A deep journey through dub and techno music

Biography

Reference consists of the Detroit-based artists Luke Hess & Brian Kage. The group was created for the expression of underground music and dance culture. Luke Hess is a name synonymous with the ‘dub techno’ sound but his roots go deeper than that. His continued hard work as a musician and his talent as a DJ has allowed him to release music on some of the most respected labels, and play some of the most prestigious clubs in the world. Brian Kage is the founder of the record label, Beretta music. Along with a countless number of successful releases, Brian’s experience as a producer, DJ, and label head has helped catapult the careers of some of today’s brightest and best artists in the dance music community.

Like any pure artistic or avant-garde entity, they have no concern for following trends. Hess & Kage have come together to create music in it’s truest form; Experimentation, soul, sweat, live instrumentation, and organic sounds all welded together to form deep and timeless music. The main concern of Reference is to stand diligently behind the foundation of underground culture and against the commercialism that longs to destroy the freedom of our senses.

Mixed show of fresh tracks and featuring exclusive interviews with Robert Hood & Echospace

Published / 21 June 2010
Filesize / 57.20 MB
Length / 00:47:39

Macro’s techno-rockers go live on this week’s RA podcast.

In his review of Elektro Guzzi’s eponymous debut album, RA’s Richard Carnes remarked that the trio were “one of the most unconventional 4/4 outfits of current times,” and it’s not difficult to see why. Comprised of guitarist Bernhard Hammer, bassist Jakob Schneidewind and drummer Bernhard Breuer, the Vienna-based musicians formed five years ago in order to create groove-based music with rock instrumentation.

The members covered noise, dub and jazz in their previous outfits, and they bring all of these influences to the table, along with a heavy dose of techno and Krautrock, as Elektro Guzzi. The album sees Austrian electronic music legend Patrick Pulsinger helm the mixing desk, although the band are adamant that they use no overdubs, laptops or loops when they record.

The album’s clinical sound suggests that the trio are very much at home when they play live, and we’re sure that particular part of their reputation will be compounded once you listen to them action on this week’s RA podcast. Taken from one of their live sets earlier this year, the whole recording is one long continuous groove, Schneidewind and Breuer locking into their typically tight rhythm while Hammer builds the atmosphere and rhythmic interplay. Our advice? Take this one for a ride on headphones. It’s one RA podcast that demands a close listen.

What have you been working on recently?

We have been recording some new tracks and a studio-live set in London with Brandon “Octave” Harding which was a great experience for us. We were also playing music composed by Stefan Goldmann for a ballet performance at the Time Warp festival. And, of course, we have been playing a lot of live concerts to present our new album in clubs like fabric and Berghain.

Can you explain a little bit about your live set-up? How much of your performance is improvisational?

We play with drums, bass and guitar and do not use any prepared loops or computers. We create everything in the moment of performance and push the sonic boundaries of our instruments, using effect pedals and preparations on our instruments. When we started Elektro Guzzi, the concept was to perform completely improvised, but over the years we developed towards using more fixed patterns and sounds. Structure and form are still improvised and therefore different every time we play.

When forming the group, did you have a pre-conceived idea of what it should be?

Yes, we wanted to play techno with our instruments and with all the things we learned over the years about producing different sounds with our instruments. Through using them in a different way we found enough material to let our music sound very special.
Some of the album sounds like techno but played with a live band. What sort of electronic music do you enjoy listening to?

As a band we listen to a lot to techno, dub and experimental electronic music, but also African and Brazilian music. To name just a few artists: Jeff Mills, Basic Channel, Underground Resistance, Cristian Vogel, Carl Craig, Rhythm & Sound…

How come it’s taken you so long to get material out?

Because we are perfectionists and it was a long time before all of us were satisfied with the material. We wanted to get to a point where we really got our very own and special sound, so we had to spend a lot of time in the rehearsal room.

How did you come to the decision to work with Patrick on the album? Was it his idea to send it to Macro?

We did a few other projects and live performances with Patrick before, so we already knew each other. We asked him if he wanted to work on the album with us and he was very enthusiastic about the project. It was a great collaboration for us because he really shaped the sound and gave it the perfect room. We were searching for a label that has an open-minded policy and that does releases on vinyl. We read an article about Macro in a magazine, sent them a demo and they wanted to release the record.

What are you up to next?

This summer we are going to work on new material for the next album, which we hope to release in 2011. We will finish the tracks that we’ve already recorded and will try to release them by the end of this year. Most importantly, we are going to play a lot of live concerts to take the music to the next level.

A Detroit-Chicago collaboration between prolific and low-key ambient dub-techno producer Rod Modell (Deepchord) If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, the fellows in Berlin’s Rhythm & Sound camp will have no problem endorsing Detroit-based Deepchord as their dub-techno heir apparent. Already an established ambient producer, Rod Modell partnered with Mike Schommer, quietly releasing their first 12″ together in the late ’90s. Like Rhythm & Sound, Deepchord based their compositions around minimal arrangements: repetitive rhythms inspired by dub, faint traces of white noise, and warm synth stabs. The group retained a loyal cult following, releasing several more singles in the early 2000s as well as a limited-run CD version of their first six releases (originally pressed up in extremely limited quantities). The duo’s production went from prolific to a screeching halt around 2002, making a remarkable and rare live performance at the Detroit Electronic Music Festival and releasing singles in a scarce fashion (the group’s 2006 single was only pressed to 100 copies). A retrospective of the group’s work, Vibrasound: 1999-2004, was issued under Modell’s name and released on the Silentes label in 2005. Later that year, Modell teamed with Kevin Hanton to release Illuminati Audio Science and used a generous portion of the group’s output, looped and sliced into small segments (much like Richie Hawtin’s DE9 experiments), for a continuous 70-minute mix CD – and Steven Hitchell (Soultek), Echospace released a series of 12″ singles on England’s Modern Love label, all of which were compiled on a CD named after the series, The Coldest Season. The same year, the duo also issued a pair of singles on Lee Purkis’ Fortune8 label, as well as an additional release on echospace[detroit]. As with much of Modell’s output, Echospace’s material is deeply rooted in the Basic Channel/Chain Reaction school of dub-techno, emphasizing deep throbs and alternately soothing and unsettling ambience (manipulated field recordings, for the most part)

Obmx ◄ (3 versions) Fortune8 2007
Sonorous ◄ (3 versions) Fortune8 2007
Spatialdimension ◄ (4 versions) echospace [detroit] 2007
The Coldest Season (Album) ◄ (3 versions) Modern Love 2007
The Coldest Season – Part 1 ◄ (2 versions) Modern Love 2007
The Coldest Season – Part 2 ◄ (2 versions) Modern Love 2007
The Coldest Season – Part 3 ◄ (2 versions) Modern Love 2007
The Coldest Season – Part 4 ◄ (2 versions) Modern Love 2007
Untitled (12″, S/Sided, W/Lbl, Ltd, Sta) Modern Love 2007
Obmx (File, MP3) echospace [detroit] 2008
Sonorous (File, MP3, FLAC, WAV) echospace [detroit] 2008
Remixes:
Small Words (CD, Ltd, Promo) Our Message (Echospace… Souldubsounds 2005
Wide Road EP (CD, Ltd, Promo, EP) Wide Road (Echospace R… Souldubsounds 2005
Small Words (12″) Small Words (Echospace… Souldubsounds 2006
Culture Box EP (12″, EP) Walk Through (Echospac… Echocord 2007
Grandbend ◄ (2 versions) Grandbend (Echospace D… echospace [detroit] 2007
Miranda (Remixes) ◄ (2 versions) Miranda (Echospace Remix) Matrix Records (Detroit) 2007
RA.049 (File, MP3, Mixed) Small Words (Echospace… Resident Advisor 2007
Starlight [Remixes] (Comp) ◄ (4 versions) Starlight [Echospace M... echospace [detroit] 2007
Vantage Isle (Comp) ◄ (4 versions) Vantage Isle (Echospac… echospace [detroit] 2007
Emily (EP, Maxi) ◄ (6 versions) Dressed To Please (Ech… DFA … 2008
RA.094 (File, MP3, Mixed, Pod) Grandbend (Echospace Dub) Resident Advisor 2008
Trak 6 (Echospace Dub Mix) ◄ (2 versions) Fortune8 2008
Waterfall ◄ (3 versions) Rain (Echospace Reduct… Music Man Records 2008
Balance 014 (2xCD, Mixed, Comp) Starlight (Echospace Dub) EQ Recordings 2009
Mi-Mix (CD, Comp, Mixed) Rain, Starlight Octave Lab 2009
RA.153 (File, MP3, Mixed, Pod) Starlight (Echospace U… Resident Advisor 2009
The Echo Chamber Vol.3 (File, MP3) Nospheratu AvantRoots 2009
And That Was The Way ◄ (2 versions) And That Was The Way (… Kompakt 2010
Trust Less (11xFile, MP3, 320) And That Was The Way (… Kompakt 2010
Appears On:
Dimensional Space ◄ (3 versions) echospace [detroit] 2007
Starlight [Remixes] (Comp) ◄ (3 versions) echospace [detroit] 2007
Who’s Afraid Of Detroit? [Deepchord & Soultek Mixes] ◄ (2 versions) echospace [detroit] 2007
Nospheratu (12″) Nospheratu (Echospace … Phonobox 2008
And That Was The Way (12″) Kompakt 2010

Peter Kuschnereit, born in Berlin in 1970, has grown up in a historical quarter of the city, Kreuzberg. He still lives and works there. In 1991 he started to work at the legendary record store Hard Wax.
Pete is not only a DJ, also a producer. Inspired by the first generation of artists in Chicago and Detroit and above all, from the productions of the house neighbors, Basic Channel. Pete, in collaboration with René Löwe (aka Vainqueur), has given life to the Scion plan, whose first Ep “Emerge” (1995) marks the birth of Chain Reaction.

Monopod 008 [Recorded April 9th 2010, Sub Club, Glasgow]

Slam’s monthly residency, Return To Mono at the world-famous Sub Club in Glasgow, has become a staple of the ever-advancing music scene in the West of Scotland. Guests like Ivan Smagghe, Adam Beyer, Alex Under, Claude VonStroke, Dusty Kid, Paul Ritch & Marc Houle have brought some delights to the club – but the one thing that has cemented Return To Mono in Glasgow’s clubbing history has been the quality and consistency of Slam’s warm-up sets. Orde & Stuart have been perfecting their trade for many moons, and this is evident when you catch a Slam Return To Mono set.

Our Monopod series is recorded Live from these special nights in Glasgow’s Sub Club and is usually the first hour of music in the club. So expect a mellow journey from dub and lo-fi through to deep, grooving house music.

New York based South African, Brendon Moeller has been seriously producing since 1994. His compositions have been released on Francois K’s Deep Space Media; Third Ear Records, Echocord, Mule Musiq, Leena Music, Eskimo recordings and then some. He records as Brendon Moeller, Beat Pharmacy and Echologist. Dub, techno, jazz, afrobeat and psychedelics are inspirations that appear in most of his music. Whether it be serious dancefloor bizniz, or dubbed out bass-scapes, his music always possesses a quality and signature that make him the force he is today. He has collaborated with some of the great dub vocalists of our time, namely Mutabaruka, Spaceape, Mikey Dread and Paul St. Hilaire amongst others. He has now launched his own label, Steadfast Records that will be distributed via Kompakt.

