Why is someone that has a spaceship to save humanity saving me? I make dance music and dumb jokes

Troy talks about the end of the world to Jenna Roberts.

Para One AKA Jean-Baptiste de Laubier is one of France’s most progressive and forward thinking electro/beat artists. Usually associated with the likes of Surkin (and before that French rap upstarts TTC), they created the Institubes label, which fired Para’s glitchy, high octane sound into the global blogosphere through singles such as Epiphanie, Clubhoppn and more. Now in preparation for his appearance at the Neon Noise Project at Heaven on the 26th May alongside Aeroplane, Surkin and more – and in the shadow of his new album ‘Passion’ – we’re delighted to have the hip hop obsessed artist mix us a prime selection of cuts, including new numbers from Justin Martin, Zombie Disco Squad and Sei A among others. Get familiar and get your wiggle on!

Click here for tickets for NeonNoise Project at XOYO

It’s a selection of old and new stuff that I like to play at the moment… With a few exclusives!

And in addition to the interview, Bill Patrick also honored us with a mix of great quality. If you enjoyed his back to back set with Shaun Reeves recorded at the Beatport headquarters few months ago, no doubt that this podcast will please you as well. Bill thus confirms his reputation as an outstanding DJ and record digger, the kind of guy who could easily mix the latest Little Helpers release with an obscure house gem from out of nowhere… « Deep is the new cool. »

So you’re living in London, but you’re from Leeds originally, aren’t you?

Harry Agius: I lived in Leeds for three… five years, actually. I was a student for three years.

Oh, okay. So were you born there, or…?

No, actually. I was born in Africa. Sorry, I was born in England, then moved to Africa when I was two years old, and then lived there until I was nine, then went to boarding school, and my parents continued to live out there until I was 13, and they moved to Greece. Then I just went to university when I was 19, up in Leeds, and then after that finished I just decided I liked this city. It’s really cheap, good music, great music scene. And quite a few of my friends were staying up there so I just decided to stay, basically.

Wow, that’s a huge cultural swing.

It does go some way to describe why I’m so scatty. [laughs]

So whereabouts in Africa? South Africa?

Tanzania. East Africa. Yeah, which was incredible.

Yeah. What do your parents do for you to have been living there?

My dad’s an engineer; my mum’s a teacher/supermom. She’s got five children so that takes up quite a lot of the time as well.

And so you moved back here and started going to university. Was that strange? Did you always come back to England?

Well, we always had a house in England, and so we were coming back for holidays. So it’s not like I was disconnected. And I was educated in England. But, effectively, I’ve kind of lived away from home since I was nine. You know, I go home for holidays, but I haven’t lived with my parents since I was about nine years old. I mean about apart from, like, two-month holidays.

Crazy. And so what did you study at university?

History.

OK, so why history?

History was just the option that kind of… it was the subject I was best at in school, and going to boarding school, their emphasis was on academics. You know, if you don’t do an academic degree, then you don’t get a good job in an office, even though from an early age I was convinced I wasn’t going to have an office job. I kind of listened to their rhetoric. My favorite subject was art, which is the subject that I worked the hardest at and I loved, but I just didn’t have enough self-confidence. I always saw myself as a bit of a pretender. So even though I got an “A” at A-level, which I was really happy with, it never really seemed like an option; and now, retrospectively, I’m gutted I didn’t do something I really enjoy more at uni because some of my friends did broadcasting and art, and they actually enjoyed going to their degrees.

I mean I was in a similar situation: I went to boarding school and felt that it was the fact that the school was largely academic. Although you can do things like art and music and stuff, there was almost no encouragement given to do that sort of thing.

No, and that was the problem. That’s the same in every school, though. It’s like academics is the focus, and there’s loads of kids who fall through the cracks because their brain doesn’t work like that. My brain, when it comes to maths and science, I just can’t understand it. But if you were to find out what kids were good at and nurture it… Everyone’s got a skill, and it’s trying to, like, instill in kids that, maybe you’re good with your hands so do some carpentry because you’re going to earn double the amount your friends are in an office working as a skilled worker, you know? And it’s not a kind of lower-class job.

I did social work in Brixton recently with a friend — Ben UFO — and there were a lot of kids who’d been kicked out of school or jobless or been to prison or whatever, and once you just sat down and talked to them about music, they kind of forgot about all their problems, and they were just really cool kids who were really interested in it. So I think you just need to focus more on that. The problem is our government will never focus on that because it doesn’t support capitalism. It doesn’t support commerce, really. “Oh yeah, maybe you should try becoming a musician.” It’s not like you’re actually going to contribute to our economy.

what’s the social work that you and Ben UFO have been doing?

To be fair, the course ended about last Christmas, but we did it for about four or five months. He’d done a lot more. I just kind of came in. It’s called Raw Material, and it’s just teaching kids how to produce, how to market themselves. It’s just a general hands-on thing, learning to DJ. They wrote a couple of tunes together, and my involvement was just one day a week for four months. I’m hoping to go back, but it’s kind of… I think it’s stagnated a bit, that specific cause. It was just at a time when I kind of felt like all I was doing was sort of self-serving music work. But it’s definitely something I want to continue doing; it’s just finding the kind of right avenues. It’s really interesting and not in a kind of wanting to give something back sort of cheesy way, you know? I mean I grew up surrounded by really abject poverty, and that’s not in the kind of… I obviously was an expat, but saying that, my parents were quite involved in all this charitable work out there. And I can’t really just come back and then just switch it off, you know?

Do you do music full time?

Yeah. Coming up to a year and a half.

Excellent. So what were you doing beforehand?

I was working in a bar. Just working.

So it was basically like get some money, just enough to focus on music?

Yeah, it was sort of, like, earn enough money just literally to pay the rent and eat. I was living on something hideous like 100 pounds a week. And that was, like, food, rent, everything. Rent was, like, 60 quid.

So when was it that you knew that you were going to do music as opposed to doing something with your university degree?

Well, music was… I never really… I went straight into bar work. The first year after leaving uni was just, like, “Oh, I’m just going to piss around and stay in Leeds as a kind of faux student.” But music started to happen kind of slowly, and then it just was last November, as in November a year ago, that I decided to just take a punt on it. [laughs] It’s quite amusing. I thought I had a big PRS payment coming in because I got quite a few tunes played on Radio 1, but it was the classic “didn’t really know how it worked,” and it takes months for it to filter through. So I quit my job, and then I got my PRS statement, and it was like 54 pounds. I was like, “Oh my god.” I had to borrow a bit of money off my parents. That’s the only time I’ve had to borrow off them since I’ve left university, which I’m kind of quite proud of, considering I’ve paid my rent and my own way really from music since I left. But working in the club, it was just such harrowing work because it wasn’t a bar. I finished at five in the morning four nights a week. And I can’t sleep in late so I was waking up at 10. I was just a zombie for a year. There were times I was just like, “What am I doing?”

Did that give you time to work on music?

Yeah, yeah, totally. I was doing a lot of work on music, but also all my housemates were students. All of our friends were still kind of studying so a lot of people just kind of coming around to our house, and we had the party house. Luckily, I had the room at the top.

So when was it that you decided that music was something you wanted to do? Was it while you were at university?

I DJed at university; I played drum and bass, actually. And then, I don’t know, it happened by accident. Completely by accident. I wrote a tune with David [Kennedy], Pearson Sound, the summer we left uni. It got signed to Aus Music, then I wrote a few more tunes on my own.

So that tune that you wrote with him, was that the first thing you’d really worked on?

Well, I mean I’d been fiddling around with Logic. I’d made five tracks, five finished tracks, but that was the first non-drum and bass track I’d made. With David, the first time we’d actually done something together successfully.

Wow, and you guys were living together?

Yeah, and we still do, actually. And then I just made a few more tunes and sent them to a couple of mates, and [they] made their way to a management company who then signed me up, and they helped me get an agent and they hooked up a FACT mix and helped get an EP with Phonica. So they had the contacts to send out my music because I had no idea. I’d been trying to write drum and bass for two years and having no joy, so I just thought, “It’s going to take me at least two years until people are even listening to my music in house.” And then to find out from the moment you’ve made your first record, like — I don’t know, eight months later, [having] Sasha play your record is like a complete head-spin. [laughs]

In many ways the fact that you did that with David must have been a huge leg up, really.

Yeah, I suppose so.

It’s like instant street cred right there because he was already established.

It was funny because we wrote it kind of just before he really exploded. It was kind of that year; 2011 was just his year, you know? We wrote it at the tail end of 2010. And quite a few people did sort of say, “It’s quite handy that you did that,” but really it just came down to we’d been mates for three years, and we were a bit bored at his parents’ house that one summer day. I’d just gone down because I was bored at home. We were just driving around in my mum’s car, and we were like, “Yeah, let’s write a kind of Chicago-house record,” just a really pastiche-y house record. But then we actually got into it and took it a little more seriously. But it was just a load of fun, man, just sitting in his parents’ attic, just cutting up acapellas and playing keys. But it put a lot of pressure on the releases after because people were always like, “Oh, you’re that guy who made the tunes with Ramadanman.”

