Matthew, you played in Japan last weekend. How was it?

Tokyo was amazing, as expected. The Dj Pi-Ge from Pan Records/Clubberia.com bought me over for a small party. It was an enthusiastic, knowledgeable crowd and we had a good time together. Some great record digging to be had there also!

Yeah, they must have some of the best shops there…

Indeed, I only visited Disc Union and Technique, but that was more than enough, they are both very well curated.

Any anecdotes you would like to disclose from recent gigs?

Oh, I always have a few, as seems that I can be a bit clumsy. The last one that stands out was when I was in Spain, I started pouring myself a drink while mixing and not paying attention, and poured the drink directly in my CD case instead of the glass, I totally didn’t notice for a few minutes, until I saw all my cd’s floating in Fanta Limon… Luckily, the promoter helped me out of that “sticky”situation and helped clean all the cds, which was very nice of him.

You were lucky it didn’t mess up your record bag. You still play vinyl these days?

Yes, only very rarely do I not take any records with, but there are occasions when I do not, for example if I go on holiday but maybe have one gig in a month there. I’m not so fussed on the vinyl/digital argument, really if it sounds good and gets the job done and suits my workflow I will use it. I still really enjoy the art of playing vinyl and the fact that it is not a perfect medium. There is something sexy about a 12” playing on a Technics turntable in a smoky nightclub. However, I have spent quite a lot of time digitising some of my favourites, due to the fact I destroyed quite a few favourite records over the years, so many things I like to play a lot I have recorded. Using computer as a DJ, for me doesn’t suit my workflow so I wont use it, but understand why people do.

I got introduced to your productions with the truly fantastic “We Said Nothing” on Diamonds & Pearls: What’s the story behind the track?

Thanks for the nice words! This one has a special feeling for me too, it’s the first time I really felt I captured the sound and feeling that I wanted in a track after many years of producing. Not sure how I could define that though. It happened all very quickly with the writing and production, and the next day I knew it was kind of strange but grooving at the same time.

I also like the Worst Case Scenario release on Rekid…

That project is with a very good friend of mine Ed Cartwright, he lives in the UK and has a family and business to take care of. Unfortunately, we seldom get a chance to meet for a couple of days to make something happen. Maybe its one of those projects that sees a release every five, ten years or so…

Tell me about “Liquid Sky”, the track which is on Nick Höppners forthcoming Panoramabar Mix?

Nick has been a big supporter of my music since the Diamonds & Pearls record, and I sent him some new stuff one day, and he asked if he could consider them for his upcoming mix, and he selected the “Liquid Sky” track, so they could use it for the mix and vinyl sampler. I am very honoured to be a part of the whole project.

It seems you’re quite prolific these days…

Well, it’s true that I have stepped it up now, I stopped managing labels last year, and decided I wanted to focus on the art of making music. I had been holding down day jobs for the last 17 years alongside music, and I thought for once it was time to dedicate myself to something I enjoy so much.

So you no longer handle the label affairs for Horizontal?

Dinky and I put the label on hold for a while, we started working on an album together last year which has been quite a big undertaking, so we decided to concentrate on that for the time being, but again it doesn’t mean that we won’t do more releases again someday, its just on ice for now.

It’s a big undertaking?

Well the style isn’t “dance music”, and its more song based structures with vocals and more complex arrangements, its a different different discipline and as we are both quite busy, there are only a few days a week to get in the studio if we are lucky. We didn’t have an experience of recording with microphones before and so its a big learning process for us.

Collaborating with Dinky: how is that working out?

Dinky and I have been together a number of years now, we got married a few months ago in Chile. This project is something that started as an experiment a year or so ago, and there are a lot of songs now, so an album is almost ready. Dinky is a fantastic composer, singer and songwriter, I guess I am more helping with some more complex technical things, some programming, sound design and mixing.

Did you have an idea when you approached this mix for Roof.fm?

I always just to find a nice flow of records from different era with nicely contrasting textures. Some old school, some new, classic and raw vibes with a few oddities.

Does the style of the mix represent what you would normally play in the club? Pumping sound between disco and Chicago house?

I think it’s a pretty fair representation of what I do, all the records are in my bag Somedays I can be more this or that, but I think this one is in the middle.

Nr. 54: Matthew Styles (Horizontal, Running Back) by Roof.fm

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Nr. 53: Partok (PAG) by Roof.fm

Life is good. I’ve started working at a music college about 8 months ago. I’m teaching people to become DJs. And it’s quite a nice job. I never imagined I would do something like this.

What does the course entail?

It’s a two-semester course. The first semester deals with the technical stuff, the second one is more about how to structure your sets and djing methods and finding out where you want to take it. Some of the students come to school just for fun, while others want to make a living out of it.

I understand that stylistically it’s very open-minded?

Yeah, totally. In the second semester, the students hear many mixes that are closer to my taste, but besides that I’m really not pushing them into any direction.

Give us some examples, please.

The Live at the Liquid Room – Tokyo-Mix by Jeff Mills. One from Larry Levan from 1979. Another one by Danny Tenaglia. And also the 12 hours set of Michael Mayer recorded at the ‘Total 12′ release party last year.

Sounds like gargantuan homework. How did you start djing yourself?

It’s something I wanted to do from an early age, when I was 12 I already knew I wanted to do this and was really focussed on my path. I started playing at bars and later in clubs. The Barzilay club, which is closed now, was very important in my personal history. I played there a lot and had some of my most memorable gigs. It was also the home-base for the PAG partys where I’m the resident DJ for 8 years now.

Which is one of the biggest gay club nights in Tel Aviv. What do you usually play there?

I like to mix up styles at the PAG partys, a good blend of house, techno and disco, lot of oldschool. At other venues at the Barzilay or at the YOD party where you saw me I usually play more straightforward house and techno. At the C.U.N.T parties it’s rock and indie, but that’s a whole different story.

The mix you did for us is a special one…

Yeah, it is. The idea about that kind of mix has been going through my head for a while now but I really put my mind to it when you’ve asked me for a set. It’s not a proper dance mix, I wanted to experiment a bit. It blends many tunes that have one thing in common: they are all very slow.

That’s why you called the mix 92?

Most of the tracks are in between 90 and 94 BPM. I believe this speed has a very peculiar strength, it sounds undanceable at first but it starts to grows on you. There’s a certain flow in there. My set touches many musical areas: I wanted to include some industrial and dark wave gems from Front 242 and This Mortal Coil, British techno pioneers like LFO and Sabres Of Paradise and quite a few contemporary tracks of a deeper disposition.

