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In the heart of Stokes Croft, opposite the murky grassland of Turbo Island, lies music hardware store Elevator Sound. Having overseen the store's development into the local musical Mecca it is today, Ben Chiltonspoke to us about the shop's evolution.

The building which Elevator Sound inhabits has housed several integral parts of the Bristol music scene over the years, including record stores DMT and Idle Hands and, more recently, 1020 Radio, who they currently share the building with.

Coming from a recording studio background and after studying at BIMM, Ben, who is now the shop's manager, joined Elevator was it just interfaces, speakers and a couple of synths. In the years that followed, the shop has stocked more and more hardware and intricate tech. "I would close the shop at the end of the day and play with stuff for hours to figure it out," Ben says, reminiscing his earlier days in the shop. It would be fair to say he's become something of a music hardware connoisseur since then.

As someone with virtually no knowledge about the stock inside, I look over the buttons and wires decorating the room with a 'what-the-fuck-is-all-of-this' kind of bewilderment. "It doesn't matter," Ben says, "people often come in here and ask what the hell everything is. Someone once asked if it was an art exhibition." It is art, I suppose - technical and structured in all its many shapes and forms.

There's room for the weird and obscure, even in the tech world, perhaps the best example being a modular named The Earth Return Distortion. Although not in the shop, Ben's inner nerd longs to stock it someday. "It's a box of dirt that you fire sound through, and it distorts it, but the dirt is from Edgar Allen Poe's grave, somewhere in Transylvania. A lot of people think it's stupid, but a lot of people like me think it's the coolest thing in the world."

Our discussion of the poetic qualities of some of the more obscure gear that's out there leads me to view these machines in a sentient way – in some cases, they can bring like-minded people together. Take the regular Escher events that happen inside Elevator Sound, for example. Put a rig and some CDJs in the shop, invite anybody down to play and bang! the space becomes a melting pot of people with different musical backgrounds enjoying the vast experimental possibilities afforded by the hardware. "Anything goes!" Ben explains. "From 200bpm gabber to weird acid jazz, post-internet club sounds, to hardcore jungle. We even had a guy come past one time who put on some nice acoustic folk."

For those who want to get into music production and DJing, it can be daunting knowing where to start. A shop like Elevator Sound can be intimidating with all its intergalactic, alien-looking gadgets and intricate hardware, but the ethos inside these walls is exactly the opposite. “It’s for everybody, no matter your level. Even if you’ve never played an instrument or turned on a computer.”

In September, the Elevator Sound team celebrated their 5th anniversary

The shop runs the Bristol Ableton User Group and Ben teaches a range of introductory modular courses for people of all abilities. “That’s the whole point with running a shop, especially with the whole modular thing, it looks super scary and science-y. It’s been so gatekept for years and its expensive, so it’s great to have a space where people can just come and play around with stuff or have a go at making a beat on the drum machine - that’s what we’re here for!”

From people who have never touched a synth, to people who build their own - it’s a welcoming place. But for those wanting to start modular music-making? Ben recommends to find a sound first before beginning to think about synths and all that good stuff. “Different synths are good for different things. The Polyvox is great for really shreddy industrial bass, then you’ve got something like the Corg Minilog XD which does loads of stuff!" 


"Yeah mate, you going Canteen? See you at the party!” Ben responds as a friend pops his head through the door. He’ll be playing at The Loko Club under his Strangling Glass alias later today. “It’s just super industrial techno and me screaming through a microphone to kick drums,” he laughs.

Most of Ben's bookings come from his friends, and he believes friendship runs deep in Bristol's music scene in here. Everyone genuinely supports each other and, as Ben tells me, "interesting stuff comes from when friends band around ideas. You're less scared to fail and willing to try stuff you wouldn't try otherwise. You know they have your back if things go wrong, but when they go right, it's even better.”

“There’s a certain bond to the whole music scene in Bristol,” he continues. “I’ll go and see people play who aren’t my sort of music necessarily. There’s loads of people supporting everyone across genres and that’s what makes the local scene so strong - everyone’s constantly influencing each other.”

With people like Ben making some of the more daunting aspects of electronic music production more open and accessible, there's no limit as to how far the collaborative influence of Bristol's music scene can reach.


Find Elevator Sound in Stokes Croft: 74 Stokes Croft, BS1 3QY. 

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