Offered under Creative Commons Licence by-nc-sa-3.0.

Biography

Marko fürstenberg was born in 1976 in thuringia, germany. influenced by the 80s music such as depeche mode, a-ha and new order he was attracted to electronic music from its beginning. very early marko made his first steps in recording his own tapes as “dolby”.

In the beginning of 1995 he started dj-ing at several parties in thuringia and already then showing a techno-orientation originated from labels like x-trax, force inc., klang and later basic channel. a few years later he started creating his first own electronic sounds with a pc and thus he invested constantly in technical equipment. in 2000 his first project “vertikal 23” was established, in cooperation with local musicians. the outcome was a mixture between downbeat & trip hop but later on marko developed his own deep sound.

Providing his music on the internet, marko got in touch with the “thinner” netlabel, which published his first release under “dolby” alias in 2002. further releases followed also on other netlabels such as realaudio, stadtgruen and instabil, as well as remixes for digitalverein, rktic, lod and sarah goldfarb. the success story began: between 2003 and 2005 marko performed at some international festivals and clubs, e.g. in canada, greece, sweden, poland, suisse, austria, etc. after publishing quite a number of netreleases, his first vinyl track on “thinner allstars pt.1” (2003) was published under the pseudonym “surphase”. very soon after that marko decided to use his real name marko fürstenberg for his future work.

After moving to leipzig in 2006, marko approached a peak level in productivity, releasing a number of songs in rapid succession with labels like a.r.t.less, tfe and rotary-cocktail. marko’s success within the constantly changing techno scene didn’t come as a surprise: together with diverse dj partners as well as solo artist marko fürstenberg is now performing regularly in clubs & parties all over europe. his live sets combine classic dub-techno elements with current techno trends, which is much valued by his audience. with this kind of electronic music marko is considerably involved in the development of dub- and deep-techno.

Video

Marko Fürstenberg – Porn Infection (Das Kraftfuttermischwerk Softporn Edit) from Saint Sebastion on Vimeo.

(originally published @ Resident Advisor / Mon, 12 Jan 2009)

Taking the original spirit of dubstep and running with it, Hessle Audio are cementing their influence on both dubstep and techno’s DJing fraternities. RA’s Richard Carnes investigates.

The crossover between the world of dubstep and techno has been a frequent topic of conversation over the last few years. And perhaps the man most responsible for making the techno world prick up their ears was none other than Ricardo Villalobos. When he started playing Skream’s now ubiquitous “Midnight Request Line” back in late 2005, its off-kilter percussion and urgent arpeggios had audiences asking “What the hell is this music?” If you were present at Fabric for his appearance in March of last year, then you witnessed him dropping a stop/start percussive monster that garnered exactly the same sort of reaction. The tune? Ramadanman’s “Blimey,” which was then followed up by Ramadanman’s remix of TRG’s “Put You Down”—both records on the relatively young Hessle Audio label. For most, having Villalobos drop two of your records in quick succession would be a turning point, but the rise of the Hessle Audio has been a steady and arguably inevitable journey.

The building blocks of what was to become Hessle started to come together nearly three years ago, when label co-founder David Kennedy (AKA Ramadanman) took his first trip to the seminal FWD>> club night at London’s Plastic People. “I’d been into dubstep for a few months, and then I decided to go down to FWD>> because that seemed to be the place to go,” Kennedy explains. “Back then I was still 17, and FWD>> was on Thursdays, so I could only really go at half-term or on the holidays. I finally managed to get down there in April 2006.” It was there that he befriended fellow label co-founder Ben Thomson (known on the scene as Ben UFO), whom he met for the first time whilst waiting in the queue. “Ben was more immersed into the scene than I was at that point, so when N-Type was playing he was telling me about these new tunes that he was playing which were by Caspa, and I don’t think anyone at the time knew who Caspa was. It was all quite exciting.”

Their friendship strengthened when Kennedy moved up to Leeds to start university, where Thomson was already studying alongside housemate Kevin McAuley (AKA Pangaea). Both Thomson and McAuley were already fascinated by the dubstep sound, as McAuley tells us. “Ben was buying drum & bass but had started to pick up a few dubstep records. (This was in the autumn of 2005.) He played a few to me—”Officer” by Coki and “Like Sun” by Toasty immediately stuck out—which almost exactly coincided with Mala’s first appearance in Leeds, in the back room of the West Indian centre. We both went down and I was blown away!”

By the end of 2006, Kennedy had already launched his Ramadanman moniker with a self-financed digital release as well as an appearance on the Bare Dubs label, and Thomson and McAuley were both DJing the sound locally in Leeds. From here it seemed only natural for them to come together and start a proper vinyl label, although it was a Romanian producer that provided the catalyst for the decision. “The three of us were just beginning our radio shows on Sub FM,” McAuley explains, “and Dave had the TRG beats and suggested releasing them and starting a label. Ben and I were up for the idea so we all put in the £300 odd quid each we needed and away we went.”

Taking a punt on the then-unknown TRG paid off, with the dystopian futuristic garage of “Broken Heart” and “Put You Down” clearly a step ahead of the glut of mediocre halfstep being released at the time. It was a conscious decision, and is something that continues to inform the Hessle manifesto. “We’re not really interested in disposable music. What we’d like to put out is just stuff that you’re still going to be listening to in ten years time—stuff that doesn’t really sound like anything else,” says Kennedy. “Looking back on our catalogue, I don’t think that any of it really sounds like anything else that’s been released. With number one, for example, I don’t really think anyone even now, apart from another TRG tune, has really done that kind of updated garage thing like him. We just want to put out stuff that you’re not going to stop playing after a few months because it’s been rinsed—I think that’s my interpretation of what the label’s about. I think there’s a lot of good music out there, but not a lot of really good music, and I think that sometimes not every tune has to come out just for the sake of it.”

“I’m not really interested in trying to categorise ourselves off into some little sub-corner.”

By the time the TRG record finally hit shops in the middle of ‘07, McAuley had finished what would become his debut release as Pangaea. Having produced his own material for his own amusement for quite a few years, he found that his ongoing love affair with dubstep provided him with a renewed “inspiration and focus” to make records that he could play in his own DJ sets. The fruits of his revitalised passion for production came in the form of the “Coiled” 12-inch, which combined the minimalist aesthetics of Loefah with cold 2-step garage and a hint of ambient music.

When asked if pioneering dubstep producers like El-B and Horsepower Productions inspired his take on the darker side of 2-step, McAuley is quick to credit a much more household name. “I can’t claim I was ‘listening to dark garage before it was called dubstep’ and stuff like that, as I was following the sound from that mid-2005 period onward. I’d say Burial’s South London Boroughs EP switched me on to dark garage beats more than Horsepower and the like.” Whilst a futurist UK garage theme was present on the first two releases, the third jettisoned any accusations that Hessle were singularly focused in their sound. London producer Jack Dunning (AKA Untold) was the third to unveil his debut release on the label, which showcased his unique and unpredictable sound. After listening to the otherworldly halfstep of “Kingdom,” or the flailing bassline and hyper-percussion of “Purify,” it’s pretty easy to agree with Kennedy’s assertions about the uniqueness of the label’s output.

Up until this point, the label had been getting little attention from techno audiences, but a couple of events were soon set to change all that. The first was the release of the TRG remix 12-inch, which featured Martyn’s dreamy version of “Broken Heart,” complete with its Detroit-esque pads and dubwise broken percussion. Its inclusion on Appleblim’s critically acclaimed contribution to Tempa’s Dubstep Allstars series (which reached #3 in RA’s top compilations of 2008 list) helped it to find a wider audience, and it soon became somewhat of an anthem for DJs straddling the boundaries of techno and dubstep. Ears were also being pricked over in Berlin: The Hardwax record store has been pushing their releases, while Stefen Betke (AKA Pole), Barbara Preisinger and Dense Record Store owner Tim Tetzner included cuts from Ramandanman, Pangaea and Untold on the first volume of their Round Black Ghosts compilation. Devised to showcase the more techno-friendly side of dubstep, the Hessle artists were slotted alongside peers such as 2562, Elemental and Bristol-based producers Pinch and Peverelist.

As a fan of both house and techno himself, Kennedy finds it “flattering that techno fans are embracing our stuff,” though he’s reticent to pin his hopes on a crossover. “I think that at the moment there’s a lot of middle-of-the-road dubby techno that doesn’t really do a lot, and whilst you might describe it as dubsteppy techno, it’s not what I’m really into. I prefer stuff that maybe takes a few different influences, like Pangaea’s “Router” which borrows from quite a few different genres and creates something new rather than a Basic Channel rehash at 140 BPM.” The spectral garage of “Router” features on the most recent Hessle 12-inch—a release that marked a change in the label’s standard procedure, as they eschewed their usual mastering house to plump for the expert knowledge of Berlin’s revered Dubplates & Mastering.

All of imprint’s previous output had been mastered at London’s Transition studios, which has become the de facto shop for dubstep labels due to its early involvement with imprints such as DMZ, Big Apple and Tempa. So why the change? “I’d cut some dubs there with Ben beforehand, and we were just really impressed by them,” enthuses Kennedy. “Transition are fantastic and did our first five releases, which sounded very good… but you’ve just got to see what else is out there and if you only use one place, then you don’t know what the others are like. We thought like maybe having a little change and we were amazed at the results. It’s just one of the best sounding records that I’ve heard as far as quality is concerned.”

With the popularity of the label at an all-time high, a lot of eyes in both the techno and dubstep communities are on Hessle Audio to see what they’ll do next. “With our label, it was the first release for TRG, the first release for Pangaea, the first release for Untold, and I think that we’re going to do quite a bit more of that and bring some new names in with some fresh stuff,” Kennedy explains. A mysterious producer named Joe is next in line to make his name via the label, and the shuffling tribal drums and lush synth washes of “Grimelight” may just find its way into sets of Ricardo Villalobos following his support of previous releases that were similarly percussive.

Whatever the label’s future intentions past the Joe release, Kennedy is eager to stress that he doesn’t want to end up pigeonholing the label stylistically. “I’m not really interested in trying to categorise ourselves off into some little sub-corner, saying ‘We’re Hessle Audio and we do experimental, deep dubstep.’ When I got into dubstep a few years ago, I think that most people would agree that as a genre it was really open, and I’d like to think that we’re carrying that way of thinking on.”