There’s a subtle share of soul and disco in there as well…

Yeah, there’s the night-dub version of ‘Body Talk’ by Imagination, one of the best producers of all times. And also a song by soul singer Lynn Christopher. James Priestley from Secret Sundaze brought it to my attention, when he was in Tel Aviv about a year ago. We were at my house chilling and playing music to each other. At some point he played that track, and I just knew it has to be in the mix. As I said earlier, this mix has been going around my head for quite a while now and I wanted a pure soul song in it and this one fitted very nicely. It’s so achingly beautiful.

This sounds like a very thoughtful approach to mixing. Does this extend to your regular club nights?

No, not at all. As for this mix, I more or less pre-designed it, and then went to a club and pushed the record button. But usually, I just rely on my instincts. My DJ booth is really a mess, I just bring three crates with me and spread my stuff all over the place.

At Tape Club in Berlin, which has closed recently, you were a regular guest. Was it a special place to you?

Tape really was indeed a special place. It had this very unique philosophy. From the musical genres they pushed forward, to the sound system, the wooden floors, they took every detail under consideration and created an amazing atmosphere.

You also played at the Tape closing party.

Yes, I did. Now that was a very long party with a very long line up. My slot was close to the end, so I played after 12 hours of partying. Honestly, I don’t remember what I played. It was a big blur (laughs). But it was fun as always!

Nr. 53: Partok (PAG) by Roof.fm

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You’d rather get the nice-sounding physical stuff, of course.

Yeah, I just had this record delivered by the postman. That track is called Amen by Plutonic, and it’s from around 1992. I discovered it via an old Fabio and Grooverider. Early Drum-n-bass I was thinking, or actually weird proto Drum-n-bass that’s still house? A lot of stuff is probably common knowledge for people in Europe, but to me it’s this totally weird record. I’m really into this world.

So you’re mostly buying older releases?

I’m not sure if people are aware of how many second hand records there are in the US. It’s less about the collector’s thing there, stroke my beard. It’s more about finding something that’s so off the wall, so it’s basically like playing new records.

But you’re still an obsessive record collector?

Each time we go to Europe, my Beautiful Swimmers partner Ari (Goldmann) and I always end up buying so many records, even though we know we shouldn’t. Getting back to the States with all the weight, that’s truly heavy shit. Once, before we went home, we shipped all our clothes before hand, so we’d have room for the records. The humongous bag with clothes then stayed in transit for a month, so I didn’t have any clothes when we got back. I was just waiting for my clothes.

When you were starting to make music back in the day, what were you into?

As a kid I was in a punk band as a kid, we were into stuff like Fugazi. And then I was in this band Food for Animals. A very experimental rap group of sorts. I was always heavily into hip hop since I was in high school. But I’m pretty much insistent to get into new sounds all the time. Like house, disco, techno and electro struck such a chord over the past couple of years.

There is this East Coast thing soaring right now, with 100% Silk, L.I.E.S, Future Times and W.T.

Yeah, I guess that whole home crew has been working pretty hard. Five years ago, we were a couple of guys hanging out when we could, because we were all East Coast US, but living in different cities. Ron from L.I.E.S is in that crew, Will from WT, Ital and Magic Touch, Inner Gaze, a lot of us come from DC. Not sure, if it’s kind of like a scene. At some point, some guy will come up with a bad name for our music, and then I”m going to be upset ((laughs).

How did Future Times start?

I had a couple of tracks that I wanted to put them out, two tracks. And from then on Mike (Petillo) started to get on board, because we started hanging out together. This dude Jason (Letkiewicz) who does Steve Summers, Rhythm Based Lovers, Confused House, Malvax, Mike and his group started doing stuff and it started really well. And suddenly we had more reasons do more things. In terms of making money, we release our own stuff, so each of us is getting a couple of hundred dollars. It’s just nice. We actually earn some money, which we never did in any of our old bands…

“Things will be better in Future Times.”

Well, in fact it’s not ironic, it’s our motto, but if you take it non-ironically, then we agree with it as well (laughs). That’s actually a lyric from a song which I will not reveal. We have a couple of phrases we like: Strictly for the freaks. And Beautiful Swimmers, the name comes from a book around here, it rolls of the tongue, it sounds cool.

You have a knack for goofy messages…

Yeah, we like to have our giggles. Like “Russian Machine Never Breaks”. That’s hinting at Alex Ovechkin, a hockey player for the Washington Capitals.

There’s this somewhat watery sound with Future Times. Where does it come from?

It’s a vibe we latched onto and incorporated into our music, kind of tropical, a lot of the synthesizer sounds are vaguely wet. It wasn’t a conscious choice, but a lot of the mixtures just appeal to us, like a lot of hard drumming sounds with that aqua aesthetic. We just like that vibe. Future Times is as psychedelic as people want it to be.

There’s your monthly club night called The Whale in D.C…

Well, we have our club night, which attracts some attention. But of course, the club thing wasn’t really happening here. While you guys in Europe had raves, we had Nirvana. I mean Berlin, it’s a whole different ballgame. Playing unto 9 o’clock in the morning, it does never happen here, like in Soju Bar. Here all clubs around 3 pm. Speaking of Soju Bar, that’s a great place, I’m actually thinking about setting up a place like this here.

Do you play live as Beautiful Swimmers?

No, we just DJ. If we would play live, it would be so boring. With the Maxmillion Dunbar show on the other hand I create something of a live thing, I DJ with drum tracks on CD and manipulate them, all sorts of effects on top of the mix.

And how would you sum up your philosophy as a DJ?

I will definitely play what I want. Ambient records, jazz records, dolphin sounds, if we go late enough. Keeping things normal is not that fun. Life’s too short.

Nr. 52: Maxmillion Dunbar (Future Times) by Roof.fm

This mix is kind of a double-ticket…

Cosmo: Yeah, it represents our two souls and what we play in a Lux Rec club night…

Faber: As we share the same passion for the origins of electronic music we somehow moved along contiguous paths in our musical explorations. I’m playing more of the early 80s disco stuff, while Cosmo is more on a raw and acidic tip.

How did you guys meet?

Cosmo: That was in August 2008, when I was playing in a small gallery/club in Zürich, an Italo Disco night. Faber and I soon learned that we shared the same interests in music, same roots, similiar thinking. A few weeks later I got asked to play at another party, I asked Faber to come along. Since then it’s the two of us playing out, Cosmo & Faber.

And why did you decide to start a label together?

Cosmo: We both were kind of disillusioned over the state of club music. A lot of the sounds played out in clubs came just as post-minimal disguised house. Plain boring. We had two possibilities: either making music ourselves or releasing music by others. As we are no musicians, we decided to put out music that we believe speaks a certain language, that is our language.

So there was a kind of over-arching concept?

