Guest Interview/OTAM Mix 20: Jan Krueger – ‘Live At Dayshift’

Another year and decade, and another test of the limits within electronic dance music at the most inspiring Amsterdam techno-hotspot: Studio 80. On the 20th of February a collaboration with Berlin superlabel Hello?Repeat will star Jan Krueger, who has recently moved to Berlin in order to focus on the label and his DJ-ing career, already holding residencies at the city’s Watergate club as well as at NYC techno institution The Bunker. Jan is known as an afterhours specialist, working a slinky and hypnotic minimal house groove, juxtaposed against percussion-driven tracks from outer space.
Here’s an exclusive interview we did with him, plus an insane live mix spanning almost 3 hours. Just to give 2010 some spunk for ya.
Enjoy.

Traveling from Düsseldorf to Berlin: could you give us a short description of the evolution of your musical career from then till now?

I guess there is no way to make a short description about my evolution because I moved away from Düsseldorf almost 7 years ago and during this time a lot of good things happened to me. The first station after Düsseldorf was Hamburg, a city in the north of Germany. Here I used to work for the best distributor in independent dance music. Word And Sound. Because of my long friendship to Marc Schneider it was nearby to start to work for this company. In the beginning I was working in the warehouse, a really tough job, as you need a lot of muscles to move all the boxes around. And my problem is, that I’m a skinny German and not that strong, haha. After a while I got the opportunity to work as sales manager, which was actually more my thing because in Düsseldorf I used to work for a recordstore called Flipside and it was always fun to sell the music you love and talk with people about it. By the way – the record store still exists, so if you’re ever in Düsseldorf, or near, you should check it out!!! I kind of really miss the old days, working at the shop and having a nice altbeer afterwards. Füchschen is the place where you should go as well! Yami this beer! Anyway, back to Word And Sound. When I started to work for WAS it was also the birth of Hello?Repeat, the label I run together with Daze Maxim. The idea behind the label was actually way older as we were always thinking about to start something for us and our friends. Just to do what ever we wanted to do and to be free with it. During my time in Hamburg I met a lot of lovely people as well, which are finally my best friends and really important for me. After working for almost 4 years at WAS a feeling was taking over me. In the beginning it was rare, but then it came back more often. I had the desire for a change in my life and environment again. Also, Hello?Repeat started to get bigger and became more successful. To combine my work as sales manager on the one side, and as label manager on the other side, wasn’t working out. So, one day I made a decision and this was Hello?Repeat, our baby. As a lot of my friends and my former girlfriends’ friends moved to Berlin, I thought – hey girl, lets go to where our friends are. And here I am now. Unfortunately without girlfriend but there can’t be always sunshine in your life. Since I’m in Berlin my career made a big step forward. I met the right people at the right time and I got to know a lot of new friends. I was actually blessed with tons of luck. My residency at Watergate and our Hello?Repeat nights at Panoramabar are just some of a few candies. Music wise I didn’t change that much. From the point from where I started to buy records to now, I’m still addicted to the same kind of music. You can actually hear it in my sets cause they are always flavored with records from the old days. Of course, it would be a lie if I would affirm that I never had the time where I was totally into Naked Music deep house music or more electro rocking stuff like Black Strobe etc. But I’m back and finally I know what is good for me!

When, where & how was the provided mix you did for us recorded?

This mix was recorded on a truly magical daytime party in Portland, Oregon, during my last North America tour. Actually I wasn’t sure if I could make it at all, because the night before I played together with Daze Maxim in Los Angeles and it was a lot of trouble to get away from this party. It was just too much fun to hang out with all my friends. But luckily I made it to the airport. Ha, when I think back I have to smile. I was so drunk that the airline could easily have said – you skinny German? You’re drunk, before you travel with us you have to get sober! Well, I guess they just liked me. After a flight of two hours I arrived quite early in Portland and I have to say, this city is incredible. It was the end of May and all the flowers in the city blew in full glory. It was wonderful! Also, Portland is a really green, cozy and friendly city. As I arrived early I had enough time to get a proper breakfast, some coffee and a huge cap full of sleep. Believe me, I needed it. When I finally got to the party unfortunately there were not that many people. It was a sunny, warm and beautiful day so I guess most of them were either at the lake, the river or somewhere else. But that didn’t mean that the party didn’t turned out into an unforgettable experience!
I can’t remember how many wodka 7UP I had, but it was a lot. Genevieve Dillinger and Matthew Quite, who are responsible for this and many other great partys in Portland, took really good care of me and made this drink to my absolutely favorite. Yeah, I guess now you know how this mix got together.

