KEVIN Palmer, aka Best Available Technology, began making music as a teenager in Portland, Oregon in the late 1980s, recording warm, dubby, experimental electronics straight to tape. The tapes sat in a box for a couple of decades until Palmer began to investigate them again sometime around 2011, eventually starting a compilation series called Excavated Tracks to release them. That series is now two volumes in, with more to come, and Palmer has also become a prolific producer of new music, with his latest LP, Exposure Therapy, coming out on 2 June on Styles Upon Styles Records. He plays live at 12th Isle in Glasgow on Friday, 5 May.

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1) Can you tell us a little about your name?

My friend Max Sympathy gave it to me in around 2008. Before that I hadn’t really called my music project anything - there was no need really to have a name for as i was just recording stuff for myself, not playing it out or releasing it. I liked it because it seemed kinda vague but had a nice ring to it, and also because it takes forever to type and is a pain in the ass for internetty stuff. It also suited me because at the time every piece of gear i was using was used and in some form of disrepair, so it was also a bit funny. The actual definition of “best available technology” is that it constitutes a “moving target of practices”, which probably describes my approach and sonics best.

2) What’s your favourite non-musical piece of technology?

Those sticky pet-hair rollers.

3) Hip hop was very important to you as a teenager – does it still inform your music just as much?

Absolutely, hip hop was the music that originally made me want to find out how music was created at all, to say nothing the huge and lasting influence on me of the music itself.

4) You have a deep love for an “asphalt-hard” strain of hip hop production called boom bap, and your new record is based on it – what is it and why do you love it so much?

I would feel weird trying to describe or define boom bap actually as I’m no scholar… I just know that I love it. I wouldn’t like to claim that my record is proper boom bap, it’s just my implied version of it.

5) It’s a short linguistic hop from boom bap to bibimbap, and Glasgow (and everyone else) is very into Korean food these days – where was the best Korean food you ever had?

The thing that comes to mind here is actually the worst Korean food I ever had, which was some kimchee that had fish sauce in it. Someone convinced me to try it, neglecting to tell me it had fish in it. I would have hated it even without the fish but that special ingredient was the lingering reminder for me to play it safe in future with regard to fermented foods.

Best Available Technology plays live at 12th Isle at Glasgow School of Art on Friday 5 May. He will also release a 12-inch on the 12th Isle record label later in the year