Cosmo: Yes, in fact, the label output obeys to some rules: What we release has to be produced analogically, using physical machines instead of software tools; it has to relate, to the past, the pioneering days of dance music. But it shouldn’t be a mere copy of what is already there, it should further the dance discourse. No space for remixes of any sort, each EP or LP is a complete work in its own, with a beginning and an end. And it goes without saying that we release on vinyl only.

Faber: I don’t think anyone was as much into what we liked, and still like. That was also part of the reason, to promote what we think is good and deserves to be heard. With time we got to know more same-minded people, like Florin Büchel (CCO): people who contributed to the label with some of their finest work.

Lux, that’s latin for light. A theme that’s quite apparent in the label artwork too, which you Cosmo fathered…

Cosmo: Right. I very much appreciate the iconic value of such short word, only three letters, which fits the second half, Rec. Lux implies so many things, and still has an elusive character. It comes from the broadcasting and cinematographic office that curated all Fascist propaganda transmissions during the Mussolini Regime. The office was called Istituto Luce, one of the most recurrent quotes was “Dux mea Lux”. Far from having any fascist sympathies, I have an aesthetic fascination with any type of dictatorship, in which the surface has a major role. The design I did for Lux Rec reflects all this, I guess: it has an austere modernist attitude, it’s not visually overburdened, and not minimal as well.

Why bother running a vinyl-only-label in these record-unfriendly times?

Cosmo: Because it’s all about validity. And beliefs.

Faber: I guess it’s just what we feel represents best our passion for the music. Though digitally distributed music is a logical step in technological evolution, we’re just not interested in that. Vinyl still has its place and best reflects our downright physical approach to music.

You are very much involved in every aspect of the EP. God is in the details?

Cosmo: Yeah, I like to picture ourselves as orchestral directors. While the interaction with our artists is very important to us, we like to give great care to the track selection and the design. And the words: I fancy titling the EPs and the songs myself if possible.

Faber: You are an absolute control freak, Cosmo…

Do you see yourself as a local record label?

Cosmo: Our local background is important to us, but we never really belonged to any family in the Zurich scene. On the other side, music is there to be discovered independently of any geographical constraint.

Faber: It’s thrilling to discover what lies hidden in the most unlikely places…

What else is important when running a label such as your own?

Faber: Making no unnecessary compromises, most of all music wise. Also, it takes some organizational skill to keep everything tight, especially the release schedules. It helps if you don’t have to do all by yourself. I’ve got my talents and Cosmo has his, I guess we complement each other pretty well.

Cosmo: Knowing that we can contribute to a scene by staying true to ourselves. And yes, without Faber’s managing and organizatory skills Lux Rec would not have come this far.

Jori Hulkkonen did a highly-lauded EP for you guys…

Cosmo: Yeah. While listening to a CD he released on Turbo, we fell for this one track, “Man from Earth”. So we asked Jori to do a record with us, and he told us he had this very special, analogue project he wanted to release under the moniker dRUMMAN. We were blown away by the tracks he sent us.

Your current release is by Joe Drive…

Cosmo: Joe Drive is this Italian guy who did a great record for Mathematics and one fantastic track on Simoncino’s Hot Mix label. He’s a high quality artist, but still underrated. It was really a great collaboration, he was giving great concern to our requests. And we’re particularly thrilled with the final result: it blurs the boundaries between house and techno, mingles old attitude with a fresh approach.

I just checked your catalogue on Discogs: What ever happened to LXR01?

Cosmo: We reserved this one for a very special occasion…

Faber: For a very special release. Possibly our own record. An EP by Cosmo & Faber, sometime in the future.

What’s coming up next on Lux Rec?

Cosmo: The very next release is by Meschi, a guy living in London, but born and raised in Glasgow, as he likes to stress. We asked him to do an EP using a Korg DMX drum machine rather than a Roland 707 or 808 which have been very present on our releases so far. Then we have a very special EP up our sleeves, coming from two brothers from central Switzerland, they’re called Echo 106. It will be the first Lux Rec to come with a picture sleeve. The track selection was a long and tough process. Beautiful winter music!

Anything else?

There’s a new project in the making, called Music for Cosmonauts pt.1 and 2. Also, we’re planning a release by D’Marc Cantu. You’ll find out soon enough.

Nr. 51: Cosmo & Faber (Lux Rec) by Roof.fm

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Nr. 51: Cosmo & Faber (Lux Rec) by Roof.fm

I’m in this string-heavy phase right now, fiddling around with the cello, guitar and zither. I’m doing some pretests, studies and sketches. If everything goes according to plan, I will start recording around Christmas. Which is usually the right time for me to launch such a project. There are going to be rhythmical elements in it, but it’s primarily tonal, it very probably won’t end up being dance music.

So it’s something that you will release as Phillip Sollmann?

I haven’t made up my mind about that yet, but it’s likely, yes. I really feel this strong yearning for the string, it’s vibrations and grooves. I like to call it my blue record.

Oh, a blue record?

It’s only a working title, but blue is the colour that most adequately reflects my emotional state of being. Blue surrounds me, is somehow me. Blue on black, blue on white, I move in between this range. (laughs) Still, red peaks do occur, if someone really drives me crazy (laughs).

Fabricating podcasts: Do you like doing it?

Well, I don’t do it too often. Though I really like to listen to great new music together with my girlfriend in our living room, and there we often push the record button, but these mixes are of a more experimental nature. It’s less about narrative fine-tuning as with the Roof.fm podcast. I have to say, I’m honored that you asked me to do this anniversary mix. But then I tend to torture myself, because the delivery date gets closer and closer. It’s both pain and pleasure, as with everything I do in music.

A bit of a wrestling affair?

I always want to put everything in there, show all my musical sides. Well, I’m not the guy who just likes banging out house record after house record, I would rather want to show the whole spectrum, but then that’s not possible…

Have you shown the mix to other people yet?

A couple of days ago, I played it to Peter Kersten (AKA Lawrence) in a hotel in China. Pete really liked it, he even went so far as to call it the perfect mix (laughs). But that’s exaggerated. I guess the set really reflects what can happen in a club where I’m sometimes really surprised to see what can happen. I think a good DJ should always try to surprise: not only his audience, but himself, too.

There’s an almost symmetrical structure to it…

It wasn’t intentional, it just happened that way. Though, it probably reflects my current need for clarity: on the one hand I really like to play this song-driven music, on the other I like the rather rushy functionality of techno tracks. No slowmo-house around here!

The Strada Professional Sound Effects record features prominently on the mix. You obviously are a fan?

This is a great record. Once, while playing at a festival, it started raining. And when the sun showed itself again, I let out this rumbling sound of thunder over the speakers, which put a big smile on many faces in the audience. Naturally, this record helps me a lot to bridge gaps, it’s part of the classic deejaying trade. If two tracks don’t fit together, but it makes sense to intertwine them in your musical fabric, that’s when such a sound effect comes in handily. Getting from one track to the next is easy! (laughs) I can only recommend buying it.

