To celebrate the fact that THIS SATURDAY we will be hitting London's COUNTER CULTURE in a BIG way alongside the guys from Pelski, we hosted a mix from Pelski resident and co-writer; Charles Darkly. You can now get your hands on it here:
CHARLES DARKLY - BIGGER THAN THE BLOGGOSPHERE - JACKMODE EXCLUSIVE MIX by Jackmode
We also threw a few questions to the man behind the infamous blog; Duncan Pelham, and unearthed some mental facts about it's beginnings...
What is the story behind Pelski? Why did you start the blog?
I started the blog back in 2007 following a near-fatal car accident. I was involved in a head-on collision with a large milk tanker. I went to hospital in Bath and stayed there for five weeks. I completely smashed all the bones in my foot, my leg was severely broken, as well as my hip. And I fractured my skull in eight separate places. So I was pretty much out of action for a long time! I didn’t walk for another 10 months. I also contracted MRSA in hospital, meaning that I had to defer that university year. Thankfully my arms were unharmed, and once I’d finished watching 84 hours of The Sopranos back-to-back, I decided I needed to do something else to keep me occupied. So I started the blog. I loved reviewing films and music for the student paper, and this way I could do it on a daily basis.
Last year I brought Charles Darkly on as a co-writer: we’ve always shared a mutual interest for music – or, more specifically, trying to outdo one another. The blog title You Can Call Me Pelski was a joke, a sort of put-down I used to say to him when I found a track or some musical knowledge he was unaware with. It was a sort-of catchphrase that would follow a patronising pat on the back. Unfortunately he knows just as much as me, if not more. So I thought it best to get him involved.
As far as blogging goes, Pelski fast became an early template for many others to follow; how does it feel being a trend setter?
I don't know if we’re trend-setters! I mean I followed on from other blogs like Discodust and Palms Out, blogs that were around well before us. But I thought what was missing from these early blogs was in-depth reviews, or decent write-ups – so you can read what the music sounded like and decide whether you wanted to download it, rather than wading through all the crap cluttering up the blogs. A lot of blogs were plain lazy too: “hey guys, just rolled out of bed, here’s some music.”
YCCMP was supposed to be about the music and the music alone – and distance itself from the egotistical/self-important tendency of bloggers to waffle on about themselves (I understand what I hypocrite I sound with a blog egotistically titled You Can Call Me Pelski…um…it’s ironic…maybe… )
Plus it helps if readers think you know what you’re talking about. That’s what it’s about really – pretending we know what we’re talking about…
Many other blogs have been taken offline due to copyright issues amongst other licensing issues, how have you stayed strong?
Well I’m not going to lie, initially the Pelski blog started out with me just wantonly plundering tunes from other blogs, thoughtlessly posting tunes by big names, with no permission. Simply put: piracy. This doesn’t help the music scene in any way, no matter how much bloggers justify their actions, and I started to piss people off. Anyway, pretty quickly I started receiving tunes by email: up-and-coming artists; labels looking for exposure; promotional boutiques; or simply kids mucking around on the latest software in their bedrooms, looking to get noticed. These days we get anything between 100 and 200 emails a day. Almost every label has wised up to the promotional benefits that come with providing a free track from an EP, or just a low-quality handout. So for the last few year we’ve only posted tracks that we’re sent or that we have express permission to post - and in the process we help promote new releases. Every once and a while we might post a 128kbps of a release that hasn’t been cleared, but we don’t really do that these days. So those blogs that have been deleted have posted what they’re not allowed to. And now, with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, people will have to be even more scrupulous. If you take care to respect the artist, you’ll be fine. There's plenty of great free music out there being handed out that you can blog about. That said, some blogs have been deleted despite sticking to the rules of the game (RIP Copper Tallis), due to bureaucratic fumbling and label-to-artist miscommunication.
The blog branched out in a clubnight - what made you consider this addition?
Darkly had run club nights in Manchester, and myself in York. And so when the guys over at the Big Chill House offered us a budget to put on a Pelski Party, we jumped at the idea. We’ve been expanding ever since then. A few years down the line, we hope to be putting together some really big house and techno nights on. But this Jackmode collab is really exciting and the biggest thing we’ve done yet. We’ve always wanted Round Table Knights to headline one of our nights!
What are you top 10 favourite tunes?
Top 10 tracks of all time. That’s too hard, and these certainly aren’t them, but I do listen to these a lot. A couple of guilty pleasures in here, and a couple of classics:
My top 10:
1. Bob Segar – Old Time Rock & Roll
2. Omar S – Day
3. Arctic Monkey – From The Ritz To The Rubble
4. Detroit Experiment – Think Twice (Henrik Schwarz Remix)
5. Tim Green – Revox
6. Simiam Mobile Disco – Audacity of Huge
7. Moodymann – I Can’t Kick This Feeling When It Hits
8. Ron Trent – Altered States
9. Soulphiction – Who To Call
10. Marek Hemmann - Gemini
Charles Darkly Top 10:
1. Peter Pixzel (feat. Julian Rown) - SynthReich
2. Ricardo Tobar - With You
3. Dominik Eulberg - Daten-Ubertragungs-Kusschen (Max Cooper Remix)
4. Patrick Wolf - Don't Say No
5. Fleetwood Mac - Little Lies
6. Mt Simms - How We Do
7. Ratatat - Bustelo
8. The Smashing Pumpkins - Love
9. Animal Collective - Winter's Love
10. Depeche Mode - Useless
What does the future hold for Pelski? What is happening in 2011?
We’ve got a Pelski mix tape series we’re launching soon. And plenty more interviews – one with Booka Shade in a few weeks. In terms of our nights, we’ve got a collab between the Hush House blog, ourselves and the Get Hype collective, that should be pretty big. Throughout 2011 we’re looking for new venues to host our Pelski Parties.
But the biggest news is that we’re aiming to completely redesign the blog, transforming it into more of a website than a blog. We want new writers too (so if there’s anyone out there looking to do some reviews please drop us a line). We essentially want to turn it into a miniature Fact Mag or Resident Advisor, except you’ll be able to stream the tracks, and there’ll still be the odd free download. We want to write about the tracks that pop up in our charts or mixes – the ones we can’t post. So it’ll become a review website we hope.
BUY TICKETS TO THE JACKMODE + PELSKI NIGHT HERE.
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