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The Cosy Consensus

Maybe I'm just a bit naive, but I always believed that the internet offered a great opportunity to express opinions that wouldn't get a look in elsewhere. It's why I maintain this blog without any expectation that I will be rewarded and why, I imagine, countless other people do the same all over the world when they could be doing something more productive, like drinking beer or playing video games. In particular, I thought that blogs would act as a platform for the freeflow of alternative opinions, discourse and debate. How wrong I was. In the electronic music section of the great big blogosphere - which admittedly accounts for just a tiny part of the hundreds of millions of self-publishing sites - a cosy consensus seems to have been established, one that has striking, worrying similarities to the consensus forming that is the staple of the traditional print-based music media. I don't agree with the old world modus operandi, but seen from a business perspective, it works in a callous, short-term way. The formula is simple: devote acres of fawning coverage to whatever has been deemed hip - electro house, mnml, etc - and cash in on the ad revenue. In the blogosphere, the commercial constraints don't apply, the potential to earn money doesn't exist, so why then do most electronic music blogs champion pretty much the same people all the time? My feeling is that, like in the 'real' world, there are a few trendsetting bloggers who are admired by their peers. They pick up on a producer or sound pretty much from the get-go, and then all of the others follow. However, what surprises me the most is that the artists championed, even by the trendsetter, usually ply a watered down, glossy mag-friendly take on work that other more deserving artists make. Lindstrom is a classic example of this cosy consensus: the record that won him all the plaudits, 'I Feel Space', is a pleasant if somewhat unremarkable Italo pastiche, the kind of track that Alden Tyrrell could have knocked out during his lunch break (if he had gobbled a load of Xanex) or that Clone release on an off day. Since then, the blogosphere has championed Lindstrom like he's some kind of disco king (why not Legowelt?), but flick through any ad-driven glossy and he'll feature there too. Similarly, the undying blog love for the Kompakt operation and that stinker of a Supermayer album is questionable: I often wonder if Mayer has some kind of hypnotic hold on many of my fellow bloggers (as well as our print colleagues) because a lot of what Kompakt put out is brutal and if it was issued on a more obscure label, would head straight for the bargain bin.
I have read countless articles about how the 'Web 2.0' concept, which includes blogs and social networking sites like Bebo, MySpace and Facebook are supposedly liberating net users, turning them into 'citizen journalists' and democratising the way information and opinions are exchanged. What utter piffle, it sounds like the kind of rubbish Bush jnr would spout to justify his latest massacre: the social networking sites are an easy way to keep tabs on millions of deviant creatives around the world and the narrow range of opinions expressed in the music blogosphere is enough to convince even a casual reader that we are a bunch of self-regulating, weasel conformists.
It's not all bad though: fellow sceptic Pipecock and his co-conspirators recently launched a blog, the excellent, no-nonsense Infinitestatemachine and you can expect more dissenting bile from these quarters too. Watch out consensus bloggers, the gloves are well and truly off...

Grrrrr

Beatport emailed me earlier today to ask me not post any more of my reviews here. I understand their viewpoint - they are paying me to do them after all - but not the logic. Anyone could just copy and paste any of the content from their site and post them somewhere else online. As it stands, there's some guy who runs a website in Croatia who has gone to the trouble of translating some of the posts made here into his mother tongue and then puts them on his site. Talk about dedication! Honestly though, I take it as a compliment. Anyway, that last post - my 200th in case anyone counted - is the first and last time that I'll post my Beatport reviews here.

The Beat(port) goes on

Hi, I'm back from my holidays again and am ready for more internet-based fun. I have been asked to write some monthly reviews for Beatport's new magazine-style site - watch out, RA! - Beatportal (geddit?) which has either launched or is about to launch. They have asked me to review 'electronica', which is a vague term - they really need to sort their genre search terms out on the site - and not exactly my natural habitat, so I have been suitably vague in my choice of records (sorry MP3 files - gotta learn the language of the new digital world order!), with everyone from Bangkok Impact to Bart Skills featuring in my first missive. Here's a selection of the first batch of reviews, happy perusing...