There are plenty of accapellas on your vinyl-only imprint Naïf…

I’m a huge fan of accapellas. I really wish at times, those glorious American days were back, when you still had a third turntable, so I could swiftly weave in another soundbit into the mix. But I guess that’s utopian, considering we live in an era where vinyl is slowly dying. That’s another reason why the Strada Sound Effects is so wonderful. It’s like a time machine, you really hear the time when it was recorded. The record was actually a present by my friend Gerd Janson.

You are probably aware that Gerd called you a cross between Jeff Mills and Karl Valentin?

Yes, I found that really, really funny! Even though Gerd does not have the permission to broadcast this message in public! (laughs) But the truth of the matter is that DJ Koze is really the Karl Valentin of techno…

You have a point. Actually the last track on your mix, “Taking a Trip Outside the Coast of Me” by Kid Creole and the Coconuts sounds a bit like a Koze track. A Kosi tune, that is…

Yeah, you’re right. It’s a fantastic tune isn’t it? It’s got that great concept: Taking a trip off the coast of me. Taking holidays, saying bye-bye to yourself: Fantastic! That’s should always be the plan: to be off for a month or so, without supervision by myself (laughs).

Speaking of trips, have you ever visited the Farnsworth House, the landmark building by Mies van der Rohe after which you named your recent EP on Curle?

No, but I really have to go there! The Farnsworth House by Mies van der Rohe is one of the great architectonic achievements of the last century, and to me it’s a veritable “Sehnsuchtsstrang”, I have a strong nostalgic desire to be in this ideal place, that so very much represents modernity, a wind of change, a time which I would like to inhabit, especially when considering that we live in this utopia-free society…

You totally nailed it with that track. I visited the Farnsworth House two years ago. It was on a lush Indian summer day, the building and the atmosphere seemed to be filled with light. I know this sounds a bit corny, but your track kindles the exact same sensation in me…

Really glad to hear that! I’m very happy with the track myself, which took me a long, long time to finish. The cover depicts the New National Gallery in Berlin, another building by Mies van der Rohe. It’s taken from a documentary my girlfriend made. I didn’t want to put the Farnsworth House on the cover, that would have been too obvious. The ambient parts of the track were actually recorded at a Charles Curtis concert last year. There are so many different references and sound bits in there, it’s really an aggregation of many sources.

There’s this acoustic luminosity tangible, in the vein of STL’s “Silent State” or Model 500′s “Starlight” – a lightness one often encounters in your work…

Now these two tracks are personal favourites of mine, of course. Absolute role models! They made such an impression on me, I never get tired of them. Not for a second.

Two examples of perfect loop-making…

Exactly. Personally, I’m not yet there. But it’s really a big motivation. That’s where I wanna be. I’m working on
that.

Nr. 50: Efdemin (Dial, Naïf) by Roof.fm

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Nr. 50: Efdemin (Dial, Naïf) by Roof.fm

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Nr. 49: St. Plomb (Perspectiv, Nice Try Records) by ROOF.FM

Really? I don’t remember.

It was five years ago, when you were about to release «2006». I wanted to record an interview for my radio show via Skype. But technology left me high and dry. Well, I fucked up.

I don’t recall. I suppose my brain just automatically sorts out bad memories…

Good. That was too embarassing, being such a drooling admirer of the album…

So, let’s make up for it today! (laughs)

Sure. Did I ever tell you that you have one of the best monikers out there?

You think so? I’m not so sure about that. In the beginning it was a posse Soul II Soul kinda concept, a collective thing. I was spinning Drum’n’Bass at the time and was collaborating with Dynamike, a guy working for Swiss national radio Couleur 3. But somehow it ended up being just me, and people started calling me St. Plomb. I got used to it, but it was never intended to be my artist name in the first place. It’s a bit strange when I’m overseas because English-speaking people never seem to know what to do with the St. and the Plomb (Phonetical instruction: St. Plomb is roughly pronounced as «San Plum»).

The punning is lost, too.

People outside of Switzerland don’t get the double entendre, the double meaning, the nod to the Simplon Pass. But I’m perfectly alright with that, because that was just a side-effect. Plomb, which means lead, was meant to allude to the massiveness of the drum’n’bass sound we did back then. Also, I was into alchemy at the time. St. Plomb, that’s holy lead.  The idea that lead ist the earthiest stuff you can find and when you transform it into gold it becomes holy intrigued me. But in the end, it’s just a name. And it’s okay to be a bit mysterious.

Listening through your work, one thing is clear. You never seem to repeat yourself…

I try not to, yeah.

That’s a creative principle?

Yes. And a burden at the same time. When I was an art student, it was kind of an obsession. My teacher walked up to me and asked: What are you really trying to achieve? I was just doing new things all the time, trying out virtually everything. I felt that this inclincation was a handicap because people failed to see where my artistic path was taking me.

And as a musician it has sometimes felt a bit of the same?

Right. But more recently I feel that I have narrowed down my style. In future releases, you will get to hear more and more of this.

Oh, yeah?

I have been making music closer to my roots: funk, jazz, psychedelic soul. I try to be more faithful to myself, to the music I have always really loved. Right now, I am recording an album that will feature a bunch of downtempo, psychedelic soul productions in the vein of Norman Whitfield. It’s something I always wanted to do and maybe now the time is right: I am less zigzagging than I’ve been ten years ago.

How far has the project progressed?

I’ve completed ten tracks by now. I’m working with a Berlin-based guitarist, a guy called Stickman. He’s infusing these tracks with an incredible funkyness. My latest releases have been tech-housey, very dancey recently, and that’s something I’m battling against right now. I try to be more soulful, while still making house music. It’s about finding a balance between the two, and it definitely shouldn’t be too much of a revival kind of thing.

For someone with such a profound black music grounding, what are your sentiments about ex-minimal labels like Wolf & Lamb jumping on the Soul bandwagon?

It reminds me a bit of the way things went down with Acid Jazz in the Nineties. A lot of the stuff was just quoting jazz, instead of being jazz, which is firstly a way of making music. And nowadays it’s the same with soul: many producers just pluck bits and lay them over their deep house chords. The so-called soulful is just quoting soul, quoting black music. There are exceptions, of course.

Right.

I don’t mean to come across as jugdemental, because it’s much easier to quote than to create an actual song. And don’t even mention that we’re these white guys! But I might add that I’ve really educated myself into this kind of music, I’ve been listening to Negro spiritual since I was a little kid.

Soul is the very essence of the smart mix you did for Roof.fm…

I recorded it in May, a while ago. I put Genius of Time in there, because I thought you would like that. Yeah, it’s just the kind of music I like to play in the club, even though I wouldn’t call it a straight dancefloor mix, my intention of course was to take you on a journey. I really prepared this set, so I was not improvising at all. It was the third attempt which ended up being this mix.

