About the concept:
Here is the sixty-second instalment of our series “abc plays xyz”.
The idea behind it is to ask some DJs/mixing artists if they have an artist or label in mind that they love and would like to use for a mix.
So the approach of each mix is clear: the choosen DJ/mixing artist makes a selection of tracks produced by one artist (and her/his monikers) or released on a label (and its sublabels) and creates a nice mix from it.
About Javier Bähr:
Javier Bähr is a DJ and Producer from Munich, Germany. The former MMA – Mixed Munich Arts residents is a member of the techno label From Another Mind. By side the dancefloor orientated music he also curates the label and Radio Show Rohstoff, which sets his focus on ambient, drone, industrial and noise music.
About Stroboscopic Artefacts:
Stroboscopic Artefacts is the type of record label that can be compared favorably to respected catalysts like Warp and Basic Channel. While SA’s releases certainly do share some of the same sonic DNA as those imprints (e.g. the Warp-like concept of sound as non-orthogonal architecture, or a Basic Channel-esque romancing of spatiality and depth), it is the similarity in attitude which makes SA a reliable torchbearer those organizations’ efforts. The black-and-white floral motifs that grace the center labels of SA records, as well as the Monad series’ emphasis upon music as a messenger of organic evolution, capably hint at this: a fixation on growth and on ‘blooming’, on an incessant accretion of new ideas and new formal elements that must transcend any self-limiting expectations of genres or cliques. Stroboscopic Artefacts therefore endures not because it is concerned at all with the defensive act of ‘surviving,’ but because it is consumed with this determination to live a growth-oriented life and to accompany others in their personal quests towards the same.
Javier Bähr About His Choice:
I discovered the label Stroboscopic Artefacts after listening to Lucy the first time. I was incredibly impressed with the variety of tracks and genres he mixes when he plays. This diversity also reflects his own label. SA is a label that combines ambient, electronica, dub techno and techno to my taste.
Tracklist:
01. RRose – Kneeling
02. Roll The Dice – Ritenuto
03. Ken Karter – MX-01.11
04. Positive Center – Great Excavator
05. Ken Karter – MX-02.11
06. Sendai – Martens’ Deflict
07. Dadub – Metropolis
08. Dadub – Life (RRose Remix)
09. Tommy Four Seven – FFFFF
10. Pfirter – Atman
11. Lucy – Tof (Tommy Four Seven Remix)
12. Xhin – Mutate
13. Tommy Four Seven – Arx
14. Pfister – Universe
15. Donor – Portal
About the concept:
Here is the sixty-first instalment of our series “abc plays xyz”.
The idea behind it is to ask some DJs/mixing artists if they have an artist or label in mind that they love and would like to use for a mix.
So the approach of each mix is clear: the choosen DJ/mixing artist makes a selection of tracks produced by one artist (and her/his monikers) or released on a label (and its sublabels) and creates a nice mix from it.
About DJ Flush:
DJ FLUSH is the main man behind the label Killekill. As a dj as well as a label owner and promoter he has been exploring and pushing the borders of electronic music for over 20 years now. Typically built on a solid base of acid, jacking techno and Chicago house, his dj sets are dense and intense and he manages to hold the thin line between being there for his audience to make them rave – and educating as an innovator.
text taken from killekill.com
About Killekill:
KILLEKILL is a Berlin based company promoting music and events since June 2008. It began its journey as a weekly club night at Berghain Kantine. The ominous towering form of the ex-power plant setting the perfect scene for what was to come. The club-nights featured experimental live electronics, mesmerizing visuals and distinctive artwork courtesy of artist Flexn… Word quickly spread: There was a new crew in town and they meant business.
It was not long before the Killekill team shifted their attention towards creating a physical platform through which they could spread their sound across the globe. Thus, Killekill Records was born.
In keeping with the ethos of the club nights, the label sought to forge a new sound, its own sound. Each release combines a love for things new and old – merging the past and future, featuring a choice-selection of classic analogue cuts reminiscent of the early 90’s Sheffield bleep sound sit alongside cutting-edge atmospheric techno, hand-carved from pure static.
It should come as no surprise that each vinyl quickly found its way into record bags of some of the most-respected names in today’s electronic music scene. Aphex Twin, Surgeon, Rob Hall, Luke Slater, Blawan, Perc, Norman Nodge and Phil Kiernan are but a small few of the many artists who have supported Killekill in events across the world. Not one to be blinded by success, founder Nico Deuster and the Killekill team remain as dedicated to their sonic investigations as they were on night of the very first event; each release uncovering the previously unknown, following a jagged path, deep into uncharted sonic territory, whether it’s techno, acid, electro or abstract electronica. Following this idea, KILLEKILL has also kicked off the KRAKE FESTIVAL in 2010, a Berlin based festival for experimental dance music, as they call it.
