Paul White & beats, 1 year after.

Today we finally got the translation of the Shook article introducing into The Beat Generation up on Mixmag.info. The original was a feature of a spring 2008 issue, so obviously things have changed since then. A couple of new albums are out, a couple of new parties are launched, but the Shook's wide collaborative investigation remains the most comprehensive one. You would never find a word about Beat Dimensions, Poo Bah and etc. in Russian, though.

As we were preparing this project, we had a wonderful chance to speak to one of the most exciting producers out there. So here's a very short interview with Paul White of One-Handed Music.

Probably the difference between the UK and the US is that in the UK, and particularly in London, the new beat kind of music has strong trip-hop roots, can you agree with that? What defines London beats from any other beats? What are the major influences for you to build up a "Paul White sound"?

I think it's like anything, where you are effects everything, specially creativity, what environment you're in, good, bad, pretty, ugly... I did listen to quite a bit of trip hop through school and Uni just from people playing it to me, i loved ambient music too, listened a lot to bands like Aphex Twin, and Boards of Canada, but also at the same time was listening to a lot of other stuff too. I'm always really bad at explaining where music has come from or anything like that, I just know I like a lot of stuff! It's hard because I do agree about trip hop being an influence but also I'd never say it's just one thing that makes something different. I live in Lewisham which feels pretty raw and aggressive, not like a lot of trip-hop! If you do what's inside of you, the mixture of influences are going to come out I think!

Is there a strong and respected community of the beat wave in London? What's happening with the community right now?

I think there is a beat community in London, with things like the CDR night where people come out to play their own music in a club and meet other producers, singers etc, but to be honest I just like to stay in the studio! But yeah, I think there is a community, and I've been very grateful to some people in that community that have supported and helped me!

Is this community tied up with dubstep?

Again cause i don't really feel like I'm in that community (as in actually going out and hanging with the community regularly) I wouldn't really know how much dub-step is tied up in that, but from what I've seen and heard id say it is?!

Any plans about doing a long-play album?

Album is all done and coming out in June... Working on more stuff now!

(april 2009)

Well, get prepared to be affected by the Strange Dreams of Paul White, out on One-Handed Music today, June 8. Full of emotions and influences, this music seems not quite the classic of so called beats, but it involves more to set up a wonderful world of freedom, memories and imagination. Listen, order, bonus download here.

http://www.myspace.com/paulmw

DJ Jus-Ed interview, October 08

It was the next day after the party. Denis Simachev Shop & Bar, an extremely glamorous place on one Moscow's downtown lane, seemed empty and quiet – unlike the other night. DJ Jus-Ed was looking cheerful and satisfied. Real house music it was – DJ Jus-Ed Vs. Anton Zap at the decks – remember the Underground Quality record? Anton is one of the best DJs and producers in Russia indeed, and it was a pleasant surprise for us to find out his name on UQ a year ago. So this time he invited Edward McKeithen, the man who does it all on UQ, to play some underground quality music and show them all what house music exactly is. After that hot and soulful night we didn’t miss a chance to ask some questions to Jus-Ed himself – how does he manage to run a label, involve interesting artists and always feel so happy about his life and people around him.

I'd like to start with one completely rude question, sorry for that: how old are you?
46.

Wow! How did you start then?
Start what?

Deejaying, being fond of music…
I started deejaying when I was 10 – playing with records at basement parties.

But how did you start listening to music, I mean to realize that it's more than just listening to it?
I was born into it! My grandmother and grandfather were jazz musicians, he played the upright bass and she played the piano. Since I was 6 years old they would take me to the hotel where they had gigs, in lounges at the hotel, at private parties.

Oh, so jazz was your starting point?
Yes. Jazz, classical music, the whole lot of music. There were no genres for my grandparents, they said that good music is just good music which you need to know. We listened to everything, even rock'n'roll.

At your first gig, when you were 10-years-old, what did you play?
Well, we used to do house parties, real house parties, with all our relatives – aunts, uncles, cousins, neighbors - in the basement of the house. So that’s how I learnt to read the dance floor and play what they want to hear. If they didn't like they would fire you and take you upstairs in your room and somebody else would play the records! (laughs)

That's quite interesting, I remember myself at 10 listening to some popish boy-band tapes, I doubt if I understood any jazz…
But I also went to a music school, my brother and I.

And what were you playing?
Percussion.

How did you start listening to electronic music, house music?
I'm old enough to know when it developed, I mean house music. Where I'm from, it wasn't called "house music" then, at that time there was dance, soul, funk, and high energy. High energy was right before the discos, real close to it, it was mostly put into the gay category. I think when I started recognizing the genre as house music was around 89. Some radiostations like WBLS and college radiostations used to play it, but we didn't know what it was. Then freestyle also came up and a bunch of other names for genres. It still wasn't definitive, we didn't call it house. But a lot of r'n'b songs didn't make it in the club unless they had a house version. I think the group Change & Luther Vandross were one of the first to do real house music. Another funky-house group was Brick.

That was the time of the first NY nightclubs like Loft, right?
Yeah, but the Loft parties were much about drugs and alcohol, but there was definitely house music playing there. It was invite-only. Then the big clubs came like Twilo, Tunnel, Lime Light, Savage, Garage, Shelter…

But that was the 90s already.
Right. Those clubs basically exclusive, they were underground. In particular Shelter, you had to know where it was, and it cost you a lot of money to get into it by that time. Unfortunately now they stopped the party… I don't know if they are going to come back or not, I hope so.

Well, it seems to me that it is quite complicated to maintain the club culture in New York.
It's not that, it's the politics…

You mean they always find a reason to close the club?
Not the government politics, the music politics.

Okay.
Unfortunately people that are in charge, they’re segregated. They are not open for new ideas. They closed the doors to a lot of people and they are very selective to whom they give the opportunity to play, deejay or even to produce music. That's why I'm here. When I came back from retirement, I wanted to do something different, go against the politics. The only way to keep the music alive is to bring new blood. Otherwise all get unhealthy and die's out.

