This interview appeared in the book "Yokoland - As we go up we go down" (a monograph about Yokoland's work from 1998-2005), published by Die Gestalten Verlag in 2006. The interview was done by the Norwegian graphic designer, illustra...

Interview with Matt Wolf 
Written by Chris Rolls (chris(at)fecalface.com), Fecal Face's Music Editor   
Thursday, 18 September 2008
via Fecal Face

The story of Arthur Russell's life i...

Popp Music Oval, Microstoria, and the man behind their curtains: Markus Popp.

By Marc Weidenbaum August 15, 1997 (source)

Young German technologist Markus Popp is of two minds on the subject of electronic music. Those m...

Interview With Wolfgang Voigt
by Simon Reynolds




You've had an extraordinary number of alter-egos and artist names that you've operated under. I get the sense that they each have quite defined identities sonically and i...

ITALIANS DO IT BETTER
Interviews by Marisa Brickman

Passion, innovation, experimentation, synths and blissed out female vocals are all characteristics of the music on the record label Italians Do It Better. The label was started by Mike...

_Hot Chip in Lodown issue 42 (july 2004 feature!)

Sommer. Erinnerst du dich noch, wie das war? Oder daran, wie es hätte sein sollen? Dieses Gefühl von einem nahezu perfekten Tag, an dem einfach alles zu stimmen scheint. Momente, die nur über den Bauch wahrgenommen und kommuniziert werden, egal ob du diese allein erlebtest oder in guter Gesellschaft. Du fühlst es einfach, fühlst genau das Richtige, ohne den permanenten Zweifel, wieder einmal alles falsch interpretiert zu haben. Ein perfekter Himmel läutet den Abend ein. Du lässt die Blicke einfach schweifen. Dir fällt eine Textzeile Mark Kozeleks ein und zum ersten mal kannst du sogar darüber grinsen, so unglaublich ist dieser Tag. Vor zwei Jahren begleitete dich dazu vielleicht ‘Sunshine Hit Me’ von The Bees, im letzten Jahr war es hoffentlich das Album von Parsley Sound. Und bevor du anfängst lange zu überlegen: 2004 wird es garantiert das Debut von Hot Chip sein.
Das Londoner Quintett um Mastermind Alexis Taylor bringt das Unmögliche fertig: es kombiniert ihre Idee von (weissem) Soul und Funk mit lupenreinem Singer/Songwriter Gestus und charmanter Elektronik, irgendwo zwischen digitalen Clicks und Cuts und einer Bontempi-Orgel. Das Ergebnis klingt dabei so unglaublich lässig, süchtigmachend und augenzwinkernd cool, dass man sich unweigerlich fragt, wie man nur bislang ohne diese Musik über den Tag kommen konnte. Comin’ at ya like Cleopatra, here’s Hot Chip!

I wasn't aware of the fact that you already released two EPs before you dropped the fantastic 'Down With Prince'... did you release the Mexico/San Frandisco EPs completely independently?
Alexis : The Mexico EP came out on a great little London-based label called Victory Garden Records, who just put out the first demo we sent to anyone. They were, and are, into very expensive, ridiculous, lavish packaging, and releasing things on defunct formats like 8 track cartridge and cassette single, or even postage stamps (check their site). Unfortunately for us, they thought we were going to be their biggest release up to that point, so they opted for a very straight forward CD only release, in standard packaging, perhaps with the intention of getting it to as many people as possible... I don't think it worked out according to the plan, and I still wish they'd let us release it on three separate 7’s in hand made sleeves or something.
We released the San Frandisco EP ourselves, on our short-lived CD-R label, Ringsting, the name of which I am not responsible for. Joe can answer to that. I printed the sleeves at home, originally on brown paper bags, but these just repeatedly broke my stepdad's  printer, so I had to go for the more straight-forward piece of paper in the end. Owen from the band drew the cover illustration.
How would you say did your sound evolve over the years?
Alexis : We have always been into the same kind of music, Prince, ESG, Will Oldham, Beach Boys etc etc, and we all buy a hell of a lot of records all the time and take in their influences, but we just try to create something new each time we record. We want our sound to be considered original and fresh, rather than just a rehash of someone else's voice, or guitar style, or jeans jacket or whatever. I think we have (crudely speaking), developed a folk song-writing sound that is placed in different contexts according to the mood or groove we are after with each individual recording. So underneath the party-feel of some of the new album, you can still hear the same folk-inflected voices and songwriting/production partnership of myself and Joe that has always been there.
About the line-up: would you say that Hot Chip clearly is your and Joe's baby and it's working as a party of five only on stage?
Alexis : I would say that it's true for this album, but we are planning to get all five of us involved for the next record, and play more as a live band, rather than building things up in layers.
I think it's pretty hard to pin your sound down. On the one hand it's pretty funky and lo-fi/raw, on the other hand it has this bittersweetness of all the great and perfect Pop tunes...
Alexis : We like confusion. I think it is important to our every day lives. And we think we should make music that is open and wide reaching in its scope. It may be the death of us though....
Since I heard it for the first time, I've been thinking about the melody you used for 'A-B-C'. Is it a counting-out rhyme? Is it from Disney's Junglebook? Please help me out before I go mental...
Joe will have to answer that one. Is it from the Jungle Book? Even if it isn't - I will claim it is from now on!
What's 'Down With Prince' all about? Is Prince one of your personal heroes and you're pissed off about these fake funkateers using him as a point of reference although they only saw 'Purple Rain' instead of really listening to the record?
Alexis : Kind of, yes. I think that a lot of people have made some really bad records which either rip off Prince, or a band's namechecking him a lot in interviews, and don't seem to be trying to respond to the adventurism and inventiveness in his music. So this was an attempt to tell them all how it is, whilst deliberately risking being grouped in with the same rotten bunch...
I've been told that you're also spinning quite a lot recently... so please tell me a little about a night with the Hot Chip Soundsystem.
Alexis : A typical night will feature Al, Joe and myself all sparring against each other, playing whichever 'party' tunes we feel will rock the house best, but usually not managing to work alongside each other too well. The crowd get neglected as Al plays hard Ragga and Dancehall next to my Devo and Prince records, and Joe spins 2 Step and HipHop anthems. One day we will realize that this 'eclecticism' just doesn't wash. But it's usually quite fun despite such (lack of) concerns...

