Herb Sundays 20: Toby Feltwell
A complex but balanced transmission from a low-key music/fashion legend (Cav Empt, BAPE, Mo'Wax, etc.). Art by Michael Cina.
Herb Sundays 20: Toby Feltwell
Listen: Apple / Spotify. Art by Michael Cina.
An abbreviated bio goes like this. The man behind your favorite brands, some of mine at least. CV includes: Mo'Wax (coming out of the same creative ooze as legends like Ben Drury and Will Bankhead, 1996 - 2003), signing Dizzee Rascal & Wiley to XL, Bathing Ape (including launching the NYC shop and Billionaire Boy's Club) (main 2003-2005 and also 2005-2011) and launching the Cav Empt brand with Sk8thing and Hishiyama (Hishi) Yutaka in 2011 where they "continue to be excited by the process of making whatever we feel like making." It's enough to blind you.Â
I've only hung with Toby a couple of times and the sense you get is that this is a guy who just wants to get on with it. He's seen fame up close and knows that it's not all it's cracked up to be. He knows that it’s the ability to create and enjoy creating, that that’s where it’s at.
Cav Empt as a clothing line has been on a steady climb for a decade for mainly this reason, a disinterest in hype or celebrity of any sort. The brand name comes from the ‘caveat emptor’ (the Latin term for ‘buyer beware’) tattoo a character from Philip K. Dick’s Ubik wears. The clothes read like a skate brand that is slightly dismayed by the state of things but not willing to concede. There’s also a steady flow of ace cassettes and parties too. The brand straddles the line between pleasure and uniform. A little unstructured utopia and a little THX 1138.
Similarly, the playlist is a bit vexing at first but it starts to settle beautifully. The greyscale wonderment gives way to romantic reverie (from a man who enjoys a stack of Robert Hood 12"s good Sunday fare). The mix veers in and out of jungle (J Majik) and experimental (Aaron Dilloway), tapping into Brandy/Mariah zones, landcruising through Detroit (Kenny Larkin, Robert Hood, Fanon Flowers), and into contemporary bassweight (Nadia Struiwigh, CS+ Kreme, Lukid) and apexes with the late Peter Rehberg and 80’s Temptations. But of course.
Feltwell is a man deliciously out of time, we may not get it all until later. His co-compiled 2001 Now Thing compilation (still have my vinyl copy he gave me in London in ‘02) of digital dancehall instrumentals on Mo’ Wax, that is now considered watershed and just spawned a lovely sequel, was not quite that upon arrival. "The only positive feedback I got was a DJ response form from Weatherall (the only one ever) who said he thought it was the best record Mo'Wax had released! Everybody else was like 'wtf is this shit?'“
Bonus: HS20 pairs well with Herb Sundays 05: Phil Chang: Apple/ Spotify