Oh yeah, that’s what I was going to ask you about. That must almost be a curse for you.

Initially.

Because you make house and techno.

Yeah, yeah.

And nobody thinks of you as a house and techno producer.

They didn’t, until recently. I think people still thought that I was sort of part of UK bass world, which I am kind of by proxy. It’s not saying that I don’t play and sometimes make things which are classifiable as that, but it’s so much about who you’re seen to be associated with, what sort of labels you’re with, and it’s all how people perceive you. It’s all in the eye of the beholder. You get asked to play one night, which is a really house-y night, and they’ll be posting up the things they think you might be doing. So you’ll be playing a house party, and they’ll be putting up “Your Words Matter” and my last Aus one, the more straight ones. And then you’ll play at a more UK bass night, and they’ll be putting up your earlier ones.

That’s true as well with releasing music. You might release something you made two years ago; to people buying it, that represents you now. But to you it actually it really is something quite old. And so with this last release I did for Aus, I had a few tracks lying around, but I was kind of loathe to use them. So I wrote the tracks all in four months at the same time last year, because I know Will [Saul] is very efficient in how quickly he releases music. And so I think from now on I kind of like the idea of having these tunes and giving them to labels or releasing them shortly after.

I was having a think about this on the way here, because you make music that varies a bit. There are so many producers now who just hone in on one sound and just do that to death. How do you feel about that in terms of perhaps what the public wants? Do you think people are actually after that from an artist? Because it makes it hard, doesn’t it? If you’re trying to put yourself out there and build an image as, “This is me; this is what I do.” If people think they’re going to hear a release from you and the next release is going to be really different, they’re not going to know what to think or what image to form of you.

I know, this is the kind of constant thing that plays on my mind. For instance, I’ve just done two remixes which are quite straight house. And for the third one, I almost feel like a sell-out, using a 4/4 kick drum because I’ve already used it on these two, and that’s not me trying to be like, “Oh, I’ve got to keep my balance,” you know, “I’ve got to keep my slightly wonky stuff,” you know? It’s just that I’ve just spent a month with 4/4 kick drums, and I want to do something different.

You’re kind of bored of it by that stage, yeah.

[laughs] Maybe it’s just that, maybe it’s just a short attention span. Or not even a short attention span, but…

But I guess the thing with music is you always want to push yourself, don’t you? And just do something completely different.

This is true. I think it gets harder to do as you get more of a name. You do kind of see it with artists who have formerly been very interesting, kind of honing in on one sound. There’s nothing wrong with it. But then also you get people like Actress almost just going weirder.

But that’s his thing.

And that’s amazing, you know? It works so well in its kind of disarray. I suppose it’s trying to keep a coherent kind of sound through all the different sort of stops along the way. I suppose that’s it, really. I just like things to have a bit of character. And there’s a lot of people recently who have been asking me what hardware I use, like, “Yeah, man, I like that analog sound you’ve got.” I don’t use any hardware, I just make it on my computer, but I always want it to sound kind of worn. So I’ve got processes which I use that kind of age sounds that aren’t actually played in from old synths, you know? Everyone loves the hardware at the moment. It’s on every press release. The sort of single-sided analog jam, and you listen to it and it’s not great, but the press release is so wordy, and it’s just using all these superlatives and descriptions about what’s actually quite mundane. Hardware is actually quite difficult to work with; and I like hardware, but I think a lot of people are just buying hardware because they think it’s a kind of golden ticket to writing.

They think it’s going to write itself, or something.

That is actually incredibly difficult because you’ve got to sync it up with your sequencer. Most synths like the Juno, the Juno-106, you can’t save patches. Like the one I used to have before it gave up the ghost, you had to touch the corner just to get the cutoff to work. It was temperamental. I think people quite like the temperamentality of it, you know?

I remember I first started going out and buying lots of old analog stuff, and some of the things you get coming out of them because you patched it wrong or you didn’t understand MIDI properly, something else entirely would start playing.

Yeah, totally. I remember reading an article, an interview with Ricardo Villalobos — you know he did that kind of recontextualized jazz with Max Loderbauer. And they were using these crazy modular synths, and he was saying that, you turn it off and you never have that sound again, and there was an element of complete chance. The planets align and you get this sound and you use it, and it’s gone, which is kind of fascinating. I almost think I’m too much of a wimp to do that at the moment; but also, I haven’t been able to afford hardware until recently. I think it’s just a process. I want to try out as much as I can before I invest my money in it. To just learn one synth really well.

Well, I mean that’s the danger, isn’t it? Because it’s so easy to get VST plugins for all these amazing old synths, and you tend to treat them like…

Throwaways.

Yeah.

But that’s just part of the problem now, isn’t it? Just, “oh, it doesn’t matter; I’ll buy 10 MP3s because they’re only a quid each,” but then you wouldn’t be doing that if it was 10 records in a record shop. You’d have that thing where you listen to the records, and then you have to do a kind of shortlist, and then you listen to the shortlist, and it’s like, “I really can’t spend more than 40 quid.”

You might even have to throw one back that you really want.

Yeah, and it really hurts. 90 percent of the records I buy on vinyl now are killer, and I suppose I’m getting a bit more selective about the MP3s. But it is, again, that digital thing, and it’s the same with synths. Someone emailed me going, “Oh yeah, what’s a good synth for deep house?” I’m just like, “Any synth will make deep house sounds.” It’s something that took me ages to learn, that the synth is really just someone’s opinion on how to do the same thing, you know? Most synths do exactly the same thing, especially with VSTs. It’s just a design. And once you find the one you like, the chances are you can use that for years, and get completely mental, different sounds out of it every time.

Yeah, I think especially if you really learn how to program properly.

Yeah, totally. I mean I use 90 percent Logic plugins off Logic 7, they’re old but work really well.

Yeah, I mean that’s the thing: when you think about all we’ve got these days to be able to make stuff, compared tolike, 15, 20 years ago, it’s ridiculous.

There’s too much choice. You listen to seminal old records; they had an eight-track, three seconds of memory per track. And you’re like, “how can I twist this one hi-hat.” You know, “I’ve got three hi-hats to choose from. How can I make this one hi-hat really mental?”

Exactly, whereas now you have 28 different effects on each channel, and all sorts.

Yeah. I think if you really want, and if you do use computers to their full potential, you can get some amazing results, but you can also just have 10 tracks with synced loops.

Yeah. Now you were mentioning before about press releases saying at the moment everyone talking about the analog sound sort of thing. How aware do you feel you have to stay of trends? Obviously, within house music or bass music or whatever, there’s certain things that are really hot right now, and when you start to get your name out there a bit more, people expect a certain thing of you. How much does that weigh on your mind when you go in and start to make something?

Not at all. [laughs] Not at all. I got the press release for my last EP, and it was just this really long track-by-track analysis, and I just was like, “Is it alright if I rewrite this, or can I rewrite this with someone independently, and then we just shortened it down a lot. I just really can’t stand track-by-track press releases. I have nothing against people who use them; I’ve got friends who release records who use them, but it’s just telling people what to expect, you know? I like it when it just says “new record from this person.” Or if it’s like Jus-Ed, you know, and it’s, “Don’t buy the fucking MP3s. You’re taking food out of my son’s mouth and stopping me being able to send him to college.” [laughs] I like that. That’s a press release right there.

Exactly. Or get a German person to write it and then translate it into English. I love that.

Kind of really amusing, but in a really deadpan way. But no, the next couple of releases I’m doing, I have really no plans. I’m just going to write some music, basically. I’m in a very lucky position; I’ve got gigs now so I can relax a bit and pay the rent.

Are you now getting approached by labels who are commissioning releases off you?

Yeah, I mean I’ve had a few offers, but I’ve kind of got a quite specific idea of what and where I want to release.

You seem to have a good relationship with Aus.

Yeah, definitely. I mean Will’s basically said, “We’re always here.” You know, obviously there’s a lot of music coming up over the next few months so in terms of if I want to do another one, it would probably be in December or January. But Will is always there, and I love how he works. It’s just really quality, you know? And I’m so lucky to have basically worked with them since I started releasing music. And also, that I’ve had pretty much everything I’ve ever written released on vinyl, which is not something everyone can say. And it’s something that, if I start my own label, it will be top of the list: the vinyl and how it’s presented. And also, if there is a vinyl and you buy the vinyl, you get a free download code.

I think that’s always good. Yeah, that’s something I’ve really appreciated lately. You know, so then you can just download the stuff to listen to when you want, and then you can keep your vinyl pristine for playing.

