Special Download

The RA staff takes a look back at 2010.

And you thought we were done talking about 2010? Not a chance. Music writers can’t get enough of the listmaking, the haggling, the debating and everything else that goes along with the end of the year. That’s why we invited our Berlin-based contributors down to RA HQ for a chat about the topics and trends that defined the past 365 days. Our talk covered just about anything that made our year-end polls and everything that came close as well. And, even though it’s two hours, it felt like we were barely scratching the surface. Enjoy this first RA Exchange where the writers take over.

Participants
Philip Sherburne
Todd L. Burns
Christine Kakaire
Jack Haighton
Ryan Keeling
Will Lynch

Two of Minus’ key members chat at length about their history and their new albums.

Over the past ten years, few techno labels have drawn as much attention as M-nus, the Berlin-based crew of expatriates led by DJ and producer Richie Hawtin. Among the label’s most well-known members are Magda and Marc Houle. From their teenage years playing parties in Detroit, to their stadium-sized gigs during 2008’s Contakt tour, these two artists helped define the lean and punchy sound that came to be known as minimal. Both are currently on the road together promoting new albums. Houle’s Drift features lengthy guitar-centric techno experiments, while Magda’s From the Fallen Page translates her fascination with horror soundtracks into the same framework. The day before they shipped out this fall, RA’s Will Lynch talked the duo about video games, Communist Poland and why it’s sometimes uncool to be Magda and Marc Houle.

The Baron of Techno guides us through his lengthy career, touching on both the personal and the political.

No history of UK electronic music would be complete without a mention of Dave Clarke. Dubbed The Baron of Techno by famed BBC DJ John Peel, Clarke’s CV includes a UK #1 dance album, one of the best mix CDs of the past decade and beloved remixes of Felix Da Housecat and Depeche Mode (among many others). Add to this a quick-hitting style behind the decks and a reputation for speaking his mind no matter the consequences, and you have yourself a living legend.

Clarke’s major passion at the moment is his radio show, where he helps promote the artists he loves. He hasn’t lost any of his interest in the DJ circuit, though, headlining festivals like Lowlands across Europe throughout this past summer. RA’s Will Lynch caught up with the DJ/producer at this year’s Amsterdam Dance Event right after he finished chairing a panel on The Do’s and Don’ts of Digital Promo at the annual conference to talk about all of this and more.

Jazzanova’s DJ man talks about grooves, East Berlin and eclecticism on this week’s Exchange.

There’s a tendency to celebrate those who do one thing exceptionally well. Once upon a time, though, in electronic music that wasn’t the case. As one of the founding members of the Jazzanova collective, Alex Barck knows this well. His is a career built upon the idea that variety is the key to happiness.

As he prepares to head down to Australia, we thought it best to catch up with the Berlin-based DJ/producer. He’s got a new project under his belt with Christian Prommer, he’s busy starting up a new label to release the finished product and he’s as passionate as he’s ever been about music. From living in East Berlin before the Wall came down to his current status as an international DJ, Barck has plenty of knowledge to impart.

O Canada. RA talks Toronto with New Kanada’s guiding light.

Few might term it a hotspot of electronic music production, but music from Canada has had an outsized influence on house and techno over the past decade. From Dumb Unit to Wagon Repair, you can trace some of the genre’s finest moments to its environs. Among those responsible for such moments is Adam Marshall. The New Kanada and Killer boss grew up in Toronto, influenced by sounds from Detroit, Chicago and New York, and has mixed it all together to create an aesthetic that somehow seems uniquely his own.

That’s largely down to a drive that has seen him use his own imprints largely as his vehicle for his own productions, eschewing the collab-friendly outlooks of fellow Canadians Jeremy P. Caulfield, Mike Shannon and Mathew Jonson. That has changed in the past few years as Marshall has become more and more overtly open-minded, leading to support from some unlikely places—namely the UK bass community. What they hear in Marshall’s music, though, is what he’s pushed from the start: Raw, analog music that revels in the possibility that mistakes are very much the goal. (Not the enemy.) RA’s Todd L. Burns talked with Marshall about all of this and more earlier this month as he prepares for his upcoming performance at RA’s Xmas bash in London.

The Panorama Bar resident talks house, house and more ****ing house with RA’s Ryan Keeling.

The best house music has a certain honesty to it. Maybe that’s why Achim Brandenburg, AKA Prosumer, has proven to be such a remarkable DJ/producer within the genre. Whatever the reason, growing up in Saarbrucken couldn’t have hurt. Housing one of the outposts of Berlin’s famed Hardwax record shop, Prosumer had easy access to records that are now almost impossible to find at reasonable prices.

Nowadays, his love of records has led him to work at the Berlin store and to DJ, bringing his intimate knowledge of classic records to audiences around the world. His most famous gig is his residency at Panorama Bar, a venue he’ll celebrate on the club’s Ostgut Ton imprint in 2011 with his debut mix CD. Serenity, his debut album co-produced with Murat Tepeli, was released on the same label in 2008. RA’s Ryan Keeling recently caught up with Brandenburg in advance of his appearance at our party in November at Manchester’s Warehouse Project to take stock of his career thus far, revealing a sensitive artist who believes honesty is the best policy.

RA catches up with the talented DJ as he finally starts his production career in earnest.

They call them “DJ’s DJs.” The type of guy everyone seems to love, but the one that can’t seem to catch that break that will vault them to the level that you know they deserve. Derek Plaslaiko is a consummate example, a DJ too humble to trumpet his obvious talents, yet one too obviously talented to credibly remain humble. Needless to say, he’s one of RA editor’s Todd L. Burns favorite spinners, which is why he nabbed him for the latest edition of RA’s Exchange.

