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Colleen ‘Cosmo’ Murphy talks to us about her early musical life, clubbing in New York in the 90’s and the Loft before she heads our way for Romjulsfestivalen.

Colleen ‘Cosmo’ Murphy is one of the last connections to New York’s clubbing heyday. Alongside the likes of Tony Humphries and Louie Vega, she’s part of a vital link connecting the origins of club culture and dance music to the modern dance floor. 

She might not have been there right at the beginning of it all, but by the mid nineties, she had played an integral role in connecting the dots between club music’s roots in the late 70’s and its eventual legacy. Through her work at the Loft alongside David Mancuso, she never lost sight of those original club music ideologies set forth by her mentor, and today continues to be a beacon for the culture.  

She had been a “music obsessive” since a teen and had her own radio station by the time she turned 14. Broadcasting out of her local school in a suburb of Boston, she shared her music obsessions with her local community before moving on to New York and NYU radio where she continued to disseminate her musical infatuations to ever larger audiences. 

Her career would go from broadcasting to DJing to remixing and include working for the legendary record shop and imprint Dance Tracks owned by Joe Claussell. She would mark Francois Kevorkian and Adam Goldst0ne amongst her friends and peers, and play in what would become some of New York’s most legendary clubs and parties. 

Always with an open mind, there was nothing in terms of music that didn’t pique her interests, and even before she could define it, dance music played a role in her life. New York would introduce her to this underground subculture, with a friend opening the door to that world for the impressionable DJ and music fan.

Where at first it was a mere curiosity, it eventually bloomed into a life-long dedication when Murphy found the Loft in the early nineties and struck up an enduring friendship with David Mancuso. DJing at the Loft, she became familiar with Mancuso’s own obsessions with sound, influencing and expanding on her own musical infatuations. 

Eclectic would be an understatement when describing Murphy’s musical reach as a DJ, broadcaster, musical curator and remix artist today. Besides helping David Mancuso catalogue the sounds of the The Loft compilation series they co-produced together, her own Balearic Breakfast compilations marked its third release in June and her Classic Album Sundays has been syndicated as far as Norway. 

Everything Colleen ‘Cosmo’ Murphy touches in her work has an almost compulsive perfectionist nature to it. Channelling all that into Jaeger’s DJ booth next week will be one of the highlights of our Romjulsfestivalen this year. So we took the opportunity to call her up to find out more about her most seminal experiences.

In our conversation, we linger largely on New York; her earliest experiences with music; and her time with Mancuso, before our time eventually ran out, but through her first-hand experiences during one the most impactful times of club culture, we find an enlighteningly unique perspective. 

Where does your musical obsession stem from, did your parents influence it?

My parents were not obsessed with music and usually only played it in the car. They only had a few records and 8-tracks and it was very normal.

I got my first transistor when I was 7 years old. I remember plugging it in and turning it on and “Fly Robin Fly” by Silver Convention came over the airwave.

My aunts and uncles were quite young and I was closer in age to them than my dad. They were cool teenagers and started to influence me with the power of music. My aunt gave me my first record, which was Elton John’s ‘Greatest Hits’ which at the time had a cool cache for an 8 year old.

I was innately obsessed with music and Boston radio was the biggest influence. There was a wide range of music and it was so much more diverse than most of the other cities in the USA at the time. The radio was the only place you could access new music; a portal for discovery.

Was there a particular radio station you would always tune into?

There were many… There was WCOZ that had the Doctor Demento Show on Sunday night, which was a syndicated show that played novelty tunes. 

There was WAAF, which was hard rock. There was Kiss 108, which was a Black radio station with dance music and Funk. WBCN was the station that I listened to most, which started the year I was born and it was very edgy. As a teenager I would listen to a show called Nocturnal Emissions and that is where I first heard artists like Brian Eno and New Order. 

Then there were many college radio stations on the FM dial from 88 – 92 and I started checking those out as I got older.

You mentioned Kiss FM there. Was Tony Humphries already on the radio by that point?

No, because Tony Humphries was in New York and I’m talking about KISS 108 in Boston. I would hear things that I later discovered were on Prelude records – songs from D-Train and Unlimited Touch. If I had lived in a different city, I may not have heard those songs.

So was there a bit of a scene for that kind of music in Boston?

Yes, there was. There was actually a party called The Loft. There was a guy called Bruno who was a little older than me, and had this shop called Biscuit Head records. It was a small dance scene. Boston is mainly a rock town, but don’t forget people like John Luongo, Arthur Baker and Armand van Helden are from Boston. 

John Luongo stayed in Boston, but the rest, like me, would go to New York, because there wasn’t as much going on in dance music as Boston is more of a rock town. 

I have this image of America in the eighties with kids in schools being very cliquey. I imagine you had groups with skate kids, hip hop kids, rock kids etc. Where does a person with your eclectic tastes fit into all of that?

My town was a very conservative New England town and I didn’t have access to MTV and of course there was no internet. You discovered new music through the radio and your friends. Unless you were looking for something new, it was a steady diet of classic rock and top 40’s. 

When I was in High School in the early eighties, the whole preppy thing was in and it drove me crazy, but I basically got along with everyone. 

There were two older guys from drama club that turned me onto different music like B-52s, Lene Lovich, The Sex Pistols, and then I  became that person myself, turning people onto music through my radio shows and working in record shops. I had a lot of gig buddies and then they would go wherever I wanted to go which was nice.

You had your own radio station during high school. Did the kids in the neighborhood tune in for that?

Yes, that was the other big influence in my life – our ten watt high school radio station WHHB. Some people listened to my shows, and it went to the border of the next town and I was able to discover and share music that belonged to subcultures rather than the mainstream. If I hadn’t done that, my life would have been very different.  

Why did you end up moving to New York?

I did well in school and got into New York University. It was a big deal as I was the first person in my family to go to university (most of my family are trades people). Also, it was a way to get out of where I was as for me Boston had become too small. 

This was the pinnacle of college radio and WNYU was one of the biggest college radio stations in  the country. That is the real reason why I decided to go.

When you arrive in New York, it would’ve been the height of club culture there. For those of us who weren’t able to experience it firsthand, its legacy has been built up into this legend. What was clubbing really like at the time you arrived in New York from a first hand perspective?

In the eighties I wasn’t really clubbing, but I was going to live gigs. Some friends brought me to a few clubs but I had never been completely transformed by the experience. I loved dancing, but I wasn’t as intent on collecting those records. In the 80’s I was more into the psychedelic sounds from the sixties – that was my passion. I was delved into stuff like garage rock, psychedelic rock, prog and krautrock. That was where my head was at. 

A friend of mine, Adam Goldstone, was a club kid and he would bring me to different spots around New York. He’s the one that brought me to the Loft in ’92 and that was a transformative experience. 

However it wasn’t a club, it was a party and it made me realise “there’s a whole world of music that I don’t even know and apparently I love it.” I immediately grasped the ideals behind the party and that got me into club culture. 

Was that the 2nd iteration of the Loft?

That was the 3rd. It was at 647 Broadway until around 1974-5, and then 99 Prince street, and then David bought the place on East 3rd in the mid 80’s.He took a hiatus, but reopened in 1992 and I was there on the first night. 

And you hadn’t known about the Loft before then, in its earlier guises?

Most people in my early 20s like myself didn’t know about it. Unless you were a die-hard underground dance music fan, there was no way to know. There weren’t any books and The Loft was not the word on the street. Plus David’s parties had lost a very big part of their attendees after he made the move to Alphabet City.

 The Loft was hugely popular until 1984, until he had to leave 99 Prince street. Then he moved to Alphabet City, which was where I lived. It was a really rough neighbourhood, with crack and heroin dealers and doers on every block. 

For somebody like me it was fine; I looked like a raggamuffin, I was young, and I had no money. But the people that had gone to his parties at 99 Prince street had grown up, perhaps they had moved to the suburbs and had kids. They didn’t find Alphabet City too welcoming in the 1990s which is understandable.

Did you know anything about David and his legacy then?

I was aware of his history and what he had done was important, but it wasn’t talked about that much, and never by David as he was not the kind of person to revel in his accomplishments. When I started going, the parties were not that well attended and it was apparent this guy was struggling. Purely because I loved what he was doing, I got involved to help and David and I became friends. 

Some people had told me he was a legend, but the story was still evolving. The Paradise Garage had closed down in 1987 and Larry Levan passed away soon after I began going to the Loft. There was not a detailed written history of The Loft – it was told via word of mouth. 

You had been DJing on the radio, but had you been DJing in clubs / parties before you had met David and started at the Loft?

Through the radio in the eighties, we hosted WNYU nights in different places and I used to play at CBGB’s Record Canteen. In the 90s when I was hosting radio shows Soul School and Club 89, people asked me to DJ and one of the first places I played was an African street festival in Brooklyn. 

At that time, the lounge scene developed in Manhattan’s Lower East Side and the East Village. There was a crew of DJs like myself and most of us were friends and we would play these small bars and lounges. We even lugged sound systems and threw parties on the roofs of the tenement buildings where we lived.

What kind of music were you playing then?

I was playing a mix of dance music – house, disco, and dancehall. I would carry my milk crate of records many blocks over to 11th street, between avenues B and C, where I had a weekly residency. The sound system and turntables weren’t very good but it didn’t matter as my friends would show up and hang out while I was squeezed in a cupboard off to the side. But I was able to develop my sound as my weekly residencies were 6 hour sets.

You would carry around 6 hours worth of records in milk crates. That is incredible.

I didn’t have a record trolley bag until the 2000’s. Yes, we used milk crates and sometimes I couldn’t afford a taxi, so I would have to carry it across town. I was strong!

My gigs would go from 10 pm to 4am and I would play a wide spectrum of music. I learnt how to read a crowd. Sometimes I would play records at a trendy Soho lounge where there were Europeans who were clued up to House music. The majority of Americans didn’t know house music and this included New Yorkers. The music du jour at that time was R&B and Hip Hop.

Even at that time in the mid nineties, it was still an underground thing in New York?

Yes and some listeners told me they discovered House music through my radio show, just by scrolling along the FM dial. When I was DJ-ing, some would ask “what kind of music is this?” even though much of the music had been created in New York.

When I moved to the UK I was surprised how ubiquitous house music and dance music was – it was part of mainstream culture thanks to the Acid House movement. I was always surprised that Europeans had a better understanding of American underground dance music than most Americans.

There were very few house music shows on the radio at that time. Tony Humphries had Saturday nights; John Robinson did a lunch time mix of popular disco; and Red Alert had a great hip hop show. DJ Disciple, Jeannie Hopper and myself had a show at the lower end of the FM dial, and we were about to play the more underground records.

Were you getting and playing things from Detroit and Chicago at that time too?

I was more into Detroit than Chicago. I loved Larry Heard and stuff like that, but a lot of the stuff coming from Chicago was too bumpy and loopy for me. Coming from the east coast, it was more about arrangements. You had Philadelphia and New York, where the songs had melodies and arrangements and musicianship. I preferred Detroit, because I thought it had a lot of that but it was future facing; more souring melodies and drums. Carl Craig was one of my favourites but I also love Underground Resistance. 

You would delve that deep into Techno that early on?

Yes, I loved deep Detroit techno and still do. Sometimes I also played the more ‘progressive’ sounds of producers like Deep Dish, and Danny Tenaglia, who was one of my customers when I worked at Dance Tracks. I also loved the European sounds of Basic Channel and Laurent Garnier’s F-Communications label. 

I played a spectrum of dance music, and could also churn out a pure New Jersey gospel set. I was one of the few white people to play at Blackbox in Newark, New Jersey. It was a pure gospel vocal house and the club didn’t serve alcohol and the crowd were Church-goers. On the flip side, I also played more tracky deep house in the small rooms at raves around the USA.

 When you’re playing at a rave it’s just you and your records, but at the Loft there was a very strict set of parameters we would later learn. Was there a music philosophy there that David Mancuso would insist on when you played?

Yes, there was, but David did not go through it with me in great detail. So, I was quite surprised when he said; “hey do you want to play some records with me” when I was only 25. It was more concerned about the equipment rather than the music. 

David was financially suffering at the time. He had an amazing sound system including two Koetsu moving coil cartridges, but he did not have a back up. At that time these cartridges went for around $3000 and they are fragile. They sound incredible, but you have to know how to handle them properly and for some reason David trusted me. He was very trusting because if I had damaged one of those cartridges, he would not have been able to replace it, as he didn’t have the funds. He was living hand to mouth at the time.

As our relationship and friendship developed I learnt more and more about the sound at David’s insistence. A few years before he passed, I asked him why he trusted me to musically host when I was so young and before I knew the ins and outs of his sound system. And he replied, “it starts with a vibe long before one even hits the turntable.” He said he felt something about me right from the start.

We do a tribute to the Loft night every year at Jaeger, and recently I was surprised to learn that there are actual lists online of what was played at the Loft. Were there ever tracks you just wouldn’t touch if you were playing there?

When I began musically hosting I definitely played some of the songs I would not play now, but it was because of the sonics – the sound of the recording, the mix or the pressing. Musically, I was usually spot on as I had a good ear and had worked at record shops and had hosted radio shows for over a decade by that point in my life.

When you are playing on a great sound system, the mix and the pressing are vitally important. Certain pressings and mixes sound incredible, and that’s probably why they get played more and become Loft classics

When we started the parties in London together, David was at my house four times a year. We have Klipschorns and a Mark Levinson ML-1 preamp and class A amplifiers in our listening room. David turned me on to records and I turned him on to records. He would critique the sound of the records, pointing out if there was too much bass that was eating out all of the mids. I learnt a lot from David during our listening sessions in my home. 