-----

_Hot Chip in Lodown issue 50

The year’s 2004 and while the (music) press is either still digging for untold musical treasures in the streets of New York or trying to get into that nasty neon coloured dress to fit Germany’s wannabe Electroclash In-crowd scene that was long time dead already by then, it totally failed to see and celebrate Pop music’s best kept secret: London based Hot Chip. Their debut ‘Coming On Strong’ on Moshi Moshi was a fresh slab of indefinable spine bending, an experimental soundtrack for an endless summer with tasty BBQ’s, smooth liquor and unexpected romance.
Two years and dozens of remixes later it’s time for them to re-invent Pop a second time. On their follow-up ‘The Warning’ they prove once again that writing clever and catchy songs could be as easy as a-b-c. If you don’t shy away from occasional quirkyness and your evident love for Electronica, Folk, Dance music and heavy beatsmithery, that is. They’re ready to smash up the charts. The remaining question is: are you? We hooked up with Hot Chip’s Joe Goddard on a fairly mild November day in London’s east.

You did a couple of weird supporting tours recently. You opened for Dance acts like Mylo and Faithless... did you guys feel comfortable at all?
Especially supporting Faithless was pretty bizarre actually. The tour happened in November/December 2004 and we never played venues anywhere near that size. And to be completely honest, we’re not the biggest fans of their music either. There isn’t actually too much Dance music that we’re into... in general we listen to a lot of Folk and old Rock. Anyway, when we arrived for the tour they had 25 people in their crew and we had... none. It was a strange environment to work into and I don’t think that we got along together that much. Plus, we were doing the tour by trains, with all our equipment and that kinda sucked. But at the same time we really enjoyed travelling around, seeing many cities.
It must have been kinda weird for you to play in front of a big crowd that just waits for the hits...
It’s really like that. When we supported Mylo the majority of the people was there to see him playing ‘Drop The Pressure’... which is always the very last song on the set list. (laughs) And then it’s time for the crowd to put their mobile phones in the air. But they were super nice to us... and Who Made Who joined the tour as well which made it even more enjoyable. It was great to finally meet them and we got along really well... so we will definitely swap remixes in the future.
Talking about remixes... you guys did quite a lot lately. I really like your approach to it, it’s as if you did a cover version of the original.
That’s definitely the idea. I mean, I respect it when people take a track and make it a bit harder so it works on the dancefloor... you know, kinda larry Levan style. There sure is an art to it. But that’s not really how we like to do it. As you said it, for us it’s more about  making a remake, more about doing something unexpected with the original material.
How does it work... is it mainly you and Alexis or are the other guys involved as well?
It always depends on the original material... it’s changing quite a lot at the moment, to be honest. We did a lot of remixes recently, one for Jamie Lidell for example. And that one in particular was done by the other guys Felix and Owen... simply because they’re closer to all the Warp stuff. Felix worked there and he knows a lot about this kinda music and about labels like Kompakt. So their style suited better, it made more sense that they’re doing the remix. But pretty much all of the others are done by me or Alexis and me. The other guys are coming around to add a drumbeat or some keyboard sounds though.
Your first album was released on Moshi Moshi, a fantastic label but with no huge resources for guaranteeing a proper international distribution, unfortunately. I think the majority of people got aware of Hot Chip through your remixes... which I find pretty remarkable.
I know what you mean and a couple of people mentioned a similar thing... still it’s a surprising thing to me. I never expected that to happen. It feels kinda weird because in my opinion our remixes aren’t our best work, really. I mean, I like a lot of them but they’re no match to our original material. We’re spending months on our own stuff... just making sure that it’s pleasant and the best thing we could have done at that time. With remixes you’re having a week or ten days to deliver it. Believe me, I often wish I could go back and change a remix.
Your debut ‘Coming On Strong’ was re-released on Kitsuné around a year after it originally came out. Must have felt kinda strange, right?
(laughs) Well, I like the different artwork that they’ve used. The thing that annoys me the most is how long it takes for things to happen. The new album for example was mastered last July already but it won’t be out before next April or May. And that’s very frustrating. But I think every artist feels like that, especially when they’re signed to a big label... (laughs) these guys always need so much time for whatever it is they need to do.
How did that deal with EMI happen anyway?
