Richard Norris is a DJ, producer, musician, A&R man, author and journalist. He has been making music since the early 1980s, and was a founder member of The Grid. Richard is also one half of Beyond The Wizard’s Sleeve, his collaboration with fellow DJ and remixer Erol Alkan, who went Far Out After Dark with a legendary night of psychedelic dance mayhem at Green Man 2009. His most recent project, The Time and Space Machine, release their second album next month and will be playing a full live set at Green Man 2012. Richard Norris stopped by for a chat with Green Man to tell us what we can expect from his new project, and gave us this exclusive hour long mix for your listening pleasure:

http://soundcloud.com/greenmanfestival/the-time-and-space-machine

Green Man: The Time and Space Machine started out as a solo project but it’s morphing into a full live band. Was this always part of the plan, or did it just evolve naturally?

Richard Norris: The Time and Space Machine evolved from my occasional project with Erol Alkan, Beyond The Wizard's Sleeve. We took that from playing psych and 18 minute Can wig outs in dark basements to putting out edits and mixes of other peoples work. I was keen to progress this into more of a band set up, so started recording tracks with Wildcat Will on drums. It started as a studio project but there was always the intention to take it out live with a full on psychedelic light show, which is happening this summer. It's me and Wildcat with added guitars, Hammond, mellotron, harmony vocals and backwards noises. Maybe some cowbell.

GM: We’re extremely excited by the prospect of a “retina-expanding” lightshow - what can we expect from TTASM live experience at Green Man 2012?

RN: We're still working it out in the lab at the moment, looking at different ways to project imagery, etc… Whatever happens it'll be suitably brain opening.

GM: You’re a DJ and producer as well as a songwriter and musician. Do you prefer the longer creative process of writing and recording a record, or the immediacy of playing live?

RN: I've got time for both - nothing beats the immediacy of a killer gig or DJ set, such as BTWS at Green Man! But my daily fun is crafting tracks, remixes and albums over long periods, which I get great pleasure out of as well.

GM: The new TTASM album Taste the Lazer is due out in spring. Is there a definite release date yet, and how does it differ from Set Phazer To Stun?

RN: The vinyl is out at the end of March and the CD is coming out on Tirk on April 9th. It certainly has similar psych and motorik influences to the first album, plus a hint of ESG, Liquid Liquid, kinda loose New York live stuff. I decided to put the full band together about halfway through recording the album, so some tracks, like the 8 minute Neu!-fest 'Black Rainbow', were recorded with live gigs in mind. I'm hoping we'll lift right off into some kind of levitational motorik hypnosis on stage.

GM: Is there a manifesto, musical or otherwise, for the music you are currently making?

RN: Whenever I ask Luke Insect to design a sleeve for TTASM, all I say is “make it psychedelic”. They've turned out pretty good so far with just that instruction, so I'm sticking to it! I think that's about as near to a manifesto as I can imagine - making music that elevates, takes you on a trip, heightens sensation, opens up and expands your mind, and makes your booty shake.

GM: Is the “world of psychedelic technicolour” created by TTASM a deliberate reaction to the bland nature of much modern-day music?

RN: There is certainly an escapist, another dimension element to it, which may be something that becomes more prevalent in times of hardship, but I don't think it's deliberately against modern music. It just kind of sneaks up beside it and gives it a lick. And anyway there's so much quality music from every decade available on the internet now, it would be insane to just be listening purely to modern chart music.

GM: You’re heavily inspired by the LSD-fuelled psychedelia of 1967, but were also releasing influential records of your own during the acid house and rave explosion of the late 1980s. Is there a link between the two periods for you, in terms of creativity and counter-culture?

RN: I was working for a psychedelic label, Bam Caruso, in the mid eighties, just out of school, and as I got deeper into that music I did wish for something similar to come along. And lo and behold, I went to interview Genesis P.Orridge in 1987 and he said: “Have you heard of this thing called Acid House? Let's make a record!” We hadn't heard any at the time, we just liked the idea of a psychedelic dance music. Our 'Jack The Tab' album and countless others, alongside a handful of great nights, brought it into being. That idea has never left really, from 'Jack The Tab' through the Grid records to the Wizard's Sleeve and now TTASM…. it's all about forms of mind expanding, hypnotic dance music. There are links between Acid and House that are quite direct, from David Mancuso attending Timothy Leary's League of Spiritual Discovery lectures in the late 1960's New York and being inspired to start the Loft, one of the greatest dance spaces ever, which influenced many a House club night afterwards, on and on to the present day.

GM: Are we due a third summer of love in 2012 do you think, if only in a big field in Wales from August 17-19?

RN: I'm sure we'll be having a mini summer of love in the Far Out field last thing on Sunday night…

GM: Beyond The Wizard’s Sleeve was undoubtedly one of the most brain-frazzling highlights of Green Man in 2009 – what are your memories of the performance?

RN: Lots of people bouncing up and down to Spacemen 3. Some mad belly dancer projections from Kieran Evans. Grinning at Erol. Was that the year we all wore horse masks? 

GM: Green Man celebrates his 10^th anniversary this year – what makes it special as a festival, and why do you think it continues to excite people so much?

RN: Undoubtedly the music. The quality and variety of great music at Green Man is unsurpassed. Everyone seems a little more into the music than you'd find at, say, V Festival. Plus it's a manageable size, doesn't get too quagmire-like and you can always get to see what you want. 

http://greenman.net/artist/time-space-machine-live