Bangkok Impact: Missionary On Mars (Remixes) (Clone)
Finnish producer Sami Liuski aka Bangkok Impact’s latest release for Clone sounds like it’s based on the hook from an obscure Italo record that I-F dropped the last few times I heard him play out. It’s a vague description, but the track’s name isn’t as important as the ethos – Liuski is holding true to a tradition of sampling and then recycling that spans decades.
Apart from the infectious hook, ‘Missionary’ is powered by the contemporary tendency to combine Chicago and Rimini influences - a squelchy bass and tight, almost claustrophobic claps. Raiders of the Lost Arp’s remix is a competent if anonymous 303-focused track, but anyone who has been following electro and techno closely for the past decade will be fascinated by the inclusion of the ‘Red Planet Reprise’. Assuming that it takes influence from the Detroit label that released landmark records like ‘Stardancer’ and ‘Sex In Zero Gravity’ by the enigmatic Martian, Liuski’s nagging acid lines and housey rhythms fall short of the mysterious one’s great powers - but it’s an impossibly high standard for 99.9% of producers to be measured against. Maybe The Martian will re-appear some day to raise the bar once again.
3/5 Richard Brophy

Bart Skills & Anton Pieete: ‘Running Man’ (100% Pure)
Germany and the US always get mad love for their techno heritage, but it should not be forgotten that the Dutch were also releasing innovative electronic music from the get-go. While they are hugely respected in underground circles, producers like Stefan Robbers and Steve Rachmad as well as labels like 100% Pure never attained the success or even the recognition that they so richly deserved. With Shinedoe and Joris Voorn creating a big impression internationally and 100% Pure back in business, maybe the second wave of Dutch talent will get the props. Bart Skills is one of Holland’s new talents, and this collaboration with Anton Pieete shows again that the Dutch are adept at reinterpreting existing electronic styles to create a new sound. In this instance, a fresh perspective is offered on contemporary minimal techno: the duo take the stripped back sound into a drummy, almost tribalist direction on ‘Running Man’, and a heavy, detuned bass accompanies the shuffling rhythms. Adam Beyer is on remix duties, and although his percussion is more intense and driving, and he messes about with the bassline’s pitch, there’s not much else the Swedish producer can do to improve on Skills and Pieete’s arrangement.
3.5/5 Richard Brophy

Radical Majik: ‘Dub Rider’ (Klang Elektronik)
This release makes you wonder what happens at A&R meetings. Klang is a long-established German techno label founded by revered Frankfurt DJ Ata and is part of the Ongaku stable that includes Playhouse. Klang doesn’t usually slip up, so why they signed ‘Filth In The Community’ by Rad Rice and Steve Boardman is anyone’s guess. Maybe they were tired or hungover, or they just wanted to release a noisy electro house track that would piss people off. Whatever the explanation, the screeching riffs and lame groove of ‘Filth’ falls way below the label’s usual standards. It’s a pity that it wasn’t a one-sided venture, because Rice and Boardman’s other offering represents the other end of the spectrum, an idiosyncratic, unique-sounding piece of music. Employing live, swinging drums that could have originated at a street corner calypso jam, the duo daub the rhythms in insistent acid riffs and melancholic chord progressions. The end result is trippy and summery, but also a little bit sad and melancholic, a product of too many Mojitos or just because they heard ‘Filth In The Community’ on playback too many times? We’ll probably never find out. 2/5 Richard Brophy

TR One: ‘Inner Thoughts’ (Fine Art)
The digital revolution has radically changed the way music is made and played, but there are still some people holding onto the notion that the physical touch is important (no pun intended). Irish trio TR One have stuck to this old school ethos, and their debut release for Fine Art was recorded only using analogue equipment with each participant in the project - I’m loath to use the word ‘band’ – jamming away until they felt that they had nailed the sound they were chasing. Given the approach they use, it’s no surprise that ‘Inner Thoughts’ focuses on the classic Chicago/Detroit techno axis: a nagging, bleeding acid line, the kind that’s close to impossible to coax from a computer application, curls, arcs and eventually wraps itself around a rich, building chord progression. Apart from the rough beats and tight percussion that underpin these musical elements, there’s not much else to ‘Inner Thoughts’, but the warm production and skilful arranging mean that it towers over the two-dimensional remix by Lasimo Sanskrit as well as Sonja Moonear’s hiccupping minimalist version of TR One’s ‘Space Disco’. On occasion, they still make them like they used to.
4/5 Richard Brophy