Was this the main reason for you to launch the label?
One of the reasons was that "Underground Quality" was a party name. Vic Money was the one to start Underground Quality. I met him in 2001, we got together, and then I took over the name after him. Our objectives were to get underground house DJs an opportunity to play. So we did small and medium-size parties.

Where did you do them?
All over the place – bars, clubs… And I put out my first CD album in 2004, it was called "Carnival House". It was just my idea of music. Most of the market sounded the same – vocally, had the same drum-tracks. No feeling, just copy-paste music. So instead of complaining all the time I started to do something of my own. I sent it out to a couple of labels and artists, and the majority of them said that it didn't sound good, it wasn't ready, it wasn't about what was happening then. Even my distributor said "arr, it's not really marketable right now, but if you get something finished, give us a call". 2 years later I met Omar-S from Detroit. He licensed one track from my CD album, the "AM Mix". Germany is a huge consumer of electronic music, the Detroit-style kind of music, and it turned out that they liked that track very much. I had my record ready to put it out, because people were contacting me saying: "Uwh, who's Jus-Ed?!" Actually they weren't saying my name right – they said "Juice-Ed".

Hah, and Jus-Ed is "Just Edward", right?
It's Just Ed. Nor more nor less (laughs). So. I went back to the distributor, told them: "Remember you said that when I have something ready?.. So here I am!" I had a compilation ready, so I said: "Hey, you know Omar-S? I have his record and I have my record" – my distributor went like "Omar-S? Yeah! Give it to me!" It came out, people liked it. I just kept making my style of music. And the label became a label after the first record, the UQ-003, Fly Away EP.

Is it hard to keep your own label in America?
In Connecticut, where I live, nobody knows that I'm Jus-Ed, really. Except for a few friends. For everybody else I'm just Ed, the landscaper. I have a small landscaping company, that's my living. So I don't have a pressure on doing music. I think that's what helps my music to stay pure. I am fortunate. Music goes around in a circle, and the timing was right for me to come out. The mission of Underground Quality is to keep new blood coming in. I got up, then I brought QU, Jenifa Mayanja, Fred P., Madafi and others in. They have quality music, so I use my name to help them to bring it up. Then it was Anton Zap.


How did you get to know each other?
I was on Myspace, and I got a message from him like "oh, I'm a big fan, check out my music". So I listened to his music and went like "oh my God! This is house! And this is… Russia?!" I couldn't believe it, 'cause in America we are governed by the media. And unfortunately the picture of what's happening over here is not so clear. They keep you thinking Russia or the U.S.A. is dangerous, you know.

Yeah, the same thing here.
Every country has its problems, but the people tell a different story. You guys have a beautiful country, beautiful people…
So for me it was an opportunity to show to my circle that house music really is universal. So I knew that the music that Anton makes is going to work really well in the circle that I'm in. I put him out on 3 projects and then his own EP. The first one was "Unity Kolabo", which was very important. It's a 4 record set from people all around the world who produce house music. And everybody said "oh, you are crazy! You are going to commit commercial suicide, nobody can afford buying 4 records!" But I said that it's high quality music, it's the same price, and it's going to be in one set. Then we made DJ Jus-Ed Vs. Anton Zap, which was Anton's EP, and the latest one is DJ Jus-Ed Vs. Fred P, and then Vs. DJ QU is coming up. All of the producers whom I deal with always say thank you, but I tell them "don't thank me, bring up someone else, involve someone just as you got involved". And I also encourage them (and help them) to manufacture and press their own vinyl. This is the way we can help the vinyl community to stay alive. You don't have to wait for a label to press your records. Go, take your money, call me if you need any help.

This all reminds me the story with "Samizdat" – this is how self-published books in the hard-times of Soviet Union were named, when many great authors were banned and forced to publish their works illegally. But you do play CDs, don't you?
Yes. You know you can't afford to press every track you have on vinyl. I played some new songs last night, and 2 of them were from Nina Kraviz. One of them is a remix on "Voices", which would be coming out at the end of the year on Underground Quality. It's going to be a 3 record set with different remixes.

So Nina's the next person to be involved – now I see how your formula works.
Right. So if I didn't have a CD, I couldn't play those songs last night and see how people like it.

But what's the most exciting thing about this all – you are 46 years old. You feel passionate about music, totally open-minded, and you bring a lot of energy and warmth to people on the dancefloor. How do you manage to live like this? Most of the people get retreat into themselves, or just refocus on other jobs or their family and quit music at all.
Again, I can say that I just wanted to produce music. I didn't do it to become famous, or to start traveling.

But you did have a break from producing music and going to clubs, didn't you?
Yeah, I retired in 1985 because of drugs and alcohol abuse.

And now you don't smoke, you don't drink at all. Last night I've seen you only with a bottle of water in the club!
Yeah! For me it was important. I wouldn't be sitting here if I hadn't quit it all sometime ago. I looked at it like if I was diabetic. You can't eat sugar if you're diabetic. You have to take care of yourself, stay under control - and have fun!
It was 15 years before I came back from retirement. Vic Money heard me playing, so he was the one to say "man, you are a DJ, go and play!" So that's how it started. The best what I enjoy of all of this is to see people happy, to see people move when I play, and when they want to shake my hand, or give me any sign – that's the best! Then comes the travel, then money…

You know what was great yesterday? When Anton Zap was playing behind the decks, you came out to the dancefloor and… just danced!
Well, I liked the party!

