Pulse Radio - Latest Interviews

Getting To Know Bas Amro

http://pulseradio.net — Fri, 24 May 2013 22:05:28 +1000

Pulse caught up with Freerange artist, Bas Amro ahead of his South African tour.

Originally from Haarlem in Holland, Bas Amro has been producing music since the age of 12, his style varies through his productions, but they all have that gold thread through them bringing them together and making him recognizable. He plays deep house that will get any dance floor moving. He has had club support from: Justin Martin, Osunlade, Pezzner, Seth Troxler, Tom Middleton, Ben Watt, Steve Bug, and Dairmount. As well as being signed to Freerange records, he is also signed to labels like Audio Tonic Records, Nightbird music, Bla Bla, i! Records and Wolfskuil Records.

Whether he is playing deep house, house, techhouse or techno, be sure to know that Bas Amro will be one special artist to see.

What's up Bas, hope you are super excited for your South African tour. What's going on in Holland, your home country, at the moment in terms of electronic music? The scene is definitely growing, and new concepts are born on a high pace. There really is a lot to do in the Netherlands, I know a lot of people here don't agree, but I think we are underestimating what we have here. Amsterdam has a lot going on, and certainly more than the other big cities. However I wouldn't particularly call it the "best" scene in NL. Other cities like Rotterdam, Nijmegen and Groningen have a lot to offer, too. The smaller festivals are gaining popularity very fast and it seems to me like the events are finally becoming more important than the lineups, slowly but surely. I think this is very important if people want to discover new music.

We've had a few artists from Freerange records grace us recently in SA. Have you heard anything about the South African music scene and what do you have planned for us? Anything new and experimental? Well not too much! I know a lot of electronic music from SA and I spoke a lot with people living over there, but I still feel like I'm going to be very surprised once I get there. But yeah I have prepared some stuff. In the past few weeks I collected a lot of new stuff from my producer friends and from my own unfinished projects, which I will use in my SA sets the next weeks. I'm really hoping to get to play something the people over there have never heard before, that's the thing I love to do the most.

With Ibiza 2013 coming up, do you have any plans to touch down there? No I don't. There's not a lot of room there for young dj's like me, I believe.

Who has been a constant guide throughout your musical career? I can't really tell whether it's a good thing or a bad thing, but I haven't really had a constant guide throughout. Although Benny Rodrigues, Darko Esser and Jimpster have been really good mentors for me, for which I'm very grateful, definitely. They all gave me the confidence I needed to get to where I am now. All three of them have a different and very inspiring view on electronic music and music in general.

If you could produce with any artist, who would it be? I find it very inspiring to find out about other people's methods in the studio. However I would prefer just watching over one's shoulder instead of interfering. Seeing Mr. G at work would surely be amazing, his tracks have inspired me a lot. I also really enjoy producing music with Ivano Tetelepta. If I have the feeling that one of us is slowing the other one down, it doesn't work for me. With Ivano I feel like we push each other in new directions.

You started producing at the age of 12, thats hectic, did you have any people influencing you at the time in terms of music production/trained musicians? Unfortunately not. Back then I did not know anybody who produced music. I had no other way than to search the internet like the nerd I was (am) and find out how the stuff works. In the beginning it was very difficult and frustrating, but looking back I feel like this phase really is responsible for the musical identity I have today. When I started getting in touch with other producers there were a lot of funny situations in which I found out that I had very primitive but effective methods.

How are you constantly evolving your sets as an artist/producer? I still feel like I'm just discovering this whole thing, so as I learn every day I evolve my sets automatically, I guess.

Listen to Bas Amro on Pulse Radio.

Ryan Elliott

http://pulseradio.net — Fri, 24 May 2013 19:27:41 +1000

Wolf Music: "Promoter! Promoter! More Champagne.."

http://pulseradio.net — Fri, 24 May 2013 16:51:52 +1000

Wolf Music is all about house music. They love the stuff, and thankfully, so does everyone else at the moment. As a result, the lovely guys behind the label are travelling the world playing shows to house and disco lovers from sunny Anglesey to sunnier Croatia, spreading their love with everyone they meet. We chatted to guys to find out what really makes them howl (sorry) ahead of thier gig at Gottwood Festival in Wales in June.

You guys have been holding it down at Wolf Music for a while now – releasing some great EPs over the last couple of years. How did you guys start out? We started about 4 years ago now, when Matt was given the opportunity to work with Atmosfear ‘Dancing In Outer Space’. What he had in mind didn’t fit with his current record label and we had been speaking about working together at some point and this seemed the perfect opportunity. From the very beginning we have been working with KRL & Greymatter with Medlar coming on board on WOLFEP008. KRL & Greymatter are brothers and Medlar was working as an intern at the same company as Matt and Greymatter. It’s a close knit thing with us hanging out a lot (when we get time), which I think makes the whole thing even more enjoyable for everyone involved. People often ask us where the name comes from. It originates from a nickname Matt gave me the first time we met a few years earlier.

You guys are self proclaimed house lovers. How do you feel about the deep/90s house revival we've been experiencing over the last few years? Where will you guys be after the bubble bursts? What’s quite nice is at the minute you can play a wide spectrum of house in a set, going back a few years ago anything slightly different to what was in vogue and people would immediately be turned off. We aren’t quite old enough to remember the early to mid 90’s records the first time around but I do remember record shopping in the early 00’s and you would see all these records in the bargain bins because that sound wasn’t ‘in’. When you see how much some of those records are going for now, it is quite amazing really.

We’ve never really seen ourselves as a straight up house label but obviously you become influenced by trends around you, this is only natural. Also as artists develop there is a progression to their sound and these are drawn from different influences. We have always taken each track on its own merit regardless of what type of sound it is; this is an important part of A&R process when signing music to release on the label.

As house and disco lovers where do you stand on the digital vs analogue debate? Are you vinyl purists or is it just about the music for you regardless of the format? We’re certainly not vinyl purists but we still play it out as much as possible. The problem is, the majority of clubs aren’t setup for vinyl and even if they are it’s an afterthought. We’re not going to spend 2 hours trying to play vinyl if the records are skipping, feeding back or the turntable isn’t working. That’s not enjoyable to the people who are in the crowd, especially when 90% of them don’t care what format is being played. I could talk about this subject all day but no one needs to read another vinyl vs digital debate.

You're playing at Gottwood Festival in Wales in June. It's got a strong lineup – you must be looking forward to playing at it? Having heard some great things about the festival from not only people who have attended, but also DJ’s that have played previously we are really looking forward to experiencing the festival first hand. We are playing on the Sunday as part of Tief presents WOLF Music. The stage will run throughout the day with Tief residents Thick As Thieves and John Malcolm Moore as well as Bicep, KRL, Matt & I coming along for the ride. We also have the honour of closing the festival on the Sunday night. Everyone should well and truly be in the festival spirit by then!

You're also booked for a handful of other festivals over the summer in the UK and in Croatia. How do you think your sound will work on the festival circuit? The response when we have played festivals in the past has been pretty positive. Matt & I’s style of DJ’ing isn’t straight up house and I believe this puts us in good stead when playing to a crowd that might not all be ‘heads’. A DJ set is all about entertaining the crowd that you have in front of you and if that means catering for them, then so be it. That doesn’t mean you have to cheese it up…

In the last few years Croatia appears to be rapidly becoming the go to destination for certain strains of electronic music. Do you think it will continue to grow and potentially challenge Ibiza as the European clubbing capital or do you think it's a case of too many eggs in one basket? Croatia is an interesting topic of conversation at the minute. It’s definitely growing in terms of attendance and the number of festivals, I can’t really comment on the comparisons between Croatia and Ibiza as for my sins I have never been to the White Isle! I have read that DJ Mag is preparing a Croatian edition of the magazine that will be distributed in cities and festival sites throughout the summer. I think that speaks volumes to how the industry is viewing Croatia at the minute.

There are loads of attributes that work in Croatia’s favour, it’s still relatively cheap for example. I’m not sure if that will change when it joins the EU this year. I don’t believe they plan to adopt the Euro as there currency though. The food is fantastic, weather is faultless and the Adriatic Sea is beautiful. Watch out for those sea urchins though!

The events surrounding last years shut down of Bloc festival on the first night have been well documented, but what are your thoughts on the current state of the UK festival scene? Is there any festival you would particularly like to be booked for? Every summer new festivals seem to pop up. I’m not sure how far away we are from saturation point in terms of the number of attendees, but it certainly means there is a lot of choice and the festival really have to make sure the paying punter is getting a good experience. Not only in terms of the acts that are playing but also in terms of the food and drink on offer as well as non-musical entertainment. There seems to be a lot more festivals that are incorporating art into the programming. When I think back to those day ‘super’ festivals that were popular 10 years ago, all that was on offer was a greasy burger washed down with a warm can of Carling while you queued to go on some dodgy fairground ride. The attention to detail is a lot more important these days, which can only be a good thing. Our major problem in this country is the weather!

We are very fortunate this year to playing at some great festivals, Gottwood, Glastonbury, Secret Garden Party & Zoo Project. For me these are the festivals that I have wanted to be booked for in the last few years.

In a past you talked about DJ riders – the absurdity of some, and the stupidity of promoters on others. How much more difficult is playing festivals with multiple artists (and therefore multiple riders) compared to playing smaller events? Have you had any rider horror stories? I think apart from a few exceptions, the concept of a rider at a festival is pretty much non-existent. At one of festival we played last year the stage manager was really apologetic because the entire rider had been drunk, we started playing and next thing I know he is thrusting a bottle of red wine under our noses. Not your standard rider tipple, especially at a festival. Not even sure where he found it. Was a nice drop if I remember correctly.

My favourite rider story was when I was promoting parties around 8 years ago, a DJ who will remain nameless got on the mic and starting shouting ‘promoter, promoter, more champagne to the DJ booth’. What was even more bizarre was the fact we hadn’t given him any in the first place.

You said in the same interview that you were introduced to Buckie (Buckfast Tonic Wine to the uneducated) at a gig in Glasgow. Will you be packing some when you hit the festivals this year? We did joke that we would add ‘x 2 bottle of Buckie’ to the rider but I have never seen a bottle since. I think next time we go to Scotland we will request some. If anyone has a hook up with the Monks at the Abbey, let us know.

What does the future hold for Wolf Music? Can you give us any scoops on what you have coming up? Release wise, WOLFEP018 has just hit the shops featuring music from Session Victim, Medlar, Squarehead and Ishmael. Our next release will contain three tracks from Dutch wonder kid Frits Wentink. He is definitely someone to watch out for this year. After that we have a special collaboration EP from Greymatter & KRL, celebrating our 20th release on the label. We will also be releasing a full album from Medlar later in the year as well.

Catch the guys playing at Gottwood Festival Thurssday, 20 - Sunday, 23 June in Anglesey, Wales.

Listen to Medlar on Pulse Radio.

Djebali's Music Motion & Movement

http://pulseradio.net — Thu, 23 May 2013 18:36:00 +1000

MMM are bringing underground French mainstay Djebali to London for an exclusive bash this weekend at Nomad London. The French club kid runs his Djebali imprint (specially for his analogue productions) after debuting for DC10 in 2011. Plying the deeper and groovier side of 4-4 music, the name is gearing up for a busy Summer alongside friends Dan Ghenacia and the Apollonia gang. Read on for a catch up as Mehdi talks vinyl, analogue, playing London and his deep love for Ibiza.

Djebali your name is interesting.. Is this a cultural signifier? What does it mean? It’s actually just my surname ! Funny thing it starts with "DJ" and a lot of people at the beginning called me Ebali, but in full it’s Mehdi Djebali!

As we speak to you you're replying from Ibiza... Do you have a busy summer there this year? Yes I will spend all the summer here in the Apollonia villa, like last year … I love the island, there’s a lot of different parties and so many artists in the same place it’s amazing ! For me, the first gigs here will be a boat party end of may with Ibiza Sonica, and Circoloco the 3rd June.

What's the best place that you've played in your career this far and for what reason? There are several actually, but i’ll say DC10 for the vibe and its legendary status, and also the Lottus afterhours in Porto - the people over there are so nice, i loved the energy there. And last but not least, Womb club in Japan : it truly was a dream come true playing there!

When playing in London specifically, what do you like about the crowds here? How does the city seem unique to you? I’m always impressed by the number of parties in London… This city is unique cause you can find a party everywhere : under a bridge, in a public toilet, in big warehouse…. It s crazy !! And there is a true culture of electronic music : the crowd is really involved in the music.

What's coming up on the release schedule? Are you looking like a busy man? Yes! Just finished ( djebali 07 ), gonna be out begining of june… and starting to work on ( djebali 08 ). Also got a remix coming on Turquoise Blue and another one for Jef K’s label, Silver Network.

The French scene seems to morph and change shape as time goes on - what are your thoughts about the Parisian scene in general? I’m proud of Paris ! A lot of things happened in the last few years. I remember 5 years ago, the nightlife was dying in Paris and it was hard to find good parties, except in big clubs. Now a lot of new promoters are making amazing parties and pushing the Parisian scene forward. There’s also a lot of great djs of differrent styles… I guess paris is back worldwide.

You were a key figure on the Freak n chic label... Are there any plans to get involved with Apollonia in the future as yet? Nothing planned yet but be sure there will be! We are really close so we just wait for the right project, as i spend a lot of time on my own imprint these days…

What can we expect from you when you play for MMM? What do your current dj sets sound like? It depends on a lot of things, like the location, the capacity, the vibe and the time when you play ! but it will be house, warm, with a lot of groove and maybe a little bit wild!

Give us three tracks that have been a permanent fixture in your record bag...

Romanthony – Let me show your love (RIP)

Chez Damier – KMS49

DJ Assassin – A Face in The Crowd – Intellidread mix

Finally are you still pursuing your (djebali) run of analogue, vinyl only productions? What is it about this idea that warranted its own series? It allows me to release exactly what i want, when i want – this is the real luxury I think, that is not possible when releasing on someone else’s label. And it’s important i get music out to people quickly while it’s still fresh ! So I’ll continue the series as long as i can… check the new release 07 coming in June.

www.facebook.com/djebalidj
https://soundcloud.com/djebali
http://djebali.com

Listen to MMM on Pulse Radio.

Right Before Boarding: Paco Osuna on Chicago & House

http://pulseradio.net — Wed, 22 May 2013 23:50:19 +1000

The Mindshake Records label boss is heading this moment to Chicago to play one of his favorite spots, SpyBar on Friday, May 23rd. Right before he boarded the plane from Colombia to the ORD, we managed to catch him for a quick moment and ask him what he looks forward to in Chicago, the birthplace of House music.

What are some of the sites you look forward to visiting while you're in the Windy city? I love to visit the city centre to go shopping, it's a cool place for that. Also just being here and walking around on the streets, I'm totally in love with this city!

House music runs deep in this city, with a street honorarily named after Frankie Knuckles "The Godfather of House Music." Does Chicago's house music history have a special meaning for you? House music in general has a special meaning for me! I have to say though, that I have never been a massive fan of vocal house. I have a big love for other DJs that live in Chicago though, Kerri Chandler for example has had a big influence more on me.

Is this your first time playing at Spybar? If not, how many times have you played here before/? What draws you back? I don't know exactly how many times I have played at Spy Bar, but I know it is a lot! It is my favourite club in town and I feel very at home here, Dino always treats me really well and for me, this is the most important thing. Plus the club has something new every time I come! It's constantly evolving and I always love to see the new changes.

With the ensuing popularity of electronic music, do you find yourself touring the States more and more? Is this difference between Europe and US subsiding? Honestly, my career hasn't change that much in terms of touring, I'm pretty much doing the same shows every year. But of course my popularity is way bigger then it was 6-7 years ago. In the past we were invited to events for 500/600 people, now I'm playing huge events, but I will always love playing the small and familiar clubs like Spy Bar.

This summer, what are you most looking forward to? Perhaps an album, festival, or gig… I have a lot of shows and festivals I can't really mention them all, but if I have to name a few that I'm most excited about, I have to say closing for Monegros Festival and also my residency at ENTER (Richie Hawtin's party) at Space in Ibiza and of course tons of other gigs!

What is your favorite Chicago house artist or track?
Joe smooth and Kerry Chandler ;)

Listen to Paco Osuna on Pulse Radio

wolf music

http://pulseradio.net — Wed, 22 May 2013 22:33:49 +1000

You guys have been holding it down at Wolf Music for a while now – releasing some great EPs over the last couple of years. How did you guys start out? We started about 4 years ago now, when Matt was given the opportunity to work with Atmosfear ‘Dancing In Outer Space’. What he had in mind didn’t fit with his current record label and we had been speaking about working together at some point and this seemed the perfect opportunity.

From the very beginning we have been working with KRL & Greymatter with Medlar coming on board on WOLFEP008. KRL & Greymatter are brothers and Medlar was working as an intern at the same company as Matt and Greymatter. It’s a close knit thing with us hanging out a lot (when we get time), which I think makes the whole thing even more enjoyable for everyone involved. People often ask us where the name comes from. It originates from a nickname Matt gave me the first time we met a few years earlier.

You guys are self proclaimed house lovers. How do you feel about the deep/90s house revival we've been experiencing over the last few years? Where will you guys be after the bubble bursts? What’s quite nice is at the minute you can play a wide spectrum of house in a set, going back a few years ago anything slightly different to what was in vogue and people would immediately be turned off. We aren’t quite old enough to remember the early to mid 90’s records the first time around but I do remember record shopping in the early 00’s and you would see all these records in the bargain bins because that sound wasn’t ‘in’. When you see how much some of those records are going for now, it is quite amazing really. We’ve never really seen ourselves as a straight up house label but obviously you become influenced by trends around you, this is only natural. Also as artists develop there is a progression to their sound and these are drawn from different influences. We have always taken each track on its own merit regardless of what type of sound it is; this is an important part of A&R process when signing music to release on the label.

As house and disco lovers - where do you stand on the digital vs analogue debate? Are you vinyl purists or is it just about the music for you regardless of the format? We’re certainly not vinyl purists but we still play it out as much as possible. The problem is, the majority of clubs aren’t setup for vinyl and even if they are it’s an afterthought. We’re not going to spend 2 hours trying to play vinyl if the records are skipping, feeding back or the turntable isn’t working. That’s not enjoyable to the people who are in the crowd, especially when 90% of them don’t care what format is being played. I could talk about this subject all day but no one needs to read another vinyl vs digital debate.

You're playing at Gottwood Festival in Wales in June. It's got a strong lineup – you must be looking forward to playing at it? Having heard some great things about the festival from not only people who have attended, but also DJ’s that have played previously we are really looking forward to experiencing the festival first hand. We are playing on the Sunday as part of Tief presents WOLF Music. The stage will run throughout the day with Tief residents Thick As Thieves and John Malcolm Moore as well Bicep, KRL, Matt & I coming along for the ride. We also have the honour of closing the festival on the Sunday night. Everyone should well and truly be in the festival spirit by then!

You're also booked for a handful of other festivals over the summer in the UK and in Croatia. How do you think your sound will work on the festival circuit? The response when we have played festivals in the past has been pretty positive. Matt & I’s style of DJ’ing isn’t straight up house and I believe this puts us in good stead when playing to a crowd that might not all be ‘heads’. A DJ set is all about entertaining the crowd that you have in front of you and if that means catering for them, then so be it. That doesn’t mean you have to cheese it up…

You said in the same interview that you were introduced to Buckie (Buckfast Tonic Wine to the uneducated) at a gig in Glasgow. Will you be packing some when you hit the festivals this year? We did joke that we would add ‘x 2 bottle of Buckie’ to the rider but I have never seen a bottle since. I think next time we go to Scotland we will request some. If anyone has a hook up with the Monks at the Abbey, let us know.

What does the future hold for Wolf Music? Can you give us any scoops on what you have coming up?

Release wise, WOLFEP018 has just hit the shops featuring music from Session Victim, Medlar, Squarehead and Ishmael. Our next release will contain three tracks from Dutch wonder kid Frits Wentink. He is definitely someone to watch out for this year. After that we have a special collaboration EP from Greymatter & KRL, celebrating our 20th release on the label. We will also be releasing a full album from Medlar later in the year as well.

Kit Webster: Catering To The Senses

http://pulseradio.net — Wed, 22 May 2013 21:06:26 +1000

Australian artist Kit Webster is fast becoming one of the most respected emerging talents in cutting-edge technological art and design, gaining wide attention for his audiovisual installations. In anticipation of the upcoming Terminal Projekt events as part of Vivid Sydney - where he will be providing an exciting array of 3D video mapping projections presented in association with Kopparberg Cider - Joe Crossley of Astral Projekt got on the blower with Webster for us to find out a little bit about his work and what he has in store for Terminal Projekt. It's design geek meeting design geek, in a good way.

Pulse Radio: How would you describe yourself and what it is you do? Kit Webster: I’m an artist/designer. I work a lot in combining technology with art and design, both inside and outside of the computer, trying to merge physical and digital worlds and dimensions. In terms of inside the computer we’re talking creating models of sculptures and then having them built and fabricated, then illuminating and texturizing them with animation.

And how did you get into this line of work? I started off in electronic music actually. I started experimenting back in the 90s with Logic Pro, plugins and software synthesis.

So you were making your own music? Yeah I was working on my own music, a lot of soundscape type stuff, IDM, electronica. Really experimental based stuff working with side-chaining and creating organic soundscapes and textures. A friend of mine told me about a course at RMIT called Sound Art which opened me up to all these different areas; quadrophonic soundscapes, creating immersive sound fields. Through that I also got the opportunity to do some video art electives and through that discovered new media art and all the cool stuff that’s happening around the world, like mapping, installations and immersive environments.

So very much the leading edge of this trend that was starting to emerge seven or eight years ago? Yeah, well I was checking it all out online, the things going on in Germany, the UK and France – these amazing installations that people were building and I just go hooked.

Were there any guys in particular who were really blowing your mind? Yeah, Anti-VJ. One of those guys, Lego Man, made the ‘3Destruct’ installation. I thought that was amazing.

What have been some of the most recent projects you’ve been working on? I saw that installation you did with the tiles on the wall, which I thought was really interesting. What was that called? It’s got a terrible name actually. ‘Porcelana Innovadora’.

How did you come up with that name? It’s kind of Spanish for “innovate porcelain”. The tiles I used are Spanish.

It’s quite beautiful. Thanks. I really want to keep developing it, because it was really just a huge experiment.

PORCELANA INNOVADORA from Kit Webster on Vimeo.

Was that all done with the Mad Mapper program? Yeah. Well not all of it. It was done in Flash and After Effects and then to get the precision on the sculpture right we used Mad Mapper.

You worked on a project recently with Calvin Harris. Can you tell us about that? I actually haven’t put up on my website all the VJ gigs that I’ve done - I’ve done heaps. The Calvin Harris one was at the Prince Of Wales for Superdisco where they had a huge LED screen and they wanted some audio-reactive waveforms. I’ve got a collection of audio-reactive software that I can run through their system so I just went in, plugged in, and away it went.

Just going back to your previous question though about other projects, I just got back from Thailand and Shanghai where I did this thing for Vice; using lasers for a car installation.

Cool, what was that all about? Basically Ford are bringing out the new Fiesta and they wanted to team up with Vice to create a thing called ‘The 24-hour Fiesta Project’ where the idea is that the Ford Fiesta is marketed to young people who stay up for 24-hours. So they selected my work because it’s got that luminescent thing going on. So I travelled around Shanghai for a week garnering inspiration. I went to Bangkok as well where they took me out to all these different parties and a few other places to get inspiration. Through all that I built this installation that was made up of all these different coloured lasers, which were hitting off these little surgical mirrors placed on C-stands and also on little telescopic arms which were magnetised to the car. So it was this kind of a geometric web around the car. It was a little bit like the English collective that did ‘Speed Of Light’.

What I really like about your work is you have a very fresh approach. Very simple, but very effective. Do you find it hard to pen things back when you get big, elaborate ideas? It’s interesting that you ask that. I was VJing at a big psychedelic trance party a couple of months ago. The interesting thing with that genre is you can go crazy with the video and visuals and really push the colours and the psychedelic complexity. But I think with Terminal Projekt it’s a bit more minimalistic in terms of the music, so I’ll have to be quite cautious in how trippy and abstract I go with it.

But yeah I think about that a lot – how far can you take it whilst still conforming within the boundaries. It’s connected to that whole world of being technically proficient but also crazy enough to live in an abstract sphere. That’s the problem with a lot of artists – they live in such an abstract world that when it comes to executing technical projects they’re unable to pull it off, unless they’ve got a producer on board. Even then it can be hard for them to get their ideas across.

sugar mountain festival 2011 - visual production reel from Kit Webster on Vimeo.

I think that’s where your experience in mapping and music crosses over to your benefit. People can have the craziest ideas, for example Aphex Twin, who walks a very thin line as far as getting his point across and blowing people’s heads off. I’m sure some of his first drafts have been completely mental and he’s had to pen it back a bit. Yeah and apparently he’s not very socially proficient either.

Well I dunno, I had a few beers with him once at a pub called Jacob’s Ladder in Cornwall. If you ever go there that’s where he’ll be on a Friday night…if he’s in the country! I mean I’ve heard people ask him some questions and some of them are just like, “What? Are you serious?” And I love the fact that he’s open-minded and can give back answers that are really non-conventional. They’re not usually very stock-standard responses. Which is the same with his work as well – he’s always thinking outside the square.

What do you think of his project with the piano on the pendulum? I think it’s fucking awesome really, to have that level of leverage suspended in the air. It speaks a lot about the strength of what he does – really trying to push these different types of factors. He does it virtually within his music and now he’s doing it physically.

Do you think that’s the future of the music and the art worlds? The colliding of visual and virtual spaces? I think with all this innovation and these collectives like Anti-VJ and all the innovative mapping in Europe, it’s pricking a lot of promoter’s ears and they’re realising that if you want to provide a cutting-edge experience then you’ve got to cater to the eyes as well. Once we start to witness the possibilities it’s really then just about taking it a step further each time and integrating new technologies. I think right now we’re on a bit of a threshold with technology and art.

Yeah it does definitely feel like there’s an explosion about to happen. If you could collaborate with any musical artist, who would it be? Oh, man. Ummm, it would have to be some kind of freak who locks himself in a basement.

Prince? [Laughs] Nah, probably not!

Ok, we’ll leave that one. We touched on a it a little bit before, but can you fill us in on what you’ve got in store for the Terminal Projekt? I’m going to take my existing that I’ve developed over the past coupe of years – which is a mix of organic textures, geometric animations…I mix them in a particular way which creates these compositions. I also integrate a bit of colour theory into that too. For Terminal Projekt I’m going to evolve that whole set by integrating some fresh content which is specifically for the stage sculpture [DJ booth]. It’s really important for me to keep my own flavour – I don’t want to replicate the standard video mapping kind of show, because it’s not interesting. There’s no abstraction of complexity to that, it’s just like, “OK I’m going to illuminate the border of a triangle” or whatever, like, congratulations. That doesn’t really pull my strings.

There’ll also be another layer which is audio-reactive, which will take a feed directly from the sound desk. They will be generative animations which will be running out of open frameworks, which is all custom stuff that nobody else has access to. Then it’s just a matter of working out an interesting way of blending all these layers.

Sounds like it’s going to be pretty darn exciting. Yeah, it should be a lot of fun.

Terminal Projekt @ Vivid Music, Overseas Passenger Terminal, Customs Hall:
08.06.13 - dOP (live), Jimmy Edgar, Sepalcure (live), Kit Webster [BUY TIX]
09.06.13 - Tensnake (live), HNQO, The Revenge, Kit Webster [BUY TIX]

Terminal Bar @ Vivid Music, Overseas Passenger Terminal, Cargo Hall:
8/9/10 June, 4pm-12am

Listen to Pulse Radio

Pulse Loves... Ranacat

http://pulseradio.net — Wed, 22 May 2013 18:55:20 +1000

A person's musical path can change thanks to your surroundings. Just ask London based, Argentinian born Pablo Ranacat. The house and techno Dj and producer moved to London ten years ago and in the process found himself falling in love with house music after helming a funk/hip hop band at home. Combining this eclectic and musical background and combining with touches of disco, deep house and more, the producer and DJ (resident for Select*Elect) is dropping his latest EP on Anja Schneider's Mobilee Records. Pulse thought it high time to give props to this fun loving figure as he mixed our latest Pulse Loves. Read on...

Pulse Loves.. Other music aside from electronica and dance. You were part of a band in your native Argentina but what prompted you to fiver into the DJ/party scene? I was living in Buenos Aires and when my band split up I found myself in the clubs a lot more. It was a shame because our second album was near completion and then sadly we went the way a lot of bands go with disagreements and stress that led to breaking up. Luckily I found solace in my clubbing friends and it all started from there really. I guess I needed to replace the musical fun I was having in my band with something else and going to clubs and meeting cool people really did the job. I found straight away that the connection between the people at clubs was much ‘higher’ than at concerts, and I obviously loved it. But that was back in 2002 and then I started DJing a couple of years later when I arrived in London.