Five Hessle Anthems

• Pangaea – Router
  The yearning time-stretched vocal of “Router” may bring obvious comparisons to Burial’s sound, but its frenetic swinging percussion and warm delayed synths elevate it above any accusations of plagiarism. It’s also the first Hessle release to be mastered at Berlin’s Dubplates & Mastering, and one of the finest sounding dubstep records you’ll find.
• Ramadanman – Blimey
  Comprising of little more than a stop/start tribal beat, subdued melancholic chords and a sample of children playing, “Blimey” ekes out maximum effect from its minimal elements. One of those records that sounds like nothing else around.
• TRG – Broken Heart (Martyn’s DCM Remix)
  Dutchman Martijn Deykers’ delay unit gets worked to the bone on his lush broken beat-esque version of TRG’s “Broken Heart”, which reached #7 in RA’s remixes of 2008 poll. Featured on Appleblim’s Dubstep Allstars Vol. 6, the track has become somewhat of a torch song for DJs treading the line between techno and dubstep.
• Untold – Test Signal
  The first time you hear “Test Signal”, you’ll find it impossible to predict where it will go next. Sporadic bursts of instrumentation appear over the constantly evolving percussion, whilst the divebombing bassline and modulated arpeggio really need to be heard to be believed.
• Pangaea – Coiled
  The second release on the label marked the debut release for Pangaea, as he took the dark garage sound and turned it on its head. Eerie drifting synths collide with spring-loaded bass shocks on this minimalist 2-step bomb, which is one of David “Ramadanman” Kennedy’s favourite Hessle Audio releases.

(Tracklist / MP3 link found at dubstep.de)

So it´s been sixteen years, hasn´t it? Let´s celebrate this anniversary!
Find download links for Sixteen F**king Years CD1 and CD2 below:

[CD1] 13 F**king New Tracks

[CD2] 12 F**king Classics

cheers,

G-Stone Recordings Team

Denmark’s Trentemøller initially made a name for himself by skating the line between minimal techno and and electro-tinged house, often crafting epic songs that catered to both the mind and the body. In 2010, however, Trentemøller is garnering attention for the severe left turn taken on his second album, Into the Great Wide Yonder. The Copenhagen-based artist has headed into darker territory, relishing in psychedelic dirge and more organic sounds, and this new style is reflected strongly on this exclusive mix he completed for XLR8R. Segueing from pulsing beats into guitar squall and thick distortion before dabbling into druggy wonk and cathartic pop, Trentemøller has assembled a mix that’s a far cry from the average night at the club.

Now here’s something to wake you from your electro-induced stupor: an exclusive mix from Pursuit Grooves – New York producer and vocalist Vanese Smith – whose distinctive blend of dubstep, nu-jazz, hip hop and electronic soul provides an intriguing and welcome addition to the heavier back catalogue of Tectonic Recordings.

Beginning with a gentle dub-reggae track from Rhythm and Sound, Vanese’s mix gradually melts into deeper and darker territory – via the likes of Dutch dubstepper Martyn – but without ever losing the warmth and soul that characterises her own music, some of which is thankfully present here. Other featured artists include talented electronica production duo Mount Kimbie, fellow jazz-experimentalist Jose James and Harmonic 313, whose considered glitch hop rounds off Smith’s mix perfectly.

Released earlier this year, Smith’s latest album, ‘Foxtrot Mannerisms’ is the result of this fascinating musical palette and considerable vocal and rhythmic talents, and comes highly recommended. Truly a one to watch, what better introduction to Vanese’s considerable skills than by indulging in the blissful, bassy tones of her Clash DJ mix.

Pursuit Grooves will also be playing at Fabriclive in London, on Friday 11 June, where she performs her UK debut live show alongside some Tectonic veterans, including Pinch, Skream and Kuedo. In Room Two, meanwhile, you can catch D&B talent Zero T – launching his ‘Fabriclive 52’ album – as well as Ed Rush, Wookie and a host of other names, while dBridge & Instra:mental head up Room Three.

lthough he only has two singles to his name, in the swiftly moving world of UK bass music, Southeast London DJ/producer Deadboy is practically a veteran. After the appearance of his sublime U Cheated EP, the Numbers squad snatched him up and released the even bigger “If U Want Me,” which solidified his penchant for swinging garage beats and pitch-shifted vocal snippets. Those loves are readily apparent throughout this exclusive mix, as off-kilter percussion and diva-ish vocal drops populate nearly every track, whether it’s an unreleased white label on Well Rounded—a label Wooten helps run—or an old-school classic. Not many DJs in this scene are dipping into the Basic Channel catalog, so Deadboy clearly knows his stuff. We’re anxiously awaiting to hear more from this young producer—new song “Here 4 U” is sounding BIG—but this podcast should help tide us over in the meantime.

This time Mekas send us this great live, full of textures, clicks, dubby sounds and groove. Hope you enjoy it.

Release date: April 2010
Label: ABSTRAKT RECORDS
Title: closed memories EP
Catalog#: ABKT004
Format: mp3, EP, 320kbps
Artist: Nippur
Country: Argentina
Style: Techno, Dub, African rhythms

1.The Olderly
http://www.archive.org/download/abkt004_closed_memories/track1.mp3

2.The Saga Of The Eye
http://www.archive.org/download/abkt004_closed_memories/track2.mp3

3.Incorruptible
http://www.archive.org/download/abkt004_closed_memories/track3.mp3

4.Back To The Roads
http://www.archive.org/download/abkt004_closed_memories/track4.mp3

Individual Files, others formats, … here

Live sets are usually tricky to translate into a recording. Most likely when any artist is mixing live electronic music, the tendency is to adjust the sound and balance of instruments according to the acoustics of the room, the speakers available and setup (stereo, quad, etc) and multiple other factors (like the number of people in the room). Ultimately, what sounds great live might not sound that interesting when you record straight from the main soundboard and play it back at home, in headphones or home stereo system. It is one of the main reasons I seldom record live sets – they just rarely translate well into the recorded format. I remember last year somebody recorded a bootleg of our set at Sonar festival in Barcelona. It’s been floating on the Internet for a while and I must say it’s a pity, as it is definitely not representative of what we sound like in a live setting. Part of the beauty of live performance is the physicality of it –like when listening to a very dense, textured wall of guitar noise with sub frequencies at 120db’s…ah, beauty!

Anyway, based on this previous experience, I’ve become more aware of this and have decided to start recording lots of The Sight Below (or solo) sets. I usually tend to record in subgroups, at least 4 channels worth of stems. That way I can master the recording later in my studio and adjust levels of stems, eq the mix, compress, and translate what sounded great live into what would sound great in a recorded setting. I definitely do not try to make it sound like the published works (album or ep’s) – part of the beauty of live performance is to experience either new material or new arrangements of songs. Otherwise you might as well just stay home and play the record.

When Rayna asked me to write a new piece for Modyfier I decided recording and mastering a live set for her blog was the way to go. I’ve been an avid reader since its inception and feel really honored to be writing piece #200. I prepared this live set for an event at the Seattle Art Museum called SAM Remix. It was a very special event in which I created visuals that would interact/react with the music. I was also performing in quad sound for the first time and it added a new level of depth to the music. Of course, this last aspect is very difficult to translate into a stereo field, but with that in mind, I hope you, the reader, enjoy this live set. Hats off to the folks at Modyfier for creating such an amazing body of work and happy #200!

Part two of the BPitch Control takeover of the Clash podcast sees an innovative talent from Ellen Allien’s label provide some exclusive sounds for Clash – Jahcoozi.

Based in Berlin but with band members originating from London/Sri Lanka, Israel and Germany, this multi-national and multi-talented trio have been making waves on the underground with their unique take on dub and bass – often melodic, often heavy, their sound is given further resonance by the lyrics and MCing of Sasha Perera.

Beginning with a brooding dub track – remixed by Deadbeat – from their upcoming album, Jahcoozi’s mix melts fluidly into a deep, dark carcophony of bass-driven textures, including 2562, Untold (a big favourite for Clash podcasts of late), King Midas Sound and the untouchable Rustie remix of Zomby’s Spliff Dub.

And though there’s plenty of fine dub cuts on there, this mix is far from a one-trick pony, morphing through twisted styles of techno, IDM, glitch and ambient. Much like Jahcoozi’s own distinctive, vast sound, this mix has atmosphere oozing out of its pores. A unique and heavy set which refuses to be ignored.

Jahcoozi’s third album, ‘Barefoot Wanderer’, is released on 19 April on BPitch Control.

Published / 11 April 2010
Filesize / 71.82 MB
Length / 00:59:47

The elder statesman of electronic music steps into the RA hotseat for this week’s podcast.

Gazing back over the last 25 years of electronic music, there are few that can match the résumé of Thomas Fehlmann. The Swiss musician’s career kicked off in Hamburg in 1979, where he co-founded Palais Schaumberg, an ’80s new wave outfit that counted a certain Moritz von Oswald amongst its ranks through its later incarnations. After the band split, Fehlmann quickly found his feet as a solo producer, committing himself to long hours in his Berlin studio and issuing a series of experimental and ambient tracks as Ready Made. The tail end of that decade also saw Fehlmann launch his own Detroit-inspired Teutonic Beats imprint, which featured early productions from Jörg Burger, Wolfgang Voigt and Westbam.

Fehlmann furthered his Detroit connection when he and Moritz von Oswald hooked up with both Juan Atkins and Eddie Fowlkes for the 3MB project. Collaboration has been a constant theme: Fehlmann has worked with Robert Fripp, Dr Alex Paterson, Tom Thiel, Max Loderbauer and Daniel Meteo in the studio at various points. The 21st century has seen his relationship with Wolfgang Voigt and the Kompakt team flourish, with Fehlmann becoming somewhat of a mainstay on the label. His latest full-length effort—Gute Luft—is his fourth on Kompakt, and shows that the producer is as vibrant as ever, merging together rich dub techno, ambient and melodious house with aplomb. Therefore, it’s only right that we hand over this week’s RA podcast to the man, and he’s fixed us up with a quality hour of deep and dubby house music.

What have you been up to recently?

I’ve been watching over the evolution of a Gute Luft remix 12-inch that will be coming out in a few ticks. Soulphiction and Move D are involved. I’m really pleased and—dare i say it—proud.

How and where did you record the mix?

Oh, that was done at home in my faithful studio where I still have two decks set up. I used vinyl only and recorded it straight to disk.

Can you tell us a little bit about the idea behind the mix?

Basically it’s a choice out the tunes I play when I DJ. I don’t do it too often, but thoroughly enjoy it when it happens. I’m fishing in the soulful, slower end of the pond and always mix the old and the new. I don’t have the knack to play a set full of new tunes.

You and Moritz von Oswald have quite a history together. Could you tell us a little bit about how you brought him into Palais Schaumburg, and do you plan on working with him again in the near future?

Moritz joined the band (in 1983) at a time when for us the role of the musician evolved more into the role of a producer—a transitional phase. It wasn’t so much one instrument that one was responsible, but everybody started to contribute on all levels: writing, playing, singing and producing. It was a strong hint in the direction musicians work today. it was the time when the first computer-aided MIDI sequencer was introduced and everything started to take a big turn. We also did wacky shit like spending considerable time to fly in samples (the name didn’t exist back then) from quarter-inch tape into the songs. The sampler wasn’t around yet but we used the idea anyway. I feel very lucky that I was able to experience a few mind changing sessions and productions with him. As for future collaborative work? We’ve been toying with the idea repeatedly and I think eventually the time will come, but most possibly not tomorrow.