And what does your family think about your way of live?
Well, my 3-year-old son always wants me to take him with me. He doesn't want to stay home, he would hang on the dancefloor with everybody else! That's brilliant! By the way, he has his first record out, it's "Dinosaur" on "Unity Kolabo", it's like 3,5 minutes. He played the keys, I made the drum-track. Yeah, he's very talented. I have a 10-week-old daughter. I don't know how's she going to like music, but we'll see (laughs). My wife, Jenifa Mayanja, and I – this is how we live. Once we had kids though we don't go out that much now. But we still make it happen, it's the same way how I grew up. So that's the way the life goes on. A couple of days ago we watched "The Iron Man" movie, they got AC/DC as a soundtrack, and my son was banging his head – he seems to like rock too, okay… (laughs)

What would you like to say to the young DJs and producers, to encourage them maybe?
For a DJ that doesn't get a chance to play: in order to play, you have to make a record. Or at least do an edit on a record. Because the record is a business card. Clubs don't hire DJs, they hire DJs/producers. They have to get as much as they can for their money. For the producer who is frustrated that no one is playing his music: if you have good taste and if you believe in your music, go on! There are some guys who think their music is good, but it's shit, and they don't want to admit that it is, you know. But if you have good taste in music you should be able to listen to your track and say whether it's good or not. And if you feel that it's good, take a chance and put it out. Do it yourself, don't wait for anyone to do it for you. Press vinyl.

What's the future of vinyl records, by the way?
One thing is against us – technology. Technology is good for me and artists like me who make music from their soul. When you make music from your soul, it's no matter how you release it, because people will get it. I think the people that buy vinyl today are collectors. There's nothing like analog sound. The digital is good, it covers the mass media, and it's what happening right now. But I'll press vinyl as long as I can. I'm about to open a mp3-store on undergroundquality.com, but I will never put out the vinyl releases on mp3. I probably should never say never – but the vinyl releases won't be both on vinyl and mp3. I'll keep them separate. And so should you!

Check this out:
http://www.undergroundquality.com
http://www.myspace.com/undergroundquality

http://www.myspace.com/antonzap (Anton Zap)
http://www.myspace.com/damelaayer (Nina Kraviz)

Anton Zap podcast for mixmag.info (October’07)
Fred P. (Black Jazz Consortium) mix for mixmag.info (June’08)

Originally posted on Mixmag.info

Rob Rives interview

The sound engineer of Wave Music, the man behind Phantom Power and Floppy Sounds, a friend of Deep Dish and Danny Tenaglia speaks about the most interesting US label Wave, it's plans and it's history. And we try to find out whether progressive house is still in demand.

What’s going on at Wave Music right now? How’s the label feeling itself?

The label is doing good. The industry is changing right now, so are the labels, we are seeing less vinyl sales and more digital online things, so with the market reality the label is adjusting to that. But we’ve got some really good stuff coming out – Beat Pharmacy’s new album, also my new Phantom Power album, which is sort of a Phantom Power records collection, a compilation of singles called “Patterns”. We also have a few new singles: Tony Lionni, and Tedd Patterson has a new record to come out – he is a fantastic new york DJ, he has his own label Vibal, but this is the first record he’s done for Wave, and it’s really good, tech-house.

What is the main formula of Wave’s success?

The label is done well because it’s diverse. In the beginning of the label’s life there were more releases with music centered around Body & Soul sound. Sure, there was my album, which was more electronic, but the main releases were based on percussion and African sounds, jam-based sort of music. The Body & Soul releases were really successful, but I think that over the years things moved to more electronic again for us, but ultimately they try to put up things that they like. François K has a good ear for the things he wants to develop. And I also think that the label treated its artists fairly, there is a lot of labels, especially in the States, which it’s not so good to work with (laughs). I’ve been very fortunate, my works with Yoshitoshi and other people have been very good though!

Well, which labels are worth working with then?

Well, let’s see…I just did a remix of Danny Tenaglia’s “Music Is The Answer” for Twisted America, which was Tribal America years ago. It is run by Rob DiStefano, he’s a great guy. And 2 records for Yoshitoshi with my friend Rob Salmon. The Deep Dish guys are really terrific. There are some good American labels… But I think that Wave is actually emerged as one of the long-standing American labels at this point.

Don’t you think that, to be honest, the Yoshitoshi sound became a little bit… old right now? It happens with every kind of music though…

Well, it all cycles around. Even progressive house does. But I think that some of the records they put out are really good quality records. When I worked with Danny Tenaglia as an engineer he would play trance records in the studio for me, and some of them were great records! But some people might’ve said: “Err, trance, it’s so terrible!” I think in the meaning of Yoshitoshi, I’ve been following the records by Dubfire and Sharam, and those are amazing records.

But the records you’ve been doing also recall that old sound, I don’t mean that…

Well, I am a little old (laughs).

Okay, what I was actually about to ask, in what kind of music are you more interested in right now?

Well, though all New York DJs are interested in minimal now… The Winter Music Conference this year was really interesting because a lot of New York producers were about minimalism. I found it kind of funny, because that scene has been going now really strongly for several years. But I think it’s good, because what I would like to see about Americans doing in minimalism is to inject more funk into it, more black sound with disco element, give it a little more of a flavor. I love minimalism, but a lot of records can sound similar. And the American take on it with its groove may be a healthy thing for the music.

Everybody is getting bored of minimalism in Europe, I guess.

Yeah, I’ve been hearing that. I don’t know, I still gravitate to the simplicity and the repetition of those records, but I think the key is to find the ones, which really stand out. I see a lot more European records that have an exciting flavor, that aren’t just kick drum and a bass line. And some American records tend to have too much music, to many solos, and as for me, sometimes they lose the groove. So the minimalism for American music should be a healthy thing.

Yeah, America has always been the main source of new tendencies in music, but by the turn of the century this rule has gone. I think it might be not so good for Europe, since a lot of people there started to replay things which were already developed in America…

I’m seeing a lot of American producers going back to the sound of Public Image Limited and punk-funk sort of things of the 80s, the DFA influence is rather strong. It’s something that Americans can understand. I have a party that I play in a very small gay bar in the East Village, and I play a lot of rock and punk records, and it’s so much fun! I like that sound, I think it’s good. I’m still influenced by Talking Heads – the new Floppy Sounds single is going to come out in January, and it sounds very much like Talking Heads. It’s a new direction for me, it has guitars and vocals, and it was fun to do it! So it’s more contemporary, though it sounds like 1980s, but without being totally derivative – we’ll se what people think.

