Playing Favourites: Shed

White Noise – Black Mass: Electric Storm In Hell

This is very early electronic music, from White Noise’s first album from 1969. They were among the first to use synthesizers in a rock context and their music became very influential later on. This particular track seems indeed way ahead of its contemporaries, and it is pretty wild.

I didn’t know that at all. I had problems listening through it, it is almost disturbing. From today’s point of view it maybe is not that overtly experimental anymore, but setting it into the time of its production, it is very cool.

There certainly was not much comparable music back then.

The sound is very good. They already had synthesizers? There is a lot of space in the production. If you would not have told me, I would never have guessed that it is so old. The arrangement and the noisy parts reminded me of destructed Amen breaks, totally distorted. Very interesting.

Quartz – Chaos

The next one is by Quartz from France . Also early synthesizer music, but within a disco context.

I was not into that at all. My calendar does not really start before 1990 or so. Even stuff like early Model 500, Cybotron, it is ok, but it’s not mine. I also can’t get into Kraftwerk. What has been called techno from 1990 on was what got me to listen to music consciously for the first time. I was never the one to check the influences on music that I like. I know Disco only from TV, Saturday Night Fever and such. I was never really interested in it.

Is that based on a basic antipathy towards the sounds of disco music?

There was a short period I found it exciting, around the time the filter and cut-up disco house arrived with DJ Sneak, all the sample stuff. But that was over pretty soon when all the records started to sound the same. So yes, it is based on principle that I don’t like the sounds too much.

So you were more interested in how a track was built on samples than where they came from?

Exactly. It was fascinating to me how all could be said in a loop that went for three minutes, if it was a cool one. Longer than that it could get boring. Of course you can’t compare that to what happens in the original disco track, there was more happening there than in house tracks, which only used bits. It was interesting that many people used the same samples and you became aware that there must some source for it. But sample based productions are not my philosophy. I never wanted to just use bits of other people’s music.

Those disco house records also did not always pay tribute to disco, they deconstructed it, and often in a not very respectful manner.

Not at all. It’s strange how American producers often deal with each other, all that stealing amongst themselves. But in the end we all benefited from that (laughs).

808 State – Cobra Bora (Call The Cops Mix)

So how do you like 808 State?

Killer! I find it a bit sad that all the bands from that era are touring again with the package, like Altern 8, still with masks on and so on. That’s a bit pathetic. But I loved that sound and 808 State were definitely part of it. I was not impressed when the tracks actually came out, but I really discovered them around the mid 90’s. I knew them before but then later I became fully aware of how much they had influenced me.

I always thought that 808 State, particular around this period, were rather special. Their music was crowded with sounds and melodies, almost like jazz rock in a way.

That’s true. They really were musicians. They came from the other side and they did not want to do just rave. Cübik also, that was as packed with sound.

It is kind of the total opposite of what is going on right now.

Yes, exactly, it’s a wall of sound. It’s refreshing!

Nightmares On Wax – Aftermath (LFO Remix)

The next one is a classical example for bleep techno. All high and low frequencies, sparsely produced.

I only know their Frequencies album, and Mark Bell’s productions as a solo artist. The early stuff on Warp did not influence me that much. I took notice of Warp later when they released techno, like Joey Beltram. It’s the same as with 808 State, when it came out it passed me by as being nothing really special. I listened to it consciously only some time later, and then it stuck on me.

It impressed me back then how LFO managed to shape an original sound with very few releases.

That’s true, and it has aged rather well. But Mark Bell also put out cool house and techno later on. I liked those very much.

Shut Up And Dance – Derek Went Mad (Remix)

The next one is from the primordial soup of breakbeat music.

Yes, this is beyond words. It actually did not interest me who was behind this, but it’s the music. These beats put me into a sentimental mood. The UK hardcore scene, when it was still called breakbeat techno.

I picked this one because it has atmospherics and sounds that you can still find in dubstep.

It’s totally brilliant. This record is minimal, comparably. A lot of the records back then exhausted the possibilities of sampling. The people were happy to use that to its full extent, and of course it was often too much. But you can still easily play tracks like this one. Of course in Germany that is absolutely not possible (laughs). But you could really enhance your techno set with something like this, which is rather straight, not too crowded and too rave. Unfortunately nobody really gets that around here.

Then shortly after this came out, all the pianos and high pitched vocals came in.

Yes, although I found that very appealing, too. That was also my thing, even if it went by pretty quickly, and then came jungle and drum ‘n’ bass already. And then it was over for me. I thought it was okay for driving around at night, but I was not following it. At that time I was listening to completely different music and I thought that drum ‘n’ bass was pretty much based on the same patterns and rhythms and then the break and so on. There is no groove anymore at 170 beats per minute.

Shut Up And Dance were still much slower, and although they sampled left and right, often with some humour attached, it was devoid of kitsch.

Yes, although I like kitsch, back then at least. And the high pitched vocals. Manix, DJ Mayhem, that was almost hard to bear, but I liked it. I was 16 at the time and it fit right in.