There are so many nineties house records that suffer from a bad mix with too much bass. I would play him something that everyone was playing because another famous DJ played it and it was uber cool and he would say; “it’s kinda clever but it’s not lifting my spirit”. He didn’t care who was playing what or how cool a record was. One of my favourite critiques of his was saying that a particular record ‘was like one long intro’. 

You have to remember one doesn’t mix at The Loft. When DJ-ing house, you could play a track and mix out in 2 minutes, but not at The Loft. You had to ensure a song actually evolved and was great from beginning to end.  

It sounded like you and David and the Loft were on a roll by the time you left for the UK. Why did you make that move?

The main reason was that I was with a British guy, but it had always been in the back of my mind. My grandmother was English and she was a war-bride, but I also loved the music scene here. Also Mayor Giuliani had wreaked havoc onNew York nightlife, so by the late nineties, I felt it was time to move along.

It was hard to leave David and difficult to leave my weekly radio show, but by then David and I had begun work on The Loft compilations so I knew we would continue to work together. We actually became closer and often played together in different cities and spent more quality time together. David had less pressure when he was out of New York and he said our house was like a centre of calm for him. 

Besides your continued efforts with the Loft and David from the UK, you also started doing your Balearic Breakfast shows when you moved to the UK. Was your first introduction to the balearic thing you would adopt for your radio show later on?

I had heard about Ibiza in the early nineties as a friend of mine was a DJ at Pacha. We sold loads of Cafe Del Mar compilations at Dance Tracks and that is what  turned me on to the Balearic sound. There were many likenesses with the music Jose Padilla played and what David played at The Loft, in terms of the feeling of expansiveness. I bought all the Cafe del Mar compilations and played them out at my lounge gigs. Later, as I found out more about that Balearic and sAcid House scene, I found they played many of the same records I played on the radio in the eighties, or records I heard David play. 

In a recent show, you said something like; “whatever this thing, Balearic means.”  Are you closer to a definition yet?

I would just say it’s very open ended, and that’s what I like about the term Balearic. That’s why I like jazz too. I could not define jazz, but the whole approach is about being expansive and transcending boundaries. Other musical forms are more contained within definitive boundaries.

For instance, with house music, it’s four-to-the-floor. There are templates that are formulaic and worked within and that is fine. But that isn’t the case with the term ‘Balearic’ – it’s really a genre that isn’t a genre.

We discuss Rub800’s new label Airbrush and his work alongside Tonchius as Ruton in a long chat with the DJ, producer and label pair.

Who gets to decide who’s playing the music? I always wonder when I meet these DJ couples that live and work together. Tonje says it’s more often quiet at home, and that would make sense. because Ruben (Rub800) and Tonye (Tonchius) are doing things a little differently. 

The DJ, producer and label duo aren’t taking their cues from what anybody else is doing and together they’ve established a whole musical universe around their musical interests.  

Their label, Continually has been releasing records exclusively on the vinyl format since 2020, with music featuring the artists from Romania to right here in Oslo. At the heart of it is their collaborative project, Ruton which launched the label, building on their own progressive minimalism and expanding as far as that Romanian sound. 

As DJs, Rub800 and Tonchius are familiar figures around Oslo, and can often be found playing the likes of parties like UNTZ, Det Gode Seslakab, Moving Heads and club nights at places like VIlla. They are no strangers to Jaeger either.

With early informative experiences in 90’s Trance and Jazz, Rub800 and Tonchius have established themselves in a scene that has gathered around the extensive minimal expressions of Techno and House. An airy quality informs their music where melody infuses undulating rhythms. Whether combining their disparate influences as Ruton or working on their individual solo projects, under Continually it all informs a very distinct sound. 

Expanding on that sound, they’ve established a new label called Airbrush as an exclusive vehicle for Rub800’s most recent creations. Another vinyl label with that same DIY approach that informs Continually, Airbrush expands on Ruton’s sonic universe as they set their sights on the future. 

On a cold night in November, we found Ruben and Tonye on our couch at Jaeger to talk about their latest pursuits with Airbrush and filling in the blanks of their collective history together. We all meet up just before Ronya takes to the booth for her Jaeger Mix, which they’ll stay for later, but first we’ll have a chat as we sink into a sofa. 

***Ruton plays Moving Heads in December

Tell me about this new label, Airbrush. 

Ruben: I wanted to put out new music on my own. It’s a small label with mostly my own tracks, a low key do-it-yourself label. I also design the artwork on the sleeves.

And the new alias Sequent Consult, when did that happen? 

R: Around the same time. It’s something that I came up with about a year and a half ago because I wanted a new alias for Airbrush. I bought a new sequencer so maybe it’s connected to that. (laughs)

Tonje: And you have other aliases as well. 

R: Yes we (Ruben and Tonje) have the collaborative project Ruton. And we’ve released two records on Continually, the last one on the first one. 

And Continually is your other label with Tonje. 

R: Yes, Airbrush is just a small part of our musical universe. 

T: I think it tricks people because it’s mostly just on vinyl. If you had to search it, it’s not the first thing that comes up. 

So why start Airbrush?

R: With Continually, we wanted to release our friends and our own music, so I wanted a small side project with Airbrush, because I made a lot of tracks in the last few years. I wanted to express myself a little more in smaller batches and self-distribute these records. 

Similar to the way Sex Tags  do it.   

R: Yes, that is some of my inspiration.

Why was vinyl your preferred format for both Airbrush and Continually?

R: I’ve always played vinyl and I prefer DJing with records.  

T: It’s more of a cultural thing as well.

R:  I’ve been doing this for 10-15 years, digging in record stores. If you start digging and collecting records, it’s a bit more work. You have to go to a physical record store, carry those records.

Did you have the music ready before the label?

R:  I started to collect tracks that I liked and produced some more in a combination of tracks that work together. 

Were there more tracks left off the EP?  

R: Yes, of course. I thought about this side-label for a while, and then I started making tracks. Additional tracks based on these jams could be part of another EP, or VA, if it fits.

Continually is also exclusively a vinyl label, but it’s more inclusive in terms of the other artists featured on there.

T: The first one was us together. People started contacting us shortly after, mostly people from abroad; some friends, some friends of friends and complete strangers as well. That’s the idea to bring people together.

Have you had any people from Oslo on Continually yet?

T: The people that we have released are Slovenian, Italian and Dutch in addition to local producers A:G and Insectoscope (Matztam and Alex Jangle) which we have known for years and connected through Det Gode Selskab here in Oslo.

R: For the last five years, our music has overall been known more abroad than in Norway, but we’re very interested in local talent as well. I think since covid people in Oslo have shown more interest in our music with Continually and Airbrush. 

I feel like I’ve seen more and more labels releasing on vinyl in Norway in recent years. Do you feel that more people are interested in local releases?

R: At least for some people. Many young people seem more interested. 

T: People that only play digital will release stuff on vinyl too now, so I think there’s a general appreciation for a physical format.  

Vinyl still does well in terms of sales. What is the market like for an independent releasing vinyl today? I know the delays are one thing but is it easier releasing vinyl these days?

T: I wouldn’t say it’s easy. We both have full-time day-jobs. 

R: If you get the hype or a well-known DJ plays your record it could help.  

T: In general the market for vinyl has grown. 

People in Norway aren’t that exclusively interested in what Berlin is doing anymore?

R: I think so too, and I felt that more after covid. People are a bit more interested in their local scene.

T: That is what we’ve seen with Continually too. We want to release more Norwegian artists in the future. 

Do you feel that there is anything like a scene contributing to all this here in Oslo?

T: It’s up and down like always, but I think people have to get older and we are older now. It’s more connected. People actually have to work together instead of just doing their own thing. 

Yes, I find that it’s more fluid even in these disparate styles of music and concepts. There’s a lot of crossover happening even if the music doesn’t necessarily reflect it.

R: I can only speak for myself, but it’s about getting a bit older and more open to connect with other people and concepts that are different from what I do myself, and we still have some similarities. 

T: We might have been looking abroad rather than in the city a few years ago, but now we see this is where we live so this is where we actually need to have a scene instead of looking somewhere else. We go to a lot of other concepts with music that we don’t necessarily appreciate ourselves, but we’ll still have a lot of similarities. 

R: It’s important to be open to other genres and listen to something to which you are not that familiar. You can learn from it and enjoy some other people that inspire you. 

What was your first connection with electronic music, Ruben?

R: I’m actually from Grimstad, (and still live part-time in the south of Norway.) There was nothing really going on there. I grew up listening to Trance. There were hyperstate CDs and Mixtapes and live from hyperstate on P3. I didn’t start DJing until 2005, when I bought turntables and started buying records, mostly from online stores like Juno.

It was always about records?

R:  Yes, I have been fascinated with vinyl since around 1995. At that age, I had to watch DJs playing vinyl on television because I didn’t go to clubs. 

Was it MTV?

R: Yes, some of that and also Viva.

Did you have anybody to play with or learn from in Grimstad.

R: Not until 2009, when I moved to Oslo and met some people from Oslo at Sunkissed, Blå. That was my first experience of the Oslo scene.

T: Back then you had this DJ community, (online.)

R: Yes, we had this Repeat forum, where you could chat, discuss mixes, post mixes and discuss tracks. It was a PLUR type of forum. 

People posted events and such on there?

R:  Exactly. It was really for Oslo, very local. That was around 2008 and it lasted for many years and then faded away when Facebook came. It was very welcoming and interesting for me, who was new to this electronic scene. I just liked electronic music. 

Nobody taught you how to DJ?

R: No, I learnt everything myself. I just started with finding the pitch and practised that for many years. After many many hours you understand how the pitch works and you can find it without too much effort. 

What were those first records you got from Juno?

R: It was kind of uplifting-Trance. Those old trance guys, from a period of ‘97 – ‘02. I was caught by this cheesy Trance wave. 

All of it wasn’t that cheesy though. Those Sasha and Digweed global underground mixes still stand out?

R: I got into Sasha and Digweed after my cheesy period. That’s when I got into progressive Trance and Progressive House and then minimal and more weird music on the PLUR forum.

Were you also involved on the forum, Tonje?

T: I came in later. I met Ruben in Kristiansand actually. There wasn’t really a scene there, it was just them. 

R: I met some students and they were also into electronic music, so we decided to have a concept on a monthly basis called UNTS. Kim Young iLL is running it in Oslo today. 

T: And Ruben had a studio at Odderøya, which was a very good after-party place.

R: In Kristiansand, you actually have to close at 02:00, so we had to play a little bit more after that.  

What changed for you to go from Djing at home to playing to a club

R: I felt there was something missing so I wanted to play in front of more people and enjoy it with other people. I got in contact with people in Kristiansand and then I was invited to play and it developed gradually.

T: It started off as home parties. 

Because of the club situation in Grimstad and Kristiansand?

R: There’s nothing there. The first parties were just at home with other students and then we were asked to play in bars. It was mostly small bars. There’s no club community in Kristiansand. But we put on good parties. 

All you need is a soundsystem and some people, right?

T: It was nice for someone like me who just got interested in club music, because I came from Jazz and classical music. I was looking for something else, and I really liked it. I was a bit embarrassed at first to say I liked electronic music. Kristiansand is so small, so it was really easy to find a place to listen to that kind of music on my own. 

What were you doing in Kristiansand, Tonje?

T: I was studying in Kristiansand.  

Were you studying at the conservatory there?

T: No, I considered it, but I realised you had to play many hours to become a professional, and I wasn’t that into the sound of the trombone. Then there was a natural progression to electronic music. 

There was a lot of cross-over between jazz and electronic music for a time here. 

T: Yes there was definitely a cross-over there with things like Punkt festival

R: Punk was vital as a contemporary music festival. 

How did you get into making music, Ruben?

R: I like hardware and keyboards because I grew up with a father that brought various instruments home. I wanted to buy some synths and drum machines and give it a try to make some stuff on my own. 

Did you have any musical training like Tonje?

R: I had some piano lessons when I was young, because my mother forced me. Using my own ear and creating melodies and rhythms just come naturally. I think a lot before I jam, but I try to think less when I’m in the process, when it’s just being creative and having fun. 

When you say you think a lot. Do you have an idea about what a record will sound like before?

R: Sometimes yes. Certain records that were inspirational to me can be a starting point, but often it can be just the sound of a particular synthesizer or a sample or field recording. There are many angles in which to approach it. 

Do you draw a line in the sand in terms of sound between your aliases?

R: The Sequent Consult is darker, more mystical and trip based. With Rub800 and Ruton it’s for the moment more Housey. Melody is the common thing between all of them. We are interested in melodies in various shapes. 

There seems to be an airy quality to the first release on Airbrush from Sequent Consult, and that melody remains central. 

R: That is something that I try to consider, especially for an EP. I want to have a path through the EP. It’s something like a small story. With Ruton and Continually we are more open, because we also did some Various artist releases. If we are combining other people’s tracks with our own, you have to find this match. 

T: Also our style has moved in waves. When Ruben started it was more like this minimal Romanian style, and then going into House, Techno and Electro at some point. It’s constantly moving.

R: We are quite interested in many genres from IDM to downtempo to darker types of Techno. 

Do you try to incorporate those elements into your own music and attempt to make records in those styles?