You had a break, a period when you didn’t come out with music production at all. What happened then, and what had changed during that time?

Let’s see… The second Floppy Sounds record came out in 2001, and the whole time I was making Phantom Power singles for Clicktracks. A couple of things happened in my personal life as well. I was listening to the music I was doing, and some of the stuff was okay, and something was not so good. So I would make tracks and play with them for a long time, and if I don’t like them, I would just shelve them and come back to them later. The ones I liked the most were the Phantom Power records, those were for me a way to explore minimal things. And meanwhile I was working in television a lot for an American cable news company called MSNBC.

You’re still involved into that, right?

No, I’m not doing that any more.

So no music for television now?

Well, a little bit. It’s fun to do, because you have to put your head in a different mindset. When I worked for television it was more about editing music. The nice thing about it was that they paid very well. And projects don’t go on forever. I learnt a lot, but now with the economy crisis I’m doing less music for TV and much of my own which is fun, so we’ll see.

You’ve done quite a lot of remixes. It’s doesn’t stand high for many producers and djs, because you don’t get the money and copyrights for the track and etc. So mainly it’s a way for unknown producers to show themselves. But you still do remixes and you’re still much into that…

Well, I’m doing a little less. “Music Is The Answer” record was the first one I’ve done in a while, but all through the early part of this decade I’ve been doing a lot, and I enjoyed it, because you don’t have to create everything. You have the vocal or any other element to focus on. When you do something by your own, you have to think what you want to say, what’s the track about, and with the remix you don’t have to do that, you have the thing to start with anyway. And sometimes I think some of my best work was remix work. I was very proud of the X-Press 2 remix, for example. I always try to respect the original material, and what I think is now involved is to take a tiny element form the track and just make a new track. But it was never my approach.

What do you think of the idea of bringing up the old disco records and sampling them into something new?

I think it may be fantastic! I did one a couple of years ago, when I came back from Berlin, I was inspired by some Carl Craig records by that time, and I took an old Larry Levan production, the track “Vicious” by Black Mamba, a real disco vocal, but very angry, and I just took the acapella. It took a long time for me living in New York to start appreciating disco. I came from the more new wave sort of sensibility like Depeche Mode, New Order and all of that. So it took me time to appreciate black dance music.

How is François K? What’s he doing right now?

He’s great! It probably has been the busiest year for him for a long lime. He gets incredible reaction from crowds and I think it helps him stay eternally young! Now he has some time for studio work, so he’s doing great.

Why didn’t you release a Phantom Power album earlier?

All those singles have been out for a while, and we wanted to draw attention to them, because the singles get overlooked because there’s so much singles coming out. I think it’s just a nice little package to have at one time. I know you might say that the minimal techy sound is already behind the curve, but I think that the tracks are really solid. I believe in the music, I think it’s good, I’ve been making the records between 2000 and 2007, and when I listen to them, they still sound so good to me. And I would’ve bought the record! If they sounded really dated, I won’t bother them with the compilation. But ultimately the listeners will have to judge by themselves, I can’t do that, because I’ve written the tracks.

Okay, then obviously I should ask you if your work as a sound engineer shade your feeling of music?

Yes and no. I’ve been deejaying for the last few years, and it helps me to make tracks – you really see what works. I think sometimes as a sound engineer I would get caught up in the textures and forget about the groove. Unfortunately, yes, there are tracks which don’t sound do good, but right now, because of what’s happening with the technology, there are some really good sounding records there, which are made by those kids in their bedrooms. So it’s just a process, like anything else.

Russian and English version avaliable on mixmag.info

Sometime before Shedding the Past. Interview with Shed.

We reached out Shed just before his debut album release via e-mail - and "unshaded" some facts about him to know who's responsible for the best album of the year 2008.

We've known Shed for 4 years already, though in 2008 you finally started to speak loud. What was your first approach to OstGut Ton, and did something considerably change since you have become part of this influential community?

I'm very pleased to get the chance to release my debut on Ostgut Ton. It is a very, very pleasant and personal environment and I can not imagine a better place for my music - beside of my own label of course. The first time I played at Berghain was in 2004 and since then it is still the best club I've ever seen. The crew is real - no snobs, no busybodies - music plays the main-role. Beautiful.

Berghain revives the techno sounds of early 90s, you also turn us back to the music we might forgotten. But if "shedding the past" is your personal motto, do you think that "the past" may become a good impulse to create new forms of electronic music, or is it an evidence of a crisis? In other words, don't you think that there's nothing new to invent?

Techno is history. The good time of Techno-music is over and I don't have any illusions that it will come back. But that is ok. It is always the same. Old dads are still playing country-music or Rock-music and look like "schnaps-zombies". Horrible! I don't want end like them. Shedding the past means to me: Progress. It was all very nice but it is over. Lets get on.

It seems to me that you prefer to be single-handed and stay aside of any community - you have a label of your own, only for releasing your own music on it, and an EP titled "egotism". Do you feel more comfortable moving on alone?

That is the best way. You are your own chief. You are responsible for everything - nobody is interfering in what you do. But the possibilities are very limited. Therefore the label is still on a very low level. And generally the label is sleeping this time. Only the sub-label is still active. 2 new records by various artists are coming up. I enjoy right now the advantage of having a booking agency, a label manager, a promotion agency. It is so funny…

By the way, who does the artwork for soloaction?

Myself.

How did you feel yourself involved into the Holland-based Delsin label, where you released two of your EPs? It seems like they don't have merely one music concept, and you never know if their next release is going to be quite average or really worth hearing. Are you planning to continue releasing at Delsin?