How did you find the soundtrack writing as opposed to being able to work freely in the studio?

It was quite a relief at first, not having to think about the album format, but then I also realized how deeply rooted I am in making records, and how much it leads the decision making process to know that it’s for an album. That’s probably why I couldn’t resist to take it a level further to produce Gute Luft out of the material. The role of a service provider was something I had to get used to, but now and then I like to put myself into challenging situations where I can test myself, and it was basically just a start in a new field. Scratching the surface, since I didn’t really work to the final images.

As someone with such a rich heritage as far as electronic music is concerned, how do you feel that it is progressing as we get further into the 21st century?

Isn’t it amazing the way it all evolved? Seriously, my feelings towards that are all subject to a constant massive moodswing. There are times when I find it utterly boring how everything seemingly sounds the same and the ears are swamped with half baked ideas, but there is also the backlash to that when I’m amazed at the development of the unique language electronic music has accumulated in this short period of time, and always opens up new fields of brain gymnastics! One shouldn’t complain, really.

What are you up to next?

The Orb—Alex and I—have been commissioned by the English Royal Opera to write a piece for 2012. After ruling out having to work with opera singers, we accepted and are currently developing the project, parallel to all the upcoming live ventures. The opera goes under the working title of Moonbuilding. I also started doing sessions with Reagenz (Move D and Jonah Sharp). Who knows what will come out of that…

When I think about the Swiss house scene, my mind skips past visions of clubbing alongside the Alps and lands on Dino-Boris Dougoud, better known as Agnès (or alternately as Cavalier, Ray Valioso, Modeste or Benelli). Not only has he nurtured the Swiss scene with his Sthlmaudio Recordings imprint, home to releases by Baaz, Cabanne, Chaton, Peter Grummich, and Azuni, this many monikered producer is a shining example of an artist who is steeped in house music’s past but aims his own tunes squarely at the future. Dougoud’s music began on the minimal side of the house spectrum and has since come into full bloom across his records for Perspectiv, Resopal Red, Lomidhigh, Plak Records and his own label, exploring the many possibilities of dub sonorities and embracing his deeper side in equal measures. Lately his focus has been on a string of incredibly strong remixes for everyone from Sebo K and October to dOP and Niggemann & Poppcke, but 2010 holds in store more original material. For LWE’s 47th exclusive podcast, Dougoud brandishes his considerable DJing talents across an hour of achingly well mixed house music, including a clutch of hot unreleased tracks and remixes.

Tell us a little bit about your mix — when, where, and why you made it like you did?

Agnes: Ahhh yeah it’s funny you’ll never believe what I’ve done in order to get there. As always with me, I have to get deep into the things I’m doing. So I thought about getting the “click” in the pitch bend of my old really old MK2’s out from there for some time. Then we came up with the idea of doing an LWE podcast and guess what: you’ve found me dismounting my MK2’s, unsoldering my original MK2 pitches, removing the small iron ball clicking at zero pitch, cleaning them, and you know what it’s so much smoother now =) Seriously, all this to be perfectly honest, I’m playing most of my sets with regular vinyls and Traktor Scratch through time code control vinyls. Traktor doesn’t like the central pitch bend zone on the older MK2’s, you’ve got maybe 0.5 centimeters where it just goes off really weirdly sometimes dropping down or up by a full BPM. On the mix itself, I just really wanted to show what kind of beatz I’m into, what are the tracks I’m digging, snatching in there some of my personal stuff and hopefully providing something personal.

Here are some links for the hard headed out there willing to finally get rid of their “click” pitches:

SL1200/1210 MK2 Service Manual (in German I think, but gooood):

Some interesting links for your pitch faders & MK2 in general:

http://info.bergenteknomafia.com/tech/1200pitch/

http://music.hyperreal.org/dj/pitch_slider/

http://music.hyperreal.org/dj/sl1200.html

When we were discussing the mix earlier, you described the first artist, Djaimin, as a “real house hero here in Switzerland.” Who are some of your other favorite Swiss house producers, new and old?

Yes, sure Djaimin and Mister Mike where running a radio show on Couleur3 called Pump It Up Live, and at the time the radio station hadn’t yet discovered computers. So basically we where immersed in their view of house music every weeks. It was a really good time for me, we were anticipating the next shows very much. Recently we where sitting at Ripperton’s place and he played some of their sets from back in the day and we literally wanted to know what track has been played every six minutes — they played incredible records, really. I think there are only just a few things that are being brought back to our attention but there is so much to still discover in the old — it fascinates me.

Tell me about your experiences in the Swiss house scene — how you got involved, where you went, early residencies, etc.

It really all started up in 2003 when I launched my label, Sthlmaudio Recordings, and strangely, success came from beyond the Switzerland’s borders first. So I’ve never really been involved into a local scene except in my home town of Fribourg, when I was spinning more hip-hop and abstract hip-hop stuff.

What were some of your first pieces of gear? What are your current gear favorites?

Hum well, first of all I think when I started with electronic music as a producer I probably was more on a minimal vibe somehow, always dubbed out but that was the sound of those years and I’m not denying it now. I think I’ve always been ready to explore many different paths in music, being house or ambient or more techno productions. But my roots, if I’m honest with myself, comes from the Mo Wax area, the first Portishead [album], DJ Vadim, DJ Cam, DJ Krush, DJ Shadow and all that scene. This is where it all began for me, the DJing and the attraction to electronic music in general. Concerning house, what I dig in it is the groove — things have to groove for me or I don’t care about them. Onto gear, I’ve just recently bought an Akai MPC1000 and JJOS2XL; it’s fat, there is no emulation, there are things that are close but nothing like the real thing. I’m playing my live sets with it now on top of the laptop and all my recent beatz are out of that box.

You seem to enjoy playing with the concept of artistic identity, using a handful of pseudonyms for your releases. I wondered how you distinguished what was going to be released as whom (beside Modeste, which is quite distinct from the other guises) and why you opted for the many names in the first place?

Indeed I love names; I think names are totally cool. I wouldn’t like very much to be doing what I do under my real name, let’s say; Jean-Pierre Vaucher. To some folks this might sound weird but to me it’s an extension of my art, providing me another way of pushing something I firmly believe in. Each time I’m taking on a new name I can build a totally new world or extend something I’ve already explored. This is powerful and harmless. I was reading a review from a journalist having fun about this with me and I just thought he didn’t get it. In two years I wouldn’t be surprised if the Dj playing the track you hear would be the only one to know who did it, if he does; this is to me where it all started with electronic music:, anonymous records done by god knows who and damn they slam right good. I’m totally into getting back to this.

In the last couple years your number of original releases has grown smaller while your remixes have blossomed. Will you tell us about your thinking behind this?

I’m glad you asked about this, it means you’ve been really and carefully checking what was going on with me and you’re right — I’ve been doing more remixes lately. I don’t know how to explain why it happened this way and so on but here is what I can tell you: I love to remix. I love to have someone else’s materials I would have probably never chosen to use in the first place and do my own sauce with it. It is challenging to work on sounds you didn’t choose. On top of that, I’ve worked onto my own music a lot but I didn’t thought about releasing anything yet. If the things I’ve done in, let’s say 2008, are still releasable in 2010 then it might be wise to do so, if not they better stay on my hard drives. I’ve had this discussion with Quarion and he told me something a known record store owner in Berlin told him: producers should have a maximum of three releases a year; we would have less but far better music. I fully agree with that.

There was also a good deal of consistency between your Agnès remixes — slightly dubbed out, old school arrangements, very thoughtful hi-hat patterns — yet your own releases are rather varied. Have you thought of making more original tracks in this vein, and what explains the consistency between those remixes?

Honestly I don’t over think my music. I do what I do being who I am using what I’m using at the time I’m making it. As I’ve said earlier, I really like all kinds of music and sometimes maybe my own things express this a little more then my remixes; although I’m always striking at making something real for me, something I can be proud of — in a very humble way.

A number of your remixes have locations in the title. What do those denote?

It’s like my use of names; I like to sign things, being in my music or with the naming and wording I use. Within the music industry, what you’ve got to express yourself is a cover and a back print (if you signed on a rich label), label stickers, a name and track title and your music. Very often in the scene, remixes aren’t even recognized as being work on its own from the remixer. People would go, ‘Oh yeah, I love that B1 track on this guy’s record’ without even noticing it is someone else’s work. Still though, I like to remix haha.

Who have you not yet had the opportunity to remix that you would jump at the chance to edit?

This is a hard question. To me there are no goals; it’s more about the contents of the original materials. If I think I could do something with it then I’ll try. Furthermore, I really think the originals I didn’t liked that much turned out to be decent remixes of mine so I’ll probably first accept something I don’t like that much instead of remixing one of my heroes, which I’d probably turn down. Also, lately I’ve just done a remix for a Swiss hip-hop artist from Zürich called Big Zis and this was very interesting for me, something else, different sounds, tempo, vocals. It’ll come out soon on Nation Music.

With old school house motifs coming back in style, what do you think are the most overlooked elements of older house records that could stand a revival? (drum patterning, certain synth sounds, etc.)

To me what is killing house at the moment are those producers taking a full bar loop of a groovy beat they never programmed a single hit, EQ’d it out on the low end, add a kick, add a clap and there you go, groovy wacky house for losers. I’ve spotted some of those kinds of tracks in my own collection and you know what? Shift delete, ciao ciao, bye bye. I’m programming my drums, every single hit you hear in my music is from me; I program everything and this is my only chance to stand out.

Is there another Agnès album in you?

Funny you should ask about this, the wicked team from Drumpoet Community asked me for a sophomore Cavalier EP maybe, and as I mentioned earlier, I’ve got many sleeping things on my drives. Well, as I’ve sent them loads of materials to select from in order to make a four track EP they came back at me asking if we could maybe release a long player, so this will be my next album and I’m currently polishing it up.

What’s on tap for you in 2010? What about Shtmlaudio in 2010?

I think 2010 is an introspective year for me, releasing less but hopefully good things. The Modeste long player for example: it wasn’t a huge press success, I didn’t saw much press attention around it but I’m glad I could release that music and I will be continuing in the future with a CD series on Sthlmaudio aimed at electronic music with a broader view. Also, Baaz is working now on an abstract hip-hop long player which we will release later on this year. Next is my home boy Quenum coming with a stunning house tune remixed by my all time friend Ripperton. We’ve got also some more records in the pipe but there is absolutely no rush at all.

Regarding myself, I’ve got en EP coming out on Ornate Music called Got To Be Strong and another EP I’m finishing right now for Hudd Traxx, and of course the Cavalier LP later this year on Drumpoet Community.

Big support for this artist, Marko Fürstenberg , the new Icon of dub techno electronic music from the deepest Germany !!