2016 sees the team continuing to ignore boundaries set by record sales, trends and genres and taking it to the next level by starting several new labels.
Stay tuned for our future!
text taken from killekill.com
Listen & Download:
“DJ Flush plays Killekill” (download coming soon)
DJ Flush About His Choice: this is the Killekill mix to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Killekill and DJ Flush’s birthday
Tracklist:
01. W.H.O.R.E.S – Theme from W.H.O.R.E.S
02. Radioactive Man – Addict
03. Sync24 x Alienata – Confused
04. Neil Landstrumm – Night Train
05. Affie Yusuf feat. Trevor Loveys – Onna Roll
06. Snuff Crew – Eat This
07. The Fool’s Stone – Nonversation
08. Furfriend – Touch Myself
09. Furfriend – Geck (Scalameriya Mix)
10. Death Bulb – Zement (Hanno’s Third Time’s the Charm Mix)
11. Headless Horseman – Under The Earth
12. Umwelt – Revolt
13. The Mover – Dark Comedown
14. Max Durante – Aggressive Behaviour
15. Eomac – Shell of Dark
16. Kamikaze Space Programme – Type 3 (Joe Farr Remix)
17. Snuff Crew – Go Back
18. Dj Spider & Franklin de Costa – Slithis
19. Cassegrain & Tin Man – Sex Kit
20. Thomas Köner – The Weary Seer
21. Lakker – Darcdub
22. Bill Youngman – The 2
Introduction:
Ron Albrecht began his musical career in the early nineties. His first trips to Berlin clubs like Tresor, Bunker and E-Werk made him switch from being a regular music consumer to discovering the field of performing and DJ-ing. Obligatory visits of Germany’s possibly most popular record shops back then, such as the Hardwax in Berlin and Container Records in Hamburg, led Ron Albrecht to finding is very own style. Inspired by national and international scene experts like Tanith, Rok, Kid Paul and Jeff Mills, just to name a few, it was time to come out into the open for the first time in 1993.
Over the years he played his music in almost every club in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, but he didn’t stop there. Performances at music festivals such as the Fusion (2000, 2006, 2013), SMS (2005, 2006) and Melt (2000) as well as appearances in many well known clubs, e.g. Tresor Berlin, Ultraschall Munich, Phonodrome and Waagenbau Hamburg, Muna Bad Klosterlausnitz and most recently Berghain Berlin, maintain his musical career. While his sets of modern sound always make for variety, it is important to the artist to always enrich his music by refering to the origins of techno and house.
Between 1997 and 2002 Ron Albrecht additionally worked as a producer together with his associate Thomas Kufner, releasing several records on the labels Sind Records and ElektronikParlament. He also worked as co-operator of the Easytraxx Recordstores in Schwerin from 1995 to 2006.
Above all, his name is still closely connected to the old-established Gerberei club in Schwerin, which the co-founder, organizer and resident ran from 1994 until its closing in 2013.
Brothers in Mind, a DJ and producer collaboration, is another one of Ron Albrechts projects which he puts into practice together with his longtime friend Stefan Rein.
Their newest musical output can be found under their label Pure – “Tatort”
About the concept:
Here is the sixtieth instalment of our series “abc plays xyz”.
The idea behind it is to ask some DJs/mixing artists if they have an artist or label in mind that they love and would like to use for a mix.
So the approach of each mix is clear: the choosen DJ/mixing artist makes a selection of tracks produced by one artist (and her/his monikers) or released on a label (and its sublabels) and creates a nice mix from it.
About Arsenum:
Originally from a small town near Nuremberg and partly from Romania, arsenum is a 19 year old music collector.
While still in elementary school, he started listening to artists such as Aphex Twin or Radiohead, which now still have a great influence in his DJ sets.
Later in life, he was introduced to German club culture in his local town, as well as clubs like ://about blank in Berlin or Ankali in Prague, where the program heavily represented his taste in electronic music.
When buying his first record, he simultaneously started learning how to mix, from free internet software to, eventually, CDJs and Vinyl.
Arsenum always tries to combine several genres, occasionally breaking the 4/4 rhythm and combining old with new, house with techno, ambient with IDM. To give certain music a bigger canvas, he also created a platform called Ambient Noise Experiment.
There, he wants to break the conventional rules of the scene and give techno music a more, well, experimental approach. It is a small space to share dj and live sets as well as productions, of him and other like-minded artists.
