Biography

Jacek Sienkiewicz is a shadowy figure. Despite 10+ years of running its own label and releasing much-praised records through numerous prolific European labels, he somehow manages to walk his own path towards a very peculiar vision of contemporary electronic music. With one foot deep in classic Detroit and Chicago dance scene, and the other in modern jazz and classical music, Jacek’s tracks for the past ten years always try to find a right balance between the avant-garde and dancefloor, between primal emotions and highly sophisticated sonic wizardry.
Jacek was born in 1976 in Warsaw where he still resides. DJing soon led to playing live, and his memorable debut took place in Autumn of 1996, while scoring an art performance at the Centre for Contemporary Art in Warsaw. This place will also mark the comeback towards more experimental sounds, as Jacek debuts his new pieces at the vary same place, in February, 2012.
After years of recording for prolific dance labels, a decade of playing various dance events, Jacek Sienkiewicz decided to separate his dancefloor-friendly persona from the quiet, inward-bound incarnation as a modern composer. Thus, from 2012, his club-oriented gigs will be billed as Recognition, while his given name will be used solely for unique performances, trying to explain his current path of artistic expression. This time, casting all the inspirations aside, Jacek decided to built something entirely on his own, digging deep into the subconscious to bring to life all what was left unspoken for years.

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Gritty house and techno from the Russian underground.

It would be easy to apply the word “controversial” to Nina Kraviz but we think that “honest” is far more accurate. We first spoke to the Russian DJ/producer at the tail end of 2009 as part of our Breaking Through feature, in which her views on DJing (“I hate tight mixes”) sparked heated forum debate. Her thoughts on the subject (“everyone’s so perfect it’s disgusting”) came up again in the middle of last year, again eliciting much discussion. What we’re essentially saying here is that Kraviz has an MO and she’s more than happy to defend it. The upshot of this is vinyl mixing, digging deep for her music and laconic productions. In terms of the latter, Jus-Ed’s Underground Quality imprint was an early home for her simple, smoky house tracks. Rekids have also been a key imprint and will release her eponymous debut album at the end of February.

We could try and explain the message behind Kraviz’s mix for us but it would be completely inadequate given her response to the question below. We will say this, though: Dance Mania.

What have you been up to recently?

I’ve been traveling around the world and experiencing some really good times. I’ve been meeting very interesting people. And they have been introducing incredible things to me that I have never thought of before. So I think recently I’ve been learning a lot…

How and where was the mix recorded?

This mix was recorded at home with two turntables, two CD players, a mixer and computer.

Can you tell us about the idea behind the mix?

The main idea is to present myself as a DJ. I was a DJ long before I started producing my own music. I hosted my Friday nights at Propaganda Club and played there every week. Since I’ve got the most recognition for songs like “I’m Gonna Get You” people often expect me to play this song or something similar. And I truly appreciate that people like my music. And I would love to make them happy but as a DJ I’ve always been more into playing acid house, for example, occasionally leaving some space in the end of my set to play my well-known songs. I always wanted people to appreciate my wish to separate me as DJ from my productions.

So I decided to record a mix which will be more or less about what I’ve been playing in clubs recently…simple as that. Of course I can play much harder (totally love playing techno sets) or indeed much softer—it all depends on the vibe in the club. But ideally I like spinning for three to five hours, to play anything that inspires me at that particular moment. To follow my dancing instinct rather than a genre. My instinct would probably guide me to the right place where I can finally get to drop a Dance Mania record. Sometimes I think that my only purpose of DJing is to play Dance Mania records! I love it so much. This mix contains some of my all-time favorites like “Blackholes” or Baby Pop’s “You Know What I’m Saying,” “Egotrip” or Pink Floyd’s “On the Run.” I shared some truly beautiful moments on the dance floor with these songs. By the way: I wanna use this chance to say “thank you” to people for sharing these moments with me.

You have a pretty distinctive style of vocal delivery, but are there other performers you draw inspiration from?