I'm not so into it anymore. My records were not the best selling items. I'm still in contact with Marsel (Mr. Delsin) and we are good friends. A new release isn't planned but I'm sure something will happen - someday.

Some producers from Holland are responsible for so called neo-Detroit, what's your opinion about the genre?

I hate it. That is so ridiculous. It is none of my doing. It is so boring that somebody tries to create a sound like people already did 20 or 15 years ago. I mean up to a specific point it is comprehensible but someday is something reached where everything is exhausted. That was ten years ago. What I do is Techno. Not more not less. It is not new but it is what I feel.

Was the happening around Detroit your main influence as well?

Detroit - for sure but I think my main influences are to find on a island that is called United Kingdom. UK-Hardcore, Network, Peacefrog, Rephlex and many more - that is what influenced me. And beside of that here some name-droppings: Disko B, Cheap, Labworks/Overdrive, Rotterdam-Records, Djax Up Beats, Trope, Magnetic North...

And what about German techno producers of mid 90s and the story with Chain Reaction and Basic Channel - can we say it's the basis that made this new wave of German techno possible?

This is not German-Techno. This is Berlin-Techno! Berlin is the base - Hard Wax the headquarter. Deep as deep can be.

How did you get an opportunity to remix Substance for his Relish reprint?

Mr. Substance is a college of mine at Hard Wax. We did a remix swap. Very simple. But it was an honor, to "try" a re-mix of Relish which was one of the big hits in the Chain Reaction catalogue.

I really love the not-for-dancefloor stuff you do ("Ostrich-Mountain-Square" is hypnotic, aerial, totally crazy!) - what influenced you on this side?

Thank you. That track is a kind of field recording. I was hanging out the mic of my window and record what happen on the street. That’s it. I love to play with sounds and technical devices. Always having a 4 to the floor drum makes me bored. There is more than that.

Are you planning to release some remix ep's on tracks from the debut album?

Nothing is planned. We'll see what happens. I guess a lot…

(c) mixmag.info

tobias freund interview and podcast

Two nights ago Tobias Freund had a live at Moscow. It was a rainy day (it's still raining, no summer this June, I guess), there were only a few people on the dancefloor. Probably Moscow is tired of clubbing - the last two parties I went to were lack for people, though the previous one was Gilles Peterson's first visit to Russia, definitely long-expected. I still don't loose the feeling it's better that way, when you are sure that those who came know what they had come for.
So, this night was also very special, though it was a short one. Tobias has just released his EP on Wagon Repair, which already proved its power on dancefloors, but he as a musician has mush more to show.
This is a short interview we made for mixmag.info, coming along with the awesome podcast, the best we've ever had for sure.

MM: There is a strong prejudice against recording and creating music, and just as a literary critic would never write a novel, it's not so easy to find a music engineer who is into his own productions. What is the philosophy of sound behind Tobias Freund as a musician? What is your consideration for sound, for music? Do you feel that a sound itself is a material to be reshaped and restructured for to be built up into a composition?

Tobias.: Soon after I started listening to music I realized that there is more to it than just the song or the person who is performing it. Some songs I liked just because of how they sounded. Voices and melodies are creating a special feeling, but for me it's also the way the instruments are recorded, processed and placed into the stereo panorama.

I've always been very interested in the combination of shaping sounds and developing a musical piece, it belongs together. I don't think it is unusual nowadays to find a musician, a producer and a mastering engineer all in one person. Some musicians I know try to do all by themselves. Sometimes it works out, but most of the times, it doesn't. There is music software, which provides almost everything relevant to produce a song from the start to the end. Even if you don't have any ideas you can use some pre-programmed sequences or sounds to write a song and master it afterwards with pre-programmed plug-ins. I think people are getting too lazy and impatient. Of course it's a matter of money and trust, but only a musical piece that is produced with care can last forever.

MM: You were involved into quite a range of different musical projects since 1980, what were your first steps into music, how did it all start?

tf: My first step was a radio play in school. In 1980 I bought my first synthesizer a korg ms20. together with my school friend Lars I started doing sound experiments. We were never interested in becoming famous pop-stars, we only wanted to play around and try things out. After I finished school I started working in a professional music studio as an apprentice. There I was surrounded by a lot of new equipment which I would use in my spare time to record stuff that I could use at home as backings. I was working in the studio for almost 20 years, engineering and mixing some successful productions like Milli Vanilli, Meat Loaf, La Bouche, No Mercy... I never wanted to get involved too much in these music productions, it was a job, more or less to earn money and stay connected with high-end studio equipment. Of course I learned a lot about how things should or can sound. At the same time I was developing my musical interests at home. I thought I wanted to create something connected more to music than to money.

MM: Okay, then returning to the first question, is there a different philosophy for each project you are into?

tf: The only philosophy behind all my projects is trying out as many different options as possible to produce music. It's quite interesting for me to work with different people and look at the results. Or sometimes it is nice to for example to change the main sequencer in my setup, to change the routine.

MM: Do you think of organizing a project with Cassy?

tf: We are already working on some music together but I want to take some more time for that. Right now we are both developing our own projects. I am planning to finish some music with Cassy this year. It will be very different from the music we did so far.

MM: The 20th century's avant-garde music has a rich history, and from the very beginning of the futurists movement throughout the century musicians were in search of a new sound, a new form. Do you think that this search is over now and there's nothing new to achieve?

tf: I think there is still a lot to achieve. I wonder what the future holds...

MM: Is there anything in music that cannot be produced by computers?

tf: I guess computers can't start or finish developing an idea.

MM: Does NSI perform live? If it does, how exactly is it arranged?

tf: We have already played several times in different clubs. We used some analog machines and two computers, but right now we are working on a performance without computers. We have an offer to perform in Krakow end of this year at a festival. We will probably be using a piano, some module synths, a drum machine and several effect units.