Listen & Download:
“Arsenum plays Brenda” (download coming soon)
Arsenum About His Choice:
it was early this year, deep in the winter, when I browsed for some records at Hardwax. I stumbled across Prosody, a release from Brenda, which was desribed as a „Superb, pure, wide big room Techno EP“. Pretty much enjoying it, I looked for similar releases on their site.
There I began listening to every of the, by then, 8 releases und putting them in my basket record after record. The music just got to me. You could stare out of the window, watch the snow falling into the Romanian landscape (where I was by the time) and the music would just fit perfectly. Although mostly rather fast, still maintaining such an atmospheric sound, truly felt like a form of art for me.
So I thought an hour long podcast dedicated purely to the label would surely create a mesmerising level of sound and also be well deserved.
Tracklist:
01. Mike Davis – Communique From An Absent Future 3
02. CNCPT – 002.2
03. Company – Prosody 3
04. CNCPT – 000.3
05. CNCPT – 001.3
06. Company – Prosody 2
07. CNCPT – 002.1
08. CNCPT – 001.1
09. CNCPT – Citofono 1
10. Company – 003.1
11. CNCPT – 002.3
12. CNCPT – 002.6
13. CNCPT – Peonia 4
14. Mike Davis – Communique From An Absent Future 4
15. Company – 003.2
16. Mike Davis – Communique From An Absent Future 5
17. Company – Metrical 1
18. CNCPT – Peonia 3
Introduction:
Newa, female shooting star from Tbilisi, Georgia
Interview:
Hi Ana, nice to have you for our “Music & Interview” series. You are one of the main characters of the young Georgian techno scene which is also important for the political development of the country. But let’s start with the very beginning. Your childhood and youth. Could you please tell us a little bit about where and how you grew up? And what was your first favourite music? What kind of music did you listen when you were a teenager?
Thanks for having me for this interview. I grew up in Tbilisi, in the capital of Georgia. During my childhood Georgia as a country was having a lot of difficulties. As we had a civil war and war with Russia. So the situation was not good, we had shortage of electricity I remember learning on candle lights and doing “concerts” for my family as we were gathering in one room to economy the candles I was in the center of attention. As a child it was fun for me. But when I look at it now it affected me a lot and not in a good way. My favorite music when I was kid was jazz, because my grandmother was a piano teacher, she had her jazz band and I was singing in the band. Occasionally playing drums and piano. My father and grandfather had a huge collection of vinyls from frank Sinatra, Earth Wind and Fire, Steve wonder, Keith Jarrett, and lot more. Also rock bands like pink Floyd, led zeppelin and many many more. So I grew up listening to this music and I remember when I first heard Keith Jarrett playing “the wind” I felt so much love and disappointment in it, I cried a lot.
(Newa, live pic)
You are a classical trained musician and have a background as Jazz musician. What exactly did you train? How did you become a Jazz musician? Did you play in a regular band?
As I told you in the beginning I was playing in my grandmothers’ jazz band. She is a piano teacher and teaches classical jazz and classical music. She had a small jazz band and I was singing there, was playing piano and drums occasionally. We were having concerts around Georgia and it was fun for me. I earned my first salary from singing in the band and I was 8 years old.
(Newa Pic)
After performing Jazz you decided to spin and produce techno music. When and how did you come up with the idea to switch the genre? Was there a special moment that you impressed? Who are your musical influences/role models/heroes?
I started producing experimental music at first, I wanted to learn more, find out more, it’s a part of me that is always looking for the answers so I found techno and acid techno particularly. It felt really pumpy and playfull and interesting to know so I started making techno. I remember the first techno track I’ve heard and it was acid. It was from Datacide – Datacide II album from a collaborative project by Tetsu Inoue met Uwe Schmidt. It’s a mix of ambient and techno music and it impressed me a lot and I started digging deeper.
(stream of “Turtle” from “SUB.REC.5” on Subspiele Records)
As mentioned you are vital part of the Georgian scene. So you play regularly at clubs like Khidi & Bassiani. Could you please describe these 2 clubs and say why you lile them? Please also tell us something about the scene itself in general (parties, producers, audience etc)?
Both of the clubs are very special for the Georgian scene, they have different souls, although they are both techno/house clubs mainly. Both have their own unique soul and for everyone they are different experience, some find their home on Khidi others on Bassiani. I just recommend to visit this clubs, and have your own opinion about them. The scene is getting bigger and bigger day by day I just wish the quality to be on a higher level amongst producers and for me artist who has followers and people who like their music has a great responsibility towards them, we have a power to change so we have to use it wise. Because you can kill with music, and why not do the contrary?!
