The ghosts of Chicago’s past as house music’s birthplace cast long shadows over the Windy City, focusing many minds on what once happened here instead of what’s to come. Hakim Murphy is one of few newer Chicago producers whose many talents and ambitions shine through historical preoccupations. The Chicago native began his musical career back in 1996 by DJing around town while boning up on the fundamentals of production, opting to refine his skills until 2005 rather than rush to release. Listening to his records for Planet Detroit, Metamorphic Recordings and his own Machining Dreams and Synapsis Records labels, it’s clear this was time well spent. The rawness of his tracks barely belie the sophistication and certainty in his songwriting that’s much more than a new take on old Chicago house. Murphy’s ear for talent should not go unmentioned either, having scooped up tracks from relative unknowns like Avondale Music Society, Mauser and G. Marcell that are too good to remain unsung. He was kind enough to join me for a chat about his origins, inspirations, and future plans, and has also contributed LWE’s 60th exclusive podcast, more than an hour of sweat-inducing house and techno marbled with exceptional unreleased material from his labels.

LWE Podcast 60: Hakim Murphy (74:24)

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Tracklist

01. Mauser, “Blackman” [Synapsis Records]
02. Harmony Funk, “Can’t Let you Go” (Ovatow Reshape)
[Clone Jack For Daze Series]
03. Daryl Cura, “Waiting Room” [Eargasmic Recordings]
04. Kyle Hall, “Dances With A Sun Goddess” [Wild Oats]
05. Floating Points, “Shark Chase” [Eglo Records]
06. Solid Gold Playaz, “Black Music” [DNH Recordings]
07. M. Pittman, “Ease The Pain” [Fit]
08. Obsolete Music Technology, “Drum Relapse” [Machining Dreams]
09. Avondale Music Society, “What Is” (War is Peace Mix) [Synapsis Records*]
10. Jus Ed, “I’m Comin'” (Aybee Remix) [Underground Quality]
11. Chicago Skyway, “Purgatory” [Eargasmic Digital]
12. Hakim Murphy, “Magda C2” [Synapsis Records]
13. DJ Qu, “Circuit” [Strength Music]
14. Tyree Cooper, “T.C.X.” [Cosmic Records]
15. The PJ Project, “Nice-N-Fast” [Power Records]
16. Space Dimension Controller, “J2COTUS” (Kyle Hall’s I’m Only Breathing Remix) [Royal Oak]
17. Franck Roger, “Re-Scape” [Planet E, Guilty Pleasures]
18. Franco Cangelli, “Search More” [Machining Dreams]
19. Intrinsic, “Dream Express” [Emphasis Recordings]
20. Chicago Skyway & DCook, “Cortex” [white*]
21. Obsolete Music Technology, “Latency” [Machining Dreams*]
22. Hakim Murphy, “Essential” [Synapsis Records*]
23. Hakim Muprhy, “Rebcubx” [Machining Dreams]
24. Hakim Murphy, “EMPB” [Synapsis Records*]
* denotes tracks which, as of the time of publishing, are unreleased

The best I can tell, you started DJing in 1996 and your first record came out in 2005. I’m curious when during the intervening years you started doing production
and when you decided to release your music?

Hakim Murphy: I started working on my productions with Fast Eddie. He had an MPC and a keyboard, and he taught me how to use them. Then I bought an MPC and practiced for a long time; it took me until 2005 to get good enough to put out a record.

But you actually started in ’96?

Yeah.

I imagine, then, you’re pretty strict on quality control — you weren’t about to just release anything.

I won’t release just anything, but usually when I make something I want to release it these days. I’ve got some old tracks I might release some day. Maybe I’d rework it now, add a little bit more to it. Either way I’d add more — it’s always missing something. Now I’ve got the skills to make it fuller.

What told you in 2005 that you were ready to start releasing stuff?

Well when I started making tracks that, subconsciously, I started repeating in my head, that’s when I knew. That’s actually my test to see if something’s good or not. If something’s looping in my head subconsciously, that’s something I like.

You’ve been making music for years now but it seems that in the last 12 months or so your profile has blown up a bit. What’s that been like for you?

I don’t really see a difference. I just do what I do, I do it for fun. I want to get to Europe some day to play, but apparently I’m going to have to pay for it myself. Once I get over there I can play parties, but getting over there…. Anyway, that’s something I’m looking forward to.

You’ve listed hip-hop, R&B and jazz among your influences, but many of your tracks tend to be a bit more spare, a bit more linear, more austere. How do those other musical styles inform the way you write your tracks?

The first things I used to DJ were ghetto house tracks, and those have always been more minimal. One day when I was a freshman this dude gave me a tape of Cajmere, Larry Heard and stuff, and it was like all that put into one [mix] with ghetto tracks like by DJ Funk. That was more like the tracks I was making at first. And later, when I went to school, I started learning how to play chords. So basically I do a little chord progression usually, using jazz principles — it’s all subtle. It’s also in the movement of the drums, it’s subtle and almost subliminal how it moves forward.