MM: The title of NSI's album, "23 pieces for piano", recalls "Pictures at an Exhibition" by Modest Mussorgsky, which is a famous suite of 10 piano pieces composed in 1874. Did you look behind when working on the album? Maybe inspired by something?

tf: Max (Max Loderbauer) is a very good piano player. He once played a piece of Bartok on his electric piano at home, and actually this was like the start of the idea to do some piano tracks. We are both great classical music enthusiasts, but we would never copy a concept. We are inspired by classical music in the same way as we are inspired by techno, ambient or punk.

MM. Who to your mind among the musicians also produces non-standard works?

tf: Actually non standard is for me the standard because the music I am listening to is mostly non standard. I think all musicians I am working with are producing kind of non standard music.

MM. Is there any non-electronic musicians, or groups, or albums, or composers of your favorite?

TF: I really admire the music of the Baka Forest People of Southeast Cameroon. They developed their music to communicate in the forest. It' s so beautiful to hear children and adults interacting and singing.

MM. What are your plans for the nearest future?

tf: I just released my new tobias. ep, it is called ' I can't fight the feeling ' and it's out on wagon repair (wag 040). I also finished a new NSI. EP with my partner Max Loderbauer, this one I will release on my own label, non standard productions (NSP o4).

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Two Banks of Four Interview

Two Banks of Four, a band of two English gentlemen, deal with undefined mixture of electronic and instrumental music that is obviously beyond genres. So they might feel themselves on the right place when releasing a new album called Junkyard Gods on Sonar Kollektiv. We caught up on with 2bo4 via e-mail and asked them a few questions about their forthcoming release.

Responsible for 2bo4 two of Robert Gallagher (aka Earl Zinger) and Dill Harris (aka Demus) might have different hair-cuts (referring to the "about us" page on their official website), but they do share one sense of music. Feeling the edge between improvising music and electronics for it not to sound as an unconvincing experiment is something not easy to develop. But Two Banks of Four, together with Valerie Etienne as a leader of a vocal troupe, managed to find the concord way back in 2000 when their first City Watching released on Sirkus. Before that, Earl Zinger took part in Galliano from Talkin' Loud's early years and has been in charge of Red Egyprian Records. Enough for not questioning the level of Two Banks of Four, though.

Sonar Kollektiv’s Jazzanova once said Junkyard Gods is a killer one, and they said it for sure. There are quite a lot of unexpected ideas embodied by a band of flutes, saxophone, trumpet and piano with charming vocals of Valerie, Paul Jason Fredericks and Bembe Segue. Plus electronic beats, of course. There is a strong prejudice against genres, but if there is a definition for future jazz, it’s the one. You might recognize the distinctive 2bo4 style as you come across Queen of Crows (already appeared on Jazzanova's Neujazz compilation), but what exactly is 2bo4 itself?

Let's make it clear: 2bo4 is Robert Gallagher, Dillip Harris and Valerie Etienne as a vocalist, and Paul Jason Fredericks and Bembe Segue as recruited, we would say, contributors? You also have a piano, a bass, a fluit and a sax in your band, don't you?

Demus: 2bo4 is really just Rob & Demus piecing together the scattered ideas of two aged eccentrics while press ganging innocent vocalists like Valerie Etienne & Bembe Segue to voice those ideas. There is also the very important process of the re-informing of ideas when we take the skeletal ideas to musicians who reinterpret and regurgitate them back to us - the music we make writing with each other will dictate what kind of sound we want and therefore who and what instruments to use. Often this means the same players but inevitably everything will change over time, so who knows what will happen on the next album.

It's rather hard to stay, referring to Jazzanova's album, "in between", and 2bo4 is probably too "improvisive" for being considered to be electronic dance music (like music for clubs - it basically doesn't have a beat), and too electronic to be feel themselves comfortable among jazz bands. How do you manage to keep your unique and exciting style, and do you feel yourself part of any musical scene?

The term "scene" can only really be attributed to a forum where shared musical concepts are furthered through collaborative or competitive means and in our history this association has frequently centered around a nightclub/DJ or circuit of social events. These days our music has evolved on a different trajectory to any club circuit and as such, although we take a lot of inspiration from the ever pioneering methods and sounds of London club life, is a music on the periphery of any scene. We have always maintained our music is not for clubs but these days it no longer needs to be stated.

What's your music for then?

My uncle Ernie uses it to ease his lumbago. He does this by piping a live feed of it into the pig pen, this in turn produces a mild hog hysteria and the pigs chase him around the pen. Subsequently, he has to run and this eases his aches - as he has to move fast he heats and stretches the muscles.

In your press release I ran across the statement that 2bo4 is a band with Soviet constructivist design. And I cannot pass it by as I’m from Russia. Is Soviet constructivism something that inspires you?

Soviet Constructivism is a style that has always influenced us - have you seen how much it goes for now? The cut and paste elements are fully in keeping with our own techniques of composition and lyric writing. The social relevance of that art is also important to us - reflecting and mobilizing the present and the future, the way the early soviets used art and, in particular film, as important social forces should be an inspiration to all states, organizations and individuals.

Any Russian composers influenced on you?

Only the obvious ones - Rachmaninov, Stravinsky, Prokviev, Scriabin. For this record, particularly the wonderful themes of Stravinskys Rite of Spring & Prokvievs Andrei Rublev score.

Okay, who is your role model then?

Zinger: Demus is my role model. Once I have mastered the art of organization I will move on to studio management and moving house many times. Yet I fear I will never master drinking beer and talking about hip hop like he does - this may remain something I can but strive after.
Demus: Earl Zinger is, of course, my role model. His pioneering Special needs glasses & western shirt look is something that has been absorbed into the mainstream in a way that could only be dreamed of and his ability to spot a quality Henley shirt amongst a sea of shady imitations is unparalleled. To have this much influence on the mainstream and still be a core member of 2 banks of 4 takes major commitment to the underground.