Aril Brikha: ‘Ex Machina’ (Peacefrog)
This is a sad story: once upon a time, in a faraway country (actually, it was Sweden, but please indulge me) a producer called Aril Brikha decided to make electronic music. Brikha’s futuristic work impressed even the Detroit techno community he took inspiration from. The growling bass and dramatic, sweeping chords of ‘Groove La Chord’ was an exhilarating dance floor episode, while the follow up album, 2000’s ‘Deeparture In Time’, issued on Derrick May’s Transmat label, was a more introspective but hypnotically intricate work – and is still seen as one of techno’s best long players. Brikha disappeared soon after its release, and only resurfaced earlier this year, returning with ‘Winter’ on Kompakt. Unfortunately, Brikha made the mistake of trying to make new school, Germanic trancey techno, but the flipside track, ‘Berghain’ gave some hope that he would revisit past glories on his new album, ‘Ex Machina’. In places, it showcases his ability to combine windswept chords with intricate percussion and acid pulses - check ‘Last One’ and ‘Gres’ – but, although the production is excellent throughout, the shudderingly cheesy title track and the daft ebm tribute track, ‘Kind of Nitzer’ make the most convincing case you’ll ever hear for focusing on what you know best.
2/5 Richard Brophy

Shinedoe: ‘Phunk (remixes)’ (Intacto)
Ricardo Villalobos’s rambling, 20-minute long tracks usually make me wish that he could get to the point quicker. Thankfully, he tempers his tendency for musical verbosity on this remix of upcoming Dutch producer Shinedoe - whose ‘Sound Travelling’ album was one of last year’s most overlooked releases. Laying down dubby, shuffling beats, the combination of a hypnotic, Oriental-like repetitive stab and warm keys - and not much else, but it doesn’t matter as his arranging is excellent - sound more like late 90s deep house brought up to date than a blueprint for the future of minimal techno. That’s a compliment by the way: Villalobos always excels when he leans closer to his house roots, and it’s for precisely this reason that his version of ‘Phunk’ is so rewarding. The other remixer, Mark Broom, has also taken influence from the late 90s. The London DJ/producer’s version is more upbeat, focusing on the loopy tribal rhythms that were de rigeur pre-minimalism, but although it is more pumping and will work on the dance floor, it doesn’t sound like Broom is trying to push this sound forward. On this release, the lanky Chilean’s understated version has used up the phunk quota.
3/5 Richard Brophy

Lee Jones & Will Saul: ‘Hug The Scary’ (Aus)
Simple’s offshoot label is home to the latest Will Saul collaboration, this time with My My member Lee Jones. The warm, seductive ‘There Comes A Time’ by Jones, also on Aus, is one of this year’s best new school interpretations of deep house/techno, so how does ‘Hug The Scary’ match up? It comes close, thanks to a succession of lush breakdowns, eerie synth riffs and an overall moody feeling, but the track’s bassline disappoints. There’s nothing particularly offensive about it, but it has hints of the grainy electro house bass that has been copied, repeated and released ad nauseam. It’s about time an international law came into effect to ban its use, but until then, this ubiquitous bass sound will remain a tried and trusted weapon in the dance producer’s arsenal. It’s a pity, because it detracts from what would otherwise be an excellent piece of music. Remixers Partial Arts don’t improve matters: their live funk bass and trippy bleeps are possibly attempt to make a ‘fun’ track, but the overall sound doesn’t come close to the dizzy heights achieved by Al Usher and Ewan Pearson on ‘Trauermusik’.
2/5 Richard Brophy

Sian: ‘Flood’ (Octopus)
Irish producer Graham Goodwin has been making waves with releases on Poker Flat, Dessous and Karmarouge – the latter imprint is home to my favourite Sian track, the stunning ‘Stegosaurus’ - so it’s not surprising that, having earned his stripes, he wants to keep a tighter rein on his work by setting up his own label, Octopus. Bringing his work closer to home was a shrewd move as it gives him control over what he release - and ‘Flood’ will further enhance his reputation. On ‘Octopus’, tough, dubby beats and a booming bass underpin layered chords that maintain a sweet, melodic course, but which on occasion veer off the path and hint at a darker, menacing underbelly. It’s more powerful than anything the mushy ‘former minimal now deep house’ brigade has mustered, and Goodwin has also got a high-profile remixer on board. Gui Boratto’s clicky, metallic backing track is edgier than his recent album’s pop leanings, but his glistening, shimmering melodies still represent the new, acceptable face of trance music. Boratto’s name will undoubtedly help to sell ‘Flood’, but hopefully it’ll also mean that the casual listener will check out the original and the floodgates will open properly for Sian.
3/5 Richard Brophy