Enjoy this 4 hours dj set live @ duke leipzig 20.02.2010

This set was recorded live at Unsound Festival New York at The Bunker in Brooklyn on February 13, 2010. Pavel traveled all the way from Belarus just to play at the Bass Mutations edition of The Bunker. Pavel keeps a very low profile, but he has an interesting and unique artistic voice, which you can hear in this set of dubby electronic music.

we continue our Harry Klein series today with the Wonderful sounds of Marco Zenker.

marco zenker was born in munichs glockenbach neighbourhood in 1988. after he came true with skateboarding and other sports, listening to roots reggae and underground hip hop for years, he discovered at a harry klein party, on which his brother dario was playing, the fascination for electronic music. in the meantime marco developed his own spaced out dubby techno style.
with his 21 years he has already a substantial row of gigs and releases to show. everything began with dancing – the love for music and letting yourself go with the crowd in a club. his live sets are accordingly full of energy and rhythm whereby it is of course also always about the live moment. marco never plays whole pieces – his live sets are always complete improvised.
exactly this mixture makes them so exciting and different. this tears people of the age of ableton djs – where it is not about the live-mixing-art in itself for many people, but more about at least music from somewhere. even in the ableton age where the sound loses always on quality, there are still young artists like marco zenker who stick, nevertheless, pertinaciously to old traditions and live the spirit. together with his brother he runs the label ilian tape and is, moreover, a part of harry klein records. expect the unexpected.

Links
Resident Advisor: http://www.residentadvisor.net/dj-page.aspx?id=8803
Harry Klein Booking: http://www.harrykleinclub.de/booking/artist.php?nr=75
Soundcloud: http://soundcloud.com/marco-zenker
Discogs: http://www.discogs.com/artist/marco+zenker

Filesize / 80.27 MB
Length / 00:58:26

London-based Frenchman Débruit has really been tickling our fancy recently with his tasty EPs. Unclassifiable, they blend hip-hop beats with African sound, random samples, a hint of glitch and a healthy dose of funk. It’s like listening to the contents of a second hand vinyl shop mixed in with a bric-a-brac shop – a random blend of new and old, with an organic feel that mirrors Four Tet in some way – only with a heaiver, “dope” feel to it. He’s a former student of the Red Bull Music Academy, and in our view one of the most exciting producers around right now. This wonderful podcast hops, skips and jumps between Afro rhythms, old skool hip-hop, funk and his own inspiring productions. Groovy throughout.

Sum up this podcast in 10 words…
THIS IS THE KIND OF MUSIC THAT I LISTEN TO (apart from my own tracks ha ha)

What’s your personal favourite track on it?
They are so different in style that this is an impossible question to answer. It’s like do you prefer dub, african music or hip-hop? All of it!

What’s the special ingredient in this mix?
The selected variety, a story told through a very open lense.

What’s the best gig you’ve played recently?
It happened 3weeks ago, in very special place (some lost abandoned cinema studios) on the outskirts of Paris, 1000 tickets sold out in advance to a very curious, open-minded friendly crowd, art everywhere and people going crazy!

What have you got coming up?
Spatio Temportel EP is in stores now, just sold out though and the second press is on the way next week! People seem to be feeling it a lot – it’s got 3D artwork from www.rainbowmonkey.de again.

After that there’s plans for my album late this year, watch out for that – it’s gonna be pretty special! Another 12″ soon featuring my own special version of Ginuwine’sPony in the spring so watch out for that, and another Debruit-re-fried hip-hop classic or 2!  Some production for others (it’s all a secret right now) a lot of live gigs, festivals, remixes for Rusko, Black Devil Disco Club and more and a very special collab EP or 2!
But most importantly right now I’m telling everyone to buy my Heart Beats For Haiti EP – All the money goes to Unicef’s Haiti Earthquake Disaster relief fund PLEASE PLEASE DONATE/BUY IT HERE! It’s 4 tracks/beats made of Zook and Kompa Samples – the traditional music of Haiti. I put it together in the days after the Earthquake to do something to help and after the hype for my sound on theSpatio Temporel EP it seemed like a great idea. Thanks to everyone who’s helping to make this happen.

PAY/DONATE WHAT YOU WANT (min £3.00)
http://debruit.bandcamp.com/album/heart-beats-4-haiti

BOOMKAT
http://www.boomkat.com/item.cfm?id=264774

BLEEP
http://bleep.com/index.php?page=release_details&releaseid=23477

ZERO INCH
http://www.zero-inch.com/artist/Debruit/ep/Heart_Beats_for_Haiti/130738

And finally, do you have a special message for our readers?
Have fun and support the Haiti Relief Campaign - Buy the Heart Beats for Haiti EP!

“My view is that he’s a genius” – Grievous Angel

We don’t know much about Sully. Most people don’t. Discogs claims he’s one half of drum’n’bass duo Spectrasoul, but this might not be true [edit - it's definitely not true].

What we do know about Sully is that he’s something special. Nicknamed the King of Swing amongst dubstep heads that know, his ‘Phonebox’ single from 2008 is one of FACT’s very favourite dancefloor jams of the past few years, and it’s one of several underground, overlooked bangers to Sully’s name.

The next step in the Sully story takes the form of a 12″ for Martin ‘Blackdown’ Clark’s Keysound label, who also have released / will be releasing singles by Skream, LHF, Kowton and Zomby. “Sully is a really key artist for me”, Clark told FACT in a recent interview.

“With all the talk about garage and the new hybrids of it … his ‘The Loot Remix’ is speed garage but ‘In Some Pattern’ is a perfect example of how you can have a swung 2step framework but go in completely different directions with it, in this case part 80s electro part detuned synth/purple wow.” Both tracks are featured on the aforementioned 12″.

Anyone with half an interest in swinging, percussive garage and gorgeous, enveloping melodies should have a full interest in Sully’s FACT mix – it features new, untitled productions from your man, plus fresh material from Kowton, Sbtrkt and more.

xeed is a dj of a younger generation, growing up in a time where electronic music wasn’t a novelty any more. he made his way from hardcore rave to trance and over techno to house and minimalistic beats …finally to dubtechno. why? you know. in this radio show, xeed shows us his vision of good eletronic music that is of course not necessarily dubtechno. anyway, it was a particular deepness that came to our attention when we got to know some of his sets. it made us greedy for more. check his website djxeed.ch and find  a couple of teasers – xeed is also producing under his civil name fabian schinzel!

Here’s my Beto Narme mixtape i recorded for Sublime Porte’s blog. I’m not really good at labeling genres, but it’s somewhere between dubstep and techno. It contains some of my favorite heavy bass sounds from old-school to future classics.

This podcast was created by Katrin Schlotfeldt. As a founding member of the Minus family and the managing director of Clonk, she shows us some of her most influential tracks. Please open your artwork window in iTunes to view her descriptions and links

Born in 1980 and raised in the Detroit area, Luke Hess has harnessed a deep appreciation for electronic music and the expression of the underground movement.

His background in mathematics and engineering have given him a scientific approach to the dance floor. His music production has landed him a seat with Beretta Music and FXHE in Detroit, Kontra-Musik in Sweden, Modelisme Records in France, and Echocord in Denmark. His first release on FXHE made it into the top 50 releases of the year in 2007 in Groove Magazine.

With 8 years of DJ experience, he is regarded as a perfectionist behind the decks, layering records in a very detailed and hypnotic manner. Luke has notable mixes online and in 2003 recorded a promotional mix CD release for UR/Submerge. Luke’s continued hard work behind the decks and in the studio combined with his unyielding interest in technology and sound will no doubt stimulate the boundaries of electronic music.

Discography:
Releases: Absolute Truth (12″) w/ Falko Brockseiper RMX – Berettmusic Grey – 2007
Dubout LH-01 (12″) – FXHE – 2007
Believe and Receive (12″) w/ Shed RMX – Kontra-Musik – 2008
Reference EP (Limited 12″) w/ Tadeo RMX – Beretta Grey – 2008
Dubout LH-02 (12″) – FXHE – 2008
Campfire Dialogue (12″) w/ Marko Furstenberg – Echocord Colour 02 – 2008
Reference VS EP1 (12″) – Beretta Grey – 2008
Dub for Love EP (12″) – Modelisme – 2009
Light In The Dark (2×12″ LP & CD Album) – Echocord – May 2009

Tracks Appear On:
Beretta Grey Vol.1 (12″) – “Dwell” – Berettamusic Grey – 2005
Beretta Music Evolution Mix (CD) – Berettamusic – 2007
Viva London mixed by Steve Lawler (2CD) – Renaissance – 2007
Berghain 02 mixed by Marcel Dettmann (CD) – Ostgut Tontrager – 2008
Remixes: Jason Fine Remixes (12″) – Kontra Musik – 2009

Coming Soon:
Modelisme 23 – Gustavo Lamas – Mares (Luke Hess RMX)
Ornaments – Rhauder w/ Tikiman – (Luke Hess RMX)
DeepLabs Detroit 001 – Luke Hess – (Label Launch April 2010)

EUROPE / ASIA BOOKINGS: Contact Miguel at: miguel@d-fusion.biz

Looking at Berlin’s Techno landscape, there’s no way missing the landmark which is DJ Pete. He’s not only an eye wittness to Techno’s zero hour in Berlin, but he also became one of the early forces shaping the German capital’s underground dance scene for the years to come. He quickly went from being a consumer to actually write Berlin’s Techno history as a producer, remixer and an international dj, as well as part of the Hardwax record store crew.

Listening to Pete dj, it is hardly surprising his experience spanning two decades constantly shines through. His sets comprise a wide range of the most important currents the music went through over the last 20 years. His energetic djing is based on loop-y Techno with a tinge of Industrial, tougher House tracks, the proverbial Berlin Sound, as well as classic US Techno. One of his main strentghs is to intuitively keep the balance of pleasing the crowd while always keeping an open mind for new sounds. Moving between those poles is DJ Petes main source for inspiration, currently resulting in him spicing up his sets with a lot of Dubstep verging on Techno.

Another fine example of both his variety and open-mindedness is the fact that he – as a dj still prefering the sonic and haptic qualities of vinyl – released “Scion Arrange And Process Basic Channel Tracks” as part of the duo Scion, which was the first commercially available cd ever to have been produced with the then completely new software Ableton Live. In 1995, Scion released their debut „Emerge“ on Chain Reaction, followed by more productions under his solo pseudonym Substance on Chain Reaction and Scion Versions, as well as remixes for artists like Juan Atkins, Robert Hood and Rhythm & Sound.