The two have been friends for a number of years, which is why this particular Exchange might be a tad more familial than normal. But we think that with an acclaimed EP finally under his belt (after a number of years without a production credit), that the time was right to delve into the Midwestern scene from which he came. Topics include how to open for Laurent Garnier, how he stole his DJ name and pixie sticks.

The producer behind one of the best deep house records of the year opens up to Resident Advisor.

Sometimes the best dance music is accidental: John Roberts makes deeply emotional deep house that shouldn’t work on the dance floor as well as it does. But, somehow, we can’t help but think the American-born and Berlin-based producer has made one of the best dance music albums of the year with Glass Eights. The ten track full-length further pushes the sound he brought forth on a collection of 12-inches for the Dial label over the past two years, yet—as he details in a chat with RA editor Todd L. Burns—it could only exist as an album.

This love of the format no doubt comes directly from Roberts’ listening habits, a taste that ranges from The Smiths to southern hip-hop, American indie troubadour Bonnie “Prince” Billy to Dizzee Rascal. In our discussion with the producer, we touch on all of those influences, as well as getting at some of his unlikely sample sources and his old-school production methods. And, of course, his love for trashy American reality television.

Published / 01 October 2010
Filesize / 171.28 MB
Length / 01:11:21

RA sits down for a lengthy talk with one of the main functionaries behind the Sandwell District collective.

Welcome to the first edition of the Exchange, a new podcast series on Resident Advisor where we present long-form audio interviews with artists, labels and promoters shaping the electronic music landscape.

With nearly 20 years experience in the world of techno, we thought that David Sumner, AKA Function, was an ideal candidate for the first discussion. Over the past few years Function has found wider success as part of the Sandwell District collective. But in a lengthy discussion with RA’s editor-in-chief Todd L. Burns early last month, Sumner describes New York in the early ’90s and the vibrant scene centered around the legendary Limelight club.

From seeing one of the first Underground Resistance shows in New York to working alongside Dennis Ferrer, selling music equipment to the likes of Kerri Chandler, The Beastie Boys and Ol’ Dirty Bastard, Sumner’s roots clearly run deep. Now a resident of Berlin, his collaboration with Regis and Silent Servant as part of Sandwell District has seen him grace the main stage at Sonar earlier this year. With a SD full-length set to be released by the end of 2010, expect his star to continue to rise even further in the near future.

Du Walkman à l’iPod
Les nouveaux modes numériques d’écoute et de consommation de la musique ont engendré de nouveaux comportements chez les auditeurs. On échange la musique, légale ou piratée, on accumule les titres, on sature son disque dur de fichiers MP3, on sonorise ses voyages et ses trajets et l’on créé des playlists, des listes de lecture dédiées aux moment privilégiés de sa vie quotidienne et destinées à ses amis ou ses amours. Pour autant, cette révolution remonte au années 80 où l’apparition de la K7, mais aussi de dispositifs mobiles (baladeurs, Boombox et auto-radio) avaient d’ores et déjà transformé notre rapport à la musique et à son écoute.

Du walkman à l’iPod, en passant par les révolutions successives de la K7 audio et du MP3, auditeurs, penseurs, philosophes, professionnels et musiciens évoquent cette relation intime et immersive avec la musique, depuis leur plus tendre enfance jusqu’au seuil de leur mort.

Cette émission composée en forme de déambulation à travers les voix et les époques, la pop des Beach Boys comme l’électronique la plus avant-gardiste, est réalisée par Jean-Yves Leloup, journaliste, DJ et artiste sonore, auteur du récent essai : « Digital Magma : de l’utopie des raves parties à la génération iPod » (Scali 2007, Sternberg Press 2009).

La page de l’ACR de France culture : cliquez ici

Entretiens avec David Toop (auteur et musicien), Laurent Massaloux (designer), Joachim Montessuis (artiste et musicien), Robert Hampson (musicien), Guillaume Huret (designer sonore), Benoît Repoux et Nicolas Nieto (journalistes), Jean-François Guillon (plasticien), Jean-Philippe Martzel (publicitaire), Jean-Christoph Onno (musicien) et Luna Cohen-Solal (lycéenne et music lover)…

Musiques de : Grizzly Bear, AtomTM, Thomas Brinkmann, The Beach Boys, Tony Joe White, David Toop, Joakim, Henrik Schwarz…

Archives : Jacques Attali, Brian Eno, Roland Barthes, Jean-Luc Godard, John Rubinstein (fils d’Arthur Rubinstein). Ainsi que : Henri Rollan, poème lu, Conte de Fée de Robert Desnos.

Films : « Hi-Fidelity » de Stephen Frears, « Elizabeth Town » de Cameron Crowe.

LE_Cantin is an active member of Montreal label Archipel (founded by Pheek in 2005) having released two albums on the imprint. He’s also worked with overseas labels including One-Bit-Wonder and Pentagonik (Germany), Subtropical (Sweden) and Pinksilver (Australia).

www.lecantin.com
www.myspace.com/cantin
www.facebook.com/pages/LeCantin/19378701102
www.discogs.com/artist/Le+Cantin
www.contemplation.archipel.cc

» ARCHIPEL PODCAST 20 @ Piknic (STM scene) 2009

One of Archipel’s core member, Le_Cantin, was invited to do a deep DJ mix for Montreal Piknik’s side stage. This recording will take you into a memorable sunny afternoon.

http://www.archive.org/download/ArchipelPodcast020/Archpd020_Le_Cantin_Piknic_STM_stage.mp3

» SOME TRACKS

Move Your Balls :

http://www.lecantin.com/LE_Cantin_Move_your_balls.mp3

No Fake :

http://www.lecantin.com/LE_Cantin_No_fake.mp3

Bouncing Walls :

http://www.lecantin.com/LE_Cantin_bouncing_walls.mp3

Archipel video podcast #2 from Pheek on Vimeo.