R: When I jam, I sometimes have a thought to make something in that style, but then it turns out to be the opposite of what I had in mind. Sometimes I’ll try to be more mystical and darker, but then it turns into a more positive euphoric jam. When I jam, I don’t want to stop and think too much. I want to go in one direction and finish it. 

Tonje, you are a musician with some theoretical background. Does this come into play when you are working on electronic music, especially when you are working together as Ruton?

T: I started coming with this very theory approach, but it’s become just a jam. 

You completely abandoned the theory. 

T: I’ve forgotten a bit about the technical notes, but I still use a lot of chords and rhythms when I make music. That’s what music is about, arranging sounds into patterns.

R: It’s also about the sound. How it sounds is almost more important, with electronic music. 

Are there plans for the second EP?

R: Yes, when I started the new label, I created 4 artworks. I called it Airbrush because I just sprayed some artwork quickly. I think the next release is coming soon. I just need to finish some more tracks. We’ll also do the next EP on Continually quite soon. 

Together?

T: No, it would be most likely just me. I made some of these tracks 4 years ago and now I’m just adding two more. I am in the process of finishing it now. 

R: And then it takes a while to get it mastered and pressed so probably it will only come out the middle of next year.

Do you guys still buy records to play?

T: Yes.

R: I buy records from Filter Musikk, Discogs, Juno etc, but I find myself buying a little less than some years ago. It’s still once or twice a month but not as many packages. 

T: I think that’s because we are going to more 2nd hand shops. Every time we go to a new Country or a new city, we’ll visit the record stores.   

And you’re still DJing often?

T: I would like to play more.

R: Yes, we’d both like to play more.

It’s time for another Romjulsfestivalen with the likes of  Setaoc Mass, Funk For Forest, Colleen Cosmo Murphy, Josh Butler, Schmooze and Brus, Mira Mark, Horseman, Bendik Baksaas and much more.

What’s this… a rumble from beneath… What’s this… flashing lights through the fug…  what’s this… people of the night…. what’s this… a bass drum cracks… what’s this… a little warmth from the cold snap… what… is… this?  It must be the annual Romjulsfestivalen at Jaeger. We’ve observed the holidays, now it’s time to get on the dance floor.

We spend the week between Christmas and new year with a week-long celebration of music across two floors and a couple of Function One systems. 

Setaoc Mass, Colleen ‘Cosmo’ Murphy and Josh Butler fly in to Oslo with Øyvind Morken, Olefonken, Schmooze & Brus, Basement, Funk For Forest, Flux and Big Up spreading across our two floors with a host of local guests  over the course of the week as we send off another year from the dance floor.

Here’s the full lineup:

25.12 – 1. Juledag: Øyvind Morken + Olefonken

26.12 – Juleschmooze: Evangelias Løstegaard + Nora Teslo + Synne + Salamanca + Håkky + Madrigal +  Filippa +  Ehrmantraut

27.12 – Basement x M.A.D.: Josh Butler + Simon Field + Blichfeldt + g-HA + Axel FU + Dara Woo + Julie Reistad

28.12 – Funk For Forest x Nightflight: Colleen ‘Cosmo’ Murphy + Funk For Forest (live) + DJ Elias Løstegaard + Bror Havnes b2b Nina Yamada + Guldaugur (Caribbean Cruise Control) + MC Kaman + Don Quan + Lars Palmas Jr.

29.12 – Flux: Setaoc Mass + Bendik Baksaas (live) + Antiparalell (live) + Skodde (live) +  Naboklage

30.12 – Bigup: Drunkfunk + Fjell + Simon Peter + Tech + Mira Mark + SugarCacti + Clueless + Horseman + Sim1

You can find tickets here. 

We dig through the latest arrivals at Filter Musikk in search of some favourites in another cut with Filter Musikk

How do you find new dance music today? Before my time it was fanzines and mix cassettes. Back when I started digging into this music, it was magazines, radio, M.T.V. and eventually the night club. With the growth and efficiency of the Internet, independent blogs and forums took over from the magazines and broadcasters.By the time social media and music streaming came to be, many of these independent blogs and forums were laid to rest. 

And what are we left with today? AI algorithms influencing listening habits? It has become such an isolated and insular experience and any sense of community has dissolved with this experience.    

It has become a perpetual feedback loop based on the listener’s tastes and anything beyond that is ignored. There’s no surprise; nothing to penetrate your comfort bubble and expand your musical horizons, and lately nothing outside of what is already or has been a commercial success. It’s always the safe-bet, and even if you find yourself with eclectic tastes this feedback loop will never challenge you. It will always only want to satisfy your tastes, never mind how broad. 

It’s only in a true community that we challenge our listening habits. At its simplest that community is two friends discussing (or mostly arguing about) their latest musical discoveries while at a macro level, its writers and online commentators proliferating their favourite music to an audience, hopefully independent from how many readers/watchers/listeners it will attract.

That’s why places like Filter Musikk need to exist. The record- and dj equipment store has made an everlasting contribution to the scene in spreading the music that is often overlooked, and giving you options beyond your listening habits. Filter Musikk has been the nucleus of this music and its enthusiasts for a couple of generations in Oslo. 

You’re likely to find records in the store that you might have dismissed offhand, and you’re always going to find something that you’d never heard, but instinctively like. Here are some of those records. 

Ex Generation – The Napoli Exchange (LP)

Napoli’s disco scene is the thing of legends. It’s a breeding ground for some of the most exciting electronic dance music artists on the scene today and a paradise for all kinds of selectors. The mediterranean city has long been the haunt of music enthusiasts and collectors. The record stores of the region have been pawed over extensively by some of the world’s leading DJs and producers like Lewis Moody and Ziggy Zeitgeist (Ex generation/ Energy exchange records).  

These two have formed a particular intrinsic bond with the city and in a new collaboration with local producer, DJ and Label owner, Federico Galotti, they’ve channelled it into an album of original music with a host of artists, many from the region

It’s so easy to get lured into those familiar tropes and use metaphors like sunkissed synths and undulating waves of bass, but that’s the only way to describe this music. Paolo Petrella’s bass slaps against the formidable shore of 80’s drum tracks, while synths bubble through uplifting melodies. Beguiling atmospheres evoke the shimmery imagery of a beach at dusk, with the sun setting on a nascent dance floor. 

Ex-Generation expanded their sonic purview beyond the stereotypical Neapolitan sound, modernising the sonic palette and incorporating touches like the soulful vocals of Allysha Joy on Hurting Lies and the wispy enchantments of Honeylips on Holding Your Heart. Napoli’s heart beats strong throughout with Ex-generation and Federico Gallotti joining the likes of Nu Genea in channelling those old records into new sounds. 

NOS – Caves of Ix (12″)

Obscure sci-fi references, 8-bit cover art, and 16-bit sounds. Is this the nineties? NOS would us believe nothing has changed since the mid nineties and he would be right. Electronic music still uses the same machines (albeit virtual versions), the same tropes and the context remains on the dance floor. (Well in Caves of Ix’s case it’s more about the 2nd room or afters.)

Elements fade in like their being hand-manipulated from a mixer, while patterns spiral out of control as if the machines are trying to tell us something. There’s layer upon layer of classic synth sound, embarking on some retro-futuristic journey to the possibilities of music without challenging the listener.

 It’s instantly familiar and comforting, but unlike most of today’s variations on this sound, it goes beyond a simple loop. There’s a general progression on Caves of Ix that touches on anything from serene ambient to gnarlin acid. The Swedish artist doesn’t forego that original appeal of these styles of music, but asks; where else can we take it. And the answer is; back to its roots because if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. 

Skolopender – Polakk (12″)

Lately there’s always a new Norwegian cut in the mix, and it’s not just one style of music either. Whether it’s Hip Hop, Tech-House or Techno, Norway’s contribution to Filter’s shelves have been consistent and it’s really inspiring to see it happening on vinyl to this degree.

Here we have something new coming out of Bergen. Placed around the Techno common denominator, Skolopender’s debut record Polakk isn’t that stereotypical either. Elements of Noise, abstract field recordings, Psytrance and even some tribal elements peak through the hazy three-tracker.

Sound seems to seep out of some primordial ooze, with no inclination of what form it will eventually take, a continuous metamorphosis of sound. It’s only the appearance of some four-four kicks that some familiar structure appears, but for the most part the destination is illusive. 

It reminds this writer of the early days of labels like Stroboscopic Artefacts or Semantica when they were undermining the conventions of Techno with something truly experimental. 

E.R.P. – Faded Caprice (2LP)

E.R.P. is back in the LP format. It’s his first since 2019’s Exomoon and it’s hard to believe that it’s been five years since that last record. For a while E.R.P was such a constant at Filter Musikk, always there with a new EP at the very least and quite often a new album.  

Looking into his various aliases, it suggests that he might have been on something of a hiatus between 2018 and 2023. Perhaps, like the rest of us, he was merely taking a break to re-asses everything after the pandemic, but it’s good to have E.R.P back in the fold. A Filter Musikk with an E.R.P record just makes sense and it’s good to have something familiar in a world fraught with strangeness. 

Instantly recognisable as an E.R.P. record, the American producer and artist’s sound continues to be steadfast on Faded Caprice and you can tie a red thread from even his earliest records like Ancient Light to this one. There were never any teething issues with the creation of E.R.P or any of Gerard Hanson’s other aliases. It always arrives fully formed in the specific moniker’s gestalt. 

Faded Caprice is a luxurious bed of textures from which sparkling rhythms careen manically to the edge of Electro’s event horizon before it gets swallowed into IDM territory. Melody and harmony tease at becoming earworms before dissipating into a miasmic cloud, everything imbuing the atmosphere of the tracks across the album and the album as a whole. There’s an altruism to the elements, none are allowed to stand out ahead of the others in an all-consuming sound. 

Some motifs you feel that you’ve come across before in E.R.P’s other work, like a continuation of thematic material that impregnates Hanson’s designs for this particular artistic pursuit.

Burroughs – Half Light EP (12″)

Club music doesn’t often get as immersive as this, except maybe when it’s E.R.P. You feel like you’re engulfed in a pillowy bosom of sound, while deep bass movements pull at your gut. Burroughs’ arrangements expand and contract. Elements clatter against the backdrop, creating a sonic veil from which leading melodies and bass themes emerge. 

Whether tantalising on the edges of Trance or breaking familiar rhythm patterns with an Electro beat, Burroughs keeps touching hedonistic heights. Melody and texture dominate, but never overwhelm and it’s only on Carl Finlow’s remix of Sigler where things get stripped back to the starkest elements. The three original tracks hardly waver from the dance floor, but there’s a little more on the bone, an allure that is left to be discovered just beyond the functional. 

A-Trak is the youngest DMC campion at 14, he’s worked with Kanye, setup a label that includes Kid Cudi and Danny Brown as artists, and had one of the last decade’s biggest Dance hits. Could he be the last DJ?

* A-Trak plays Jaeger next Frædag

What is it to be a DJ in 2024? It used to be about an extensive and unique record collection; a talent for cultivating mood and euphoria through a selection of music; a skill for programming records through beat matching; and finding that third song as you blend two other songs. At the height of what is DJs popularity today, none of these things seems to matter when everything is about the celebrity of the DJ. It’s about how many followers you have on instagram and how good you look on a go-pro, with the “art” of DJing lost to the sync button and the allure of the craft maimed through millions of youtube tutorials.

Everybody can DJ and everybody does. It demeans some of the allure of what a DJ could be, but there was a time when this was different. There was a sense of mystique and unattainable skill involved. It was a record blending seamlessly into another with music that you could only hear in that specific context. There was no way of knowing what the DJ was doing, and even if you did, the chances of you acquiring the same music was remote.

At its most extreme you found the turntablist DJs, courting the Hip Hop scene. Their acrobatic skills behind a set of decks were something more akin to musical gymnastics than art. It required a whole other set of skills and training. It was a dexterous talent combined with inherent natural rhythm and melodic ear.  

We have all tried it; “scratching” your dad’s Pink Floyd records to the chagrin of your whole family. It never sounded like those Hip Hop records you admired and the deep gash it left in the record would often result in disciplinary repercussions, and rarely in anything musical. There were some people that could evoke melody, rhythm and even a whole song from those otherwise “noisy” interactions with a record player, and there were a few people that could do that from the start. A-Trak was one of those people and he has been in a league all his own since he was a teenager. 

“I think the surprising thing that happened with me,” he told DJ Booth magazine, “is that where most people try it and it sounds like ass, I had it sounding like scratching right from the start.” This was before he became A-Trak and he was still going by Alain Macklovitch scratching records like Stevie Wonder’s Keys of Life while decoding the techniques from Hip Hop albums like Pete Rock’s Main Ingredient or movies like Wild Style. ”I would watch the movie and pay close attention to all those scenes of Grandmaster Flash DJing while noticing the crossfader and even just how to hold a record and drop the needle, the physicality of it all. I was 12 or 13.” 

Fast forward 30 years, and A-trak is one of the most accomplished DJs around, not merely for his skills as a scratch DJ, but for his ability to crossover between musical genres, which parlayed that into a career that covers everything from Hip Hop to House music. He’s worked with the likes of Kanye West, had a billboard charting Dance hit, and established one of the most successful labels in Fools Gold, putting out records from Danny Brown, Kid Cudi, Run the Jewels and of course his Armand van Helden collaboration, Duck Sauce. It all started with his first DMC championship at the age of 15 in 1997; an international turntablist exhibition showcase and competition.