It was quite a weird and long process. At the end of 2004  the DFA guys contacted us, telling us that we should come to New York because they’d love to sign us. So we came over last february and worked with them on a track that’s coming out on a DFA 12" anytime soon, I guess. At that point we wanted to get enough money from our deal so that we can quit our dayjobs and go on tour and stuff. But DFA don’t have the resources to do that, unfortunately. So they said ‘ ok guys, we can’t do it but the EMI guys who we’ve just done the deal with might be interested’... and they were. We hooked up with them first in Texas at the South by Southwest festival and we started from there.
Your new material seems to be more uptempo, a bit more punchy on the beats...
Definitely. When we made the first album, we didn’t really have anyone around helping us. I mean, I was using the computer for making music for years... but it took quite a while to develop our own little weird style. Our past stuff was really warm and mellow... which is nice, don’t get me wrong. But I wanted to be able to hear our stuff when I go out to the clubs. I wanted that people are able to play it, wanted that people are dancing to it. So we initially toughened things up a bit. But there’s still music that’s soft and mellow on our new album as well. We still love it and the third one probably will have the focus on it again. But for this one, we definitely wanted to step it up a lil’ bit.
Even though some of your tracks are quite moody, I was always surprised about the positivity you spread when you’re live on stage. You really love your cowbells and your clapping, right?
Oh yes, we´re really into that. I just love the sound of people clapping... it´s something really primitive, isn’t it? People respond to claps because it´s such a basic rhythmic thing. It’s a Disco thing as well... like the DFA guys did it.
Talking about the DFA again, a friend of mine once said ‘Hot Chip is like DFA minus the hype plus big balls’. Can you live with that?
(laughs) Well, that certainly is a fantastic compliment. But they’re on a different level. They just get this amazing sound on their records. You know, so many people are doing this kinda Disco-Punk thing at the moment... but these guys are pure geniuses, they´re always nailing it. When I heard the track ‘Yeah’ for the first time, it really blew me away. And our new single ‘Over And Over’ might even be a little inspired by things like that.
Now that you’re signed to EMI, will there be a budget for a video?
Yes, and we´re actually thinking about it right now. We met the director last night and we brought an old Devo video with us that we want him to take some inspiration from. It will be a green screen performance... and the video should look like it isn’t really finished yet, with lots of captions and stuff. It should be quite striking and about repetitive movement since the title’s ‘Over And Over’.
I remember when I spoke to Alexis for the first album, he mentioned that you’re djing quite a lot... are you still doing it?
We do it whenever we can. But it’s still more a fun thing at the moment. It’s getting a bit more serious though... we just did a DJ mix for EMI and Eskimo Recordings asked us to do one as well. It’s something I’d like to improve, something I’d like to work on a bit more. At the moment, we´re just showing up with our favourite records but it´s about time to sit down and work out really good sets... using special edits of our own songs and stuff.
Did you already do music before Hot Chip?
Before it was just stuff on very early stages, really. It was more about learning on old programs to take a sample and loop it. That’s when I was fourteen or fifteen years old. The first music I properly recorded was after I met Alexis at school... all of a sudden it was getting more and more song orientated.
Hot Chip’s sound is really hard to categorize, so I was wondering about what kind of music you’re personally digging at the moment?
What you just said about our sound, I take this as a very big compliment, thank you. Well, what do I really like at the moment? I like the Love Unlimited Orchestra, Matthew Dear’s Audion project, the latest Quasimoto album, Delia and Gavin on DFA. One of the things Alexis and me always loved is Will Oldham. When we first started making music, he was one of the main artists that inspired us. As you said before, our music has balls sometimes... I think we learned that from him. That you can sing really honestly sometimes, not hiding your voice. Just sing clearly and with feelings and without being afraid of it. That’s quite important to us.
Since you just mentioned Will Oldham: his lyrics are very often brutally honest... what’s your approach to lyrics?
Well, the honesty you just mentioned... I know that on our first album  is a lot of really dumb humour. Part of that is being not afraid to have stupid or embarrassing bits on it. (laughs) Admittedly, when I listen to some of the tracks of our first album, I feel kinda stupid. But I feel kinda proud as well that we not tried to get rid of some of the lyrics. The majority of the time it works like this. Alexis writes words on his mobile phone while he’s travelling. When he’s coming around to my house I play him some chords that I’ve written or some beats that I made and he looks through his phone for the right words to fit. Very often he writes lyrics very quickly and on the spot. With me, writing lyrics is more about the melody than the actual words I’m saying. I mean, I love to listen to some serious lyrics and think about the words... but very often I’m all about the Beach Boys where it’s more about the pure beauty of it.

