Yppah: Painting With Loops

It could be said that Yppah's debut album evokes the fuzzed-out wail of a Hendrix solo, or that the time-stretched drums recall the best of Squarepusher and Aphex Twin. You could perhaps suggest that the fusion of jazzy broken-beat to intricate guitar and bass patterns has as much in common with classic rock and indie as it does with DJ Shadow, or Yppah's Ninja Tunes label-mates. You could even whisper the name of Ennio Morricone in reverent tones – you still would not have done justice to 'You Are Beautiful At All Times.'

Texan Jose Luis Corrales Jr. is the man behind Yppah. He honed his talent and remarkable ear for music as a DJ and producer of bootlegs, famously melding Outkast and Ted Nugent. Also a veteran of several rock bands and turntablist collective The Truth, it was a combination of all these influences that led to him signing to Ninja Tune.

"I was influenced by dance music and rock music equally," says Corrales. "I was listening to a lot of The Notwist. My roommate at the time introduced me to a lot of music I had never heard before – mainly Anticon artists such as Subtle and Themselves, and these guys from Finland called Happy End. I like they way they blended styles so you couldn't really categorize it." The influence of Anticon is definitely audible on 'You Are Beautiful…' - Alias-esque clicks, pops and glitches ornament the beats, and there is a pleasingly analogue drone to some of the organ sounds.

Yppah's previous bootleg productions were the spark that led him to evolving his own sound: "My friend Scott (AKA Babel Fishh), who was my room-mate at the time, had a really strange production style. I'd always complain to him about how I could never finish anything. He mentioned that I could probably combine some of the ideas. He used to do it all the time in his music, and I thought it sounded really dope. Now I'm writing my own stuff, I'd say there are a lot fewer accidents, as far as creating the base for a song goes. I used to rely on experimenting more, and hoping something would sound good. I'll actually probably start doing that again. I miss that reckless approach."

'You Are Beautiful…' is hard to define as either club or home listening. I ask Jose what his thoughts are: "It would depend on who you were playin' it for. It would probably be a car / home / lounge CD for me. I've got some club tracks / remixes / mashups that I use in my DJ sets." Hopefully some of these will see the light of day as b-sides in the future, I suggest; but Corrales is giving nothing away. He does however intend to bring Yppah out on tour: "I've done a few local live shows with a full band. We're going to start planning a tour real soon. I've also been experimenting with vocals myself, and I have projects with a few vocalists that will be finished soon. I'm still DJing all the time! I've slowed it down lately so I can focus on making music again."

Another appealing feature of 'You Are Beautiful…' is its' lush artwork, depicting a woman with long, flowing, fairytale hair lying in a bathtub. "I absolutely love the artwork!" gushes Corrales. "My friend Rey painted it, and his girlfriend Sue laid it out. He was visiting from San Francisco to work on music with us, and showed me some of his pieces. I was so blown away by his work."

It seems Corrales is a very visual person. Apart from music, what inspires him is art: "I'm really in to Herbert Baglione's paintings at the moment. People also inspire me. People that can press your buttons!"

Yppah's music is emotionally engaging despite being almost entirely instrumental - it creates pictures in your mind without the need for words. At its' best, such as on the elegant Again With Subtitles, it is like Yppah is painting with loops and samples, an old master of studio technique. Talk about pushing buttons.