Fluxion aka K.Soublis is an artist with numerous releases on Chain Reaction and Vibrant Music labels.
He created a distinct style of atmospheric dub techno, with the caracteristict long lenghts and slowly evolving pads.
His first 12” release “Atlos” came in 1998 on Chain Reaction, followed by an LP titled “Largo”.
Then came the “Vibrant Foms” cd album in 1999, compiling the vinyl releases plus unreleased tracks.
In 2000 he released the “Prospect” 12″ and “Bipolar Defect” LP, all compiled on “Vibrant Forms 2″ 2xcd album, including unreleased tracks, for the same label.
He then moved on to create his own label Vibrant Music.
He released under the Fluxion project name, the 12″ “Redundant” in 2001, “Spaces” cd album, based on an experiment of the perception of the space and it’s acoustics, “D teck” 12″in 2004.
He also released under various other aliases such as Silex, “Alphabet” cd LP in 2002, Silex “Stark” 12″ in 2001 ep, as Unsquare Mode “Turbulance” 2001.
He contributed tracks for compilations :
EFA “State of Emotion Vol 7″ 2002
“Pink rest at low levels” from Moodgadget in 2005
Teletai “Rarities and remixes” from Hands Productions in 2008
“Diaspora Cottage Industries” from Neo Ouija in 2008…
Fluxion is also working on a new revised edition of the Chain Reaction albums, consisting of previously unreleased versions.

New Fluxion “Inductance” EP (Echocord 039) out now 12″ & digital

New Fluxion album “Constant Limber” out now on cd and digital (Resopal).

Fluxion release, “Constant Limber” EP 1 is out (Resopal)

Fluxion remix of MRI “El castillo de los monstruos-Reworked” is out (Resopal)…

As well as producing a spanking new issue of Clash Magazine every month, we’ve also been busy this year providing an audio accompaniment to each issue.

To this end, we present a round up of this year’s Cross Section download albums. Each bursting with a month’s worth of tunes from the band’s we write about.

Check out your favourites and discover 2009’s wealth of great, new talent.

Visite www.clashmusic.com

MIKKEL METAL aka Mikkel Meldgaard from Copenhagen is know for a personal blend of dub, electronica and minimal techno. The new album “peaks and troughs” featuring Paul St. Hilaire is out now on Echocord.

Since 2000 he has released on various labels, most notably danish Echocord and german Kompakt. Broadly speaking the releases on Echocord are centered around the dub element while on Kompakt the sound is more melodic and techno-inspired.

Musical background
Mikkel’s musical career started more than 10 years ago as a guitarist in various noise-rock bands. In the mid-nineties focus changed to electronic music, inspiration coming primarily from breakbeat music, especially drum’n'bass. It’s this period that gave Mikkel his nickname “Metal”, due to his fondness of hard metallic drum’n'bass cuts

Present
Around 1999 Mikkel changed focus towards genres like click’n'cuts, IDM, techo and dub, and started releasing under the “Mikkel Metal” moniker. Primarily he releases on danish label Echocord and German label Kompakt. The former with a dubby grainy sound , the latter focusing on a more melodic and 4/4-based sound. For more info please see discography and live-section.

Upcoming releases
Kenton – Echocord Colour 07 w/ remix by Marcel Dettmann

Current releases
“peaks and throughs” CD album. Echocord cd04
“peaks and throughs” EP 1/3. Echocord 31 (incl. Cassy remix)
“peaks and throughs” EP 2/3. Echocord 32 (incl. Pole remix)
“peaks and throughs” EP 3/3. Echocord 33 (incl. Mike Huckaby remix)

One of the most innovative names in dubstep grabs control of our exclusive DJ mix this week – the very talented and all-round affable chap, Bass Clef – otherwise known as Ralph Cumbers.

As well as creating various twisted dub brilliance – which manages to be both heavy and highly palatable – Ralph is also a dab hand on the trombone (a criminally neglected instrument), which he makes full use of throughout his work, adding a natural, brassy warmth to the dark landscapes evoked by modern electronic dub.

And he’s also nay too shabby when it comes to mixing tunes, as his exclusive Clash podcast demonstrates. The first of our DJs to include the genius Dorian Concept, Ralph then works his way masterfully through L-VIS 1990, Hudson Mohawke, a few Latino numbers and some Bass Clef’d-up Altern-8, as well as choice cuts from Clef’s fine new album, ‘May The Bridges I Burn Light The Way’, released earlier this month.

45 minutes of wonky dance, innovative dubstep and Latino folk, superbly stitched together. Bass Clef – win. Just in case you haven’t already gathered – I really can’t recommend this one enough.

Today’s Daily Download is a takes the form of a blustery epic from dub-techno vet Brendon Moeller a.k.a Beat Pharmacy’s Echologist project.

Taken from the forthcoming Echologist EP, Snowblower, ‘Ritual’ is dusty and sun-scorched but doesn’t resort to dub-techno standards, instead reaching and squelching in different directions, with flickering lights criss-crossing in the distance. Breaking down and building up at all the right places, it’s one of the EP’s most assured tracks. .

Snowblower is released next month on Moeller’s own Steadward label.

Name: Kenneth Christiansen
Profession: Labelowner (Echocord & Echocord Colour), co-owner of the club Culture Box, DJ
Current Releaase: Pattern Repeat, Gauge Tension EP on Echocord Colour

Seven years ago I already had the idea of an own record label in mind, when a guy came into the record store I was working for. It turned out he should be the final reason, why I founded the label Echocord, his name was Mikkel Metal. In that time I was a big fan of the Berlin scene around DIN Label, Basic Channel and
Rhythm&Sound and his sound was pretty similiar, but still he got a very unique style. I wanted to push Echocord in that dubby Techno Ambient direction, music that can be played in the club, but you can also listen to at home and now, seven years later, I must say it worked out pretty well. Of course also because of the good relationship I already had to the Kompakt people around Michael Mayer and Wolfgang Voigt. Now the label is a big thing for me, we have around 40 releases and I started another label, the Echocord Colour for more club orientated releases, which are about straight Dubstep or straight Techno.

About Music:
When Dubstep came up, I knew immediately, this will be a big theme for me: not that I play it so often in my DJ sets, but it helped a lot to open the listeners for Dub Techno. Artists, who always had big influence on me, are now about to come back, and form the forefront of a trend, which, I cannot deny, is pretty good for me and my label.
In the moment I see a lot of good things coming up from America , likewise Mike Huckaby, I know he has been around for many years, but his current releases fascinate me a lot. A must to name here is Luke Hess, whose album I released four months ago, it can be best described as Dub Techno with a lot of Detroit elements. And as far as I can say, he is about to push things way forward in 2010.
During my first trips to Berlin around 1991/92 for the Love Parade, I was listening to a lot of Detroit artists likewise Jeff Mills, Robert Hood and the Minimal Nation and I feel truely happy for them and that their sound gets popular again. The reasons might be found in the scene around Berghain and Ostgut Ton with the forefront of Marcel Dettmann and Ben Klock. They interprete Detroit in a completely new way and as they appreciate Dub a lot, I can see some interesting ways for cooperations.
For example in end of September I was playing at Fabric and they put all together:
they had Octave One and Juan Atkins playing there, Maurizio and an Echocord showcase at the same time.
The conglomeration of Detroit and Dub sound worked out so perfectly, it turned out to become a super good night. Then I played the Golden Pudel in Hamburg, which is actually my favourite club. Pudel is a tiny space, but always stuffed with open minded people. You can turn your set in a totally different direction and people stay on the dancefloor, listening and prying for the story in it. That’s what I aim for in my sets: to keep the audience curious and excited and the Pudel is just the perfect place for it.

About Culture Box:
I’ve benn running the Culture Box together with Loke Sander for five years now and try to focus to bring new talents from Denmark together with substantial music on an international level. Of course we had nearly all big names from Detroit, up to Germany’s heroes likewise Luciano and Ricardo Villalobos. Culture Box works fine with around 400 people, who enjoy the diversified booking and a good quality soundsystem. In the moment Copenhagen is not an easy-going place for this kind of music, but I hope we can survive.

About Pattern Repeat:
My newest project is called Pattern Repeat, I built it together with Dennis aka Resoe, the owner from Baum Records. Copenhagen is pretty small, everybody knows everybody and we got to know each other around ten or twelve years ago as we both worked in a record store called Loud Music, probably the best one Copenhagen ever had. The shop went pretty well for a period, but then Loud Music closed down, because most people started to order online, you know the story. One day, not too far away from now, Dennis invited me to his new studio, which he set up all on his own. I came there and was wow’ed immediately. So we sat down and did a track in only three hours, surprisingly good and we both had one thought: we just need to release this. While Dennis takes on the technical part, I am working on the creative composition. Dennis brought a full and deep sound to the project as he is a very good producer and engineer in all diverse kinds of music genres. Simple, but actually that’s all about it. Few weeks later we had the release on Echocord Colour. And in the moment we are already planning to do a new label for this, also called Pattern Repeat, on which the first release can be expected around January 2010.

This morning’s FACT mix takes the form of a very special session from King Midas Sound, the trio of Kevin ‘The Bug’ Martin, Roger Robinson and Hitomi.

All live edited, with special effects and additional vocals and commentary from the London trio, KMS’s FACT mix reads like a list of influences on their twilight Lovers Rock sound, featuring sweet reggae in Tanya Stephens and Gregory Isaacs, dusty shoegaze in My Bloody Valentine and A.R. Kane, modern favourites Burial and Little Dragon, and tracks from Sade, Larry Heard and Scritti Politti, plus material from their forthcoming debut album, Waiting For You on Hyperdub.

We’re blown away from it, and pretty much play it every other morning in our office. Not only is a great listen, it provides a genuine insight into the conception of Waiting For You, one of the year’s most intriguing albums which should drop towards the end of this month

Elemental’s debut album looks back but thinks forward – ‘Messages From The Void’ is a collection of work from the past four years showcasing the producer’s penchant for the darker side of bass music. His Bodytonic podcast was record live at his album launch, using “a combination of Ableton Live, a couple of outboard synths, hardware sequencer and outboard delays.” ‘Messages From The Void’ is out now on Runtime.

Kirk Degiorgio’s name is not synonymous with minimal techno. Over the course of his 18-year career you could count on your hands the number of releases that would even qualify as club-approved tackle. Degiorgio made his name with multi-hued Detroit-inspired techno and went on to produce soulful music in a variety of genres, but rarely touched on straightforward dance floor-ready tracks. Today we see Degiorgio taking a new path that embraces this side of techno, both in terms of production and DJing. Degiorgio rebooted his Applied Rhythm Technology (ART) label this year and is focused on creating full sounding techno that works in club environs. That approach is paying dividends with the recent “Isomer Shift” release on B12, his new “Swarm” EP, the first release for ART’s new Dance Division series and one forthcoming on Planet E. He has applied this same concept to DJing, choosing to play the same type of material he is championing through his own productions. For LWE’s 36th podcast, Degiorgio shares an exclusive mix of what he’s currently spinning and sits down to explain the finer points of running a label, his relationship to DJ technology, and to set the record straight on techno’s debt to jazz.

So ART 08 was just recently released and it received critical acclaim. Why did you decide to revive ART and what is your long-term vision for the label? How do you think it will differ form the previous incarnation of the label?

Kirk Degiorgio: I’d been wanting to revive ART for several years. While I was signed to New Religion for my techno material there was less motivation as they had the resources of a major label behind them, but the label head eventually became MD over at Universal and the label run ended. That was the cue for me to start releasing techno on ART again. I don’t really have a long-term vision for the label as the music industry is changing radically on a monthly basis it seems. Being an independent imprint will allow me adjust quickly to whatever happens hopefully. It will differ from the previous incarnation by being more prolific. The original ART had only seven vinyl and two CD releases in four years!