Pulse loves... Bespoke mixes. Tell us about the one you've created especially for Pulse? Actually I love the story behind this mix. Basically my good friend Lester and I recently exchanged our whole digital music collection. So much music! Big up to all my DJ mates who are always up for this sort of swap! It took me a good full on two days to go through it all. I found some amazing old school deep house tracks from some of my favorite ever producers and they obviously ended up in this mix along with some great tracks from my own collection. I think some of the older deep house has that specific feel good touch that you can rarely get on stuff that’s being released nowadays. So yeah, it’s quite housey, deep and hypnotic for moments, but ready to rock the dance floor sort of feel. And that intro, omg, I can’t even believe I used it but it rocks!

Pulse loves...Mobilee. Tell us about the release that's just come out on the label… how did this come about? I met Anja and And.ID in Turin, Italy, at a Select Elect party. They were the main guests of the night. I was at that point starting to send out my demos and she wanted to have a listen to them. The following night Mobilee had a showcase in London so I went down there and gave her a CD. Pretty much a super fun and productive night all round! I was a bit surprised at the beginning when they wanted to release an EP because my music is quite eclectic; I tend to do different styles. But I’m very happy they are really open-minded and went with the flow. In my opinion, the 4 tracks they chose are a good selection to make a strong EP.

Pulse loves... The London clubbing scene. How do you feel about it? How has it changed since your relocation to the city? I think it’s really amazing. It keeps changing, evolving, having highs and lows, but it’s always super exciting. All the best DJs in the world come to play in London and I think that will never change. Together with Berlin, they are the cities to be at if you want great quality nights to go to every week. The underground scene here is innovative with some of the best possible talent being introduced to the crowds, with the smaller venues hosting some of the greatest nights. It really is a shame though that many great clubs were shut down and that’s very sad. But at the end of the day, a door closes and another opens.

Pulse loves... Festivals. You're playing at Vertigo Italy this year; do you get to play many European festivals as a rule? Yes, I am going with Select Elect to Vertigo Festival. This is actually the first festival I’m going to play at so naturally I’m excited about it. Looking forward to many more!

Pulse loves .. The future. After this release what will we see in terms of more productions? And rumor says you are starting a record label? I’m really happy that I’m releasing my debut EP on Mobilee. It’s an amazing label and it looks like we are building a nice friendship. I’m continuously working hard on a lot more tracks so let’s see where that takes me but this definitely is the greatest starting point that I could dream of. I also have another song being released on a compilation on Holic Trax coming out more or less at the same time at the beginning of June.

And yes, a great project that’s coming up nicely is the start up of a record label. I’ve teamed up with Andy Bird from Love Fever and we are launching ‘Sneaky Music’, which will also see some nice parties showcasing the artists on the label. Don’t want to talk about names yet but there are some really cool recruits already and we have big plans for it. We are doing Oval Terrace as label launch on the 21st of July. So yeah, looking as busy as ever at Ranacat HQ, and I’m loving every minute of it.

Pulse Loves - Ranacat
1 – Boney M - Nightflight To UR Anus - Todd Terje Tynneterje Edit
2 – Pete Namlook - Subharmonic Atoms - Pepe Bradock Remix
3 – Detroit Swindle - That Freak Stuff - Original Mix
4 – Move D - Stray
5 – Boo Williams - Further Tek - Original Mix / FCL - Its You - San Sodas Panorama Bar Acca Version
6 – Kahil El'Zabar - Running In The Streets - Charles Webster Remix Number 1
7 – Kerri Chandler - Vector Graphics – Long edit
8 – Naomi Daniel - Feel The Fire - Chez n Trent Mix
9 – DJ Q – Fila – Original Mix
10 – Delano Smith - Feel This Odyssey Version - Original Mix
11 – Photon Inc. - Generate Power feat. Paula Brion - Jimpster Dub
12 – B6 - Sweet Light - Eric Ericksson Remix
13 – Chic Miniature - Escandalo - Original Mix
14 – Kings Of Tomorrow feat April - Fall For You - Sandy Riveras Classic Mix

Listen to Ranacat on Pulse Radio.

Spotlight on Detroit: Derrick May

http://pulseradio.net — Wed, 22 May 2013 13:55:01 +1000

Kevin Saunderson. Carl Craig. Matthew Dear. Moodymann. These are just some of the artists who have carved the musical landscapes of Detroit, past and present. Constantly innovating their sound and pushing the boundaries of expectations are just a few things these artists have in common, but more importantly, they’re all inextricably linked with the city of Detroit.

While its undeniable that the city itself influenced these musicians during the nascent stages of their careers, it’s also clear that without the hard work they and other like minded artists have put in over the last 25+ years Detroit wouldn’t be the beneficiary of a large scale electronic music festival that’s now known the world over as Movement.

But there’s much more to the musical story that’s constantly being told in Wayne County and it’s one that thrives even in the 362 days after the festival stages have been taken down. In Pulse Radio’s "Spotlight on Detroit" series we've handpicked some amazing talent from this fair city. Whether their name is already written in the books of history or their careers are being forged as we speak, everyone within the series has their own perspective on how the city has shaped them as artists and who they are as people. Find out from these guys who are in the know, about the hidden gems of Detroit. Also, they each select a few of their favorite places to take friends from out of town, hang out, and grab a bite to eat in the D.
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How would you characterize your musical upbringing? What about this do you think led to where you find yourself these days?

Who did you look up to either within music or in another area of life while you were growing up, that still have an impact on you today?

As an artist hailing from the undisputed birthplace of techno, do you feel this limits your ability to explore work in other genres?

Tell us something about the D our readers might not already know.

Being from Detroit also brings on a sense of pride, which has sprouted sayings like “Detroit hustles harder” and so on. What does being from this city evoke from you personally?

While every scene has its pros and cons, what do you see as the obstacles and advantages that come along with making a living in music in the D?

What are some of your favorite memories of Movement/DEMF in years past?

What's your favorite place to:
A: Show out of towners
B: Check out local artists (of any genre or art medium)
C: Get some good grub

If you could do one thing to enhance the state of Detroit’s electronic scene, what would it be?

Listen to Derrick May on Pulse Radio

Catching up with Manuel Tur

http://pulseradio.net — Wed, 22 May 2013 00:13:15 +1000

For those that aren't already familiar with your stuff can you briefly introduce yourself and the style of music you are best known for? My name is Manuel Tur and I’m a producer, engineer and DJ from Essen, Germany. As for the solo productions released under my own name, I’m probably best known for a sort of deeper house sound with a hypnotic twist.

What is your idea of South Africa? My idea of South Africa is that of an aspiring nation with an impressive love for house music among the younger generation. I’m very much looking forward to finally be able to absorb some of the country’s vibe first-hand.

How did u get into producing and DJ'ing? Are you a trained musician? I’m not really a classically trained musician but rather self-taught about all aspects of my work. I started collecting records as a young kid at school and quickly fell in love with putting together beats, loops and samples on the computer with my school-mates. I then knew very soon that what I wanted to do in life is making records.

Does DJ'ing affect your flow of production? It sometimes does, especially when I’m working on a track’s arrangement. But it probably happens more often that – vice versa – my production affects my DJing. I’m very sensitive about certain aspects of music production such as specific sound aesthetics or the overall mix quality, and this definitely influences the choice of tracks I play out in my DJ sets.

What is your expectation of the music scene in South Africa? I’ve heard nothing but good things about the South African music scene. However, I always try not to have too many expectations or preconceptions about the places I’m going for the first time, but rather go and check them out myself. I’m really glad I finally get the chance to do so in the case of South Africa. The amount of love and constant support I’ve been receiving from South African fans and followers over the last couple of years is just incredible and really unique, even though I’ve never been there before.

What do you have planned musically for South Africa, are you bringing anything that is still experimental or will you be sticking to your usual stuff? To be honest, I haven’t thought about it yet. I hardly ever plan my sets and I suppose most people are surprised to hear what I play when they actually come to see me for the first time. I have a very broad taste in music and try not to stick to just one sound or formula. However, knowing that some of my older tracks and remixes have been really popular in South Africa, unlike the rest of the world, I will probably take some of these older tracks with me.

You are signed to a few different labels including Freerange records. How has being with Freerange records helped you as an artist and your career? Signing with Freerange in 2007 definitely changed a lot for me. It was the decisive step that allowed me to do what I love on a professional basis, finally being able to make a living from producing music. Jamie and Tom, who run the label, have always been incredibly supportive and it’s impressive how they have managed to keep a very warm a familial relation to their artists even after more than 15 years in the business. I’m very thankful for the opportunity they have given me when I was a completely unknown artist.

How do you feel about social media and using this as a tool to get yourself out there? Social media has undoubtly become the most important key to market music these days. This applies even more to dance music since the role of the DJ as the actual artist has overgrown the music itself a bit, and decreasing record sales force producers to leave the studio and tour the clubs to make a living. Personally, I find it difficult to find the right balance for myself. I’m more of a low-key person and often don’t feel comfortable giving away too much of myself. The way the role and perception of the DJ has changed over the last couple of years actually alienates me a bit. As much as I enjoy DJing and playing out the music I love, I’m not particularly interested in the current DJ culture, I have to admit.

What hardware/software are you using? At the moment I’m using a hybrid set-up with Logic being my main DAW software on the computer. I then mix everything on an analogue console with outboard gear and record back to the computer.

What is your creative process? Is there a particular routine/schedule you stick too? I don’t have much of a routine really, at least I try not to. With club tracks, I might start with the beats most of the times. Sometimes a sample or a synthesizer sequence can be a good starting point, too. Now and then I’d arrange the whole track on the computer and sometimes I’d do it all live on the mixing console and then cut the best parts together. It’s never 100% the same.

What are you listening to at the moment and is there anyone inspiring you? Again, this changes on an almost daily basis. From abstract Jazz to cheesy Pop, I try to listen to as much different music as possible. Over the last couple of months though, I’ve been studying a lot of productions by Dan Carey in particular. He’s one of these people you will only find on the back of a record sleeve but I absolutely admire his work.

Any new EP's coming out soon? Yes, I have a new one for Freerange almost finished and it will feature vocals by Larissa Kapp who already sang on my first album.

What is your preferred method of DJing? CDs/Vinyl/Laptop? Where do you see the future of DJing? I’m now playing from a USB stick when I travel far. To me, it’s just the consequent next step of the digital development. In my home area, I still like to pull out the vinyls from time to time.

If you could collaborate with anyone in the industry, who would it be and why? I can’t think of anyone I would like to collaborate with in particular right now, but there are dozens of people I would love to just sit next to for a day and watch them work and learn from. Producers, engineers, musicians… too many to mention!

Where has been your favorite country to play in and why? I think it’s not fair to mention just one country. Every country has its own intrinsic club scene and culture. Diversion is part of the magic.

What are your plans for the summer? Setting up my new studio in Essen and work on a couple of new projects. Besides my solo work, I’m also doing production and engineering work for other artists from different genres. It’s definitely going to be a busy summer.

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Isaac Tichauer: Life in Mono

http://pulseradio.net — Tue, 21 May 2013 20:06:31 +1000

French Express signing and Sydney resident Isaac Tichauer is a fan of blurring the lines. Melding music of the mind and dancefloor aesthetics, jazz experimentation and electronic rigdiness and techno meeting UK bass culture, the young producer came to prominence through his recent Devotion album. Ahead of Cue Love's opening party featuring Isaac perfroming alongside Copy Paste Soul and Panda, the young pretender talks to us about debut albums, losing the hearing in his right ear and hearing everything in mono...

Tell us a bit about yourself. How did you get into producing music? I started playing piano from the age of 4 due to my parents wanting me to have a strong musical side. I received lessons in the Conservatorium of Music in Sydney learning mainly classical music and some jazz. Later in my teens I went to a rave, fell in love with electronic music and bought my first Roland synth. The rest is a very slow climb to where I am know, and hoping to slowly climb for a little while yet.

For those that don't know, you were born with a condition that has left you without hearing in your right ear. How has that effected your approach to making music? I hear everything in mono, so I think it’s the perfect condition for producing club ready house music.

You hail from Sydney, Australia. What was it like growing up there – how has it affected you musically? I find most of my music online so my influences tend to come from all over the world in addition to Sydney. The main impact of living in Bondi was the temptation to walk out of the studio and head to be beach. Its been the most challenging part of my career.

Your debut album Devotion came out last year on French Express. Tell us a bit about that – what made you give it away for free? I wanted to make a statement, and share the music with as many people as possible. Giving fans the freedom to download and share was more important to me then charging for my music. From my experience, people really appreciate it and feel invested in you personally.

How did you get involved with American label French Express? I’ve known Leon (Perseus) for a few years, and did some work with him in the past under a different project. We’ve been on Skype talking music for a long time. We’re really great friends.

Your recent 'Take Over You' EP has come out to critical acclaim. Have you been pleased with the response? Very, the EP has had a bunch of plays on Soundcloud, and just last night was played on the Annie Mac show. Ive always felt my music lived exclusively online so its great to get some radio coverage outside of Australia.

You're playing in London at the end of the month alongside Copy Paste Soul, Panda and Just Kiddin for the launch of new night Cue Love. What are your thoughts on playing in the city? I love London, my last show with House of Disco was incredible fun and it was the first show I played in Europe where I really felt like I was looking at room full of fans of my music, people that had come to see me and had listened to the album regularly, so I’m hoping to see those people again. I’m also keen to see Copy Paste Soul play who are making some great music.

You have been rapidly building a name for yourself since Devotion came out less than a year ago. What can we expect to see from you in the future? This year is about regular original releases on French Express with a focus on classic styles of house music, maintaining the regular mixtapes, and also some debut tours in Asia and the USA.

Grab tickets exclusively on Pulse and head down to give them all a warm welcome.

Listen to Isaac Tichauer on Pulse Radio.

Quick Fire: Casino Times

http://pulseradio.net — Tue, 21 May 2013 17:56:50 +1000

The future for underground electronic music looks bright, thanks to talented newcomers such as Casino Times. Nick Church & Joe Spencer have found success after a strong succession of EPs - notably That's The Truth and their latest Needwant cut I wanna Know - inspiring people through their electric influences and razor sharp productions that aim straight for the deep end. Playing for Low Slung this weekend, Nick & Joe sat in the hot seat for a Quick Fire grilling and talked vinyl, sounds and collaborators.

Please introduce yourselves... Hi we are Nick Church and Joseph Spencer of Casino Times. We’ve no other AKAs at the moment.

Describe your sound in 5 words? We’re not sure, you decide..

What was the first piece of vinyl you brought? Joe: I think it was a Chaka Khan 12”.. But I’ve inherited all my dad’s old 80’s synth pop and reggae vinyl to add to the mix.
Nick: I can’t remember the first bit of vinyl but the first album I bought (on CD), was Rage Against The Machine – Evil Empire.

Who are your influences, musically speaking? At the moment we’re taking influence from labels like Uncanny Valley, Full Pupp, Burek, Box Aus Holz and Studio Barnhus. We’re also big disco heads and can’t resist a huge diva vocal.
Joe: In respects to our history we both come from fairly different backgrounds; Nick used to go see the likes of Erol Alkan & James Murphy at venues like ‘The End’ whereas I grew up on punk and metal bands – quite different perspectives and it definitely shapes our sound.

If you could co-produce with anyone dead or alive – who would it be? Joe : I would have said Giorgio Moroder but it looks like Daft Punk got there first
Nick: I’ve always wondered what’s going through DJ Koze head when he puts something out, really interesting and fresh. We are as much as fan of his solo work as of the material he releases on Pampa.

How did the foals remx come about? Nick: We both studied in Oxford and I was DJing around the city a lot at the time and I met Edwin (from the band), through that.
Joe: We were really happy we got asked to do the remix and we as much fans of the band stuff as we are of the Deep Shit label and night that Edwin runs with Jack (Friendly Fires) and Adam Parylak

What’s next for Casino Times for the rest of the year? Joe: We started a project that involved cutting up disco breaks and extending them into dance floor friendly DJ tools and it just evolved into fully fledged productions. We’ve decided to put these out with a series of white label 12” under ‘Casino Edits’ which we’re really excited about. The first in the series has a couple of tracks from us and later cuts will feature some of our favorite artists. Keep an eye out.
Nick: We’ve also got a couple of other remixes coming out for the summer. Firstly Christophe’s new single Futureboogie featuring Danielle Moore and another for Jay Shepheard’s & Martin Dawsons’s Retrofit hit last summer ‘Cut A Hole’, which we was a real honor to be asked to do.

Finally, name your dream lineup for a party? Joe: Prince B2B Kraftwerk featuring Boyz ll Men (LIVE PA).
Nick: With Hesseltime on warm up, playing some solid roof slappers.

You can bag yourself a pair of tickets to the event and 2 x Casino Times vinyl copies, simply by emailing the subject line 'Casino' to contact@pulseradio.net. A successful candidate shall be picked at random on Thursday 23rd May.

Catch Casino Times at Low Slung on Saturday. Tickets underneath the flyer.

Tickets

LIsten to Casino Times on Pulse Radio.

Around the World with Loco Dice: From Chicago to Ibiza

http://pulseradio.net — Tue, 21 May 2013 02:43:49 +1000

A wave of nostalgia hit me as I sat down to interview Loco Dice right before his show in Detroit on last Friday, May 17th. Following him across the country from his gig on Thursday in Chicago at Spybar to The Works the following night, felt all too familiar to me. It reminded me how I similarly interviewed him on the CNTRL tour after running from city to city with the entire crew. Time however, had not stood still since the November excursion, as Loco Dice has played countless times in the US since then, constantly flying back and forth across continents. All of that is happening while he is in the midst of preparing for his new residency in Ibiza, Used+Abused. We sat down for an extensive chat to catch up not just on recent times playing in the midwest, but also past experiences on Ibiza that have culminated in his residency at Ushuaia this summer.

After playing a series of larger shows, are there any challenges to playing a smaller shows like at Spybar? I mean the good thing is the main clubs that I'm playing worldwide, I know them because I'm always playing with the same people and promoters. For me, I'm just doing it freestyle. I hear the sound, I see the people, I feel the vibe and it gets me to a certain place. I walk in and I see what's happening, you catch the vibe and you try to adapt. Then you try to walk with them.

You say you always play with the same people, do you ever wish to make it different? No, that was my intention from day one. I become friends with the promoters, I became familiar with the location. It's very rare that we change promoters or locations. Of course, there are some cities you try new things out, like New York. But even in New York, I'm not trying things out to be honest. When I lived there I knew more or less the locations, the situations, and I knew how it is. I play the three same clubs and Output now, or if they book me for something special in Brooklyn, of course I go and do those shows. I don't like to switch locations that much or go to off-locations, because I think people are expecting an experience in a familiar environment,. That's why I don't like to do club hopping or promoter hopping. If the crowd comes to the club and it's totally weird, then it's weird.

When you say you scout locations to learn about the place, what kind of research do you do and does that affect your set a lot? In general, I don't scout locations. I just did it in New York when I lived there. The most important thing is of course, the people. Luckily I have a good crowd coming to my gigs. I have a very mixed crowd which I am very happy and proud of to be honest. The sound is the first thing and we make sure it's the right sound system for the crowd and for me, if I play longer sets. If everything is perfect, why would you change?

How did you meet Dino who runs Spybar? Dino was one of those guys who booked me in the early days. Actually, the first person who booked me was John Curley. Then John ran into some difficulties and I was kind of lost. I remember I played with Carl Cox somewhere, and even before John Curley - wow brings back some memories - I played at Crowbar for Kenny Keith and the Miami guys…so I have history in Chicago. Then somehow Dino booked me. Dino is a Greek guy, funny guy, and I really like how he works and how he is as a person. Spybar is just small and intimate and great. It has again, that mixed crowd there. You have a lot of Europeans, a lot of Americans. It's great, I like the people who work there from the bouncers to Johnny at the bar, to everybody.

Have you been in their studio? Oh yea we did some "smoke sessions" there. I've never been able to produce or do something, because it was right after the gig, having some drinks. It's great, it's nice what Dino is building up there now. He's doing the festival now, it's great for the city. Chicago needs something like this. Chicago is like the clean version of New York. I think it is great to live out there. People are great and it's still not messed up with promoters and weird people and all that stuff. So it's good that they have someone like Dino who's creating an institution.

Loco Dice playing Spybar this past Thursday, May 16th.

You have a lot of history with Chicago musically, who would you say influenced you the most? From the production side, influenced I would say every one of them. From Curtis (Green Velvet/Cajmere), Derrick Carter, Sneak back in the day. All of them. Chicago is Chicago. I realized later what an impact Chicago had on me.

You're playing tonight in Detroit, how come you're not playing Movement this year? I'm not playing Movement this year because I had an amazing slot last year. I mean I played before Public Enemy, being introduced by Iced T. What more do you want? As a hip-hop kid that was the biggest highlight ever. It brought me back to the days when I was hip-hop, you know. I was nervous and it was Detroit and this big stage and all that stuff. I was shaky, I was really nervous. I wasn't nervous because of Ice or Chuck or the boys, I was nervous because my history came back to me in such an important place. I mean it's not a secret, I'm not from techno. I knew about Detroit late, but I learned a lot then and I'm down with the boys here [in Detroit]. I think it was so special and that's what made me completely nervous performing next to Ice T and Public Enemy. I remember not even opening up for Public Enemy but being on the same line up when I was a hip-hop DJ. Those were cool days. So I thought, what you want to do? You want to come back to Detroit and play again somewhere? I don't know. I thought ok, this year I'm also opening up my new residency in Ibiza, Used + Abused. I said I'm going to put 100% attention on that. I'm going to pss this time on Detroit, still thinking about the beautiful memories I have from last year. But then I thought hey, I cannot do this. I played already in Detroit with the CNTRL tour but like I said, I have so many friends here and it's such an important city for me. I take back so much inspiration from this city back to Germany in the studio. It was my free day and I gotta do something!

Loco Dice playing at The Works in Detroit on Friday, May 17th.

What aspect of your Used+Abused residency are you most looking forward to? I mean first of all, having my own residency! I never thought about this. And everybody knows I was never a fan of having my own party in Ibiza.

Why weren't you a fan? It's a lot of stress, it's a lot of work, it's a lot of politics, it's a lot of stuff. You have to take care of so much and I just didn't feel ready for it. I'm a leader, I love to lead, but not in this instance. For me, I was happy. I was playing at the coolest parties with the coolest DJs for the coolest people. It was great… The time came though, and I needed to go back to where I started in Ibiza and that was playing the day-time party. Ushuaia came up and it was the only place where there are no sound restrictions. You could create something, dive into something completely new. We had this opportunity and we took it. I'm really happy and proud and excited for this project. I think we are all gonna have so much fun. The line up is just friends and I'm really, really, excited. Especially now these days, people are saying commercial clubs, commercial DJs - that's not true. I mean Ibiza, if you see it from the outside, real hardcore techno people say that it's all sellouts there. But if you come and experience places like Cocoon or Carl Cox…I mean I take Richie out because he's a rookie now with last year's launch of ENTER. But if you experience all these cats like DC-10 who've been running the show there for ten years or longer, you know, wow techno is in Ibiza and Ibiza has got it’s place. It's about time to take over some other locations, like we did in Miami.

Why is it called Used+Abused? You're the first one to ask. Used+Abused is when you go to the party, and then during the party, then after the party, on the way to the party. Then you start this shit all over again, so it's twenty four hours you are used and abused by the bass.

How did you come up with it? Like how we came up with Desolat, boom! It's an expression we used, it came from the small after parties in Barcelona, and then we liked the name so much for Ibiza because over there we could do something nice. We had this name the whole time.

You mentioned in your Used+Abused video trailer that Ibiza changed you, how so? Hey I was a hip-hop kid. My friends started to go to techno parties early on. House, techno. At that time I was super into hip-hop. I was more open-minded compared to my other hip-hop colleagues. My friends said, hey you got to come to Ibiza and check it out. I'm like okay, why not let's go on a holiday to Ibiza, not even thinking about partying. So I came and it was a bad-ass experience to see what a community there is, how people are together. But the most exciting thing that I experienced was all these nationalities from all over the world coming together under one roof. In hip-hop, you are hip-hop. Hip-hop is hip-hop. And Hip-hop club was always a mix of different nationalities. But there [in Ibiza] you really have people coming from Norway to Australia to Argentina, everywhere. And everyone is communicating somehow, the vibe was just amazing. The music, the DJs, it all came together and clicked in my head. I said, wow this is great I want to come back, and look at me now with a residency.

Which Ibiza experience taught you the most? There was no challenges at all. It was just the flow. From one year to the other, after partying there and experiencing the island, it went so fast. I became a house DJ, electronic DJ, then I had my first gig in Ibiza and then boom, I showed up at DC-10. I was always a guest at DC-10. Then I showed up one day at DC-10 and I was invited by them to play. Then they said what are you doing next week and it just so happened I stayed the whole season there. I just threw away my flight ticket, it made no sense to change it all the time for thirty euros. The island just got me. There is no challenge, just a constant flow, a wave that takes you.

Do you have any exciting new talent on your label? There will be a guy called Jean Pierre from New York. We have Nathan Barato dropping some tunes finally on the label. We have Butch coming out. We have Ali Barem coming again, the whole gang. All these young kids who have been producing like crazy. If you send me a beat, I don't even look at the name could be Richie Hawtin and I wouldn't know, my judgement is about the music. Does it hit me? Does it catch me? Then I'll play it. Some guys I just go and ask them, like Benny Rodriguez or Mathias Kaden.

Listen to Loco Dice on Pulse Radio

DJ Qu: "Hustle is Definitely Needed"

http://pulseradio.net — Mon, 20 May 2013 22:08:05 +1000

New Jersey born DJ Qu is a house music force to be reckoned with. Affectionately known as “the dancers DJ” QU is an accomplished DJ, producer and record label owner. Having cut his teeth in the New York scene, holding down a residency at institution HouseDanceConference, Ramon Lisandro Quezada (his Sunday name) has released tracks on DJ Jus-Ed's Underground Quality label as well as starting his own imprint, Strength records, in 2006. In recent years, he has played everywhere from New York to Berlin to Ibiza and has built himself a name that oozes quality. Ahead of his London show on June 1st at Revolver, The French Pussycat Club, we caught up with Qu to find out what he thought about his title, running a record label and Snooki besides lots more.

You've been in the house game for some time and could be considered as something of a deep house head.Why do you think the music you've loved for so long has been so popular in recent years? I actually can remember a time when House was popular before Hip-Hop came in and dominated so to me, it really looks more like a cycle of life coming around again - which is a good thing.

What's it like as a New Jersey native to come from somewhere with a such a strong musical heritage, while a large percentage of the population only think of your birthplace as the home of Snooki or Tony Soprano? It is what it is at this point. Even the dance music industry labels the New Jersey artist as New York artist so hey... television isn't the only one to blame in this case.

You've been associated with Jus-Eds Underground Quality label based in New York for some time. How does it feel to be associated with a label who does exactly what it says on the tin – putting out Quality underground house music? It feels Good. It's nice to know Ed and be associated with him. I'm also happy to have music on UQ. The label probably has some of my better productions in its catalog and it's an honour for me.

You earned a name for yourself holding down residencies in New York. Is there something about building your name in New York that's different from doing it in the rest of the world? I've heard you need a certain sort of “hustle” to be able to make it there. Hustle is definitely needed to do things in New York. People outside of New York get tired of hearing New Yorkers say that, but it's the truth. If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere. Getting my records distributed globally helps with building my name in other places where I'm probably more popular than in New York. Just shows how things go out here.

You started your own label Strength records back in 2005. Does being a Dj affect your approach to running the label? Do you find yourself choosing music to release more as a DJ or as a label boss? As far as running the label it's pretty much all business. From pressing to invoicing it's all standard business. The DJ in me comes in to play when it's time to select music for releasing on the label. I do very little promotion on the label's releases because it's really more about me showing you my musical taste, if you will, on every release. I don't see the sense in promoting my musical taste. I release music and the people decide if it's worthy or not. Free society.

You are a man who is associated with the highest quality mixing and selection. How long was the road to get where you are now? This question is a tough one because I'm still learning the craft of DJing as I continue along.

You've been described in the past as “the dancers DJ”. What do you think it is about your sets that get the crowd moving more than others? I actually describe myself that way as well because of my dancer background. It was through dance and my love for music that made me a DJ so, "the dancers DJ", I shall remain always. Music is a universal language so it's hard to say that my sets are better than others. I know it sounds like I'm trying to be humble but in all honesty that's how I think. It's hard to judge who's better through music selection because then we're assuming that everybody's on the same page and that's not the case.

Having played across Europe from Fabric London to the Panorama bar in Berlin and Space in Ibiza – how do European crowds compare to their New York counterparts? Europe has a stronger scene at the moment so they definitely have the upper-hand in a lot of ways, but there are scenes in New York that I still haven't found in Europe up to this point.

You have a show coming up in London on 31st May. What are you looking forward to most about playing in the city again? I dig London a lot so just being able to play there in itself is special to me.