So we won’t find any big vocals or MCs over your stuff any time soon.

Nah; maybe one day, but not now. I need to get my studio better before I start recording people.

What’s your studio like now?

My studio today is Reason and Cubase together, and then I mix it down and add a VST or my Korg Prophecy. I also have a Roland SB-60 and an MPC, but I don’t use those as much. I had a Micro Korg for a while but that was my friend’s, so I made a couple tracks with that. But usually the two softwares and then I add one or two hardwares, which are gonna expand my sound.

What would you most want to add to your set-up?

I would probably get a better sound card with at least four ins and outs, and probably a MIDI box and a mixing board so I could record two things simultaneously.

I know you’re a big fan of anime, and I wondered if the visuals and soundtracks of those films ever inspires your own productions?

Maybe not the soundtracks but definitely the visuals. I like the Japanese style of stories, they’re very thought provoking. Usually when I start something I think about a concept, so after reading a Naruto comic or watching a cartoon, it makes an emotional feeling for me. I guess I’ve gotten more sensitive over the years to different things. For instance, the last few tracks I’ve made have been like, happy chords and all nice sounding. But now I think I’m going to change that and make some more grimy stuff.

Outside of music and media, what inspires the moods and movements in your music?

Relationships. How I feel. Working as a librarian is cool so I usually have good feelings, so that’s good. But I’ve been in a rut for the last four months with music, so just now I got back into making music. My sound card was broken and I was all pissed off and sad, and I didn’t do too much. It came back and now I’m back to doing like four or five tracks. It usually goes in spurts of like four or five tracks a month and then I won’t do anything for like two months. So yeah, I think it’s just my relationships, so whatever else is going on in my life.

In addition to being a librarian you run both the Synapsis Records and Machining Dreams labels. Does the librarian mindset of archiving the past and documenting what’s going on around you, if that ever plays into how you run your labels?

Being a librarian helps me organize everything in general. I organize all my Reason folders if I need to find something. So that’s one thing about my librarianship. But as far as the concept of the labels, Synapsis was me and Inbum Cho, and one day we decided we were going to do a record. Because I worked at Groove, we had distribution. So we put the money together and we did it and moved forward from there.

Is the label still a joint effort now?

Well, I kind of took it over. Synapsis was me and Inbum, and he does the artwork for most of them. Machining Dreams is just me. We work together, though.

What’s the difference between the two for you, besides how they started?

Yeah. They’re both for whatever, but Synapsis has more colorful and professional artwork. Machining Dreams is underground, hand stamped. Sometimes you might know who it is, you might not and have to go on the Internet to find out. I tried promoting it but that’s what it is — one of the underground labels you might discover one day.

How did you meet Inbum?

That’s a good question. I always forget. It was in the ’90s. When I started DJing there saw this guy named Flip who said, ‘You should meet my friend, Inbum. He’s totally underground, you would dig it.’ One day I went to a party he was throwing on Milwaukee at a place called the Big Horse Lounge, which had a Mexican place in the front and they used to throw parties in the back. So that’s how we met, and then I started going over to his house and listening to music — I give him music, he gives me music, playing records and making mixes at his house. He gave me some tracks a long, long time ago. The first thing he did was on a Mark Farina compilation, so that’s how he got, not his start in making music but his start being out there.

People have a fairly specific set of sounds in mind when they think of Chicago house. Growing up with access to the Chicago scene it’s inevitable that you’ve been influenced by Chicago house. Do you think much about how much you want to feature that in your own music?

I just do what I want to do. It’s like, everyone started out making jacking tracks, usually, but then all of a sudden they start changing into Afro-Carribbean or Latin jazz. All that was there, you had from disco to house, everything. So anything you can make — basically if you from Chicago and you making music, then you making Chicago music. That’s how I feel about it.

What helps you to get out of creative ruts?

Usually I can make acid tracks like all day, but what I do with Reason is switch up the instrument combinations I use and I’ll start something different. Usually I play a chord progression, lay down a bass line, and then I do drums. Sometimes I’ll build a drum loop first, live, and then I go back and edit, but lately I place the instruments out first. That helps, that switches it up. Plus if I add the Korg ER1, the synth, that will be a different sound, too. Using the outboard gear into the software, it will definitely change up your sound. Or, I don’t use Ableton Live, I just learned how to use it the other day, but you make a track in Reason, then next time making a track in Logic, then next time making a track in Live. That way you won’t get burnt out and your sound will vary because the machines do.

What’s coming up from you and from your labels?

Right now I’ve got Franco Cangelli’s Embrace EP, that’s coming out. And once I get back the money from those two, the two Machining Dreams releases, I’ll start with Obsolete Music Technology, that’s Steven Tang who just had a record on Aesthetic Audio. And then it’s going to be me or one of my friends on Machining Dreams. On Synapsis, a whole release from Avondale Music Society and maybe a release from me.

LWE Podcast 60: Hakim Murphy (74:24)