If you attend bermuda in berlin this weekend, you can catch anonym on the following partys:

• 4.11.2011 12pm pretty vakant @ horst krzbrg (with mathias kaden, nico purman)
• 6.11.2011 11am vakant @ kater holzig (with many others)

Smirk’s sets are riddled with exuberance and multifarious tastes. Brandon Wolcott grew up in California and later Hong Kong, where he attended his first rave in 1997 (during the historic handover of the city back to China), before settling in Brooklyn. With a background in theatrical sound design, he’s able to traverse techno, house, cheeky edits, vocals, and jazz/classical inflections with impish ease. Smirk has performed in Belgrade, Berlin, Boulder and many places in between. Following releases on Wolf + Lamb, his debut full-length “Even Beauty Gets Old” came out on Pheek’s Archipel imprint.

One of the first acts on the renowned German electronic label M-nus, Niederflur have been making experimental and uncompromising electronica for over eight years, often deep and hypnotic, but always fascinating and with an underlying warmth and undeniable groove.

The duo’s mix takes in a range of techno moods to stimulate the brain but keep the body moving at the same time, ranging from minimal click-back to blissed-out tech-house to jumpy, jackin’-influenced Chicago sounds, from the likes of Shed, Terrence Fixmer, Mike Dehnert and Jonas Kopp.

The perfect intelligent and innovative antidote to the relentless uber-cheer that adorns the usual slew of festive tunes and new year cheese classics. Enjoy your new year with some bite, for a change, courtesy of Niederflur.

From Moritz von Oswald to SCSI-9, the two lads take us on a journey of what electronic music has best to offer. If just like us you were starting to get tired of all this « minimal techno » trend, this will be the miracle cure you’ve been waiting for. It’s easy to see that Niederflur didn’t do this mix lightly, so that they have clearly made one of the best episodes of our podcast series thanks to their indisputable science of breaks and progression and their talent to combine new stuff along with old school gems.

Available now – “Bipolar Remixes Pt. 1” has Jonas Kopp, Stefny & Pheek plus their alter-ego Datasoul contributing their own versions. We’re giving up the Raudive remix right here for free!

In the meantime, Zhao is in da house for an exclusive Trace A Line mix, recorded on three decks. And to describe it to you, his words will certainly be more eloquent that mine: « It’s been a while since my last recorded DJ set, so I decided to put in this one the tracks that have pleased me these last three or four years without trying to make something super underground or dark and hypnotic. I just included the artists that are unavoidable to me (Cristian Vogel, Arnaud Rebotini), people whom I feel close to and who pull the French scene upward (From Karaoke To Stardom, Danton Eeprom, Clement Meyer) as well as artists with whom I have already collaborated with or am still collaborating with (Jan Hendez, Samuel Brunel), and some others naturally. »

By the way, you can also check Zhao’s latest charts on Resident Advisor and Beatport, compiled especially for the occasion.

NIEDERFLUR (Hannes Wenner and Christopher Bleckmann) are among the first acts on M-NUS since the early days. Focused, intense, somewhat radiating dark light and stacking intricate sounds high into the night skies, NIEDERFLUR finds a way to push things forward without driving the listener away.

Interview

Upcoming shows and releases?
We will be playing Tresor in September, remixes for Bipolar {Niederflur’s latest album released on Niederflur Tracks}, from Troy Pierce, Jonas Kopp, Pheek, Ed Davenport and Stefny Winter from Archipel. Usually when we perform it’s a live set, Chris is the DJ in our team and he’s about to finish the podcast.

How does your live set work and how do you negotiate the roles?
It’s based around two synced laptops, we essentially use them as “record players” but with Ableton, so we can pull a track to pieces, rebuild it and combine it with everything else, it gives us extreme flexibility. When we play we are both in control but we switch between taking the lead, one person will only add things.

We have been making music together for about 15 years, we released our first record in 1997. There is an intuitive connection. Sometimes when we play gigs we just watch each other, we don’t have to talk. You cannot train that, it’s just there.

I know that you strive to make music for the club and home, how do you strike a balance?
We always listen to things on different systems before it’s done. We listen on studio monitors which are loud and bassy to emulate the club, in our living room on our hi-fi, on headphones, car stereos, different club PAs. But basically it’s about the feeling, its not a technical question, it’s how you like your music. There is music that is just a track that’s useful in a set and there is music that can be used in a set but is interesting to listen to as its own piece, that’s the difference – trying to make sure there are stories in the tracks.There is too much music that sounds alike and it’s getting boring for listeners and dancers, we try to make tracks that ‘work’ for DJs but are different.

How does performing live shape the music you make?
Playing the tracks out live is like a reality check, sometimes it doesnt sound the way we think it sounds in the studio, or the crowd reacts to it in a different way, you figure out the right amount of repetition for a piece.

Are you excited about the way techno and dubstep have been interacting and about greater acceptance of diversity of tempo and feel?
We feel that it’s distinctions between genre are not necessary. Some DJ’s play 5 hours straight of the same sub-genre of minimal techno, its way more interesting to have diversity. We like different feels, the first records we ever did were drum and bass (as monophace), and two of the tracks on Bipolar have that feel to them.