What new St. Plomb releases will be out soon?

I finished a remix for Crowdpleaser, for this track Jonx, with which I’m very happy with and that’s coming out now on Turbo. But apart from that I’m holding back, I focus working on my album.

Nr. 49: St. Plomb (Perspectiv, Nice Try Records) by ROOF.FM

It’s came about as one of these mid-week selections, when your ears are no longer suffering from the weekend and when your mind is at peace. I really like this kind of deejaying, it’s a welcome change to a clubset. I always buy records that are difficult to play in a club context, but which nonetheless take me on a musical journey. The simple fact that one is not only interested in streamlined stuff, the tracks that “fit”, has a huge impact on your general musical outlook. Also, I like opposites. For instance, when I mix  “Distored Reality” into the Red Rack’Em track: That’s a good example of how totally disparate moods can intertwine.

And how did the mix come together?

I selected the tracks really spontaneously. I have started to bring records into my studio, because the shelf in my living room is about to burst at the seams. Now the records build small heaps there. So, I squeezed myselves in between these heaps and did the mix, making quick decisions.

You seem to be quite prolific these days, with releases on Dial, Live at Robert Johnson and Running  Back and the remixes just coming and coming…

At the end of 2009, after a long tour with Alter Ego, which brought us to Australia at the end of 2009, I felt tired and devitalized. Back in Germany, I then decided to rent my own little studio in Frankfurt. It’s actually in the same building where Snap! did their stuff 15 years ago. Sven Väth’s Harthouse/EyeQ labels used to be here as well. Today, this is simply a place for me where I can make 24 hours Music, without disturbing anyone. Ricardo Villalobos assisted me in finding an old Soundcraft desk and helped me install a rack full of outboard effects and soundmodules. Also, I have my old drum kit here: I haven’t used it since my band-days in the early Nineties. Anyway, it’s with this setup I started producing again on my own, just like I did in the past, for instance the Eight Miles High or Soylent Green projects.

Do you think your production style changed over the years?

Some people have called me a musical chameleon. But whether that’s a compliment, I’m not so sure, even today. A chamaleon disguises itself, in order to survive. On the other hand: the faculty to change your skin-colour is something quite extravagant. I think my music is really driven by an enthusiasm for change, a playful interaction with possibilities. I was never immersed into just a type of sound, and that may exactly be the reason I have discovered my own sound. But my style hasn’t really changed. I believe that once you’ve found your musical medium, be it music, art or literature, you’re not going to deviate from your chosen trajectory. Alternative developments are viable, but you will always hold on to the core of your artistic identity.

You’re famous for doing many styles, be it house, techno, electro or electronica. What got you on this path of many sounds, back in the days?

Well, I wanted to distinguish myself. Consciously. So, when techno got worse in 1994 and Trance was already a dirty word, house and “homelistening” started to interest me. Consequently, we completed first two Alter Ego albums, started producing as Sensorama, and last but not least I did my solo productions on Klang Elektronik, Playhouse and Ongaku. Later on, new genres like electro clash changed the game. I feel that all the styles I persevere evolve and exist simultaneously. Your subjective view of course determines your actions. When I produced my upcoming album for Dial, styles were totally irrelevant for me. And that was very liberating.

Tell us about the Alter Ego project. What’s happening there?

I’m in touch with Jörn (Elling Wuttke), and we’re preparing our 20th anniversary as producers. Right now we run through many past affairs, we look back at a lot of things. And sometimes we do the occasional show together. Only future can tell how the Alter Ego project will develop.

While Live at Robert Johnson seems to be one of the labels of the moment, the formerly mighty Playhouse and Klang are virtually defunct. How did this demise come into being?

It’s all a very long and painful story, which I really don’t want to disclose in public. Fact is that I’m no longer part of Playhouse, Klang and Ongaku. These labels used to be orchestrated by four persons. A constellation that is simply no longer working. I’m glad Live At Robert Johnson is run by Oliver Hafenbauer, who is really a top man. I’m actually quite happy I currently don’t have to cope with the daily challenges of running a label. And I’m really glad I have a lot more time for doing music.

Nr. 48: Roman Flügel (Dial, Live at Robert Johnson) by ROOF.FM

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Nr. 48: Roman Flügel (Dial, Live at Robert Johnson) by ROOF.FM

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Nr. 47: Aera (Aleph) by ROOF.FM

Life is good! What can I say. Ayacucho is a beautiful town in the Andes, around 150.000 people are living here at about 2800 meters above sea level. Ayacucho is a place of much history, some of the oldest remains of human civilisation in South America were discovered near the city and the Peruvian battle of independence was fought here. During the 80ies and early 90ies, it was the hotspot of the infamous militant maoist organisation “Sendero Luminoso” – but in these days, the town is safe and sound again. Due to it’s troubled past, tourists are only now starting to catch up on the city, so it is still relatively authentic and charming. The food is great, the people are open and friendly, the scenery is breathtaking and last not least – life is cheap, even compared to Berlin. Tranquilo! I moved here with my girlfriend to work as volunteers in the orphanage “Casa Luz”.

You even have a tiny chambre where you can make music. How does the Peruvian air impinge on your production?

To be honest, I did not notice any differences so far, especially as music making for me is a rather spontaneous process which I try not to reflect too much about. I did an edit of “Monte Sacro” last week. What do you guys think of it?

What do you look forward to the most when coming back to Berlin?

Meeting all of my friends again and having a good Pizza! I also miss my books and my records, but as my Spanish is improving, I will soon be able to dive into Spanish literature, reading Borges or Marquez in their native language – muy bien! Musicwise, I am glad to have an internet connection at home, so it’s not like I am living under a rock or something – it’s quite the opposite – I am living on top of a huge mountain!

Looking back in time, what was it that initiated you to clubmusic?

My older brother started to get into DJ’ing back in the early 90ies and I can not thank him enough for introducing me to this world. I remember going into a second hand record shop with him when I was about 10 years old. They had a record with a big yellow smiley on it and like every kid, I loved smilies, so I bought it and put it on the record player at home. My life was never the same again! Acieeed!

And what got you into production?

Actually, just the love for these sounds. I soon found out that I needed a 303, a 808 and a 909. Sadly, I could not convince my parents to buy me one of those strange machines, but I managed to get a Quasimidi Raven for Christmas 1995. In return, I had to promise to take piano classes and learn to play the instrument properly.

The liveset was recorded at your last label party in Berlin. Tell us about the night.