In 1997, DJing was still equally split between those turntablist DJs associated with Hip Hop and Dance music DJs known for their beat matching progressive mixes through genres like House and Techno. Back in the late eighties when these two things were a bit more fluid, DJ’s like Jeff Mills (neé the Wizard) were incorporating turntablist techniques like scratching and beat-juggling in mixes covering everything from Funk to Synth Wave. By the mid nineties there were two distinct camps, however with Hip Hop claiming the turntablist while dance music moved into something more fluid like what we experience in a Techno set today.

It was in the Hip Hop arena that A-Trak’s skills developed and where he first staked his claim. After taking the 1997 DMC title, A-Trak found himself moving in Hip Hop royalty circles. His deftness in handling a turntable were coveted by the great producers of the early 2000’s and today they have been forever immortalised on records like Common’s Be or Kanye West’s Gold Digger. It was particularly under the latter’s wing that A-Trak the artist would become fully-formed. “I think Kanye always encouraged me,” he explained in a DJ Mag interview. “Once I started working with Kanye, I became even more aware of what I was doing as A-Trak.”

Starting out as Kanye’s touring DJ, he would eventually work on the artist’s albums Registration (2005) and Graduation (2007), before he started to make his own music. One thing that set A-Trak apart from his mentor however was his extensive knowledge of music beyond Hip Hop, including Dance music genres like House. It’s even rumoured it was A-Trak that introduced Kanye to Daft Punk, before the latter built Stronger around the legendary Daft Punk sample. Around that time House and more vaguely Dance music in America was still something just a bit twee or cheesy. “For the longest time, dance music didn’t really have a place in mass culture in America;” A-Trak told Andrew WK in an Interview Tête a Tête. “It was kind of a subculture, and in a lot of ways, was corny. Like, you heard house music at clubs with dudes who wore muscle shirts and had gel in their hair.” 

A-Trak likens it to the Roxbury SNL skit; something to be ridiculed and it took people like him to legitimise it in the eyes of the American public. As somebody that came from Hip Hop with ties to artists like Kanye West, A-Trak could bridge the gap between the stylised aspects of a Hip Hop DJ and the transient euphoria of a dance floor. He not only sought to combine this in the way that he DJ’d, but also in the way he produced music, before channelling it all into the label, Fool’s Gold eventually. There was an untrodden path that laid before him between the way Hip Hop and House music was made and he succeeded in finding the shortcut between these two worlds. 

“Coming from a hip-hop background, I grew up in the aesthetics of sampling. And in the classic days of hip-hop, there were all these unwritten rules about what you’re allowed to sample and what you’re not allowed to sample,” he explained in that Interview article. He could only really “produce at home if my whole record collection was there,” but things changed around the same time he established Fool’s Gold. “I started wanting to make tracks that I could actually put in my sets.” He started “integrating synth sounds” in his music, and even though he didn’t quite know how they worked just yet, it started to coalesce into something like a musical “sculpture”. 

Fool’s Gold initially coincided with a move to New York and meeting Nick Barat (aka Catchdubs) who, along with Graphic artist Dust La Rock and A-Trak’s brother Dave Macklovitch (aka Dave One from Chromeo), established the label around 2006.  – O yes, did we forget to mention, A-Trak and Dave from Chromeo are siblings. “We were thinking about Nervous Records,” A-Trak explained about the origins of the label in the DJ booth article. Based on “(t)hose types of NY labels from generations before us that were completely informed by the DJ’s ear were hugely influential to us,” they were looking to bring “an interesting cross-section of people under one roof.” 

One such cross section was between A-Trak and Armand Van Helden as Duck Sauce, which took A-Trak from DJ and label runner to House music producer. Their lead single Barabara Streinsand was a chart topping success with a Grammy nomination. Not only did it give him the opportunity to work with a House legend, but it also provided a new outlet for the multi-faceted DJ. He could now easily be at home with a turntablist exhibition routine as he would at a House club. Often incorporating both, his House sets can and will feature some “turntable-Jazz,” undercutting the stoic beat-matching pursuits of a typical House set, without it getting corny and gimmicky. “Underground hip-hop is part of what I do.” he told DJ tech tools. “The mash-up and electro phase of the mid-2000s still pops up in what I do,” he continued. “I don’t necessarily have a favourite type of set, every set is unique.” 

A-Trak and his intersection between Hip Hop and House music, informed from his early years up until today is in an on-going evolution. “Everything is part of a progression: what I’m doing now includes components of everything that I’ve done, from the mid-90s, up until now,“ he concluded in a DJ tech Tools interview. From his teenage years as a battle DJ, his earliest production credits in Hip Hop, up to Duck Sauce and Fool’s Gold and his pursuits today as producer and DJ, everything informs A-Trak’s sound as one of the most full-formed DJs today.

“I’m just as versed in hip-hop as I am in electronic music,” he told Interview. “ So I have this sort of bird’s-eye view of where this is going, and I’m also a participant in it.” He truly is the last DJ.

DJ Dust has been a touchstone in the Oslo scene as a Funk savant, an NRK broadcaster and a Headon O.G. We talk to him about all those things and more ahead of his set with Espen Haa for our next Loft and David Mancuso tribute.

“The only problem I have is that all my records are in a big container, and I’m in the process of finding… ” 

“The container?”

“No, the music I’m going to play.” (laughs)

I Imagine Jan Tørresen (aka DJ Dust) waist deep in a sea of black shellac, wading through tattered sleeves featuring all kinds of people dressed in seventies attire, a collage of comic book characters brought to life. “I have no order, that’s the problem,” he muses over a telephone call from his home in Grimstad. 

Jan is preparing for a visit to Jaeger’s sauna alongside Espen Haa for the annual Loft and David Mancuso tribute, which  comes with a set of very strict rules from Espen. “And I have to abide by those rules, so I’m gonna play the Loft classics.” Fortunately he has collected a fair few of those ”Loft classics” over the years and, hidden somewhere in his disorderly record collection, they’re just waiting to be rediscovered. 

Jan Tørresen has been collecting and playing records since his early teens. Back then Grimstad was a “sleepy southern town” where “nothing happened” according to Jan, but there were two record shops. Jan had an early fascination for music and by the age of 14 he was DJing at  school parties. There was only “one other DJ in Grimstad” according to his memory, but Jan had an early distinction from his peer for being… the worst at it. 

“I just played new music and they hated it,” he recalls with guffaw. ”I didn’t know anything about DJing. All I knew was that I liked to play records, but I didn’t know what people wanted so I didn’t give people what they wanted.”  With the exception of a few close friends, it didn’t make him very popular,  but he was still determined. 

He recounts one specific incident at his first gig outside his hometown:  “I remember I played Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five’s ‘Wheels of Steel’ in Kristiansand, and I was asked to leave. “ It wasn’t an isolated incident apparently, but he was only a teenager at the time. “I thought people wanted to hear some really funky shit, but all the people wanted to hear was Creedence Clearwater Revival and Bob Dylan.”

While Jan’s love for music wasn’t much reciprocated in his community there was a lot of interest in music and Djing in Norway, proliferated by a musical émigré class. “Back in the eighties there weren’t many Norwegian DJs but there was a big demand for DJs all over Norway and the UK supplied those DJs.” Those DJs in turn needed access to the latest records from abroad and record stores started to pop up all over the country to supply these DJs, record stores owned and ran by many of these same DJs.  By the time Jan turns 16, a third record store opens in Grimstad. It was called Mike Lewis’ records, named after just such an English DJ. 

Jan started working there in 1982. “That was heaven to me, because that was direct-import disco stuff.“ He took his salary in records, but even that didn’t endear him to the dance floors around Grimstad. “I played the music that they were playing in the hippest nightclubs in New York in Grimstad, and of course they  didn’t understand it. I loved that music, and I was under the impression that the music that I was playing in my room, the music I went bananas for, they were gonna love it, but they hated it of course.” 

A lot of what he was listening to in his bedroom was Funk, and the music genre hadn’t reached those uber-cool levels it had enjoyed in the USA at that point. Jan was way ahead of his time. After hearing Funkadelic’s Aquaboogie, Jan was hooked and he assumed others would be too. ”I just fell into it,” recalls Jan, before continuing, “it just felt right for me.” People might have hated it, but he was probably the only one playing it around that time, and soon enough everybody comes around.

He learned to adapt and started playing more of the music he thought people wanted to hear. It coincided with the opening of Skyline in Grimstad by 1985, a place where Jan would truly start cutting his teeth as a DJ. It was a “very modern looking place for Grimstad” and the “best disco in the south of Norway”. During his time at Skyline Jan really “started to understand the politics of dancing.” It didn’t stop him however from sneaking in a Funk oddity in his sets, something that could “clear the dance floor, just for the hell of it.”

By the time he moved to Oslo in 1990, a shift in attitudes towards this music started to appear. His earliest tastes in music ossified around Funk, Soul and Disco, and he was determined to make this work and it seemed the capital was following a similar path. 

Armed with a box of Funk, Jan was set loose on Oslo. ”I checked out what the coolest club was and asked if I could play, and you know what they said?” Jan asks rhetorically. They said “see you on Friday.” It was a time when you could still make a living as a DJ. DJs were still set apart at that stage, because not only did they have to intrinsically understand those “dance floor politics” as Jan put it so eloquently earlier, but they also had to have the records. Jan’s salary in records that he had been stockpiling, put him in a league of his own. 

“My collection was quite unique,” he boasts “because of my job at Mike Lewis’ record shop, I had all the records nobody else had.” Those American and British imports had set Jan apart early on, and his selections soon caught the ear of the people behind Headon; a club that would change the landscape of Oslo’s club culture for generations to come. They had “heard I played Funk and Soul and Disco stuff,” remembers Jan. “They came down there and asked me to play at Headon. Everything was much easier, because there were fewer DJs back then.”

Jan’s “vast 7” collection with really hardcore funk” was the perfect match for Headon’s immoveable Funk philosophy at that time. Unlike Grimstad, he could play “hardcore Funk and it worked because people hadn’t heard that in a club in Oslo before.”

By the mid nineties Jan’s reputation as DJ Dust preceded him. Wherever “people needed funk, I delivered” and it turned out that even the radio needed the Funk. National broadcaster NRK and P3 had heard the shockwaves of club music passing through the country. They had already enlisted the help of Olle Abstract and Pål Strangefruit in courting a younger audience dancing to many raves and nightclubs that were thriving in Oslo at that time. NRK thought they needed a third addition to their roster to complete the sonic triptych of Oslo’s nightlife and approached Jan on the merits of his appeal at Headon, but they wanted a little more than music at first. 

“They asked me to do some comedy, because believe it or not I can be quite funny sometimes.” The idea was to interlace the music selections with comedic “skits” but time and resources proved wanting. Jan was working at Virgin Music as a product manager by that time, and between Djing and his day job, the music would have to suffice for broadcasting purposes. 

It was a golden epoch for Norwegian public radio with Olle, Pål and Jan on the airwaves, conveying something of a subculture through national airwaves, and it’s something that has been lost since. Besides perhaps Frantzvaag’s weekly radio show, NRK’s programming today appears conservative in tastes and range and completely out of touch with what’s happening on the dance floors of Oslo. When pressed about that period in broadcasting and their liberal pursuits, Jan can only offer:  “I wish I could give you an answer to that, but I don’t know.”

What he does know however is that his work at Headon was the foundation for his work in broadcasting and for a period between 1997-2002, he was a very influential selector in the scene. He continued to play at Headon, and was one of the only DJ’s to play there for the entire lifespan of the institution. As the club and its DJs matured, they would relax their music policy, opening the hardcore Funk establishment up to Soul and Disco, but stopping short of any contemporary electronic sounds, which was the main purview of places like Skansen and Jazzid at that time. 

Jan would also move on from his beloved Funk into the realm of Disco for his radio show on NRK toward the end of his incumbency. It coincided with a vital time for what would be a burgeoning Space Disco scene coming out of Oslo. Jan doesn’t believe it had any direct influence on the scene, but he does acknowledge that  “Lindstrøm listened to it (his show)” and he distinctly recalls giving “Prins Thomas a gig at Headon when he was just a kid.”

Even twenty years on, nights like this Loft Tribute and the sounds we hear on the dance floor week in and week out, has interned Disco’s endless appeal in Oslo. “It’s groovy, it’s uplifting and it’s fun,” reflects Jan about Disco’s everlasting charm. Yet again I get the “I wish I  knew”  on why something is the way it is, but for Disco’s enduring love, he can guess that it is because “there’s Disco in new music.” He singles out Sabrina Carpenter’s espresso as an example, and for his own love for the genre he is unbiased. 

“I love both the organic Disco and the electronic Disco,” he insists. His hardline Funk pursuits softened over the years and “in the last ten years” he’s even “been doing some new stuff.” Back in the nineties, he wouldn’t play anything beyond the ninety eighties, but today you could find DJ Dust playing a newly released House cut. 

When he did the Jaeger Mix in 2019, he kept it strictly eighties synth Disco with tracks from Scritti Politti and Mtume alongside some of that signature Funk sound. That was the last time we had a DJ Dust set at Jaeger. We don’t often get the opportunity to hear a DJ Dust set here in Oslo, so when he does we’re guaranteed something special. During our interview for that Jaeger Mix, he joked about hanging up his headphones “lots of times” in the past, but never could quite make it stick. “It’s when you get out there and start playing and you see people really enjoy the music and dance their ass off, it makes it all worthwhile.”