To round off what can we expect to see from you in the future? More of my own music productions!

LIsten to DJ Qu on Pulse Radio.

Flight Facilities: To Infinity And Beyond

http://pulseradio.net — Mon, 20 May 2013 19:18:02 +1000

Flight Facilities, the mysterious indie-electro producers behind 2010's hit, 'Crave You', have been steadily building a name for themselves through touring the world, remixing tracks for bands like Foals and Holy Ghost and having their tracks featured in shows like Skins and Made in Chelsea. The duo have just released a new single, With You, as well as having their track I didn't believe given the remix treatment by the likes of Tiger and Woods, Light Year and Lou Tetti. Ahead of their gig in London on 13 June at Shoreditch's Village Underground, we chatted to them about the rumours surrounding their identities, breaking 8 million views on youtube and what they thought of 'Random Access Memories'.

There's a lot of discussion and elaborate rumours in the past surrounding your true identities – most of which has been started by yourselves it seems. What's the deal with that? We originally did it to see if our friends would play our music regardless of knowing we were the ones who made it. On a smaller level, this was the best way of making sure the product was all about the music. It just so happened that the same principle applied to everyone who heard it and then it didn't matter who we were or where we were from. We were just happy knowing that people enjoyed the music.

How do you think the mystery behind your personas has helped you gain fans worldwide? I would struggle to even hit like on facebook for something I know very little about. When people become aware they don't know something, it suddenly becomes a big deal. Nobody likes to be left in the dark in an age where Google should be able to tell you anything. We think this contributed in part to little bit of hype in the beginning. But we've never been concerned with trying to accumulate fans. The best way to get them, is to let them find you in their own time. It makes what they've found much more special and personal to their music collection. It's not a huge deal to us whether or not people continue to click the facebook 'like' button. There will always be another format to replace the predecessor (afterall, we started on MySpace). As long as we can comfortably continue to make the music we like, whatever else follows is simply a bonus.

It's been 6 months since your last offering Clair de Lune. What have you been up to since then? We've just released I Didn't Believe featuring Elizabeth Rose and we're currently putting the final touches on a song called 'Stand Still' which will feature a French based Australian singer named Mickey Green. Other than that we've been touring pretty intensely through Europe, USA, Mexico, Canada and a little of South America, so we're looking forward to stealing some downtime and writing some more material. It's easy to get caught up in the touring but you wind up being left behind when it comes to follow up content.

Your new single I Didn't Believe was just released. How do you think its success will compare to your other releases? Has your music making process changed since 2010? I Didn't Believe is definitely our most poppy track. We never like to place expectations on a song. It often leads to disappointment (but in the case of Clair De Lune, huge surprise). As long as enough people learn the words to enjoy themselves singing along at our shows, then we're happy. Our initial release, Crave You, was a huge song to live up to, but a healthy benchmark for quality. We're both very critical about our own work and we wouldn't allow each other to put out something we felt was substandard. Our musical process is still pretty stab-in-the-dark. We group together a series of songs as a reference and perhaps a chord progression or bassline to write a song around. From there, we just let it flow and see where it takes us. It's not always a success story though. Many instrumentals have been left on the shelf in the depths of our studio computer. Certain songs we haven't been ready to finish or just weren't right for us. Every now and then you can revisit them and all becomes relevant once more in a different way.

You've been on remix duty for artists such as Holy Ghost, Cut Copy and Foals. How does it feel to be asked to work on tracks by artists as popular as they are? Is it daunting? It's hugely daunting. Being asked to do a remix by bands of such caliber is like being given a tick of approval by the musicians you respect so highly. The last thing you want to do is let them down. We haven't done too many remixes recently but we haven't given up on the process entirely. They're hard to fit into the schedule but there are definitely artists we would drop everything for.

You've been gigging quite extensively in Australia it seems in the run up to this release with some European dates confirmed for the coming months. How does playing in your native land compare to playing elsewhere in the world? Every country is different. There's no question about our home crowd advantage in Australia. Constant radio play has made a world of difference to us. America and Canada have a great up-and-coming dance scene and everyone is so excited about the (now not-so) underground nightclub world. That enthusiasm shows at those gigs. Europe has the club culture running rampant, so it's a little nerve wracking to slot into something that is so comfortable within itself. The late nights and casually amazing parties around every corner makes you realise the unparalleled appreciation for music in one continent. Then Latin America just lives and breathes music. We hadn't fully experienced excitement and love for music until we watched several hundred people who only spoke broken English, sing our songs fluently in unison.

You along with everyone else in the world at the moment list Daft Punk as one of your musical heroes. What are your thoughts on their new album? Definitely heroes of ours. Their branding, their style and of course their music. They're the best. And there's no one that comes close. The new album is taking a little while to sink in though. We're very familiar with the style of music on RAM so it was a surprise to see that direction, especially as it was done so genuinely (live drums and all). We have no doubt that it will grow on us immensely and there are some instant classics on there. The most interesting thing is that there weren't so many of those moments where you think "oh that sound is so Daft Punk". Giorgio By Moroder is undoubtedly one of those moments but some other songs, not so much. Like most of their work, it will probably soak in over time and will become timeless in its own way. It's impossible to listen to the album just once. And impossible not to sing along to at least 4 of the songs. Even if you don't sing along at first, they'll be stuck in your head, hours after. The best way to look at the album is a fourth piece in a perfect musical puzzle. If you listen to the albums RAM, Discovery, Homework then Human After All in that order, there's a beautiful journey through time and sound, and the whole thing makes sense. It slowly becomes more futuristic until it reaches the end of 'Technologic'. Then 'Emotion' kicks in and the cycle is complete. You can start RAM again and you're basically back to where it all begun for them, musically. All we can hope is that the album reignites the appreciation for this kind of pop music once again.

What have you got planned for the future? Other than releasing Stand Still, we'll be writing, writing and more writing. We've become a little left behind on music because of all the touring. We're going to be locking ourselves away to get rid of everything that's in our heads. It's the most important part of our jobs so we can't really neglect our responsibilities in that area. The most important thing about it all is maintaining our quality control.

'I Didn't Believe' featuring Elizabeth Rose is out now.

Listen to Flight Facilities on Pulse Radio.

Jimmy Edgar: Shamanic Rituals

http://pulseradio.net — Mon, 20 May 2013 11:57:01 +1000

Cutting his teeth as a DJ in the Motor City alongside heavyweight Detroit techno legends like Derrick May at the tender age of 16, Jimmy Edgar has now become one of the hottest new up-and-coming stars in the world of cutting-edge house, bass and techno. His sexed-up, futuristic-funk productions culminated in one of 2012's most talked about full lengths, 'Majenta', and his skills on the decks have led him down the touring DJ route to far-reaching locations like Russia, where he once found himself being pushed off a train (more on that below).

To accompany Edgar's Pulse podcast, he spoke with Kristen Marconi about his new label Ultramajic, his love of film and photography, growing up in Detroit and the value of occult practices like shaman rituals, or 'clubbing' as the rest of us call it.

[Read on to download Pulse.126 - Jimmy Edgar]

Where are you right now and what's it like? I'm in Russia right now, pretty weird to be honest. It's cool, just a really different vibe; kind of aggressive and a little scary. The last time I came here I had a show but couldn't get a visa so they had to fly me in to Belarus and catch an overnight train which I stupidly decided to do. The cops came in with machine guns and black masks. The promoter was this little pregnant girl who grabbed me and hid me in this secret room upstairs and all that kind of shit. Then on the way back we got on the wrong train. I was with my assistant and he jumped off because he spoke to this woman and understood Russian and she said he was on the wrong train, so he jumped off. Then this same woman pushed me off the moving train. She did the right thing but I could have died.

So back to where you're from, what was it like growing up in Detroit and what has been its influence on you? I don't know that it had that much of effect on me wanting to do music, I always knew I wanted to do art. I didn't really know I wanted to do music in the beginning, but I consider it all art anyway. I get asked this a lot because Detroit has such a reputation around the world. But I honestly didn't realise that Detroit techno had an effect on me until later when I listen to mixes or my tracks and notice you can hear that flavour or inspiration.

My inspiration was more immediate, like my mother playing music and dance music. I mean I was playing with them as a teen; the likes of Derrick May etc were playing in the same clubs as me in high school but even then I was young and doing my own shit. Unaware of these old Detroit guys, I had a young "you don't know what's up, listen to this" sort of way of going about my music, but that's how you act when your 16. Then it was later when I started travelling I realised how influential they were and became aware that they really were pioneers who have had a massive impact on the music industry.

Who were your first influences? Who made you want to be an artist? It was kind of a couple of really influential people in my life. One was a guy that specialised in film production and 3D animation. So he was showing me the latest advances in 3D animation and film editing. So I was making films very early, strange films getting my friends to do weird things. That led into photography. I consider film and photography to be basically the same thing. So it was all about getting people to do strange things, getting them out of their element, accentuating their own personalities or attributes. Other than that I really like to draw and paint but that for me is more therapeutic than anything.

Do you prefer working with film or photography? I don't find myself shooting photo much anymore, because with film it's much more revealing and controlling. I like working with film a bit more because you have this time element, a lot like music. Everything is based in time so you can capture really intricate things in film. Whereas photography is a bit more subtle, you leave more to the imagination with photography which is kind of cool. I'm just really into the element of time right now, which is where film is great.

What visuals do you use for your show? I do a very specific show which is basically controls of all the lighting and visuals and is a live show. That I'm actually working on now for next year. We've created this technology that developed which synchronises everything to a visual stimulus which is on LED screens that are super bright, so it's a very visual experience.

But I’m traveling to Australia to DJ. It's the first time I've DJ'd in Australia and I'm really excited. This is for the music. I'll be playing all my favourite music of late, really focusing on getting people to dance.

What’s in your record box for the tour? I play a lot of my own music and friends’ unreleased music. That's how I make my DJ sets exciting. Playing new stuff, unreleased stuff and new edits I've made in the same week as I'm playing sort of thing. It's really my main opportunity to expose all that to an audience.

Tell us about your new label, Ultramajic. The label is basically Pilar Zeta and I, who is my designer. Machinedrum is helping with a lot of the A&R stuff. He's a bit more social with artists and things like that. The label essentially has this really occult theme to it. We've been studying meditation, hypnosis, the occult and all things that relate to ancient Egyptian magic and the like. Ultramajic is essentially bringing together all these ideas into an art collection basically.

There's a lot of really interesting ideas in the occult that really apply today. The club is sort of a shamanic ritual for young people now because it's really the only place that people can go and dance. Dancing is very hypnotic. It's a really hypnotic thing to get you into this state of almost nothingness. This almost meditative state basically where this release and sense of creation for the entire week comes from. Which is really why everybody does it and have for thousands of years whether it's indigenous tribes dancing or church groups, there's that gathering to dance. So basically you can think of the club as almost a shamanic ritual. It sounds a bit cheesy to talk of DJs conducting this but I take it pretty seriously and it's a really positive thing to be able to work with these energies and affect all this work creation in a positive way.

With both yourself and Pilar being artists foremost, will an artistic element or gallery project be part of the label? The fundamental of the label really is the music. But us being artists there's the creative element as well. Like at the moment we've some installations being made in China - I'm actually going to check it out in the next few weeks when I'm there. There's a lot of things that we're going to get produced in China. We’re looking at other options for manufacturing but we're definitely expanding outside the platform of music.

What is the DJing experience like for you? Playing to a crowd that want you to make them dance and be happy doesn't sound like a bad gig. It's incredible really. There's unfortunately the negative side and egos that I don't want to focus on but there can also be this beautiful side where you've got a chance to make a lot of people happy. There should be more of it. Not saying there should be a DJ in every corner but there should be more positive communal vibes going on in everyday life, not just on weekends to blow off steam. It should be part of our everyday lives this dancing and singing and coming together. I see a possibility of how this can happen. Some people can't function without it. If you make humans go to work everyday and have no positivity in their life of course in their time off they're going to need to go out and try and go back to a positive state of being at one with themselves. Whether it's dancing in a club or whatever, of course they're going to want to do that.

What's your workspace or office like? With me it's really on the run. I'm always micromanaging everything at this point because I want it to run smoothly and I'm the financial backing of it. I've delegated work to people that I trust with Travis and Pilar, I trust both of them with my life so if they have something covered I know I don't need to intervene. That's going to be a thread that runs through Ultramajic. This is a label of passion. A boutique operation based on love, design, art and really interesting philosophies to us. So it's bound to be amazing just from where it's coming out of. It’s not something that's going to be measured by monetary gain - it's more about the creation.

What's your view on monetary gain? It really is just a piece of paper. It's not going to make you happy, which is hard to get your head around when you've struggled for so long, but it's true. You'll always notice that if you’re following your dreams and following what you love. If you follow your heart’s desire, everything you need really does come to you. It may not be in overabundance but you're going to be totally fine. It's the times when you second guess yourself and you let these fears come up in your mind is when disasters start happening. That's a really big clue on how to live and to follow your heart rather than fear it.

You've prepared the latest Pulse podcast. What have you got for us? A lot of it is unreleased. So far it's actually none of my own music and all new promos I've been sent and really enjoyed. So it's something quite different for me. I usually like using this opportunity to expose me or my friends’ music. But I think that I'm just really going to take it from being a travelling DJ who’s always finding new music. Recently I've found some really amazing promos that I want to share so this is a good time.

What's up and coming for you right now? My main concern is the label at the moment. I've got an EP coming out soon called 'Hot Inside' that's really the first EP on the label. So all my focus is on the label launching and the first EP.

Pulse.126 - Jimmy Edgar Tracklist:
1) Timo Maas - Dancing For My Pleasure (Original Mix)
2) Tim Paris - Golden Ratio (Villanova Remix)
3) Special Case - Jobs Done (Original Mix)
4) N.A.C. - Love (Original Mix)
5) Myles James - Broken (Original Mix)
6) J Diesel - English Please (Original Mix)
7) No Artificial Colors - Crying Wolf (Original Mix)
8) Isaac Christopher & Myles James - Do Your Thang (Original Mix)
9) Waze & Odyssey - Jin Kazama (Original Mix)
10) Lo Shea - Dtb (Original Mix)
11) Jon Hopkins - Open Eye Signal (Forthcoming)
12) Kolsch - Goldfisch (Forthcoming Speicher)

[Download Pulse.126 - Jimmy Edgar here]

2013 Australian Tour Dates:
07.06.13 - The Bakery, Perth
08.06.13 - Terminal Projekt @ OST, Sydney [BUY]
09.06.13 - Brown Alley, Melbourne

Listen to Jimmy Edgar on Pulse Radio

A Chance Discovery: Eagles & Butterflies

http://pulseradio.net — Sat, 18 May 2013 03:15:59 +1000

“If you put good things out there you get good things back, I believe. That’s the way I live life,” says Chris Barratt. The music lover, turned industry maven, turned DJ, credits the “power of the universe” for all the positive turns in his career. But who can knock his beliefs when the results are as indisputable as gravity?

This philosophy remains true when applied to how we came across Barratt. We stumbled upon a demo of his forthcoming track “Butterflies” only hours after he posted it. Now here, we thought, was something worth latching onto.

While he’s not too keen on genres, Barratt’s approach is one of grace and ease, “I just love emotion in music, I don't really care what genre or style it comes under, to be honest.” Whatever it is or isn’t, it is certainly on the forefront of EDM. His musical sensitivity permeates every measure of his abundantly melodic arrangements. “My style or sound isn’t everyone’s cup of tea,” says Barratt, “but I’m sticking to what I like making and would rather stay true than just try and bang out Beatport Top 10 tracks every week. I don’t care if people don’t dig.”

Under the moniker Eagles & Butterflies, Barratt opts for simplicity. For him, less is more, obvious is honest, and perseverance is devotion to oneself. Minimalist he may be, but the E&B sound is as expansive as his interests. Using unique combinations of samples with no discrimination of genres, Barratt isn’t afraid to be himself. This is undoubtedly what has landed him on the “who to watch” list.

First scouted by John Digweed, Eagles & Butterflies was almost overlooked due to a mislabeled submission. As the universe would have it, things did work out and Barratt’s first few singles dropped via Bedrock. In a matter of months, the attention surrounding Barratt’s music was increasing. Now, with the interest from boutique labels such as Sudbeat, Crosstown Rebels, and Manual Music combined with support from big name DJ’s like Heidi, Digweed, Felix da House Cat, BBC’s Annie Mac, and up-and-comer Aaron Lipsett – Barratt is poised to spread the love even further.

We caught up with Eagles & Butterflies for a light-hearted Skype chat over what’s in store for the budding artist.

First of all, why the name Eagles & Butterflies? I’m obsessed with tattoos and had a butterfly with eagles tattooed on my chest. Butterflies represent the nice happy melodic stuff I make and the eagles, the not so happy stuff!

If you could describe yourself in five words, what would they be? Happy, hat-wearing, naked man.

What got you started in music? I’ve always been around music. My mum used to take me to concerts when I was a kid and I would lie in my bed at night with the headphones and cassette player blasting for as late as I could get away with!

Did you always envision yourself as a producer/DJ? I DJ'd from quite an early age, around sixteen/seventeen, and started up my first club night when I was eighteen. I always knew I wanted to be involved with music, just wasn’t sure how at that time! So, I started out at a PR Agency, did A&R for one of the Radio1 DJ’s for a few years, worked as an agent/manager, booked events for Dance Magazine, and was a promoter.

Sounds like you’ve done it all! What brought you to really pursue DJing at twenty-nine? To be honest, it was never really my intention to pursue DJing as a career. I just love making music and playing with sounds, so the timing came naturally. Even now, I'm not craving success; I just love doing what I'm doing. Whatever happens on the back of that is amazing.

Have those jobs helped in your pursuits as a DJ? You build up contacts over the years that come in handy I suppose, but if what your doing isn’t good they won't get you very far!

The story surrounding your Bedrock releases seems pretty serendipitous. Tell us how Digweed found you. I sent some tracks to Scott (his A&R) via iChat to see what he thought. I had no intention of putting them out so they just had names like “tester3” or something. He loved them, but didn’t know whom they were from. A few weeks later I happened to send him a few more tracks, it clicked and he signed them!

And those releases are what kind of got you on the map, right? Yeah, exactly-- a lot of love for Diggers! “Kolleckt” was then the opener on John’s next two compilations, which was a massive honor for me, especially as it was my first release. I've now had four releases so far with Bedrock.

“Kolleckt” and “Stimmer” were solid tracks! Were they influenced by Digweed or the label at all, or was that just how you were writing at the time? The track influences are actually hidden (or not so hidden) in the titles! Kollecktiv Turnstrasse influenced “Kolleckt” and Stimming influenced “Stimmer!” I actually made both tracks in the same day and those guys were what I was listening to before I made them!

You’ve mentioned that you can write an entire track in two hours. What does that say about the quality of music? What are your thoughts on that? My tracks are so simple, as you can hear! I don’t like loads of things going on, I like things pretty stripped back. My problem is finishing tracks. I have probably fifty tracks that are 90% done that probably won’t ever get finished because I move straight on to another one. I mean, loads of the stuff I put on my Soundcloud, to be honest, aren’t even really finished!

You’re currently UK based, correct? Yeah, a small town on the south coast called Bournemouth.

Sounds tranquil. It’s lovely. You saw that pic on my Facebook? [Referencing image below]

I did! So that’s where you wrote your Lana Del Rey “Balcony Edit.” Yup, that’s my front room.

No wonder you write like you do! (Barratt skypes a smiling, gleaming sunshine emoticon)

Any plans to move stateside? I love L.A. I’m going back over in a few weeks, for a few months, and will move out after the summer for some hometown gigs. After that, I plan on moving to L.A. permanently.

How will all that moving affect your creative process? Well, I just use my laptop. I love making music on the go wherever I am, and that’s all I need.

What’s your live set up? I'm a CDJ boy. A man of simple needs!

What are your thoughts on the current EDM scene? Oversaturated or just getting good? I think good music will always come through, but good music is judged on individual taste. Trends come and go all the time; I don't really pay to much attention to be honest. People get too caught up in it all. Just love whatever music you love and let everyone else do the same.

What’s in the future for Eagles & Butterflies? Loads of production and remixes on the way; I’ve over 10 releases scheduled in already with the likes of Manual and Basmati (amongst others,) a really cool remix from John Tejada via Kompakt, some cool live shows coming, and a few big Ibiza dates over the summer...

Awesome. Thanks for the interview Chris, any last words? Yeah, check out Alice Rose, a.k.a Tiger Rose. I’m doing loads of stuff with her -- she is amazing. Much Love!

Check out his remix of Booka Shade & M.A.N.D.Y.'s "Body Language," available for download on his artist channel below:

Listen to Eagles & Butterflies on Pulse Radio

Pulse Loves... Max Chapman

http://pulseradio.net — Fri, 17 May 2013 23:09:20 +1000

The last time Pulse spoke to Max Chapman, he symbolised the rising London DJ and producer, cutting his teeth through London's Krankbrother agency and making a mark on the LDN scene through lo-key releases such as his remix of Art Department & Seth Troxler's 'Vampire Nightclub'. Fast forward to today and Max is packing his DJ schedule (including dates at FOUND and the forthcoming We Are FSTVL) and runs the ever impressive Resonance Records, responsible for releases from the likes of Death on The Balcony, Sishi Rosch and more. Read on as Max setps up for our coveted Pulse Loves feature and mixes an exclusive selection, besides talkign about making it in the saturated settings of London and forthcoming treats from Resonance....

Pulse loves... hardworking people. You've been a very busy boy over the past year or so; DJing, producing and running a record label. How do you find the time to fit everything in? Yeah it’s been fairly busy the past year, I have only actually been gigging since September 2011 so its not even a huge amount of time, even though it seems like a few months ago…. time definitely flies when your having fun. Of course gigging takes up the most time, traveling around and preparing for each one, before you know it you’re out Friday and back through the door Monday with 4 week days to do everything before you do it again! As for the label to be honest it doesn’t take up as much time as people think, the tracks that I sign hold all the work time and that is created by the artists so I have them to thank the most for that, although there are times when things can get on top but its not often. As for producing I fit all that in in the weekdays, sometimes I put ideas down on planes and trains etc., but I don’t like working like that really, I have to be in my own space.

Pulse loves... DJs. What has it been like DJing across the UK and Europe over the past year? Has your hectic gigging schedule brought with it any negative points or have you simply been “living the dream”? Ha-ha, definitely feel like I’m living the dream! It has been great, I couldn’t have asked for more, to get Circo Loco, Warehouse Project, Fabric, Sankeys.. all sorts under my belt has been such a massive achievement for me and the more I do the more I am driven to succeed even more so.

Pulse loves... Resonance records. Tell us a bit about your label; how did it start – what have you got planned for the future? It started when myself, AJ Christou and Mark Horsey decided to go for it the beginning of last year, we started off wanting to give up and coming artists a chance to release their great music that big labels weren’t interested in due to signing all the bigger acts and their friends etc. and it just snowballed from there… now we are signing very established artists and of course we still have an eye on the upcoming artists too! Next up we have a Walker & Royce EP with remix’s from No Artificial Colours and Adam Shelton, following that we have a DJ W!LD EP with wAFF and Lee Brinx & Cozzy D Remix’s, shortly after that Michael Jansons Drops his EP with myself on the remix and to close the summer release schedule we have an outstanding EP from Cozzy D, leading up to Christmas we have a Dale Howard EP and an Alexis Raphael EP too.

Pulse loves... new music. You have a new release scheduled for June on Resonance courtesy of Walker and Royce. What can we expect to hear from this collaboration? Walker and Royce are New York based artists and have teamed up with Australian guys Pow! Pow! for their track Poindexter, The lead track is call Drive which has been remixed by No Artificial Colours who put a nice driving clubby feel to it, and another from one of Birmingham's biggest talents Adam Shelton who has given it a a deep but driving edge.

Pulse loves... Ibiza. We see you're taking over Sankeys Ibiza in June with Magna Carta. What are you looking forward to most this season? YES! This is going to be huge! We have an absolute monster of a line up and I cannot wait to get behind the decks in Sankeys again, to be honest this has to be the most exciting party for me! Gonna be a belter I’m sure of it! Here’s the event link:
https://www.facebook.com/events/361899003920106/

Pulse loves: deep house and disco. What are your thoughts on the current state of electronic music and its current popularity in the mainstream? How does EDM in America and Disclosure charting in the UK make you feel about the music you love so much? To be honest I believe that as long as an artist or record labels are going in the direction that they want to follow then go for it, of course it’s a shame to ruin the ‘street cred’ that house music has gotten from being so underground, but certain people have been making underground dance music for 10 years, peaked in the underground scene and due to that hard work have caught the ear of millions more listeners, and for that you can’t blame them at all, they have worked and worked to achieve their goals and if that means it going mainstream and earning them truck loads of money to live out their older days and support their families with some money behind them life on then I’m all for it.

Listen to Max Chapman on Pulse Radio.

Tusk: A Different Kind of RSI

http://pulseradio.net — Fri, 17 May 2013 22:24:21 +1000

Tusk is one of the UK's most closely guarded labels. The illustrious label has seen some of the hottest artists from the underground dropping in for personal, hand touched releases. Having made a name through these white label releases, including Bicep, Ejeca and more, label manager and founder "Tusk" keeps the focus on the music rather than the style and image management of most mechanistic labels these days. He's launching a brand new imprint - RSI - featuring Posthuman on the first pressing - and to celebrate, he's delivered us an exclusive forthcoming Spring release selection from across his labels. Pulse were honored to speak in detail to the elusive record head and host this special mix of forthcoming cuts. Read on as Martin Moffat got a little bit closer...

[Read on for tracklisting]

How does it feel being responsible for one of 2012’s worst kept secrets in the form of your label Tusk Wax? A label who's quality was matched only by how limited the vinyl runs were? Cheers for the nice words... I dunno really. It still feels like a bit of secret over here. I don't get the sense that the labels have moved from out of the shadows really. I guess its guys like you have to make that call, I can't be objective from my very limited and warped view of the world. My only real guide as to how the labels are doing is sales, and they have stayed strong, so I'm happy. I like to think that the labels are missed by most people but still managed to break even despite this. I certainly don't want them to get any more well know if that’s what's happening. Maybe I should stop this interview right now and climb back down my hole?

Do you prefer to think of what you do as underground or at least under the radar? Would being a superstar DJ/Record label boss not be amazing? It would be a dream come true to most people. I think the labels are under the radar, underground perhaps, but that’s a dirty word nowadays so lets go with under the radar. As for courting of publicity and what not, I really don’t think there is anything that I’m doing that warrants it. I’m releasing other peoples music on a format and in styles that has been going for years. I’m hardly breaking new ground. If I was banging on about ‘I’m the man behind Tusk Wax’ all the time people would quite rightfully say ‘so what’? There’s nothing worse than people searching for fame without any substance, I’m not saying I have no substance, but running a label and doing the odd remix certainly doesn’t warrant any great recognition. That said, I’m glad I get booked to go and select records at people’s parties, that’s great, but as far as I’m concerned I’m there to sit in the background play records so that friends can meet up, get their drink on and party together. I do find it odd when I’m Djing and people are watching me rather then having it with their pals. Trust me, I’m not gonna be doing that much, just putting good records, trying to mix them on having a drink. I’d rather be seen as part of the crowd at the party just trying to have a good time myself. Luckily most of the parties I play at are small affairs and it works out just like that.

The going rate for the majority of Tusk's back catalogue on Discogs at the moment is around the £20 mark (although some do go to double that amount). How does it feel knowing that you're releases have become instantly sought after? Its nice obviously. It helps the records sell. I was a bit of a Discogs basher when things first started, I didn't like the idea that the artists and I make nothing and that some trader was cashing in. But it is what it is. It don’t see that is does any harm to labels for anyone to sell records on Discogs for inflated prices. In fact, I'm sure that if someone wanted they could probably manufacture such inflation... People tend to jump on any means of buying authenticity and popularity so I would expect someone to at least give it a go. Whether it's possible or not only time will tell.

All of the stuff you released on wax is hand stamped, usually small runs of good weighted vinyl. How important do you think these personal touches are nowadays? Is all that extra work really worth it? Everyone selling vinyl needs to at least attempt to find a USP. Its a shame that we have to think that way, but without a bit of business savvy you'll just lose money. Digi is different, if you wanna put out generic music and generic art is doesn't matter, you're not gonna really lose much cash, you might lose your girlfriend's respect... but whatever, she was only with you ‘cus you told her you where a DEEJAY anyway. So yeah, you have to have some kind of detail in a record. Something for people to hold onto and feel a part of. That ties into the whole label really, the online identity, the mixes, the parties, the tees... all of them have a thread running though them I hope. It might not be obvious, but hopefully the people who buy the records grasp what I’m banging on about.

You seemed quite content to be the man behind the curtain with Tusk Wax, becoming quite an elusive character. Why is that? I have a work life which isn't compatible with Tusk Wax. So one of the essential elements of continuing with things is to be able to keep my identity hidden to the most part. All this is a hobby to me, so I don't need to tie any of it to my real life. And its nice having a fictional character to play about with. I guess its one of the benefits of our late-modern world.