www.hotchip.co.uk
words: Sven ‘Fortyounce’ Fortmann

The Swedish taboo

by RAF KATIGBAK

Sweden’s busiest and most prolific techno producer is about to take a production break. Not because he wants to, but more because he has to. Over the phone from his studio in Stockholm, the many-faceted Håkan Lidbo revealed to the Mirror that during the next two weeks, instead of banging out funky electro-lounge, minimal click house, or Latin-based techno, his studio will be banging with the sound of carpenters installing a new floor.

“There’s no point in starting a new production, I have to unplug everything and I just have one room so I’ll be totally disconnected for a few weeks,” he says in a voice that sounds disappointingly unlike the Muppets Swedish Chef. For some, two weeks may not seem like a lot of time. But for Lidbo, an admitted workaholic, 14 days away from his sampler and workstation seem like an eternity (he averages a new release every two weeks and has well over 150 titles under his belt).

It seems that there’s no rest for the wicked, so Lidbo will be using the time to play various live shows throughout Europe and North America. One of those shows will be here in Montreal, where he will celebrate the launch of his Fishingindeepwaters album, a compilation of deep minimal dancefloor tech-house released on local imprint Trigger Recordings.

Aside from home-improvement matters, the Mirror and Lidbo discussed concept albums, picking carrots and the truth behind the mysterious Bobby Trafalgar.

Mirror: When I was a kid I wanted to be an astronaut. Obviously that didn’t go exactly as planned. Did you always dream about making music?

Håkan Lidbo: Not when I was a kid, but I think some of the reasons I began producing music with electronic equipment were pretty much the same reasons you wanted to be an astronaut - you get to wear really cool clothes and work with high-tech, rocket-type things. When I first saw Kraftwerk and Yello play, I was blown away because I thought that it was amazing to be able to work with these computers and machines with knobs. And you know, for me, to have a job where you feel very cool is pretty important.

M: I suspect more than a few people get into techno for the same reason, although they might not admit it so readily.

HK: Well, let me tell you, I’ve had other jobs, like picking carrots at a farmer’s place and working as a mailman on a bicycle, and I didn’t feel extremely cool doing that.

M: I suppose it’s hard to score with chicks when you roll up to them on a 10-speed rocking a sack of Ikea catalogues.

HK: Yeah, the coolest job for me, at a certain age, was to work with a synthesizer. I guess it wasn’t only the music, but it was also the fetishism, if you can call it that.

The Manilow factor

M: How many different pseudonyms have you used over the years?

HK: Maybe 10 or 12.

M: Whoa. That seems like a lot.

HK: That’s actually not that many. I know people with even more names. It’s funny because I’m actually more criticized for using my real name for most of my projects, from very experimental to funky and melodic projects. From a record label or a distributor’s point of view, I understand the problem - it’s just easier to market it that way.

M: Speaking of marketing, do you ever do commercial work?

HK: If the product is good, I don’t mind having my music in commercials. I actually won an award for best song for a TV commercial in Sweden. That was a big hit. Sweden is a small country and we sold, like 10,000 copies of the single. I think what’s most important is to spread different music to average people. It’s more important than supporting DJs and music freaks who’ll dig it up anyway.

M: I hear you’re into bootlegs too. What was the last one you did?

HK: I did one as Alvarez de Jesus on a label called Che. It was a Madonna song, from Madonna’s Holiday. The song was called “All Around the World.” I also did a very illegal cover, or sample, song of Barry Manilow’s “Copacabana.”