Mood Music

I watched Woody Allen’s ‘Sleeper’ yesterday for the first time in a long time. For those of you who don’t know the movie, one of the director’s earlier, wackier pieces, it features our erstwhile bespectacled hero waking up from a 200-year coma. The year is 2173 and he has brought into a world that is totally different to the one he fell asleep in. Having said that, it’s uncanny how some of the houses resemble affluent new Ireland’s obsession with futuristic eco-homes – minus the un-ironic petrol-guzzling SUVs parked outside of course – but the rest of his new surroundings are a hilarious 1970s vision of what the future looks, feels and tastes like. Robot butlers shuffle around soulless condos, serving up green liquids and instant puddings, flimsy looking vehicles hover along the road, couples disappear into a machine called an ‘orgasmatron’ to have non-contact sex -  it’s forbidden to do it the old way - and robe-clad bohemians take turns on clasping an orb that makes them very high.

While there are dodgy paintings and pseudo-intellectual poetry aplenty, there is no music, which made me think about what music would sound like and how we would interact with it in 160 years’ time (I’m counting on being put in cold storage like Allen’s character, ready to thaw out and face a brave new, SUV-free world).

I recently spoke to Martin Wheeler from Vector Lovers and his main theory was that computer software will evolve to a point where we will be able to arrange and produce music according to our mood. Feeling angry, sad or just ambivalent about something? Then just hit a few keys and the computer will do the rest.

Wheeler’s theory is dependent on the technological wherewithal being in place to differentiate between really sad or mildly happy or even how moods vary according to age, race, sexual preference and other demographic changes, but it doesn’t really leave much room for making anything genuinely new or earth-shatteringly different.

I really hope that he’s wrong because this way of making music doesn’t leave much room for human error or for trying to work outside the software’s limitations. In many ways though, the concept is closer to the present than we may imagine. Nowadays, most producers only use a finite number of software applications to make music, so in some ways, Wheeler’s theory is just a few short steps ahead - but putting your faith in a computer to interpret your mood is a step too far, unless you can have a few hours alone with orb and orgasmatron before you hit ‘return’…

This Week

I have been mainly listening to (OK, so it's a Top 10, but I didn't want to repeat myself every week!)

Jacek Sienkiewicz: Spirit of Life (Recognition)
Raudive: Zeitgeist EP (Poker Flat)
Teflon: The Wombat (Rebel One)
Pan Pot: Charly (Mobilee)
Peter Grummich: Fresh Air For Fresh People (Karloff)
2000 & One: Work (Podium)
Richard Davis: Cold Hard Facts (Was Not Was)
Tiefschwarz: Original (Carl Craig remix) (Souvenir)
Therre Thaemlitz: She's Hard (Max Mohr remix) (Mule)
Joel Mull & Vincenzo: Stocktown (Liebe Detail)

Gute Laune!

I wonder who has the spare time to do this, but props to whoever came up with it. I think that we're on the same wavelength! Wonder what Sven makes of it all - hopefully it'll keep him in a 'gute Laune'! The best bit is where he wiggles his chest like a chicken...

Tony Wilson

I'm posting about this a bit late - there are countless tributes to Tony all over the net - but I just wanted to add my condolences about his untimely death. Wilson will always have my utmost respect, mainly because of his involvment with Joy Division and then later on New Order. Both bands have always meant a huge amount to me, especially Joy Division, and without Wilson, they would have had a lesser impact on the world. Anyway, it's a sad time for anyone who ever came into contact with Tony Wilson or the music that he championed. Why do the good ones always go first?

Selekting Scooter

Does anyone remember Scooter? I do. When I was younger, they were like the rave band that it was cool to hate, the polar opposite of The Prodigy, although if truth be told, both acts’ propensity to jump around stage like crazy fools, sport daft haircuts and wacky club garb made them more similar than anyone dared to admit.

