Playlist for All Night Flight…

I forgot to mention here I did quite recently a playlist for All Night Flight form the UK… it is a list with music by / from musicians and labels I respect and that (have) influence(d) and/or inspire(d) me… From the ambient moods of Hypnagoga Press to the dark noises of Haus Arafna and beyond…

All pieces in this selection come with some words for me on the music/musician/label…

Do check out here…

Guestmix for Meta Moto

Meta Moto is a platform from London… they run a label and a podcast series for dark beats like dark techno, EBM, elektro, and more… I did a guest mix for their podcast series with a focus on Gooiland Elektro and Enfant Terrible releases… your can find it here…

In this mix you will find tunes by Silver Age People, Monocorpse, Roberto Auser, Max Dahlhaus, FOQL, LCN, Ian Martin, Savage Grounds and Neugeborene Nachtmusik…

There was an interview with the mix but on Soundcloud only a part of it was published… so I decided to publish it here…

  1. Your inspiration

The obvious inspiration is of course the original post-punk scene from the late 1970’s to the early 1980’s. There was a lot of creativity and open mindedness back then. Also it was in a creative way very “anti”… anti rock, anti commercial, anti establishment…  this showed itself in a major DIY scene with a true independent way of working.

Musically not everything is evidently an influence on my label activity… it is mainly the early electronic (pop) music, first wave of industrial music and the darker side of guitar music from back then which is a reference point for my label work…

Also on the “business” side of things this is the era that inspired me a lot for my label… it is this already mentioned DIY, independent and anti commercial attitude that is also my own modus operandi. Factory Records is in that point a major influence. I just adore their way of working and thinking… and you have to give them the credits for being spot on several times… I mean Joy Division, Happy Mondays and the Hacienda club/dance music culture have all had a major influence on music culture…

Factory Records took their name from the early 1960’s art scene around Andy Warhol… an ecosystem on their own that I am fascinated with for many years too… his Factory workspace/living space/art space is legendary of course… and I always listen a lot to the Velvet Underground… for years and years and years… and then there is of course Nico… her music is something like true love to me… influences of her work can be traced back in some of the releases I did on my Vrystaete label…

What is beneath all of this is what you could call radical pop culture or extreme pop culture… pop culture which is neither true pop culture nor high culture… it is against high culture and it is against pop culture… it is in-between… it is against a dogmatic view on culture and against a dogmatic view on reality if you wish… but it is also in some ways an elitist endeavor… a playground for bohemians, artists, intellectuals… I am quite aware of this… and I like contradictions and things that are not clear…  that can be everything and nothing… things that are in-between… but that are never a concession or conformation… “not playing their game” as Ken Kesey put it quite right…

My elitist pop culture idea is born from this… the Elitepop Manifesto I wrote is the basis of my label activities… always… but often in different ways…

  1. Your gear

You mean as dj? I am totally against the standard… so I do not own two SL1200’s… Many wannabe dj’s have these but they do not have a taste of music of their own… what is more important?

What I have are two old turntables… that are not meant for nor are very useful for dj’ing… but I never have aimed at being a star dj/dj star… I am a selecter… selecting outstanding tracks and interesting moods… this way you can tell stories instead of just entertaining people… even when I play for a live audience I do my best to add some “unfitting” stuff and at least you can expect some tracks nobody else plays…

Music I do not produce a lot these days so I sold almost everything I had like my synth module, guitars, effect pedals…

  1. Your religion

Any religion is dogmatic I think… but if we could see “religion” as a sort of feeling deep inside you and an attitude towards life then it would be misanthropy. Not that I am totally against people but I have a certain dislike for human beings on a macro-level… which does dominate my feelings in everyday life… without making it impossible for me to operate in daily life… The reason for this feeling and attitude is that I am disgusted with mediocrity… and human beings in general and life in general I experience as mediocre…

Books (bibles?) I read… and that confirms my worldview and equally fuels it… are by writers like Huysmans, Céline andHouellebecq for example…

  1. What is silence for you

Being away from other people, without the noise pollution they create and without the visual pollution which comes with this “modern” world… impossible to find in this era as the world is overcrowded and people are flying all over the planet whenever they can… so I have to settle with a temporary spot whenever possible to find one and/or create a bubble from time to time for myself to at least experience a sort of temporary “silence”…

 

The Brvtalist

I did a mix for The Brvtalist to showcase 15 years of ET… but instead of looking backwards I did a mix with music yet to be released on ET… and a few tracks which are part of the records just out now (Neugeborene Nachtmusik and Silver Age People)…(other) artists featured are Monocorpse, Roberto Auser, Sturqen,  Futuro de Hierro, Unhuman and FOQL…

There is also a small interview attached to the mix… you can read that Q&A here…

Upperberry

We recorded a guestmix for Berlin based Upperberry… this organisation is throwing parties and hosting a podcast series…

For this one we took it a little less loud and harsh as usually… but still this set is  filled with acid, dark techno and elektro… so you get served dark beats again…  as always we recorded this back 2 back without a fixed playlist… go the flow… this mix features amongst others Sololust, RTRA and Garçon Taupe… you can find the mix below or on the ET soundcloud page…

Brokntoys

A new guestmix / podcast is online… this one we did for Brokntoys… a label from London… they also do a radio show and host a podcast series…

Our mix features a lot of Enfant Terrible stuff but also Aphex Twin and Polygon Window for example… It is an eclectic mix of electronics sounds… rather beat driven I guess… It is posted below… enjoy!

Artelettronica

Yet another guest mix/podcast is online since a few days. This one we did for the podcast series Artelettronica. Their focus is on more industrial minded sounds… so we took that as a starting point… expect rhythms, noises, screams and so on… anything dark and heavy and distorted but no techno… only real industrial music…