Inspiration can be very inspiring! I like Billie Holiday and her way of projecting pain; Grace Jones for her true narcissism; Letta M’Bulu for wild expression; Robert Plant for white voice of the century; David Bowie, Jim Morrison and Gina X for being David Bowie, Jim Morrison and Gina X in their very murky meaning. These are big names, yeah, but there is the name that stands out particularly in my world—Kate Bush. It’s not really about the voice, it’s a bit of everything that comes out of her inexhaustible creativity.

Your sound has always felt classics-rooted: do you tend to dig for old records as much as you do new ones?

I don’t know if this is a bad sign or good one…but I am a “hard to find” track freak. I always loved it to go to the second hand record store to spend an hour, two, three there. My hidden diamonds are the only logical explanation for why it is so exciting for me to lose myself in dusty records. Even if the salesman is far from being a friendly dude, even if he’s quite annoyed that you keep on asking all these ridiculous questions, that you ended up visiting his lovely store at all…even if you spend a day looking for a cool record, found it and a day later found it available on Discogs for less than a dollar (that happens pretty often to me). My heart beats faster when I enter a record store.

What are you up to next?

Continue experiencing every day of my life. It appears to be a true miracle. And it is not that I am a perfectionist, but I would love to be a little bit better than I am now.
Coming back to the music thing, when my album is released I would like to sing some of my songs live. I am working on it at the moment to be ready for my first show at Rex Club in Paris, 24th of February. It sounds unbelievable to me but finally I will be playing my own music for at least 50 minutes. This is very exciting and a little bit scary to be very honest with you. Apart from that I would like to continue working on my techno stuff that I never put out so far. I hope we can continue collaborating with DJ Stingray. And of course my DJ thing. I am looking so much forward to spin some records in good company! Wholeheartedly.

Florian Meindl is a DJ, producer and sound designer. In addition to numerous collaborations with international artists he is busy with producing remixes (for Röyksopp, Hot Chip…), running his label FLASH Recordings and composing new music. He has successfully completed his BA studies at the London College of Music, which helps him producing his upcoming artist album.
He also writes articles about music production in magazines like “FutureMusic” and does loops & sample bundles for his own brand “Riemann Kollektion” and “Samplemagic”. Till now his productions have been released on labels such as Trapez, Stil vor Talent, Resopal, Herzblut and Kling Klong.
The 38th and current release on his own label FLASH Recordings is in production; this serves as a platform for continuous development and promises many unheard sound creations from Meindl’s universe.

If you ask the 26 years old musician about the origin of his exceptional career, he will describe it as an “early identification with electronic music” which occurred in a small village in beautiful Upper Austria. He sees himself as an artist who is passing this message on to a new generation.
The collaboration with Oliver Koletzki, founder and owner of Stil vor Talent, was certainly an important milestone. Both generated trend-setting productions from which some of the current club tunes and hits emerged. Meindl’s Solo E.P. “Sputnik” is his standard release, one of the essentials of a new minimal style, as is “Blast” which has just been remixed by Format:B for the100th release on Trapez. All in all, Meindl has released more than 100 tracks in very different genres during the course of his young musical development.

After prolonged stays in London Meindl, having adopted Berlin as his home, finally made to move to Berlin in 2009. Here he found the stage for further developing his music. From his new home-base he tours the world’s top clubs, because apart from the exceptional variety of his very own musical style both in music production and composition, he is known more than anything else for his precision in creating driving and diversified DJ sets. Closely following the present development, this demanding representative of the next generation of electronic music is presently focussing on the expansion of his international work. However, Meindl still finds the time to present his original and unique sound branding to a curious party crowd, which is rapidly developing into a loyal community of fans.

When one experiences the modest authority of this sound artist in the sometimes slightly morbid and fast moving scenario of today’s club music, one can look forward to the continued development of electronic music. Florian Meindl is certainly one of the most interesting representatives of the next generation of electronic music producers – his first artist album is in progress featuring a variety of singers and musicians.