Scooter were uncool because they were German at a time when it was desperately uncool to be German and because they made kiddie rave techno, unlike The Prodge, who made rave techno for teenagers. The Prodge smashed stuff up and had a menacing air, the kind of big, bad brothers who would turn up uninvited while your parents were away and drive the car into the neighbour’s wall. On the other hand, Scooter were like the goofy exchange student who thought everything was ‘crazy’, laughed loudly, but who went to bed at 10pm with a mug of cocoa.

How times change. Now it’s cool (or should that be uber-cool) to be German and to proclaim everything to be crazy, followed by a few ‘for sures’ for good measure. Unless you have taped old Guinness ads, the Prodge are nowhere to be seen or heard, but the same can’t be said about Scooter. Maybe the band themselves aren’t in the public domain, but one of their biggest hits, ‘Hyper Hyper’ has been appropriated by Modeselektor for their new album, ‘Happy Birthday’.

I like Modeselektor’s music and I have a lot of time for Bpitch, the label it’s released on, but initially, I couldn’t warm to the album. It probably had a lot to do with the fact that the label only issued me with a copy containing one-minute clips of each track. If writing about music is really like dancing to architecture, then Bpitch’s overly paranoid approach to promotion meant that appraising the album was as difficult as repeating one step in a jig on the top ledge of the Empire State.

Thankfully, the label saw sense and gave out full copies - including the creepy artwork - and I could finally give Modeselektor’s music, and their cover version of ‘Hyper Hyper’ a proper listen. Hindsight brings with it great clarity, but there is something great about their version of this formerly maligned track. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that they have enlisted the vocal talent of Cyrano de Bergerac-like false nose wearing electro oddball Otto Von Schirach and reduced the high-speed trance arrangement to an electro shuffle – with Von Schirach deeply intoning ‘bass drum’ every time the grainy beat kicks in. In fairness though, they have retained the soaring and undeniably cheesy, soaring trance riffs - none of your Kompakt shininess here, this is real nasty tops off, Omen-inspired stuff -   and the name-check for all the famous and formerly famous German DJs: whatever happened to Marco Zaffarano and DJ Dag? But the best moment is when Von Schirach asks the audience ‘Do you like it hardcore?’ We used to laugh at this phrase when we were smug little clubbers in the late 90s, giggling at the notion that the teeny ravers could relate to it. Now, nearly ten years later, I might be older, but I’m certainly not wiser: the first time I heard Modeselektor’s version, I shouted out: ‘yes, I like it hardcore’. Hyper Hyper!

Latest Function

This post is going to be considerably shorter than the last one! We have just completed a new track, 'Function D', and it's available to download here. Any comments, good, bad or indifferent, are always welcome - happy listening!

Riding the waves

I was convinced that I had lost this interview, but I found it on the hard drive of an old PC I had sitting around at home. It's a rare interview from 2002 with a Drexciya 'spokesman', aka one of its two members, James Stinson, about their 'Harnessed The Storm' album (among other things). Sadly, just a few months later, Stinson died and Drexciya ceased to be. This is possibly the last interview he did - but if anyone thinks that I'm wrong, please let me know.