I still buy at least 100 pounds worth of vinyl a month. All the vinyl-only stuff, and then I rip it, and I play it through Serato. But the whole ripping process is so lengthy. In our house we’ve got a really nice Rega. David has his Rega, so we got that and a phono pre-amp. So we record it in through that and put it into Logic, edit it, limit it, so you’ve these limited, beautifully recorded WAVs of these records, and that preserves them. There’s a record in there which cost me 12 quid, and it’s like if someone scratches that, and it’s one of 300 copies… It is very funny because you get shit off people who are purist vinyl DJs saying, “Oh, you play on your laptops,” and it’s like, “I’m still playing records that I’ve bought. I’m still buying records; it’s just I like it all in one place,” you know?

That’s very interesting, that you go to that effort to keep your vinyl in good nick.

Yeah, yeah. I’ve probably ripped, like… I mean me and David, both of us do it, but I’ll probably spend about eight hours a month ripping vinyl. It’s so satisfying because that way you’re forced to listen to the music, you know?

That’s true. Because I mean that’s one thing that’s hard now, isn’t it? Like, in the past I knew every single piece of vinyl I had, every track.

Well, when it’s ripping you have as long as it takes to record it, and so you just sit there, headphones on, comfy chair. When I used to play vinyl and Serato, I’d forget to play the vinyl. I’d forget to play the tunes in Serato. But it’s very funny because you have people who don’t buy vinyl anymore leaning over like, “What’s this tune? What’s this tune? What’s this tune?” It’s like if you’d kept up with what’s getting released, you’d know. And it’s digging for those tunes which gives your set an interesting edge. Like, I got asked to do a chart for Beatport recently, and I looked at my chart, and only one of the tunes was released this year.

Or unavailable.

No, I did it all with ones that were on Beatport, but only one that was released this year. I have this really interesting relationship with promos and digital promos, and I kind of like to discover music of my own where you go on those tangents. The other day I knew nothing about Masters At Work so I spent a day just researching. Then you start reading up about them and working out who they worked with and finding all these little nooks and crannies. And that’s one day, and you get to the end and you’re completely rinsed out. I like the idea of playing music in sets that people don’t know if it’s new or old. And I think if something was worth playing four years ago and it’s still worth playing now, then it’s a timeless record. And then obviously you still play records and then [think], “Why did I play that?” But it’s kind of nice to try and limit the amount of times that happens. But sometimes you have gigs where the crowd is just completely not feeling what you’re playing, and you’ve to go a little bit harder or cheesier, and then you get to the end and you feel dirty. [laughs]

With that in mind, what about remixes? You’ve done quite a few remixes. Are there any sort of on the verge of “I’m not sure if I should do this”?

Yeah, there were a couple of ones I did very early on and it was like, “Wow, someone wants me to remix, and they’re going to give me some money, and it’s good and it will pay my rent for three months when I’m really really poor.” But now it’s like, ughhh. Everyone’s a genius in hindsight though and I think now it’s a matter of what’s the label like? What’s the artist like? What’s the tune like? And if that’s cool then… But as of this last one — and I always say this — I do really, really want to limit it because sometimes you finish something and you think, “That could have been a really good track of mine.”

Deetron said a similar thing, that he would only do remixes now with vocals in them because otherwise he felt he was giving away a free track.

That’s very true. I think remixes are a funny because they’re just as important as a really good tune. But I think Levon Vincent put it really well in an interview in RA when he was talking about remixes as a commodity thing. They want a bit of your image, you want a bit of theirs, and it kind of made me think, “Why do they want your remix?” Is it because I fill their edgy UK underground box, and it makes me kind of wonder. But then there are amazing remixes, like the Marcel Dettmann remix of Junior Boys. Man, that’s a remix. Actually I played the Carl Craig remix of that Junior Boys track…

“Like A Child.”

Yeah. And I’d never played it out before and it’s like four minutes until the kick drum comes in and by the time the kick drum comes in people are totally losing their shit. It’s such a good feeling to be able to do a remix like that and know that it’s going to take a DJ with balls to play it. I’m not saying I’m a trailblazing DJ, it was 5am when I played it. But I was talking to my housemates the other day and we were saying how big tunes, often, are the ones that catch you and get you into a groove from the off, you know? They’re not too much for people to process but they’re just enough to get people interested. It’s a simplicity, which I often don’t do. It’s always too complicated I think. You flick into one part of the tune and you’re like, “Errr, that’s OK,” but really you want to be able to tell people to wait because in two minutes that last bit will make sense and the whole thing will have grown. But maybe I’m just jealous because I can’t write stripped back bangers.

It’s a real problem in production in that you’re always trying to pack lots of ideas in rather than just work on a groove.

Yeah, you’ve got to be very militant and really question as to what you need in the track. I think it always gets to that stage where you feel like you need more elements where all you really need is to just work on the parts you already have.

So what’s in your record bag?

This is a Jon Heckle remix of Trackmasta Lou, which is just humungous. Then there’s this new one on the Rawax label. All of the records under this banner are really good. If I ever get asked to play at Panorama Bar, then these records are weird enough and also heavy enough. Then there’s this new one on Voodoo Down, which I didn’t get for the STL track. I do love his stuff but then I have ten of his records and they’re very similar sounding.

He’s one of those guys who just really work on honing a particular sound.

Yeah, I think that’s why it’s quite good to work sometimes with an alias, because people won’t then have preconceptions about what it will sound like. But then every time I try and work under an alias my management always tell me I might as well release it as Midland, or I just end up doing that anyway.

So you haven’t got any secret ones out yet?

No, not yet, but it’s still early days. I just work really slowly. That’s why I’m looking forward to the next few months, because I’m going to finish this remix and then I’m going to write four twelve inches by the end of the year. What’s that? Like one every two months or so, so it’s not that much really.

And how often are you playing gigs?

Pretty much every weekend. This weekend I’m playing Rome on Saturday and then Bristol on Saturday. It’s enough time to recover and be productive. I like to keep the week and the weekend separate. My housemates are always joking with me that I DJ on the weekend and drink too much, but then during the week I’m really militant, eating really well and getting to bed early, just preparing for the next weekend. I mean I’m not one of those people who feels like they can party all weekend, I fell like I’m too old for that now. I mean I’m only 25 but I think I might just be a bit of an old man. All my friends say that about me. I just prefer to do things like get the paper on a Sunday, relaxing, play some darts, I don’t know.

So what can you tell us about the mix that you put together for us? Things you’ve been diggin lately?

Well not necessarily things I’m feeling right at this minute per se, not in the sense of like a Beatport chart or anything, but more perhaps things people haven’t heard before. With a mix, usually I like to start slow and it’s like a dot to dot. It’s not that I have certain tunes and they have to be in the mix, it’s more a case of having a tune and then figuring out what the next one should be, whether it’s something I’ve already got or something I have to go and buy. So there is a theme, from slow and fuzzy sort of disco stuff through to some weird rhythmic stuff before the house comes in. There are different sections… Maybe it’s just really self-indulgent tripe, but I just like it when people say to me, “I really love your mix, I listen to it every day on the way to work or when I’m at the gym, or when I’m going on the train.” When you’re sound-tracking someone’s journey, that’s when you know you’re doing a good job.

I mean it’s a very different thing, isn’t it? You’ve got to approach it from a completely different angle than just putting your records together to go out and play a set.

Yeah, totally. And that’s why when people are asking all the time for podcasts, I say that I only really do one or two a year, max. And they’re like, “Oh, come on. Just 30 minutes of a live set.” But I think if you want your mix to stick out, or if you want your mix to be something people go back to, you’ve got to put in some effort because there are so many mixes these days, and I’m pretty sure that if I put out five mixes a year, people would be less inclined to listen to them properly. But then again, once people start to trust your selection implicitly, like someone like Ben UFO, they just know it.

He could put out five mixes a year, and–

Yeah, and we’d all want to listen to it. He’s a really good mate of mine, and this sounds like such a kiss-ass compliment, but I find the prospect of a new mix from him is almost the same level of excitement as a new Radiohead or Actress album, you know? It’s like, “I have no idea what’s going to be in here, but I’m so looking forward to it, and I need to give it some time.”

You mentioned you want to finish off a few EPs, but have you got sort of any plans over the next year? Things you want to achieve with what you’re doing?

Not really. I mean I just want to write some interesting music, basically. I got closer to it over the last EP, being happy with stuff. But I’m still kind of finding my feet, I think. So I’ve just finished a 12? with Pariah, which is quite banging, quite techno-y. We wrote one of the tunes a year ago, and the flip-side we’ve just written. But we were very conscious about how they sound as a pair. They ended up sort of harder than I think anyone would have heard me and him go. So that will be quite interesting. And it’s quite funny because one of the tunes went up on YouTube, and everyone was like, “No, this is definitely a Karenn tune, this is definitely a Blawan tune. The percussion’s too heavy to be a Midland tune.” [laughs] So again, that’s just how people perceive you.

Swiss beats.

Deetron: A name you can depend on. The Swiss DJ and producer has been in the house and techno scene since the mid-’90s, and he seemingly hasn’t put a foot wrong at any point. Whether it be his exceptional three-deck mixing or his elegant productions for label home base Music Man, Sam Geiser is the definition of consistent. Of late, however, Deetron has been outdoing himself a bit. Last year’sStarblazer single for Rejected was one of the most charted tracks of 2011 on Resident Advisor, while his two-disc mix for Balance showed that he’s just as comfortable mixing digital as he is analogue.