Today he still works within the music industry as a freelance music supervisor, marrying music with films and adverts. That side of his musical personality remains “completely different” to what he does in the capacity of a DJ. Like any other job, it’s just there to facilitate the passion, and Jan’s passion remains strong for his first love. Back in 2019 he said, “my heart still beats faster when it comes to soul, funk and disco” and that remains the case today. 

I leave Jan to his digging as I hang up, picturing again the Norwegian DJ in a container somewhere in the south of Norway. We don’t know what he’s going to play, but whatever it is we can be sure that DJ Dust will bring the Funk! 

Talking to Daox one of the co-creators and DJs behind MOGA in Morocco about the extended Moroccan scene and his own history with electronic music.

Essaouira, Morocco is a city steeped in cultural- and musical heritage. It was literally the last port of call for generations of African men and women before they were bonded into slavery, creating a melting pot of African music traditions and taking it to new worlds like the Americas.

Today the former Portuguese port town has removed the shackles of its blighted history, but it continues those traditions with festivals dedicated to various styles and genres of music, extending  way beyond those ritualistic traditions. From Jazz to Electronic music, Essauoira is a modern-day musical Babylon, a sonic metropolis where people gather annually for everything from traditional folk music to contemporary electronica. 

Today, Essaouira is a fishing- and tourist town, with a social calendar filled with music festivals.  One of the festivals is MOGA. The electronic music festival staked its claim in the city in 2016 and has become a touchstone for the electronic music scene in the region. Every year since their start – besides during covid – they’ve been bringing some of the best international DJs and artists to their intimate gathering for a largely Moroccan audience. 

In 2024 they hosted the likes of Dixon, DJ Tennis, Paula Tape and Prins Thomas alongside events and activities that broaden the scope beyond the performance and spill out into the rest of the  city. Since 2021 they’ve added a sister event in Portugal with the producers behind the festival bringing those dark historical links between the two countries to a new positive light through music. 

One of the people  behind the festival is Daox (Abdeslam Alaoui). The Moroccan DJ producer and club promoter has had more skin in the game than any other, having effectively helped build what constitutes a scene around Morocco through his various activities as DJ and club promoter. As the co-founder and main booker for MOGA, Daox continues to be a bridge between Morocco and the rest of the world.

It doesn’t go without its own sacrifices however and when I called him up the week after this year’s festival, he was still recovering from Bronchitis, and resting up. “I’ll be ok,” he assures as he prepares for his visit to Jaeger to play Oslo World this week. Memories of seeing some of his “favourite DJs” including “Prins Thomas and Rhadoo” are still fresh even if it was only for a moment during the busy haze of running the festival, and while questions of the festival linger, there is also a rich musical history behind Daox. 

As a DJ he calls himself a student of the “groove school…  when it’s groovy and it’s drummy and seamless.” With sets that drift between “House and old Techno,” Daox is an eclectic sort, coming from a time when the differences between genres were more fluid and it was all about that rhythm. 

As such he continues to be a “Perlon addict,” playing with the subjective conventions into his own musical diatribe. Besides DJ and festival runner, he is also a producer and has worked under a string of different aliases in the past. His most recent release is a collaboration with Hip Hop artist Young Loun, where he created the haunting electronic atmospheres that embrace the rapper’s wavy vocals. 

It might seem at odds for an artist and DJ hosting an electronic music festival, but what I soon discover is that nothing is as you’d expect with Daox, and his passion for music reaches as deep as the origins of music itself. 

How was this year’s MOGA festival? We had Paula Tape play here almost directly after and she had only good things to say about it.

It was a big success, after we had to cancel last year because of the earthquake. We lost a lot of money last year, and people sometimes lose trust in these situations. You lose a bit of the momentum and hype and we had to rebuild.

Running a festival is not without its challenges, I’m sure. What was the impetus to take that risk and to start your own festival in the region?

I was running parties and I was running some residencies. I hosted a boiler room to bring James Holden, Floating Points, Biosphere and Vessel to Morocco alongside some local artists like Maâlem Mahmoud Guinia and Maâlem Mohamed Kouyou, who are big in Morocco. 

At the same time I was playing in Morocco, but the parties weren’t that good, so I started hosting my own parties outside of the clubs, because the clubs were too commercial. 

After that I became the artistic director of Pacha, Marrakech – totally by accident – and I completely changed the programming. I brought over big names like Shaun Reeves, Life and Death, Seth Troxler and Luciano. It helped to bring fresh music to Morocco, and bringing this underground music to clubs helped to shape the scene. 

I left Morocco for Canada shortly after to study and I met my close friends & associate partners Benoit Geli & Matthieu Corosine, who wanted to do a festival in Morocco. We ended up in Essaouira. 

It’s such an amazing location with stunning scenery and a lot of history.

It’s a beautiful city. Essaouira was a Portuguese harbour and a slave post. It’s really small, but they have a big cultural- and musical legacy. People like Santana and Jimi Hendrix would visit it back in the day and you also have Gnawa music. It’s an historical music that is played on the gimbri, which is like the precursor to the bass, and was played by the slaves and you can still hear them play this mystical music today. The city hasn’t lost its authenticity and its vibe and they have five different music festivals there throughout the year, but we decided to do something electronic. 

What’s your main audience at MOGA, is it more local people?

It was always for local people. During the time we launched MOGA, all the festivals were more tourist festivals. It was more focussed on promoting it outside of Morocco. We always wanted to create a festival for Moroccans. 

What is your capacity for the festival, because from the videos I’ve seen it looks very intimate, and people can get very close to their favourite DJ? It is a contrast from what we usually see, which is aeroplane hangars with a sea of people below a DJ two metres in the air.

It was our initial idea to keep MOGA intimate. We didn’t just want to bring in people to play. We wanted to create a hub, a rendezvous where it’s not just about seeing other artists. It’s an experience. For that reason it’s always going to be less than 5000 people in Morocco. 

We can go to 10000, but it will lose its magic. 

You don’t feel like you’d be tempted to grow it even bigger?

In Portugal we can go to 6000 people because it is on the beach. Activities and the city events will be bigger, but we want it to stay like this, although you never know. 

Besides its historic links, what is the connection between Essaouira and Portugal? 

The city in Portugal where we host MOGA is Almada which is a Moroccan-Portuguese city. We always wanted to do something in Portugal, but we never had the chance. During Covid we got together with our partners and they suggested we make it somewhere else, and Portugal was first on our list. It happened really fast. We met the ambassador for Portugal in Morocco, who was an old DJ, and opened the door to some people in Portugal. In one month or less, we were ready to go. Since 2021 we’ve been doing it every year. It has become a really big cultural exchange. 

It’s something of a continuation of that shared cultural heritage of the past, but in a more positive light. 

Exactly. 

Is electronic music the main focus of MOGA?

I always call MOGA a contemporary dance music festival. It can be electronic or even tribal. In electronic music you can have many different styles, so it’s already quite vast. More so today as everything from Hip Hop to Rock music use more and more electronic components. Let’s just call it Dance music! (laughs)

Yes, you can dance to anything really. You mentioned that you were bringing in international artists to Marakech. Was there a big scene for that kind of thing back when you started?

The scene was already big in clubs, but it was different music. It was really mainstream. It was Swedish House Mafia and David Guetta, which wasn’t bad, but it was too focussed on this kind of music. Bringing fresher underground artists to clubs, also brought with it a legitimacy. 

I grew up and came up through Psytrance festivals; we have a lot of Psytrance festivals in Morocco. But this music never stood a chance in clubs and you couldn’t really play it in bars. We couldn’t really reach more people, so when I started working at Pacha, bringing the kind of music that we considered more underground, the crowd got bigger and people became more curious.  

Were there other people interested in that kind of music before this, or was this something you had to build as well?

Before Pacha, we had a collective called Runtomorrow. We were around 15 people but around Morocco you could find other similar collectives running parties. Every city had its own collective. Talents were always there, but the clubs and the bars weren’t following or believing in us. It was quite a challenge because you had to start from scratch. None of us had club experiences so we all figured it out by doing it. 

I guess the internet would’ve helped, but this would have been an early internet, before social media? 

It was the early internet. It wasn’t like now, when the internet is fast, you have instagram and information is readily available. We were sharing parties in forums before facebook. (laughs)

What is your own history with electronic, dance music? 

When I was younger I used to watch tv to listen to this kind of music on channels like MTV and MCM. At night, MCM would play electronic music videos, like Aphex Twin. One night they played a Ken Ishii music video. 

It was quite famous, but it was quite violent so they played it late at night. I remember staying up late at night trying to watch it again and again, without knowing what this kind of music was. Later, we got napster and things got better. 

At the time you saw that Ken Ishii video, this was the late nineties?

It was more mid-nineties. Napster came years after, and then the internet came to Morocco and even if it was slow, you could start researching this music for yourself on-line. Then in Morocco we had a big festival called Morocco 2001, which was put together by some German guys in the middle of the desert. It was Psytrance and Techno and they had around 5000 people attend. 

All the Moroccans that went there came back illuminated, because they had discovered a new way of music. A few of them started running their own parties at festivals like Rhythm of Peace, Which was run by a Moroccan DJ & passionate Moundir Zniber aka Moon who was a friend with the people behind Boom! Festival in Portugal.

Between 2001 and 2009, it was the golden age of music in Morocco, where the country shaped its electronic music identity. It was really different than anything you would hear even in European clubs. It was the underground of underground music. 

You mentioned Boom! and the Germans there. Was it mainly European people importing that sound to Morocco or was there a Moroccan electronic sound already?

Yes it was more imported from Europe, but like everything you find artists that are willing to experiment and it will find its way into a fusion of historical music and European music. It was the same in the 60’s and 70’s when we had a big psychedelic movement of music here with psych rock. At the end your roots always come through. 

Which way were you inclined to go when you started DJing, were there any Moroccan electronic artists putting out records at that time?

We didn’t really have records from electronic artists here when I started, so it was mainly coming from Europe, and more so from the USA. But my sound changed every year. I started out in Psytrance and then I went into progressive and then Techno and then minimal. Today, the reason I can programme a festival is that I’m not limited. I like different kinds of music and I’m really open. Life is too short to limit yourself to one style of music.

Where were you coming across the records from the likes of the USA?

Napster, like I mentioned before. We didn’t have a big vinyl culture here. We had a nice cassette business. They were easy and cheap to make, and you could find a Techno mega-mix. 

What era was this?

Up until the late nineties, because they were super easy to copy. I still have a cassette called Mix Zone from that time. I bought it after I found out about Ken Ishii and I still have it. I still play music from this cassette. 

I guess not from the actual cassette?

I bought the original records from discogs and a few digital versions. It still sounds fresh, like it was released today. The music is timeless. 

When and how did you make the leap into DJing?

I started downloading music in 2002, and I was playing it to my friends. Even though we never had a chance to go to the parties playing this music, we became a community. Eventually we decided to make our own parties. In the beginning we were just some people in a house, listening to music, and we realised we needed somebody to DJ. 

I bought a soundsystem and my friend brought a really old mixer and then we started ripping CDs and playing music. We were 10 at the first party and by the last ones we were 200-300 people. It started at a friend’s house and in the end we had to do it on farms.   

Besides DJing, you also make music on various aliases. What are you currently working on or are the production aliases on hiatus?

I still make music, but for the moment there’s a challenge in making time for it. I have side projects where I make everything from ambient to techno. I help produce other artists and  recently I made a Hip Hop EP with an artist called Young Loun. I have also been working on an album for the last 7 years. For the last five months I have had a studio, so I’m finally finishing it. You can actually expect a lot of new music from me next year.

We premiere a remix of Ivaylo’s Lifter from PsychoFreud while we talk to Anders Figenschow about AI, Drum n Bass in Norway and a little history 

Norwegian Drum n Bass and Jungle has always had much more success outside of Norway. Even at times  when places like the UK are in the midst of a revival, Norway has only enjoyed slight increases in interest, with most of the fanfare for the Norwegian scene happening outside its borders. At the height of the genre’s popularity back in the late nineties to the early 2000’s, Drum and Bass and Jungle DJs were in-demand, and some of the world’s best were home-grown Norwegian talents. 

PsychoFreud was one of those DJs and he became one of Norway’s biggest exports in Drum and Bass during that time. A demanding touring schedule and releases for some of the genre’s pre-eminent and prestigious labels saw his star rise in regions like eastern Europe. Sought after and rarely taking a break PsychoFreud became a household name in the international scene, but after 15 years  he changed course and took his life into a different direction. 

After years of touring on the international circuit where he’s played places like Romania over 20 times, he resigned himself to a quiet life, focussing on a career outside of music and his family.” My daughter is 16,” says Anders Figenschow (aka PsychoFreud) over a telephone call, ”so it’s still a few years, and until then, I’m gonna stay at home and make sure the family is ok.”

While at home however music has remained a constant in his life, and he continues to produce tracks and remixes under various aliases and projects including Gunmen with Tony Anthem, King Kanakas and of course PsychoFreud. On the rare occasion when he does make it to a DJ booth these days, he’ll adopt the familiar PsychoFreud to play the odd set for a friend abroad or at home, including a regular appearance at Jaeger’s Drum and Bass and Jungle night with Bigup, but for the time being he is content in dedicating his time to the recorded work. 