It seems like a lot of work and financial risk to put into something that is just a hobby. What do you feel you get from it that makes it worth the risk? Firstly, do I have to ‘get’ anything? To much of life is broken down to a cost/benefit analysis, perhaps we should be looking not what music can do for us but what we can do for music. Now, with that hippy shit out the way... It was a risk at first, but now the finances take care of themselves because sales are strong. So with that reduction of risk in mind, I do it ‘cus its a laugh and I like music. I didn’t think I would get to play records as ‘Tusk’ when I first started but that is a big part of the motivation to keep going now, I’m not really a DJ and neither do I really like DJing that much, but i love a party, meeting people who love music and a good old drink. That’s all a bonus really, I just like putting good gear out and doing the odd remix, I guess that’s enough for me to get back.

You've started a new label- RSI with it's first release on the way in the next month or so. What made you start another imprint? It looks from the outside like you were onto a great thing with Tusk Wax. Its pretty simple really, I found a track I wanted to put out, and Tusk/Horn/Porn Wax are all booked up. So what ya gonna do??? Start something new. I might not keep it going, at the moment is something that might be used as a follow up. I did a track with a good pal of mine after playing at Renate last year... The label that originally expressed some interest are struggling to lock things down so if that doesn't come off I will probably bang that on RSI. My good buddies have done a remix which is in the forthcoming mix. Its a pretty weird track and a weird remix, its all about a man fox. Other than that, if the right thing comes along I now have the option to whack it out rather than putting it in the queue for Tusk Wax.

What does RSI stand for? The labels are all hand written, no stamping this time, so the name came from Repetitive Strain Injury. But now it also stands for Rectal Sphincter Inquiry and Really Stupid Idea.

Your first release on RSI is from Posthuman – long time production duo and acid enthusiasts - Richard Bevan and Josh Doherty of AGT Rave Crew and Balkan wax fame. How did you guys get together? I played at Josh's I Love Acid night earlier this year (their last party at Ginglik is at the end of the month), and before that I had that monster Posthuman track on Horn Wax Four. I forget how we first came across each other. But me and Josh talk music a lot so its just came together from our usual chitter chatter. I’m lucky that I only work with people who I call my friends or whom seem the type of people that I will be able to call my friends. The Posthuman guys and all the guys I work with are top boys. I guess that’s one of the reasons I’m still trucking, I don’t really have to deal with and dick heads.

You had quite a steady output of music on Tusk, are you planning to release as much music on RSI? If so are you going to continue to release on Tusk as well? Tusk, Horn and Porn releases all follow a rough pattern of one coming out roughly every three weeks. People always comment on how much I push out, but really I only keep it high because I like to have stuff in shops, that’s my main avenue by which people find out about the labels you see. So I like to keep giving the shops something to shift. RSI will stand alone from them and be completely separate really. I don't really work to confirmed release dates, so its not like I could decide to ensure that RSI doesn't clash with a Tusk record. Stuff just gets put out when it's ready and that's that. The kind of back of a fag pack organisation will continue...

Well this approach certainly seems to be working for you. How far do you think it can carry on before you need to start planning more and taking it more seriously? If you could would you take it full time as your main focus (if you could stay out of the limelight that is)? This is it. Its reached its peak, now its just a case of carrying on carrying on. What more would I want? The records sell and I work with good people. The next stage would be working with bigger artists and doing promo. Neither of which i am fused about. I have two maybe three people I want to work with on top of the guys I have already done stuff with, so I will continue to try and get them on the labels in some capacity, but other than that I don’t strive for anything more. To be honest, I never really have done, I’ve just let things develop. I’m in a position now where I have my good pal Lee helping me with the shop and bits of the admin. If it wasn’t for him I would have to have packed in, as they labels eat into work time too much. So, as long as he is on-board to help me out I can just continue as is. I guess I have at least one more year in me before I consider chopping it. Who knows. Maybe I’ll do a live set and be the next big thing...

You've done an exclusive TUSK mix for us ahead of the first release. What can we expect to hear in that? So this is the follow up to the Tusk Forthcoming's mix I did for Test Pressings last year. Its all future gear that I'm either releasing or have had a hand in making. I guess it's one way that I found of doing some promo without it being overly 'PROMO MATE'... Its a chance for people to see the direction I'm taking things in the next 6 months. It gives all the other labels a bit of a head up as to what will be cool in 2014... Know what I mean??? (I hate that I have to make this obvious, but that was a joke). A massive thanks to Lee who helps me with the Tusk Shop for getting this together for me. I only play records and none of these tracks have been pressed yet so he's helped me compile it. There’s some bangers, some deep stuff and some weird stuff... Hopefully the type of thing people are beginning to expect from stuff I’m connected to.

Tracklisting
1 Tusk Wax
2 Tusk Wax
3 Tusk Wax
4 Tusk Wax
5 Tusk Wax
6 Horn Wax
7 Tusk Wax
8 Horn Wax
9 TBC
10 Tusk Special Edition
11 RSI
12 Tusk Wax
13 RSI
14 Tusk Wax
15 Tusk Special Edition
16 Disco Bloodbath
17 Horn Wax
18 Glenview Records

Listen to Tusk on Pulse Radio.

Year Of The Tensnake

http://pulseradio.net — Fri, 17 May 2013 10:53:06 +1000

It's not every day an artist produces one of the biggest new-age disco bombs in recent memory. But that's precisely what Hamburg native Marco Niemerski - better known as Tensnake - did with 'Coma Cat,' which has been igniting dance floors across the globe since its release in 2010. However if you thought that Niemerski is one of those guys riding off the success of just one hit, think again; his cred was fervently bubbling away in the undeground well before 'Coma Cat' dropped (see 'Keep Believin', 'In The End [I Want You To Cry]' and 'Congolal' for proof), and his remixes for pop acts like Aloe Blacc, Friendly Fires and Lana Del Ray are but further testaments to his production prowess.

Ahead of his upcoming tour of Australia, where he will be bringing his acclaimed live show to the Terminal Projekt in Sydney, Pulse spoke with Niemerski about his thoughts on the new Daft Punk LP, 'EDM', and his highly-anticipated debut album which fans the world over having been anxiously awaiting. The Chinese sure have got it right - 2013 is the year of the Snake.
Pulse: You played in Paris recently with Alan Braxe and DJ Falcon, where Falcon apparently dropped a Daft Punk track. What was the response like? Tensnake: It was insane, it was incredible. A very special moment. The track was ‘Get Lucky’ which of course everybody knows now. I had heard the track at least 15 times the weekend before – I played in Istanbul and Budapest – and I got so used to the track already, but when DJ Falcon dropped it in Paris it was really special and the crowd went nuts. So I feel very happy about that.

There seems to be pretty mixed reviews floating around on the new Daft Punk album – people either love it or hate it. You have listened to it, surely? I’ve heard it yes. I was listening to it constantly yesterday.

So you’re a fan of it then? I have to say I have the utmost respect for the guys because I really feel that they could have easily gone the total sell-out route and made a super huge record. Instead they went for not necessarily creating an obvious hit and I appreciate that. I think it’s lacking a little bit in songwriting in some parts maybe, but that’s just personal taste. I think it’s very brave in a way to do a record like this - the way they recorded everything is very original. It’s exactly the way they recorded a Chic album in the late 70s for example; they used the same gear and the same mixing console. I think it’s a very special document of time, so I appreciate it a lot.

It definitely feels to me like they wanted to make the world more aware of legendary producers like Giorgio Moroder and Nile Rodgers, who perhaps aren’t given enough credit or recognition for their influence on dance music as they should. Absolutely. Let’s for example take this weird term ‘EDM’. I’ve just been touring the States and what you see there is that everything has to be like an instant orgasm, everything has to be huge and banging. It’s almost too sweet, it’s too much. And this album to me feels like a statement, that there is another way to do it, just like Nile and Giorgio did. ‘Get Lucky’ went to #1 instantly all around the world, so they proved this I would say. And it’s not only marketing, I think it’s a good song with a good vibe, and it shows that it’s still possible to make music like this.

You’ve been working with Nile Rodgers on your new album, right? Yes, on two tracks.

And what was that like? I would say the Daft Punk stuff is more original disco, like the first Chic record. What we did is a bit more 80s, commercial pop influenced. It’s still disco but it’s more electronic. But yeah the whole experience with Nile was incredible because he’s so open and humble. He also answers his own emails, he controls his own facebook, and you can just hang out with him, he’s so easy going. If you consider what he produced and how many records he sold with his production – not only with Chic and Sister Sledge – it’s insane.

What would you say you learned from working with him? I think what I learned most - which is kind of the same philosophy I have - is that there’s no reason to go diva or crazy, you just need to stay human. This whole music business is often very crazy, but that doesn’t mean there’s any reason to get weird with people. That’s the biggest lesson I learnt from him. I mean he called me on the phone and was like, “Yo bro, listen to this” and then played me some guitar chords over the demo I sent him. He was like, “Is this what you like? Can I just be you guitar player on the track?” And I’m just sitting there with this huge grin on my face. I learned from him that we are all just cooking with water, you know?

That’s awesome. Am I correct in that you also worked with Stuart Price on a track for the album? Yeah. He’s quite similar to Nile Rodgers actually in terms of having produced huge artists but staying very calm, humble and nice. He was also very easy to work with. I sent him a track and he liked it and said “let’s do it”. So we met in Los Angeles when I was there and we went to his studio and produced the track. I was there playing with his little kids on the floor while he did some work – it was all very easy and nice to hang out and work.

The track that you guys worked on, is it the one that Jamie Lidell has done vocals for? Yes. It’s probably one of my favourite tracks on the album actually. When Stuart and I finished the song we weren’t sure if it needed vocals or not, but in the end we thought that vocals could work, but whose? The song has a kind of Prince vibe and I think Jamie Lidell totally nailed it. I’m very excited about that song.

How is the album coming along? Is it finished? It’s finished and has just been mastered. There is going to be a little appetizer at the end of May actually; I’m going to release the first single, but only on very limited vinyl. There’s not going to be a huge fuss around it, I just want to test it and release it. But the whole album will probably come out in late September or October.

Is it all dancefloor tunes, or can we expect some more different stuff say akin to your remix of Little Dragon’s 'Ritual Union'?. The track that’s coming out in May is actually very much like the ‘Ritual Union’ remix. It’s a downtempo, back room ballad, I would say. But for all the people who are very worried and freaking out right now, there is a remix from Mano Le Tough on the B-side, which is something for the dancefloor.

So it sounds like it’s going to be an actual album then, with a little bit of everything? Yes, well, I mean I’m a kid of the 80s, I grew up on 80s radio music. For me there is no point in releasing a club album with ten banging club tracks. For me it has to be a journey with different styles and genres and maybe have some tracks which you don’t like at first, but then you keep listening to the whole album again and you change your mind, then you listen again and prefer another song more and things like this, with it always changing. I tried to do this with the album.

You’re touring your live show at the moment. What have you changed about the show since you last toured it? Well for the new album it’s going to be a whole different show, I’m going to bring in musicians and have a whole production. For now though I’m just testing things out and the main difference in Australia will be that I’m going to perform maybe 3 or 4 songs off the album. I’ll also have a singer with me who is from Australia – she actually ended up on about 50% of the album. We wrote many songs together.

What’s her name? Her artist name is Fiora.

Cool. So have you heard much about the Terminal Projekt event you’ll be playing at in Sydney? I didn’t know much about it at first but then I did some research and I’m super excited. The location will be amazing and I read about the video mapping too – it should be an amazing night.

Yes, agreed. So you dropped an Essential Mix earlier this year. How did it feel to be asked? Of course it was an honour. It’s such a legendary mix series, being asked is a little bit like being knighted with a sword and becoming a ‘sir’! You know, you spend a lot of time on the tracklist and you think about it much more than just another mix or podcast for some blog.

How long did you get to prepare the mix? I think I spent almost two weeks on it. In the beginning I wasn’t sure if I would do a club set but then some people convinced me to because it’s also promotion for what you’re doing, so you don’t want to go totally experimental or ambient or jazz, you know. But I managed to sneak in an Alice Coltrane track so I was happy with that.
I was wondering, has coming from a producer background in some way influenced the way that you DJ? I’m not sure. It’s hard for me to describe how I do stuff because I’m just doing it. I would say I always try to keep my set diverse and not stick to the same genre, like say deep house for the whole set or tech house or whatever. What I like is a little journey, which is the same approach I have when I’m producing. I try to bring in at least a couple of elements that are maybe not used that many times.

OK last question – I hope it’s not too complicated! I’ve been thinking about how the younger generation who have grown up with the internet have access to every past era of music there’s ever been. Do you think with all that access and with all the past history of music being mashed together, that it’s going to be harder to define eras of music from here on in? Hmm, yeah I guess back in the day everything was easily put into drawers, there was drum n bass, hip-hop, pop and this and that. Now indie people are listening to house, house people are listening to metal, whatever, you know? Well, maybe not metal [laughs]. I think maybe in ten years it will still be possible to look back and say “Oh yes, those were the ‘tens’” or whatever. I think a certain something or sound will stick out that will make the time definable. Hopefully it won’t only be EDM! But that might happen you know. Maybe one day we will look back and say, “Oh remember that ‘Levels’ song by Avicii, it was so great.”

I hope not! [Laughs] Me neither! But you never know. Though I think like you said having access to all this music, this is not a bad thing. Very often there is discussions about bad music, again this ‘EDM’. But I think these days it’s easier than ever to just concentrate on listening to the music that you like. People should just stay positive and concentrate on what they like instead of hating music they don’t like.

Tensnake 2013 Australian Tour Dates:
07.06.13 - The Bakery, Perth
08.06.13 - The Bottom End, Melbourne
09.06.13 - Terminal Projekt @ OPT, Sydney [BUY]

Listen to Tensnake on Pulse Radio

Tensnake

http://pulseradio.net — Fri, 17 May 2013 10:24:17 +1000

Pulse: You played in Paris recently with Alan Braxe and DJ Falcon, where Falcon apparently dropped a Daft Punk track. What was the response like? Tensnake: It was insane, it was incredible. A very special moment. The track was ‘Get Lucky’ which of course everybody knows now. I had heard the track at least 15 times the weekend before – I played in Istanbul and Budaapest – and I got so used to the track already, but when DJ Falcon dropped it in Paris it was really special and the crowd went nuts. So I feel very happy about that.

There seems to be pretty mixed reviews floating around on the new Daft Punk album – people seem to either love it or hate it. You have listened to it, surely? I’ve heard it yes. I was listening to it constantly yesterday.

You’ve been working with Nile Rodgers on your new album, right? Yes, on two tracks.

What’s her name? Her artist name is Siora.

I was wondering, has coming from a producer background in some way influenced the way that you DJ? I’m not sure. It’s hard for me to describe how I do stuff because I’m just doing it. I would say I always try to keep my set diverse and not stick to the same genre, like say deep house for the whole set or tech house or whatever. What I like is a little journey, which is the same approach I have when I’m producing. I try to bring in at least a couple of elements that are maybe not used that many times.

Listen to Tensnake on Pulse Radio

Spotlight On Detroit: Kyle Hall

http://pulseradio.net — Fri, 17 May 2013 07:34:42 +1000

But there’s much more to the musical story that’s constantly being told in Wayne County and it’s one that thrives even in the 362 days after the festival stages have been taken down. In Pulse Radio’s "Spotlight on Detroit" series we've handpicked some amazing talent from this fair city. Whether their name is already written in the books of history or their careers are being forged as we speak, everyone within the series has their own perspective on how the city has shaped them as artists and who they are as people. Find out from these guys who are in the know, about the hidden gems of Detroit. Also, they each select a few of their favorite places to take friends from out of town, hang out, and grab a bite to eat in the D. 
________________________________________________________________________________

There's one name Carl Craig will proudly recommend when asked about Detroit talent, and that is Kyle Hall. A staunch advocate of releasing on vinyl, one can walk into a record store in the Detroit metro area and find Kyle's pressed releases lying quite comfortably amidst the works of artists such as Theo Parrish - a fellow Detroit great to whom he has been compared to musically.

Hot on the heels of the release of his new album "The Boat Party," Kyle remains the raw talent that the city of Detroit is known for coveting. The album is a work of soulful art, instilled with jazzy vocals and a true blend of deep house and Detroit techno tracks. It is a pleasure to hear those old sounds that we are very familiar with, given a new life and a new context. Each track has that full-bodied warm tone, full of scratches and small imperfections, which Kyle retains on purpose, that remind us of the vinyl golden age. In a world of constant digital releases, this aberration is welcomed with open arms and teaches us that there is still a lot to be learned of from the past.

How would you characterize your musical upbringing? What about this do you think led to where you find yourself these days? I would say my musical up bringing was pretty good. I took on a few different instruments when I was a kid. Some of that may have had an effect on what I do now. But mostly what influenced me was just hearing music through my parents and other older folks. After a while, my taste began to form naturally the more music I consumed and the more vinyl I bought.

Who did you look up to either within music or in another area of life while you were growing up, that still have an impact on you today? I listened to quite a bit of music that influenced me today. Really too many to fully list but just to name a few are John Cage, Sun Ra, Jdilla, Dr Dre, Ice Cube, and Masters at Work.

Everyone seems to have their own approach to making records these days. With so much hardware/software and knowledge floating about what have you found to be some tricks of the trade that help you get the best out of yourself and any collaborations? I think the trick is there is no trick. Just do your own thing and be original, no matter what you use.

As an artist hailing from the undisputed birthplace of techno, do you feel this limits your ability to explore work in other genres? No, not at all. Why would anyone think that? The music genres in Detroit are so vast that many of my friends and artists around me make all sorts of music. While the genres are very different, the scenes have a lot of crossover and mixing. Detroit music is one of no limitations.

Tell us something about the D our readers might not already know. You should check out this site haha. Plenty of fun facts! http://www.ampyourstrat.com/2011/03/10-detroit-facts-you-should-know/

Being from Detroit also brings on a sense of pride, which has sprouted sayings like “Detroit hustles harder” and so on. What does being from this city evoke from you personally? I think everyone likes to rep where they're from! I just so happen to be from the D! Detroit is the best! I think Detroit is also seen as an underdog in the US, but definitely known for its talent - and that is something to be proud about.

While every scene has its pros and cons, what do you see as the obstacles and advantages that come along with making a living in music in the D? Pros: having plenty of space and time to think and to be creative. Cons: for a while there wasn't a lot of things going on in the dance music scene in Detroit to get youth culture into the music, until really recently.

What are some of your favorite memories of Movement/DEMF in years past? My favorite memory about Movement was seeing my family and friends come out the first year I played. That was really awesome to have that support!

What's your favorite place to:
A: Show out of towners I like to show out of towners all the really dope record stores in Detroit. We have quite a few! Also I like to show my friends from out of town the museums here. There are some really cool places in Detroit that have a rich history. Everyone that comes here loves to see the train station or the dilapidation in the city, but I like to show them the growth and the things that are here to stay.

B: Check out local artists (of any genre or art medium) Motorcity Wine, TV Bar, Russel Industrial center, The MOCAD

C: Get some good grub I like Seva a lot; its a really nice vegetarian restaurant in Midtown Detroit. Also, MotorCity Brewery has really good pizza and beer, their rooftop is perfect for the summer time.

If you could do one thing to enhance the state of Detroit’s electronic scene, what would it be? I would want the venues here to have better sound systems and more youth (people my age) to be into the scene and be open to the culture I am trying to build in my city.

Listen to Kyle Hall on Pulse Radio

Fresh Blood: Chicago Flotation Device

http://pulseradio.net — Thu, 16 May 2013 18:26:00 +1000

Chicago Flotation Device may not hail from the windy city, but the London based trio certainly know their stuff when it comes to the art of contemporary electronic music. An elusive 3 piece hailing from London. After they appeared on the internet through their toughened, warehouse tinged 'Untitled 6' recently, Pulse dived in and sought more information on this shadowy outfit. Needless to say, they're keeping their cards close to their chest - but CFD kindly spoke to Pulse and shed some more light on their sound, aesthetics and values besides mixing our latest Fresh Blood mix.

Welcome to the Pulse fold... introduce yourselves to us! Thanks, we're a London-based three-piece from various odd towns around the UK who met whilst DJing, producing and putting on nights in London.

How would you pinpoint your sound? What have been your influences musically? CFD: When we jam, a lot of the stuff seems to come out sounding quite ravey and on a bit of a warehouse tip. You can debate the house and techno elements - and in some tunes it's easy to break down - but there's a real genuine throwback element that I don't think any of us intended. It's quite dark and probably comes from the more left-field techno, noise and ambient that's come through in the last couple of years.

A lot of it also seems to boil down to the equipment we're using as well, working within the limitations of that has probably been the greatest influence. There's also the fact that it is first and foremost a live project so everything we do is whatever the three of us can manage at one time.

Your name is intriguing - can you give us some more background on this? It was initially a bit of a joke between one of us and another friend regarding the weirder side of house then it just kind of became adopted in this project. Although if you read back further into the history of the flotation/isolation tank and John C Lilly's experiments with hallucinogens there's some really wild stories connected to his experiences and life. He ended up totally screwed, thinking a higher power had sent him to Earth to send a message, eventually he crashed his bike and nearly died and in a coma the beings told him his mission was complete and to carry on living his life. The guy just got up and lived on just fine. It's unreal that he came totally back from the brink!

What core piece of hardware do you base our productions around? What's the central point when creating music? We have a few bits of kit that have become a real backbone to the setup, but I think it was when one of us came back in January with a Korg ES-1 sampler/sequencer, that was when everything kicked off cause we could finally sequence the Drumstation rack unit and keep everything synced, plus sample and sequence bits in the ES-1.

How do you all work together in the studio? Is it natural or are there lots of creative debates about aesthetics? I think it's fair to say it's a pretty lively atmosphere! For the most part though it is incredibly natural - we'll set up, get the drums going and see what happens. There are times when opinions differ I suppose but that's because we're all pretty strong minded and the music we write individually could not be any different, so everyone's approaching it from their own angles. I think we've struck a good balance between all of our sounds though, and we definitely share the same vision when it comes to the aesthetics of the project.

You're known for being strictly analogue - how long has it taken you all to collect the equipment needed? Are you sitting on hoards of tech goodies?: I'd say it's more strictly hardware, as not all of the gear is analogue. One of us started collecting gear about 9 years ago. Bought the Yamaha CS-5 from an older guy he worked with as the guy was blown away by VSTs and the whole digital thing. Then gradually added the Juno, JX-3P and a small desk plus there's some FX bits from when he was in a band. Then after this project there was more of a drive so samplers, desks and shit-loads of cables have been added to supplement what we needed to do.

You took some out to make a bespoke for pulse... What can we expect from it in terms of mood and music included? CFD: We split the mix into three for this (although it's played in one piece) to reflect the different facets of our taste. The house stuff is really key for us, it seems to be the central influence, but then the harder techno and rougher stuff is just the one when it comes to feeding into the CFD sound.

Your music is heavily influenced by the warehouse rave aesthetic - but what do you miss about the old days of the warehouse party, before being adopted as a mechanism for promotion? CFD: That's quite a difficult one to answer as none of us went to warehouse raves in the 90s! But from all the stories and the countless videos on Youtube it just seemed more real and more relaxed. People put more effort in and it was a real necessity to go out and really smash it.

We'd definitely be glad to see people in London enjoying themselves half as much as they do in all those videos. There's a few smaller parties coming through now that are doing some great things with a really good crowd but on the whole I think clubbing here has moved away from being the experience it should be and could not be further removed from the intentions of that era. I guess it's all just taken a bit for granted now.

You guys have kept a pretty low profile - is this to let music do the talking? And to avoid influenced by entrapment in media and hype? I suppose we're just careful as to where and how we put our music out. Especially as it's such a logistical cluster-fuck to meet up - like, once a week max - and the tracks being so few, we have to make the most of each bit we decide is good enough to push. It also ties into the aesthetic of the whole thing, but it's definitely not something we're consciously pushing. I guess that remaining anonymous nowadays is a bit of a cliche but we much prefer listening to music when it's combined with something really strong visually rather than a couple of lonely looking passport photos.

Will you be releasing anymore original music in the foreseeable future after your mysterious track not long ago? Well there's Untitled 1 which got some heat on Youtube, then we gave Untitled 6 away through XLR8R. Hopefully we should have a video dusted off for another tune and got some rougher stuff and a live set going up shortly.

Tracklisting
1. 1991 - High-Tech Love-Life
2. Madteo - We Doubt (You Can Make It)
3. Marcos Cabral - 24 Hour Flight
4. XDB - Recago
5. Juju & Jordash - Bleached Roots
6. Jared Wilson - Drug Related Stories
7. Lowtec - Angstrom
8. Marcelus - Shape
9. Rau - The Blessing
10. Unbroken Dub - Untitled [Untitled Dubs A2]
11. MRSK - Image CTRL
12. Lucretio - Tell Me
13. Michael Ferragosto - Risque Intentions
14. Appointment - Untitled [Reconstruction B2]
15. Unbalance - Untitled [Unbalance 002 A1]
16. Answer Code Request - Main Mode
17. GW - Hurry Up
18. Inland - Nightfall
19. Shifted - Cold Light (Sektor A)
20. A&S - Five 002
21. Function - Incubation (Ritual)
22. Area - Elleinad "Interlude 02" (Area Expand)

Listen to Chicago Flotation Device on Pulse Radio.

Julietta: "Everything Started in Dark, Dirty Cellars"

http://pulseradio.net — Thu, 16 May 2013 00:05:34 +1000

The clubbing community in 2013 seems to be more concerned with frequenting intimate, grass roots spaces rather than the glitz and glamour of the big stage or super club. Munich hailing DJ and Harry Klein label founder Julietta knows all about playing off the beaten path, piecing together musically free, non-uncompromising sets - luckily underground party promoters Rhythmatic have billed her to play alongside Isolee this coming weekend in London. Joe Gamp caught some choice words from the DJ and producer before her arrival.

Do you play a lot in Berlin? And where are particular favourites for you outside of the city? I’m located in Munich, that’s the reason I don’t play every weekend in Berlin - maybe 4 or 5 times a year. The rest of the time I’m travelling wherever I’m booked. Mostly Europe, but the US and Asia are also regularly on my map. There are a few favourites like Tokyo, New Caledonia, especially London as there is my second residency Half Baked, but I love the thrill of being surprised of new locations/people/culture every weekend – even though it might be not supercomfy.

You're playing for the Rhythmatic this weekend - have you heard some good things about their parties? I’m so sorry to say that, but I don’t know so much about the parties.... London is so big! But I’m superexcited to play there though!

You're also sharing the bill alongside Isolee... are you a fan of his? I was happy to read his name on the line up! I have some of his releases (the old ones on Playhouse) and appreciate what he does a lot. I’m curious about his new stuff and what he’s doing on Saturday!

You;re known for a mixture of crate dug classics and fresh tracks - are you going to be playing this mix at the event in May? I’m always doing a mix of everything I find in my bag ;) And as I don’t set up the whole night in advance of course, I never know what happens. On my last own night here in Munich for instance I ended up somehow playing b2b2b old school Disco Stuff with Colin (the Mole) and ANA – I didn’t even know that I have so much stuff of this kind of music!

People are obviously very familiar on the Berlin scene... but is Munich's scene looking healthy these days? It’s a matter of fact that Munich is not comparable to the Berlin scene (I assume no other city in the world does), as we don’t have the same partyfriendly local government and this huge house and techno interested crowd. But the scene is not so small though! We have a handfull of really good clubs with quite good line up. If you wanna go out on the weekends, you can often choose between 3 or 4 good parties – more and more events in Off locations. Besides that the Munich scene is pretty young, I don’t know why. Maybe the people are earlier bounded in their own families, get children and and stay home. Or they are just more lazy natured!

Ho do you feel about the trend for holding parties in secret locations and TBC spaces? Is it something that's still necessary? Of course! There is still a certain kind of “underground” vibe. Back in the days, house parties started like this. Not in superchic clubs, with highclass soundsystem and VIP area like we have now in Ibiza or other places. Everything started in dirty dark cellars with maybe one strobe light - the rest was all about the music. It’s nice to see that there are still parties like this with focus on music.

Is there lots to come for Harry Klein this year? Last January I started to run my own bimonthly night “Slave to the Rhythm” at Harry Klein – together with my friend ANA. We were a bit bored of all this celebrity bling and mainstream boredom in the clubscene. Only a few clubs are blessed to book whoever they want, the rest just seem to have the same “safe” line ups that guarantee a full club – especially in Munich. Our idea was to invite artists apart from this random line everywhere up at the moment, who probably have a special story behind in electronic music – or just play incredibly good music. Our first two parties with Dan Andrei and The Mole were just amazing, the next one will be end of this month with XDB.