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Top tier techno from one of Japan’s underground favourites.

DJ Nobu is quite simply one of Japan’s best DJs. In his home country he is known most widely as the man behind the fabled Future Terror parties, an event that has been running out of various venues in his hometown of Chiba for just over ten years. The likes of Marcel Dettmann, Mike “Agent X” Clark and Steffi have all been past guests; and in the case of the former, Dettmann brought Nobu over to Berlin in 2011 for one of his few performances outside of Japan. Detroit has been his other main international stomping ground, while back on home soil Nobu has been known to put in as many as 90 gigs across the country a year. Despite his limited international recognition and discography, Nobu is now thought of among DJs like Takkyu Ishino, Fumiya Tanaka and Ken Ishii as those most prominently flying the flag for Japanese electronic music.

So if you book techno events and haven’t yet invited DJ Nobu to man the decks, here’s what you’ve been missing: dark, angular, driving 4/4 put together by the hand of an expert curator.

What have you been up to recently?
On the weekend I’m DJing in different places in Japan, and with my extra time I’m producing music in the studio.

How and where was the mix recorded?

I recorded it in my studio. I used Pioneer CDJ 2000s, Technics turntables and a Pioneer DJM 900 mixer.

Can you tell us about the idea behind the mix?

After the earthquake and nuclear accident at Fukushima in March last year, we entered a new era here in Japan. And this mix reflects that. When I made this mix I was thinking about how the world can change drastically every day. So the mix is somewhere in between music for listening at home, and for experiencing on the dancefloor.

Last November was the 10th anniversary of your Future Terror party.
Could you tell us your view on the scene in Japan over this time period?

Ten years ago the scene was more commercial, the clubs and parties were just following trends and what was ‘hot.’ Future Terror was started to do something different to this. After a decade of doing Future Terror, we have connected with many people who share the same vision, and while there are more parties now, the original principles are the same. So hopefully in some small way I have contributed to the scene in Japan. But there is still more work to be done, so I will keep trying to push the sounds I believe in through my parties and DJing.

How have your gigs abroad, such as those in Berlin and Detroit, compared to those in Japan?

I played at Berghain last spring and that was a special experience, something I will never forget. The resident DJs Marcel Dettmann and Ben Klock played brilliant sets and I was really impressed by the quality of the whole club. I have been to Detroit three times and had really great experiences at the parties I played at. It was a different kind of energy from Berlin, but also very stimulating. Of course there are unique elements of each club or town, but you just need to find the right sound to connect with them, and then you should be able to get a positive reaction.

What are you up to next?

This year I will start my own label. It’s going to be tough but I believe it will be worthwhile. In February I’m going to play in Taiwan at Smoke Machine’s party. And every month I will continue to play at some special parties in Japan too.

Vinyl
A – Brokedown City
A2 – Dubious Prey
B – Brokedown CIty (Aramac Remix)

Digital
1. Dubious Prey
2. Brokedown City
3. Brokedown City (Aramac Remix)
4. Brokedown City (Svpreme Fiend Mix)
5. Brokedown City (Mayster & Contakt Rebuild)
6. Brokedown City (La Ola Criminal Remix)

The moment Alan became hooked on techno music was when he discovered Luca Morris, an Italian artist who mixed Detroit and German techno in the nineties. “More than often I listened to his mixes made between 1998 and 2001. Mixes that cannot be found on the web, they are like a sort of relic in the hands of the guys who experienced the magic at that time”.

Another great influence was Monolake’s ‘Polygon Cities’, an album Alan bought at Hardwax when he visited Berlin for the first time, back in 2005. The impact of Monolake’s music made him speechless: “I listened the cd time after time and kept asking myself where that sound came from”. His concept of music was taking shape and the following year he bought turntables and started collecting vinyl.