Infra-Red – The Verge

The next one is an example for Detroit techno that is not from Detroit.

It reminded me a bit of 808 State actually. It’s pretty housey. I didn’t know this, but I generally soaked techno in back then without reflecting where it came from. For me Detroit is difficult. People like to associate me with it, but I have to deny that because I don’t really know much about it. I have never really occupied myself with it. There surely is a lot of music from Detroit that has influenced me, but at the time of the classic Detroit era I was listening to European techno, which of course was influenced by Detroit . I was not aware of the origins and connections. Later I developed some preferences and I began to think about what actually came from where. I was discovering Detroit only after my big Berlin trance phase, via Gabba and breakbeats and Chicago house, it was a bit complex.

But then it already must have been the heyday of Mills and Hood, and not so much the originators.

Exactly, I discovered Detroit over that and then went back. If you do not follow something from the beginning, things pass you by. Then later it’s over and you do not look for it. Or if you do, you don’t always have somebody who shows you what was essential. So a lot of it I simply don’t know. People may praise certain records, but I stand there a bit silly, because I could only get into the classic phase in retrospect.

Did the classic phase caught on with you then?

Yeah, it was the hard sound which brought me to Jeff Mills and Robert Hood. But around 1996, the thing was through, apart from some Birmingham techno that fascinated me, and I went back in time. But it is not as if I would feel urged to look further and further into it. There were productions like those of Kevin Saunderson that seeped through to England on labels like Network, which were an influence on British techno coming from Detroit that you could trace in a lot of the UK productions, and I was more into that than the actual origins.

Inner City – Praise (Mayday Mix)

The next one is not exactly from the pioneering days of Detroit , but it is still connected to it.

I bought Derrick May’s Innovator box set around 1996 and then some Transmat releases afterwards. Of course there were some total classics on there that were already years old then but still unbelievable.

This is one of the last remixes he did before he abandoned producing more or less. It is quite different to the original version.

Is it really him? (laughs). It is atypical to do such a long intro without beats but in that aspect it is similar to his remix for Sueno Latino. It is brilliant.

As with other of his tracks, this puts a lot of focus on percussion. Is that something that interests you as well?

By all means! I have 800 tracks at home with the exact same build up (laughs). They start with a 909 rim shot and then rattle onwards. I did that a lot when I began to produce nine years ago. They all sounded like that, every single one. It was a time of change for me, I grew up, I moved to a new environment and away from old mates, and such melancholic moods really worked for me. There are so many rumours as to what extent Derrick May really produced on his own but I really don’t care about that.

I decided for myself at some point that it does not matter to me.

That’s the same with me. It is the music that matters. If you have delivered music like this you can say and do as you please in my opinion. Like M_nus, you don’t have to be into it, but as for the music Richie Hawtin has done, he can do whatever he wants in my book.

Raww – Don’t You Try It

This sounds like early house, but it’s actually from New York , from 1986. There were obviously people in both cities following the similar ideas.

It indeed sounds like an old Chicago house record. It may even be a blueprint for something, but from my today’s point of view it’s an entertaining house track first. But it’s still house, and that’s not really mine. I am techno! (laughs). I liked a lot of tracks by DJ Pierre and Roy Davis Jr., but in the early 90’s house was too mellow for me. I grew up with the Mayday parties, and although they maintained to represent the whole spectrum, house didn’t matter. Berlin was harder, harder, harder, apart from E-Werk and a few other clubs. I found Strictly Rhythm okay, when they had their peak. But there often was too much singing in it. I could not get into garage house at all.

Do you have basic problems with vocals in electronic music?

Not really. I liked stuff with vocals on KMS and the music by Chez Damier and Ron Trent, which was house after all. And there were records that went well with those, so I had some phase of interest in that and went out spontaneously to buy house one summer. But it was just a phase. I have such phases with every kind of music. Right now I’m into breakbeats again and experimental stuff.

So you get bored very quickly?

Very quickly! But it does not get lost. If I liked it in the first place, I will like it next year, too.

Do these phases leave traces in your productions?

House yes, but actually everything leaves something behind. If you are an artist releasing on your own, you are forced at some point to do something that sells. And then you have take care that you don’t have tons of material lying around at home that will never be released. It would interest me to produce something that would classify as house, because I think that a lot of records released now which carry the house tag are rather sad. They are neither fish nor fowl. The groove and the intrinsic power House has at 120 beats per minute, you really have to nail that down. And a lot of current house records only try that half-heartedly, because they actually still stick to minimal. They attach some 80’s vocal sample and think it’s house.

As if the sound aesthetics of house were just grafted onto something else in the sense of exploitation?

They totally lack the feeling. It’s just a product. It’s not done with heart and soul. You notice that it is out because it is hip to sound like something, to do a label and so on. Many people publishing music behave like businessmen all of a sudden. Everybody can do it and it sounds accordingly. It makes me sad.

How would you approach doing a house record?