Finally, in your opinion, what's the best and worst things about the dance and electronic music scenes in 2013? Uff... hard to say. There’s nothing I really hate, but I shake my head when I read the current stupid DJ-fights on facebook which is quite new in our business. There seems to be an end of everyone's love peace and harmony in house and techno. But one of the best things is for me that the vinyl industry starts growing again after a big recession – a big section of artists step up to the plate and go back to the roots, as is happening right now.

Tickets and further information for this discerning party can be found underneath.

Rhythmatic
18 May 2013
11PM – 6AM
East London Basement

Isolée Live (Playhouse Records, Pampa Records)
Julietta (Harry Klein, Sushitech)
Stathis Lazarides (Rhythmatic, Cavo Paradiso)
Archie Hamilton (Rhythmatic, Moscow Records)

Listen to Julietta on Pulse Radio.

Jack Swift: The Regulator

http://pulseradio.net — Wed, 15 May 2013 18:53:21 +1000

Jack Swift is a man who is quickly asserting himself in the London house/bass community as a force to be reckoned with. The Regulate (shout in your best Warren G voice) resident has been holding his own alongside some of the best and brightest DJs and producers in the country, with Regulate hosting some of the best line ups in the city from the Swamp 81 party at NYE, to their most recent offering - a tear jerking 3 hour Jackmaster b2b Oneman set for the London Hideout Festival pre-party. Mr Swift has put together an exclusive mix for us at Pulse as he discusses everything from So Solid Crew to being a perfectionist and self-branding.

Jack tell us about your first experiences as a DJ? How have you grown with the culture? My first memories of being a DJ were having a mess around on my older brothers (DJ Listener) technics! I was 12 and I didn't know the first thing about mixing two records together, it was a lot of fun though! A year later, once I'd worked out how to hold a mix I started buying records myself; Loppylugs in Edgware was my local record shop (shout to anyone who remembers Loppylugs). Three of the first records i bought were; 'Shut the Door' by Todd Edwards. 'Can you Feel it' by Mr Reds and So Solid Crew's '21 Seconds'.

I spent a lot of time practising at home but it wasn't until I was 18 when I took things a bit more seriously and joined Freeze FM (92.7FM) one of the leading pirate radio stations at the time. That was when I started playing in the clubs under the moniker of "DJ Pressure" for promoters such as Liberty, Garage Nation, Exposure and Sun City.

You're resident for Regulate... Why do you think the party has amassed a solid following? Mainly it comes down to strong branding and the programming. All the lineups they have put together over the last couple of years have been very impressive. It has always been a good mixture of well known, established artists and up and comers who are about to blow; they had Disclosure down before they had any commercial success at all when "tenderly' was doing the rounds. Add to that the professional team behind it an your onto a winner

What's been the biggest or most memorable achievement so far? Have you played a lot of shows outside of Regulate? Most memorable would probably have to be the Basslaced boat party at Outlook Festival last year. It was the first time i'd played on a boat and DJing to a few hundred ravers with a Funktion One rig in the middle of the Adriatic Sea is pretty special! As well as repping for Regulate I'm also resident Dj for Basslaced and Loud Noise and since a slight change of direction in 2010 and adopting the name Jack Swift i've played for Urban Nerds, Lobster Boy, Roska Presents, Get Darker, Outlook Festival, Seedy Sonics, Pack London, Mono Audio, plus many more

Tell us about this fresh mix from you... Is it a current angled mix? Most of my club sets tend to be about 75% new stuff and about 25% older stuff. This mix follows a similar pattern; it's got the new from Leftwing and Kody for whom i'm predicting big things this year, a couple of cuts of Huxley's new Rinse EP and the forthcoming Anthem from No Artificial Colours coming out soon on Madtech Records.

You're also quite a fan of a long DJ set aren't you? I presume you are referring to the History of House and Garage Mix i've recently done which was over 5 hours long! which has gone down very nicely. (http://soundcloud.com/jackswift/jack) I'm a big fan of both Longer and shorter sets. The Longer sets give you more of an opportunity to take the crowd on a journey and perhaps play some stuff which wouldn't make it into a normal one hour set. However my 1 hour sets tend to be a lot more explosive; firing through 50-60 tunes in an hour no problem! Of course it depends on when and where your playing what type of set you deliver but I think both long and short sets are fun in equal measure.

Do you dabble in production at all? I bought myself a copy of Logic a couple of years ago and my studio has been growing ever since. Whilst my production has come on a long, long, way its still not where it needs to be for a release and i'm not one to put anything into the public domain unless i think its good enough! So we could still be a year or two away from anything seeing a release.

What's the best - and worst - thing about London's clubbing scene? The fact that everything is right on your doorstep in London is both a good and a bad thing! You would struggle to find one weekend in London where something decent wasn't happening. It keeps things a lot more competitive and forces Promoters/DJs etc to up their game. However if you live in London the fact you are spoilt for choice every weekend makes it more difficult for promoters to fill up their raves. Whereas the same Lineup somewhere else in the UK would attract a full house. Also going slightly off on a tangent i think this trend of doing everything in a "secret east London" location has gone a bit too far. I love the mystique of going to a random warehouse rave as much as the next man, but at the end of the day the sound system is the most important part of a rave and often these warehouse spaces are operating with strict sound limits! Show some more love to London's clubs! Turnmills, SW1, The End, Cable, Canvas, The Cross and the Key all gone in the recent past!

What's the key piece of advice for people and their brands to stand out in today's saturated climate? Think about exactly where you want your brand to sit in the current market, don't follow the trends and stick to your principles!

See underneath for tickets to this amazing Regulate shindig, right here on Pulse.

Regulate - Hideout Festival PRE Party
Friday, 24 May 2013
22:00 - 06:00
Fire Nightclub, London

Listen to Regulate on Pulse Radio.

Flume: "Steve Aoki Is My Fanboy"

http://pulseradio.net — Wed, 15 May 2013 13:04:39 +1000

Harley Streten is one of those perfect examples of how fast an artist can rise to prominence in today's rapidly changing music scene. It's kind of mind-boggling when you consider the fact that he is now arguably Australia's biggest electronic music talent and only released his debut album in November of last year. Hell, before the 'Flume LP' even dropped there was the kind of buzz surrounding it usually reserved for revered artists who have been in the game for decades. The proof was clearly in the pudding; the album has been both a critical and commercial success, shooting to the #2 position on the ARIA charts in its first week of release, then hitting #1 and going gold just a couple of months later.

Now, the world is his oyster. Following a successful tour of the USA earlier this year - where he hung out with the likes of Skrillex, Boys Noize and Steve Aoki no less - Flume has just wrapped up his national 'Infinity Prism' tour, selling out huge venues across the country. It was during the latter end of this tour that we caught up for a chat with Streten, finding a guy not wrapped up in the whirlwind of his own success, but just your average, everyday 21 year-old. Well, perhaps average is the wrong word. How many 21 year-olds can count Steve Aoki as their fanboy?

Pulse: Hey Harley, whereabouts are we speaking to you from? Flume: I’m in Adelaide right now in my hotel room. I just ordered some room service.

I know you’re currently in the midst of your Infinity Prism tour but I just want to cast your mind back to your recent tour of the States. How was the reception to your music over there? The tour was sold out so it went really well. It was nice because it kind of felt like 6 or 9 months ago here in Australia. [In the U.S] I was doing around 500 capacity size rooms, some bigger, some a little smaller, and it was nice because the people that were there were really in the know. Whereas being back in Australia now, it’s really nice to be able to play to the big crowds, but at the same time the kids don’t know the music as much and some of the smaller tracks don’t hit as hard. But over in the U.S. because it’s all a lot of dudes and music geeks, a lot of the smaller stuff kind of goes off.

There’s such a massive buzz surrounding electronic music over there at the moment. Did you get sense of that whilst you were traveling around? Yeah, totally. I saw Afrojack’s head in the sky trailing behind a plane. There were planes in Miami hauling around big adverts for clubs – you could tell who was playing just by looking at the sky. It was ridiculous.

And you had some time off whilst in Miami for the WMC, right? Did you get to catch any DJs or live acts while you were there? Well I ended up running into Skrillex, Diplo, Boys Noize and all those EDM dudes. Sonny (Skrillex) and Alex (Boys Noize) took me out on the town one night in Miami and introduced me to a bunch of people, which was really cool. They’re actually big fans of my music. Steve Aoki is like my fanboy, he actually came up to me and was like a big fan, which was really funny. It was such a strange thing to happen because I see these guys as astronomically huge in their own right, so to have them as kind of fans around me is pretty funny! So yeah, it was really cool.

Listening to Skrillex’s music, you think you’ve got an idea of what he likes to listen to, but from what I’ve read and seen of him, he’s actually very knowledgeable in lots of different types of electronic music. Yeah, I know he’s a big Aphex Twin fan and into a lot of weird electronic music.

Did you guys talk about maybe making some music together? Not so much. We kind of showed each other a bunch of stuff, but we didn’t get to hang out for ages. I did get into the studio with Boys Noize for a bit and we just had a play around. I’m not sure if anything will come out of it or not, but it’s possible. I also ended up showing Sonny all my What So Not stuff – my other project – and he’s super into that. We just basically signed with his label Olswa over in the U.S.

Wow, that’s great. So your album has recently been released in the States on the Mom + Pop label. What was the intention behind going with an indie label in the USA over a major? Major labels are not very flexible, we really didn’t want to go with any majors. I guess what they were offering which the indies couldn’t was large amounts of cash, but what they couldn’t offer which the indies could was flexibility and being able to turn things around quickly. They [Mom + Pop] really get where we’re coming from which is a really important thing. I think having the right kind of vibe with a label means they’ll know what’s right, what’s not, and who to market to. Also lots of big labels try and lock you into these massive long-term deals, like five albums or something, and we didn’t want a bar of that. We were like “two albums max” and none of the majors were feeling that.

Have you considered making a move overseas, perhaps to the USA or the UK? Or are you happy doing your thing in Australia for now? I’m happy where I am right now. For me a holiday right now is just going home and playing tennis with my mates and just not doing a huge amount. I’ve done a lot of traveling, so I’m looking forward to getting home and writing some new music. So no plans to move overseas – I don’t really see that happening for quite a while. I guess I’d only do it now unless it was really important for the music. Who knows, maybe in a few years that will change.

You just mentioned writing new music. Have you been dropping that track you wrote with Chet Faker at a beach house earlier this year during your current tour? Yeah we’ve been playing that one at the end of the set, and Chet comes out on stage to do it. It’s called ‘Drop The Game’.

Are you planning to release that one at some point? Yes. I’m not totally sure on dates, but it will definitely be this year. We’ve got a bunch of other stuff we’ve been doing as well.

And you’ve written some new tracks in just the past month or so too – I think I saw a post on your facebook a few weeks back which read, “Just written the biggest banger since Hyperparadise." That’s a remix I’m working on, it should be out in not too long as well, so keep your ear to the ground.

And you’ve been working on some more house music type stuff too? Yeah, how do you know this?

I have my ways! No just kidding mate, I read it somewhere. Yeah so I’ve been working on another remix, it’s not finished yet, but it’s way more housey than some of my previous stuff.

Where have you been getting inspiration from for writing that kind of stuff? Well dance music has always kind of been my roots. Around 2009 dance music wasn’t really doing it for me so I got deeper in the Flying Lotus, J Dilla, kind of world. But now I feel like there’s lots of good dance music coming out. Duke Dumont – I feel like he’s bringing dance music back a bit, as well as Julio Bashmore. There’s a handful of dudes who I’m starting to get into again, and it’s this house music that’s really nice.

Photos: Patrick Stevenson

Since you started playing live, has seeing how crowds react and respond to your music changed the way you now approach making music? No, not at all. I just write music however I want to - I don’t like to limit myself. I write what I feel.

So can fill us in a little bit about the concept of the Infinity Prism? How does it work on stage? It kind of works and interacts with the music. I guess…it’s kind of difficult to explain. You’ll just have to get to a show and check it out!

Are there any plans in the future to expand your live set up? Do you envision yourself one day playing with a live band? Possibly. The logistics of it are a lot bigger, but it’s definitely a possibility. I’m just waiting and seeing how this tour goes and what the next album sounds like, because that will probably affect that kind of decision a lot.

There’s a lot of opportunities for electronic producers to DJ these days. Have you thought about getting out there and DJing a bit in your downtime? I don’t have any downtime man! If I do, it’s when I write new music, and if I’m not writing new music I’m doing What So Not, which is DJing.

Oh, can you just hang on two seconds? My food has arrived.

Sure.
……………

OK, I'm back.

What did you order? Ah, butter chicken, jasmine rice, and a coca-cola on the side.

Nice. Well I’d better let you eat your dinner, but just one last question before you go. What’s happening for the rest of this year? I’ve got five weeks off after this tour to write music, which is the first time I’d had some time off in a while. So I guess it’s not really time off, but you know how it is. Then back off to the U.S., back off to Europe, and then back to Australia for some more time off, so it looks like I’m going to get some writing done.

Listen to Flume on Pulse Radio

Jack Swift

http://pulseradio.net — Wed, 15 May 2013 00:38:51 +1000

POINT G

http://pulseradio.net — Tue, 14 May 2013 22:18:18 +1000

Ben Pearce: Fields of Gold

http://pulseradio.net — Tue, 14 May 2013 19:48:24 +1000

UK talent Ben Pearce knows about hard work and, subsequently, watching your stock rise as a result of graft. The Manchester resident caused near panic at the tail end of 2012 thanks to his breakthrough track ‘What I Might Do’ making haste from the confines of the UK bass/house scene and reaching the ears of everyone from Seth Troxler to Heidi and Annie Mac. Its fair to say that the stakes are pretty high for the young producer and DJ, also running his underground Purp & Soul label. But as his position of buzzy UK figure morphs into jet-setting booking, Pulse chatted to young Mr Pearce about festivals, writing and recording and his forthcoming slot at London's hip festival Field Day. Joe Gamp poised the questions...

2012 has been a particularly big year for you… it’s been a whirlwind hasn’t it? It’s been surprising. A slow shock of sorts; It’s overwhelming, when I'm travelling somewhere and then I arrive and it seems quite surreal at the moment.

How long did you spend on your productions before you felt the time was right to put it out? I got into house music late in life. As I grew up I listened to bands and hip hop and stuff. Around 19, I started going to clubs in Manchester that played house music and from thee I caught the DJing bug. I’ve only been producing for 3 years no… or trying too hard to, anyway. In the last year it’s really taken off and that’s been worth it.

So you locked yourself away and chipped away at it… I literally spent every spare minute I had sharpening my skills and squeezing in as much as I could. Over the last couple of months, I’ve been really busy and have started renting studio space. But it’s all I ever did. I’d come back from work at 2am and just sit on the computer and attempt to make music. I followed a lot of tutorials online a lot too.

So if you have one piece of advice or a memorable tutorial that’s been most helpful? What’s been valuable to you? The only tip I can ever give out is try and be original. Don’t try and mould your sound to anything that you’ve heard - although inspiration is a big part of it and also helps you to learn. I love listening to interviews with producers – recently I listened to one with Simian Mobile Disco and it’s really, really interesting. You can get lots of opinions, tips and insight rather than copying their sound.

Are there any types of personal message behind your music? Do you approach the tunes with a lot of concepts? To be honest I never really do that, it’s not ever a subconscious thing… if im feeling good, it’s going to be uplifting; if im up for a banger, then it’s going to be a dark techno banger. I like so many different genres, everything from hip-hop and r’n’b to heavy metal and stuff. I don’t go for a particular sound – and I also don’t think im quite where I wanna be yet. I’ve not found my niche yet. I’m still figuring out my trademark sound if you like.

Everyone focuses on London and Bristol for ‘UK house and bass’, but is Manchester looking as strong these days? It’s really interesting as Manchester seems to go through cycles. There’s the big clubs that do great, and there’s some small, underground nights that maybe don’t get enough national credit, even though they’re doing really good. It’s not as buzzy in terms of producers coming out, but there’s quite a lot of the bassier side of things up here. There’s much more of a collective in MCR – but I’m never here anymore [laughs]. I go to the airport and then the train station and pretty much stay inside the studio. I haven’t actually been out in Manchester for a very long time.

Are you coping with the jet-set lifestyle? Do you enjoy all the travelling and moving around? I don’t mind it. Occasionally a lack of sleep gets to you and things seem a little harder if you’re tired – but at the same time, I think “Im doing this for a reason, it’s the best job”. I love travelling anyway but it’s hard being away from friends, family and my girlfriend.

Finally, you'll be playing Field Day on the 25th May, a festival that's substantially closer to home. Are you a fan of these boutique city festivals? Actually, I'm not sure as I havent played many festivals before, especially one of these types of events and in London. Some festivals seem to botch these line-ups together and sometimes they seem a little bit rushed and not thought out. I like the look of Field Day, the music is great and the names are very diverse. But above all it seems like it's been thought about and the bookings seem to suit each other. I for one am looking forward to it!

Catch Ben playing at Field Day Festival on the 25th May. More information can be found here.

Listen to Ben Pearce on Pulse Radio.

Henry Saiz: Confronting His Dreams

http://pulseradio.net — Tue, 14 May 2013 13:33:29 +1000

After his initial output caught the attention of John Digweed, his remix of Guy J's 'Lamur' named Pete Tong's Essential New Tune in 2009 and starting his own record label in 2007, Natura Sonoris, Henry Saiz has had plenty to keep him occupied. The Spanish DJ and producer has become renowned for his grandoise, lush, art-inspired blend of electronica, house and techno that is a melting pot of influences. We catch up with Henry as he prepares to release his latest LP, 'Reality Is For Those Not Strong Enough To Confront Their Dreams', due for release June 10.

Pulse: You're just about to release a new record, and there were some interesting elements you included in putting it together, such as asking for fan contributions - can you tell us a bit more about this? Henry Saiz: Well I thought that was something that nobody did before, a nice way to collaborate with your fans and also an amazing source of unique sonic material, so I decided to do it and it had a great response. I ended up using just a very limited number of samples and some of them became the main part of a song or a sound that inspired a track, so the people who sent those samples are definitely a big part of those tracks. You can listen to an example of how I modified those submissions here.

What did you consider to be your biggest influences when producing this record? Specifically on this record, there would be a vast list so I don´t really know where to start from. It’s definitely a mixture and kind of a tribute to my most important influences, from the 70´s, the 80´s and the 90´s. I would say it has influences from the 70´s psychedelic-progressive rock and kraut rock, 80´s synth-pop and the new-age and some early dance-trance sound from the 90´s from a very personal and naive, kinda ironic - in a good sense - point of view. And not only the music style itself but also the recording and production techniques. All this is mixed creating what i hope is a quite personal and unique sound.

What does the title of this record mean to you? The good thing about this album´s title is that it has like three or four interesting meanings for me, which gives the title the same three dimensionality that I think the music on the album has. "Reality is for those who are not strong enough to confront their dreams" can mean the real challenge in our existence is to face our inner essence, no matter how dark or shocking can be, instead follow what society-politics-religion says and also talks about the classic dilemma of what is reality and how we create it by using our limited human perception.

I also found two more ways to explain the album title but maybe the most suitable, based on the music itself, is me saying, yes, I know this is a complicated and very personal album but as an artist I only can confront my dreams and do whatever is in my head and whatever I feel I have to express - and I don´t really care if there´s a whole system of musical trends and hypes out there, this is me and I choose to be myself.

What can we expect from a Henry Saiz show in 2013? You have some live elements incorporated as well as DJ'ing these days. Yes, I’m doing live sets again after 3 years of only playing DJ sets. For the album tour, I’m playing along with my friends Luis and Eloy so the show has live electronic drums, percussion, synths, guitars, vocals and visuals. More like a band show. I’m enjoying it so much!

Electronic Dance Music is constantly evolving - what is your opinion of dance music in 2013? Do you feel like the technology that has been popping up so quickly has detracted or improved production/ DJ'ing? As you know, EDM can be such a vague concept so it gets tricky to talk about. It´s a concept that apparently can put together someone like, i don´t know, Avicii or David Guetta next to someone like me so I don’t think it’s right at all to put all that together under the same name. I don´t know what to expect from dance oriented electronic music in 2013, I guess the mainstream popular electronic music will keep creating and destroying marketing hypes but on the other hand it´s a super exciting year full of long-waited new releases like Daft Punk, BOC or James Holden to name a few. Technology makes music making more accessible but it doesn´t mean that learning how to use all that software makes you a musical genius- you have it or you don´t.

Is there a piece of equipment or tool you are particularly fond of? I’m a big fan of everything that sounds ghostly, dirty, old and organic, so my favorite pieces of gear are always dusty vintage synths, cassette recorders, analog mixers and all that stuff with an interesting physical tone.

I've read you have a history in sound design for TV, commercials, documentaries. What kind of programs did you used to work on? Do you feel that experience influenced your music, or vice versa? Yes, I worked in some Disney and Nickelodeon productions to name a few. I still do some commercials or documentaries some times. It definitely influenced my approach to music and especially production techniques and sound design for the best, I think.

You've released this record on your own label; was this motivated by anything in particular? Tell us more about Natura Sonoris. Even though I had a few good labels interested in the idea, I made that decision even before I started writing the album, I didn´t want to have any stylistic pressure on me while composing it, I just wanted to let my ideas flow and I think I could reach that level of freedom because of that, so it definitely felt like the right option.

I started Natura Sonoris in 2007 and it´s a big part of me and also home of many talented artists and a kind of cult label for many followers so I wanted to also give the label a push by releasing my album on it. I’m happy I did.

Tell us more about what's happening with your Hal Incandenza project - any news? Well, now that my Henry Saiz album is done I’m going try to finish my album as Incandenza. I have around 20 tracks already so it shouldn´t take me very long to finish that. Working as Hal Incandenza is so fresh and fun for me, I can´t wait.

What are you most proud of about this record? The most challenging part of this was to give shape to 17 tracks that are quite different and give them the same "soul" so it sounds united and coherent. The general atmosphere is quite unique, I think it´s one of those records with a characteristic general sound, I wanted it to sound lo-fi and organic and it took me like one year just to recreate that old sound I wanted.

What are you looking forward to most about touring this record? I think now more than ever I’m curious to see the public reaction on the new tracks, it´s going to be be very exciting, also it´s a totally different experience be touring with my friends and sharing all that with them. And definitely touring Australia will be one of the highlights of the tour as it always is!

Listen to Henry Saiz on Pulse Radio

Spotlight on Detroit: Kevin Saunderson

http://pulseradio.net — Tue, 14 May 2013 02:40:27 +1000

"Do you know where techno is from?" Those were the words that Kevin Saunderson spoke into the microphone, projecting his question into the main stage amphitheater at last year's Movement Festival. Despite the growing popularity of electronic music, Saunderson still finds himself asking that question to the youth that enjoys his music. Do you know the history of the music you listen to? Although still young, techno has as rich a story as any other music genre, but we are the lucky ones since the pioneers of it are not part of a time long gone - they are here today and walk amongst us.

It is unfortunate that Saunderson does not receive quite as warm a welcome in his home country as he does abroad in Europe where fans revere the techno giants as dance gods. As the popularity increases stateside, Saunderson remains a staunch educator, doing his part to enlighten the next generation about this future thinking music's roots. He joined Richie Hawtin last year in lecturing at colleges about techno and electronic music for the CNTRL Tour, something that has never been done before.

When I spoke with Kevin in advance of his appearance at this year’s Movement Festival, he wasted no time delving deeply into the trenches of Detroit history. His sense of nostalgia is unmistakable when he speaks about music and it's hard not get goose bumps when listening to him. His deep understanding of where the music came from, has allowed him to continually innovate with his own sound and keep pushing it into the future. In this edition of our Pre-Movement coverage “Spotlight on Detroit,” Saunderson tells us the soulful classics he listened to and how he wishes the world to really learn more about the music that is his life.

How would you characterize your musical upbringing? What about this do you think led to where you find yourself these days? Well my musical upbringing was my mother listened to a lot of Motown so I was in the car with her of course going everywhere Mom went. That's kind of where the majority of it was, you know Jackson 5, that kind of stuff that was coming out back then. Temptations, whatever she listened to. My mother's from Detroit. I was originally born in New York and moved there too. I used to listen to WLBS, WBLS. I used to listen to the master mixes, stuff like that. New York was a little more disco then compared to when I moved to Michigan. I used to listen to stuff as I grew older as a teenager. McFadden & Whitehead, Chaka Khan. Evelyn Champagne King. I had that history of music … once I moved to Michigan it was always Motown but then my musical influences around me, the horizons got broader when i became friends with Derrick May and Juan Atkins. Through time Juan was experimenting with music at the time, while we were all in junior high and then he started putting out music later on - stuff like Cybertron. I was listening to a show called Mojo's and his show was really unique and different. He played albums of different artists like the New Prince album or the new Earth Wind Fire album or the new Kraftwerk album the new B52's album. He would break artists because he would not just only hear records he heard on the radio. He gave you a choice to select what you thought your favorite tracks were. Where radio would only play what they thought were the hits or the most catchiest records in their opinion. And they kinda follow each other. This is kind of my history and as I got even older my late high school years early college years I used to go to back and visit my brothers and sisters in New York and go to places like the Paradise Garage, Loft, the Warehouse. So i had a heavy influence with mixing and master mixing records that you heard on the radio extended. CHIC, all that kind of stuff.

Who did you look up to either within music or in another area of life while you were growing up, that still have an impact on you today? People I looked up to musically were CHIC, Sister Sledge. I love all all that kind of stuff. Earth Wind Fire, Kraftwerk became as I got older, Cybertron (Juan Atkins). That's the most prominent artists.

Everyone seems to have their own approach to making records these days. With so much hardware/software and knowledge floating about what have you found to be some tricks of the trade that help you get the best out of yourself and any collaborations? I wouldn't say I have any special secrets of the trade. I can do the plug-ins, its changed its helped the programs. Some stuff that is faster today took ten hours to do just to even sync a track. There's nothing uniquely special. I just experimented around with sounds and try to be creative and write something that's unique and get inspired to create.

As an artist hailing from the undisputed birthplace of techno, do you feel this limits your ability to explore work in other genres? I think I could do any genre but my love still is the dance music, electronic based music. If you look at some of my Inner City albums or Fire and Praise you had some down tempo stuff like Save the Children and Power to Passion. You had a track like "Till We Meet Again", "That Man He's All Mine." Wouldn't class anyone of those as techno. With that being said, I do what I love and I love what I do. There are no limitations if I wanted to branch off and do some other things.

Tell us something about the D our readers might not already know. Detroit was a popping city back in the '50s and the '60s. It was quite ahead of its time. It went through a change it had a big riot over there. Just imagine a city that was 400 people after these riots . It was split between the blacks and the whites. The blacks stayed in the city, all the whites moved out to the suburbs and built up the suburbs like what should have been the city. So if you ever come to Detroit and wonder - it's a cool place yes it's got a lot of old abandoned buildings so there's a history behind that. If you look at some of these other cities and you look at thirty years or forty years or more of building those cities up, and the cities that are not continued to be built, what happens to the city? It's regressing, it's not developing. That's kind of where Detroit is at. It's had a lot of problems and maybe it's helped us musically to shape our form and sound. That's what's going on in Detroit and what has happened to shape the city the way it is. Insane that it has come out with some amazing talents from Motown to us creating techno, to Madonna, to Kid Rock to Eminem. So if you didn't know all those people were from Detroit, then there's many more.

Being from Detroit also brings on a sense of pride, which has sprouted sayings like “Detroit hustles harder” and so on. What does being from this city evoke from you personally? I think being in the city - i didn't actually grow up in downtown, I grew up in New York, I lived in Belleville - but when I did live in the city it just gave you a sense….you definitely worked hard and you stayed focus on something. We were doing music so we had passion for what we were doing.

While every scene has its pros and cons, what do you see as the obstacles and advantages that come along with making a living in music in the D? Some of the obstacles in making music in Detroit is the world, or at least America should I say, never knew how this music started. We never got the support from the city or from other cities around as far as what we were doing. We had to go to Europe and come back over to be successful. Still today with this new generation no one really knows the impact that Detroit has had on shaping or starting a big movement that we have now. No one would just imagine it. That's one of the obstacles. You have to travel to Europe more than you can stay home. Play in our cities and surrounding cities at least equally as much but we have to play overseas out of my 25 years of traveling I probably played in Europe 95% of the time, which is quite significant compared to playing at home in the States. The good thing is, we have created something very unique, it's a part of history that can't be replaced, it's done and it continues still to develop.

What are some of your favorite memories of Movement/DEMF in years past? The first year was one of the better years, just because it was something that you might imagine in Detroit but didn't think it was really realistic to happen. Moving forward into the future, it's had many obstacles but there have been some great moments. When I performed with Inner City both times 2002 and 2008, they were really unique moments. Just amazingly shocking to get the vibes from the people. In general, every year is a great year for Movement because it was an uphill battle from when it started with Carl to Derrick to me and now with the organizers who run the festival. We are all a part of the history of this festival and to see it continue to grow is an achievement because there were times where it was very complicated and tough dealing with the city of Detroit and the people that had the power to allow this festival to happen. It took some hurdles to get it where it's at. It's always great to see it every year.