Word and sound, Hello?Repeat and Daze Maxim are 3 brands/individuals commonly affiliated with your persona. Could you tell us how you’ve been influenced by all three?

Of course, I’m influenced by all three in their very own way. When I met Daze Maxim in the nineties, he was producing this incredible techno music which was released on Oliver Bondzios label Jackpot and later on Serial Killers Haircut and Harthouse. I was in love with all this music called Brighton Techno (I hope this is right!!!). Christian Vogel, Neil Landstrumm, Sativa Records, Mosquito Records – Oh Lord, all this crazy techno music. And then there was Daze, doing the same incredible music.
We became close friends and found out that we have a quite similar taste in music. Not only electronic music! Jazz, classic… You have to know that Daze is in my opinion one of the most talented musicians in the techno business. He’s just amazing! But he really sucks as fisherman because he’s always going home too early, hahaha. Sorry Daze! Well, his music and ideas are always an inspiration for me and I think I’m the same for him. Word And Sound also always inspired me with music. It was the first distributor who was founded by people who lost their heart in the music. People who want to share what they love with others and it has not changed by now. THANKS FOR BEEING THERE!!! Also to work for WAS helped me a lot to do what I’m doing right now! And Hello?Repeat – I think it is more influenced by Daze and me.

After some research i’ts actually not clear if you’ve ever produced any of your own material and/or if you plan to do so. please enlighten us?

Yes, that is right. I don’t know, maybe I’m just not talented enough. I think the main problem is that I started to work on my own music way too late. Of course I’m doing something once in a while but thats not worth to mention. I just can’t sit in front of the computer and listen to a loop for hours. I’m not patient enough to learn all this programs by my own, and maybe the passion to learn it is missing as well. When I start to mix records into each other I was 15 years old and I never had my own turntables and mixer. I had to go to a friend who was lucky enough to have everything at home. Surrounded by my friends we pushed each other all the time to listen to records and mix them into each other, or when we did a nice transition we all freaked out. Now, 17 years later, the music is nothing new to me and I prefer to listen to other kinds of music at home. Don’t get me wrong, I love the music as much as I did 17 years before, but I don’t need to listen to it every single day. So, to learn all this programs you have to be on fire, you have to really want it, and that kind of feeling is missing. I love to make music with machines, which I don’t have either, because it is something you can touch and play with. It is the same with records, I just can’t play tracks from the computer. Not yet because we don’t know where the future of vinyl will be in a couple of years. But for now I prefer to travel with a heavy bag on my back and to play the medium I fell in love with. Concerning own productions – maybe I’ll be able to finish something by myself but I guess there will be always some help of friends in the game. But just to clarify – I’m not a fan of ghost writing or to have someone produce my records. I want to make music and I want to be part of it! I’m just not able to handle the programs by my own.

Any future plans we should know about?