M: Barry Manilow, huh? That’s funny because, on your Web site, you describe your music as intelligent, serious and funky, yet I find there’s a lot of humour in there as well.

HK: I hope so. Some of the minimal stuff maybe isn’t that humorous. But I still think that music must be entertaining, at least for myself to listen to. You can easily make a really effective dancefloor song - just a kick and a nice bass and high hat and there it is, it goes on for six minutes and that would be a perfectly great track. But I insist on creating small details that make it interesting enough to listen to at home or in the headphones, and hopefully those details won’t destroy the club factor either. You mustn’t forget that music is about entertainment. Someone is always supposed to listen to it and if you bore that person to death, you’ve failed. You can’t just do it for yourself. You must keep things happening all the time to keep their attention. It’s like when you’re telling a story, if you don’t have a punchline, people will be leaving.

Chinese P-funk and the Romanian maestro

M: Many of your projects are stories in themselves, involving different mysterious personalities with elaborate histories like, for example, your Bobby Trafalgar project where you “remixed” this obscure Romanian composer. My first question is, is Bobby Trafalgar real?

HK: I can’t answer that. No offence, but I made a promise to myself - or to Bobby. There are some interesting discussions on the Net, people can’t seem to find the original records that were referred to on the cover. All that I can tell them is, look harder.

M: Fair enough, but how about that Action Music label you were involved in? You’re not going to tell me that there really was an underground Chinese P-funk movement in the ’70s, are you?

HK: (laughing) Yeah, that idea was so absurd. I was speaking to a friend and the idea just popped up. Sometimes if you take a silly idea and try to see it from a different perspective and bring some order into it, suddenly it might make a bit of sense. Unfortunately it didn’t sell anything, so we closed the label.

M: Looking at these things, the Bobby Trafalgar, the Action Music label, I’m getting the impression you enjoy messing with people’s heads.

HK: To be honest, it isn’t any master plan. I would love to have a connection between these projects, like Peter Greenaway films, but I pretty much make it up as it comes. Eventually I would like to do a series of concept albums, like back in the day when they made fusion albums with a big theme, like Stockhausen’s The Planets.

M: Sure, I can just imagine it. Håkan Lidbo’s Journey to the Heart of Uranus. Techno’s answer to Rick Wakeman, pretty high-concept stuff.

HK: If music is complicated, it’s always good to leave the listeners with a key, something to listen for. If it’s just there, if you’re in the supermarket and the music’s coming from the speakers, you don’t care about it. But if you listen to music and you have a key to how to listen to it, I think you can enjoy it much more. If you listen, for example, to a piece of classical music and someone tells you, “When the composer did this, he was almost deaf and then he died two years later,” then you might listen with a different perception.

M: It sounds like why or how the music is made is just as important to you as the music itself.

HK: I love buying records from flea markets and finding old composers and reading something strange about their lives, like maybe they didn’t make music at all, but ran a gas station in Oklahoma - I just love that stuff. Naturally, I like the stories behind Bobby Trafalgar or Action Music. It just makes the albums feel a bit bigger. In reality, I’m just a Swedish dude. I’m not that interesting. But if you create these stories, I think that maybe your record can gain some kind of magic.

---

Declassifying Håkan Lidbo's numerous secret identities

Lidbo’s got more fully-formed alter-egos than that strange, bald puppet Hugo that Kenner Toys used to make in the ’70s. Here’s a rundown for the benefit of techno-heads and international police agencies alike.

Bobby Trafalgar (Repap): Romanian defector pianist-arranger and ex-transvestite musical genius.

The Vanisher (Fragile/Transmat): Innovative soulful techno from the heart of Detroit… or is it?

Monsoon (Driftwood): aka Dr. Who, the mystery man on the label rife with aliases.

Royal Flesh (Drought): A sassy and twisted techno alter ego that puts the Lidbo in libido.

Alvarez de Jesus (Che/Street Knowledge): Bootleggin’, gun-totin’ Spaniard with a penchant for Madonna.

The Alpha Male (Scatalogics): Euro new-wave electro pop star - think Commodore 64 meets Visage.

Data 80 (Force Tracks): A Japanese computer program that suddenly becomes conscious and starts making commercial dance music. Brilliant!

Stockholm Decadence (Frogman): A somewhat ironic name given the crappy state of the Swedish club scene.

Ho-Shang Ling-Bu (Action Music): Chinese cult figure who saw it all during the mysterious C-Funk era of the ’70s.

Messieur Lidboux (Plactown Sounds): Frenchman and Casanova, Messieur Lidboux will romance you.