2006 also gave birth to ‘Thursdaydeep’, a laboratory equipped with studio monitors where Alan and his friends Enrico a.k.a. Status End and Stefano a.k.a. Oldste could experiment.
“Initially I sought my personal sound in deep minimal-techno”. But all the changes and nuances in genre influenced him and developed into an aesthetic, that kept floating in his mind. “There was a specific kind of sound, a sound that binds the surreal atmospheres of Monolake’s album, that bewitched me to the nineties techno played by Luca Morris, full of TR-808 and -909 sounds I love. The almost total identification of this sound occurred in 2008 with the first releases of Donato Dozzy on Aquaplano with Nuel.”

For this mix Alan grouped vinyls with smooth sounds in sleeves and dollies coloured in blue, teal, yellow, orange and white. Colours and artworks are important to him. “I started to mix imagining being light and surrounded by floating objects. I hope listening to this mix conveys this lightness”. A feeling also reflected in ‘Green House’, this podcast’s accompanying artwork by South-Korean artist Kyung Woo Han.

Soundcloud download & player: soundcloud.com/fiberfestival/fiber-podcast-11

As a graduate of the Institute for Computer Music in Vienna there is an analytical slant in Sollmann’s production that shone through on this debut and through combining synthesizers with field recordings his early releases saw him develop a sound that was based on Berlin’s minimal industrial tones but was full of melody; built with discordant harmonies and bleeping bells. Overall his sound was edgy and distinct, exhibiting a certain darkness alongside its house based flavour.

Fast forward to 2010 and he hit the spot again with ‘Chicago’. An album directly inspired by the windy city, it saw a softening of the sound embarked on in ‘Efdemin’. It took many different inspirations from the city but could not be accused of replicating the records that came from within it. Instead, as Gridface put it, “Efdemin’s main achievement in ‘Chicago’ is to blend beat-driven tracks with jazzy uptempos, creating an organic soundscape that is both avant-garde and functional, just like a Mies van der Rohe building.” To get more of a picture of this idea the blog also refers to this video made to a track that succinctly captures this feeling which I feel should also be included here to give you the full picture:

Now, in 2012, there’s been a dead silence in the studio output of the Berlin based Hamburgein but his DJ schedule has by no means suffered and in the absence of recorded material we are primed to welcome him to Farringdon next Saturday. He’ll be joining a beastly lineup that’s already replete with Skudge (LIVE), Delta Funktionen and Paul Woolford in Room Two and ahead of the appearance he went some way to fill the gap by providing this promo mix.

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Green Velvet is one of the best loved and most eccentrically brilliant characters in dance music. A self proclaimed higher being with musical acuteness and an ear for making grooving, jacking house classics either as his original Cajmere moniker (who remembers Percolator?), or the eccentric and vocal techno being Green Velvet, who recently remixed an entire album with friend and production partner Phil Kieran. When we were offered the chance to showcase the Chicago legends sound and mixing credentials, we jumped in eager excitement to hear him display his charms on the Data Transmission Podcast.

He’ll be playing for usBrits next week on the 22nd January at The Bugged Out! Weekender for an exclusive show alongside many other huge names, new and old. But in the meantime, take a literal trip with the Velventeen one as he explores techno, and allow him to open up the very corners of your soul with an expert mix and a wealth of knowledge – after all, he’s one of dance music’s great heroes…Take it away sir!

Sebastian Mullaert has a solid reputation in solo too. His personal projects are mainly distributed via the Mule Electronic label, whether in the form of compilation (such as the incredible « Wa Wu We » released in 2010) or EP like « Älva ». For our podcast, Sebastian kindly gave us an excerpt from his long mix made in Kumamoto, Japan, just to see how he does it in the club…And he does it good.

Coming from the Basque country but freshly relocated in Paris, Onra tbl is a 24 years old DJ and graphic designer. He is been seen playing with Frivolous, Cabanne or The Micronauts lately.

His smart selection equally dark and groovy, mixing techno, electro as well as Rock is highly seducing !