Deetron describes RA.312 as “relentless,” and we’re inclined to agree with him. It’s more than 70 minutes of bangers, new and old, fit together by one of the world’s foremost jocks.

What have you been up to recently?

I’ve been touring on the weekends while catching up with my job as a houseman during the week. Apart from that I tried to make use of every free minute to work in the studio. I’ve got a new single coming up for Music Man with Andy Butler from Hercules & Love Affair on vocals, which should finally be released in June as we’re still waiting for the last remix. Other than that I’ve been working on remixes for Steve Kotey and Andy Meecham on Classic as well as Cocolores on Exploited.

How and where was the mix recorded?

The mix was recorded in my studio using decks and CDJs. I’ve edited a few of the tracks beforehand, but recorded the final mix live using the aforementioned equipment.

Can you tell us about the idea behind the mix?

The idea was to create a relentless, captivating, upbeat and danceable mix, which includes the main four musical elements of my DJ sets: My love for melodic techno, my obsession with bass-influenced house and techno, my soft spot for disco and my craving for good vocals. Furthermore the intention was to include older records, which have been favorites of mine over many years and to revive them in a modern context alongside new tracks.

Has living in Bern had much of an effect on your music do you think? If so, how?

I don’t think it had an immediate influence on my music, but the quiet atmosphere of the city and distance from the epicentres of house and techno have helped me to stay focused and down to earth and not to be influenced by trends or hypes.

What are the crowds typically like in Switzerland? 

They are musically well-educated, rather open-minded and while they might not be as outgoing as elsewhere normally, I’ve experienced very enthusiastic crowd reactions in clubs around Switzerland recently.

What are you up to next?

I will be working on my own material exclusively for the next few months and I’m getting ready for a rather hectic summer this year.

I´m neither afraid of showing my emotions nor to include them in my music

Stimming

Few people bring a truly original sound to house music. It’s all very well making some nice grooves and working the dancefloor, but when it comes to longevity and leaving an indelible mark on the genre and the wider musical sphere, you’ve got to bring something new to the table. At a relatively young age, Hamburg’s Martin Stimming did just that, demonstrating a sophisticated yet accessible sound
that’s beyond his years.

I want people to see me as an evolving artist, where you never know what exactly you get – but you know that it’s Stimming.

The elegance of his productions is rooted in his classical training in his native Germany. Born in Giessen in 1983, he became highly accomplished at the violin, piano and drums by the age of 10, giving him a solid and well-rounded musical education and ability, and an intimate understanding of music theory. His first electronic obsessions took hold when he was 15, discovering the joy of sampled breaks and beats through the likes of DJ Krush and Grooverider, and a year later when living in Butzbach (not far from techno hub Frankfurt) he fell under the spell of DJs like Sven Väth of Chris Liebing and began hoarding vinyl. It was around this time that he began producing music with a computer – something he soon realised was his “destiny”.

I think if more producers would include their own mind and feelings into their music the whole scene would be much more flavoured and diverse which would be good for all of us…at least in an entertaining way.

With his future path clearly in mind, Stimming moved to Hamburg aged 19 and enrolled in a Electronic Music Production course at the SAE Institute, followed by a studio internship. By 2006 he was producing bubbly deeper techno as one half of Gebrüder Ton, and around this time he met two guys named Solomun and Adriano, who shared a similar take and viewpoint on house and techno music. These two new acquaintances set up their label Diynamic Music in the same year, and soon Stimming was producing and releasing music and collaborations on the nascent imprint, building himself the musical family that he had longed for – and launching his solo career under his own surname in 2007. His breakthrough hit, 2008’s Una Pena, made the electronic world sit up and take notice, and before long acclaimed labels like Freerange, liebe*detail, Buzzin’ Fly, Green and Poker Flat were snapping up his work. 2009 saw him release his immaculate debut album Reflections to great acclaim, cementing his reputation as one of the most exciting new producers of his generation.

Probably every track normally has at least one sound that is completely out ofcontext, but tweaked and smashed in a way that it fits.

Amidst a sea of mediocre similarity in dance music, Martin Stimming’s work stands out as truly different. His productions are filled with a multitude of his own unique, charismatic field recordings, and he never uses the same sample more than once. Nothing is sacred; sources of sound in his productions have included a Coke can, a coffee machine, children’s toys, keys, marbles, a rubbish bin, loose change, tube train breaking systems and doors and an Ikea pizza cutter. His intricate beats and rhythm are testament to his long-running drumming skills – which in recent years saw him play live drum kit beats on top of frenetic drum and bass DJ sets in German clubs – and his music conveys a strong range of emotions within the limitations of deeper house and techno music.

You just can’t get that type of material out of a synthesizer. And I’m also able to, in a way, morph the listener into the atmosphere I had when I recorded it. And depending on how much I tweak it afterwards it can be a very natural ‘on this earth’ kind of feeling, or the exact opposite.

But it’s not all about 4/4 kicks and dancefloor mentality; as his stunning second album Liqourice demonstrates. Produced with pleasing no-one but himself in mind, it eschews the normal kick-clap/snare template by and large to explore more interesting and progressive territories, but always with that trademark magpie-like sense of texture, emotion and discovery. It’s an album to expand his remit beyond the constraints of the dancefloor and into the wider realms of beautiful electronic music.

I called it Liquorice because I simply love real liquorice sweets, and I have realised that it’s something someone loves or hates. There’s not much middle ground, and there were probably 50% who like it and the others don’t.

2010 saw him pick up an award for Best Newcomer at the Ibiza DJ Awards, following on from his live show (Stimming doesn’t DJ) stunning the crowds at the island’s legendary Pacha, and the finest danceries around the world – from Berlin’s Panorama bar to Sao Paulo’s D-Edge, Brussels’ Fuse, London’s Fabric and Paris’ Rex, and plenty more beyond. Remixes for the likes of Sascha Funke, Claude VonStroke, Marc Romboy and Stephan Bodzin and Robert Babicz to name but a few have further spread his influence amongst the discerning house and tech community, and cemented his reputation as one of the scene’s most exceptional producers. Clearly, Martin Stimming is a precious talent indeed.

Matthew, you played in Japan last weekend. How was it?

Tokyo was amazing, as expected. The Dj Pi-Ge from Pan Records/Clubberia.com bought me over for a small party. It was an enthusiastic, knowledgeable crowd and we had a good time together. Some great record digging to be had there also!

Yeah, they must have some of the best shops there…

Indeed, I only visited Disc Union and Technique, but that was more than enough, they are both very well curated.

Any anecdotes you would like to disclose from recent gigs?

Oh, I always have a few, as seems that I can be a bit clumsy. The last one that stands out was when I was in Spain, I started pouring myself a drink while mixing and not paying attention, and poured the drink directly in my CD case instead of the glass, I totally didn’t notice for a few minutes, until I saw all my cd’s floating in Fanta Limon… Luckily, the promoter helped me out of that “sticky”situation and helped clean all the cds, which was very nice of him.

You were lucky it didn’t mess up your record bag. You still play vinyl these days?

Yes, only very rarely do I not take any records with, but there are occasions when I do not, for example if I go on holiday but maybe have one gig in a month there. I’m not so fussed on the vinyl/digital argument, really if it sounds good and gets the job done and suits my workflow I will use it. I still really enjoy the art of playing vinyl and the fact that it is not a perfect medium. There is something sexy about a 12” playing on a Technics turntable in a smoky nightclub. However, I have spent quite a lot of time digitising some of my favourites, due to the fact I destroyed quite a few favourite records over the years, so many things I like to play a lot I have recorded. Using computer as a DJ, for me doesn’t suit my workflow so I wont use it, but understand why people do.

I got introduced to your productions with the truly fantastic “We Said Nothing” on Diamonds & Pearls: What’s the story behind the track?

Thanks for the nice words! This one has a special feeling for me too, it’s the first time I really felt I captured the sound and feeling that I wanted in a track after many years of producing. Not sure how I could define that though. It happened all very quickly with the writing and production, and the next day I knew it was kind of strange but grooving at the same time.

I also like the Worst Case Scenario release on Rekid…

That project is with a very good friend of mine Ed Cartwright, he lives in the UK and has a family and business to take care of. Unfortunately, we seldom get a chance to meet for a couple of days to make something happen. Maybe its one of those projects that sees a release every five, ten years or so…

Tell me about “Liquid Sky”, the track which is on Nick Höppners forthcoming Panoramabar Mix?

Nick has been a big supporter of my music since the Diamonds & Pearls record, and I sent him some new stuff one day, and he asked if he could consider them for his upcoming mix, and he selected the “Liquid Sky” track, so they could use it for the mix and vinyl sampler. I am very honoured to be a part of the whole project.