Daze Maxim and me are working constantly on the Hello?Repeat cosmos. As you probably noticed, 2009 was a really quiet year for Hello?Repeat. 2010 will be even more busy again. We never had a consequent release politic and my way to select music for the label is a really personal and emotional thing. If I listen to a demo it has to conjure a smile on my face. If this happens I know that we have to do the record. If not we’re not going to release something. There is enough music out there! But for the upcoming year I already have a couple of records of artists like Bruno Pronsato, Daze Maxim, but also new faces like Patrick Specke, DJ QU and Leonel Castillo in the pipeline. Oh, and Hello?Repeat turns into 5, so of course we’ll celebrate this! Furthermore we’re starting a Hello?Repeat t-shirt line. We really love to wear t-shirts and we have amazing artists who are responsible for the artwork. But it will be not a “simple” label shirt line, printed on an American Apparel shirt, or a big store with hundreds of shirts. From the beginning of next year on we will release at least one new t-shirt a month, designed by an artist we love. This can be an unknown graphic designer to a well known contemporary artist. The shirts will be printed on a high quality shirt which we will produce ourselves, so they will also have their own cut. As color there will be just black and white. The shirts will be limited to 99 pieces of each print, numbered and hand signed by the artist. And you’ll get the shirt in a special package.
Right now we’re working on our website which will be re-launched in January. Besides all the infos and news about the label and the artists, you will find a store where you can buy the t-shirts and of course everything else from Hello?Repeat. What else? Oh, I joined a new agency and I’m really happy about it. The agency is called Solid-AM and I’m surrounded by people like Guido Schneider, Vera, Miss Fitz and Dorian Paic, just to name a few. Have a look on the website, there are really nice mixes to listen too as well!

Right click to save…
OTAM Mix 20: Jan Krueger – ‘Live At Dayshift’
Soundcloud mirror

The Necks

One of my absolute all time favorite minimalist jazz groups.

Highest Pleasure

One of the factors that keeps creative black music alive and changing is the ability of the musicians to blend their experience and emotions into the actual fibers of the music. Rudolph Johnson is a musician who has reached that plane where spirit and techniques fuse to form free creative energy.
The 1973 ‘Second Coming‘ album on Black Jazz Records by Rudolph is like the transition between these two states, releasing the energies of rebirth…..the second coming.

Right click to save…
Rudolph Johnson – ‘The Highest Pleasure’

Sci-Fi Dopeness

Reblogged through Firemusic.

Ultra-relaxed

Guest Interview/OTAM Mix 19: Falko Brocksieper – ‘Decemberumbrella′

This 19th of December edition of the Amsterdam labelnight ‘Redevice invites…’ @ Studio 80 features the scandalously underrated Sub Static and Karloff Rekordings label-boss Falko Brocksieper. In order to keep up with our reputation of providing a playground for more experimental and absurd techno approaches, we’ve also invited Vera Heindel, San Proper & Kouam Djoko. Talk about letting those dogs out.
Here’s an exclusive interview plus mix avec Falko, to get the juices flowing.

Could you tell us about the founding of Sub Static and Karloff Recordings. What was your role in both labels?

Sub Static was founded in Cologne in 2000 when I met my long-term partner MIA. Our aim was just to create a small platform for our music and ideas. However this soon became a more serious occupation, as we increasingly enjoyed to work for international content and reputation. It led to the desire to release an even wider range of electronic music we loved, so the sublabel Karloff Rekordings was established in 2003.
At times we had approaches to grow the labels to a higher business level, but after all the basis of our motivation and qualification was always just to release and promote our favourite music.
Mia and I never had clearly defined roles in the label management, so anything within A&R, promotion, administration, accounting was my daily business. I also did all of the graphic design.

One of our favorite mixes of the year is the MNML SSG MX36 you did, which features half-forgotten gems from the likes of Mouse On Mars, Robert Hood & Plaid. Could you tell us something about your musical roots and artists that have most inspired you?

What first got me into techno was trance, mostly european stuff, in the early 90’s. However at the time this wasn’t even a clearly outlined genre, neither was it cheesy or commercial. It simply meant – techno that is monotonic and trippy. When I got my first set of turntables and started to spend more time in recordshops I soon discovered the music of Robert Hood, Jeff Mills, Dan Bell, Woody McBride.. alot of mid-90’s minimal techno, mostly from the states. And soon after there was stuff like Aphex Twin, Mouse on Mars, Two Lone Swordsmen, Mille Plateaux & Rephlex stuff…. also alot of electro. Then even more techno – Cristian Vogel & Brighton crew, Maurizio, Kompakt… It’s been exciting times musically, which intensified for me even more when I moved to Cologne in 1997 to study at the Academy of Media Arts.
It’s this spirit of the 2nd half of the 90’s that I tried to capture in the recent mix you mentioned. Part of the spirit is also the health, complexity and mysticism of musical culture at that time — it seems like a very short time window between the farreaching innovation of electronic music, and the start of desktop producing, discogs, downloads and information overkill.