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A rare live set from DJ Pete and Sleeparchive.

TR-101 is the collaborative live project of DJ Pete and Sleeparchive, although you’d been forgiven if this was your introduction as they’ve only stepped out under the alias a handful of times. Peter Kuschnereit is recognized as one of Berlin’s longest-serving techno figureheads through his work behind the counter at Hard Wax and in the studio as Substance and one half of Scion alongside René Löwe (AKA Vainqueur). Roger Semsroth, meanwhile, has been dabbling in the deepest recesses of minimal techno as Sleeparchive since 2004, releasing a string of low-key 12-inches through his eponymous imprint, and most recently appearing on Tresor with Ronan Point in the middle of 2011.

As for TR-101? Well, the name is a clue (the pair surround themselves with hardware for their live performances) and so is their established proclivity for pitch black techno. It may just be the start of January, but we doubt you’ll hear a more refined take of the genre this year.

What have you been up to recently?

Remixes for Function and Skudge. Playing regularly as a resident at the Wax Treatment parties here in Berlin. Working on a remix for Tresor to be released soon.

How and where was the set recorded?

The live set was recorded in October 2011 when we played a concert at Berghain.

You’ve only played a small number of shows together to date. How did the project start?

The first concert we played together was at the Hard Wax 20th anniversary party [in 2009]. We both had a great time on stage; we got really good feedback and some people asked us to play again at their parties. The first time we played a show as TR-101 was at a Wax Treatment party in 2010.

Are there any plans to do any production together as TR-101?

We like to play concerts—there are no plans to release a record.

Martin is widely known for his songwriting and musicianship in the band Depeche Mode. He has composed hits such as “Personal Jesus”, “Enjoy The Silence” and “I Feel You”, and is also working successfully as a electronic music DJ and Producer. Together with Vince Clarke he recorded a Techno inspired album under the project name VCMG, which will be released on Mute in the Spring of 2012. The first digital VCMG EP entitled “Spock” is out already, and the corresponding vinyl release is today, December 19th. Martin also did a collaboration with the Techno pioneers MOTOR, as vocalist on the first single of their upcoming album “Man Made Machine”. The first single, also entitled “Man Made Machine”, is set to be released tomorrow, December 20th 2011 on CLRX, Chris Liebing’s new CLR sub-label, and will be available on iTunes along with the music video. You can get the full EP featuring remixes by Radioslave, Black Asteroid and Chris Liebing on CLR.net. Martin L. Gore has been a massive inspiration for generations of music lovers, and for this CLR Podcast 147 he has recorded an exclusive studio set. To have this outstanding artist as a guest on our podcast means a lot to us and we hope you enjoy the show.

2011 has been a standout year in a career of many for Roman Flugel. He told RA in January of this year that when he wrote the majestic “How To Spread Lies” in 2010 he was hoping to have it released on Hamburg imprint Dial, which of course transpired that November. The headspace Flugel had placed himself in to produce for label seemed to be working for him. Follow-up EP Brasil comprised an array of beautifully poised deep house cuts, although with the benefit of hindsight it was merely an appetiser. Even for a man who’s built a career upon diversity, Fatty Folders—released in September of this year—was a new high water mark. “Fatty Folders is arguably his best work to date,” said RA’s Derek Miller, and really, there was no argument to be made.

As for RA.290? Put simply, it’s one of our finest mixes of the year. Comprised of tracks from the year. By one of the men of the year.

What have you been up to recently?

I’ve been travelling, playing DJ gigs here and there around Europe and spent the rest of the time in my studio working on my own stuff and remixing other peoples’ music. The last remix I’ve finished was for Eamon Harkin. It will be released on Throne Of Blood around February 2012.

How and where was the mix recorded?

I used two 1210 Technics, one Pioneer CDJ 800 and a Rane Mixer. The mix was recorded in Logic so if something went totally wrong while I was mixing I was able to fix it later.

Can you tell us about the idea behind the mix?

