There are few things I love more these days than really funky electronic music anchored by a live instrument and few guys are doing it as well as Beat Fatigue. Coming from that bastion of freedom, Amsterdam, Beat Fatigue's guitar licks might just be funkier than his basslines - but they might not be. I'm torn on this one. Even though his name was on the headliner list for Shambhala, released some time ago, it was only in the last few weeks that I saw his name on there (Because I'm bad at reading things, apparently) and I've been pumped ever since. Lucky for me the good homey was down to get on the march to Shambhala with me and answer my ridiculous questions for all of your reading pleasure.

Please, please, if you're around Shambhala, make sure to see him in Fractal Forest on Sunday night (7pm). I promise your ass will appreciate all the shaking. And whether you're going to be there or not you should some time and listen to his funktastically wonderful Optimus Jive EP (Relaesed on Gramatik's Lowtemp label), which I have included here for your listening pleasure! (It's also a free download, so load it up on your player of choice and funk wherever you go.)

His first release on Lowtemp. Here we find him comfortably cruising between glitch hop and funk, with his guitar playing skills on full display. The syncopated groove of the title track is guaranteed to get the party started in no time, while the other two songs making up the EP will definitely keep it going. Optimus Jive EP is out now!

We’re getting ready for Shambhala over here, so we’ll start with that. Have you been to Shambhala before? What have you heard/excited to see?

Haven’t been there yet unfortunately! Haha pretty much everyone I met who’s been there told me the most amazing stories about it!!! So yeah, really cannot wait for the total awesome epicness, also the lineup is sick. Especially can’t wait to see Tipper’s set!

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1. Do you remember the first album you bought with your own money? Do you still listen to it? What format? Favourite track?

Haha, I have to dig very deep now…I think the first album I actually bought with my own money was Stevie Ray Vaughan’s ‘The Sky Is Crying’. I was obsessed with his version of "Little Wing" for quite a while, still am, actually. That dude played the blues like no other! I still listen to a lot of blues, it’s a language that really speaks to me.

2. If the world was ending and you got to save one piece of culture (from anywhere in the world) to preserve for survivors, what would you save and why?

Well that escalated quickly, haha. In all seriousness I really don’t know. Any cultural piece to me is something that makes people come together and has some sort of meaning. I think it gives the people a way to express themselves on a deeper level, I feel like it wouldn’t make any sense for me to pick a specific cultural piece to save when the world has ended. I think working on a new cultural piece in that moment that gives the survivors a way to express themselves right then is also important.

3. Can you think of a movie that had an effect on the way you saw the world? What was it about that movie that blew your head up?

Somehow the first movie that came to mind was when I was really young, can’t remember how old exactly I was, I saw the first Back To The Future. The scene where Marty played his epic Chuck Berry guitar solo just blew me away. I remember it so well, probably had some effect on me for getting into the guitar, now I think of it. Anyway, it changed my view on the impact music can have, especially the positive effect it can have on people who are enjoying completely fresh and new music.

4. If you had to choose between keeping your vision or your hearing, which would you keep and why?

Without a doubt my hearing, I listen to music all day every day, so really, I wouldn’t know what to do with myself if I couldn’t do that anymore!

5. Do you think that technology can set us free to some kind of techno-utopia?

I believe I’m already living in some sort of techno-utopia to some extend really. The crazy things we are doing these days, to quote Louis CK about people complaining about their flights; “Oh really, what happened next? Did you fly through the air? Incredibly, like a bird?!”

I feel like there is a lot of technology in the making that will not benefit us (or the Earth) necessarily in the future and that the world is too complicated to simply free everyone through depending solely on technology. But what do I know, man? Who knows what new technology will bring to the table in the future.

6. The guest question comes from fellow Fractal Forest act DJ Wood (of Wood ‘n’ Soo)…What's your preferred hard format for music listening?

Definitely at an outdoor festival with a nice Funktion-one system!