Drexciya

Mysterious fish men, sub-aquatic statements, sudden, unexplained disappearances and an aversion to media attention sound like key ingredients for a particularly juicy episode of the X-Files, but it’s all part of mysterious Detroit electro duo Drexciya’s colourful career to date.
Like many of their Motor City peers - Underground Resistance and Rob Hood are the two other most striking examples – Drexciya have made a point of not playing the game. In fact, their insistence on not doing interviews, refusing to have their photos taken and issuing cryptic mythology referencing double speak to explain their unpredictable movements are, in many ways as fascinating as the spell binding electro that has ensured them global cult status.
Bearing in mind that their music inspires the kind of fanaticism rarely associated with dance music - each Drexciya release is a revered, quasi messianic experience for their loyal and unflinching fan base - conducting an interview with one half of the act seemed like a daunting task. On the few occasions the duo agreed to talk to the press, they hung up as soon as the interviewer asked an unpleasant question. Bearing in mind this interview was one of the few opportunities we’ll ever get to speak to them, I expected a nerve wrecking encounter, especially seeing as this was one of only two world wide appointments to promote their new album, ‘Harnessed The Storm’. The time difference didn’t help either and ringing Drexciya at three in the morning Detroit time didn’t seem like the best way to get off on the right foot with one of electronic music’s most respected acts.
As it transpired, the Drexciya ‘spokesperson’ was already up and working. Indeed, though they’ve just released an album as well as two other long players last year - as Transllusion and The Other People Place – it looks like they’re going through a creative purple patch and, musically at least, we’ll be hearing a lot from them over the next twelve months.
“We’re making music at the moment and when we’re in the studio, we shut ourselves off from everything, from any outside influence,” the ‘spokesperson’ explains. “We become like hermits, we don’t go to parties or clubs, we don’t listen to the radio or to mix tapes, hell, we don’t even think of or remember the tracks we’ve done in the past. We push away from these things, away from the past and get so deep inside the concept we’re working on we become the concept. Drexciya is about going forward, about striving for perfection and purity. Remember,” he warns, “people are like sponges, they suck up all kinds of influences, but this is what we avoid. We take control of where we’re heading and adopt leadership. It’s amusing that people accuse us of not ‘playing the game’, because we have our own view and play our own game.”
Strong words perhaps, but then again Drexciya have always had the music to back up such claims. Late last year, one half of the act - the other member works as Dopplereffekt - released ‘The Opening Of The Cerebral Gate’ as Transllusion, while The Other People Place on Warp was also the work of Drexciya. Now, just as the robust bass bumps and atmospheric textures of ‘Harnessed The Storm’ are working their magic, Drexciya have decided, true to their unpredictable nature, to unleash a rake of long players over the next twelve months, with four more albums to follow. However, try finding out what they’ll sound like or why Drexciya have veered towards a deeper, less abrasive style on the Kraftwerk tinged ‘Cerebral’ and the decidedly symphonic string led Detroit tones of ‘Harnessed’ and you’ll be presented with a less than clear response.
“We’re changing gears and we thought it was time for something new,” the ‘spokesperson’ says. “In the past, Drexciya was for the real hardcore DJs, but we got to a stage where we were questioning the need to be hard all the time. It was time for something new so we went with it. At the same time, it wasn’t a planned move,” the ‘spokesperson’ adds. “We got into other, deeper concepts and created a musical storm. The works that we’re releasing this year will control this storm,” he continues cryptically, “and they’ll be launched from various positions.”
While we’ll have to wait for these new Drexciya related works, in the meantime, we’ve got ‘Harnessed’ and ‘Cerebral’ to contend with. Both works contain some of the act’s most emotive and soulful music and are in stark contrast to some of their darker, denser material. In fact, although ‘Deep Sea Dweller’ and ‘Unknown Aquazone’ gave off a darkly compelling vision of electro, the newer works prove there’s a human heart beating behind the machines.
“I suppose we’re trying to say ‘enjoy life’ with these albums,” the ‘spokesperson’ says. “The world has become a dark place and it’s our job to entertain, make people happy and put the fun back in the music. That’s what Drexciya is about in the first instance and that’s why our (music) concepts have become deeper lately. Sure, we’re political and deal with reality, but we also leave the door open so people can create, explore and go into their own world.”
Of course there’s another, more personal reason why the Drexciya sound has softened over the last few releases. The ‘spokesperson’ says that he had a lot of personal baggage to deal with and it also explains why, after releasing ‘The Quest’ at the end of 1996, Drexciya claimed they were turning their backs on music for good.
“I had health problems, and, to be honest I became very seriously ill,” he recounts. “It meant we had to shut things down for a while, but the positive aspect to it all is it made me look at things in a totally different light. We used to be very angry and release this frustration through our music. I think we’ve replaced it with positive feelings. It made me realise our music has a lot of feeling and spirituality: we hope it can ease people’s pain and suffering, give them some soul cleansing and suck the bad feelings from them. These are hard times, but we believe electronic music has a healing power.”
