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Few live techno performances capture both the physicality of sound and the vulnerability of the artist quite like One Knob Per Function. In this collection of live recordings, 7XINS doesn’t just present a series of tracks—he offers a document of transition, of closure. With tactile control and sonic intensity, the album marks the end of one chapter and the clearing of space for another. It’s a raw, immersive farewell to a live setup that prioritized instinct over perfection, chaos over control, and feeling over form.
Your new LP feels like both a document and a farewell. Why was now the right time to release One Knob Per Function?
I have gone through a big transformation in the last two years, I feel like I reached a point where I am only just starting. Like everything up until now was just training in some way, if that makes sense? I am currently very sure about my place and my goals musically now, I am in the process of finishing and releasing quite a bit if studio work I have been working on in the last few years including my first studio album thats coming out later this year, so its been a bit of a break from live sets. I think now is the right time whilst I am sorting these releases out to show case historic live work as a kind of an interlude to the studio stuff. I really just wanted to publish the work in an nicer way than just dropping the recordings on Soundcloud, especially with them going out on a nice cassette package as well. When all the studio work is finally out I will refocus my energy back onto live sets ripping the old one apart and probably using a lot of samples from the latest studio album and other studio work. Its like a massive interlude basically.
The project carries a strong DIY ethos. Can you walk us through your setup and performance workflow?
I think yes, its definitely a DIY project for sure but I try to do everything as professionally as possible of course. I suppose some DIY projects is less about the project and more about the ethos and mindset but I do like to pay as much attention to detail as possible.
Set up and work flow wise for live performances, I will explain the set up first.
I use an Octatrack as my main device that does the transport and sends midi clock to everything else. I also use the TR8-S by Roland which has a lot of control and capabilities such as loading your own samples, then I have two 104hp rows of Eurorack which is sequenced by a Korg SQ64, the modular is set up to be gnarly wave table synth but also houses some effects and granular bits too. These units go into a DJ mixer, primarily the Model One but sometimes a Xone 96, the mixer is also instrumental to the performance, almost like another instrument. In addition to this I use the Eventide H9 and a send/return effect on the mixer as well.
Workflow wise its a massive feedback loop for me. Starts with music I write in the studio, sampled into the machines to the live set, write new parts for live set, then live set parts back into music in the studio after the gig, rinse and repeat.
I tend to spend a lot of time in the preparing stage. I go through all the music I have written even if they are just ideas that never became tracks, I will sample kicks and baselines, percussion loops and one shots and a lot of atmospheres. I spend a lot of time gathering all thee parts and getting them onto the machines, I then jam them out and weed out the weak parts or things I don’t like also things that just don’t work well until I
am left with the solid parts. Then I spend time gelling it all together by coming up with new ideas n the machines in raw form to accompany the parts I sampled form my tracks, I write a lot of new lead lines and sequences on the modular then to go with it all. Then its a matter of seeing where the lowest and highest energy parts are and working out how to make some smooth transitions with them all. I arranged all my sound sources so I have complete control of separate elements, every kick, baseline, hi hat, percussion loop, lead line or atmosphere can be independently controlled or muted, this is quite important. I then sum from the machines to the DJ mixer, Kicks and basses on once channel, percussion on another, synths on another and then atmospheres on another. I also then have the ability to send these sums to the H9 effects unit. So its all about having ultimate control over every element but being able to effect thing as groups as well, this makes for a stress free performance. The DJ mixer is just such powerful thing for me personally, it gives a lot of control with very little movement and makes it a lot of fun to play with.
What role does improvisation play in your live sets—and how did that influence the recordings on this album?
Its definitely 50/50 of knowing what I have in terms of material and also having the ability to play what I want when I want. It’s still something I think about a lot. I have been lucky enough to engineer in clubs with some of my favourite live acts over the years many of whom I look up to and also its of live acts I never even knew about. One thing I noticed over the years is that there needs to be a balance right? Very rarely does a DJ just throw a load of records in their bag without studying them a little, it really helps to know what tools you have in your arsenal. With this in mind a lot of good live sets I have seen but have had less of an impact on the crowd have been very jazzy and fully improvised. Whilst this is a really respectable and hard thing to do I feel like sometimes the audience can get bored of seeing an artist tap out a sequence especially synthy or melodic content especially when its just not going well. The most impactful live sets I have witnessed you can just tell they knew exactly what they had sonically to work with so there is a kind of a safety net, not a safety net just for the artist but for the dance floor as well to keep the energy up. Don’t forget live acts have the difficult task of going up against Dj sets that are incredibly powerful these days and the crowd are used to some form of structure. Its all about balance, but this is obviously just my take on things. I like a mixture of good prep and with the ability to steer it in the right direction!