What's your favorite place to:
A: Show out of towners MGM casino, they have a few restaurants in there that have some amazing food. It's one of my favorite places.

B: Check out local artists (of any genre or art medium) Ferndale, just the city of Ferndale has a lot of artistic stuff going on. It's a very cool city just outside of Detroit, but still connected.

C: Get some good grub Some good grub, well it depends you can have something very cheap like some great Coney dogs that Detroit is known for like Plaka's in Greektown. Or you can have something really fancy.

If you could do one thing to enhance the state of Detroit’s electronic scene, what would it be? There will be a Detroit stage at every festival in the United States, Ultra Festivals and all the other festivals so people know the history of the music and the city.

Listen to Kevin Saunderson on Pulse Radio

Pulse Radio & Point Blank Present: An Interview With... Roska

http://pulseradio.net — Mon, 13 May 2013 21:26:46 +1000

Pulse Radio recently joined forces with Point Blank, London's fore-running production and music technology college to deliver a short series of intimate, upfront and excluisve interviews ith some of the UK's coolest names. In the second of our Pulse Radio x Point Blank features, we chatted to London mainstay, UK Funky linchpin and all-round prolific producer Roska, about Rinse FM, albums, touring and much more. Check out the video underneath...

Stay tuned to Pulse for more episodes of the Pulse Radio x Point Blank series...

Listen to Roska on Pulse Radio.

Ben Pearce

http://pulseradio.net — Mon, 13 May 2013 19:18:23 +1000

Sister Bliss: Junkdog Millionaire

http://pulseradio.net — Mon, 13 May 2013 10:14:10 +1000

After a career spanning 15 years as part of world-renowned dance act Faithless - who decided to sadly call it a day in 2011 - UK DJ and producer Sister Bliss has opted against early retirement and re-launched her label, Junkdog Records. The first official artist signing on the newly invigorated imprint is British duo I Said No, who Bliss refers to as a "21st century Basement Jaxx", though as we discover, there's plenty more in store for the label in the coming months. Pulse Radio's Rowen McDermott caught up with Sister Bliss recently to chat Junkdog, Faithless, the American EDM explosion and her Ministry Of Sound Radio show.

[Read on to download Pulse.125 - Sister Bliss]

Pulse: You've made the move to re-launch Junkdog Records. It’s been 16 years since the last release on Junkdog - has it been a smooth return to running the label? Sister Bliss: In the period after Faithless 'retired' from touring live, I was ready with a lot of music stacked up to release, and it felt like the right time to have a label with which to do that with. I have a great team around me - a great label manager and management team so we are slowly building the label up, releasing music, signing new artists and hoping that the quality of the music speaks for itself. It's been fairly smooth so far - I'm quite well organised as a person and I'm always listening to music, either to prepare for my DJ shows or radio show, so that definitely helps with having my ear to the ground.

What will be different about the label this time around? Well I only had the chance to put out one record on the former incarnation of Junkdog, as then Faithless suddenly took off and I never really had time to run the label after that. So this time I will actually release more than one record! There are also a deluge of labels around at the moment, so I am very aware this is not simply about putting music out there, but ensuring it gets heard by the right people and eventually I want to build it into a brand to hosting club nights and festival arenas. I also have a radio show on Ministry of Sound Radio so I feel this is a really helpful platform to reach the audience with new music - which again, I didn't have time to do during Faithless touring and release schedules.

You completed a remix recently for Laura Mvula called ‘She’ which is set to be released on the label. How did the remix come about? Did you seek each other out or did you simply like the song and think you could do something cool with it? I first heard it on the radio and almost cried in the car! I thought it was so exquisite and so different, and then I found out Laura was managed by the same management company so I asked if I could have the vocals and do a remix.

When a listener got hold of a Faithless album they received an all-embracing mix of dance, hip-hop, reggae and anything else that the band felt you needed to hear. Will Junkdog be stepping outside the realm of 4/4 dance music? I think I will play it by ear. At the moment the sound is very much in the club realm - good solid house music for DJs, but I have signed a couple of very interesting artists and I wouldn't want to hold them back in any way from exploring all corners of electronica.

The first remix of your track ‘Ain’t There’ comes from artist I Said No, who you likened to a “21st century Basement Jaxx”. How did you discover them? Dan from I Said No actually runs a mastering facility where we have got Faithless material cut, and he kept sending me his tracks and I was really impressed, so once I had a vehicle set up, I offered them a ride. They're also really wicked DJs with a very fresh sound, so I can't wait to unleash their 1 hour mix on everyone and get them back on the gig scene with a vengeance!

You released your last mix compilation ‘Nightmoves’ back in 2008. Do you have plans on releasing anymore? Do you still believe in the format? I think compilations are still a great way to enjoy a good mix of music and artists like Sasha have taken it to another level with the likes of his Involver series. Plus I know the compilation business model still sustains many a dance label - from Ministry to Toolroom - and I would love to do another soon. I'm thinking by the end of the summer I will have enough music on the label to do a Junkdog compilation, so watch this space!

Fill us in on your radio show for Ministry Of Sound – how and when did it come about? Do you have guests on the show? I was recording a DJ mix in their studio and the head of radio asked me if I would be interested in doing a show for them. I said I would love to, so off we went! I don't have guests on the show as we decided on an hour format, which is just enough time for me to play all the music I want. Also my life as a DJ is so unpredictable that I didn't want the stress of scrabbling around trying to find guests and finding the time when we would both be free to be in the studio. As much as I would love them, you need a radio production team to make that happen on a weekly basis!

Your early collaborations with fellow Faithless member Rollo, ‘Life’s a bitch’ and ‘Badman’, were big club hits in the 90’s. Can we expect yourself and Rollo to collaborate again in the future? We have been collaborating all the while on a new secret project. We have also done a couple of remixes together, as yet to be released- Klangkarussel- Sonnentanz being promo-d right now, and a remix of a great artist called Joe Banfi - his track 'Nomads' will be out in May on Junkdog records.

You played some huge shows recently at Miami’s Ultra Music Festival. What’s it like to see America finally embrace dance music on such a huge, commercial scale? It makes me laugh because the phrase 'selling coals to Newcastle' always pops into my mind! I think it's great as it has a such a huge energy - but they invented this music, so I find it strange that the scene has only exploded so recently. But that’s the thing with dance music, it's unpredictable! Who'd have thought that people were burning disco records not so long ago, and now Daft Punk steered by Nile Rodgers will be hitting the #1 spot with what is essentially a disco record!

How was it being back alongside front man Maxi Jazz as part of the Faithless Sound System? Like riding a bike? It's always lots of fun and the crowd loved it. Maxi performs with such great energy and humility, and I think they really responded to that and of course, we were one of the first bands to have some success with dance music in America, so they recognised the tunes too which is always gratifying.

Does it ever get lonely in the DJ booth after so many years of touring with an 8 piece band and being on stage with so many familiar faces? Not really, there are always other people and DJs around, and the crowd's energy to feed off – I'm always concentrating so hard I don't have time to feel lonely.

It seems like despite the huge stage productions currently prevalent in the electronic scene - i.e. Swedish House Mafia, Deadmau5 - there are still no ‘dance bands’ as such to carry the torch on from 90s acts like Underworld, Faithless, The Prodigy. What are your thoughts on this? I don't really know why that is – perhaps people have got used to the quick fix! It takes time to rehearse a band and also effort to re-create something essentially electronic in a live scenario is not the easiest thing. I also think perhaps there are not so many truly 'album' artists from the EDM scene, now it's more track orientated. We got a band together to promote our first album 'Reverence' as no one knew it existed. Perhaps if we had just been promoting only one song, i.e. 'Insomnia', it would have made more sense just to do a live PA, but we had a whole bunch more songs to play across lots of different genres which we made work in a band context. I also think one of the advantages of playing live was that we appealed to people who perhaps weren't that into dance music, or the club scene, but could appreciate that we 'rocked' live!

Can you tell us a little bit about the podcast you’ve recorded for us? Just a selection of very tasty music for your delectation. Some upcoming exclusives from my label Junkdog and other great sounds that I'm digging. Its quite a lovely deep mix, with a bit of house, tech house and prog thrown in. Enjoy!

Sydneysiders last saw you in the pouring rain as part of the Good Vibrations Festival. Can Australia hope to see Faithless or Sister Bliss on our shores anytime soon? I would love to come back to Oz asap so am hoping that will be sooner rather than later!

What else is on the agenda for Sister Bliss in 2013 and beyond? Just carrying on making, supporting and putting out properly good music and hoping you all enjoy it as much as I do.

[Download Pulse.125 - Sister Bliss here]

Listen to Sister Bliss on Pulse Radio

sister bliss

http://pulseradio.net — Sun, 12 May 2013 16:01:01 +1000

Pulse: After a career spanning nearly two decades as part of Faithless, you have opted against early retirement to instead re-launch Junkdog Records. It’s been 16 years since the last release on Junkdog - has it been a smooth return to running the label? Sister Bliss: In the period after Faithless 'retired' from touring live, I was ready with a lot of music stacked up to release, and it felt like the right time to have a label with which to do that with. I have a great team around me - a great label manager and management team so we are slowly building the label up, releasing music, signing new artists and hoping that the quality of the music speaks for itself. It's been fairly smooth so far - I'm quite well organised as a person and I'm always listening to music, either to prepare for my DJ shows or radio show, so that definitely helps with having my ear to the ground.

Your early collaborations with fellow Faithless member Rollo, ‘Life’s a bitch’ and ‘Badman’, were big club hits in the 90’s. Can we expect yourself and Rollo to collaborate again in the future? We have been collaborating all the while on a new secret project. We have also done a couple of remixes together, as yet to be released- Klangkarussel- Sonnentanz being promo-d right now, and a remix of a great artist called Joe Banfi- his track 'Nomads' will be out in May on Junkdog records.

You played some huge shows recently at Miami’s Ultra Music Festival. What’s it like to see America finally embrace dance music on such a huge, commercial scale?

It makes me laugh because the phrase ' selling coals to Newcastle' always pops into my mind! I think its great as it has a such a huge energy - but they invented this music, so I find it strange that the scene has only exploded so recently - but that’s the thing with dance music, its unpredictable! Who'd have thought that people were burning disco records not so long ago, and now Daft Punk steered by Nile Rodgers will be hitting the number 1 spot with what is essentially a disco record!

How was it being back alongside front man Maxi Jazz as part of the Faithless Sound System? Like riding a bike?

Its always lots of fun and the crowd loved it! Maxi performs with such great energy and humility, and I think they really responded to that and of course, we were one of the first bands to have some success with dance music in America, so they recognised the tunes too which is always gratifying!

Does it ever get lonely in the DJ booth after so many years of touring with an 8 piece band and being on stage with so many familiar faces?

Not really, there are always other people and DJs around, and the crowd's energy to feed off – I'm always concentrating so hard I don't have time to feel lonely.

It seems like despite the huge stage productions currently prevalent in the electronic scene (i.e. Swedish House Mafia, Deadmau5), there are still no ‘dance bands’ as such to carry the torch on from 90s acts like Underworld, Faithless, The Prodigy etc. What are your thoughts on this?

I don't really know why that is – perhaps people have got used to the quick fix! It takes time to rehearse a band, and also effort to re-create something essentially electronic in a live scenario is not the easiest thing. I also think perhaps there are not so many truly 'album' artists from the EDM scene – it is more track orientated- we got a band together to promote our first album 'Reverence' as no one knew it existed. Perhaps if we had just been promoting only one song i.e. 'Insomnia' - it would have made more sense just to do a live PA…but we had a whole bunch more songs to play across lots of different genres which we made work in a band context.
I also think one of the advantages of playing live was that we appealed to people who perhaps weren't that into dance music, or the club scene, but could appreciate that we 'rocked' live!

Can you tell us a little bit about the podcast you’ve recorded for us?

Just a selection of very tasty music for your delectation! Some upcoming exclusives from my label Junkdog and other great sounds that I'm digging. Its quite a lovely deep mix, with a bit of house, tech house and prog thrown in….Enjoy!

Sydneysiders last saw you in the pouring rain as part of the Good Vibrations Festival. Can Australia hope to see Faithless (in one form or another) or Sister Bliss on our shores anytime soon?

I would love to come back to Oz asap so am hoping that will be sooner rather than later!

What else is on the agenda for Sister Bliss in 2013 and beyond?

Just carrying on making, supporting and putting out properly good music and hoping you all enjoy it as much as I do!

For more Just carrying on making, supporting and putting out properly good music and hoping you all enjoy it as much as I do!

Spotlight on Detroit: YOS & SHERIF

http://pulseradio.net — Sat, 11 May 2013 01:28:24 +1000

_______________________________________________________________________________

YOS and SHERIF are no strangers to the Detroit music scene. In fact, they have been longtime active participants. If you ask politely, YOS may even tell you stories of the times when he used to instrument Detroit's "Snap" parties, coming up with crazy party themes and spinning next to legends like John Acquaviva. Or ask SHERIF and he will tell you that in 2006, he began throwing his "Traffic" parties at a place called the Works, showcasing his dark tech-house sound. It was actually at one of the "Traffic" parties that YOS and Sherif met, and as the saying goes - the rest is history.

While warehouse parties may not be as commonplace as before, YOS and SHERIF have moved on to the next stage in contributing to the Detroit electronic music landscape by starting their own label in 2012. Slur Records' slogan is "Purveyors of Fine House & Techno." They sit down to give us the real deal at what it means to be producers in today's Detroit, as well as the best spot to get Korean sliders and some BBQ. Be sure to check out their exclusive mix for Pulse.

How would you characterize your musical upbringing? What about this do you think led to where you find yourself these days? YOS: “I’m really into classic rock, from The Doors, Led Zepplen, to Pink Floyd. Hip-hop was very much apart of my influence growing up. Although I’m always searching for a fresh new sound, I try to stay towards music that has longevity, and won’t fade out. SHERIF: Musically I was exposed to a lot of ethnic music being that my parents are from northern Africa. My parents were also big into disco and the Motown sound. Formally, I had some classical training in playing the violin and oboe as well. I think being exposed to a lot of disco and early on house records in my younger days helped me develop a taste musically that was easy for me to express my feelings.

Who did you look up to either within music or in another area of life while you were growing up, that still have an impact on you today? YOS: “Richie Hawtin and Danny Tenaglia were a big part of my early influences growing up. They are forward thinkers, and in my opinion Danny T is a maestro of DJing. His programming is right. By the time I was coming up, he was already a legend. Richie changed the game with his minimal sound and technology influenced sets. SHERIF: Derrick May.

Everyone seems to have their own approach to making records these days. With so much hardware/software and knowledge floating about what have you found to be some tricks of the trade that help you get the best out of yourself and any collaborations? YOS: Get in the studio and focus. What is the sound you are going for? Don’t just throw spaghetti at the wall. I’ve found that its better to have an idea of what you want and to go for that. SHERIF: Yea, definitely gotta put in the time to get the best results. And that’s the thing. A lot of new producers are so quick to turn around release work that it hasn’t really gotten the attention it needs. I learn everyday and for me, taking my time, having an open mind to other artists' ideas allows me to continue to grow as an artist.

As an artist hailing from the undisputed birthplace of techno, do you feel this limits your ability to explore work in other genres? YOS: No, in fact. I don’t think anyone should be able to pigeon hole me into one genre. I’m into electronic dance music, but as an artist the journey is half the fun. It's wherever the drums take me. SHERIF: My love is music. It’s been that way since I was a young teen. Although I choose not to work in any other genres, I have a very diverse appreciation for music as a whole. If it’s good, it’s good. My work as a producer or as a DJ is a reflection of myself and the influences I’ve had throughout my life. Will that change in the future, I can’t say for sure.

Tell us something about the D our readers might not already know. SHERIF: Detroit has a lot of hidden gems, which you won’t read about in the paper or see on the 10 o’clock news. Your best bet is to explore Detroit for yourself and experience it, live it and then come up with your own opinion of Detroit.

Being from Detroit also brings on a sense of pride, which has sprouted sayings like “Detroit hustles harder” and so on. What does being from this city evoke from you personally? YOS: As an artist I love being from Detroit, with all its musical roots. Being from Detroit, personally gives me that "I don’t give a fuck attitude”. SHERIF: There is defiantly a lot of pride being born and raised in Detroit. There is so much raw talent in the city discovered or not. I will say that If I had been from any where else, I probably wouldn’t have been influenced as strongly musically. I remember seeing guys like Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson back when I was fifteen and thinking these guys are from here.

While every scene has its pros and cons, what do you see as the obstacles and advantages that come along with making a living in music in the D? YOS: The obstacle is it’s a very small city. Only a fraction of the population here are devoted to the scene. The only advantage is people outside of the city respect you being from Detroit. Don’t get me wrong, I love this city but the social structure of Detroit is fucked. Here you are asking this question, when 20 years ago Derrick, Carl, & Kevin were saying the same thing in interviews. SHERIF: I agree, Detroit has lost a lot of its population. I was reading that the amount of unoccupied space in Detroit is big enough to fit the whole city of San Francisco. So right there your starting at a disadvantage. On top of that people from the surrounding areas don’t come downtown unless it's Movement or a big show once in a while.

What are some of your favorite memories of Movement/DEMF in years past? YOS: Every year being able to see everyone that I’ve grown up with in the scene, and spent so many nights with dancing. SHERIF: I look forward to Movement every year, and I can proudly say I haven’t missed one yet. One of my favorite memories was the first year Paxahau threw the boat party on the Detroit Princess. Loco Dice & Luciano closed out the main stage and then played a killer set on the boat. It was such a great night and I was glad to be able to spend that with all my friends from Detroit and a far.

What's your favorite place to:
A: Show out of towners YOS: Greektown, there isn’t too much to choose from. SHERIF: Heidelburg Project. I love how expressive the site is and its representation of the deteriorating Detroit.

B: Check out local artists (of any genre or art medium) YOS: Old Miami’s Sunday one-offs. Bleu on Friday nights, and TV delivers. SHERIF: Grasshopper Underground where I have a monthly residency has a really good vibe no matter the night! TV bar is a good place for local talent also. You always know the music is gonna be good there.

C: Get some good grub YOS: For a quick bite to eat, Green Dot Stables in Corktown. Try the Korean Slider! SHERIF: When I’m downtown, definitely Slow’s in Corktown. Love their mac & cheese!!

If you could do one thing to enhance the state of Detroit’s electronic scene, what would it be? YOS: Bring more people into the city first off. The structure of the city needs to change. SHERIF: Spread love man, we all share love for this music, and I love sharing my passion with others.

Listen to Slur Records on Pulse Radio

Fresh Blood: Spare

http://pulseradio.net — Fri, 10 May 2013 18:38:30 +1000

Ethan Lespeare - better known to some as Spare - came to Pulse, free download in hand, after releasing his debut single 'Slacking' on Well Rounded last month. A prolific young producer, Ethan found himself settling on his production moniker after being surrounded by 'Spare' parts and sounds - the hallmark of a restless, prolific producer. Full of crunchy, lo-fi sonic attributes and the just enugh sassy swing, Ethan is taking things at his own pace planning to release further music and ply more DJ gigs this summer, "weather permitting". Listen to his exclusive Fresh Blood mix and get to know him underneath...

Hi there Spare.. for the purposes of the tape, please introduce yourself and your sound. Hi, I’m Spare. I produce and DJ and I have provided a mix and little chat to the kind people at Pulse Radio.

Talk to us about your career so far - how did you find yourself being drawn to the world of electronic production and music? I began by making really awful, shit loops that were an attempt at dubstep or garage on Fruity Loops a few years back. As bad as they were, it was still fun and I learned a lot about how I wanted to structure my tunes, but I listened back to them back one day, cringed really hard and deleted them all. I got some other production software around 2007 and became more content with some things that I’d made. I continued with what I thought was dubstep and garage but it didn’t quite sound the same; any people who were into either genre who I showed it to and heard it just thought that it was weird, but some of them were into it. I guess I just continued from there...

Are you/have you been into any other scenes/genres outside of electronic music for that fact. Yes, I listen to quite a few other genres outside of electronic music but I’m not so involved in any “scenes”. I also try not to think about whether other genres of music influence what I make but at the same time, I won’t usually give away too much about other genres I listen to in case I do have ideas from it and someone else beats me to it, which probably seems a bit strange!

Your music has a very nice garage angle scattered across it - what do you love about these aesthetics in your music? I guess that goes back to when I first started and was listening to more garage & dubstep to try and make my own take on it. I always liked the skip/swing of the drum patterns. Sometimes now, I don’t think that I’m making something with a garage influence but if that drum skip/swing is there, I guess you could argue that it has a slight garage influence. I’ll let other people decide.

You seems to be reasonably prolific and have already released a fair bit of music - did it take you a long time to have the confidence to push your music forward? Did it take you a while before you were happy ith the music? Well, my debut release was earlier this year on Well Rounded but before that, I had music that was being played and picked up by producers/dj’s/radio shows ( maybe?) hahaha. I think that when I first got to grips with producing on my new setup, 3 or 4 years ago, I had a small number of tunes that I would’ve wanted to have released. Even now, I complete music that I am totally unhappy with and some that I am happy with and really want to see a release, but I’d say that the ratio of tunes that I am happy/unhappy about has shifted for the better (happy being the larger one)!

Tell us about your relationship with ultra cool label Well Rounded... It’s been great to have a release on Well Rounded. Ash (Donga) helped me to pick out the best material for my release and put an EP together, which I’m very thankful for. I think that it’s a massive shame that he’s scaling the label down at the end of the year, but it’s his label and he has supported everyone who has released with Well Rounded.

You've also given out some free music too - what are your thoughts on our day and age and people wanting more for free. Are you keen to give your music to people that want to hear it? There was one “official” free giveaway, as part of Patten’s remix EP’s for his album on No Pain in Pop. I feel that occasionally giving music away for free is a fairly effective way to get your music out there and heard, or to get a reaction on any ideas, but the assumption of some artists who give away free music is that they are giving away their off cuts or music that is not as good as their signed/released music. I suppose it works if they give music away and it draws attention to any future releases.

Tell us about the special flavour of the mix you made for us... what's the general theme of the music included and how you out this together. This mix is the pursuit of flowing study-illusions. To superimpose the mostly-progressive paradigm is a key focus of my monophonic study. I build upon the so-called ‘unities of experimental processes’, and transform them into what I term ‘modernistic-post-unified oscillation-resonances’, which I see as a distinct improvement.

Finally, what's coming up for you in terms of productions for the rest of the year? I have a release out later this year on Coyote Records, which I am obviously looking forward to. I have other productions completed or close to being finished so will be looking to release those, too. Also, weather permitting; I’ll be DJing more and getting on with more new productions, too.

Tracklisting
Bad Autopsy - Without End (Well Rounded)
Letherette - Warstones (Ninja Tune)
SL2 - DJ's Take Control (XL)
Spare - Vandal Grease (Unreleased)
MJ Cole - Sincere (Wookie Remix) (Talkin' Loud)
Redlight - Lost in Your Love (Mickey Pearce Remix) (Polydor)
Geiom ft. Terrible Shock - 2 4 6 (Desto Remix) (Well Rounded)
Gongon & Bad Autopsy - Mag Remix (Well Rounded)
Spare - This Weekend (Well Rounded)
Mosca - Tilt Shift (Swing Ting Dub) (Fat City)
Arctic - Know This Don (Coyote Records)
Dom Perignon & Dynamite - Got Myself Together (DND)
Spare - Kankle (Well Rounded)
Bad Autopsy - Ginmixer (Ramp)
Criminal Minds - Flynny's Theme (White House)
Disclosure - White Noise (Hudson Mohawke Remix) (PMR)
Lone - Raindance (R&S)
JME - Raptor (Adamantium)
Untitled - Spare (Unreleased)
El-B ft. Rolla - Serious (Zed Bias Remix) (Locked On)
Walter Ego - Military Mind (Coyote Records)
Rustie - Triadzz (Numbers)
Skinnz - Turn U On (Well Rounded)
Darq E Freaker - Ironside (Unreleased)
Spare - 1BLT (forthcoming Coyote Records)

Listen to Spare on Pulse Radio.

100 Releases Strong: Boys Noize Talks BNR

http://pulseradio.net — Fri, 10 May 2013 01:22:27 +1000

It's been a long journey for Boysnoize Records, but finally they have arrived at a new milestone on May 1st: its 100th release. As we applaud Alex Ridha for maintaining his record label independent, he tells us about the challenges (and positives) that come with it.

First of all, congratulations on BNR celebrating its 100th release. Tell us a bit about the remixes and why those tracks? The remixes speak for themselves I think... Thank you! I'm very lucky that Chemical Brothers and Justice both did remixes. The story behind it is that I've done remixes for these guys before and we agreed to do a swap. I did the deal with Justice six years ago and now they delivered it. With Chemical Brothers it was the same, Tom Rowland contacted me and asked for a remix and I said "Yes of course, would you do one for me in return?" I let Chemical Brothers and Justice choose which track to remix.

You have been on the road for a while now with your live show. What has been the biggest show so far and what do you have coming up that you're most looking forward to? The biggest show with my new live setup was Ultra Festival in Miami. Crazy shit! This summer I will play both live gigs and DJ gigs. For my DJ shows I got some new fun thing included in my DJ sets that I can't talk about yet.

How have you found the leap from DJing to performing live? It just makes so much sense for me to play live because I have more than three albums to choose my music from and mash it or remix it live. It's way more fun playing my music live then just playing it from CD or USB! It was important for me to create a new platform for my own music only and I keep updating it all the time too.

What challenges have you and your label faced since the first release? I am very happy and proud of the 100th release on my label. Running a small label like BNR is not an easy thing sometimes. The first big change was when vinyl sales got really low, to a point where now we have to pay extra to produce vinyl... it gets tough to have people working at the label. Since 2005 I have made 0€ from the label which is fine because it was never created as a business but then again, how do I have people working if there is not much money? Of course, we've faced questions on expanding or cooperating with a major label but for now I want to keep BNR 100% independent!

What has been your biggest/favourite release to date? My first album "Oi Oi Oi". We didn't do any crazy promotion or marketing but so many good and surprising things happened afterwards.

What new artists do you have coming out on BNR? There is gonna be a release from a young kid from LA named Pilo. He makes straight up techno. And of course there is SCNTST.

Tell us about what you have coming up on BNR? My Brazilian friends Mixhell just finished a great album which is out soon, a young kid SCNTST finished his new album and Housemeister made a full album with the OP-1 which is kinda crazy but so amazing!! I'm also finishing up a new EP I want to release during the summer.

How was the trip from Scotland to Ireland at the beginning of your tour? (We had a great time hosting your first after party on your tour in Edinburgh.) Always fucking awesome times in Scotland! The trip was really beautiful haha.

Be sure to catch the Bugged Out! Boys Noize DJ set at XOYO in London on May 17th.

Listen to Boys Noize on Pulse Radio

Intimate and Live in North America: Digitalism Talks their latest tour

http://pulseradio.net — Thu, 09 May 2013 01:31:59 +1000

Digitalism is stirring the pot once more with their US Live Tour, which began yesterday in San Francisco at The Independent. The show sold out before the doors even opened. Never committing to just one set up, Digitalism change it as they please ranging from a completely digital arrangement to a full-on rock band. Hot on the heels of their success with the Bloc Party remix they did on Toolroom Records, Jence and Isi embarked on this tour, choosing only to appear at small venues. Foregoing their nap, they spent a few minutes telling us about the challenges and positives of returning to more intimate show settings.

@c00z/Instagram: "Digitalism, simply the best. The Independent" San Francisco

What do you travel with to feel comfortable? It used to be foosball tables, we brought them on the bus and all that, but this time we're flying everywhere so we had to leave that. We don't need much to feel comfortable, and having been on the road for almost a decade we're not so much attached to things, so it's hard to tell. As long as you have your phone and sunglasses, you're pretty much all set anywhere.

Which city are you most looking forward to visiting that you haven't before? We've been to all the cities that we're gonna play at on this tour, but we've not been to Atlanta since probably 2008, and the same for Orlando… So we're excited about that. We have a day off in Florida so we might go to Disney World.

The sizes of the venues on this tour are a departure from the large scale shows you tend to play, have you tested this model in Europe or anywhere else? We've started this show last year in Italy and people went crazy. It's a huge difference to the previous show, like you might have seen it in the US in 2011, because we got rid of all the analogue gear and our drummer to go back to the roots. It's only the two of us on stage and we went futuristic with the setup. We've played a lot of small venues before over the years; you always have to improvise a bit which makes it even more interesting and challenging, you know.

@daryomh/Instagram: Digitalism - #digitalism #sanfrancisco #ops The Independent

What are the challenges of accommodating a live set on smaller stages? On our last US tour we were three people on stage, including a drummer and a lot of synth gear, so it was pretty tough to fit it into even smaller venues, because the stage sometimes was way too small. But we made it happen! Some of those shows have been the best ever. This time our setup is much more versatile and we don't need so much space, so it should be perfect.