His latest is part of a remix package for the next release on Lab Cleaning Jams, with Anders providing two very distinct remixes for the project under two different aliases. While his King Kanakas Funk and Disco side project was the obvious choice for Ivaylo’s progressive House original, it’s the PsychoFreud remix that we get to premiere today as he takes the original into a rollicking uptempo Drum and Bass track infused with some dancehall vocals. 

“That was sort of a challenge,” explains Anders, “because making a drum n bass remix out of a house-y disco track is difficult, because of the speed difference.” Going from circa 120 beats per minute into 176, very little of the original track remains and even what’s there has been totally reworked for the context. The bassline is the only constant between the two as the “main-driver“  in PsychoFreud’s adaptation of the original. It pedals through a broken amen break while a vocal honours the artist behind the original track in a simulacra of Jamaican MC toast. 

Making a “vocal version” was the biggest challenge of the remix according to Anders. In the past he might have turned to a singer, but on this occasion he took it upon himself, but it’s still not his voice you hear. “You can tell,” he says through what I can glean is a smile on  the other end of the telephone call. “Since I started making Drum and Bass, in the mid-nineties, I’ve always worked with singers,” he starts to explain. “Lately it is easier since I can use AI to do them for me.” 

Avoiding the cost and unpredictability of the human mood, Anders has turned more and more to AI in his productions and it’s been used to uncanny realism across his two remixes for this release.  “This way I make sure I’m happy with it,” he says of his use of AI generated vocals. He stops short at letting AI dictate the lyrics, suggesting  “it would very quickly sound bad,” if it were left up to the machines. Anders writes the lyrics including his shout-out to Ivaylo, using the new technology as “a complimentary thing,” to the rest of his production

You couldn’t tell until somebody told you, and even then it’s still hard to not put a human face behind those vocals. Furthermore, his use of AI in his sampling techniques for this track is completely indiscernible. ”It’s much easier now to generate parts and use that as samples,” he says, because of all the “legal aspects” that make actual sampling so difficult today. 

Anders knows about those sampling headaches all too well, since he cut his teeth in Hip Hop in the nineties back during a time when sampling still lived in that ambiguous grey area between stealing and repurposing. As a member and the producer for Oslo’s Most Wanted, a notorious rap ensemble long since disbanded, he would learn his eventual musical trade. “I wasn’t very good,” he humbly suggests, “ but I could sample things and loop something.” His time with Oslo’s Most Wanted was short lived however and his time with the group was clouded in turmoil. It’s “a long story, for another type of interview,” he concedes. “It was a very dramatic time and there was lots of violence involved,” and after a few albums in quick succession Anders moved onto the next thing which was Drum and Bass and adopted the pseudonym, Psycofreud. 

In the late nineties PsychoFreud’s music was picked up by the “quality” Drum and Bass label Knowledge and Wisdom and this is what, according to Anders, really “kicked off my music story.” He would spend the next fifteen years touring all over the world, playing in a different country every weekend. Fusing Reggae, Dancehall and Jungle in energetic Drum and Bass constructions, his style has always been distinctive. Listening to an early release like “Selassie I,” all those ingredients we find on the Lifter remix, including the vocals, are already present. 

“It’s the same sound I’ve always” made, suggests Anders, and even with AI, it’s still concurrent. I wonder if his sound would have adapted to the newer audiences and clubs had he still been playing out, but besides the “natural evolution of music” he doesn’t think so. He goes as far as to suggest that he considered the quality of his sound was “never the best” compared to something like Tony Anthem or Serial Killaz. “I just care about what the bass sounds like and what the vocals are doing. I’m more of a producer than a sound technician. I don’t care.”

Although PsychoFreud enjoyed much success outside of Norway, the small scene back home couldn’t accommodate anything like the scene in eastern Europe. “It’s impossible for a country like Norway to catch up,” suggests Anders in a rhetoric that I’ve heard from the likes of Teebee and Bigup in previous interviews too. 

“In eastern Europe people come into the clubs when they are 15. In those countries they expose a younger audience to that music. While in Norway it’s impossible, because they don’t let people into clubs under 20. And they don’t play it on the radio. What we call underground is big over there. Same with the UK.“

I consider whether he would have made the move into a 9-5 career and family life, had the scene been healthier here, but it’s not like Psychofrued or any other of the aliases or projects that Anders are involved in are on hiatus. Just last year he and Tony released  “So Mi Like It / Messed Up” as Gunmen on Dutch label Rasta Vibez while besides this remix for Ivaylo, PsychoFreud is readily busy on soundcloud. 

In one of the latest posts, he’s on a Hip-Hop tip, and during the course of our Hip Hop discussions he does say; “I really want to make a new album and finish off something.”  No doubt it would feature some AI technology, at the very least at a sampling level, and whether or not he’ll get back into playing across the world, we’ll have to wait and see when his daughter is all grown up. He’ll surely be making a turn again at Bigup either way and for now we have this remix to keep us company. 

These records just in at Filter Musikk…

“Life is full of surface noise!” That’s what broadcasting legend and musical savant John Peel used to proclaim when arguing for the continued relevance of vinyl in the face of the “cleaner” sound of digital. The quote came at a time when MP3‘s future dominance was just starting to establish itself. 

Ironically, today MP3’s have been superseded with streaming (arguably a lower quality of music format) and in the tumult around commercial compensation for artists and the value of music on platforms like Spotify, the surface noise of vinyl is inaudible.

Independent record labels are opting for more physical-only releases, while there are record stores solely dedicated to that format. Old records are getting remastered and re-produced in their original format and new records are garnering a lot more attention if they arrive in a record sleeve. 

For today’s music nerd, the surface noise of everyday life is the wistful evocation of the snap, crackle and pop of their favourite record. It’s the sound that permeates out of Oslo’s Filter Musikk everyday, and even if you’re not at the listening station with a pair of headphones, you can hear the tsk tsk of a needle scrubbing through the grooves of some record. 

Here’s the latest from the shelves of that hallowed ground, as we get into another cut with Filter Musikk. 

*Filter Musikk are back in the sauna next Wednesday.

Sequent Consult – Substance of Faith EP (12”)

Norwegian artist incoming. Rub800’s launches his new Sequent Consult alias and label with a vinyl only limited run of the first EP, Substance of Faith.”New label with a DIY spirit” proclaims the artist and that ticks all kinds of boxes here.

Four blissed out Techno tracks squeak and and bleep like a robotic fever dream throughout. The groove is minimal and it’s firmly rooted in every track, unwavering and purposeful, allowing synths and pads to streak across into unknown territories. At one end of the spectrum, the title track is a solid dance floor filler, including accessible melody and a ear-worm vocal snippet, while at the far end “Slow Burnt” offers an off-kilter downtempo stepper. 

There’s an atmosphere of mystery and tension through the whole release, a sonic sci-fi opera in the language of machines. It’s a strong start to a new label and this new alias, and we sincerely hope there is more lined up for the future and more homegrown talents follow suit. 

Ulo S. – Uphoria (12″)

Ulo S. is the new alias of Lou Karsch, the man behind LKR records and a host of aliases that have been released on everybody from Further Electronix to Kalahari Oyster Cult. It’s no surprise, he’s based in Melbourne where there’s always been this odd confluence of everything.  

The Australian city is like the Bermuda triangle of music, where the world’s oddities arrive and in an odd fusion of genres from emerging artists spills back out in the world unfamiliar. From the ersatz jazz-prog of Midlife to an anything-goes label like Butters Sessions, Melbourne is a strange yet endearing place for music.

On Ulo S. first release, unusually melodic bleats and squawks cultivated from synthesisers are offered up on a bedrock of simple rhythmical constructions. A lot of Acid and plenty of a drive tunnelling its way through the dance floor. On the title track a vocoder and fuller textures touch something closer to synth wave, but at its core this record’s intention towards the dance floor are clearly marked out. 

Legowelt – The Sad Life Of An Instagram DJ (12″)

Legowelt is not a complete stranger to Instagram. He has been making videos featuring some of the more obscure and affordable equipment in his sprawling gear-heaven. Showing us some of the unique features of these oft dismissed synths and drum machines, he’s also using the time to craft the beginning of future songs. 

The eccentric DJ seems anything but sad when doing this and these quirky videos always put a smile on my face at least. Or does he mean another kind of Instagram DJ?

Humorous- and nerdy titles aside, this record delivers that Legowelt charm in abundance. Electro remains the foundation for everything Legowelt and this record is no different. Even when dies move into a straight 4/4 kick like on “No One Wants To Buy My NFT” or ”Soundblaster Pro Tripper”, there’s always an Electro sensibility in the arrangements and sounds. 

Between the titles of the tracks and their sounds, Legowelt’s DIY impromptu style is everywhere and immediately recognisable. It’s always consistent and as more and more of these ageing producers capitulatie to trends or simply drop out, Legowelt’s music is becoming more unique than ever. 

Cela – I’m In Love (12″)

Italo Disco is always going to have a place at Jaeger. There’s something about the bubblegum attitude and the grooves of these records that just work on the dance floor. 

Although Giorgio opened the door, the wealth of artists and records that followed, is still continually being catalogue. It feels like every time we do this piece, there’s a new reissue/remastered version of an Italo Disco masterpiece. Some are well-known, often coveted records, while others are obscure digger references and there are so many labels operating today, whose sole purpose it is to unearth these gems and present them to a new audience. 

Cela falls somewhere between those two categories as an artist duo (Marty Celay and Robert Drake) that was well known in Disco circles working with the likes of Chic, but who only created one such creation themselves.

“I’m in Love” is not one the most obscure tracks, lighting up dance floors in and around 1979.  Its soulful bass groove and unforgettable hook has waned little. For 11 minutes there’s nothing else you want to hear and in the stripped-back US version the build-up creates just enough tension for a DJ to transport a dance floor to new heights. 

The Source Experience – Throwback (12″)

A throwback both in name and attitude, back to a time when Techno was raw, impulsive and unforgiving. It wasn’t about elevated tempos or the size of the room, but the brutality of the sounds and energy of the track. 

It’s something Robert Leiner aka The Source Experience knows all too well as somebody that cut his teeth on that sound back in the beginning. That’s the sound he instilled at R&S through records like his self-titled debut, which went on to establish R&S as one of the leading lights in the field of Techno at the time. 

Some three decades on from that record and The Source Experience continues to perpetuate that sound with another record for Börft. Acid motifs squeezed between clenched teeth, emerge from the thunderous drum programming on the title track and “Acid Crack.” 

On “Far Out,” Leiner eases in than Electro arrangement. Pliable synthetic pads swaddle sharp metallic rhythms, in stark contrast to the first two tracks. There’s no hook and the sonic nature of the tracks are irreverent to any clichè or archetype.  That’s exactly how it should be. 

The legendary radio institution comes to Oslo in November taking over both floors with some rinse affiliates and local regulars

From pirate radio station to worldwide leader in UK underground music, Rinse FM celebrates 30 years in 2024 with the tour making a stop at Jaeger and g-HA & Olanskii’s Frædag. Samba Boys (KETTAMA & Tommy Holohan)  join a lineup of local residents ad DJs across our two floors for as we bring the airwaves to the club. While we drift into the heavier hues of Techno downstairs with Olanskii and Takt joining the Samaba Boys, upstairs we go from Balearic to Trance with g-HA, Charlotte Bendiks,  Øyvind Morken,  Pavel Plastikk and Dara Woo. 

Rinse FM was at the forefront of UK counterculture genres Grime, Garage and Dubstep, rigging up impromptu antennas to reach London’s urban enclaves back in the 1990’s and influencing a whole generation of producers and DJs in their wake. Today it’s a broadcasting behemoth with stations in London and Paris reaching audiences all over the world, where they continue to be the tastemakers for future generations.

You can read more about the event here and grab your tickets here.

Alexander Skancke talks about wearing his heart on his sleeve on his latest record and how he got here today ahead of his next Sunkissed appearance

In a recent video from his Instagram account, Alexander Skancke can be seen playing on a rooftop in Kiyv Ukraine. Below the video, there’s a personal message of thanks and appreciation for the resilience of the scene and people in the country. The DJ, label boss and record peddler has always worn his heart on his sleeve, and the post reflects the personal approach he adopts through everything he does, including his records. 

Last year, his debut LP, Kingdom Couch delivered a self-reflective account that confronted mental health and therapy head-on in the wake of isolation during the pandemic. His minimal production touches bleep with insecurities while menacing sonic textures carve desolate landscapes throughout. It’s unusual to find electronic music artists getting that literal with their music and rarer still for them to get as raw as Alexander gets in his vocal delivery. 

“I am an open book,” he reflects via a telephone call from Berlin.

Originally from Trondheim, Alexander has called Berlin home for some time, and has established a career and label from the German city. His label Quirk has become a significant feature in record stores everywhere and when he’s not working on the label or DJing, he spends his time at Bikini Waxx, a record store and distribution company, nestled in a courtyard in Kreuzberg. 

He is a familiar name on lineups across the rest of the city, and his label nights are a regular feature on Club Der Visonaire’s a calendar. He’s been playing on the international circuit since releasing his first records and even on occasion makes a stop at Oslo for the likes of Det Gode Selskab. 

With another upcoming gig for Sunkissed at Jaeger, his first visit to the club in a long time, we took the opportunity to catch up with the DJ, artist and label runner.  We talk about his start, what it takes to be a DJ and more, but we begin with his latest record. 

The latest release, I love you, is another example of you getting personal in your music. There’s a sweet story behind the origins of the record. Can you tell us about it?