Please tell us a few words about the Gilles Peterson’s Worldwide Awards 2008 and your part in it.

The worldwide awards is an annual awards night honoring artists that have been highlights in the previous years recorded & live music. Obviously, since there has been no 2bo4 record for 4 years we were surprised to be asked to open the nights proceedings (after legend Steve Reids history of the drum intro). This year it was held in London’s fashionable Hoxton club, Cargo. 2 banks of 4 played three tunes with a 7 piece line up. We were very happy the way it turned out. We had done minimal rehearsal but maximum thinking and, surprisingly, this worked because the musicians and vocalists worked very quickly and with great feeling for what we were trying to do. Then we all got drunk and Rob and Valerie ended up on stage again at the end of the night, but that’s a whole other story.

Matthew Herbert's remix of Street Lullaby is one of the best tunes on his Secondhand Sounds album, and though it might be a better question to Mr. Herbert himself, I cannot miss a chance to ask how did this collaboration happen.

We paid him an inordinate amount of money. And then we leant him some of our band. And then we bought him a house by the sea…
Actually, we talked of government atrocities in the hallowed halls of the BBC world service one evening whereupon he agreed to remix a song for us for a deeply nominal fee. He was subsequently extremely civil when our 2 bob record company took 200 years to pay him. Our paths have continued to cross since on the treadmill of underground music that straddles any distinct definition or genre and we hope it remains so as the man is an extremely important and inspirational figure in most areas of the music business.
Remixing, or reworking as we prefer, is not so much a collaboration as a recycling of a songs raw material into something else.
So we gave Matthew some bottles and he gave us a water purification device in return. Fair exchange is no robbery.

Now a few words about your new album. Why released on Sonar Kollektiv? Because of your friendship with Jazzanova since working on Mwela Mwela track?

They have a press department and other things like offices and law degrees that we don't have. We have no prospect of acquiring these things. All in all it seemed like a sensible move for two constructivist art fans of increasing years.

Is Flags & Words a protest song? Against what?

I still can't work out where nature starts and compliance begins. It's irritation wearing a hat with a few badges.
Like all great labels, protest song puts you in a room with some other familiar faces. It is about shouting louder and protesting but also getting a narrative of meaning going for yourself.

They say the album is not only 9 tracks, there's a bonus track which is Japan only. Japan seems sort of El Dorado for music lovers as the best music always has to be Japan-only. Just one question I have - why?

We are trying to make the new Japan, an independent community on an island in the southern Indian Ocean, and have been for some time. We want this community to be a kind of Shang-ri-La for music lovers and so we put a bonus track called The ballad of Oliver Law on the Japanese release of Junkyard Gods. As soon as the community is established we can all move there from all over the world - millions of us. Then we can talk and listen to all the bonus tracks ever supplied and swap stories for expensive constructivist posters and songs for remixes and dance naked round open fires. That, of course, is optional but after the explosion of joy that will be the new Japan you may want to join in, so don't say no too soon.

'Junkyard Gods' is out on Sonar Kollektiv since March 24

originally in Russian on Mixmag.info
http://www.myspace.com/twobanksoffour
http://www.sonarkollektiv.com/

DJ Pete (Substance) interview

It was Thursday night. There was 7 or 8 of us going to Shanti club to see one of the most interesting artists of German club scene, DJ Pete (also known as Substance). We definitely couldn't miss a chance to talk about the legendary Chain Reaction label, Hardwax shop, Basic Channel sound and other interesting projects Pete might've known of or even has been involved into. So it turned out a little messy... But how could we manage ourselves?

What do you think about the tendency of coping the sound of Chain Reaction?
It is the thing that came up, that’s true. And it’s kind of a massive thing that happened. But it started also during the period of Chain Reaction that there was some people so much into it to adapt it. But actually the copying process more concentrates on Rhythm & Sound, because the Chain reaction thing itself is still pretty unique. But I know what you are talking about, basically it’s Basic Channel and Rhythm & Sound that’s been copied. And like any copy, it’s not fulfilled. The essence is not there. It’s something not finished.

Nothing interesting in it?
You have 100 releases and maybe only 2 interesting.

What was the magic of Chain Reaction then? How come musicians didn’t manage to reach the level they did when they were into Chain Reaction?
It is a little bit different. There are a few people that are still doing music on other labels, for example Porter Rickss. But they did different music, they had more ambient projects. And if you want to call it magic, it’s the magic numbers from 1 to 20. And these are the most Chain Reaction releases. At that time it was just a very tense indirection because everybody was in Berlin and was focusing on their own sound, also different inside Chain Reaction. Maybe this was the good thing that there was indirection and the same idea of how to make a certain sound and indirection between like engineers and people who are coming from the club scene. This combination made it so magical.

Some people are convinced that Moritz von Oswald and Marcus Ernestus launched the whole story with dub techno and then they did cut it down. Do you think that the last, 35th release of Chain Reaction was to mark the end of dub techno?
No, it wasn’t. At the same time the thing that was more dub techno were the releases of Burial Mix. The Rhythm & Sound at that time were still releasing music and that was really what dub techno was about. Chain Reaction never was dub techno for me like people understand it, it was more ambient and experimental techno.

Please excuse us for not asking questions about your own works yet, we’ll come to this soon, but we just can’t miss a chance to find out how come the inventors of this unique experimental music don’t produce anything like that anymore.
Oh, you don’t have to apologize because I’m actually the only one that’s traveling around and nobody else can answer your question. I’ll try to give you my view on it, and probably it’s a view of others too. It’s kind of a situation that all of the Chain Reaction crew mostly disappeared and there are few only like producing music like this. This is for example my partner, Rene and I, we do Substance & Vainqueur, then there is a little bit of Hallucinator, a little bit of Monolake still existing. The others are kind of gone. Sometimes we have various artists released but you can barely see their names and see where it’s coming from. This rebel influence or dub thing mainly came because of the Burial Mix releases, this is my opinion. The decision to do more reggae for the Rhythm & Sound guys is because they started with this in the beginning, and it’s more important than the techno thing for them. I would also like to say that Chain Reaction has nothing to do with Mark and Moritz. They’ve never done any music. They just were the label makers, the A&Rs, however you want to call it.

