Though his first releases hinted at a bright future for another bass-wise producer not afraid to flex his knowledge of vintage garage samples, Gerry Read had already changed tack by his third outing and steered a course for raw, feverish house and techno. On his first release for the English label Fourth Wave, the young producer marked out his intentions with two brutally raw tracks; one a deep house banger that any discerning Chicago stalwart would play ’til the needles burned through the wax. The other, a taut, tech-house affair with heavily treated samples and a degraded sound design that felt like it could fall apart at any minute. More releases came and as they flowed through channels like Fourth Wave, Delsin and 2nd Drop so it started becoming clear that very little was known about this increasingly on-point producer. Scarce details: his age, a blurry photo, and the fact he defrauded his grandfather for his name came to light. And the music. By the time his debut album Jummy dropped, there was some hype about the maverick beat-maker and the mystery only added to it, stripping away everything but the music to stand on its own. LWE didn’t find out much more through it’s expertly designed questions, other than that Gerry has a girlfriend, prefers to listen to music au naturale, and has never recorded a mix as long as the one he made for us. The rest is semantics really.

Download LWE Podcast 182: Gerry Read (110:13)

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Tracklist:

01. Blake Baxter, “Your All” (I-mix) [Disko B]
02. Markey, “Bounce” [Cajual Records]
03. Unknown, “Unknown” [white]
04. Los Hermanos, “Son Dos” [Los Hermanos]
05. —TRELIK—
06. DJ QU, “Everybody’s Dark” [Soul People Music]
08. J. Dahlbäck, “Untitled” [Svek]
09. Jeff Mills, “Cubango” [Purpose Maker]
10. J. Dahlbäck, “Untitled” [Svek]
11. Cari Lekebusch, “Moving Style” [DJUPT]
12. Unknown, “Unknown” [White]
13. Mike Dehnert, “Rootstalk” [Deeply Rooted House]
14. Kyle Hall, “Dunk Jiggla” [Wild Oats]
15. Mike Dehnert, “The March” [Deeply Rooted House]
16. J.DB, “Untitled” [?]
17. Paul Johnson, “It’s a Love Thang” [International House Records]
18. Cheek, “Venus” (Pepe Bradock’s Saucy Precog Remix) [BBE]
19. F, “Untitled” [FABUX001T]
20. Soul Parlor, “Sounds” [Sense Music]
21. Studio 54, Vol 1 [BCC Music]
22. Unknown, “Unknown” [white]
23. Gerry Read, “Crawlspace” [Delsin]
24. Bernard Badie, “Time Reveals” [Mojuba]
25. Joe Lewis, “Separate Ways” [Relief Records]
26. Moloko, “Sing it Back” (Herbert’s Tasteful Dub) [F-111 Records]
27. Hieroglyphic Being, “The Sound Of Music” [Mathematics Recordings]
28. Robert Hood, “Unknown” [?]
29. Pop Rocks, “Oh Get Down” [Acid]
30. Gemini, “Festival” [Relief Records]
31. Los Hermanos, “Birth of 3000” [Los Hermanos]

Hey Gerry, what’s going on for you at the moment?

Gerry Read: I’m just on a train coming back from my girlfriend’s place.

Given the liberal amount of sampling undertaken on your album, Saucepan Jams, can we safely say a major label release is off the cards?

Yeah, I was seeing what I can do with pretty obvious samples.

Are those actual saucepans you can hear on “Pete’s Sake”?

Yes, they’re in most of the other tracks too.

Tell us about making the album. Even by your own standards of making your tracks quite quickly it sounds made, well, quite quickly. Did you impose a set of markers for how you were going to make it?

I didn’t set any markers but it was made in three days using a turntable, a Korg filter, a few cheesy 80s records and some saucepans.

You’ve said before you’re not one for the clubs. What’s the perfect environment for you to listen to music in?

In bed naked.

What have you been listening to lately?

Anal Magic & Rev. Dwight Frizzell, “Beyond the Black Crack.”

The track “Granny Bag” you made for the special Delsin release sounded more in keeping with their style than your usual fare. Did you make the track especially for the release?

I didn’t make it for the compilation; it’s about two years old. I have a few more that are quite similar I made around the same time. They just chose it for the compilation about a month before it came out.

I understand you have quite a backlog of unreleased music. What is the process of making music like for you? Is it a cathartic thing, feeling like it’s something you have to get out?

Not really, there is no deep existential, emotional attachment or meaning to any of my music or why I make it. I don’t need to make it, I haven’t made anything for ages (about a week). I just really like making it.

What can you tell us about the mix you put together for us?

Its 50% CD, 50% vinyl on the fly and the longest mix I’ve recorded.

What can we expect from Gerry Read over the next year?

A new live set incorporating hardware and more music.