It seems you’re quite prolific these days…

Well, it’s true that I have stepped it up now, I stopped managing labels last year, and decided I wanted to focus on the art of making music. I had been holding down day jobs for the last 17 years alongside music, and I thought for once it was time to dedicate myself to something I enjoy so much.

So you no longer handle the label affairs for Horizontal?

Dinky and I put the label on hold for a while, we started working on an album together last year which has been quite a big undertaking, so we decided to concentrate on that for the time being, but again it doesn’t mean that we won’t do more releases again someday, its just on ice for now.

It’s a big undertaking?

Well the style isn’t “dance music”, and its more song based structures with vocals and more complex arrangements, its a different different discipline and as we are both quite busy, there are only a few days a week to get in the studio if we are lucky. We didn’t have an experience of recording with microphones before and so its a big learning process for us.

Collaborating with Dinky: how is that working out?

Dinky and I have been together a number of years now, we got married a few months ago in Chile. This project is something that started as an experiment a year or so ago, and there are a lot of songs now, so an album is almost ready. Dinky is a fantastic composer, singer and songwriter, I guess I am more helping with some more complex technical things, some programming, sound design and mixing.

Did you have an idea when you approached this mix for Roof.fm?

I always just to find a nice flow of records from different era with nicely contrasting textures. Some old school, some new, classic and raw vibes with a few oddities.

Does the style of the mix represent what you would normally play in the club? Pumping sound between disco and Chicago house?

I think it’s a pretty fair representation of what I do, all the records are in my bag :) Somedays I can be more this or that, but I think this one is in the middle.

Special Download

It’s time for some visions, for future sounds and audacious compositions. It isn’t essential how everything started. Einmusik became a unique producer over the last 10 years with non-traditional sounds, which made him to a sought-after artist in the modern electronic house establishment.

The first album “De’ Medici” was a high class mixture of Einmusik sounds which are reflected in the shows of Samuel Kindermann, based in Berlin and by now well known for his energetic and fascinating style. He is one of these rare entertainers in the major circuit, embracing the crowd with emotions and style.
Now it is time to bundle up the mutli cultural impressions from over 200 shows and journeys all over the world. The new album “Oceans Bottom” will show you new dimensions of future sounds with strong melodies and the deep impressing game of beats and claps. Einmusik is influenced by Russian buildings and folk songs, the 80`s Synths and Berlin sunrises. You will find all these impressions on “Oceans Bottom” packed in multidimensional and catchy sounds.

The production work finds outlet on Samuels superb Einmusika label, which he runs on a daily basis, constantly refining and developing his signature sound. With this imprint he is also providing a platform for a growing number of budding new producers and their musical output.

Pay close attention as Samuel brings all things of Einmusik to a soundsystem near you whether it is from the studio, his label or the stage! The man is on a mission!

He’s performed as both a DJ and live act in some of the worlds best venues, from London’s fabric to the legendary techno mecca that is Berlin’s Berghain. His own label, Baum Records, has just been relaunched with a release from the Finish dub techno artist, Leftover which features a remix from Resoe himself, so to help celebrate the long awaited relaunch, we invited Resoe to provide the next instalment of our podcast series.

Resoe serves up a blissful selection of dub techno that’s not just perfect for inside the club but also makes for great home listening too.

Reynolds swooped onto our radar last year with the crunching machine soul of his Liaisons EP, released on the fledgling Nsyde imprint and a high ranker in our Best Tracks Of 2011 list. The effusive tones adopted for that feature remain true today, with the twelve inch a mainstay in our respective record boxes. Wanting to know more about this obviously talented producer, we were naturally delighted when Reynolds accepted the offer to join our podcast series, more so when he revealed a preference for recording a live set instead of a mere mix.

In addition to treating us to a live set that ebbs and flows its way through filtered house, funk and disco, Reynolds engaged us with a series of answers drenched in illuminating detail, revealing this year to be filled with exciting material from him on labels as excellent as Future Times, L.I.E.S., Boe, Creme and more, as well as shedding some light on life in Detroit, that most fabled but troubled musical city, in 2012.

Thank you for recording this set for us – can you tell us a bit about some of the equipment and material used over the course of its duration?

I recently changed from using a strictly analog setup to using Ableton Live. I used to use an Ensuing EPS-16+, then a MPC, then a Yamaha RS7000. I was touring in Holland seven years ago and I had my gear strapped to my chest and back looking like some dude from Special Operations, and I looked down at my $2700 Mac and say “what the hell is this for, checking (back then) Myspace?” After that I purchased Ableton. It sat on my computer for years. Then back in 2011 I decided I needed to switch over for many reasons, the main was power supply issues. I played in London back in 2008 and my TR-808 caused the power converter to fail. I didn’t want that to happen again. I had a conversation with Brendan Gillen and he convinced me to get an APC40. “It;s like using analog shit” – sold. Then the Maschine came out; I pretty much compose all my music in Maschine and then dump it into Ableton. I also love Arturia, that shit sounds so real. And all the U-he stuff is straight.

How are things in Detroit these days?

Sometimes, when you are in Detroit you forget that people outside the city actually care what you are doing. Detroit is going through a hard time – more than usual – as the state is taking over our city in a dictator-like fashion. Now, more than ever my music reflects the hardship we are dealing with. My democratic vote is worthless and I’m frustrated, so forgive me if my music comes at the people in a harsh way but that is just my environment coming through. I live in a city where I pay ridiculous taxes on par with the richest suburb, yet I receive nothing in return. I call 911 and the police show up seven hours later. But on the other hand, we are a resilient people here and have nothing but hope and love on our minds. There is a full on farm behind my house with turkeys, chickens and ducks. Things will pan out in the end. People tend to believe that we are a hyper post-capitalism society. We already spent through industrialism in the 1980s and now, some say Detroit is once again the model for the future.

Let’s discuss what convinced us to get in touch with you, last year’s Favis reissue on your own label and the Liaisons 12” on Nsyde, which was your first new material to surface in several years. What made you decide to return to the art of releasing music and what had you been up to in the interim?

I make music every day. What did KDJ say? “I go home and fuck that MPC all night long.” Words to live by. Richard Zepenzauer of Nsyde was extremely influential in getting this music out of me. He kept on coaching me about the tracks, to a point of he was driving me crazy, in a good German way. He would ask for so and so changes and I was like, “what is he talking about?” It got so bad at one point that I lied and said I made changes when I didn’t just to see if he was paying attention. Never do that to a German! He totally called my bluff. I love Richard for that, his patience is incredible. When I was younger I used to make music and beats and then at the end of the day I would simply turn off my Ensoniq in a Buddhist type Samsara thing. Didn’t save anything. It taught me how to compose on the spot. I am my hardest critic. I think all my music sucks until I have that magic moment in the club where it just makes sense. Detroit is a practice ground, people will say you suck to your face and I love that. I did a lot of work in the interim, a lot of listening. I mean I had guys like Gilles Peterson telling me he liked my music; that alone blew my mind. I feel blessed that I had the unique opportunity to have Osunlade guide me. He has taught me to stop being so technical and focus on the feeling at the end. Derrick May taught me to not listen to the rules, in fact run against them. So between them I feel like I’m reaching somewhere special.

We should add we are very glad you did, as “Liaisons” is an amazing track, the way the harsh textures sit with the chords is enchanting, were you surprised at the response it has garnered?

Again, I thought it was ‘whatever’. I did make that song based off a neighbour kid coming by the house. Now he was a straight Lil’ Wayne Jeezy kinda dude at 17 years old. I was on some “you youngins don’t know shit” vibe and showed him Liaisons Dangereous. He took two steps back and was like “what is this?” Yeah that’s how I felt the first time I heard it. I was inspired by that to make “Liaisons” and “Port”. I feel it’s so important to focus on young people to carry our tradition on – look at what Mike Huckaby is doing with Youthville.

There’s a definite improvisational feel to “Liaisons” – is your recording process based around an idea which you then expand on sat in front of your equipment?

Always improv. Techno is jazz. Don’t get it twisted, this music that we do is inherently from Africa and what happens when music gets to the US shores, it turns into gospel, then blues, then jazz, then Motown, then funk, then hip-hop and techno. I might be Irish American but African influences are all around me, and I’m adding my Irish funk to this stew. That’s how the Jazz guys did it and that is how I’m going to do it. Again I was just trying to emulate what Liaisons Dangerous did before me. Next to Kraftwerk those cats are untouchable. I’ll never forget Derrick May playing that album for us up above Transmat in his loft. I could hear how Carl Craig freaked that sample. It just gave me inspiration.

“Techno is jazz. I might be Irish American but African influences are all around me, and I’m adding my Irish funk to this stew”

That is obviously the prelude to a number of releases from you this year across an array of labels, can you discuss these with us or do they need to remain under wraps?

Well I have something coming out on Love What You Feel, and then BOE, Future Times, L.I.E.S., D Records, Transmat and an album on Yoruba. I’ve never been this busy.

You did vocals on a track by Alex Israel – how did that come about?