Jell (X-Trax): House, deep and sticky, like the name.

---

from: http://www.montrealmirror.com/ARCHIVES/2003/013003/music_cover.html

Ocotber 17, 2006
by Lerato Khathi

Peter Kersten holds one of the most enviable positions. That of co - running one of the most consistently brilliant record labels and not content with that; he also produces some of the most forward thinking & absolutely gorgeous electronic music. He has also opened 'Smallville'; a record shop in Hamburg.

  

I caught up with him to try and find out more...

Lerato: I first got hooked on to Lawrence, via your sublime, self-titled album on Ladomat 2000. This led me to the 'Teaser' 12", on both Dial & and Ladomat; as well as 'Corporate Identity' on Dial and the 'Sporturlaub' 12" on Kompakt. You have gone on to release 2 more albums under your Lawrence moniker, namely, 'The absence of Blight ' released on Dial, as well as 'The night will last forever ', on Novamute.there is also an album under your Sten guise - ' Leaving The Frantic', as well as numerous 12" 's as both Lawrence & Sten. Not to mention the remixes you have done for other artists. When did you start making music?

Peter: I started playing the computer and machines in 1997, 2 years before my first release on dial (dial000 "shoes")

Lerato: There is such a richness and depth within your music & those warm, lush chords:); usually associated with Detroit Techno. Has Detroit music had any influence in your music & what are your musical influences in general?

Peter: Detroit electronic music is maybe the main influence of my music. I firstly fell in love with Detroit Techno in 1987 listening to the first Transmat releases. "It Is What It Is" by Rhythm is Rhythm still is one of my all time favourites. In the mid- nineties I discovered deep house - Theo Parrish and Moodyman kicked me to produce music on my own, again a big Detroit influence.

Lerato: You record under the aliases Lawrence & Sten. I'm under the impression (please correct me if I'm wrong), that you created Sten as a way to differentiate its more dance-oriented sound from that of Lawrence. Yet the musical differences between the two don't seem so great that the Sten material couldn't simply have been presented as the next stage in Lawrence's evolution. So, if it is the case that the stylistic differences are subtle, why the Sten persona?

Peter: You are right, Lawrence productions are getting more into the dance floor direction. But Lawrence is my all-in-one alter ego, the next release can be beatdown, deephouse or ambient, Lawrence is the definition of the sound. Sten is my kind of techno moniker.

Lerato: Is there any meaning behind both the Lawrence & Sten aliases?

Peter: Firstly its just names, but people have always nice ideas- Lawrence of Arabia, Pete Lawrence of Felt, Peter Kersten...

Lerato: There is a distinct analogue feel to your music. What is your studio set up?

Peter: My set up has become mostly digital. I am a computer musician. With a computer you can create nearly every sound, and I love the more analogue warmth, but I am too lazy to get organized in a big studio with a lot of complicated machines.

Lerato: What is your role / involvement at the Dial imprint?

Peter: Dial is a quite a low organized label, a family of producers, everybody takes care of everything. Sometimes I am doing promotions or I speak with my friends at Kompakt distribution. Sometimes I am just happy how it all works.

Lerato: There is a strong aesthetic that is evident in your music and the music you release from other artists, on Dial & not to mention the cover art. Do you come from an art background?

Peter: We use the cover artwork as a place for our friends who are into visual arts. Especially David Lieske (aka Carsten Jost) who is a contemporary artist himself; loves to look for unique pictures. It is a nice gift to the people who like our music, they get a little piece of art.

Lerato:You are currently in demand as a remixer, having remixed works by artists such as Antonelli, Arp Aubert, Quarks, Goldfrapp, Martin L. Gore e.t.c.. How did the remix for Martin L. Gore, come about? & Were you a fan of Depeche Mode's output, prior to that remix?

Peter: In the eighties I was a big fan of Depeche Mode and I still appreciate their music. Martin L. Gore is deeply into minimal electronic dance music, on the last Depeche Mode tour, they played a Lawrence track before the show somebody told me..

Lerato: You played at the Ghostly after party for the DEMF.Was it your first time, performing in Detroit? How did you find it? You made your Mutek festival debut, also this year. How was the festival for you then?

Peter: The whole US tour this year was pretty amazing. Detroit is an incredible city. A ghost town with so much love for the music. The after parties at Demf where really far out and I love all the Ghostly people. Also the Mutek festival was a big highlight. I firstly missed my flight but then the manager of Mutek Alan Mongeau organized a second option. After all I had my favourite Lawrence life show. Next day I really enjoyed the minus picnic in Montreal with Magda, Troy Pierce, Marc Houle, Richie Hawtin and Riccardo Villalobos.