All tracks have been released in 2011 and the mix is more or less divided in three parts. I’m trying to express some of my musical likes that do not necessarily have to “work” in a club, along with some of what I’d consider big club tunes of 2011. The first, let’s say more moody, part of the mix ends with the Basic Soul Unit track. From there on the temperature is rising until Worthy and Eats Everything’s “Tric Trac.” That track had some massive reactions this year. After that I approach for a landing.

Can you tell about the creative process behind Fatty Folders? 

Fatty Folders is my first solo album since my works under the aliases Eight Miles High or Soylent Green. These albums came out 2002 and 2006. The overall aim was to put as much of myself into the production process as possible. It took me a few months to finish the whole album but that is also because I’m away for DJing on the weekends. Everything is played and mixed by myself—more or less no preset sounds or sample banks were used. I’m very happy that I was finally able to touch some other peoples’ feelings with what I’m doing. I’m very thankful for that.

What are you up to next?

I’m currently thinking of producing another album and this time without a five year gap in between. There are still some remixes I have to finish and besides that I’m hoping to play some exciting sets on the weekends.

This year saw her siren song vocals feature on Steffi’s acclaimed album ‘Yours and Mine’ (harked as one of the stand out tracks of the year, Virginia’s vocal hook was made to set hearts alight). Sensual and sultry, her voice has a strength that stands out in house music with a timeless quality that is never over done and thats typical of the style of classic house music that make up her DJ sets and characterise her production.

Other collaborations over the years have ranged from work with New York’s Abe Duke to Steve Bug and Butch, but we urge you to turn your attention to Virginia’s solo work. Her contribution to Flash Records 2010 Compilation ‘Circle – ‘Dysfunctional Love’ will bring back many a memory from our dance floors; its killer groove making it a popular choice among her contemporaries. Her career has taken many paths since her first records began coming out in 1998, she’s done everything from run her own night at Sven Vath’s Cocoon and turn to Rough Trade to release a solo album that tred on more of a pop tip.

But without confusing the vibe that she’ll undoubtedly bring to the club this weekend, we have this deep mix showing her refined groove that comes tempered with this vibrant history.

Catch her in Room Three alongside Tama Sumo and Steffi under the Ostgut-Ton banner this Saturday.

It is Monday the 5th of December and we have one of Mexico´s most popular djs, producers and live acts for the first time on the CLR Podcast. The present set is part of a live mix recorded on October 15th at Bar Americas, one of his resident venues in Guadalajara. The complete 1,5 hours live set with hardly any talking is also available as a special download on clr.net.

Over a time-span of almost two decades, Luis has worked his way up to the forefront of the Mexican techno movement and has been playing and releasing his music successfully on an international level, for example his EPs on Droid Recordings and Micro.Fon. He has been a driving force in the development of Guadalajara´s happening electronic music scene and we hope you enjoy this set by one of Mexico´s most dedicated techno ambassadors.

since 1994, he has been the force behind his ever-evolving, kitsch-driven electro-pop outfit, flowchart (much of it alongside erin anderson a.k.a. fidget) — releasing dozens and dozens of albums, singles, eps and comp tracks on different labels from all over the world (like darla, morr music, instinct, endorphin, carrot top, and his own fuzzy box imprint), and flowchart was chosen as one of the “next 100” according to urb magazine in 1998. around this time he also was hooked on idm, techno and house, and he had already fallen in love with artists such as the orb, plastikman, king tubby and matthew herbert. he became intrigued by herbert’s use of field recordings and found sounds, and this recalled a similar feeling to what he gained from the music of spike jones.

as his love for minimal techno solidified by 1998, sean teamed up with jay haze and bjoern hartmann, and together they launched the tuning spork label. while making dance music with field recordings became more and more his shtick, sean grew close to kate iwanowicz (a.k.a. miskate) and sylvain takerkart (a.k.a. fusiphorm), and together they launched the foundsound and unfoundsound record labels. to this day, both labels continue to gain increasingly more recognition while offering a unique facet to the modern-day minimal scene.