I am really fortunate to have fallen in love with a really nice girl. It came out of nowhere and I used that as inspiration to finally write a record about love. Every artist has to do that at some point; write a record about love. It might be a cliche, but I wanted to do it as cliche as possible. 

It is unusual in the electronic dance music environment to hear artists getting so personal and wearing their heart on their sleeve like this.

Yeah, I’m an open book. I also wrote my last album going through a really hard time. The album was about going to therapy and struggling with isolation, like we all did during covid. Now, at the end of that, theres falling in love and building a life with what could be my life partner.  

When you are dealing with something as abstract as electronic music, how do you relay that sentiment to the listener?

It’s more of a feeling in a track, whether it’s happy, sad, mysterious or more abstract. I also use a lot of my own vocals and they are pretty direct. 

There is definitely an uplifting feeling to this record, and it’s in part to that kind of nineties-era House sound that you have going through this record. Is that something you were trying to bring across on this record?

I will definitely credit all the American artists that paved the way for house and techno music in the eighties and early nineties. They have been a huge inspiration to me. I guess it’s kind of an ode to that era. 

I read that you have been collecting records since you were 14. Is that correct?

Yes, I used my confirmation money at 14. I was at a crossroads of whether I should buy a mountain bike or a pair of turntables. My dad recommended I buy the turntables, and I only found out afterwards that my mom had said; ‘yeah give him two months and it will be over’,  but they are all very proud and happy for me now.  I still have those turntables. It spiralled out of control after that.

What planted the seed for you to want to become a DJ and was there anything like a community in Trondheim that urged you along?

I was in the basement, with nothing but two turntables and a mixer and I had to teach myself. 

What really inspired me was that there were musicians on both sides of the family. My grandfather was a multi-instrumentalist and he would tour the world playing in brass-bands. He was a piano teacher and he used to teach kids how to play all kinds of instruments in school.

So I was always around music, but I think starting to DJ was more of a rebellious act, even though my father was playing stuff like leftfield, the orb, and prodigy at an early age.

So your dad was pretty open to contemporary electronic music?

Yes, he’s the one to credit for all of this, I would say. 

Does your dad also play an instrument, or is he just a fan of music?

He doesn’t play any instruments, but I don’t know anyone that’s such a music collector as he is. So there was a constant exposure to all kinds of genres growing up. 

What were those first records you bought? 

When I bought the turntables, the guy gave me a stack of records, which was a mix of UK Hard House, Trance and 90’ Techno. I don’t remember which records they were, but they are definitely gone by now.

Was there a record store in Trondheim that you would frequent or were you already getting stuff online at that point?

There was no record store in Trondheim, so I would buy records every week from juno.co.uk. When I got a little older, I even took out a student loan to buy more records… I’m still paying for that.

I hope you still have those records.

Yes, a few of them, and I still play them.

Did you start making music around the same time as well?

I wouldn’t call it making music. It was just fooling around with some software on my computer. I started really getting into it around 2009. After that I was on it 24/7.

Did you have any formal musical training or was it like DJing, you thought yourself? 

I always wanted to play in a marching band as a kid, but since I was skiing and playing football, there was no room to join the marching band too. My grandfather tried to teach me how to read music and then he sadly passed away suddenly. I’m more or less self-taught in everything I have done. I’m really stubborn and I have to give some credit to the Internet and the people out there in that regard. 

Yes, it’s such a wealth of knowledgeable people sharing their thoughts and practices. 

For production; there has always been a ton of things out there, but when it comes to DJing, you can learn the technical aspects of it, but DJing is so much more than that. You have to learn by doing and experience. 

The internet can’t prepare you for playing in front of a crowd. 

Exactly. You can stand in your bedroom and DJ for fifty years, but when it comes to playing in a club, this you have to do by experience. I truly believe it takes over ten years to understand the true essence of DJing. 

When did you move to Berlin?

I’ve been a bit on and off with Berlin. I first moved here in 2013 for half a year and then I moved to Budapest for 2 years. I moved back to Berlin in 2016 and have been living here since. 

And did you start at Bikini Waxx immediately?

Bikini Waxx started a year later. It started with an intern position, uploading records to our webshop, in exchange for some records. It quickly evolved into a full time position. My career evolved parallel to the job.

As you evolved as a DJ did you find the recordstore having an effect on your approach?

100% of course. I’ve been DJing for 19 years, and if I look back, it’s only in the last 5 years that I’ve figured out what it’s about. It takes a long time to understand it. I’ve heard this from other established DJs too. 

I guess why the scene is still dominated by the established DJs that have been doing this for years and have the experience. 

Exactly. There’s always a new generation coming in, but many of them, at least in my circle, are already 30+ and they’ve been doing it since they were kids. 

When you did finally understand it, like you said, was there a particular catalyst for that aha moment in your career?

It’s from working in the record shop, which gave me a lot of exposure to different kinds of music, but it also made me see how people are using, buying and selecting music. I quickly realised a pattern where people are buying music that is perhaps not to their personal taste, but what they think is a trend or a hype. When I realised that, I thought to myself, nothing really matters except for what I truly feel and love. So I am personally trying to stay away from trends and hype. 

Is that something that relates to your music? Listening to the Quirk catalogue and your own stuff, there’s certainly a style there doesn’t waver. Has it always been like that or was there a similar eureka moment for you?

Obviously it’s evolved from the early records to now, but what happened when I started Quirk, it gave me the freedom to really express myself instead of trying to cater for another label, based on that sound. Being independent had freed up so much pressure as an artist. That’s why I started the label. After I did that first record and it became successful, I started to produce records that I truly felt reflected me and myself as an artist. 

There is this groovy, deep and minimal thing that I would suggest is you, but then there are also these touchstones whether it be Garage (Jungle Japes) or Breakbeat  (Lockmind) that recontextualizes your music. Is there a process to incorporating elements like these in your music?

Firstly it’s because I work in a record shop with all kinds of genres, even outside electronic music. It truly comes from going to clubs and seeing the great masters of Djing. They can flip something going from minimal to electro or even breakbeat. Being on the dance floor and experiencing this, I have left parties to go home and make music. I’ve been inspired by the genres and the DJs, but it always has this minimalistic approach to it. 

Is that minimalistic approach something that has been there since the start and something you’re just naturally drawn to?

Yes, I’ve been into that pretty much since I started in 2006 and that was the heyday of Minimal and Tech House and it’s stuck with me since. I’m waiting for the great come back. (Laughs) It’s the same story for everybody getting older wanting to get back to the “golden days”. (Laughs)

I spoke to Henriku (who you know and work with) and he was saying the minimal scene is not as prominent as the harder side of Techno. What is your experience in the current context?

It’s always there, Berlin is a huge city with enough room for all of us to have our microcosms. Minimalistic music is not the hottest or trendiest at the moment, although I don’t care too much about that to be honest. What matters is what you feel and love. Legendary artists have a cult following; so there is always room for it and it inspires a new generation. With every new generation they want to do it differently than the past. Ultimately, it’s the young people that decide what direction the music will go, because they are the ones going to the club. 

As of now, the music is very fast paced. It’s full of energy and very Techno and Trance oriented. There will always be a counterculture and this goes in cycles. That is the beauty of Berlin. There is room for all of it.

Do you still go to clubs when you are not playing and where do you like to hang out in Berlin?

I still go, but perhaps a little less than when I moved to Berlin, but if I go out I go to Heideglühen or I’ll have the casual beer at Club Der Visionaere; it’s been my second home for many many years and still is. 

We sat down with Bigup DJs to talk about the next wave of Drum & Bass and Jungle and their individual origins in an extensive interview with the Jaeger residents.

At Øya 2024’s Klubben stage the rain might be coming down, but the outside dance floor is full of animated bodies. People are stomping in time to 160 beats per minute and more as Sherelle  plays an eclectic mix of Hardcore, Rave and Jungle. On occasion a hint of some familiar melody evokes a memory from another time, before it’s consumed by another pummeling break and a draconian kick. 

Behind the DJ, Nia Archives is bouncing in unison to the rhythm, much like she did at her own set earlier that day for the Hagen stage, where she infused elements of Jungle and Drum & Bass with saccharine melodies of her vocals. I see Trond aka Drunkfunk from Oslo’s Bigup crew in the distance and I’ll see him again later that night playing a packed Jaeger basement ahead of the Metalheadz showcase. It becomes evidently clear that Drum & Bass, Jungle and those harder UK sounds are enjoying a moment right now. 

It’s been on an upward trajectory for some years, but as DJs and artists like Sherelle and Nia Archives enjoy some much-deserved love from audiences the world over it appears this UK club phenomenon is reaching a height of popularity it hasn’t seen since it’s heyday, back in the early nineties when Metalheadz was in its infancy at London’s Blue Note club on Sundays. 

There have always been dedicated audiences and scenes, but it’s remained an underground pursuit for the last two decades and it’s only now with a younger audience that we see it rising into public consciousness and even flirting with the mainstream as new artists like Kenya Grace and Luude breached the charts and old heads like Chase and Status found new fame and audiences off the back of the newly heightened popularity . 

For every newcomer or resurgence however there have always been a steadfast few upholding the spirit and sound of Drum & Bass and Jungle and in Oslo some of those few are Bigup. Made up of Drunkfunk (Trond), Fjell (Niels), Tech (Svein) and Simon Peter, Bigup has become something of an institution when it comes to Drum & Bass and Jungle in the city. Alongside other crews like Skankin Oslo they’ve been sounding the clarion call for the genre consistently. 

Since 2021 Bigup has been a steady presence at Jaeger, with the crew playing at least one Wednesday a month. While they’ve called Jaeger home, they’ve also become the stalwarts of the genre, playing individually at other events or concepts, like their warm-up for Andy C at Rockefeller. That event saw 750 enthusiastic patrons fill the venue in what Trond described as “the first time that there had been a Drum & Bass event at Rockefeller for a long time.

Alongside events like Chase & Status at Vulkan, which they believe could have filled that venue twice, Bigup believes that Drum & Bass and Jungle is “coming back again to a time when it was fresh. It has reached remote locations like Trondheim with Tronderbass. It is currently flourishing  in Bergen, where Norwegian Drum & Bass legend Teebee is based. And it continues to only gather steam in Oslo with events like Mira Mark’s Ladies First; an all female lineup featuring everything from Drum & Bass to Garage.

In lieu of its current popularity there have always been people like Svein, Trond, Niels and more recently (well, 12 years going strong..) Simon, who have been the unwavering pillars of those genres and this community throughout it all. 

In what has been a long-overdue event, we finally sit down with Bigup to talk about their origins, the current state of Drum & Bass and how we all got here. 

Check out Bigup’s future dates here

Svein, as the most senior member, you probably have the first memories of Drum & Bass and Jungle making its way to Norway. Do you remember your first encounter with it?

Svein (Tech): I can ‘t exactly say. For me it started with the Rave / Hardcore scene, going over to Jungle and then Drum & Bass. 

So you were going to/ playing at those raves when they were happening?

S: Yes. I moved to Oslo in 1994 to get into the music scene and by ‘95 I was playing at these raves. 

Were you playing Jungle by that time?

S: Jungle and D&B

What were those raves like?

S: Mostly small parties, but we also had a few parties with lots of genres including Drum & Bass and Jungle. It was a small scene in the beginning

Trond (Drunkfunk): I remember seeing the posters and they had Ed Rush and Grooverider at Rockefeller back in ‘97. 

S: Yes, I was there, helping with promotion, and playing in the back room at Rockefeller.. 

Were there any clubs back then catering for Drum & Bass in Oslo.

Niels (Fjell): Wasn’t there Jazid? 

S: Yes, Jazid was the first proper club I played. 

What about Headon, because I know Tony Anthun (Future Prophecies) was a resident there at that time?

S: Yes, Headon was good, but not a lot of Drum & Bass there.

Simon, this was before your time.

Simon Peter: I was still in diapers! 

T: I went to Headon one time in 1999. I had come straight from Roskilde and I was very excited to tap into the city life before moving to Oslo, but I was under-age, and I politely left. 

They didn’t have to ask you to leave? Was that your entry to Drum & Bass, going to festivals like Roskilde?

T: My entry was going to Blå in the late nineties. I liked a lot of music, especially Jazz and fusion Jazz. Unlike Headon they would let in 18 year olds. The trick was to hang around the concert. I would see Future Prophecies, Teebee and the first time I saw Svein.

S: I did warm up for Future Prophecies after the Jazz concert there and I remember playing only jazzy Drum & Bass to adapt to the crowd.

T: I also ended up going to Jazid, that was my first real club experience. Before that, it would have been radio or Roskilde.

Was it Norwegian radio?

T: It was mostly P3 (Norwegian national radio channel). I have a fond memory of DJ Friendly playing Teebee’s track “Fingerprints” during prime time, saying that he was one of the top ten Drum & Bass producers in the scene. 

So there was a little scene at Jazid around this style of music. Were they mostly people coming from the Rave scene or was it becoming its own unique thing?

S: Jazid was an institution. There were a lot of people coming there anyway. It wasn’t always about what kind of music was being played, people just liked the club. I guess many people were introduced to Drum & Bass in that way. 

I’ve been reading the Dancing Viking book, but I haven’t gotten to any parts about Drum & Bass yet. It appears to have been more of a scenester place. 

S: Yes, but they also had the record shop and they sold a lot of Drum & Bass there. I was always there. 

Trond, by the time you get to Drum & Bass and Jungle there were already installed in the collective psyche as genres. Your experiences would’ve been very different. 