Lerato: With the much talked about, demise of vinyl what possessed you to open a record shop?:)

Peter: For a long time I missed a well organized record shop, run by people who are really in love with the music. To open a shop was a dream come true; and the people are so thankful. Smallville has become a great place to be in Hamburg.

Lerato: You seem to be involved, in the Hamburg club scene, quite a fair bit; what with gigs, it seems nearly everyday of the week:) Tell us a bit more about these nights and the whole electronic music scene as a whole in Hamburg?

Peter: The scene in Hamburg is so exciting. A few things are happening. You have the cosy but fucked up mini club Golden Pudel. It is open seven nights a week with guests from Warp, bpitch, Liebe*detail, Spezial material, and many more including a monthly Carsten Jost & Lawrence night. Our Record shop Smallville organizes parties in different places, nice small clubs, to quite big events.. A regular Techno club is missing at the moment, but the people are quite in a rush to get information every weekend where the best parties will take place.

Lerato: Lastly, any future releases to look out for, from Lawrence /Sten as well as forthcoming releases on Dial?

Peter: After the Dial 31 (Lawrence "Deep Summer Hole") we are really looking forward to start the Smallville Record label. First release with tracks of Julabs, Sten and DJ Swap. Pantha Du Prince stands in the row to release his new Album "This Bliss" on Dial in late november. In Japan Toshiya Kawasaki of Mule Musiq just released a Collection of Lawrence tracks and remixes "Lowlights From The Past And Future". This will be internationally released by the beginning of 2007.

More info available from
www.dial-rec.de/
www.smallville-records.com/

Interview conducted by Lerato Khathi Co ­ owner of the Süd Electronic imprint as well as programmer of the Süd Electronic events in London.

Süd Electronic will be hosting the first ever UK, Dial Records all-nighter party on the 15th December 2006 with DJ sets from Lawrence & Carsten Jost and a live set by Pantha Du Prince.

Subscribe to the Süd Electronic newsletter to get more details for this event, nearer the date. Subscribe by emailing info@sudelectronic.com

www.sudelectronic.com

Jay Haze runs three record labels. Tuning Spork is Haze's minimal tech-house label - where he releases under the name the Architect - primarily geared to bring glitch and deepness to the dancefloor
-- tracks that make you shake your booty while dousing your head in minimal crackles, scrapes, scrunches, warm tones and rolling basslines. His second label, Future Dub,
offers a Jamaican reggae-influenced side of heady and experimental techno-dub -- where he releases under the names Dub Surgeon, Dub Cord and Montage Spiral.
His third label is Contexterrior -- dedicated to bringing you ultra-minimal, glitch-heavy, laid-back experimental tracks --
where the listener gets sucked in and impelled to groove 'n' sway to the clean, glitchy, warmly quirky, densely minimal, faintly dubby, head-trippin' chuggers.
This is where Haze enjoys luring you into a powerful mental journey through his most dynamic production techniques.

Already, in such a short amount of time, Haze has dropped a healthy plentitude of vinyl releases -- he is currently up to three solo 12" EPs on Tuning Spork, three 12" EPs on Future Dub,
five EPs on Contexterrior (one of which is a split-12" with Jeff Samuel) and a variety of tracks and loops on various compilations. Regarding future releases that he has already completed,
Haze will have a track included on a Sud Electronics compilation (along with Farben, Sutekh, Tomas Jirku and Andy Vaz). Also, this inexhaustible mofo has a bushel-load of forthcoming goodies
like a 12" EP on Sud, an album on Future Dub, a split-12" with Dean DeCosta on Future Dub and a 12" EP on Tuning Spork.

INTERVIEW

What have you been working on recently?
I have been working hard on building the label up, we have so much new music from all these great artists,
it really keeps me busy. I have also been spending the last weeks building up our in-house booking agency, which has just launched today!

I have of course been playing most weekends to crazy freaks, and loving every minute of it! I've been exploring many different music styles, keeping sharp and positive.
Life is good! This past weekend was a little crazy, went from Friday night in Valencia, to Saturday night with M.A.N.D.Y. in Istanbul - what a different place.

Where was the mix recorded?
The mix was recorded in the Ultradope Syndrome headquarters in Mitte, Berlin. This is where all the magic happened

What are you up to next?
Just staying doing the same thing, working hard. I've got a new single and following album coming up as Fuckpony on Berlin based label Get Physical and we are working
on our second album now for the project Bearback from Tuningspork Family Affair.
The labels Tuning Spork, Future Dub, Junion and Contexterrior are all very active at the moment with hot new releases - so this keeps me pretty straight.

