DJ Q&A : Teki Latex of Sound Pellegrino

Sound Pellegrino Thermal Team, consisting of producers Teki Latex and Orgasmic are veterans on the European music scene but recently combined forces to put forth sounds that chronicle the evolution of their own musical palates. Although both members used to be a part of the French rap group TTC, they are now producing big bass beats full of tech house, funk and even some tribal.

We got a chance chat and get some insight from member Teki Latex. Don’t miss them performing this Friday 8/12 at SOM. with LOL Boys and Worthy for Lights Down Low.

Where did the name Sound Pellegrino Thermal Team come from?

The Sound Pellegrino name was inspired by a sparkling mineral water coming from the San Pellegrino springs in Italy. Springs is terme in Italian and something relative to terme is thermal, and that’s where Sound Pellegrino Thermal Team came from.

You guys have released countless tracks together and have known each other awhile. What finally cemented the fact that you could start a label together?

Orgasmic and I were in a group together, and we were always sharing music, discoveries and discussions about music. We were involved with the Institubes label at that time but it was already an established structure and it didn’t enable us to just put out our new musical crushes just like that. We needed an output to release music we loved without necessarily having to sign and develop artists. We just wanted to be able to drop and push whichever track we loved and played at that time so we decided to create our own label Sound Pellegrino, first as a sub-label of Institubes, and then as an independent entity. We soon realized a common thread between the records we would put out. We noticed the emergence of a so-called “Sound Pellegrino sound”. Even though its limits are very vague and change all the time there’s kind of a common spirit to all our releases.

You guys started out in the rap group TTC. How did that progress into big bass electronic music?

TTC was signed to a UK label called Big Dada, which was once home to people like Spank Rock, Wiley, Diplo, Roots Manuva and many more. That whole scene was tightly linked with the UK’s electronic scene so we started getting into IDM and things like that quite early. As our rap tastes evolved from indie to club stuff, our electronic tastes also evolved from complicated IDM to more straightforward and danceable (and most of the time richer in terms of emotional spectrum) 4/4 house and techno. Now we’re going back to broken stuff and rap tempos mixing all of our influences together under the big bass banner.

What’s the biggest difference performing with two people versus five?

It really makes life more easy! In general it’s easier being a DJ, or part of a DJ duo than a group. You don’t have to rehearse or show up mad early to venues for sound checks, you don’t have to carry equipment or go on tour in a smelly van with four guys, a tour manager and a soundman having big energy-consuming arguments or fights about the most futile things. The fees are more generous, the hotels are nicer and you have a bit more time to chill between shows. Also with DJ sets, your whole show can be totally different from one day to the other, depending on the public, your mood, or this week’s releases, whereas with live set it’s pretty much every night the same routine which involves playing songs you’ve been playing for the last five or ten years which you are super fed up with.

Since your label is fairly new, what’s the message you guys want to send out with it? What kind of artists are you looking for?

There’s no message. It’s just about stuff that excites us, talented friends of ours whose tracks we want to share with the world, discoveries, etc. Most of the stuff we love is challenging and conceptual and original but we don’t look for music that’s weird for the sake of being weird, it has to sound great and work great in the club and provoke emotions, that’s the most important thing for us.

You guys also have a Sound Pellegrino podcast. Who has been the most memorable guest thus far?

Every guest we had so far delivered an awesome mix but for some reason French DJs Out One and Koyote’s mixes where the ones that spoke to me the most. They might not be the most famous DJs we had on the show but they have immense culture and skills. Both of their mixes had great flows and were super creative, surprising, emotional and efficient like a great DJ set should be.

How much have your production skills improved since starting Sound Pellegrino?

We learned a whole lot just by being around great house producers and by listening to so much music from an A&R point of view, which is different from a listener’s point of view or an artist’s point of view, but it’s great to have all three and to be able to go back and forth between these three different approaches. I guess we became more selective with music and we applied that pickiness to our own productions.

What can we expect from the upcoming Sound Pellegrino Thermal Team EP ?

The Bassface remix EP? Brilliant remixes of Bassface by San Francisco’s local hero Ardalan, this French freaky screwed up house dude Aquarius heaven, massive London producer Breach and Paris’s underground champion French Fries, plus the VIP version of Pretty Pretty Good (our infamous “do the Larry David” track) complete with full curb theme sample in the middle.

And what should San Francisco have ready for you when you guys get here?

Local specialties? Surprise me!

Lights Down Low is this Friday at SOM. Tickets are $12 – $15.