It was the official record release party for ALEPH03, as well as my inofficial farewell party for Peru, hosted at Horst Krzbrg. As it was the first event I organised on my own, I was really anxious that no one would come at all. It was “Tanz in den Mai” and there were countless other parties that night. Luckily, at 2 o’clock the place was packed, all dancing and smiling and cheering, making me the happiest person on earth. It was amazing! I invited The Mole, Marc Schneider and Skism (Lodown Mag) to DJ, did a live-set on my own and later on played some records with my friend Henry as Goldwill. A busy night for me as you can tell – but it was worth it! The music was great all night long – if I may say so – and the crowd was enjoying it till the break of day.

Your latest EP is entitled „Third Wave“. A nod to Alvin Toffler?

Yes. While producing the EP, I read the futurologist “The Third Wave”. Let’s just briefly say, it tries to show how the evolution of society works and why the world is the way it is today. A lot of the early Detroit producers were influenced by his thoughts. Even Herbie Hancock’s album “Future Shock” was named after Toffler’s work. So kids – support your local book store!

What else will 2011 bring for Aera?

Lots of travelling around South America, lots of new impressions, inspiration and ideas – and lots of new music of course, working on finishing my album right now.

Anything else you would like to say?

Thank you for the interview! Peace on earth and love for all.

Nr. 47: Aera (Aleph) by ROOF.FM

Well it’s a great track first of all, but to be honest I was just looking through my records to find a name that stood out. I didn’t want to use my own name in case nobody liked the music I made, so I was looking for a name I liked that no one had already used, harder than you think!

Tell us a bit about your musical background?

The first music I was a bit obsessed about was Techno. I was seeing this girl and her brother gave me a tape of all R+S Techno, and one of the tracks on their was Energy Flash by Joey Beltram. I remember listening to it on my walkman and being blown away.

When was that?

That would have been about 93 or 94. After that I definitely wanted to get more into dance/electronic music and find out how it was made. Artists like Model 500, Carl Craig, Ron Trent, Basic Channel, Pepé Braddock, Moodymann, Funkadelic also influenced me.

Which shines through in your mix, blending soul, jazz, disco, house and hip house…

Well, I like all of the tracks! In the past I might have just included house/techno but now I try and fit in anything that I really like. I still like to mix records though, for me that’s important.

Just out of curiosity: how do you make a living?

Until recently I worked with children who had been excluded from school, offended, or just not engaging in mainstream education. I taught them DJ skills and how to produce tracks. The recent budget cuts in the UK have meant there is less work for me so I’m currently not doing much!

What does your production setup look like?

I like to use an MPC1000, sometimes nothing else. I record into Ableton and then maybe overdub if I want too. I have done some tracks solely with Ableton that I’m happy with and I think it’s a great way to work, but there’s something about an MPC that gives you results you never expected. I have some hardware synths that I couldn’t do without, I like to keep them secret, but they’re NOT analogue.

When did you start producing?

I started producing maybe 10 years ago, I released some tracks under a different name, then got out of music altogether because I didn’t like how some people conducted themselves. I started producing again at the beginning of last year 2010 and started to send my tracks out to people like Red Rack Em and Mark E. I have been fortunate enough lately that because I was working short days I had a lot of time for making tracks, now I have even more time – maybe too much. A good balance would probably be 50/50 real job/music.

You debuted with the first non-Mark-E release on Mark E’s label MERC. Quite an achievement. How did that come about?

I sent Mark another track (not on the MERC release), he liked it and he passed it on to a friend who ran a label, they contacted me to talk about a release. It never happened, but it gave me the confidence to send more stuff to Mark. The next thing I sent him was “Hold On” which he was really into, then, I sent him other tracks I’d made and he picked “Be Your Man” for the B-Side.

What does the future hold for Chicago Damn?

My next track “If I Could” should be out soon on Wolf Music Recordings UK. Later this year should be an EP for Wurst, a remix for Jansen Jardin and an EP I’m going to release myself, and hopefully more DJ gigs.

Any other goals you’ve set yourself?

Just to be able to continue making tracks, really. I would love to build one day a small music production school for kids who don’t fit in to mainstream education.

Nr. 46: Chicago Damn (MERC, Wolf Music) by ROOF.FM

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Nr. 46: Chicago Damn (MERC, Wolf Music) by ROOF.FM

Putting the finishing touches to a track for M<O>S Records.

Say a few words about the mix you did for us.

A selection of tracks from my shelves slung together at home on two Technics and a Pioneer mixer.

In 2009, you released a book with your brother Gavin on the early rave scene. What was your part in the project?

Gavin is a photographer and had wanted us to collaborate on a project for quite some time but for various reasons it hadn’t come together. I approached Bill Brewster & Frank Broughton, they loved the pictures and the rest is (DJ) history.

Do you still experience a similar vibe on the dancefloor?

Of course! Obviously it’s different now after over twenty years but you do still get clubs and crowds that really go for it and let themselves go.

You’re churning out great Chicago House vibes with your Bulgarian soul mate Kink. Got any explanation for the secret of your success?

Ahh, if I knew that I would have applied it a lot sooner. I just think we are very fortunate that we both have a shared vision of how we want our sound to develop and what we want to achieve. I am genuinely grateful that our paths crossed.

What’s coming up next from Neville Watson?

Next week will see the release of my remixes of Coyote – ‘Always’ on Needwant records. Also, I’m finishing off some singles for people and about to start on an album project, as well as starting an album with KiNK for Rush Hour plenty of live gigs and plenty of Djing.

Nr. 45: Neville Watson (Hour House is Your Rush) by ROOF.FM

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Nr. 45: Neville Watson (Hour House is Your Rush) by ROOF.FM

Beautiful. Chicago always seems to have a special place for me.

You exlusively used your own tracks for this mix. Why?

People had been knocking a bit for not playing enough of my own material, so I thought that I would put together a mix of my own stuff. I had also done a mix of this sort for Rush Hour Recordings where I spun their whole catalogue. It was fun to do the same with my own stuff.

What tools were you using?

This is a raw mix on turntables with a touch of eq for the final mixdown. Most of the mix was spun from vinyl, except for the couple of tracks that are not yet released on vinyl. They were spun from Serato.

On your website you put down your own theory relating to your sound. How important is it to grasp these thoughts?

These writings in music theory are just some ideas that I have written down and posted. I hope to compile them into a full thesis one day.

Your father Rick „Poppa“ Howard lives in Berlin. What strikes you as utterly different to Chicago?

On Granville avenue in Chicago, we are known to hold doors for each other. The people here may not want to hear your life story, but they surely will make sure that the door doesn’t close on you, no matter how far you are.

Anything else you would like to say?

Please keep a look out for my new company, Tevo Howard Recordings.