I have also been doing a bunch of cool remixes that will come out sometime this year, including a wicked paranoid remix of "Big Brother" for John Selways label CSM.
As for touring , I am palying quite frequently in clubs, but am planning a tour sometime later in the year. Remember, Contexterrior Media loves you.

Alex Smoke, the young producer from Glasgow whose album, ‘Incommunicado’ has just been released on Soma Records. Smoke is part of a generation of producers
who are blurring the boundaries between minimal, techno and electronica.
This music still may live on the dancefloor but it occupies so much more. Drawing from a myriad of influences including dub, electro, grime, latin and experimental pop,
Alex Smoke has concocted a deeply emotive artist album that is mysterious, melancholic and inspiring. Here’s what happened when we caught up with Alex…

Your music is very distinctive and in particular different from the usual Soma sound. What are your influences?
My influences are pretty broad as I listen to a wide range of music, everything from hip-hop and dub, electronica and grime, Detroit techno and classical.
The majority of stuff I’m buying at the moment is fairly minimal in style, like Luciano, Matthew Dear, etc. but all-time favorites also include Boards Of Canada, Carl Craig and Derrick May.

You've been releasing tracks at quite some rate, even putting it out through labels other than Soma. How are you able to be so creative?
Because my influences are pretty diverse,
I like to produce as wide a range of styles as possible. This means that some tracks may fit better with another label (in this case Vakant).
I just work non-stop so there’s always a steady flow of new music.

I believe you play the cello and piano and used to sing in a choir. What made you decide to make electronic music?
Electronic music has always been my thing, ever since I first started buying my own music.
In the early years I listened to whatever was around me, but even then the stuff I liked most was the eighties synth-based music. Then later I got into hip-hop and Detroit techno
and anything else electronic and melodic. The classical training is great discipline and trains your musical mind, but it’s really only in the last 5 years that
I’ve started listening to much classical music outside of playing it.

Incommunicado is clearly a very personal album. What inspires you to make music?
Literally everything feeds into it, from politics to personal experience to hearing a great gig at the weekend.....nothing inspires like a good view though.

It's unusual for a producer to sing on their own work. Would you feel uncomfortable with somebody else singing words that mean so much to you?
Yeah, pretty much.
I wasn’t even happy to tell people what I was singing to be honest! I left all the vocals quite muffled on purpose, hoping that no-one would be able to tell what I’m on about.

After your recent Breezeblock mix, Mary Anne Hobbs claimed that by next year you would be a superstar. Does that faze you at all?
Well, Mary Anne Hobbs has been brilliant, but I always take accolades with a healthy pinch of salt. On a personal level obviously I’m made up, but in a wider sense I don’t think about it.

With all the recent accolades you've been receiving, people must be queuing up to work with you. Who would you most like to collaborate with?
Well they must be queuing at the wrong house! To be honest there’s relatively few folk I’d want to work with but vocalist-wise I’d love to work with someone like Paul St. Hilaire -
he’s got just a great character voice. I went to see Rhythm & Sound live last year with him doing vocals and it blew me away.
Producer-wise I’m less inclined to want to work with anyone, not because there’s not people that I truly admire, but simply
because music for me is quite a singular thing and I just like working that way. If Carl Craig phoned me tomorrow I might change my tune right enough!

Your DJ sets are equally as impressive as your own production. Which do you get more pleasure from - DJing or performing live?
Erm...So far I’ve found the live set quite intimidating because you’re really having to think about it the whole time and if the crowd don’t like it you’re gonna feel like a spanner!
DJing, you can relax a tiny bit if you want to between tracks. Overall though, once I get over my nerves I think live has to win because it’s great to see people dancing to your own music.

What are you plans for the next 12 months?
Well, I’ve just bought a house and am about to quit my day-job, so am probably going to spend a lot of time sitting in my new living room/studio,
looking out the window writing music! I’m teaching myself orchestration as well so that’ll keep me out of trouble for a bit.

Will you be performing at any of the big festivals this year?
I hope so, but I honestly don’t know yet.

Are you planning on staying in Glasgow for the time being?
Absolutely, Glasgow?s my home and I?ve got no intention of chasing the money around the country! As I said,
I?ve just bought a house so I?ll probably have 3 kids by the end of the year! No, it?s OK mum...I won?t.

You have achieved an awful lot in such a short space of time. What would your advice be for any budding producers?
I?ve worked pretty hard in that time and really focused on what I?m trying to achieve. I?m lucky in that my personality is conducive to sitting in a studio for days on end!
I?ve also kept my day job to a bare minimum so that I?ve got time to do music, which has meant living on a pretty tight budget a lot of the time.
If you want to do well at anything you have to make sacrifices. I sound like my bloody dad!