Syrupy soundscapes, jazzy progressions and electro-influenced beats co-mingle to produce mellow and beautifully realized night music from Motown. Behind these atmospheric jams is long time composer and multi-instrumentalist Greg Utech.

MusicZeitgeist.com coaxed the following insights about the crafting of these recordings from the artist:

MusicZeitgeist: Who is Greg Utech?
I have been a musician for over 30 years in the Detroit area. Mostly on drums, but I can “mingle” with most any instrument. I have released three disc’s to date with my 4th CD due out in July. I appeared on Rick Matle’s CD “Ears Wide Shut.” Of course like most Musicians I have a “Day” job which just happens to be the best job in the world, a stay at home Dad to our first child Noah.

MZ: Where are you based? Has it influenced your output?

The “D”. Born and raised in Detroit. This part of our world seems to have a Vortex of creativity, From Motown to Madonna, and all the Jazz greats it has been a treat to call Michigan Home. The long winters foster a need to keep busy and I think this has a small part to do with the plethora of talent to come from this area.

MZ: Talk about influences on your sound

Jazz, Fusion. Artist I would call mentors include Stevie Wonder, Donald Fagen, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Joni Mitchell, Robbie Robertson, The Band, Pink Floyd, McCoy Tyner, Pharaoh Sanders, Jeff Beck, Bill Bruford, Tony Williams, Jack Dejonet, Elvin Jones, Fela Kuti, Peter Gabrial, Tereje Ripdal, Frank Zappa, Carlos Santana, Jimi Hendrix, Joe Pass, to name a few.

I worked in professional theater for 18 years at Meadow Brook Theater at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan. From set design to writing the score for the 1993 production of Dr. Jeckel and Mr. Hyde. This along with being around the right crowd inspired my artistic style, From being involved in over 120 professional Theatrical productions, and being a part of all of them, from Shakespeare to Ain’t misbehaving, I was exposed to some real creativity and different thought patterns that translate into my genre of music. Also a self taught abstract painter with over 30 major shows to date help play a major role in my tonal creations.

MZ: Tell us about your recording process.

Mostly from my modest studio at home I am able to create most of the rhythm and “beds” for each song, then it’s off to a more technicaly sound studio for all the final mixing and last minute solos. I produce all the tracks with some help from my friend Rick Matle who also plays most of the guitar on my CD’s. And of course when you are a one man show, it’s then time for laying out art work, song titles and order, copyrighting, duplication, and finally all the marketing involved, especially if you want to make at least $12.78 per year. But it is the love of the craft luckily and not the fame and fortune.

MZ: So what motivates you to keep making and releasing music in these changing times?

“Everything has been done before.”

It has to be fun to be somewhat unique in this world of soundalikes. The most memorable musical experience I have had was when Ralph Valdez, a DJ from WDET in Detroit, called and said he loved my 1st disc and would play it on his next show. We had a party that night and it felt as though a dream had come true.This event is realy what pushed me to continue on with endeavors. My music has also been aired on the Jon Moshier program, and “The Listening Room” with host Chris Felcyn. As well as KAOS FM in Olympia WA, Tomorrow Jazz, aTTeNTIoN sPaN raDIO, IPM.com, And reached the feature page on New Orleans Radio.com. With some generous reviews from, Joe Henry, Serge Kozlovsky, and a two-page spread in Acid Jazz Magazine by Sylvia Turin. Everyone has some “Big Break” if you believe in what your doing, and are not doing it for the money.

MZ: When will you know your work is done?

I guess my lofty goal of 10 disc’s is still attainable, but with Cd’s approaching 90 minutes these days it is like producing a double album from the old vinal days, so each disc so far has taken at least 2 years to complete, with the exception of my upcoming disc “Mars is Missing” which will be at about the three-year mark due to the birth of our 1st child Noah Gregory Utech.

VITAL LINKS:

Greg Utech in the press
Get Greg Utech’s music at CDBaby
Download Greg Utech at iTunes

Listen now to “City to City” by Greg Utech at MusicZeitgeist.com’s free Indie Music Jukebox

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Electronica pioneers Orbital are set to play a series of dates in the US in 2010, appeasing a long-standing craving for more of their particular brand of infectious (and we really mean that – think “I Wish I Had Duck Feet” from their 1994 release Snivilization) chillout room shenanigans. Between 1989 and 2004, Orbital released a string of addictive, eclectic singles including Chime, Style, Belfast, The Box and Satan. Many became evergreen club anthems. Some even became Top Three hits culminating in a seven-album career that included collabs with Goldfrapp, and composer Angelo Badalamenti.

Since releasing their swansong Orbital opus The Blue Album and disbanding in 2004, both Hartnoll brothers have ventured into new musical territory. Paul took a more orchestral direction with his 2007 solo album The Ideal Condition, while Phil launched his short-lived collaboration project Long Range and carved a thriving career as a DJ. But they never closed the door on Orbital, and demand remains high for their fabled live shows. Always leaving room for improvisation on stage, unlike many electronic acts, Paul and Phil are world-class experts at building up large crowds into a frenzy of excitement. Their offstage manner may be deadpan and low-key, but their live performances are orgies of sensory overload and revved-up euphoria.


“Audience reaction is part of the process,” Paul explains, “It really becomes like a friendly football match between you and the crowd. That was always one of our strong points – and for people to say that about an electronic band is a real honour, because it’s the one genre of music that’s normally crap live. We’ve got 15 years of active service, making songs,” Paul says. “If you boil that down to a 90-minute festival set you should get something thoroughly good from beginning to end. Let’s put some fun back into it.”

Even though their contemporaries The Orb has been seen every so often (we are sorry we missed their two night stint at the Disney Concert Hall in LA a few years back) getting Orbital back into the mix makes it feel a little more like the dawning electronica scene from 1990 and that is a really good thing.

Orbital US dates:

• Saturday Friday, April 16 – San Francisco – Warfield Theatre – 10:15 tentative set time
• Sunday, April 18th – Indio, CA – Coachella

Perhaps selling out major venues from coast to coast by word of mouth, or playing festivals from Lollapalooza to Red Rocks is a sign that your electro-freak mashup outfit is doing well, but probably not as much as being endorsed by the Queen of avant electro herself; Bjork was spotted at one of their recent shows at The Roxy in Los Angeles.

Making their SXSW debut, The Glitch Mob are set to play 3 Austin events before heading over to key slots at this year’s Coachella and Winter Music Conference gatherings. And this May, they embark on their first full nationwide tour in support of The Glitch Mob’s debut album release Drink the Sea (due May 25 on the band’s own Glass Air label). Following years of triumphant official remixes for the likes of TV On The Radio and Ed Banger— The Glitch Mob and its members even held the top two spots on XLR8R’s “50 Best MP3s of 2008” over the likes of Hercules and Love Affair and the Kills—and solo releases on tastemaker labels like Planet Mu, Drink The Sea represents a musical sea change for the band. Across the album, the trio of producer/ instrumentalists Justin Boreta, Ed Ma, and Josh Mayer artfully craft new, futuristic sounds that take influence from numerous genres, but land in none. Then again, flipping the script comes as no surprise for the group XLR8R says are best known for both “tearing up dancefloors and confusing the hell out of anyone trying to put a label on their music.”

To get a sense of what all the fuss is about, download Glitch Mob’s latest remix of TV On the Radio’s “Red Dress”:

Download TV On the Radio’s “Red Dress (Glitch Mob Remix)”

Visit The Glitch Mob at Myspace

America, you have been warned…