Alex asked me to do some lyrics about my life in Detroit. Alex is a full on Detroiter, he has been involved the Detroit hip-hop scene for a while. He approached me to talk about the happenings in my hood and I said yes. The song was about all the damn plastic bags in my neighbourhood and about some crackhead peeing on my fence. Just a song about frustration – everybody can relate to that right?

From doing some research I found out you used to read Jockey Slut (a personal inspiration) and actually used a copy to persuade your liaison officer of the necessity to undertake a studio internship in Detroit – it sort of blows my mind that you could get Jockey Slut in Arizona!

Jockey Slut was the bible in my opinion. I remember not having shit and me and my roommate Sam Courtney sitting in the living room with a Jeff Mills tape flipping through Jockey Slut going: “Man how do we get to this level.” This is before the internet. I used to read The Source, the hip-hop magazine like, it was a bible, but when Jockey Slut came out that was my shit. So when I graduated Audio Engineering school at the Conservatory, I told them I wanted to go to Detroit. Pauses, lots of pauses. I was like “you don’t understand, this music is changing the world.” Again this is before the internet. “Kevin, don’t you want to go to L.A. or NYC? Nope. Detroit. I tried for Planet E and then Metroplex. No dice. Derrick was willing to take me in. One day while playing basketball with him he goes in his high-pitched voiced “Kevin, we know why you are here”.

I gather you’ve worked as a live technician at the Movement festival or DEMF as it was then called, for someone on the other side of the Atlantic what’ the festival like?

I’m a stage manager. Real Detroit stage, go figure. And I’m damn good at it. In fact if I could do this for a living I would almost as much as music. The man who taught me everything I know is Michael Fotias. Mike is the man in Detroit – he taught me, above anything else, how to stand your ground. Back in the Richie Hawtin rave days, Mike (Foton) was the sound guy at all the parties. Now he is the main guy when it comes to sound at Movement. Nothing at that Festival doesn’t pass through his ears. That guy is a genius.

The line up for this year’s edition is pretty eclectic – is that indicative of how open Detroit is to new music these days ?

Detroit has always been eclectic. We grew up on Mojo. I don’t need to say it here but Mojo was so important to us in Detroit. I have spent nights recoding him in my grandma’s basement. There where no bounds. I think that rubbed off on me when I moved to East Lansing while my mom went to Medical School. I was surrounded by people from Sudan, Mexico, Kenya, Sweden… As a whole, people in Detroit have no idea about what Detroit techno is, you say “I play techno” to Cherise Stevenson and she will look at you cross-eyed. If you say I DJ down at the Tech Fest then she understands. DJ culture is huge in Detroit but Techno/House is not. Everybody in this city has a cousin or a brother that DJs, just like in the Motown days everybody had a cousin or brother that played a bass. But on another note, the cats I’m most excited to see are Actress and Lil’ Louis. You know Paxahau, they caught a lot of shit in the beginning of taking over the festival, but these guys are doing it for the love. These guys transformed a haphazard festival into a full on production. They are professionals in every way. For that alone I could hug every each one of those guys. Paxahau has made Movement a beautiful thing.

This podcast epitomises Sasse as a DJ and a label boss. ENJOY!

Click here to listen to and buy MOTOR ‘Man Made Machine’ Album on iTunes.
Click here to order the CD from Amazon.
Click here to order you Vinyl copy from Amazon.

Prepossessing the ability to effortlessly maneuver through the realms of house and techno, as dawn breaks over 2012 the many facets of Tim Green’s production dexterity is casting reflections in innumerable directions, illuminating a musical and thought-induced excursion on which the 27-year old is embarking.

Experimenting across the spectrum of electronic music, whether putting out reverberating minimal techno of Amnesia peak-time kind-of-measures, or sprinkling some of that unmistakeable TG charm over productions of popular appeal, his work is stamped by ingenuity, fearlessness and fun – which also granted him the ‘Best Breakthrough Producer’ award at DJ Mag’s Best of British in 2010.

After fully bursting onto the scene in 2008 with modern classics ‘Revox’ and ‘Mr Dry’ snapped up by highly-revered Dirtybird and Trapez Records respectively, and picking up support from top players such as Sven Vath, Richie Hawtin and Luciano along the way, Tim swiftly catapulted himself into the upper echelons of the techno hierarchy. A string of high profile releases followed in short succession adding Cocoon, Get Physical, Saved & Four:Twenty to an already impressive back catalogue, as well as remixes for XL Records, Sci+Tec, Moshi Moshi and Souvenir.

With an idiosyncratic groove and off-kilter cheekiness his sound has seen him tour the electronic bastions of the world, including Space – Ibiza, Womb – Tokyo, Fabric – London, Sankeys – Manchester, Watergate – Berlin, D-edge – Sao Paulo, Electric Pickle – Miami, WHP – Manchester, Bestival – Isle Of White, SW4 Festival – London, Zouk – Singapore, Rex Club – Paris. As we are heading into 2012 Tim makes a welcomed return to his underground roots, captivating crowds in more intimate yet discerning settings, along with heading up his own night Bedlam, which is currently on everyone’s lips.

On the production side of things 2012 is already looking like another stella year with
with a dark and twisted remix of Sacha Robotti ft Qzen’s Fotograf on Klasse Recordings and, following on from last year’s ‘In Love EP’ on Get Physical, he has teamed up with Robert Dietz & Audiofly for a remix package due for release in April. This summer will see him return once more to Cocoon to release the outstanding ‘Curious Smile’, plus an EP for Get Physical and remixes for Supernature & Oh Yeah Records, as well as putting the finishing touches to his much anticipated debut artist album.

Taking into consideration the achievements Tim has reached in the span of merely four years, it is a gathered electronic community that awaits his next move, Where to next?

In Ukkonen’s own words: “there is no real tracklist for this recording, as I was jamming most of it… The other mixes I’ve done have been concept ones, so for this I just kept it totally abstract, it’s just about the sounds and rhythms and no messing about with anything else! It was done on my live setup which is mainly an obscene number of samples loaded onto a Roland SP-404SX and some kids’ toy keyboards (which is where most of my pad sounds come from) – although for this special occasion I added one or two secret weapons…”

If you love Ukkonen’s music, you should really catch up with the EPs, which I’ve talked about previously on the radio these past few months, and which are available from Rednetic and Uncharted Audio. The big upcoming news is the album, The Isolated Rhythms of Ukkonen, now due out in May. It’s wonderful. Keep an eye on http://unchartedaudio.com/ for the final release date and details on buying the vinyl.

A soundtrack to an imaginary film.

What marks out Felix Manuel from the hundreds of other UK bass producers that have emerged in the last few years? At the very least we can say with some certainty that few have created an EP as good as Mountains. The 2010 four-tracker for 2nd Drop Records displayed a startling knack for sample manipulation, stringing out hip-hop, dubstep, techno and gabba to form a rich and cinematic whole. Gabba? Yes, gabba. As part of the Yardcore crew on Sub.fm, Manuel became schooled in the quickest of club genres—breakcore, ghettotech, drum & bass—and continues to dabble with tear-out styles during his far-reaching DJ sets. Jazz is a further touchstone of Manuel’s sound, particularly (or perhaps specifically) in terms of his recorded output. His 12-inches for On The Edge and Smokin’ Sessions to the aforementioned 2nd Drop, have all been based on judicious samples, although Manuel is just as likely to borrow from classical music or an overlooked soundtrack.

That latter source is particularly pertinent here: in approaching RA.307 Manuel set-out to compose a “soundtrack to a movie that’s not been made,” freeing himself from playing to an imagined dance floor in favour of creating an atmosphere through tracks by Chris Watson, Herbie Hancock, Untold, Marcel Dettmann and plenty of his own matertial.

What have you been up to recently?

Working hard and moving house. My record collection is a total mess, but on the plus side it now has a room to itself. I can’t wait to get it sorted.

How and where was the mix recorded?

I started by recording a live mix in Ableton Live at my flat in south London. I then spent a couple of weeks chopping it about and adding extra samples: remixing it and adding field recording atmospheres and film samples. I wanted the post-production to really add value. I needed to be doing things that would not be possible in a live setup, like remixing folk tunes into techno and working to an obsessive level of detail.

Can you tell us about the idea behind the mix?

It’s the soundtrack to a movie that’s not been made. I wanted it to set the scene for my own productions rather than showcase how I DJ at a dance. Sound design and incidental music for TV and film is a big influence on me in my productions. Taking this approach freed me up. It allowed me to do a lot of things I’d never get away with on a dance floor, both technically and in the selection.

Mixing for a podcast is totally different to mixing live in front of a crowd. You have the opportunity to create something timeless. It’s not about reacting to a place and time and an atmosphere; it’s about creating an atmosphere from scratch. If you focus on pulling out all the latest dubplates to come across as cutting edge as possible you end up sounding very “now.” I wanted this mix to stay on people’s iPods for as long as possible and to linger in the mind. I hope that including tracks from as far back as the ’60s, right up to future releases will help. Hopefully I’m playing people something they haven’t heard before in a way they’ve not heard before.