What is your production workflow like?
We have our own workflow pretty independently, we start tracks seperately, meet and play what we have to the other and then we add what we think will work. We use all the same software so projects are easily compatible. It’s all done ‘in the box’, there is no outboard gear involved until mastering. We consciously strive for an ‘analogness’, building imperfection into the sounds.

We rarely come up with the melody first, we usually have a beat and the bass. The bass feeling of techno is created through the bass and the kick, you need to make space.

How was preparing Bipolar different than ND4?
It’s been almost ten years since we did the first album on Minus. ND4 was so experimental and radical, we wanted to see how far we could go and still tell a story. After the album, weneeded a few years to get a new approach because we felt like we had done what we set out to do. There is a different emotion in the new stuff, we tried to contribute to developments in the minimal techno scene in our way.

How has Cologne influenced Niederflur?
We met in a smaller town in Germany and decided to move here together for music reasons. We were amazed by the subway, the digital voices with a Cologne accent. We thought: why do they do that? Why does it have this melody? It should be neutral. We did extensive field recordings of the U-Bahn and used them on our first EPs and album. Music was our main motivation for moving here but it’s not as interesting as it was. The scene is not as strong, most of the interesting producers have moved to Berlin. I think it’s sad, when we moved here it was really inspiring, that’s not happening that much anymore, it’s much smaller. It’s ok on a personal level because we’ve been living here so long that we have families but on the techno side its not that interesting anymore.

What are your favorite places to play?
At Berghain and Panoramabar the sound is fantastic, it’s probably the best sound system in the world and the atmosphere is still incredible. Sometimes the best parties are in some weird, off location with a shitty sound system but the best people. I remember once we played at a party in Sweden the party was good, the afterparty was way better and more intense than the first one, it can be so unpredictable.

In the past someone would have written a ballad about a village or a lake, your compositions have been inspired by the U-Bahn, does techno function as a German folk music?
I think it’s an interesting idea, take for example Wolfgang Voigt’s Gas, that’s pretty much an attempt to do that, an ‘own’ german folk music by the means of techno. Pantha du Prince is working in the same direction, there is something like that going on. Maybe from your perspective it feels bigger than it is because it is still just a small scene of specialists. It’s going on but it’s not happening ‘above ground.’

What are your music plans for the future?
Niederflur and Datasoul (the newest project, a stripped down approach). Niederflur is going to open up and get weirder and I dont think that we’ll ever do ambient and drum and bass (Monophace) again.

Interviewer: Alex Talan

This duo techno project of (Denis Guttersnipe, Kilrill Sil) as we know by the name of Easy Changes, who made lot of noise with they back to back two releases on Foundsound records continue to develop they unique symbiosis of rhythmical patterns with the world of mysterious sounds and sub minded mood currents. Easy Changes create unique suspense that catch the ears of techno funs all over the world. As a result core of they music has continues progression, kind of like a story with multi scenarios between current and future life’s. Traveling during touring has influence artists and give lots inspiration that keeps coming out in a beautiful forms of music creation. In just two years duo grab attention of world underground techno circles and release music on labels like Foundsound, Konque, Stock 5, Multivitamins, Igloo and many more. Easy Changes play major role in Russian underground techno scene also they are the core of Nervmusic. Moscow first minimal techno label that broadcasts super exciting music from Russia with love.

Hannes Wenner and Christopher Bleckmann aka Niderflur were one of the first acts to be signed to Richie Hawtin’s now seminal M-NUS. Do not be fooled however, their focus remains firmly on moving forward as critically acclaimed work for the likes of Archipel has proven.

Having worked together on their music for over twelve years, Niederflur never took the easy route instead striving to stay true to their very own sound-universe built around ground-shaking basslines and forcing drumpatterns. Their constantly lucid sound, known to be very defined and deep has remained yet evolved to a more impulsive style over the years.

For this Technique Podcast we suggest you sit back and take the time to open your minds to the dark world of Niederflur.

To celebrate the release, the duo has whipped up a moody techno mix for us with cuts from Surgeon, Speedy J and Donnacha Costello.

His last LP out last year on ressucitated french label Telegraph is entitled « Sex, Drugs and Sausage Rolls », is a kind of sonorous miracle with extremely well crafted rhythm parts which is rare enough nowadays to be noticed, making us forget about the constant mediocrity of many tracks in this particular style. In order to provide you a bit of taste of his next album “French For Clouds” to be released also on Telegraph soon, Input Selector purpose you to discover the fiftieth episode of his podcast, an amazing live set recorded specially for us by this Minimal-groove master, to enjoy with no moderation.

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.

http://www.archive.org/download/archpd017/archpd017_Pheek_non_perfecto_mix.mp3

Pheek releases his first podcast in a long time. “It always takes time and a good momentum to select the tracks that will all fit together” explains Archipel’s boss who also admits he spent a few days in the making of this sonic collage. Representing is current jazzy tastes along with non-predictability approach with a blend of tech house, you can expect a psychedelic twisting ride.

www.myspace.com/pheekmoozik

Source : Archipel