I would certainly not try to sound like this one. This would be almost pop music, if transferred directly to today. And many people do that already with success. It is basically not something I would aim for.

In some cases it might be easier or safer to rely on such old school resources than to take a risk and develop something new instead.

I would just try. And I would incorporate my own stuff into it. I would not think about commercial aspects or tradition. If I would, it would fail for sure. It would destroy the music. There are successful releases that are good as well, but mostly the best selling records are the ones with the most marketing. They just talk you into believing something is worth something. Someone who has a lot of money will get more money quicker than someone with less money to begin with, and it’s the same with music. If you have the budget for sending out thousands of promos you will have success, but that does not mean quality.

Yo Yo Honey – Groove On (Wild Pitch)

You mentioned DJ Pierre earlier on. This is one his finest wild pitch productions in my opinion.

Super. I heard him at Panoramabar and didn’t like it but the stuff from the period is still great. I did not know for a long time what was meant with wild pitch. I did not know what a flanger was then, and I thought it meant that effect. Than I learnt that it meant building up a track with a certain structure, layering sounds until a climax.

Some current records cite the term for tracks which are just long, and don’t have the structure of wild pitch at all.

True. I think wild pitch probably appealed to me because its concept was more techno than house. The slow build up, the hypnotic quality of it, it’s cool. Of course later in the track, when it’s nearing climax, all hell breaks loose. When I was into hard techno, stuff like this defied my prejudice that house was too soft. It is really nonsense to think in such stereotypes.

There are a lot of house records that are not easy on the ear.

And there are a lot of bad techno records! (laughs) And soft ones, too.

Photek – T-Raenon (Version)

The last record is such a mellow track.

I never knew that Photek produced 4/4-tracks, it totally passed me by.

It is actually from his classic drum ‘n’ bass period, from 1996. The original version has breakbeats, only this version is straight. I think it sounds like dub techno.

It is dub techno in fact, like it is still produced today. Very interesting. It just sounds so good. I was very surprised that he has done something like this. But usually if you are really good at some sound you can extend that to other sounds as well. If you understand how the music really works and you do it your own way, everything falls into place. This is way better than a lot of similar productions of today, really brilliant. But then I take up the position anyway that it was all better back in the days. (laughs)

On principle?

Definitely. Well, actually it was probably not better back in the days but you make your own experiences. And the groundbreaking experiences are those of your youth. There will never be something that hits you like something in your youth did, when you discovered the world, when you grew up and hormones went wild. Those are totally different influences to the ones you have now.

And the older you get, the more sentimental you get about these influences and the more important they become to you.

Exactly, but often you also overvalue them. You interpret them as something they were not.

You also often have to admit to yourself that a lot of music that really mattered to you in the past simply did not stand the test of time.

Yes, that’s true. You think, “I can still play that”, and then it’s like “Damn, I shouldn’t have tried!” (laughs)

On the one hand you think records you hear nowadays sound like something you already got years ago but on the other hand you have to realize that there are differences.

Yes, definitely. It’s the personal stance you have on a particular record, which is often deceiving and overvalued. Just because you think it is great does not mean it must be great to others as well. You connect a certain memory to it, and others don’t share that. Or others state to you in disbelief that you don’t know a certain record and you think that you don’t need to. For them it was the defining record of 1993 and you weren’t there. It sometimes makes me angry that I did not explore further where something came from or what it stood for, or I’m annoyed that I didn’t buy certain records when I had them in my hands in the first place. But then you didn’t have the money and now you can still catch up if you want to. But in the past I felt I could have the raided whole stock of a shop and still missed out on a lot, and today I don’t feel like that, which makes me a bit sad. Then again I have caught myself buying cheap back stock and putting great stuff into the shelf, unheard and still sealed.

Well, that is of course the capital sin.

That is of course unbearable. But you look for a certain record and once you have it, that’s it, next one. But I don’t find the time so often to listen to music at home, and I don’t play out that often that I buy records just for that purpose.

But do you react to your discontent towards current releases by playing a lot of old stuff when you play out?

Yes. Recently I gathered some records for while, and when I took them home there was not a single techno record in it. So sometimes when I get booked to play techno it can be a bit difficult, because it also can get boring eventually to just play old records. Then again, there are people on the floor who don’t know techno from back then and discover it while you play it. It’s only the 10 % nerds in the club anyway who know what you just played. The people want to dance, but they are probably not that interested with what kind of music you make them to. Techno has become an entertainment thing, it doesn’t necessarily matter anymore to play the hottest shit, what matters is just going out and listening to techno. It’s not that deep anymore. I think it also depends on the club in question. People go there because it is a certain club, and not because certain music is played there. Of course some clubs are defined by the music they play, but generally the location has become more important than the music. And techno has become entertainment music, like disco earlier on, or hip hop. It has ended like any other music preceding it. But that’s the way it is.

You have to make the best of it.

Indeed! I still love listening to music and producing music, and I’m very glad that people are interested in what I do and that my music is bought and played.

residentadvisor.net 10/08