You have a background in DJing breakcore and generally up-tempo styles of club music. Have you given much thought as to why your productions to date have ended up so comparatively relaxed?

My productions are based more around a process than an aim. I’ve learned to really go with the flow when I’m producing. When I’m in my studio at home I’m in a relaxed setting so I guess it’s not so surprising. It wasn’t until I let all of my influences into my productions that I started to really get somewhere with them. You can hear a breakcore influence in the Mountains EP I think. The idea for the fast 4×4 kick section in “Mountains Pt.2″ came from gabba. I was particularly thinking about the drop in “Way of the Homeboy Pt.2″ by Hellfish and Producer.

You appear to favour a sample-based approach to making music. What are some of your preferred genres/time periods to draw upon?

Jazz is my main source. I guess I mainly stick to 1966-76…a little later for European stuff. I’ve been collecting jazz records for like ten years, I’m really proud of my collection. Classical music and soundtracks are also important starting points for a lot of the ambient and dub sound design in my music. I try to use synths as little as possible but it can be really hard to stick only to samples. I paint myself into a corner. Sometimes I just can’t find a source for what’s in my head. More natural, acoustic sounds have always appealed to me. Up until I got into techno my main focus in electronic music was always hip-hop, trip-hop and jungle.

Do you get a chance to play any of your own material out?

I always try to get one or two of my own tunes in there. It’s annoying that I can’t test out new stuff when I’m playing all vinyl. That’s something I’m working on: a setup where I play all vinyl apart from a few “live” elements from a laptop. I might have that together by the summer.

What are you up to next?

I’ve got an LP in the making. Very excited about that. Nearly there, but I’ve got lots to do still. My next 12-inch is coming very soon, and there’s a remix 12-inch on its way too. One track from that’s in this mix.

In his own vibrant description Esa tells us..“This mix represents my home town of Cape Town in South Africa and also showcases the music I play at my residency at Highlife in Glasgow at Sub Club. It’s split into three parts, the first focuses on South African Kwaito and House from my homeland, the middle points to my Subculture / Sub Club influenced house background and I end with 20 mins of Shangaan Electro from South Africa popularised by the recent compilations on Honest Jon’s Records by Nozinja Productions. Enjoy!”

First up, Hard Wax Berlin’s House and Disco specialist Finn Johannsen. Working there since 2010, but cutting his teeth before then as a DJ, label owner and music journalist, Finn’s knowledge and taste in the music we love is second to none. Buying in tunes from distributers which are in turn bought by music enthusiasts, DJ’s or whoever else; Finn’s selections help shape the city’s musical climate. This mix, as you would expect, is sheer class; rolling from house to techno to a bit of proper old electro with consummate ease. Make sure you check Finn’s new Louche Interview to support this podcast to learn more about the guy. Finn Johannsen and the others record shop buyers out there, we salute you!

File under old-school hop hop!

One of electronic music’s best-loved artists brings the heat.

There aren’t many examples of artists who are equally as comfortable crafting esoteric minimal techno as they are standing on stage fronting a band. Having been active on the scene now for over a decade, Texas-born artist Matthew Dear has come to enjoy a ­­­­unique standing within electronic music by pursuing each of his sonic interests with equal vigour. Ghostly International and its club-orientated offshoot Spectral, the imprint Dear co-founded with Sam Valenti IV at the end of the ’90s, has been the platform for most of these explorations. Countless 12-inches either under his own name or as Audion—the alias Dear frequently donned to delve into more rank strains of techno—have been put out through the label, while Minus/Plus 8 was also a regular home for his False moniker during the mid-’00s. It was in 2007 that Dear made the formative steps towards the artist we now know. The warmly receivedAsa Breed album saw Dear stepping out front and centre with his Big Hands band, turning to an electronic pop sound which would continue three years later on the equally as impressive Black City.

Dear says below that he “didn’t want to think about trends” when recording RA.306, and the result is a mix that, true to his word, sounds suspended between time and genre; music from DJ Bone, Planetary Assault Systems, Radio Slave and Gemini help him achieve this goal.

What have you been up to recently?

I have been doing some intermittent touring with my new band. We are a five-piece now. My next album is finished. I wrote a new song called “Ribbons (I Don’t Think About It Too Much)” that I want to put on the album, but will probably wait until the next album. I shot a video in Los Angeles for the first single from my new album. I just walked my dog and it was a lot colder than I hoped it would be. I played a Leftrooom party last night with the lovely Laura Jones and Matt Tolfrey. After my soundcheck, I walked in the rain up 10th Ave. to W. 58th. I made a right and met Miguel at Blue Ribbon Sushi. We both had uni. He did not try the wakame salad.

How and where was the mix recorded?

I wish I could tell you it was recorded live at the Liquid Room in 1996, but it was recorded in my studio using a combination of: Ableton Live, Traktor, an Elektron Octatrack, a General Electric tape recorder (but only for the dusty mic), Eventide guitar pedals, and a few voicemails from my phone.

Can you tell us about the idea behind the mix?

I wanted it to be a bit more grainy and raw than what I usually play. I knew I wanted to include some legends in there (DJ Bone, Alvarado for example). I didn’t want to think about trends, lack of trends, this or that, or any second guesses. I went through a collection of folders as I would on any given show night and just went for it. I wanted it to be as unadulterated and straight-forward as possible, you know, not letting myself get in the way. I plugged in the dirty mic and used my voice on parts of it.

You mentioned in a recent interview that after some experimentation you’d “found your live sound.” What did you mean by that exactly?

I am always looking to better the music I perform live. There is always room for improvement, whether it be in the way you EQ your tracks for various sound systems, the type of processing equipment you bring out to improve your vocals, the microphones you’re using, the placement of the band on stage to better suit the audience’s perspective. These types of things never get completely figured out, only because there is always something new to try. It’s kind of like how they will never be finished painting the Golden Gate Bridge. Once they get to the end, the other side needs to be repainted again. I’ll never truly find my live sound, but I won’t ever stop searching for it.

Are you still writing music as Audion?

Yes, more and more ideas as Audion have been fermenting themselves in the studio. All it takes is a great night DJing, or hearing a new track that just blows my mind, and it shows me that there is still so much to be accomplished with dance music. Aside from all the focus on parties, charts, technology, Grammys, rave festivals and what not, it’s beautiful when it’s just you in the studio and an idea. STL tracks take me there. Those two Planetary Assault System songs on my mix make me feel that way too.

What are you up to next?

Work.

Interview

EG: When did you first started to get interested in electronic music?

AU: I first started to get interested in electronic music in the mid 90´s, I was involved in trash metal music, and with my band we felt the need of experimenting with electronic music in our songs, so I started digging into the great techno music of that time and got so deep I couldn’t find the exit.

EG: Your latest  album released on Soma is titled “La Maquina de Bolas”. Can you talk a little bit about the album and why that specific name?

AU: My latest album “la maquina de bolas” released on soma, is a collection of developed sketches I did 2 years ago, that meant for me the end of a big artistic crisis I went thru, in the last times I felt so exhausted of everything concerning techno music I was incapable of making even a loop. It was a long and sometimes painful process to get to what we know as “la maquina de bolas” today.

EG: After your successful “Dispositivos de mi Granja” album what can we expect from this new album?

AU: What we can expect from my new album is the feeling of the same enjoyment for whom makes music for the first time and forgets about all the rest. We can expect something fresh and different, and on top of everything a record made with love.

EG: What was your main influence to produce this new album?

AU: My main influence was probably the silence, or the background noises that sound on top of what we know as “silence”. the common theme in this album, is the capacity of the human brain to listen and file the sounds, how sounds are moved to the background by the brain when it is listening to the same sound for a while and gets ready to analyze the next one. It is something that we live everyday, like when walking through the city we don’t notice the sounds of the traffic, or the sound of the sea when you are in the beach.

EG: Is there a tour planned with the release? Where?

AU: Yes, I’ll be touring soon “la maquina de bolas” it’s going to be a very different kind of performance for me, different environment and probably different audience from what I’m used too, so that makes it exciting. the best case scenario i can imagine to play it is a 5.1 dark place, with cushions or alike during a Sunday morning. A good cinema would do just perfect.

EG: Thanks Alex!

BIO

The deepest meaning of ‘collage’, defined by Max Ernst, is the general application of Arthur Rimabaud’s ‘delirium’: “I accustomed myself to simple hallucination; I saw quite deliberately a mosque instead of a factory, a drummer’s school conducted by angels, carriages on the highways of the sky, a salon at the bottom of a lake: monsters, mysteries, a vaudeville poster raising horrors before my eyes”. We could describe collage as an alchemic compound of two or
more heterogeneous elements, derivate by their unexpected approximation generated deliberately by the search of systematic confusion and distorted perception.

