An Interview With Carl Madison Burgin, AKA Sahy Uhns, Co-Founder Of LA’s Proximal Records

There’s no name for this musical movement in LA. Kids who grew up listening to equal amounts of hip hop (much of which came out before they were old enough to pick their own clothes) and the early incarnations of funky, experimental electronic music are spending hours in front of a screen with their hands on an MPC, and this is what comes out. The most famous of these kids, , has gotten popular enough that the beat nerds have handed him over to the masses. Beyond this one agent for the LA scene, there lies a teeming community of producers who value the same influences, bask in the same weather, and smoke the same weed, putting out music that is to be shared before it’s sold, consistent with the mellow fellow mentality that makes the scope of the music sound so free.

is a fledgling collective from the LA area that embodies the scene. The label’s co-founder Carl Madison Burgin, who produces under the moniker Sahy Uhns (pronounced “Science”), has overseen the release of a slew of Proximal beat tapes over the past couple of years. In 2011, Sahy Uhns will drop his full-length record, along with some heat from the rest of the roster.

Noisey had a few words with Sahy Uhns to learn more about Proximal and what they have in store.

NOISEY: WHAT’S THE ORIGIN STORY BEHIND PROXIMAL RECORDS?

Sahy Uhns: Proximal Records was started two years ago when Jeff Elmassian (owner of ) and I realized that I had a group of friends that were making amazing music but had no means of putting it out in a professional way. Instead of getting frustrated with the situation we decided to start up Proximal Records and release the music ourselves.

WHAT IS YOUR MISSION?

The idea behind Proximal was to create an organization that focused on nurturing the artistic community in Los Angeles. Our focus is to collaborate with LA artists to build a diverse and well-curated catalog that we hope will allow our artists to continue creating.

WHO ARE THE MEMBERS OF YOUR SQUAD AND WHAT ARE THEIR SPECIAL POWERS?

The current Proximal crew consists of myself (, , , and . Sahy Uhns has the power of sound design, synthesis and intense live energy. Benedek’s got the funk – fusing the sounds of vintage video games and classic analog synthesizers. BearClaw has an amazing perspective on rhythm that will keep you nodding your head and keep you guessing. Lawrence Grey has the power of epic harmony and soaring dance beats. Wake’s power is his ability to transport the listener to another place – usually including pink flamingos and booty bass.

Sahy Uhns – Proximity One: Mega(re)mix by proximalrecords

SO FAR, YOUR BEAT COMPS HAVE HAD SUPPORT FROM THE LIKES OF TOKiMONSTA AND DAM-FUNK. ANY FUTURE COLLAB LA BEAT ACES COMING UP?

The biggest collaboration that we have coming up this summer is between Benedek and . Dâm-FunK is singing on Benedek’s new single “That’s My Jam!” I was lucky enough to engineer when Dam came and sang at the Proximal studio. Dâm-FunK is an awesome guy and is so supportive of great up-and-coming music. Much love for that guy.

WHAT IS DIFFERENT ABOUT THE SOUND OF INSTRUMENTAL HIP HOP IN LA TODAY?

I guess what is fun about LA right now is that there are so many people doing so many different things. Yes, there have been a lot of kind of spacey stoner beats going around for a little while now (I’ve been guilty of that) but there is a lot more than that. The coolest part about being in LA right now is that there is such a big electronic/hip-hop scene that you can kind of make whatever you want. That is pretty much what we are trying to do with Proximal. Rather than having the label center around one kind of sound we’ve embraced how different the music is that each artist is creating. We’re a group of friends that love each other’s music and if we love it then our hope is other people probably will too.

WHAT THREE RECORDS FROM THE PAST HAVE THE BIGGEST INFLUENCE ON THE LA SOUND, IN YOUR OPINION?

Hmmm…that is a hard one. Flying Lotus’ Los Angeles is definitely very high up on that list. We can’t forget about the importance of G-Funk, so Dr. Dre’s The Chronic would have to be on there. Maybe (people might not agree with this one) Mr. Oizo’s Analog Worms Attack. Like I said before, there are a lot of people in LA doing a lot of different things so it’s really hard to say. The LA sound is more diverse than people might realize.

AFTER LA, WHAT ARE YOUR THREE FAVORITE CITIES FOR MUSIC?

Berlin. Detroit. Tokyo.

HOW ABOUT A LITTLE PREVIEW OF THE UPCOMING PROXIMAL RELEASES?

Next up we have Beat Stew Vol. 3, which is the fourth in our series of . Volume 3 is focusing on all of the funk and boogie that people are making in LA right now. After that we have the Benedek single “That’s My Jam!” featuring Dâm-FunK on vocals. We are going to put out a 7-inch vinyl for the single and the digital release will include remixes by all of the Proximal crew and a great chip tune cover by our buddy (drummer of ). “That’s My Jam!” is fire and we can hopefully get a lot of people hyped about Benedek’s music. After that we have my release, An Intolerant Disdain of Underlings, which is a full-length record. I’ve been working on this release for about three years and it has some of my favorite music that I have written on it. As part of the release there is a photo series to go with the music that I shot with my good friend and photographer . We have a few after that but those are still in the works. I’m super stoked for all the new shit.

ACCORDING TO YOUR VISION, WHERE WILL PROXIMAL BE IN TEN YEARS?

Hopefully, the artists will be touring and putting out really great records. We are also really looking to start a venue (hopefully in Downtown LA) where we can throw all of the shows that we want without restrictions. We would love to be able to present all kinds of art, no matter the style or medium, whenever the mood strikes us.

ANY OTHER LABELS, COLLECTIVES, OR ARTISTS YOU THINK THE WORLD SHOULD HEAR?

Oh man, so many. In terms of music I think people might not be familiar with already I’d say: , , , , , .