading to Europe in July so if you want us to play at your club/friend's basement/wedding/funeral contact us at enquiries@saltminesrec.com hah.

Synaethesia is available May 27 through X-Kalay.