Alex Under confirmed himself as the new reality of the best international techno, sometimes being minimal and deep, sometimes hard and aggressive, but always original. He creates a sonic collage combining techno, trance and house elements while he constructs complex rhythms that arise from the dance floor taking the listeners to a higher level where emotions, depth, mind & body blend in a unique equation. Alex Under will intrigue beyond your perception…

The man behind the now extinct NET28 family -Apnea, CMYKmusik, Cyclical Tracks and Mupa-, together with Tadeo, Damian Schwartz and Imek, runs now on his own the labels CMYKmusik and Bemysheep… Pure delight for our inferior extremities.

‘Dispositivos de mi Granja’ was Alex Under first album (2005), released by the prestigious german label ‘Trapez’ , where he has released some of his best EP´s. In 2006 ‘Collage’ was released by Plus 8, Richie Hawtin label. In march 2012, ‘Lá Máquina de Bolas’ , his second album, will be released by SOMA Records, a real introspective techno journey of beauty and hypnotic groove.

A house music institution.

You realise an artist is of great import when you can break down their contribution to a scene into single words. Prescription. The Music Institute. KMS. Chicago’s Chez Damier has plenty of associations which are spoken of in reverent terms within house music circles. Damier’s first major involvement in the scene dates back to the late ’80s and the opening of The Music Institute, the club he founded in Detroit alongside Alton Miller and George Baker that was instrumental in techno’s development in the city. Around this time he was also a label manager and recording artist for Kevin Saunderson’s KMS, releasing all-time greats like Can You Feel It andUntitled. Upon moving back to the Windy City around 1993, Damier hooked up with Ron Trent to create Prescription: The run of singles they released up until 1995 are among the most influential pieces of house music even committed to wax, taking in many of their own titles in collaboration—”Morning Factory,” “Sometimes I Feel Like,” “Be My.”

After a split due to musical differences and a period looking after Prescription sub-label Balance, Damier took an extended break from music, only to return in earnest back in 2009. He looked to German imprints Mojuba and Yore to facilitate his comeback but began his own project, Balance Alliance, to showcase mainly new European talents. There was also evidence that he hadn’t lost his knack for anthems, helping pen one of 2010′s standout dance floor tracks with The Gathering’s “In My System.”

Needless to say there is a bright, timeless quality that pervades RA.305. This is house music mixed by a man who still clearly loves what he does after more than 20 years in the game. We’d also like to mention that Chez Damier will be one of the next DJs involved in our recently launched RA VS series, playing for us at Barcelona’sBeCool during Sonar on June 16th. Details on his sparring partner to be announced shortly.

What have you been up to recently?

I have been on the road quite a bit, working with Groove Distribution for The Balance Recordings series, and working on an album project for Mojuba.

How and where was the mix recorded?

The mix was recorded with a mixer and CDJ 1000s.

Can you tell us about the idea behind the mix?

Well this is my 25th anniversary with entertaining the dance floor. My mission and objection has always the same: bringing people together while introducing new sounds to my audience, and hopefully the end results is lots of love in the room.

You talked in a recent interview with 5 Chicago about trying to make new classics by keeping certain tracks in your DJ sets for a prolonged period. Can you think of any recent examples of this?

Almost anyone who comes out to hear me or my style of DJ set can always count on what I call my own classic anthems. To name a couple, tracks like Marko Militano’s “Good People” (Frankie Knuckles unreleased mix) and Derrick Carter’s rework of Suzy Q’s “I Can’t Give You More.”

You also talked about the need for nurturing new talent. Is there anyone at the moment in particular who you really feel has something to say?

Yes I do. Balance artist Brawther, and my new production assistant Roberto Bosco (Wave Music) and Demetrio Giannice (Enterbt Records). At the moment these three are my main focus because I am concentrated on album releases for each of them.

What are you up to next?

A new project on the horizon with Marc Kinchen (MK) and with all this before me, I will just have to surprise myself as to what my next move might be. I am looking forward to maybe another tour with Derrick Carter.

Ed (GTC) has been wanting to feature the sound of this fellow Parisian for a while now. The release of his latest album provided the perfect opportunity. Raw Instrumentals is a collection of beats crafted on Phil’s beloved MPC 3000, unrivaled thanks to its unique swing and filters. Samples of disco, funk and hip hop persuasion are chopped up and bound together with flair and the result is a large amount of dope tracks tailored for the warm season and those decadent House parties where house is spelled with a capital H. Check it out, sure you’ll find more than a few tracks you’ll get addicted to.

So here’s a two hour set recorded in Phil’s home turf, at the riverside establishment known as Le Showcase. GTC has  graciously been supplied with a track list for the first half of his set, so trainspotters can still do their thing in the comments.

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Still quite close to the French label Get The Curse, he will soon sign a four-hand remix with his ladClement Meyer, just before a solo EP scheduled for this summer. Without forgetting his forthcoming remixes for Slove on Pschent, and Nebes on the German label Limikola, we will make you wait until all these sweets with this podcast, that he qualifies as “short but intense, more orthodox than the usual but also more downright.” “A blend of my most played tracks of these last few months.” The mix is neat, the intro/outro quite remarquable and the outcome is obviously club and catchy, but savoury enough to be delighted under the sunlight or in your living room. Roughly, this is dope shit.

Having released productions on Highgrade Records, Lorna and on Steve Kotey’s Hairy Claw as well on the German-New Zealand Label Curl Curl Music, 2008 saw his new release “Slice of Life” drop on Moon Harbour Recordings and “Bad Wolf” as a part of the new Moon Harbour Label compilation Inhouse Vol. 3.

Now a permanent fixture of the MH stable, Dan’s delivered us a mix to celebrate the labels anniversary – enjoy!

Recent projects have included a collaboration with Detroit badboy Kris Wadsworth on their Present team America EP, whilst Butane has also recently started a new mix series on his Little Helpers imprint. He himself has mixed together a collection of the labels finest offerings and the release, entitled Little Helpers Mixed: Volume One is out now.

As for the podcast he’s turned it for Autobrennt , well, it’s as you’d expect of a man of his standing. It skilfully weaves its way through rigid machine grooves, frazzled house and plenty of abstract vocals, all of which adds up to an offbeat selection of unique electronic gems.

After all these years, it takes quite a lot from a club to impress me and when asked about my favorite clubs, I sometimes wish I was a one-armed hillbilly not too good with chopping wood.

TROUW is in Amsterdam, a city that had proven very disappointing since my early memories of Dimitri at the Roxy-who is actually resident for special all-nighters, and still has the magic from what I’ve heard, at the above mentioned place.

Not only the club itself is amazing, located in an old printing factory but they sometimes move the one of the floor to the best room I’ve played in ages. Dark as the pit of hell, clever minimal lighting, rough and ready like an East German garage circa 1993. The vibe. Where Black Magic is the religion de rigueur. Not to mention the now ditched performance night where I saw Jesus covered in shit and candles in the wrong candelabra.

As far back as 1997, as a 16 year old, his first girlfriend took him to an underground techno party. From that point on, he started fiddling around with music on an old turntable in his shared flat in Templehof. “The slipmat was made of old newspaper“, he recalls, grinning. Two years later and Bader was already making his first appearance at the original Tresor in Berlin, which turned out to be a resounding success. The experience gave him a taste, but that wasn’t all. Soon, with some friends, he formed “Max and Moritz“ and started promoting parties, including the legendary “Karneval der Verpeilten“ (Carnival of the Wasted!), and the “Jelly“ parties in the old Casino courtyard. From there is wasn’t much of a step towards music production. Many successful releases with labels such as Kindisch, Saved and Get Physical Music have followed, and recently Bader even lauched his own label, called “Danzte“, which he runs together with buddies Niconé and Sascha Braemer.

In 2010, Bader also became a part of the Highgrade Records family. In the cosmos of Berlin record labels, Philip Bader’s creative voice is unmistakable: He uses imaginitive and haunting vocals within a deeper and more minimal style, while retaining an audible sence of looseness and enjoyment in his genre bending output. From the expansive wardrobe of his musical history comes an endless energy. No wonder really, given his own broad set of influences from The Doors and Led Leppelin, through to Bob Marley and De La Soul. Bader also draws inspiration from current acts like The XX, James Blake and Radiohead: a rich, diverse and unending taste in music, to be tested through the impressive variety of influences on his debut album, “Wishful Thinking“.

Bader’s role in the Highgrade Disharmonic Orchestra is another vivid feather in his cap. An electronic jam session, which has achieved success not just though their live performances, but also with a string of well recieved releases. But for Philip Bader it was never just a quest for success: “When you love doing something, there’s absolutely no question – you can consider yourself lucky if success comes along with it.“ To decide between being a producer and a DJ would be impossible for Bader. For him, the two go hand in hand. In his life behind the turntables, he is fascinated by the opportunity to travel and constantly meet new people.

In the studio it is above all else, the creativity which drives him, and the speed at which ideas are born: “I’ll have a groove or a sample in my head, try something out, play around and when the sound fits it seems to tell the story of a track all on its own.“ he explains. The same is true when he produces music without any particular genre, you have to know what works on the dancefloor.. “and give the music it’s own signature sound“. That, for Philip Bader, has never been in doubt.

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