You originate from Cologne, but you operate from Berlin since 2004. Has this move influenced your productions/DJ-sets in a significant way?

I can’t really say how much influence this or the other city has. I think for the main part, moving to another place always changes your way of thinking, and gives you a new perspective on many things — which was also what I was looking for when I decided to move.
What I can say is – approving the clichee – Berlin has been and still is a very inspiring & vibrant place to live and I have no desire to live anywhere else.

You’ve been pretty productive lately when it comes to releasing. Do you have a lot of unreleased material stored up somewhere?

No, piles of unreleased material is what i never had, unfortunately. However this year has been quite productive indeed. Last year I finally released my 2nd album and was touring with my first live set, both helping me to get a fresh approach on the new productions that came out this year.

Any future plans we should know about?

Right now I’m working on a completely new live set, enabling me to be a bit more flexible and improvisational. It’s also giving me ideas for a couple of new tracks already. You can expect some new releases of me in early 2009, but it’s too soon now to announce any particulars.
Also I’m in the studio again with Benjamin Fehr, recording new material as ‘The Result’. Our first release came out this summer on his label Catenaccio. Another EP will be out soon on Brouqade Rec, as well as remixes on TicTacToe and the remarkable NervMusic from Moscow.

Tracklist:
01. Basic Soul Unit – ‘Hope.unity.vision’
02. Falko Brocksieper – ‘Never Mind’
03. Soul Clap – ‘Beauty Sleep’
04. Rene Breitbarth – ‘Pump’
05. Hakim Murphy – ‘Jupiter Poop’
06. Seuil – ‘Lost In The Soul Shower’
07. Dan Ghenacia & Djebali – ‘Eightball’
08. Motorcitysoul – ‘Vivid [Roman Flügel's RMX]‘
09. Khan & Brigitte Fontaine – ‘Fine Mouche’
10. Wasted Chicago Youth – ‘Shake Them Gears’
11. Hell feat. P. Diddy – ‘The Dj [Jay Haze RMX)’
12. Dollz At Play – ‘Oscura Wand In Paris’
13. Ambivalent – ‘808 Clap’
14. Dinky – ‘Epilepsia’

Right click to save…
OTAM Mix 19: Falko Brocksieper – ‘Decemberumbrella’
Soundcloud mirror

OTAM Mix 18: Frodo – ‘Theresnonibbit’

Light, levitating, but with a firm funk base. The mix in hand exactly moves within this range: an overview of most important slightly-overlooked electronic classics of the past decade, mixed together in the playful manner we all have that craving for. Frodos’ definition of electronic club music is mainly based on House, even if some tracks sound more obscure & dub-infused.
One and-a-half hours of genre-defining tracks to rock to.

Tracklist will follow shortly.

Right click to save…
OTAM mix18: Frodo – ‘Theresnonibbit’

Detroit’s Last Vinyl Pressing Plant

Guest Interview/OTAM Mix 17: Matthew Styles – ‘Live At Beach Club Beach′

This October’s edition of the ‘Redevice invites…’ clubnight at Studio 80 in Amsterdam, is an epic roundup of the best artists from its international stable of affiliate producers, one of which is the very talented Matthew Styles.
From his residencies at the legendary Crosstown Rebels ‘Slash & Burn’ parties and Berlin’s WMF to his now monthly appearances at Berlin’s Panorama Bar and his regular features at Fabric in the U.K., his solid appreciation of what the dance-floor needs, and with an acute sense of taste, Matthew easily transgresses all house music regardless of trends.
Besides treatin’ ya to a two-and-a-half hour mix of the man, here’s an interview we did with him, which outlines his musical roots & future plans.