Nr. 44: Tevo Howard (Tevo Howard Recordings) by ROOF.FM

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Nr. 44: Tevo Howard (Tevo Howard Recordings) by ROOF.FM

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Nr. 43: Marco Passarani (Final Frontier, Running Back) by ROOF.FM

I’m sitting in a train to Milan. Travelling is something I do a lot these days. I’m touring heavily. Studio work usually keeps me busy early in the week, but this week I’m out everyday.

The last months have seen the release of a handful of Passarani EPs and remixes. Have you been more productive recently?

It’s true that I have a lot of music coming out under the Passarani moniker, and even more stuff under other aliases, but let’s talk about that on another occasion. I’m deejaying and producing full-time now. I finally found a pace I’m content with.

So things have calmed with regard to Final Frontier and your own labels Pigna and Nature?

Yes, the labels are on standby. It’s not over, but that’s that for the moment. That part of the game was causing me more stress than happiness due to the changes in the business system which I couldn’t handle nor really accept. Or maybe my business time has just passed and someone else needs to step up and do it? Who knows. For the time being, the labels are in sleep mode. But surely I can’t tell you at what time the wake up call is going off…

A few years back, you voiced your discontent with the dancefloor climate in Rome. You actually gave it a “Sullen Look”, your thus-entitled album released on Peacefrog. Have things changed?

Well, locally, nothing has changed really. Or maybe it even got worse. What’s different now is that I’m finally just taking care of the music aspect of music business. I left the business aspect behind. I had a way too much romantic vision of the business which didn’t fit with the system anymore. I’m a full time producer and dj now (even if I’m quite missing the labels…) and this saves me from any sullen look.

You have been a DJ for almost twenty years. How goes the DJ business?

It’s actually been 21 years, I suppose. Well, the craft obviously has changed a lot? It did go through so many phases that I can’t even remember. I can only tell you that today I personally feel more excited than ever. The possibilities of djing are quite endless. I think that technology took the experience to another level and, despite the fact of being always labelled as an old school kind of guy, I made this evolution part of my life and I’ve never felt happier. I can dj now in the way I was dreaming twenty years ago.

When I asked you last summer to do this mix, you couldn’t complete it because of a certain menace…

Well, at the time my studio was under the threat of a local bandit in Rome. I had to take care of my equipment!

But gladly that shadow has passed!

Yeah, in fact this is the first mix I managed to record in the studio by now. For some reasons the dj booth has been installed as the very last item. Sorry if it took ages. The mix is nothing but me messin’ around with my turntables and Serato, my lovely djing partner for five years now. Serato helps me to edit tracks on the fly, without loosing the vinyl feeling. Hope u enjoy it.

Nr. 43: Marco Passarani (Final Frontier, Running Back) by ROOF.FM

Not really. It actually took me quite some time to get around and do it, due to several technical problems with my mixer and turntables and also us moving our studio. I spent two afternoons on the Waterfloor at Watergate recording a mix, but both times I wasn’t happy with the outcome. Being alone on a clubfloor didn’t really translate into a great mix. I just didn’t feel it. I ended up doing it at home on the computer, even though at first I didn’t want it to be a digital mix.I had all these ideas for it before I started, but then I decided to just take a few of my favourite tracks and go with the flow. And I am quite happy with the result.

Tell us a bit about your musical roots?

When I was young I lived off of an angry diet of teenage angst sounds with sprinkles of hip hop and electronic music like (the more commercially successful) stuff from London, Detroit and Chicago e.g. Bomb The Bass, Coldcut, Inner City, Steve Silk Hurley, KLF … But since I had no one around me who was really listening to dance music or knew much about it, everything from Black Flag, Husker Du, Pixies and Spacemen 3 to Gorilla Biscuits, Rohrschach, Born Against and Heroin was predominant till the mid 90s, when I really got into Jungle and then rediscovered (or really discovered) house and techno.

You just released your first solo EP on Suol, after numerous records as Zander VT. What’s the story behind that?

No big story, really. I have been wanting to do a solo record for quite some time, but it wasn’t easy for me to finish tracks. So I ended up with tons of ideas, tracks bascially, which needed an arrangement, but I would always get lost while working on it. If it wasn’t for Thien (Chopstick) and John (Johnjon) I would have probably given into my doubts again and pulled the plug on the record. It didn”t come easy to me. I kept overthinking things to a point where I couldn’t stand them any more. Pretty indulgent. I am glad and grateful that the Suol guys pushed and supported me to release the record. As for Zander VT: there is going to be a remix we did for Hell”s “The Angst”, which should come out in March or April and then, hopefully before the summer, we will have a new Zander VT record finished.

Stylistically, I observed a shift in your productions from Detroit techno to the more Soul-inflected house…

Yeah, there has been I guess. I still love it though. And I have quite a few Detroit tinged techno tracks sitting on my hard drive. Maybe some of them will see the light of day in the future. Initially it was Fritz who was a little tired of that sound and this was reflected in our productions. Another thing was that we started our residency at Watergate in 2008, where we would always play on the Waterfloor at the end of the night. And to me the downstairs floor at Watergate is not a techno floor by any means. When those sessions got longer and longer it just felt right to get deeper and slower and sexier.

What’s your involvement with Suol?

Suol is my/our new homebase. Over the last three months we (Fritz, John, Thien and I) have been building a new studio complex in a 270qm loft space with five studios together, so we are pretty close and see each other every day. It’s a big project, bigger than any of us suspected. We realized that in order to get it done we had to put in twice the amount of money and time into it, than we had planned. So far the results are really great, though. Once we are finished we will have our own little palace.

Nr. 42: Sven VT (Suol, BPitch Control) by ROOF.FM

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Nr. 42: Sven VT (Suol, BPitch Control) by ROOF.FM

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Nr. 41: Andy Blake (Cave Paintings) by ROOF.FM

I’m not entirely sure it’s really about anything at all but maybe it somehow becomes about what the people who listen to it think it is. After all, the music itself is just the catalyst, the starting point. Its left to each listener to respond in whatever way he or she feels like at that time.

At the most basic level it’s just a bunch of records that I love and that hopefully sound good together and complement each other in some way. I always treat each dj set or radio show, podcast etcetera that I’m asked to do as a unique chance to try something different each time. It’s a real privilege to be asked to share music you love with people and I never forget that.

Actually, if this one is about anything then maybe its me trying to show that, despite apparent surface differences, all the music included here is really the same at it’s core. Like that famous Jesse Jackson quote from the Wattstax concert which i’m no doubt going to get a bit wrong here; “Tonight on this program, you will hear gospel, and rhythm and blues, and jazz. These are just labels, We know that music is music….”

Your new label Cave Paintings heralds the primal and raw essence of house and techno. Why is it you favour the raw so much over the polished?