While the very notion of Detroit’s most revered electro producers sitting cross legged and indulging in a spot of mantra chanting might seem comical, the ‘spokesperson’ is adamant that reaching a higher plane is the driving force behind what they do. He also points out that the water and sub-aquatic themes and metaphors that are an integral parts of the duo’s work are also pointers for the listener to find their own ‘way’.
“Water is the most powerful force on earth - if the polar caps melt then we’re all dead and there are places underwater humans will never reach - but all the records we’ve made give you clues, how to tap into your inner selves. We bring you right to that door and give you the key,” he re-iterates, wary that Drexciya’s Atlantis referencing titles and sound bites aren’t misinterpreted as a mere creative whim. “We’re doing what we’re able to, dropping messages from day one without getting too deep and scaring people off. We can only hope people will pick up on what we’re doing.”
Whether or not the act’s music impacts on a spiritual level with its audience is hard to quantify, but in a scene where a dearth of morality is seen as a plus, Drexciya’s opinions make for a refreshingly admirable and indeed honourable alternative. Wary of their reaction to unwelcome questions, I venture into less safe territory and surmise that ‘Birth Of New Life’, one of the stand out tracks on ‘Harnessed’ is a reference to the regeneration that their home town, Detroit has experienced in recent years.
“Yeah, it looks like the D is coming around,” comes the frankly disinterested answer, “but we’ve never looked at Drexciya as a Detroit act. We exist in our own separate world and this city never had an effect on what we do. I mean, we could have come from New Jersey and we would have sounded exactly the same. I’m moving to Atlanta soon, so does that mean Drexciya will have an Atlanta sound? We go into deep mode in the studio and our surroundings don’t really have an influence on us. At the same time, Detroit is where we’re from and back in the day things were bad, economically and politically. In fact, it never really recovered from the race riots and it’s still feeling the repercussions.”
Unsurprisingly, the other topic of conversation that elicits strong response is musical integrity. It’s a well-known fact that both members of Drexciya hold down day jobs so they’re not dependent on the ‘business’, which they distrust and view in a severely critical light. In fact, if you work for a record label then you should probably stop reading now.
“These tracks are my babies, my art,” the ‘spokesperson’ cries out. “The record labels need to back off and leave the music making to the artist. If you work for a record label, then my advice is stick to what you do, you are a vehicle to put out other people’s music and give them exposure. Our work is freestyle, there is no pre-planning, so why are asking us to do remixes? How many ‘remixed’ Mona Lisas and Picassos do you see? That’s the way we feel about people fucking with our music.”
Despite the ‘spokesperson’s constant insistence that Drexciya want to leave their past behind, their new work has a distinctly timeless feel. However, the duo has little time for current musical trends and you’re unlikely to find them ‘reinventing’ themselves to suit the current musical climate.
“Producers get hold of a sound and they milk it, but we’re dedicated to being different and that’s what people like about us, “he maintains. “If there’s a style of music that’s popular at the moment you won’t find us anywhere near it.”
Despite their reluctance to deal with the industry and their continued isolation from dance music’s main arteries, Drexciya still collaborate with a number of key imprints around the world, including Tresor and the Supremat sub-label, home to the two most recent Drexciya albums as well as the recent Transllusion long player.
The ‘spokesperson’ admits that the Berlin’s label “gets the job done” and is one of the few selected ‘wave jumpers’ or entities that are allowed collaborate with Drexciya or the duo’s new production company, Dimensional Waves. Set up to work on every aspect of the act’s work, from artwork and packaging - “you need a strong visual image” - as well as the music itself, Dimensional Waves’ influence will become more apparent when the duo embark on their first ever series of live dates in the not too distant future. In typical Drexciya fashion though, the ‘spokesperson’ won’t divulge when and where they’ll appear, but issues the following statement.
“We’ll be there but it won’t be known in advance,” he says ominously. “Trust me though, if you’ve been following what we do you’ll known when it’s going to happen. Your intuition will tell you that something is going to go down at a certain venue on a certain night and you’ll follow your feelings. It’ll be beautiful.”
In the meantime, the act’s fans have the current Transllusion and Drexciya works to keep them happy. If the four new albums appear in 2002 is another matter and, similarly, it’ll probably be a while before they make it over to Europe to play live. Amidst all this speculation though, there’s no denying Drexciya are still one of dance music’s most individualistic, defiantly non-conformist acts. As the ‘spokesperson’ says before heading back to his studio to sculpt more futuristic alpha-rhythms, “we cut our own groove, we are the total package. I wouldn’t be talking all this stuff to you right now if I didn’t believe it. We’re full of energy and that’s why we’re blowing up at the moment with our music. We ain’t forcing ourselves, we’re just riding the wave.”