What did you learn from working with a major label subsidiary (New Religion) and how can you apply it to running ART?

I learned that it’s quite an ordeal to get anything done at a major label. The marketing departments are very influential and everything has to be signed off by somebody higher up the chain. I was very fortunate that Dan Keeling — who started New Religion — was well-thought of at EMI and he managed to put out releases that would have been near-impossible at any other major. But being on a major label obviously has its advantages. New Religion always had great artwork due to the budget available. Alan Oldham created some exclusive art for each EP release and Ben Drury — previously of Mo Wax’s famed art department — created the amazing design for the Electric Institute compilation. Major labels also have the capability to attract mainstream artists for collaboration. Not too many people are aware of this, but if you look at the credits for “What Ever Happened To The Cosmic Kid?” on the Electric Institute compilation, you’ll see it was written by myself, Dan Keeling and C. Martin. That’s Chris Martin of Coldplay! Dan Keeling signed Coldplay to EMI — that’s how he was able to start New Religion in the first place. Dan was playing Chris some techno in his office one afternoon and Chris came up with some chords that we used as a foundation for that track.

As far as applying my major label experiences to running ART — I don’t think much applies. It just reminded me how nice it was to be able to make my own decisions and not have to run everything by somebody higher up. It taught me the importance of marketing I guess, but I doubt ART will ever be dictated by those factors. It’s always just been about releasing music that I like and think will sell in sufficient quantities to not make a significant loss.

I noticed that you were going to be DJing out on a regular basis again. How has the club experience changed since you were last regularly DJing and how do you think that impacts what you are currently playing?

The changes I’ve noticed recently have been a reduction in the amount of mnml being played — I’m a mnml fan by the way — and an upsurge in fuller sounding techno but with mnml and even progressive production influences. I went to Fabric recently to catch the Moritz Von Oswald Trio live, and the other DJs on the night were all playing more of the kind of techno directly influenced by Detroit. Terry Francis played a super set which seemed heavily influenced by Robert Hood, Sandwell District — that kind of stripped down but full-sounding style. The other observation I made is that as far as technology in the booth is concerned, anything goes nowadays. Vinyl, CD, Traktor, Final Scratch, Ableton. DJs have had long enough to experiment and now use whatever they feel most comfortable with. For some, they prefer the tactile physicality of vinyl and to a lesser extent — but similar conceptually — CD’s, others prefer the customisable, limitless nature of Ableton, and Final Scratch/Traktor for those who like a middle-ground between those extremes. As I have made known throughout the years, according to Ableton I was the first known professional DJ to exclusively embrace Ableton for DJing. I don’t say that to be conceited or brag — but it’s just to let people know it takes years to get fully comfortable with a new method of DJing. I’ve had to adapt and change my approach to get the kind of energy levels and intensity that I always believed possible with a laptop, far exceeding what is possible with a traditional approach.

I toured quite extensively up until 2008 and then had to bunker down in London and L.A. for 18 months to produce the next Beauty Room album. I’ve done the occasional gig here and there as I think it’s important to be aware of what the people are currently feeling, and of course, I just love DJing. So although it’s been difficult schedule-wise I’ve been over to Berlin a couple of times and also fitted in some gigs where I really appreciate the crowd, like Melting Pot in Glasgow. With the setup I have now, with MIDI controllers being the key, I can really push the envelope when DJing. Although laptops are commonplace in booths now, I believe my approach is quite individual. It’s a very intense kind of set. I’m really looking forward to playing out regularly again now the Beauty Room album is done and I’ve got a ton of new material to showcase that hasn’t yet been released, and with my agent Richard Maher we’ll be taking it into the kind of venues where my approach works best.

You’ve said yourself that the recent “Mass” track had an “obvious peak-time” feel. And the new “Isomer Shift” track follows suit. What’s influenced your production approach to move in that direction?

Well, obviously I’ve released “peak-time” techno material throughout my career, but perhaps not as prolifically as my other styles. One of the main reasons for this is a legal issue. My Future/Past moniker was always reserved for my more overt club-based techno, but this project remains tied up contractually to R&S Records. R&S hasn’t been fully functional for some years, but I feel I owe it to Renaat for that project to remain dormant waiting for R&S to become active again. Rather than simply sit on all my club material I decided several years ago to start releasing my club-inspired music under my own name for New Religion. I’ve had club hits such as “Nairobi,” “I Do Not Exist,” “Mindstorm” and the Los Hermanos remix of “Germanium” over the past few years, but this year has probably been my most prolific in terms of club-based releases.

My other motivation is purely sonics. The reason mnml gets over so well in the clubs is the production. This trend happened in drum ‘n bass also. You can achieve more punch, power and precision with a stripped down track with few elements to fill up with the frequency spectrum and hence less to control, allowing you to focus on a single sound and build a framework to support that. Achieving this same level of production with more developed, melodic/harmonic, layered material is more difficult. I take this as a challenge and my recent productions such as “Mass” and “Isomer Shift” are examples of this. I’m stripping down my layered, harmonic approach while retaining the essence of “my sound” and some reviewers have described the end result as “grand” or “epic-scale” sounding which is an accurate description, I think. I still like to have some variation on each EP so you’ll usually find something with a different mood tucked away somewhere. I’m due to start touring in early 2010, so I’m spending all of my time in the studio at the moment perfecting this style and there are quite a few releases in the pipeline. “Isomer Shift” is out now on B12 and next month comes the first release in ART’s Dance Division Series. ART-DDS1 is called the “Swarm EP” and consists of three tracks of pure peak-time material. “M-Brane” is due on Planet E sometime soon, just awaiting a C2 mix on that. There will probably be an ART release from myself every two months at this rate.

UK techno history is highly regarded for the releases that you, B12, Stasis, Black Dog Productions, Nuron, Neuropolitique and others put out in the early 90’s. Why do you think that deep techno sound isn’t as prominent any longer? And what would you say to those that are still yearning for it to continue?

It was music of it’s time. Technology, the influences of other styles such as mnml, tech-house — techno has evolved and moved on as it needs to, to remain relevant and exciting. Also, that deep techno sound is not easy to make. It requires a certain understanding of harmony and melodic invention, as well as skilled drum programming. It goes beyond a lot of what goes into making a solid club track today, which can often be devoid of any harmony and is more about the impact of sound. Deep techno is a curious beast. It never seems to work properly if it sounds too “musician-like.” Those early Detroit classics have a certain naive, amateurism about them — certainly in strict musical terms of being in a certain key, etc. Also, there are few artists who can pull-off those icey but strangely uplifting chord changes without them sounding too “trancey.” There does seem to be a healthy deep techno scene that digs into that early sound. Arne Weinberg, Delsin, Vince Watson, Fabrice Lig, Ian O’Brien and others here in Europe, and artists such as Los Hermanos, Shawn Rudiman, Omar-S, et al. over in the US still release great material with echoes of that illustrious age without sounding too dated.

For those wanting that sound to continue strictly in its pure, original form, I would say ‘Move on!’ That original sound was a blueprint, but each artist adds their own unique personality on that foundation and it’s healthy that techno has moved on. It’s great to hear a purist homage to that golden age now and again — Ian O’Brien and myself did this with our “Night On the Promenade” track — but I’m generally not interested in being a retro artist.

Over the years ART had strong connections with like-minded labels (R&S, Planet E, New Electronica, New Religion). What current labels do you see yourself sharing a kinship with and what are those similarities?

That’s a tough question. Obviously I’ve had close associations with Planet E and others for many years now, but I’m very wary of “cliques” forming in this scene and I try to be open and supportive of all labels releasing music I enjoy. Nothing turns me off more than labels and artists grouping together and becoming a “closed shop,” only supporting each others’ releases, etc. It can be like the Eurovision Song Contest with each label voting for each other in a small circle at the exclusion of others. I like to think ART shares a kinship with any independent label out there releasing quality techno because it’s a way of life for the people involved. It’s been a way of life for over 20 years for me and obviously ART has the advantage of a certain pedigree with the artists it’s released in the past; but you only have to look at my monthly charts to see I like to support labels old and new, whether I have a personal involvement with them or not. If new artists and label are not supported the scene becomes very stale, very fast.

Can you talk about how The Kabal boogie-oriented project came to be and is this a solo project or will you be collaborating? What are the biggest challenges in creating a song in this style?

It’s in its very early stages at the moment. I haven’t used samples for a very long time and that is the biggest challenge really — I like to disguise them beyond recognition so there’s a lot of thought and time that’s going into these tracks. Nothing scheduled for release yet as it’s really in its development
stage. No plans for collaboration on this; it would probably test anybody’s patience being in the studio while I endlessly micro-tweak samples!

What is the framework and concept for the Beauty Room project? And what can we expect from the new album?

The Beauty Room project is a mainstream rock/soul project that is about to release it’s second album. It really just came about through working with Jinadu, a vocalist and song-writer who featured on my As One albums for Ubiquity. I produce, co-write, arrange, program and mix the project, but I’m not a musician so we work with a core group of session players in the studio. The success of the first album allowed us to have a considerable budget to record the forthcoming album. We went out to L.A. and recorded a lot of it at Sunset Sound which was an amazing experience. We’ve also recorded at Olympic, Abbey Road and British Grove here in London. The new album is a progression from the first, a fuller sound. Paul Buckmaster has done some stunning orchestral arrangements for us. Paul did the strings on David Bowie’s “Space Oddity,” all of the classic early Elton John albums and co-wrote On The Corner with Miles Davis, etc. He is a true genius. I’ll be writing a feature on his career for Wax Poetics early next year.

You have released several albums over the years; do you see the relevance of the album dwindling with digital downloads?

Absolutely. It seems the format which has suffered most recently is the CD album, especially for dance music which has always been stronger as an EP culture anyway. It’s interesting how the format popularity has worked out. It seems there is still a healthy demand for physical product; the first run of vinyl for ART8 has almost all gone which means I’m selling as much now as in the supposed “heyday” of UK techno in the ’90s. Plus now the digital sales are kicking in, so I’ll continue to keep making both formats available. Personally I have a preference for full quality digital files such as wav, or AIFF. I also still buy vinyl if the track is unavailable in any other format. My DJ sets consist of wav’s or AIFF’s only; no mp3’s due to the loss of quality. If no full quality digital file exists I’ll make my own digital master from vinyl. I have digitised and re-mastered hundreds of vinyl tracks over the past few years. Re-mastering some of the old Chicago and Detroit classics gives them a new lease of life in today’s clubs too. Some need it to compete with the impact of contemporary tracks due to the advancements of digital limiters and the loudness wars.

You obviously have a passion for jazz and many have talked about techno being an electronic form of jazz. How do you think jazz informs or manifests itself in your music?