(Flag of Georgia)
Both clubs got some attention from the “European” club scene because of amazing line-ups etc. So many people here were shocked by the (temporary) shutdown of Bassiani and another club by the Georgian police earlier this year. This led to protests in front of the parliament building. Also Khidi supported the young demonstrators who also expressed the political views there. Could you please tell us something about the background of the closing, the political situation in Georgia and your personal thoughts about it?
I was there for two days, first day was happier then the second. We were nearly attacked by fascists and nationalist groups who came up there. Dance is a political act in Georgia. There are a lot of people who were tired of this war and just went to leave in Europe or somewhere else and I understand them it’s tough. But we are here to defend it and we will dance together and fight together till the end. Political situation is in hand of pro-Russian government and Russia for us is a cage, is a monster who is tearing us apart everyday taking our citizens from their houses, during many centuries this country was causing controversy amongst Georgians. We are for freedom we won’t take this any longer and we will win this war.
(BBC video)
Enough politics – let’s get back to your music vision. You released e.g. EPs on La Chinerie & Subspiele Records and tracks on Semantica, Ben Klock’s label Klockworks & Bassiani’s label. How do you start with a track production? What are your inspirations? Which equipment do you use? How is the production process?
Track production process starts very early in my head. I get inspired by people, nature, music, books, I get those emotions in me and process them for a while, before that I’m just a librarian, who is gathering sounds and training the skills, and when the right time comes I just sit next to my equipment and everything just comes out of me like I’m giving birth to something that has a soul and you can’t touch it but it’s in there. I’ve been making music in my computer but now I can afford to buy machines, it’s more fun with them.
(stream of Newa’s remix of Dold’s “Version”, out on Interstate Records)
But you don’t just release stuff on several labels, you are also involved in running the label Icon Trax. In total three samplers were already released – including two tracks by yourself. What’s your idea / philosophy behind it? What’s your task there? Any special image you want to create?
Icontrax represents light in the darkness. As the world leaves in the darkness unfortunately we want to discover the light in it. We want to focus on light. We want to avoid releasing “regular” mainstream music. We focus on Georgian artists and their soul through music. We always listen together with Berika he’s labels boss. And when we feel it we understand instantly. We want icontrax to be a truly Georgian label, represent Georgian soul and our feelings
(stream of the third release on Icontrax)
You support the local scene e.g. with your label mentioned above. Could you please name 5 Georgian artists who we should check out and have an eye on? What’s the reason for you to like them? What makes them special?
Skyra – he’s also released on icontrax, he has two tracks in two different released. I love how he looks at music, he’s way of thinking is totally different. We are now releasing Ep consists of 4 skyras track.
Nicole – she had a boiler room debut on Bassiani couple of months ago, she was making music in a duo named by body thrills but now she’s making music alone. She hasn’t released her music yet but I’ve listened to couple of her tracks and she will take you away for sure.
Phonothek – he works in the field of dark ambient and uses his horn delicately in his music, he has several alias and plays horn professionally in a Georgian philharmonic orchestra.
Octachoron – it’s a duo from Georgia and they released their first album this year “Octachoron – Land Of Meta” you should definitely check out their spacey sounds.
(Electronic Beats feature about “Photon”)
Getting closer to the end of the interview let us talk about your DJ career again. Beside releasing on Klockworks you have another connection to Ben Klock – you played 3 times at his “Photon” show. What is so special about it? How did you experience these nights? Any other gigs you kept in mind because of special moments and experiences? What happened at these parties?
I feel very honored to take part in Photon nights, which are combined with the amazing lights that creates the atmosphere along with the music. First one was at Berghain, and it was absolutely thrilling for me because I knew I would play there 6 months before so as the date was approaching I felt more and more anxious and nervous, we went there by 8;30 as I had to start at 9 and as soon as we entered I felt at home, Sterac was playing before me with his warm vibes and when I stood there I saw all my friends around the world standing very close to me it was such a special moment. I don’t remember what I played which tracks I played it was going simultaneously with the people with the lights and I felt that connection which was unforgettable and I’m thankful for ben and Klockworks that I can be part of those amazing nights.
(snippets of “Split One” by Newa / Mariska Neerman on Semantica)
This is already the last part of our small chat. So what do you plan for your near future? Any releases coming up? Or some new special gigs?
Releases are mainly V/A-s, also just released on split Ep on Semantica and I’m really happy about it. My schedule is getting busier and busier day by day so I’m trying to stay in shape and continue loving music as I did before. Thank you
