From Blank Slate to Banger: The Unperson’s Modular Mayhem

Straight out of the gate, The Unperson tackles the void with nothing but Mutable Instruments Plaits and a sense of adventure. No pre-cooked beats, no sneaky melodies—just pure, unfiltered exploration. It’s like rolling up to the BBQ with a bag of mystery sausages and seeing what sizzles. The first task? Flicking through Plaits’ algorithms, poking and prodding until something strange and inspiring jumps out of the tin.

After a few lacklustre patches, our mate lands on a sound that’s got some proper bite. The sweet spot is found, modulation enters the mix, and suddenly the blank canvas starts to look like a Jackson Pollock after three espresso martinis. This opening round is all about chasing those sounds that make you want to twist more knobs, with the promise of chaos just one patch cable away.

With the initial spark from Plaits crackling, it’s time to stack the deck. In comes the Knobula Monumatic and Teenage Engineering EP-133 KO II, each bringing their own wild flavour. The drum machine gets wiped and rebuilt from scratch—no presets here, mate. Kicks, rides, and hi-hats are hunted down and blended until the groove actually makes sense, followed by some percussive trickery that keeps things interesting. This isn’t just beatmaking; it’s more like wrangling a mob of hyperactive kangaroos and trying to get them to dance in sync.

As layers build, levels get tweaked, and the mix starts to pop like a hotplate on a bushfire day. Monumatic adds a fresh dimension, cutting through the mayhem and making sure nothing gets lost in the sauce. There’s a fair bit of trial and error, plenty of cheeky grins, and the whole thing feels like a jam session where anything could go off the rails—and that’s exactly the point.

Now that the sonic stew is bubbling, The Unperson starts thinking about how to serve it up. Structure becomes the name of the game: when to throw in a snare, how to fade one layer in and another out, and how to stop the whole thing from sounding like a possum fight in a wheelie bin. It’s all about transitions and dynamics—where the beats drop, when the melody takes over, and how to let each element shine without stepping on its mate’s toes.

There are a few clumsy moments (hey, it wouldn’t be a real jam without a couple of wipeouts), but that’s part of the charm. Some transitions are smooth as a cold beer on a hot day, others need a bit more rehearsal. The key takeaway? If you want your jam to hit hard, you’ve got to wrangle those changes and keep the energy flowing, or risk losing the crowd to the next set of sausage rolls.