Are you involved with programming for each show? Some of the shows yes, some others not. We're not taking any supporting acts with us for all the dates; it's cool to check out the local lineups.

What kind of preparation do you have to go through before you set out on a tour like this? It's much easier at the moment because we're digital only on stage; we don't need to maintain and repair the vintage gear, and because we don't bring a drummer anymore we don't have to rehearse new material. All tours are different though, so even if we have played this show before, this time it will be different again because of the production that we bring and the venues. We all sit down, plan and discuss what the show is gonna be like, and then we hop on the plane and kick off with the first gig - this time in San Francisco.

As you transition to smaller venues, what are the vital elements of the large scale production rig that you continue to bring with you? At the end, you can bring whatever, but what really counts is the music.

In the first 10 hours your remix of Bloc Party got over 10,000 listens, it's a collaboration that we saw coming. How did the dialogue between you and Toolroom Records begin? It started last year when Fedde LeGrand remixed 'Zdarlight'. We needed a good platform for that remix, and Toolroom turned out to be huge fans of our work. We then released the Chopstick & Johnjon and Hackman remixes with them too and since then, we've been in dialogue very casually. The Bloc Party remix fits perfectly onto their label, it's gonna be a big one! We're really excited about this release.

What' are you're secret to keeping healthy and eating well on the tour…if there are any? It's tough, but we somehow managed to survive every time.. We drink coconut water, which sounds cliché, but it works -- and of course if there's time we go for a run or something. But schedules are usually hard… Number one friend of staying healthy is a lot of naps though. A lot.

Listen to Digitalism on Pulse Radio

digitalism

http://pulseradio.net — Thu, 09 May 2013 01:30:38 +1000

Pulse Loves... Electric Rescue

http://pulseradio.net — Wed, 08 May 2013 20:42:23 +1000

Electric Rescue is one of France's premier exponents of trippy techno sounds. The DJ and producer - hailed for his productions on Communique, Cocoon and more - shall be returning to British shores on the 24th May for Noisily Festival. Keen to explore the more melodic, groove laden and at times psychadelic side of techno music, the French hero delivers us our latest Pulse Loves podcast, a mix that goes in hard from the off. Read on as Antoine Husson AKA Electric Rescue lets us in on more about his beloved scene and playing in London...

Pulse loves … techno. How did you first get into the stauncher side of dance music. I always try to find special music, I never loved easy listening and commercial musics. I’m early started to listen to music like dépêche mode at the beginning of the 80’s, or Kraftwerk, Brian Eno, our new wave and new age music, but also with hip hop. All the pop things never interested me. In 1988, I fell in loved with acid house and first tracks from Detroit and new york, then I was just 16 years old and also discover my first techno parties in Paris at Boy club and Rex club. So I directly went to underground music and never listen to popular music. I think it was deeply inside me. After that first techno discover, I quickly loved underground resistance and Chicago ghetto techno music. I am really a music lover, and I not expecting something special from the music, popularity or money, I just want to do it all my life as my passionate job. My friend Laurent Garnier really gave to the techno people with soul and true spirit the right way to use.

Pulse loves … international scenes. How is the French techno landscape looking at the moment ? On the party side, it’s a new explosion since 2 years and it’s getting bigger and bigger. The rave scene live a new explosion with parties each week end for around 2000 people a bit like at the beginning of the 90’s. But the clubs are living well too as everything is almost full this days. So it’s very very exciting and give some fresh air to our music here. And that parties are not only techno but also house and electro, so there is a big diversity and a lot of good proposal to have fun with good quality this days in Paris, but also in Lyon or in Bretagne, and some other cool place like Toulouse. On the production side, France, like England and Germany, is always a great country for music creation and this days people are really into Straight techno, ghetto techno, like berghain sounds, Rough or melodic Detroit, pure techno sensation. But the 2 biggest scenes in techno are the deep house and house scene and also electro scene, but that last one is getting a bit down I feel, but but I’m not really sure as I’m not following it so much …

Pulse loves … analogue equipment. Are you a big fan and do you incorporate it into your productions? I’m fan of nothing - fanaticism is not a good thing, it makes people do crazy things. But I appreciate a lot the analog sound, but I prefer to mix analog and digital equipment. It permit me to have many possibilities of creation with the numeric system, but with the sound of the analog machine. For me a combination of both technology is the best way.

To go deeper, I really work with VST plugs and software and few analog synth but I do my mix in analog desk system. I do conversion of all my digital sound in audio analog ones and mix them in analog.

Pulse loves … London clubbing and festivals. You’re coming over to play for us shortly aren’t you? Yes, my next performance will be at the Noisily festival close from London on Saturday may 25th and I’m really impatient to be there because I really love England and the English public. Each time I come to play over England or Scotland, it’s always a big fun. Before I have the chance to play sometimes as dj or live in England I came sometimes to have fun in London in raves or clubs. I started it a long time ago at the beginning of the 90’s, my first meeting was the Crazy club, Astoria, one of the best crowed I met, I think it was in 1991 or 1992 something like that.

Pulse loves … productions. Pulse have heard that you’ll be releasing an LP shortly ? Yes, I’m really happy to release my new album – Electric Rescue – Sonic Architecture Lp on Bedrock, John Digweed’s label. I really loved the new techno direction took by john some years ago, that’s why I decide to push it with him. I couldn’t expect to do it with him before as it was more into progressive sounds and I was really more techno. I kept my way of doing but john open really more his music field then we discover ourselves 2 years ago and I was really lucky that he appreciate my sound and proposed me to produce my music on Bedrock. I’m really impatient to be on June 10th to see what happen with it as I produced it as an eclectic album and give some of my musical faces. Not only techno, but also, electronica, and singing experimental things. Impatient 

Listen to Electric Rescue on Pulse Radio.

Spotlight on Detroit: Exhale

http://pulseradio.net — Wed, 08 May 2013 12:33:12 +1000

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Music is no laughing matter for Exhale as he travels the world in pursuit of inspiration and experience. Though he has visited many faraway places such as Ibiza and lived in cities like Chicago, Detroit will always be "home" and the driving energy behind his music productions. Though young, already his work has been picked up by KMS Records, the label run by Kevin Saunderson that spurred the growth of techno. Exhale does not take Detroit for granted, appreciating it for its finer points and at the same time for its rawness. With an optimism for his beloved city, he sits down to tell us how the D could benefit from inter-city communication and historical sights like the Detroit Institute of Art that has Diego Rivera's murals adorning its great hall.

How would you characterize your musical upbringing? What about this do you think led to where you find yourself these days? I would characterize my musical upbringing as being very diverse and highly influenced by my surroundings. I was born in Detroit, so I grew up predominantly listening to artists such as Depeche Mode, Plastikman, Kraftwerk, Kevin Saunderson, Earth Wind & Fire, Prince, The Clash, Rick James and many more. These were artists that were always immensely popular in Detroit and even in Chicago because of their unique sound, and it had a strong impression on me growing up. I was born in the early 90’s so a lot of these artists are before my time, but even to this day I find so much inspiration going through old LP’s and each time I do I learn something new. Despite my affinity for other genres, I’ve always been into Techno and Deep House and it has truly been a humbling experience to have spent so much of my life being apart of Electronic music. I’ve been listening to Techno as far back as I can remember, and had strong House and Disco influences to that kept pace the whole time. Being given the opportunity to begin learning music production at age 14 was naturally the next step for me. All of the artists I mentioned have inspired me to constantly push the envelope and think outside of the box. I like the creative challenge of balancing between minimums and maximums and doing unexpected things that will open individual’s minds.

Who did you look up to either within music or in another area of life while you were growing up, that still have an impact on you today? It’s difficult to narrow it down because there are a lot of talented and incredible artists out there who have influenced me, but when I was very young I looked up to Plastikman because as an alias of Richie Hawtin, it was dedicated to being strange and weird and that resonated with me. I was always made to feel like an outsider growing up, and my musical interests only pushed me further away from the norm. But as I matured through middle school and entered high-school, I discovered the sound of the band N*E*R*D* and found out who Pharrell Williams was. Pharrell has greatly influenced my ethos through his productions as I’ve aged, and it was an honor to finally shake hands in 2011. I would say he’s one of few artists whom I truly look up to and hold great respect for. I would also have to mention the Founders: Kevin Saunderson, Juan Atkins, Jeff Mills and Derrick May. Without them I wouldn’t be here and I spent so much time listening to their records growing up that their influence on me is as deep as roots dig. I have a very deep respect for these individuals, and it has been remarkable watching the world continue to embrace their legacy on a large scale.

Everyone seems to have their own approach to making records these days. With so much hardware/software and knowledge floating about what have you found to be some tricks of the trade that help you get the best out of yourself and any collaborations? For my particular production style, consistency and diversity have been some of the most important factors of my productions. Consistency because I like the concept of having a coherent and unique sound of my own that people can recognize all over the world. I always start a new track by nailing down the melody and rhythm first. If a track doesn’t groove properly using only the most basic elements, additional sounds will only cloud my view of the final product. I also like to arrange my percussion very particularly to give the track an ambient sense of speed. Technology and machines greatly influence me, I like the different pieces of my music to fit together the way an intricate machine does. Diversity is important because I have sacrificed essentially all parts of a normal life to spend the last 5 years traveling to different places gathering inspiration. My surroundings have a strong effect on my music and I think that statement rings true for other types of artists as well. Diversity is also important because I don’t just produce Techno, I have Deep House songs as well. Having Electronic music as a platform to express both of those distinct sides of my creativity is an honor, and I’m glad the fans enjoy never being too sure whether my next song will be Techno or something deeper. I would encourage any budding amateur producers to be unafraid to get out there in the world and gather a plethora of sights and experiences to beef up their productions.

As an artist hailing from the undisputed birthplace of techno, do you feel this limits your ability to explore work in other genres? Detroit is a remarkable place that thrives on innovation and creativity. That’s how we got to this point in modern times. I think because I hail from Detroit I have a responsibility to try new things by being creative without limitations, and continuing to keep people guessing. But I also believe I have a responsibility to stay true because that’s what the D is all about. At the end of the day, Detroit is known for great music that bangs hard on a great sound system and that’s what I’m all about. The D will always be the birthplace of Techno, and it will always be a beacon of inspiration to those who believe anything is possible.

Tell us something about the D our readers might not already know. I think many people would be surprised to know Detroit was the home of the very first news radio broadcast. I also think many people would be surprised to know that Dubai in the United Arab Emirates is one of Detroit’s sister-cities.

Being from Detroit also brings on a sense of pride, which has sprouted sayings like “Detroit hustles harder” and so on. What does being from this city evoke from you personally? Detroit does hustle harder! But in all seriousness, I think one has to be truly dedicated and determined to get your career where you’d like to be. Despite the consistent negative attention from the media, there are opportunities in Detroit for those who are truly willing to put it all on the line and work for it. You’d be hard pressed to find a better example of the ups and downs of the American Dream then the city of Detroit.

While every scene has its pros and cons, what do you see as the obstacles and advantages that come along with making a living in music in the D? The people of Detroit are incredibly tough critics and it’s logical reasoning when you consider how much talent has emerged from the city. If you play a set for a couple hundred people and you’re terrible, people aren’t gonna hold back from letting you know. On the other hand, if you’re great and truly underrated the scene in Detroit has a way of making sure bigger and better opportunities come your way. The pulse of the underground is real, and it’s light-years ahead of its time. Yet at the same time, Detroit lacks the serious mainstream support of major corporations interested in Electronic music the way they are in Los Angeles or New York and that’s probably one of the most major cons in my opinion. Detroit still has a lot to offer, and great things will continue to emerge from this city until the end of time.

What are some of your favorite memories of Movement/DEMF in years past? I’ve been attending Movement/DEMF for a long time so I’ve collected a lot of cool memories but there are 2 that stick out in my mind in particular. The first memory dates all the way back to when the festival was called Fuse-In around 2003. When I was 14 I had the opportunity to carry record bags for local Detroit hero James Pennington of Underground Resistance. I got to help load and carry some stuff for sound check before his performance that year. I was essentially there as just as his assistant but it was the first time I had ever been backstage at a major event like that and getting closer to the music I was so passionate about was all that mattered to me. The experience was very intimidating at first but by the end of the night I was 100% sure what I wanted to do for the rest of my life after seeing so many great performances up close. The second memory dates back to 2011 when I was given the opportunity to meet some of the artists I grew up listening to like Aril Brikha. I also had the opportunity to meet Skrillex before his incredible set that year at a time when he wasn’t as well known and he turned out to be a really great and courteous guy. The entire DEMF/Movement experience that year was memorable because many of the individuals I met that year backstage were very humble and I was surprised that we shared interests in all sorts of different forms of art and culture.

What's your favorite place to:
A: Show out of towners I think anybody checking out Detroit for the first time should stop by the Detroit Institute of Arts, the collection of things to see is always top notch and inspiring. I think people should checkout Bell Isle and spend a few hours enjoying the island and the aquarium if it’s a visit during the summer. And lastly I think people should go out and checkout some of the natural beauty the city has to offer. I’ve always been fascinated by the abandoned warehouses around Detroit and I think the stark contrast between the old and new hold something worthwhile to visitors.

B: Check out local artists (of any genre or art medium) I enjoy the city best in the summer. Anything music related going down at Chene Park or Hart Plaza is guaranteed to be a great time for visitors and locals alike.

C: Get some good grub There’s a ton of culinary diversity in the city and that makes it the ideal place to grub. Slow’s BBQ is top notch, and we’ve got one of the best coney island restaurant rivalries in America which is a cool part of our history. When I want something slightly more upscale, nothing beats my favorite calamari dish from Da Edoardo Foxtown Grille and everything I’ve ever had from the Detroit Golf Club was prime.

If you could do one thing to enhance the state of Detroit’s electronic scene, what would it be? If I could do anything I’d bridge the disparaging gap between Detroit, New York, Los Angeles, Miami, and Chicago. I’d foster more inter-city cooperation because these places all hold a significant cultural relevance within the world of Electronic music, and we have a responsibility to work together and have each other’s backs. Our music has been embraced around the globe and it’s time we come together in America in a way the world has never seen. I think a lot of people like talking about Detroit, but more people need to be about doing things in Detroit. I think one of the major barriers to that is a 2 AM closing time. Detroit is notorious for its excellent after-hours events but I think by legally extending club operating hours, it would tap into a whole new world of possibilities for enhancing the scene.

Listen to Exhale on Pulse Radio

More Than Meets The Eye: Eduardo Castillo

http://pulseradio.net — Tue, 07 May 2013 03:29:13 +1000

I was first introduced to Eduardo Castillo on the rooftop of the Standard Hotel this September at the Culprit Sessions Sunday afternoon/evening party. He was sharply dressed, well groomed and had a firm handshake. We didn’t really chat at the time, but I got the distinct feeling I’d be seeing more of him. A few moments later someone mentioned the after party would be held at his bar, Pattern Bar in downtown LA and as someone who’d not lived in Los Angeles since 2004, I was excited to see another example of the fast growing underground music scene in the City of Angels.

Pattern Bar was rammed with a combination of people who’d been at Culprit Sessions or Lee Burridge’s All Day I Dream (or both) and the energy felt significantly stronger than I’d anticipated for a school night. Not large by any stretch but not small either, Pattern Bar is well appointed with nice fixtures and a slightly classic look that, at first glance, might not strike one as a bastion for forward thinking dance music. Upon hearing the lush sound system which was being commanded by Luca Bacchetti at the time, that false impression quickly vanished and my second wind injected some unexpected pep into my step.

After the party, I got a chance to speak to Eduardo about his unique perspective on dance music and learned a bit more about another one of his successful endeavors the Voodoo party. While Eduardo will speak in his own words below about the concept, it’s essentially bespoke unadvertised gatherings with world class DJ talent that’s been grown and sustained entirely by word of mouth, participants’ contributions with a hefty amount of legwork by Mr. Castillo.

Eduardo is also a talented DJ/Producer/Composer/Singer and after his appearance at Crosstown Rebels’ eighth installment of their “Get Lost” party in Miami, we’re happy to share an exclusive peek at his sound. With the summer season soon to be the setting for many a new party, Eduardo is poised to unveil a brand new Sunday event taking place in one of Los Angeles’ beautiful public parks refreshingly set to feature only the best in underground talent. Read on for more insight into Señor Castillo and the various projects he’s spearheaded that contribute to Los Angeles cementing its reputation for great music and great parties.

Where did you grow up? I grew up in Caracas, Venezuela.

What do you think was a defining moment in your gravitation towards electronic music? The very first time I was absolutely blown away by electronic treatments was at a Peter Gabriel show in Caracas when I was 15. It was the “Us” tour. The level of production with electronics and an amazing band was mind blowing and awe-inspiring. Of course Mr. Gabriel’s band made it all look very easy. I quickly learned how it was not and this made the prospect much more exciting. This was definitely a defining point in my understanding of what I’d like to strive for in music.

If you’d not been bit by this bug but still chose a similar musical path, what type of music do you think you’d have fallen into? I want to write music for films and one day I will. I like to tell a story through my compositions, my sets, my singing. Writing music for film will allow to tell other’s tales that inspire me.

For how long have you been playing records? My older brother is 8 years older than I and had Technics in his room with a mixer. I think I used them more than he, I just had no idea what I was doing, but was fascinated by it. That was approximately 30 years ago.

How would you classify your sound? Has it changed since you began or remained fundamentally the same? My sound is of no formula other than writing with honesty. I will never write a piece of music to please. I will feel I’ve accomplished something is when I’ve inspired others. I’m sure sonically it has changed and hope it continues to do so forever. That’s a sign of my own progress.

What inspired you to start doing your Voodoo parties? When did everything begin? I created VOODOO so that I may have a place to play however I’d see fit, to provide a safe haven for other artists to do the same and for supporters to feel protected and cared for. Having the proper tools for musical expression is a priority for me and having my own space to build these tools became a necessity. VOODOO had it’s 3 year anniversary this past December.

Is the Voodoo concept scalable or do you think they’ll always require an intimate gathering? VOODOO needs to always be intimate. It is what makes it so unique and special. Real human connections take place at VOODOO and it is because of this intimacy. The small size provides a warmth and acceptability not found in large gatherings. Also, emotions in an intimate setting can be very contagious. That’s a beautiful thing to see.

What were some of the obstacles you encountered as you tried to get a new project off the ground? Obstacles are non-existent when you’re doing what you love. Patience is what I’ve really encountered most.

Has your experience as the proprietor of a bar as well as a DJ informed the way you approach throwing your Voodoo parties? VOODOO came first and it quickly became a vehicle of trust. My approach is always to do the right thing with respect, whether it’s how I handle someone who’s had too much to drink and has lost his or her context or how I choose the music I will play, caring for the ears of the people who allow it all to unfold, the patrons and supporters. I always strive to strengthen that trust.

Pattern Bar has an exceptionally well-balanced sound system, at no point do you get the impression that you’re listening to a “bar’s” sound system. Could you tell us a little about the installation and the steps you took to achieve this? My first mission was to tame the insane reverb in the space while I built it. The bar is primarily windows. Glass is one of the most reflective sound surfaces in existence. So, my first task was to tame the glass, as I would call it. I built large sound panels with the help of a good friend from NYC, who is also passionate about sound and acoustics. We had a blast building these panels as we excitedly tested our taming skills by clapping the reverb out. I then had the issue of not having walls to hang these panels from so I decided to hang them from the ceiling. That was labor intensive.
After treating the room, I decided I wanted to use vintage Turbsound floodlights to fill the room with sound. These floodlights placed Turbosound on the concert sound map in the 90’s. Their sound is rich but extremely warm and gentle and they happen to look beautiful.

When you began, how did the Los Angeles underground community react to a new entity throwing parties and events? Was it a warm reception or was it a bit of a struggle? The Los Angeles underground is all about community. There really is nothing like it. From the beginning, I received nothing but incredible support and was so happy to see a curiosity in what I was trying to do. The community welcomed my intentions with open arms.

Were there any people who gave you some particularly good advice or helped open some doors for you along the way? What I wanted to do was not unlike having friends in my home to listen to records and dance in my living room. To this day, it remains this way. Would you advise someone on how they should run their living room? The answer I’m sure is no…you just go with it and feel at home.

American cities and the bureaucracies that govern them aren’t known for providing underground music with a particularly warm reception. How did you ultimately marry these strange bedfellows? With respect and responsibility. Your motives need to be for a greater good, not just your own pockets. It’s that simple.

Can you disclose any of the artists Angelinos may have the opportunity to catch during your summer series? Very excited for the artists I’ve chosen to join us at the park. A few…Acid Pauli / NU / Scissor and Thread showcase / Audiofly / Wolf + Lamb / No Regular Play to name a few. These are artists that I believe will truly grasp the essence of the park. I’m not interested in pounding music - I’m interested in sophistication and tact.

For any other motivated people looking to help bring the underground to some of our nation’s beautiful public parks do you have any tips on how best to get the conversation with the municipalities going? Public offices/officers want to be safe. They are looking out for the well being of all. It is why laws exist. Of course, at times, one may become frustrated with the process, but at the end of the day the challenges are overcome and they turn into accomplishments. I’ll go back to what I said before, respect and responsibility are your greatest tools.

If scheduling and money were no object what three acts would play your birthday party? Peter Gabriel / Radiohead / Pink Floyd

Are you excited to play at Get Lost this year in Miami? How did this gig come about? I’m always very excited to play with the Crosstown Rebels family. It has to turned out to be a sort of homecoming with Papa Damian watching over us.

What’s the secret to achieving a workable balance between managing your own establishment, throwing parties, and continuing to build momentum behind your DJ career? There’s no secret really. I simply can not imagine myself doing anything else. Everything is incredibly intertwined. One makes the other stronger. I’m eternally curious and want to perfect each. Also they are vehicles for sharing and nothing makes me happier than sharing.

Listen to Eduardo Castillo on Pulse Radio

Workin’ It: Das Kapital

http://pulseradio.net — Mon, 06 May 2013 17:38:39 +1000

Pulse stole a few minutes with Das Kapital to talk about his freshly formulated DO WORK imprint, the recent shindig held in its honour and the concepts underpinning his music.

People talk about a stream of consciousness - but when you talk to Kyle Brinkmann AKA Das Kapital the word flood is far more fitting. Consciousness however, is the right word. Das Kapital is probably one of the best people in the county to talk to about electronic music.

Why? Because you’re staring into the mind of the next generation and, like most prodigies - he knows more than you do. His obsession with electronic music is virtually tangible; his energy completely engaging. Two facts his hugely popular radio show and ever-expanding Twitter following bear testimony to.

A quick rewind for the people who have been living under a stone. The 22 year old producer caught the world’s attention with his rerub of Bon Iver’s ‘Skinny Love’ which obliterated the Hype Machine chart and is sitting at 116,000 Soundcloud listens to date. Since then he’s stacked up some impressive remixes (Nick Thayer, Drumsound & Bassline Smith, Rob Zombie, Laidback Luke and Sandro Silva) and released two EPs through his own recently launched imprint DO WORK.

“The label is a way for us to be in complete control of our output. Control all parts of the process. We want to define its personality because it’s a really personal project. We want to create a platform for like-minded talent. Particularly local talent.” He continues, “I’m surrounded by really good producers and DO WORK is about being a home and a bridge for them. My main motivation is to provide the infrastructure for their music to reach a local and global audience – so that they can get the recognition they deserve.”

The conversation turns to South African electronic music in 2013 - “South Africa’s been getting a lot of attention and as a producer it’s a really exciting time” he says, “In the past we have been developing in isolation from the rest of the world - now we’re getting the chance to interact with people like Diplo and Skrillex.”

His own productions straddle genres convincingly and smash them together in a way that makes you feel like he’s having fun. Dubstep and psytrance rub shoulders on ‘PSYCH!’ a track released on his aptly titled All Trades EP. “It was one of my oldest ideas - based on the first time I played at Earth Dance in 2011. Sibot was playing on the bass floor and during the gaps in his set the psytrance would overlap making a crazy hybrid.” One of Das Kapital’s strengths as a producer is his ability to reference the Cape Town scene in way that captures the global zeitgeist.

There’s an artistic honesty in his “I don’t care what you think” approach. It’s tinged with anarchy and humour. He tags his releases on Soundcloud as ‘Educated Dance Music’ - “my response to the ludicrous EDM label. Who has ever heard of Acoustic Dance Music?” he laughs.

Held at Assembly, the first DO WORK event (captured here by Cape Town’s We-Are-Awesome) featured a line-up of the label’s collaborators including Jakobsnake, Sideshow, Va-Va and 17-year old “wunderkind” Leechi who Das describes as “the next big thing in SA’s new wave of dance music producers”.

As far as future releases go Das says “We’re sitting on two EPs and will be releasing a full length DO WORK compilation really soon. My brief to the producers involved was: We want something new and we want you to do you in your purest form.” The release will feature new material from Leechi, Mix ‘N’ Blend, SFR, Das Kapital amongst others.

No matter how you cut it, Das Kapital has a lot going for him right now. Although the “prodigy” label comes with its own pressures and problems - his mix of persona and skills in the studio and DJ booth look set to make him a firm fixture in the future. For now, we watch and listen intently.

Listen to Pulse Radio

Ewan Pearson: Master Of All Trades

http://pulseradio.net — Mon, 06 May 2013 11:02:42 +1000

DJ? Producer? Writer? Some spend their entire career trying to perfect one skill, while Ewan Pearson has managed to deftly master everything he has turned his hand to. At present the mulit-talented Englishman is once again busy donning his many hats; seeing a return to mixing and co-producing albums for Visionquest synth-poppers Footprintz and Aussie psychedelia duo Jagwar Ma, writing original music alongside Partial Arts partner-in-crime Al Usher and DJing at various clubs in his hometown of Berlin, including the infamous Panorama Bar - the latter of which you will hear in his excellent podcast for us. We spoke to the always affable Mr. Pearson about his recent activities, as well as touching on the current GEMA issues affecting Berlin and how his much-loved penning of the Groove magazine column has sadly come to an end.

[Read on to download Pulse.124 - Ewan Pearson]

Pulse: So you’ve been busy producing artist albums again recently, firstly the Aussie duo Jagwar Ma. Ewan Pearson: Well producing is probably stretching it, because Jono from Jagwar Ma has been producing now. I did some additional production on the first couple of singles, I mixed them, played a few bits of keyboards and I mixed most of the new album – nine tracks out of eleven, I think.

And how did you come into contact with those guys? Well that’s through Jono’s previous band, Lost Valentinos. I basically produced most of their first album and became good friends with them, especially Jono, and in the interim he’s played on records for me when I’ve been working for other people; he’s played on Tracey Thorn’s records. So we just kept in touch really, I’ve seen him when I’ve been in Australia and when he’s been in Europe he’s stayed here and we’ve worked on things. So when he had ‘Come Save Me’, the first [Jagwar Ma] song he sent it over to me and I came up with some of the keyboard parts for the second half. It just built from there really – we mixed it and it did really well. I mean we thought that ‘The Throw’ was maybe more of an underground thing, but that’s really blown up too. It’s really exciting.

It’s funny, they seem to be blowing up in Europe and the UK at the moment, but they’re not really as well known here in Australia. Though they have been touring as support for The xx here, so hopefully that will change things a bit. I know Triple J have been playing them loads, so I think it’s all going the right way.

You’ve also been doing some work on the new Footprintz album, whose sound I guess sits on the other end of the sound spectrum to Jagwar Ma in that it’s a bit more of a clean and polished synth pop sound. Is it difficult to switch between working on such different sound palettes? For me no, because the Footprintz thing again connects to lots of stuff that I love and have grown up with, whereas say Jagwar Ma is more influenced by elements of acid house, psychedelia and the whole indie-dance crossover. Footprintz is more influenced by lots of new wave and synth-pop from the 80s - I mean I’m old enough to have been there at the time, so Footprintz felt like a natural fit. Seth Troxler called me up when they did their first single and said I’ve got this first release from our label and we think you’d be perfect for remixing it. And then they asked me if I’d actually mix the original tracks as well. Originally it was mooted as additional production and stuff, but everything they did was great, all the sounds were lovely, so it was just a question of making it sound bigger and more 3D. In terms of arrangements and things I didn’t really mess with it. I did a few bits of invisible mending in the background, but again it was all just bolstering and boosting their original sounds and ideas. What’s great about them is that their sound had a vibe and atmosphere right from the start. So things like that it’s a joy to do really.

Is it imperative for you to be 100% into the music a band makes in order to work with them? Ah, it helps! [laughs] I think it is, yeah. There are people who maybe might describe themselves as more jobbing engineers or producers who see their job as to do everything that comes through the door, and obviously because I do other things like remixing, original stuff and DJing, I can be little bit more picky about the things that I do. But then because you tend to get so involved in things that you do and you spend such a great deal of time on them, I think you really have to connect with the music. And also if it’s a production job and you’re going to be spending two, three or more months in fairly close proximity with people, you’ve got to actually be able to get along with them. I think that’s really important.

