When was the ENIGISER first built and what was the inspiration for it?

I first started modifying synths in 1987 when I dropped out of an analogue electronics course to join one of the first music technology courses in the UK. I had been immersed with music from the likes of Depeche Mode, Human League, Giorgio Moroder, Jean Michael Jarre and Kraftwerk, OMD etc. Then when the acid house sounds started coming over from the US I got really serious about making my own music.

I was poor and running out of sounds to make for my own music so I would literally put switches, pots, sockets, inputs and outputs into every module and part of the synths I had and convert all the standard filters into multi modes so I could create my own organic sound.

I then got massively involved in the acid house/rave scene in the late 80’s and after countless demo tapes, some amazing pirate radio sessions, gigs and underground raves, I released my first EP as G.F.X called Eternal on cassette which had loads of my modified equipment on it.

We would play a gig and then sell all the cassette tapes afterwards. The “Eternal tapes”sold out in their hundreds and was the sound of many after party chill outs and bedrooms, so I recorded it to vinyl and ended up selling a few thousand copies and playing some pretty crazy big crowd raves and chill out rooms all over the UK as GFX.

Creating the machines to make the music was what I loved doing, so after years of playing around with different designs THE ENIGISER became a finished fully fledged product in about 1995.

What about the name?

Well the name Orgon comes from Wilhelm Reich “Orgone Energy”. His books also led me in the early 90’s to build some pretty far out plant feedback interfaces. Not sure if there’s a market out there for feedback plant machines, but my interests for how we interact with nature and our spiritual essence and creativity are still incredibly important to me.

Why are first edition ENIGISERS still going strong and why did you stop making them?

First off I never stopped making machines or music and while there has always been a demand for my synths. I just found the commercial aspects of big production and big business were not something I was very comfortable with. And when I hired managers to handle it for me I discovered that most of them weren’t very good at it either.

I think the first edition enigisers became so desired over the years because they were the first ever synth designed specifically for experimental dance musicians and DJ’s. They have also lasted the test of time in how robust they are and plus they are actually really hard to make. I mean I’ve seen some cloned copies of the enigiser and they really have got so many aspects of the design and sound wrong and the cloners don’t even seem to understand how to use it.

What about your ORGON Modulars?

I love building modular synthesisers and over the years I’ve sold quite a few to private collectors and musicians, there is also a myth out there that only 6 were made but there was a lot more than that and I think that has been said to keep the price of them quite high when selling on. What I keep finding about the modular synths I make is that they are often misunderstood as being a DIY project rather than the fully fledged, unique machines they are.

But yeah I’ve been getting quite a few orders in for bespoke modulars and digging some old modulars out the workshops and playing around with them so might look at bringing some out for some live performances I have coming up.

So why release the enigiser again?

Because I never lost my love for it, it seems more relevant than ever and even though I had other things going on in my life people still managed to seek me out for them, so I guessed after 26 years it was time to get the enigiser back into production. Plus this time round I’ve got more time, more energy and more space to build and produce in higher quantities than I did first time round. Also there’s some pretty out there musicians right now and I love that some of my personal favourites are now making music with the enigiser and when I saw DISCLOSURE playing an ENIGISER on a live video stream at Devon Analogue, I was blown away.

What about the cloned ENIGISERS out there?

I have changed my mind on this so many times as while I can see their motivation for copying my designs could have turned out to be very profitable for them if I hadn’t also re-released the original enigiser. Ultimately I designed the ENIGISER for musicians who want to be innovative and creative, so to back copy someone else’s work just misses the whole point of what the enigiser and my work is about.

Who is buying the ENIGISER?

Like I said earlier we’ve sent some ENIGISERS out to some of my favourite musicians which just blew me away but really the enigiser is designed for anyone who wants to create unique and innovate sound scapes and music because that is what it was designed to do.

I was initially very worried about Brexit and the impact on the European market but we have sent quite a lot already to Europe and people keep ordering so it all seems ok. Japan and the states have always been into my work so that’s still a really good market for us along with the UK as we still have a lot of synth lovers here. But really they seem to getting sent out all over the world as we’ve been recently shipping to Chile, Norway, Switzerland and Australia as well.

Have you still got all the articles from the mix mag DIY projects you did in the 90’s?

When I first did those articles for mix mag we actually had to write them on a typewriter and fax them or post them over as we didn’t yet have a computer which feels a bit mad looking back. We did borrow a computer for the weekend from my brothers workplace for the manual though, but the program was pretty rough and already out of date. We’ve decided to keep the manual in the format it was created in as it does cover everything and it looks pretty retro.

In regards to the DIY articles, I’ve started to try and locate them all and when I do I will start publishing them again here on this site.

Any other plans/products?

We have just released the new ENIGISER X in July 2023 which was a bit earlier than expected but as we had these cloners faking our products, I wanted to let people buy the expanded version of the ENIGISER from us instead of having to buy a badly made clone from someone else. But yeah since I’ve seen the demand for the ENIGISERS I am right back into it. I even have the same notepad from the 90’s with all my designs in so I am definitely going to be resurrecting some of these. And I’ve got some really exciting new products coming out soon which I will be announcing on here and instagram in hopefully late May.

Musically I had been approached by quite a few labels to re-issue the “ETERNAL EP” I wrote as G.F.X in 1989 and finally I went with two lads who run the newly created magic ritmo label because they were so passionate about the unheard stories of the rave scene back from 1989 and I felt they could be trusted to continue in with the essence of what I had created.

It’s been a bit of a crazy journey as the label put a gig on for the release of Eternal on vinyl in April 2024 at the Lubberfiend in Newcastle and it was ram packed and I did a live DJ set with the ENIGISER and sang and played Eternal live and that was the first time I had performed live for almost 30 years. So yeah it looks like I am back on the road again but this time with both my music and the synths I make which is massively exciting and something I am really into, especially as some of the people I am going to be performing with are very creative, free thinking musicians.

Any thing else we should know?

I have a new product coming out in hopefully end of May that will really energise people’s music so just look out for it on instagram because as soon as I can I will posted about it on there but other than that I just want to say that for me it’s been an incredible 34 years and I’m over the moon about the Enigiser and my music getting out there still. You can’t really ask for more than that 🙂