Christopher Jarman has 20 years professional music industry experience which has led to a variety of musical personas across many genres – as Kamikaze Space Programme, Dot Product and Raiden. He has amassed over 150 vinyl releases and regularly performs at many of the world’s most infamous venues.

As Kamikaze Space Programme, Christopher releases techno music on Luke Slater’s Mote Evolver label, Bas Mooy’s MORD and Simon Shreeve’s Osiris music. He is a regular DJ at Berghain and Tresor and regularly tours, playing at the most respected clubs all over the world. KSP’s music is made up of myriad samples, found sounds and white noise from real world situations. It lends the stuff a very real texture and aesthetic that links it to the here and now, the everyday, in a very real way.

As Dot Product, Christopher and a colleague have made a name for themselves creating experimental and improvisational music based on recording sounds normally imperceptible to the human ear. As this act, they have played on the main stage at the prestigious Atonal festival in Berlin as well as creating music for IMDB listed films, the British Film Institute and projects with the BBC Radiophonic Workshop as well as two album releases.

In the past, Christopher released music as Raiden and became a major player on the worldwide Drum and Bass scene, signing to Renegade Hardware, as well as releasing tracks for Hospital Records and his own Offkey and Voodoo labels. He amassed almost 100 vinyl releases under this moniker and across 10 years, travelled to locations all over the world to play his music. He also remixed some of the most well-known dance music tracks in history.

Christopher has been featured in a variety of worldwide music press articles and contributed a production masterclass film to the popular Computer Music magazine cover disc. He has also run two successful record labels and a mixing and mastering company.

Christopher’s knowledge and experience combine to make him a truly unique prospect both as a musician and educator. His pure enthusiasm is infectious for students and his experiences out in the field of the music industry make him a credible source of both information and inspiration.

We Chat to Christopher Jarman and Charlton Ravenberg About Their Musical Journeys

Studio Sessions | KAMIKAZE SPACE PROGRAMME X CHARLTON

British-born, Berlin-based techno/electronica producer Kamikaze Space Programme delivers his long-awaited debut album ‘Dead Skin Cells’ for Osiris Music. It’s the sound of eight years of the acclaimed project reaching its zenith, via releases on leading labels likes Mote-Evolver, WNCL Recordings and Mord, and through regular sets at the likes of Berghain and Tresor. 


This bold new record mirrors decay of the physical world and the human form through its jarring sound palette and tense atmospheres. It’s a rebirth of sorts, with the title a reference to shedding skin — as KSP has done with his previous aliases. Combining his roots in jungle and dub (as Raiden and Dot Product) with the diverse textures of the contemporary techno diaspora and his skills as a found sound magpie and foley artist, it makes for a riveting, deeply nuanced listen.


‘Skin Cells’ begins with distorted synth buzzes trading places with haunted, heavily processed samples and thundering kicks. ‘Sparks’ channels taut jungle breakbeats, pitched down to a more chugging tempo, while menacing D&B screeches buzz through the track. ‘Dust’ teases DMZ style dubstep tension, while ‘Rain’ shows his mastery of sound design and field recording in a stunning ambient interlude. ‘Insomnia’ reaches for glitchy digi dub in the vein of The Bug with some cinematic undertones, leading to the brutalist sonic architecture of ‘Crumbs’ with its crunching breaks and rasping tones. 


‘Derelict’ is the album’s most direct nod to his junglist past, the ghosts of hardcore imbued through blasts of chainsaw bass, dissected breaks and haunting pads. ‘Grey Clouds’ bathes you in thick swathes of ethereal pads and plucked, incessant bass before ‘EF5’ delivers a militant glitch-heavy onslaught. ‘An Empty Sky’ closes the album in apocalyptic fashion, with crunching bass pressure juxtaposed with graceful, filmic chord progressions.


The result of all of this is an album that feels at once uniquely London while perfectly contemporary to the Berlin scene, and perhaps a none-more-perfect sonic encapsulation of the continuing reciprocal dialogue between the two cities. Most of all, it’s the sound of a sonic excavator hurtling towards the top of his game, in perfect control of every granual of sound therein.


A video is forthcoming to sit alongside the album, created by visual glitch artist, Geso, with the bold album artwork created by Downwards collaborator, Glen Grubenstein.

Dead Skin Cells by Kamikaze Space Programme

Comprised  of  Bristol  based  sound  artists  Adam  Winchester  and  Christopher Jarman, Dot Product comes to light in a swathe of noise, tone and texture. 

Through  years  of  research  and  experimentation the  duo  have  sought  to explore  the  creative  potential from  the  inaudible  fog  of electromagnetic radiation, the internal resonance found in the negative space of an object, the circuitry of discarded electronics,and other such less-travelled paths of sound generation. In harnessing these clandestine sonics and bringing them within a listenable  range,  the  resulting  collages  of  sound  have  been  shaped  into  a form   that   nods   to   the   legacy   of uncompromising British   experimental electronic  music,from  early  industrial  savagery  to  bass-heavy  soundsystem pressure.  Such  reference  points  are  abstract  though,  for  within  the  truly unique array of sources at their disposal, Winchester and Jarman have a new dialect in which to communicate. 

Crucially,  while  there  may  be  a  scientific  approach  at  the  heart  of  the  Dot Product  methodology,  the  results  are  far  from  clinical. There  are  subversive rhythms aplenty throughout the album, from the jagged ripples of “Skafander” to the slow, dread-fuelled march of “Springs”. There is also space for touches of melody; “Atmosphere Processor” swoons with blue-hued melancholy, while “Ice Patches” stalks on an ominous bass mantra. 

After sharing the initial results of their research, the pair performed select live shows in Bristol and London, as well as being commissioned to create a sonic interpretation  of  Swedish  horror  film Let  The  Right  One  In.  This  debut  album on Osiris is the culmination of these initial steps, these 9 tracks representing the most complete document of the Dot Product sound to date. 

www.dotproductsound.com
info@dotproductsound.com

Dot Product - Dot Product by Dot Product

Raiden - Experiments in White Noise by Raiden OffKey

Producer, live artist and DJ Christopher Jarman (Kamikaze Space Programme) teaches music production and sound engineering at Catalyst Berlin. Read his bio.

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