You refer to “machines wired tight and pushed to the limit.” What drew you to this rough, almost confrontational aesthetic?
Mainly because I tend to push the DJ mixers quite hard when I play live. I don’t know what it is but if I play a DJ set I have no issues keeping levels solid and consistent but when I am playing a live set trying to get all of the separate elements to gel together well leads me to soft clipping the preamps and even the main out, adding a nice level of saturation. I always get the engineer to set the level at front of house when the mixer is already being pushed, this is how I achieve my glue on the mix. And obviously sometimes I get carried away a little haha. Apologies for that!
How did audience energy and club context shape your performance choices during those live sets?
Tough question! I think this is massively psychological. If you are like me and can sometimes get super anxious before playing it can set you up for a rough ride. If you cannot shake the anxiety in the first 20 mins then it can be tough as you get into your own head, you start to question yourself “are those people dancing?” “Is it not hitting hard enough?” Or “am I dragging this groove out too long?” Its usually times like this where it doesn’t matter how good the energy is of the audience you just cannot seem to see past it. Of course thee are rare moments but it happens. On the contrary if you get over those nerves and get into the flow state, the feedback from the crowd can really give you even more confidence to explore more and take more risks such as dragging a break down out for even longer watching the audience as they react to the impending chaos of filters opening wide, or adding some broken rhythm thats not quite a solid four four even doing some more extreme modulation on a sequence or something. This is when it gets really exciting, I would say there are quite a few cuts in the selection that have these moments. For example one of the Tresor cuts is a broken atmospheric track that I never really finished into a production, its a live version which is a bit more heavy but at Tresor the crowd were so forgiving and into it I just let this hypnotic sound scape play for a quite a while just playing with the sub frequencies, I did this for about 4 to 5 mins and the floor didn’t seem to lose energy at all. Moments like this push you to experiment more.
Severn Electronics launches with this release how do you envision the label evolving in the future?
Severn Electronics is in its early stages still, I have been a little slow with it although it has always been a long term plan which I feel is now starting to get in motion after 2 years.
I only really released my own material on there for most part so far which included a couple of remixes from friends Burden and Mist Gasp. I do have quite a lot of studio work to release including my first studio album which is bit more under the ambient and electronica umbrella. I am also chatting to some really great artists at the moment whose work I really love and I think fits the sonic aesthetics of the label, the plan is to build a really solid discography of music that fits the vision and also not bound to any particular genre but is sonically fitting. There is a lot of scope for exploration and I am really excited about it all. There will also be more collaborations between myself and others under different aliases, probably a lot of one off releases like this. I think building relationships with like minded artists maybe even evolving into some kind of collective could be really cool. Who knows! Thats the fun of it I suppose!
What would you say to younger artists wanting to explore hardware-based live techno in today’s scene?
Definitely first thing I would say is believe! I think a lot of people try to start out feel or overwhelmed or defeated quickly, which is totally valid! But just plough through I would say! I had times where I thought I should give up and would never be able to achieve what I wanted. Accept the fact you will go through
extreme lows and extreme highs, its a vicious cycle but once you understand that this is part of the process you can just power through knowing good things will come of it. It will all be worth it in the end.
Secondly, use whatever you can! Try not to get too caught up on gear! Might sound contradictory because we all love and want new gear all the time but honestly this shit is expensive, you don’t need all the best fancy bits of gear, you can use anything! I would say first thing is grab whatever is accessible to you and get cracking, push things to their limits, try and use them for things that others don’t use them for, you will be surprised how the can really shape something unique that doesn’t cost you an arm and a leg! I have seen people perform awesome live sets on just an SP Sampler and even saw a someone absolutely smash it on a Elecktron Model only!.
And utilise software!! The digital realm is powerful and more affordable! Doesn’t matter what you use.
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