On your label Scion Versions you are trying to resurrect Chain Reaction or not?
We weren’t thinking about Chain Reaction when we started it. The thing was that we still were having a lot of material that we had from live performances. Because from `96 till now my friend and I were performing live. But we were not doing recording. We had an amount of material that wasn’t released. And the situation with Chain Reaction wasn’t so good for us so we were never speaking about a release. Also because my friend was living in another city. So there was no time to go to the studio and record. But in 2002 we’ve done a mix CD for Tresor, which was called Arrange And Process Basic Channel Tracks, using new software. And because we were so much into it, using this software, reproducing or reshaping this material we were working on, it was automatically a new start of our own material. So in 2006 we finally started this thing to bring out the music that was still there but never released. We were never thinking about making a new Chain Reaction.

You mean the work on the Tresor CD inspired you to move on and produce your music? Was it the music of Basic Channel to urge you to do your own thing?
It was not so important for the creative process but it was very good for the routine of using the new software because we’ve been using the music for years. I used to play these records as a DJ and I knew the tracks inside out. I was inspired anyway during the whole period, and now bringing them together in this mix made us feel well prepared to produce our own music.

The software itself, does it help the music to develop, does it make a progress in music?
This one did, yes.

Does the music of Basic Channel put pressure on you? Do you want to break their level, go even higher? Do you ever want to be compared with BC?
I never compared. There are similarities because we have some common things we were using all the time, but I would never compare. But I find more similarities in the music I do nowadays with deep house from Detroit.

And you don’t feel any competition with them?
No, because we are one family.

All of the Chain Reaction artists hide under monikers and don’t show up, is that some kind of tribute to Detroit techno traditions, so that music is the first thing?
Very many people hide and don’t present themselves so much, it’s just a thing that many people do. It puts focus on the music more than on the person. Well, in the beginning there was one thing I wasn’t so happy about, that the first thing you pay attention to on a record is the label name, the name of Chain Reaction, and the name of the producer was printed in small letters. It changed after time, though. But you know, it’s just an attitude some people have.
You said you focus on Detroit music, what are your influences by the way?
Everything from Detroit, from New York and Chicago, deep house and techno music and of course some early German music. Too many to mention. The way the early house producers from Chicago and Detroit were minimalising music, like Larry Heard for example, and creating feelings that are not so in your face, more dissent and melancholic, this is what I like.
How did you record your Substance album on Chain Reaction? What inspired you to make it the way it is?
It started with one release. It was CR05 called “Relish”, and this song had 4 mixes, and 2 of them were towards one sound and others were deeper. It was just a session thing that happened through some months where I created things based on this. I made a second EP, which built a CD with the first one, plus some dubplates. Plus one from a session, that’s why I call it session elements. I’ve been not using a sampler for a long time, and I found out that the sounds may be so various, that’s why it came out that I had so many different little things that came out of this basic thing. And in the end I realized that it’s 14 tracks. No big thought behind it, it was just one of Chain Reaction’s basic tracks actually.

What is your attitude to minimal music?
Actually minimal music has been there, from the beginning of techno like Danny Bell, Sähkö from Finland, these guys. And the problem with minimal was that there was too much repetition and no inspiration to do other things or combination of things. Also because making music this way became so easy makes not so much difference and excitement, that’s it. The masses of too many similar things. There were things like loop techno revivals or hypes that were going on your nerve. I don’t know. It’s still there and it’s big so we’ll see if something else will come up probably that also gets on our nerve.

How does Hardwax feel itself due to the fact that a lot of record shops are closed? Taking into account the fact that it has a different background, it is so much divided from others. Wouldn’t the whole situation with the record industry damage Hardwax?
Well, I see a lot of record shops closing. But with Hardwax the thing is different because we’ve had that very stable hard-working mail service that we’ve started almost in the beginning with. And now with the record store, and the mail order on-line shop we have a variation of an income. And of course the way we select stuff is important. That maybe helps us to stay alive.

What are your predictions about the future of music, of this kind of music? Can we say it’s intelligent techno? Do you place any ideas behind the music for it to be intelligent?
This is always the most difficult question. What I do comes from the inside and I cannot describe it. Balance between the elements inside the music just happens because of the character and soul of the person. I never used terms like intelligent techno or something like this. I don’t know, it’s kind of a little genre, but I don’t know how long would it exist. I see that you guys talk about it and it’s more than 10 years now. So maybe it’s lasting.

But what is the future of techno music then?
There will always be a new style in techno, there is a lot of future in it, no matter if there are combinations with acoustic music, bands using electronics, all this weird styles. The most important new style for me is dubstep music, it’s a major influence for me.
It is connected to techno?
It’s connected to techno, but it’s more connected to UK garage, to dub. Not really drum’n’bass music, but the feeling sometimes. It’s also a new genre were you can find anything that is in the music itself – reggae, techno, industrial – it’s all in the style. This is very futuristic.

But doesn’t the fact that techno music deals with acoustic instruments, which it basically disclaimed, breaks the whole idea of techno?
There were always people who had acoustic stuff in their music, or had, I would say, acoustic elements and made a techno track out of it, because the repetition makes it techno. But Matthew Herbert still keeps acoustic in anything he does, and of course Carl Craig with all his jazz thing going on, so maybe the idea was to create soulful music with machines, and sometimes it’s like creating more robot things with machines, which is of course possible. But it’s hard to say where the trend is going to.

Russian version on mixmag.info