I’m glad you asked this because my comments in the past have caused some misunderstanding regarding jazz and techno. Firstly, I do not see jazz-specifically electronic jazz-as any kind of “original” form of techno. This
is a mis-interpretation of my views. I have often brought to attention the fact that it’s not just European acts such as Kraftwerk, Yello, Cabaret Voltaire, etc. that pioneered electronic music that had an impact on techno. Herbie Hancock, George Duke, Miles Davis, Eddie Harris and other jazz musicians also experimented with electronics and often go unmentioned in the more rock-familiar dance media. It’s more a case of readdressing the balance than any statement that techno came about solely in a direct lineage from these artists. As I mentioned earlier, I’m not a musician — not like Gerald Mitchell, Mike Banks, Jimpster, Ian O’Brien, et al. — who can channel jazz and improvise over chord structures. Jazz more influences my music with the spirit to experiment and explore harmony.

Your Sound Obsession radio show for Red Bull Music Academy allows you to hone in on a particular sound or artist for an entire broadcast. But the different shows display the diversity of the music you appreciate (Aretha Franklin, Michael Jackson, boogie, Detroit techno). How did you get involved and what goes into preparing and producing the shows?

I first became involved with the Red Bull Academy in 2005 when I was invited to lecture and perform in the ArRange concert in Seattle. Since then I’ve continued to give info-sessions and perform at SONAR for them. The Academy approached me as they launched their radio station and it was a dream come true when they agreed to my concept of presenting a monthly two-hour show on a specific artist/label/genre, etc. It’s a chance for me to introduce listeners to a full chronological retrospective of an artist’s entire works — something rarely done outside of collegiate stations in the U.S. Some shows, such as the Motown
Special, spread over three shows and six hours worth of material. I try to track down every release by the artist/label chosen and then select my personal favourites rather than the most well-known or successful tracks. The show format also allows me to go beyond the dance music genre. I’ve presented shows on The Beatles, Fleetwood Mac, Joni Mitchell, Steely Dan, as well early Detroit Techno Specials.

You’ve written for Wax Poetics, The Wire and also album liner notes. How did you get started writing and how do you end up choosing your assignments/projects?

My writing projects have all come about with magazines or labels approaching me, except for the Herbie Hancock piece for Wax Poetics which I offered to them after the label I original wrote the piece for — as CD box-set liner notes — became defunct before it could be released. I have a certain “obsessive’s” knowledge of certain areas of music, especially Chicago house, techno, electro, soul, jazz, early rap, etc. So although I don’t consider myself a great writer, I often get asked for my expertise I guess. I like to work with an editor, though; my grammar is abysmal!

What has been your most interesting and/or fulfilling writing assignment?

Meeting up with the late Marc Moulin and writing the liner notes for his Placebo retrospective was a highlight. But without doubt the most fulfilling was the Herbie Hancock feature I did for Wax Poetics last year. I think it was the longest article they have ever published which is frightening because it only included about a third of the original draft! I got to interview all the legends in Herbie’s Mwandishi Band such as Bennie Maupin, Billy Hart, Pat Gleeson, and Eddie Henderson, and Herbie and producer David Rubinson both proof-read and approved the whole thing.

You have been able sustain a career in music through production, DJing and writing. Which of them do you enjoy doing most and which pays the bills?

You can’t beat the immediate excitement of DJing to a packed appreciative crowd. I’ve been lucky with my DJing in that I haven’t over-exposed myself by extensive touring, hence promoters and clubbers alike always seem to be pleasantly surprised that I’m basically a party DJ. You may not catch me playing “Strings Of Life” or “Jaguar,” but I refuse to play over people’s heads either. People generally go clubbing to have a good time, not to be patronised or educated; and once I gain their trust early on there is nothing more enjoyable than knowing you have a crowd that is willing to be taken wherever you want to take them over the next few hours. Enjoyment through production is a thoroughly different kind because as an artist you are always striving to improve, explore and never keep still, whereas with DJing you can relax and just live in the moment.
Which pays the bills? My publishing royalties and savings I’ve made from scoring TV ads back in the ’90s. DJing, remixing, the radio show, liner notes, licensing, etc. It’s all about diversifying and having the basics in place these days. Not that I sensibly planned any of my career. As Patti Labelle once sang, “Music Is a Way Of Life.”

We’ve got something special for you this sunday: a new mix by our very good friend, silent servant. inspired by a super deep opening set from regis at the recent sandwell district gig in berlin, this is a more downbeat and introspective mix, well suited for a sunday. in his own words, “it is an all vinyl mix from a stack of my favorite dub techno and dub inspired non techno tracks. it was mixed in one shot.” this shows yet another side of juan mendez, further illustrating the depth and breadth of his musical knowledge. i am consistently impressed by this man’s creativity, and strongly feel he is one of the most interesting and worthwhile voices in contemporary techno. respect.

A deep space journey through electronic dance music

New York based South African, BRENDON MOELLER has been seriously producing since 1994. His compositions have been released on Francois K’s Deep Space Media; Third ear Records, Echocord, Mule Musiq, Eskimo recordings and then some. He records as Brendon Moeller, Beat Pharmacy and Echologist. Dub, techno, jazz, afrobeat and psychedelics are inspirations that appear in most of his music. Whether it be serious dancefloor bizniz, or dubbed out downtempo, his music always possesses a quality and signature that make him the force he is today. He has collaborated with some of the great dub vocalists of our time, namely Mutabaruka, Spaceape, Mikey Dread and Paul St. Hilaire amongst others.

Margaret Dygas’ position as an avant garde techno producer has been achieved with only three proper releases to her name but backed up by years of formidable DJ sets around the world. Born in Poland, she spent her formative teenage years growing up in America and now, like so many other dance music producers, lives in Berlin. Her exquisitely executed tracks have been released on Contexterrior, Non Standard Productions and Perlon, each showing a progression in her abilities and slowly revealing a distinctive type of sound. LWE hoped to learn much more about the budding artist in our interview but it turns out that Miss Dygas prefers to let her music do the majority of her talking. Read on for the words we managed to glean out of her and check the stunning podcast after the interview for a more revealing glimpse into the world of Margaret Dygas.

Judging by your bio you’ve done lots of moving around in your life from a young age. Musically did this help you discover a lot of different types of music?

Sure, traveling helped a lot, but I know I’ve only scratched the surface so far.

Having experienced the laid back lifestyle of California, the club-kids era of New York, as well as living in London and Berlin, what place do you feel has shaped you the most, both creatively and as a person? And are the sounds that you assimilated with in those different parts of your life and love of music creeping in to your current productions?

Every place left a mark in different ways. If I have to point a finger, it would be New York. I loved that place! Amazing times with lots of great memories, as with London and Berlin. There are very specific sounds that remind me of New York, for example, but I’m not sure if they are creeping in to my current productions. I will check it out.

You’re known for having a distinct sound of your own. A DJ’s sound is one that is always evolving but also there is a moment when it clicks for them. When did you think to yourself that you’d found a unique sound and what were you doing at that time in your life?

I don’t look for a specific “sound” as such, so it’s very nice to hear that people think I have a unique sound.

What has been your most enjoyable residencies to date?

Panorama Bar, a very, very special place for me!

Where did you get the vocal samples from for “Invisible Circles”?

From an Internet radio station.

Your productions have a very free form element to them. Rather than regular floor tracks which tend to be more predictable with their arrangements to the point of knowing when the bass/kick/synth is going to come in etc, how do you write and sequence your tracks so that they are cohesive and resolve themselves?

I don’t have a “formula” as far as arrangement. Listening to it over and over and over again (with some tea breaks in between) helps to see if something is annoying or doesn’t belong. I keep playing around until it feels comfortable somehow — and in a way, because it’s never really finished, or am I alone on this one?

You have spent a good many years based in London and are now residing in Berlin. What do you feel are the differences in the working patterns of producers and DJs and how have you operated in each city?

Some have studios at home, some like to go to another location to make noises.I would guess there are quite a few night birds around here, like myself. I don’t know the patterns and operations enough of those two cities to compare.

What are the pros and cons of living as a DJ/producer in each city?

That “cons” can be “pros” and sometimes “pros” may be “cons.”

Tobias Freund has helped out on a couple of your releases with some mixing and production. How did you two meet? What did he bring or unlock in each track he helped out on?

I met him at a party in Berlin. Tobias helped me with pre-mastering and levels in general. Made the sound warmer, more detailed. [He has a] very cool pair of ears.

Your output so far is somewhat teasing to those who are encountering your music. Can we expect more frequent releases from you soon?

I’m sweatin’ ova’ here, workin’ ova’ time. There will be something on Power Shovel Audio, in the spring.

What can we expect from you next year?

Maybe some gray hair?! Wishing you all lots of warm vibes out there! Give earth a kiss!

Foton is back with another awesome dub techno dj set. !!!

Location: Italy
Format: Studio Mix
Duration: 61 min
Size: 84 MB

A fusion of sounds, amalgamated in order to create different emotions. Dark and deep shadows, strong rhythmic patterns, cozy and beautiful warm melodies mixed with lazy ambiences or infinite images. A thoughtful profundity that goes far beyond the dancefloor. This is the concept of my music.

Music has been always for me something worth to live for. My first love is composing music, djing, and doing live sets. I’m into a wide range of music styles and I got a particular love for techno, house, and all its variations.

After studying classical guitar and percussions at early age, I left the studies and I got into many shades of electronic music. Then I started to create electronic music with my PC back in the ‘90…

By the years I evolved my musical knowledge, searching new forms of music. At the end of the 90’s I decided to go to London to satisfy my musical appetite, to trying a new life experience, and to connect with dreamers like me. And also because where I was living at that time was quite boring for me and it was difficult to find interesting music a part from underground sources. Radio, TV, and magazines were playing and talking about meaningless music (and not only that!).

Every last Thursday night of the month I run a night called “909 NIGHT” at cafe 1001, Bricklane, in east London. The night is focused in techno, minimal techno, techouse to electronica, downtempo, dub and chill out. I’ve been playing in almost all the clubs around east London. I’ve also played outside the UK in Spain, Italy, Portugal, France, and Germany. I’ve joined also BRICKBEAT. A team composed by dj’s and producers that run various parties in east London.

I finally began to establishing my music, doing various releases in techno environment and also electronic, downtempo enviroment. I had various releases with respected labels such as: Wavetec, Archipel, Serialism, Celestial Dragon, Gumption Recordings, Blurred Vision, Essential Reload. Until now, I’ve been writing my life with my music and I will keep doing it until my last day. ;)
Peace and dub

After the interview done from iyezine.com,  ( english - italian ), concerning the netaudio / netlabels scene, I was inspired making a sequel of ” The Piooner ” Mix, to show you the artists and netlabels protagonists and Pioneers at same time of an underground musical circuit, recognized and consolidated of what means  Netaudio Music today.

Most of tracks featured in this mix are not more available to download online, because the netlabels are not more active or they changed their directions for the digital pay downloads.

This is also a brief of electronic musical history that show you how unknow talented artists can grow up until became famous for their quality music.

Thank and Enjoy.

INFO:

Label: Deepindub.org

Catalog#: [rare-mix003] [podcast008]

Format: 1x File, MP3, Mixed, 320 kbps

Country: Italy

Released: 07 Nov 2009