I was going back over some of your music and was wondering if you’ve got any plans to make more music with Al Usher as Partial Arts? Funnily enough I just mixed something down for him yesterday – a remix that he’s done of this kind of obscure British couple from the late 70s, early 80s, called Jaki Whitren and John Cartwright, who came out of jazz, funk and disco and made this slightly hippie-ish, early 80s boogie record called ‘International Times’. There’s a song on there called ‘Stay Cool’, which Al did an edit of to play out years ago and we had this idea of maybe putting it out on my label. We tried and failed to get a hold of them because they were holed up in a house somewhere in the south of France without any radio or internet contact. Anyway in the interim somebody else managed to find them and reissue the record, and because they had heard the edit that Al had done they got in touch with him, so that’s finally happening and coming out now, about six years later. So we’ve been re-doing and sprucing that up a bit.

In terms of Partial Arts stuff, he’s coming to Berlin next month, so we are going to be writing some stuff. What I can say beyond that, I don’t know! I love making music with him, because he comes at things from a slightly different angle. He likes quite extensive and sometimes complicated chord structures and melodies. Musically I like that, but my impulse from a dance floor point of view is to simplify and strip things down a bit in order that they work. So we have this interesting dynamic between us – he’s trying to complicate things and I’m trying to make things simpler! In between I think we end up with something really nice. The two Kompakt singles we released I’m so very proud of that I don’t really want to put anything out which isn’t of a similar standard.

What’s happening with your label, Misericord? It’s been a few years now since the last release. Fingers crossed that there’s a release just finished actually. I’ve been doing a remix of it and we’ve got a remix from Sean Johnston from Hardway Brothers who DJs with Andrew Weatherall at the club A Love From Outer Space. I can’t tell you anything more yet. As soon as I’ve sorted things out with my potential distributor then I’ll be announcing it. Fingers crossed it’ll be out by the summer. We’ve tried to be about quality rather than quantity. This will make the fifth release in like six or seven years.

Well I think that approach has definitely worked. I’ve said this before in interviews, that although in many ways the access that people have to means of production is a good thing, it is sometimes overwhelming the sheer volume of stuff out there today – there are so many releases now. A lot of it is competent, but a bit dull to be absolutely honest. I wish that people would make fewer records, that they would whittle down the amount of stuff they make and only put out the things they think are really special. It would make my life easier as a DJ! [Laughs]

So your podcast for us is a recent set at Panorama Bar in Berlin. Yeah it was done on the 15th of March at a Moodmusic party at the club, the label run by my friend Sasse, who I also share a studio with. I asked if I could start the night because doing a long set from midnight means that I can play lots of the slower and more Balearic stuff which I really love. The problem with being a guest DJ and being dropped into clubs and playing peak time sets is that a lot of the music I really love at the moment is hard to play in those time slots. I’ve had some gigs where there’s some German kid warming up at like 127bpm and I step into the club and just think, oh no.

So what do you do in situations like that? Do you just let their last track play out and then bring it back to like 100bpm, or…? No, you can’t really. Well it depends on context. If I’m in some club in East Germany and they’re having fairly banging, linear, post-minimal loopy house or techno, there’s no way that I can do that big a drop in bpm. I do try to change things and switch it up though. If I have a longer set then I have more of a chance, but you look at the room and see what you can get away with. I did a gig in Panorama Bar last year where I played the last set on a Sunday night, which I knew was going to be for seven or eight hours, and I did drop the tempo then. I knew that I would lose some of the dance floor for a little while but I also knew I’d get them back and have enough time to build it back up again. There’s a really good club here called Stattbad Wedding where they do the Boiler Room where I play fairly regularly, and when I play there I get to start the night and play for four hours, doing my own warm up, which is great.

Since you live in Berlin and play at Berghain/ Panorama Bar, I wanted to ask you - since becoming such a world famous club, do you think that the club has changed much in terms of its music policy? I mean I keep seeing a lot of big names cropping up that I would never have expected to play there. I know they’ve had different bookers over the time they’ve been open and I think with things like that it tends to be the preferences of the people in charge of booking. You never really know to what degree that there are policies or not though. I mean there are people here that are big established DJs who have never played there for some reason. Similarly there are some of us who have had lots of gigs there. I’ve given up worrying about that kind of thing. As long as there are people who want me to play, I’ll go wherever. I love playing there, I play there every year at least. But there are lots of other good clubs too – there’s not a lack of good places to hear music in this city.

Are GEMA’s new digital music policies affecting clubs like Panorama, or other clubs in the city? So far on the ground I haven’t seen any evidence of anything yet, all I’ve seen is the articles about it. We’ll have to see how they’re going to try and enforce it. I have no idea on a practical basis - just putting aside all the issues around paying people who make the music that you’re playing - I have no idea how they’re going to do it. It does seem quite ridiculous.

I read something the other day that said if they find a copy of a track then you’ll get fined. I mean, what if you happen to have ripped an mp3 from one of your own personal vinyls? Exactly. Well I guess they would say that the licence of the record includes the right for you to play the record in public but it doesn’t include the right for you to record it. I mean I’ve made records for many years and I’m old school in the sense that I believe in copyright and upholding the rights of musicians to get paid for the work they do. I believe in paying people who make music, absolutely. I’m unrepentant about that. I hate many of the aspects of the shift in attitudes to that with internet culture. Too many of my friends run or work in record companies or are engineers or do things that have been hit significantly by piracy, so I’m all for paying people who make stuff. I think that paying people who create makes for a much healthier cultural life. We need to have professionals, I don’t necessarily want to live in a world where everybody is a dabbler or an amateur, I’d like for people to still be able to make a living from music.

That said, the problem with GEMA’s hard line as far as I can see is that they’re being hard line on one side but at the same time they have no mechanism for seeing electronic musicians get paid. If the only people that get paid as a result of them earning more money are Shlager singers and Robbie Williams then how is that helping the scene? They could be much better at collecting information about the people who actually make the records and then we’d all feel a lot less grumpy about paying some kind of additional levy. I mean I don’t have a problem with there being automatically some kind of levy on my DJ fee going to GEMA, but as far as I’m concerned, irrespective of whether you play vinyl or CDs - throw all that nonsense out because that’s ridiculous – put a small percentage of the fee that has to go to GEMA. And then GEMA has to get their finger out and start logging the tracks that people are playing or being much more thorough about making sure people are registered and making sure the artists who are making the music are getting paid. And then I would have no problem with it.

Lastly, I wanted to ask you about your Groove column, which you decided finish up in January. Did you just feel it was time to stop? Yeah, well it had been five years, and I had a couple of meetings with Heiko, the editor of Groove who asked me to write it in the first place. At some point this year Groove is going to be re-jigging everything and he said he would be looking for new writers to change things over so I thought rather than writing each column and not knowing whether it was going to be the last one, I’d prefer to just write a last one as it were and understand when it was finishing.

It was a very touching last column and I think what was so great about all of them was they all touched on life topics and personal issues for you, yet all still related to electronic music and the scene in some way. Thank you. I’m kind of overwhelmed actually, the response to them has been really good. I have people come up to me in clubs and say they love the column as much as I have people coming up to say they loved this remix or that DJ mix, so it definitely connected with people. When Heiko asked me to do it in the first place I was a bit unsure – he said he wanted it to be about music or about your life in some way, but obviously we didn’t want it to be ‘so I was hanging out with this or that DJ’ kind of thing. So as you said I was tyring to think about different kinds of issues but then also how they affect you personally. I mean obviously the last column was just about being in mourning for our friend Martin who shared a studio with Sasse and myself. I feel very lucky to have been able to do it. I love writing and hopefully I’ll be finding another outlet for it at some point. Though it’s hard to blog, I really do require the iron fist of an externally imposed deadline! Otherwise these things just don’t get done.

Perhaps in the other writing sense a follow up to your book ‘Discographies’? I’d love to write another book at some point, but I’m not quite sure what or how. There are these little 33 1/3 books about albums and records you love and I’ve thought about doing one of those, the problem is they’re an awful lot of work to do properly. And then that stops you from essentially doing other things like producing and DJing. So we’ll see, we’ll see.

[Download Pulse.124 - Ewan Pearson here]

Listen to Ewan Pearson on Pulse Radio

Spotlight on Detroit: Ataxia

http://pulseradio.net — Sat, 04 May 2013 05:44:11 +1000

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Ted Krisko and Eric Hanna comprise Ataxia. Both of whom were born and raised in the city of Detroit. They have played across the city at various venues and parties, in addition to Movement Festival in previous years. The hard work and dedication to music has come to fruition in their recent signing with Culprit Records in LA. This year at Movement, they will be rocking the Made In Detroit Stage at 2:00pm on Saturday. We sit down with Ted Krisko as he tells us about the growing deep house scene in Detroit and a whole list of great places to eat.

How would you characterize your musical upbringing? What about this do you think led to where you find yourself these days? Ultimately, I grew up as a punk rocker. That was what really defined my upbringing. However, I was heavily exposed to bands like The Beatles & The Kinks, Motown, and Folk/Americana through my Mom & Dad’s vinyl LP collection. It was also my parents tape drawer that got me exposed to Punk and New Wave music, via my favorite grab “Never Mind The Bollocks…Here’s The Sex Pistols” cassette and various tapes by Talking Heads.

My mom really liked Lords of Acid when I was young, and my Aunt got me into NIN at a ripe age of 10…that kind of paved the way for my passion for electronic music. By age 15 I was collecting dance music vinyl that was handed down from friends during the late 90’s rave era in Detroit. It was never with the intention of “being a DJ”, I just had vinyl around.

Also, my parents were fond of dub, and reggae, so I had access to some cool stuff like Jimmy Cliff, Lee Perry, Desmond Dekker, and of Bob Marley of course. Stemming from that influence, I was and still am a huge 1st wave and 2 tone ska fan. I truly feel a lot of the dubby house that we play has many elements that reflect that era of music with heavy reverberated sounds, emphasis on the “and” (off beat), and simple delays on vocals.

Who did you look up to either within music or in another area of life while you were growing up, that still have an impact on you today? Richie Hawtin. I’ve been seeing him continue to revamp and elevate his personal technology platform to perform dance music through an ever evolving process over half of my life, since first discovering him and his parties at age 15. I’ve probably seen him play nearly 100 times, and I continue to make it a priority to be in attendance for his performances.

As an artist hailing from the undisputed birthplace of techno, do you feel this limits your ability to explore work in other genres? There is certainly a militant, iconoclastic mentality that exists in our city about keeping things within certain boundaries. Eric and I really don’t subscribe to that train of thought anymore, but we’ve been there too! I remember what it was like feeling like “Detroit is the home of TECHNO, so that’s what it’s ALL about”…

There is something to be said for waving the flag for the blood sweat and tears of our forefathers. We could continue in their tradition to write and play the kind of music that is derivative of the original “Detroit Techno” sound, but ultimately, that will limit the musical experience for ourselves, and our audiences. The idea behind “techno” is that it’s technology music, which should encourage all of us to embrace whatever mediums are available and any forms of expression we can use convey electronic music ideas.

Our love of music stretches far beyond the broad reaches of purely electronic dance music. We love metal, hip hop, funk, rap, soul, jazz, classical…there is no way to pigeon hole ourselves by saying we are techno…techno is a lifestyle in addition to just a specific sound. You can be “techno” without having to be TECHNO.

Tell us something about the D our readers might not already know. Despite the global perception of Detroit being engulfed in the techno sounds it will always be famous for, there is really a wonderful house music scene here. While techno pioneers like the Belleville 3, Underground Resistance, and Hawtin receive much of the public accolades for their efforts in paving the way, artists like Kenny Dixon Jr. (Moodyman), Rick Wilhite, Earl Mixxin McKinney, Bruce Bailey & Dave Shettler are all playing and making beautiful inspirational house music and the parties they play at are a totally different world than the dark spooky warehouse vibe or afterhours experience most would anticipate in our city.

Being from Detroit also brings on a sense of pride, which has sprouted sayings like “Detroit hustles harder” and so on. What does being from this city evoke from you personally? The biggest take away is that there is no one here that will do anything for you. There is no golden ticket or lucky break. Everything is a result of endless hard work and the results speak for themselves. It’s a very organic, DIY culture. People are known for their self-made everything here.

What are some of your favorite memories of Movement/DEMF in years past? Let’s get the obvious out of the way, playing at Movement Festival in 2011 was the biggest thrill as a Detroit musician that I was able to enjoy. Past musical highlights aside from being a performer would be Richie Hawtin (2000, 2007, 2010), Binary Star (2001), Derrick May (2001) Guti (2011), Voorn/Fanciulli (2012), Marco Carola (2007 & 2009).

Another highlight to give credit to was Chuck Flask (Movement’s booker) asking us to play the Movement 2012 Official Closing Party w/ Marco Carola upstairs at Elysium, with Ataxia in the lower level of the club with Soul Clap and Bill Patrick b2b. The party was rammed, and the spirit of raving was totally alive.

The club turned the house lights on at 4am upstairs as if they were ready to close, and of course, Marco played till nearly 8am, with the house lights on the entire time! After the party, we walked into the street, and Mikey Tello started a dance party in the streets in the rain. This was an extremely proper close to the weekend.

What's your favorite place to:
A: Show out of towners Belle Isle

B: Check out local artists (of any genre or art medium) TV Lounge, Red Bull House of Art, The Bankle

C: Get some good grub Please eat at Slows BBQ, Mudgies Deli, Greendot Stables, CK Grill, Supino Pizzeria, Sala Thai, Shangri La, Lafayette Coney Island and Seva.

If you could do one thing to enhance the state of Detroit’s electronic scene, what would it be? Throw more underground parties.

Listen to ATAXIA on Pulse Radio

Fresh Blood: Tom Roberts

http://pulseradio.net — Fri, 03 May 2013 20:14:46 +1000

You Are We resident DJ Tom Roberts loves to spin house music. He's also been collaborating with Ashley Wild as Playset, the London based house music duo have been mainstays on the circuit for some time. But Mr Roberts is stepping out of the shadows as a solo artist and DJ in on right. Ahead of their latest bash this Sunday featuring James Teej, Tom introduces himself through an exclusive Fresh Blood mix and talks about his career so far. Just don;t ask him to get out of bed too early in the morning...

Let's break the ice - introduce yourself and your sound? Hello, my name’s Tom Roberts and let me warn you that my chat’s far from sparkling at this time in the morning. Banter doesn’t normally kick in til late afternoon (if at all) so I apologize in advance. I have been involved in music for the last, erm, well for a good number of years. In that time I’ve DJ’ed, run events and managed a record label and music publishing company. My sound? When I DJ it’s essentially house, taking influence from everything I’ve listen to and loved thus far, including (but not limited to) soul, hip-hop, disco and techno

Has electronic music always been a massive part of your life or do you remember a moment when you got bitten so to speak? I was bitten by my cousin Nick at 11 or around that time. Of course he didn’t actually bite me, he used to send me and my brother mixtapes which we’d listen to on the way to school. They would span everything from house to hiphop, MK to Digital Underground. Listening to pirate stations such as Don and Dream played a large part of my youth compelling me to start collecting vinyl at around 13.

Which sort of route or vibe do you usually take when mixing? I don’t know really. I just turn up and play. Sorry that doesn’t sound particularly sexy. I guess it would depend on the party, the time of day and my mental state at the time.

Is your Fresh Blood mix typical of your usual DJ style? Yeah I’d say fairly typical, perhaps more so of an early set or earlier part of a set. I know that I always gravitate towards listening to podcasts that you can happily pop on earlier on in the day and not just to simulate a dancefloor at 3am. I bare that in mind when making my own.

You Are We is literally around the corner. Are you looking forward to this urban based electronic event? We quite selfishly started You Are We several years ago as a party for friends that enjoy what we consider to be good underground electronic music. It’s a great chance to see old friends, meet new ones and to book artists that we admire. As a DJ it’s one of my favourite places to play because of the atmosphere provided by the people that go, the great venues and the fact that we can bring our own sound system and engineers.

That said there must be many advantages to playing London based events and festivals - there seems to be a healthy number in the capital these days do you not think? Oh yeah there’s plenty. Dare I say too many? No, I won’t go that far. There’s some really great parties and loads of average one’s but it’s always been like that hasn’t it? I think more people are listening to house and techno now than a few years ago and that there's a lot more pop up and warehouse parties which have filled the void left by the closing of so many London clubs.

In terms of productions do you make music? are you looking to release soon? Yeah I’ve tinkered around with production for a little while now, although mainly for my own amusement/frustration than for anything else. I had to take a break after my Mac imploded but I’m back on things now and with a renewed vigour. ‘Something Missing’ is a track I made with Ashley Wild and was signed by Nurvous earlier this year. I’ve got a few more bits that are on course to be released in the next few months and I’ve shoe horned a few rough n (far from) ready demos on to the podcast.

You play under the guise of Playset with Ashley Wild; how did this partnership come about and how long have you been doing this for? Ashley Wild has been the ying to my yang for many years now. What I lack in chat he has in spades and what he lacks in dance moves and athleticism I can more than make up for. We are a shining example of how a relationship between 2 metrosexual men should be. I know he has my back and he knows that I’ve got his inhaler should he feel a little wheezy. The whole Playset thing manifested itself because we’d played together back to back at a few parties and had a real laugh. We started You Are We a year or so later.

What's the biggest dj date you've played so far? Playing at Space for the Carl Cox party is definitely up there as box I’ve wanted to tick since going to Ibiza all those years ago. The biggest party numbers wise is probably a party/festival at a castle in Jersey, where I played to a few thousand.

Finally as a London based DJ, what's the best and worst things facing our clubbing landscape at the moment? Hmm. I think I’d need some real time to adequately answer this question. Of course it’s always a shame to see another London club closed by developers but it will take much more than that to stop people partying as recent times have proved. The best thing facing our clubbing landscape? Er, erm the plethora of up and coming talent? Sorry I just pulled that one out of thin air. I don’t honestly know, not at this time in the morning anyway. Shall we leave it there for now? It’s been an honour and a real pleasure but I haven’t had breakfast yet.

More information and tickets can be found here.

Listen to Tom Roberts on Pulse Radio.

Workin’ It: Das Kapital

http://pulseradio.net — Fri, 03 May 2013 03:51:01 +1000

Pulse Loves... Sonny Fodera

http://pulseradio.net — Thu, 02 May 2013 22:00:02 +1000

After releasing his debut album ‘Moving Forward’ on Cajmere's Cajual label Sonny Fodera is a rising stock in the land of house music. Combining classic house aesthetics with a modern day deep edge this Aussie's eclectic approach is just beginning. Apart from this huge LP and catching the repeated attention of Frankie Knuckles - currently hitting the top of the dance music charts - Sonny is also basking in a spot at Coachella and has been confirmed as part of the line-up for rumoured club La Bomba in Ibiza for its opening year. Pulse thought it a good idea to accept after Sonny offered to take us on a journey through all manners of house in our latest Pulse Loves feature.

Pulse loves... diverse sounds. Tel us about your sound and the ideas behind it... I like to think of my sound as "all things house". I play and produce all sub genres of house music, whether it's deep, disco, funky, jacking or techy. I love working with different musicians, vocalists, producers, so my sound is always changing, bringing in new elements to my tracks.

Pulse Loves...Coachella. You've been billed to perform there this year... Is this the biggest date you've done thus far? Yes I have! Really stoked to be a part of the festival. It will definitely be the biggest line up/festival I been up a part of to date. I am playing in the Heiniken Dome with acts like Kenny Dope, Mark Farina, Roy Davis Jr, DJ Sneak, Gene Farris. The line up is crazy! I am looking forward to checking out Wu Tang, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Richie Hawtin and Jamie Jones just to name a few.

Pulse Loves... Frankie Knuckles. You've been getting lots of props from him; ho did you first come to his attention / meet him? I guess it was just getting my tracks to him, I have never met him personally, he has given me a lot of love in interviews and also just did a remix for my record label Beatdown recently. He remixed a track called "Get Involved" which was done by Dbow from NYC, that hit no.1 overall for the year on Jacking house on Traxsource. I am really stoked as I see Frankie as one of the creators of house music.

Pulse Loves Ibiza... is your schedule looking busy this year? You're going to playing at La Bomba right? It is! I am currently on tour in the US, then back to Ibiza for the summer I will be doing a few dates at La Bomba for the Defected party. Also a few residencies are in the works. I also have a few dates in Europe like the Lakedance festival in Holland, Ireland, Portugal, Estonia and in the UK. I think it is going to be a busy year!

Pulse Loves... your mix. Can you give us any more information into the style/mood of it? The mix is pretty deep, with some rises along the way. It is a selection of tracks I am really feeling right now. I also included my upcoming release on Defected and some tracks off my album "Moving Forward". i hope you guys enjoy!

Pulse Loves.. electronic music in 2013; what's the best thing about electronic music's current scene.. I think the fact that deep house is really hitting it right now. The response is amazing! I am also really excited about the new Daft Punk album, I think the fact they are coming back with the disco and an original French house sound is going to be doing big things for electronic music. Also guys like the Hot Natured crew, Cajmere, Eats Everything, Maceo Plex, Dusky, Miguel Campbell are doing massive things for house music, so there are exciting times ahead!

Sonny Fodera’s ‘Moving Forward’ album is out now on Cajual Records.

Upcoming tour dates:

27 April - New Haven @ Afterlife
28 April - San Francisco @ End Up
3 May - Atlanta @ The Shelter
5 May - San Antonio @ Revolution Room
10 May - New York @ Sullivan Room
11 May - Milwaukee @ Studio 200
12 May - Philadelphia @ Sundae
25 May - Coinbra, Portugal
1 June - Eidenhoven @ Lakedance
21 June - Dublin @ Kitchen Nightclub
12 July - Estonia @ Prive

Listen to Sonny Fodera on Pulse Radio.

Smash TV's Noise & Girls

http://pulseradio.net — Wed, 01 May 2013 21:11:42 +1000

Following the release of their album “Noise & Girls” on Get Physical last week, Smash TV’s Kai Preussner caught up with Tom Lally in Berlin to talk all things about the album, their newly created genre “new jack step”, and why he’d want to be stuck on an island with Colonel Sanders. Be sure to check their exclusive Vertigo Festival mix underneath as you read.

Is this your first Smash TV album? Yeah, this is the first one we’ve done together, and the first one we’ve done on Get Physical. Holger has done three before on Bpitch [Control], all of which I contributed to in one way or another, starting with some guitars in the beginning. But this is our first full album together.

And how does it feel to have finally finished your first album together? We started last summer – I think around July maybe – and then we were finished in about January. With all the A+R and feedback and stuff it took us right up until about six weeks ago, so it feels really good.

Tell us a bit about the creative process… especially producing as a duo as opposed to writing a solo album. There’s different ways of how the music comes up together. Sometimes we really sit together and start from scratch with the drum machines and some experiments, or [sometimes] me or Holger prepare something at home to the extent that the other person is basically just in the mixing process. But everything in between that is also really important. It’s always 50/50 in the end, that’s what we do.

How would you describe the sound of the album? Do you have a special name for the genre? “Techno for lovers”. (laughs) No, but there’s also an r’n’b type track on it, so maybe it’s “new jack step”. Yeah, it’s a “new jack step” album: the first one on the market. The whole idea behind the album was to establish a genre of electronic step music which is new and has the jack. So there was no other option for us as to what we should call the genre. (laughs)

How many tracks are on the album, and how many singles will be released from it? There are 15 tracks, one is an addition for iTunes – it’s a version of the first single that we made with only the 808, the moog voyager the elektron monomachine and nothing else. And then there’s a few tracks that were made not really to play, a little bit slower like some Miami bass things on there, but in the end it’s for the dance floor in one way or another. The plan at the moment is to have four singles, including “Whatever” which is already out with remixes from Chopstick & Jonjon, Tigerskin and Anthony Middleton of Audiofly. There’s also going to be an official remix contest on Beatport. It will be for the third single from the album, and the winner will have their remix released on Get Physical.

Did you go through a process where you cut back all the tracks you produced to arrive at your final favourite 15? Yeah, we have a few that we made that don’t fit to the sound because it’s a different approach. Because they’re not “new jack step”. (laughs) The thing that leads to you achieving a “new jack step” track is that you have to use machines like we did – the 808 is like almost the complete drum ensemble in the end. There’s a few other synthesizers that are on almost every track, and the production or how we did it with a lot of compressors and the mixing desk make its sound unique. It’s also affected by the fact that we renovated the studio and rebuilt our whole setup, so the room sounds much, much better now.

I just saw the promo video for the first single off the album, “Whatever”, which you recently filmed in Amsterdam. Can you tell us a bit about that? Amsterdam is a city where we play almost as much as in Berlin, three times a year normally. That was the closing party of a party collective called Click in a pretty big venue of like 1500 – 2000 people. [We played] with Chaim and Laura Jones, and it was really, really cool party. As always in Amsterdam, it was really well organised and we had our friend and camera man Erik with us who taped everything. It was a great gig. The night just didn’t stop. As always, there are some great friends that we meet every time we’re there, so it’s one of our favourite places on earth.

You’ve been staple Get Physical artists for 3 years now. Is there a family feeling at the label, and how important is this for you guys? It’s really cool, there really is a family feeling there. The office used to be like three minutes from my house until a few months ago. I think the secret to working well together is if you get along well together, and that’s the good thing about Get Physical and us. All the office people are really professional – they are not confused or anything like lots of other people in this business. (laughs) They work really hard, and are nice people. We get along great, we get good support and we like to support the label in return and represent it all over the place. It’s an excellent thing.

Did you feel restricted as artists having to make an album suited to a particular “Get Physical” sound, or were they open to letting you do your thing? They are absolutely open. We can do what we want – they give feedback and ideas sometimes to the whole big picture of the album. What you see now is in some part due to the A+R work of Phillip (M.A.N.D.Y) and Mantu (label manager). In the end Phillip made us do some things different to what we might have done originally, which was challenging. One thing he said once when we met him a few years ago was that when you make a record or work together, sometimes somebody has to cry too. The process has to be challenging, and that’s a good thing.

Which one of you two cried then? Holger was sad the whole time and I was crying because he looked so sad. That happens a lot. (laughs)

Listening to the album, it sounds very dance floor friendly. Would you say that musically it’s similar to what fans could expect to hear from you in a DJ set? Do you often play your own productions? Yeah of course. We test the really new stuff, but the thing is that once the record is out it’s hard for DJs to play their own productions because they’ve already known them for half a year, but we still do that. Sometimes I like to play older stuff too, a few years older than the current stuff. But the album definitely stands for the sound that we play in a DJ set… it depends on the size of the crowd too of course.

You’re both from Berlin and are regularly on tour. How do you rate the clubbing experience in Berlin compared to other cities abroad? There is something special for a lot of places. One thing that is great about playing abroad, for instance in Russia or Lithuania, [is that] people are very, very enthusiastic about the music and they party – maybe it’s just the mentality of the people – and of course it’s because people in Berlin are really spoilt because there’s like superstar line ups in 3-5 clubs every weekend, two or three times per weekend, so people are not that shocked anymore when you play certain stuff.

On the other hand, the professionalism of the party crowd here (in Berlin) is also something special. As [Red] Robin said in the interview I saw with him, he said it’s always great to party with the family, and that’s in Berlin in the end. When you have a gig here, then you finish playing, and at some point you go to Katerholzig the next morning and then everybody (all the other guys that played in Berlin) starts arriving. So that’s also something that’s so special because then there’s like 20 DJ’s all coming together and partying because there’s so many parties (in Berlin on any given weekend). So you can’t tell which is really better... I can’t really tell, both are great. When you go somewhere where they don’t have international DJs all the time and the people are really super happy about it, then that’s also great of course.

Do you have a heavy touring schedule planned on the back of the album release? Yes, we do actually, but we put some vacation time in the middle because we worked almost 7 days a week for half a year on the production stuff, as well as playing on the weekend, every weekend twice a weekend, so the really heavy touring will be interrupted. For instance, we stay at Sonar for 10 days, and we’re going to play maybe two or three times. So that’s going to be a bit easier, but we need this break. But on the other hand, there’s some really great stuff, such as our Ibiza premiere this year at Vista club, Melt Festival for the first time, and the Mediterranean Weekend Festival on a cruise ship where we go from Rome to Barcelona, to name a few.

What else are you looking forward to? Tomorrow the Egg in London is really exciting with Josh Wink, Yousef and DJ T. Then I go on vacation for ten days! And then the Watergate album release party which is pretty amazing, with M.A.N.D.Y, one of my best buddies Red Robin who’s on the album, and Markus Meinhardt who’s a super party DJ. Upstairs there’s Rodriguez Jnr, who’s also a great producer and good buddy who’ll release his back-to-back Mobilee compilation, and Anja Schneider of course will play as well as Nyma from Items & Things. We’ve been working on this party for a while.

To finish off, if you were hosting a dinner party on a deserted island, who would be there with you? Will Ferrell, Condoleezza Rice, Frankie Knuckles, Jean-Claude Van Damme and Colonel Sanders from KFC to supply the chicken!

Listen to Smash TV on Pulse Radio.