Chris Poacher - Profile
Hailing from South Wales’ very own “Motor City”, Brigend. 32 year old Chris Poacher has long been heavily influenced by Kraftwerk, Orbital, Warp Records and the halcyon days of hypnotic grooves. His first steps into producing electronic music were way back in 1989 (starting out on an Amiga!), re-mixing demos for groups.
What started out as a bit of fun, soon became an obsession as he found himself trawling car-boot sales the length and breadth of the UK, buying up any 2nd hand pro-equipment he could get his hands on. Having the advantage of studying computer programming at college, his firm grasp over technology led him to spend hours upon hours, finding new ways to program equipment and make it sound unique.
As Chris remarks, "I've spent many long hours, if not days in front of all sorts of weird synth's, programming them and discovering how far I could push their sonic abilities. I reckon over that period, I must have owned about 50% of music gear made in the 80's…"
After producing several hundred demos and having spent most weekends out on the dance floor in places like Bristol’s “Lakota” and Birmingham's “Atomic Jam” (where he and Owain first met) in the mid 90's. Chris signed his first record deal to MMI in 1998, a small Birmingham base label, under the guises of "Emulator" and "Spectral Associate" (his Drum and Bass alias).
He released a string of 12’s, performing live sets alongside some of the top names in the DJ scene in South Wales, the Midlands, as well as making several appearances in Holland. Since the end of his first record deal, Chris has since spent a lot of time researching new studio solutions to get the perfect results, recently transferring to a half digital, half analogue set-up.
He explains, " Having started with a computer based studio set-up on the Amiga then moving over to synths and samplers, I now run a hybrid solution, keeping the warmth and feel of my favorite analogue kit, combining it with the crystal like clarity and 'skies the limit' functionality of the digital hard-disk recording world."
Currently, Chris is in the process of recording a new wave of solo material with his ever trade marked “perfectionist synth programming”, as well as working alongside long time friend Owain_K as "Digital Motion".
Discography
Emulator - Plastik Cats - Mutton Head
Emulator - Germany Make The Best Pencil Sharpeners - Mutton Head
Emulator - 3dMUSIk - Mutton Head
Emulator - No Fate - Mutton Head
Emulator - A Collection of Mind Adventures: Vol.1 (LP) - Mutton Head
Digital Motion - The Automaton EP – ADSR 001
Digital Motion - Transitions – ADSR 002
Digital Motion – Control – ADSR Music 003
Remixes
Rennie Foster – From The Ashes (Digital Motion Incendiary Mix) – Rewired 014