Be sure to pass by on the 10th of October if you’re in the Amsterdam area!

Your productions seem to be infused with classic Detroit techno, but also seem to be infected by an old-school funk flow. Could you tell us a little bit about your musical roots and your biggest influences?

When I was growing up my father was DJing in clubs and he was close with Tony, the founder of DMC. DMC was like a club for DJ’s which was very popular in the 80’s. They were famous for their DJ Only remix compilations and they also started the magazine Mixmag for DJ’s…
I remember reading these magazines a lot, and another one called something like Jocks [which became DJ magazine I think].
It was before the acid house thing. I remember people like Steve Silk Hurley, Colonel Abrahams, Shalamar, Pebbles, The Jets and stuff like that being popular. I was encouraged to use the turntables and mixer we had at home once I was old enough to be responsible for not scratching the records…
DJ friends of my dad taught me some tricks and gave me some insights, and my interest took off from there really…
Later on in the early 90’s Tony Humphries was a big influence on me, and his mix of upfront vocal style & deep techno was something very inspiring. That influence keeps me pretty open minded about what music can move a floor rhythmically and emotionally…

What have you been working on recently?

I have been doing some remixes, one for a project of Seth Troxler, Shaun Reeves and Hector called ‘The Royal We’,
and also I just did a remix for Radio Slave under the Worst Case Scenario moniker I have with Ed Cartwright — which was a big honour to do.

You originate from England, and you’re currently living in Berlin. Did the move to Germany have a big influence on the way you produce and DJ nowadays?

I think the German influence was already strong before I moved here. I was coming for 7 or 8 years, to party and also to play. I had a lot of good connections here, so to move was the final logical step. It’s a slightly different approach to partying and DJ-ing: everything last’s for much longer, and I really appreciate the attitude towards music here…
I am very lucky to have been playing at the Panorama Bar so much since I have been here, and because of that I really tried to focus on what I could bring to the table in a city so full of great DJ’s. I really try to represent my influences as best as possible in terms of Dj-ing and production.

What are you up to next?

I will finish new EP’s under my own name, as mostly this year has been more about the other projects I have like the Worst Case Scenario one, also eMT, which I do with Tobi Neumann, and finally Taxi Funk, which is a project I am working on with Jorge Gonzales from Los Updates…

Right click to save…
OTAM Mix 17: Matthew Styles – ‘Live At Beach Club Beach′

OTAM Mix 16: Frodo – ‘Incredible Detour’

For this mix I took a classical rooted but forward-looking approach to prototypical house and techno, first by greatly expanding its scope with timeless sounding gems, but mostly by significantly championing submerged underground sounds, consisting of dubby synthesizer melodies and funk-laden percussive rhythms. Enjoy.

Tracklist:
01. John Tejada – ‘The Locus Of Points’
02. Mr. Barth – ‘Above The Skyline’
03. Lowtec – ‘Please Go Away’
04. Marc Romboy – ‘The Awakening’
05. Frankie Knuckles – ‘Baby Wants To Ride’
06. The Persuader – ‘A1 Untitled’
07. Rick Wade – ‘Ricky’s Groove’
08. Brommage Dub – ‘Brommage Dub’
09. Gadi Mizrahi – ‘I’ll Set Your House’
10. Jesper Dahlback & Jean-Louis Huhta – ‘Midnight Express Pt. 1′
11. Kassem Mosse – ‘Untitled A1′
12. Jesper Dahlback – ‘The Lonesome Dub’
13. Isolee – ‘Albacares’
14. Kerri Chandler – ‘Keep Me Inside’
15. Delano Smith – ‘I Feel This’
16. Verdict – ‘People At Night [Portable Remix]‘
17. Iz & Diz – ‘Happy [Strip Mix]‘
18. Jus-Ed – ‘Wonderment’
19. Peaches And Prunes – ‘Welcome To The Club [Ron Hardy Re-Edit]‘

Right click to save…
OTAM Mix 16: Frodo – ‘Incredible Detour’