throughout the years, sean also co-produced events in philadelphia and new york — hosting performances by magda, matthew dear, sammy dee, geoff white, jeff milligan, dan bell, dinky and many others. he also spent a lot of time writing part-time as a journalist for various music magazines and newspapers such as xlr8r and philadelphia city paper.

over recent years, sean’s production skills have been garnering respect among internationally renowned djs and labels alike, as reflected by his massive discography of releases and remixes for labels like musik krause, tuning spork, foundsound, mo’s ferry, microcosm, nummer, kickboxer, sender, alphahouse, roman-photo, level non-zero, mule musiq, hello? repeat, revolver and many others. this was accompanied by extensive world touring, and he was voted as one of the best live acts of 2006 in groove magazine. sean continues to spin and play live all around north america, south america, europe, japan, russia and elsewhere — including fabric in london, yellow in tokyo, rex club in paris and panorama bar in berlin. (from Pullproxy)

It´s Monday the 28th of November and we welcome Truncate from Los Angeles on the CLR Podcast. He has impressed techno fans worldwide for many years with his dj and production skills under the alias Audio Injection, but hardly anybody knew that he is also responsible for the slightly deeper and darker Truncate productions, which focus on the more raw side of techno. Nowadays we know that the person behind those two names and behind all those amazing tracks is actually one and the same. Apart from his busy dj and production schedule, he is also part of the Droid Behavior crew, who are organizing the most happening techno parties in and around LA. Standing strong at the centre of the West Coast techno community since nearly a decade, they are considered almost solely responsible for LA´s now thriving techno scene. Chris Liebing is a big supporter of Droid Behavior and habitually plays loads of tracks by Truncate and Audio Injection in his own sets. Many good reasons to have the man on the podcast again, so please enjoy this special two hours studio mix by Truncate, including some of his new and unreleased tracks.

While you’d hesitate to give it a name, the type of techno Xhin and Stroboscopic Artefacts have been pushing of late does feel somehow removed from what’s gone before. That could be part of the reason that despite being involved in electronic music since 1997, we felt it appropriate to feature him in our Breaking Through series late last year. Even as recently as last year the Singaporean producer was releasing solid—but in no way ground-breaking—house and techno. And then this happened. While it’s unclear whether recording with a new imprint, Stroboscopic Artefacts, simply gave him a new lease of life, the Fixing The Error / Link EP just felt that much more weighty than previous material. He then followed it up with a string of equally intriguing music for SA and his former stomping ground Meerestief, which has just culminated with Sword, Xhin’s sophomore album that brings his love for classic IDM and ambient triumphantly to the fore.

The sound of Sword informs much of Xhin’s 60 minute mix for us with—as we’ve come to expect from him—some additional WTF moments thrown in for good measure.

What have you been up to recently?

I’m touring Europe at the moment. Just got back from my album launch gig in London last weekend and am looking forward to playing at Trouw in Amsterdam this November 26th. I’m also working on our next LX tracks together with Luca (Lucy) for CLR as well.

How and where was the mix recorded?

The mix was recorded in my home studio back in Singapore. It was done with my regular DJ set-up: Ableton Live on a laptop, a MIDI controller and an iPad running Griid.

Can you tell us about the idea behind the mix?

The idea is to mix some tracks from Sword, which are “Teeth” and “Vent” together with my current favourites, past influential ones and some tracks that I love playing for a while now.

The term “sound design” often comes up in relation to your music, but how does this manifest itself in terms of your approach to production?

Sound designing has always being a big part in my music production. I like to create new and interesting elements from scratch, perhaps in a more alienated way, for a style that I can eventually call my own. I guess also it’s the nature of my job as a sound designer in the day.

What are you up to next?

Getting back to the studio to work on some new materials and of course remixing too.