It’s not that I’m totally opposed to polished music, some of my favourite music is big and overblown and super shiny but I do love the universal, basic language of primal, gritty music and I think all the music and other art that I truly connect with has something of that at it’s core, like the grain of sand that gives rise to the oyster. And its most definitely what I enjoy making in the studio and often forms a significant part of my dj sets. I’ll take fire, spirit and passion over flawless ‘perfection’ every single time.

You estranged some of your die-hard vinyl fans when you decided to release the back catalogue of Dissident as WAV. Is digital after all not that bad?

I’ll go to my death bed firmly holding the opinion that mp3s should never be played loud in public and personally I definitely prefer the sound of records but a well-mastered WAV isn’t the enemy. My main beef with download culture has always been that the way that people buy digital music removes some important aspects from the experience but these days most people who buy vinyl use almost exactly the same system and interface as to buy digital so that argument against selling WAVs has kind of evaporated.

Also, just because something is solely or mainly released on vinyl, it doesn’t follow that it’s always good. We now have a bunch of not very good djs slavishly and unquestioningly playing a bunch of fairly average records, especially dull nu-disco, sub-standard and pointless edits, soulless ‘deep house’ and pseudo-underground hand-stamped techno and acting like they are the shit just because they and their audience fetishise vinyl and think that alone is enough. The record itself is just the medium and not the message after all.

The tracks released on Cave Paintings are recorded live in one take. Ever thought about doing live shows in the same manner?

Its unlikely that any live shows will happen in the same manner as the tracks are made. Each Cave Paintings track literally comes out of the air with no sequencers or pre-programming involved and the way some of the elements and patterns are constructed means they would be almost impossible to save to a sequencer and reproduce. Once the machines are turned off, the tracks are lost apart from the recording itself, and I really like that.

I have played live in the past and no doubt will again but it will have to be at least a little more organised than the way I make the Cave Paintings tracks. There’s a lot of experimentation, improvisation and trial and error that takes place before I hit record and I don’t think it would be fair to subject an audience to that!

What are you working on at the moment?

My party in London, World Unknown, takes up a lot of my energy and time and is proving to be a very fulfilling experience for Joe and I who run and dj at it and the really great crowd of interesting people who come to it. Other than that I’m always djing at all kinds of different places, which is great as I get to play lots of different music that I love all the time rather than having to stick to just one style. I’ve also got a lot of Cave Paintings sessions across a range of styles that I’m currently making ready to place with various labels. A few are already in the hands of some excellent imprints and I’m very excited about seeing how they are received when they start to come out.

Nr. 41: Andy Blake (Cave Paintings) by ROOF.FM

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Nr. 40: Demetrio Giannice (Enterbt, Balance Alliance) by ROOF.FM

Phew, there are so many influences. I guess the funk soul of Neapolitan guitar players like Pino Daniele was important, being a guitar-player and all. David Gilmour from Pink Floyd. Jimmy Hendrix, of course, later on George Clinton. But when I heard Todd Terry’s Royal House album «Can you party» for the first time, I just knew: That’s the thing I want to do.

You turned quite a few heads with the peculiar sounding «Talk» track on Third Ear. What’s the story behind that?

It’s sort of a weird poem, you know. Friends of mine recorded the vocals around the year 2000 and left them to me. Five years later, I completed the track, and another five years later I put the track on my Myspace page. Guy McCreery from Third Ear immediately found out about it and was interested. Prior to release, I slowed down the tempo considerably, the original was at 130 BPM. I guess it’s a cool track, but in a way it’s been released much too late…

«Adventures in Barcelona» is your joint venture with Chez Damier. Catchy name…

After two years of e-mailing back and forth, Chez and I met for the first time in Barcelona during Sonar in 2009. We were doing this party in a club, but the monitor speakers were totally shitty, we were basically ripped off and more or less thrown out at the end of the night, while another booking got cancelled in the very last minute. Just like that. Everything went wrong in Barcelona in those days, hence the name. Apart from meeting Chez, of course. Straight after that we went to Zurich and recorded the tracks, which later came out on Balance Alliance.

You’re running Enterbt Records, which is only available in physical form. Do you consider yourself a vinyl purist?

I would definitely say I am a vinyl lover, but I’m not a fundamentalist. It can happen that I play unreleased and rare tracks on CD. I have to say that the thought of launching a separate, digital division of Enterbt has crossed my mind. But I don’t think I would ever do a 1:1 transfer of the vinyl releases – the digital sublabel would be rather issueing stuff on it’s own.

What does the future hold for Demetrio Giannice?

Lots of things, really, I spend a lot of time in the studio right now. Third Ear will release a new EP called «Slow», a record I’m really proud of. On Enterbt, there’s another mini sampler in the making, an EP with a track each by Marcello Napoletano, Gabriel Roth and me. Also, there’s some new stuff for Balance coming out in the near future.

Nr. 40: Demetrio Giannice (Enterbt, Balance Alliance) by ROOF.FM

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Nr. 39: Oliver Hafenbauer (Live at Robert Johnson) by ROOF.FM


Definitely! If not the electro-nic scene should change its name.

On account of the sound that label and club owner Ata or acts like Arto Mwambé and Roman Flügel are promoting, you get the sense that you’re very much establishing your very own Robert Johnson aesthetic…

We focus on good music. Music, we like to hear in the club. I guess this is our view on electronic music from Frankfurt.

Your mix also seems to be referencing your musical past. I read somewhere that Warp was a big influence?

I discovered electronic music in the early 90s and was totally fascinated by it. A good friend of mine introduced me to the Warpian stuff, which was my starting point for buying records. Warp was my strongest musical influence and it still remains to this day.

Two of the electro tracks in the mix are from your own B.H.F.V project – what’s behind these four letters?

B.H.F.V is a collaboration with Christian Beisswenger aka CB Funk and one half of Arto Mwambe. The acronym stand for the “barrio” around the Frankfurt main train station where Chris and Ilive. We therein try to capture our own vision of Sci-Fi sounds. The first results of which will be released in February in the “ET 01-06″ EP.

What else has Live at Robert Johnson in store for us?

There’s a new Lauer single due next week. We’ll be releasing an album by Massimiliano Pagliara soon. Also, there’s a great new EP by Roman Flügel coming up in May. Good stuff!

Nr. 39: Oliver Hafenbauer (Live at Robert Johnson) by ROOF.FM

Nr. 38: Genius of Time (Aniara Recordings) by ROOF.FM

Nr. 37: Big Strick (FXHE) by ROOF.FM

Nr. 36: Sex Tags Crew (Sex Tags Mania) by ROOF.FM

Nr. 35: Tazz (Underground Quality) by ROOF.FM

Nr. 34: Superpitcher (Kompakt) by ROOF.FM

Nr. 33: Arto Mwambé (Brontosaurus) by ROOF.FM