It is Monday the 21st of November and we welcome Angel Costa for the first time on the CLR Podcast, with a special two hours set from one of his recent gigs. Angel started his career in the early 90s on the Spanish island of Mallorca, where he was born and raised. From his early beginnings on, when he was playing different musical styles including house and black music in various local clubs, he always used to take risks and tried to make people listen to new sounds. In the 2000s Angel was finally and completely turned onto techno and has been busy playing countless gigs on Mallorca and on the mainland of Spain ever since. A gig at the famous Sonar festival in Barcelona inspired him to start producing music and to found his own label REZ. He is currently busy producing and releasing his own music on REZ and on several international labels. Angel is and has always been a massive driving force in the development of Mallorca´s techno scene and is regularly hosting nights at the “Gothic” and the “Modular”, two renowned local clubs. He has become a referee for electronic music on the Balearic islands and Chris Liebing considers him one of the best, if not the best Spanish dj.

So tune in and read on to find out the techno power’s thoughts on his latest album’s reception and what’s in store at the album launch party here next weekend with Marcel Fengler and Shifted.

Interview

PAS is 15 years strong, can you give us a brief history on the project?
P.A.S started in 1994,working with Peacefrog records in the UK,my philosophy behind P.A.S is to make music with depth that work on the floor and are recorded at the peak of creativity,never revisiting them after they are laid down,focusing on capturing the Feel of the moment which can never be programmed. I very much take influences from the way early songs used to be recorded in one take,hopefully capturing the vibe.

You celebrated the launch of your new album Messenger at Berghain – how did that go?
I was overwhelmed,impressed and loving it .The place was heaving and everyone was tuned in.It’s great to feel that and see it.This energy, that’s whats it’s about

Shifted performed there – he’ll also be joining us for the UK launch here on the 19th – what was his set like and how did it compliment PAS?
Shifted – who’s album is forthcoming next year on Mote-Evolver – played really well,he’s got his own groove going and seems to work great with P.A.S. so we have some more shows coming up like this. Going into a live set after a DJ can be a fine art on both sides.

Marcel Fengler is also playing – what do you like about both these artists work in techno?
I’m a huge fan of Marcel’s DJing, and fantastic we could add him to the line up as well for the London album launch party in room 2. It’s also been great working with him on the Mote-Evolver side of things ,he really aspires to the original art of seamless mixes and slow building,it’s a beautiful thing to behold,and I think Shifted really represents a new take on things coming from,ahem,another side of dance music.quite refreshing .

The Messenger’s been released on Ost Gut – the second for the label – how did that partnership come about?
I do have a long relationship with the club going back to doing one of the first live P.A.S shows back in the 90′s at the old venire they had which nicely kept to the exact philosophy that Berghain has these days.All about the music.It’s was pretty natural to home Planetary with Ostgut Ton,though I have also delved in to 7th Plain territory with the special Shut Up and Dance project they worked on a while back.

Can you tell us about how the album came together for you, are you happy with how it’s been received?
This one came easier than ‘Temporary Suspension’, a lot more relaxed and free in what could be I think. A very open minded state when I felt I could reach a little deeper with people on a listening level not just in a club situation. I was a little concerned at first ‘Beauty in the Fear’ might drive a few to this very dark place, when they couldn’t feel the beauty but only the fear, but Heidy was paramount in confirming that track,being a bit of an enigma, as it touched her in a beautiful way and that nabbed it for me.actually it’s turning out to be one the most enjoyed tracks.

I’m really happy people have taken to the album,there’s a narrow channel of PAD(post album depression) that happens between finishing and album in the studio and it being out there.That’s now taken care of and really enjoy touring the new live show!

And finally, what next for Planetary Assault Systems? More touring or do you have some more music lined up and ready for release already?
Very much about the live show at the moment around DJ dates.First couple of new live dates have been an absolute blast! On the label tip, Mote-Evolver is releasing a special series of remix singles of Function 4,a P.A.S track from 2000. And I’m working on some interesting remixes right now too – it’s all about the music.