T: We were a very eclectic generation as well listening to a lot of different stuff. I definitely remember Teebee and Goldie playing at Betong (Chateau Neuf), which was a student party. There was a good spell in Oslo at that time. I always appreciated the Oslo clubbing scene for having smaller clubs. I would frequently go to Sikamikanico; there were Drum & Bass parties at John Dee; and of course Svein was part of the institution I looked up to, The Oxygen crew. They won the Natt&Dag award for best club night at some point.

As one of the eclectic generation, what was the spark to push you into the direction of Drum & Bass and Jungle as a DJ?

T: I tend to collect and I can’t collect it all, so sticking to one genre was a good idea. It was easier to mix together and I had to learn all those skills. 

Niels, you grew up in the Netherlands and Drum & Bass had a big presence there during its heyday. What was your introduction to the scene here in Oslo though?

N: I grew up in the Netherlands and came here in 2007. I remember Sikamikanico during the same period, Club Pi and some random places. 

You were already a fan of the genre then?

N: Yes, the first time I heard jungle was in ‘93. I had a classmate whose father always travelled to the west of the country (I am from the east – which was quite rural) and he would always bring us compilation CDs with stuff he thought we would like. Somehow he found a Jungle compilation CD. That was my introduction to Jungle and Hardcore House and the Gabber scene grew together in the Netherlands. Often there was a club with several floors where one would have Gabber and another would have a Jungle stage. That is when I first experienced the power of the music, because of the bass. You couldn’t get that through a set of cheap headphones. 

That’s the revelation, right; hearing Drum & Bass or any club music for that matter through a big soundsystem.

N: Even though I was only 12 when I first heard it, I knew older people from my neighbourhood that would listen to boom-bap mixtapes so I was exposed to that kind of deep and low bass sounds already, but the first time you hear Jungle you don’t understand how people can dance to it.

At one stage there was a big scene for Drum & Bass and Jungle in the Netherlands. Where was it focussed?

N: As a student, I lived in the Hague, and I went to Amsterdam but I mostly went to Rotterdam. You had the black-out nights in Utrecht and that’s probably still going as one of the oldest Drum & Bass club concepts. I do remember there was a big draw around 2006. It always comes in waves. 

S: That’s true for Oslo as well. 

Except in eastern Europe. I recall Teebee telling me he was playing for 20 000 people over there at a time when Drum & Bass wasn’t that popular elsewhere.

SP: They’ve always loved it, they like the energy.

Simon Peter, as the youngest person in the crew, your introduction would’ve been totally different. 

SP: I’m from the Internet generation so for me it was Youtube, iTunes and podcasts etc. I started listening to Drum & Bass in 2005 (I was 16). Unlike the other guys, I just got into the sound from the safety of my own home. Later somebody played Benga and Coki at a party at Hausmania and I was hooked on the early sounds of Dubstep as well as DnB. 

Then I found out that there were people playing Dubstep at Revolver, which really inspired me to start mixing myself. My brother (rest his soul) was into the whole Blitz scene, and also very eager to play DnB, so we started our own thing at Taxi Takeaway & Maksitaksi, playing Drum & Bass and Dubstep almost every weekend!

And when you say we…

SP: It was me, DJ Apecat, Thismeanswar, lug00ber and xeche.

T: …and I was a guest.

N: We all were guests there at some point. 

SP: At the time, we had every Friday and Saturday if we wanted to. It was a really hidden kind of place. I didn’t have the club revelation these guys had, we kind of made it ourselves.

Did you get people to come through every Friday and Saturday?

SP: It was the kind of place you would stumble into. Some nights you would have somebody reading poems and playing acoustic guitar, and then up next it’s Drum & Bass. It had a very good, yet unpredictable vibe. 

I’ve noticed in Norway that breakbeat is a very hard thing to sell to a dance floor, even at slower tempos. You end up losing half your dance floor, because they seem to be unable to recalibrate. 

SP: Exactly. Drum & Bass is more challenging, it requires all of your physical being.

N: Breakbeats, Drum & Bass and Dubstep is a very nerdy scene. Half the audience seems to be DJs or producers.  

T: All soundsystem culture is definitely about listening to the sound system, which is why it’s mostly an out and live experience. I remember the dubstep parties at revolver being very lively; a lot of students would go there. It was very big when Skrillex was doing Spektrum. 

SP: That was a very short moment in time, when it had its peak. 

T: The age limit at Spektrum was under 18, and maybe this has been one of the problems for Oslo in the club scene, the age limit. At least it used to be quite high, and I’ve always been a believer that past 23 you’re probably not going to recalibrate to a whole new tempo and style.

N: Those are the most formative years. At 18 you leave the House and by 23 most people are finished studying. 

T:  And I’m pretty sure that in eastern Europe you can be exposed to sound systems at a much younger age. 

Being that you’re from different generations and even countries, how did you all meet in the first place?

T: I met Svein in my formative years, when his hair was a small ponytail. I found the scene to be very open-minded and welcoming. I made my first Oslo friends through this scene. We all got together as Bigup after the closure of Maxi Taxi. Svein, Mira Mark and I were residents at the Villa at Room101 with DJ Subway, who ran that for 10 years. It was during a hiatus from that that we all got together, taking it back to scratch.

Was there a big audience for it when you were doing Room 101?

T: Absolutely. It sounded a lot different from what we play for the Jaeger crew today. It was heavier, because Drum & Bass was heavier and people reacted positively to that then. Right now it’s more Jungle, roller or liquid inspired. The setting was also different. DJ Subway was legendary for his heavy-metal inspirations.

When did you all start calling yourselves Bigup?

SP: I didn’t really know these guys, but I would see them play, hanging out in the back. It was Niels who invited me. 

N: I was playing in a band and the guitar player knew somebody working at Oslo Sports Bar. They were looking for people to play one night a month. It was actually Trond who came up with the name

T: Now it’s on the record!

N: We forgot to invite Svein the first two times, but he was there as a guest already.

S: I played as a guest two nights and then I was asked to join.

T: It was a nice warm-up slot, from 20:00 – 00:30. (Everybody laughs)

SP: It was shit. Some nights we would arrive and we couldn’t play because there was a football match on. 

N: Oslo Sports bar eventually went bankrupt…

SP: …Thanks to us…

N: And then we went to Naboens. Almost exactly when the pandemic started we were offered the backyard at Jaeger for Wednesdays, once a month. 

T: That was Wednesday, the day before everything shut down. It was a very bizarre feeling. 

What a great time to start a Drum & Bass night! Since then, or since after the pandemic, we’ve seen a trajectory in the interest in Drum & Bass and Bigup. Is that your experience too?

SP: One hundred percent. Not only here, but also playing at other venues or raves. I remember playing DnB at rave parties about 7-8 years ago, people sometimes gave us weird looks or stopped dancing. Now you can hear Techno, House, DnB and all different kinds of genres at the same gig. People are much more open to different experiences and styles. The scene is definitely changing. 

I guess people have all this music at their fingertips now. Like Trond mentioned earlier, you had to be selective with the stuff you bought back in the day, but now you can just stream or download it and it’s right there. 

T: It doesn’t take up a shelf either. 

N: With the production quality of tunes nowadays, it makes a big difference. If you played a fast and loud Drum & Bass tune, it sounded messy compared to today. Things breathe more now, even if it is a faster and louder tune. Also the sound systems are better than they were 15 years ago. People can enjoy it more instead of just waking into a room and getting blasted with sound. That was always a big threshold for people to get into Drum & Bass. 

SP: And of course, this venue (Jaeger) makes you select tracks that don’t punch you straight in the face. Maybe between 2-3AM the energy level is quite high, but we try to ease into the night. It’s usually very approachable; groovy tunes with samples that you might know from other  more popular/classic tracks. 

T: Because Drum & Bass is 30 years old, you have some great sounding older tracks that can be played again, but back in the early days it was always about playing the freshest track. I don’t think kids today have that same need from Drum & Bass.   

Can you still play those older tracks in the context of the modern sound system and alongside newer productions, especially Niels with what you were saying about the harshness of those older tracks?

N: Definitely. It was that period between 2000 and 2010 when things got harsher, but before that, and after that you can still play those tracks. 

SP: You can still find a slot for those older high energy tunes of course; maybe not 10 of them in a row. 

With what we saw at Øya this year with Nia Archives and Sherrelle, there certainly was a lot of energy there, and there seems to be a focus on this style of music again in the mainstream too. Svein as somebody that’s been there since the beginning, how do you compare this period we are in now to other times it was popular?

S: It’s hard to say, because yes there are ups and downs, but we have been going to London each year and seeing that it’s always still been very much alive over there. We just couldn’t get to function as well over here, because there are just not that many people in the scene. 

I’m maybe the guy playing the oldest tracks, because I´m still playing vinyl only, and there are just not that many many releases on vinyl anymore. I have to dig a little bit deeper in the collection. 

Are you still digging for older tracks and finding them?

S: Yeah, very much so.

Are  you finding new releases on vinyl still?

S: It’s getting harder, and more expensive. But I have to buy some new stuff as well. I’ll order it online, but I then have to  wait for the vinyl to arrive, which could take several weeks.

T: And by that time I’ve already rinsed the digital version. 

Techno has the 909 and acid a 303 and what a lot of modern producers are doing is either using those stock sounds. Is there anything in Drum & Bass  that is comparable? 

N: An 808 bass drum as the bottom end. 

T: The sound of the amiga made Drum n Bass and Jungle sound great. They always pushed the gear to the limit. 

SP: As for physical machines there were the Akai samplers. And of course tracker software running on amiga and other computers. In the later years DnB’s evolution has been much more software driven. 

It seems that it’s more technologically driven than even Techno. Because when something like the Massive software synth was released, I recall producers flocking to it in droves like it was the only thing they would use. 

SP: Massive was the goto software synth for many years. Now Serum is the industry standard.  

N: That’s also a wavetable synth, which is sample-based and that case full circle. Drum & Bass has always been about samples. A very good example is Circles by Adam F. That tune is almost only samples.  

SP: There are so many nerds producing DnB so it’s always cutting edge.

T: Recycling sound is definitely happening now. Old stuff coming out in a new suit. 

I have a theory that because Techno got so hard and fast it was edging into Drum & Bass tempos, the more explorative DJs would then get the opportunity to mix in Drum and Bass in a Techno set. It puts open-minded people from a whole other scene onto this music again.

SP: I agree. The shift isn’t so big, compared to going from 125 BPM to 172 BPM like you would  have to do in the past.

T: It’s the same thing that happened in the ‘90s

Do you feel there is something unique to what each one of you brings to the night, or will you often buy and play the same track?

T: I’m probably the least genre focussed. My DJ sets are always a little unpredictable. Sometimes I play music where I even surprise myself. Preparing for a set I’m looking for new music that I’m really feeling, I think Niels’ focus is more on finishing tracks before he DJs. 

N: Yes, because I produce myself. That’s one trap I fall into; I want to play my own tunes but I don’t produce a new track a month. I often fall back into the tunes I would like to promote, but it makes my sets sound a bit the same. 

SP: We definitely bring our own flavour. Everybody has their own style. 

So perhaps a better question would be; what is it about the genre that appeals to you all personally?

T: It shifts with the seasons. Everything from the carnival vibe to the harder darker side of it. 

SP: For me it’s the diversity. You have smooth and mellow tracks for just chilling, and on the other hand you’ve got full on rave music, all within the same genre. 

T: It’s always been a fusion genre. It managed to stay underground when it wasn’t popular and always manages to rejuvenate the audience.  

N: It’s always reinventing itself. 

Special edition of the cut featuring new, current and reissued releases from Olefonken and Snorri’s Snorkel’s records

Let’s go for a swim, in the crystalline waters of one of Oslo’s most distinctive imprints, Snorkel Records. The label run by Olefonken and Snorri has become a landmark in Oslo’s electronic music and DJ scene. It’s the home of Hubbabubbaklubb, Olefonken and a host of other artists as the city’s answer to the space-disco scene that came before it. 

Snorkel Records bubbled to the surface after the success of Hubbabubbaklubb’s Mopedbart when Hubbabubba member Olefonken together with Snorri established the label. Olefonken’s debut solo effort Quaaludes garnered its own crossover success at the time and set the tone for the label. 

Since then Snorkel has expanded into every realm possible, from beat-heavy boogie to downtempo psych-House; catching a glimmer of a balearic dusk that has never quite set in Oslo. Acts including dibidim and Raaja Bones have joined Hubbabubbklubb and Olefonken in extending the catalogue alongside frequent remixer contributors from Axel Boman and Øyvind Morken

Last year Snorkel tipped a toe into the world of reissues with Olav Brekke Mathisen and Sideshow Jøkke when they interned N.A.O.M.B as a future classic, 20 years on from its original release. 

A reserved, yet dedicated output from the label shows a level of sincerity there that goes beyond productive necessity and only focuses on enriching the catalogue of the label and the scene in Oslo. The perfectionism of Olefonken’s own productions and those of Hubbabubbaklubb transfers to the label, with quality over quantity informing the label’s considered output, with the artwork for each record playing a significant role to its appeal. There’s an attention to detail there from the artwork to the packaging that sets a Snorkel record apart at every level.

This week, as they add Sju’s Nye Sko to the catalogue we take a deep dive into Snorkel’s back catalogue with Filter Musikk.

Sju – Nye Sko

The latest release from the label from a newcomer to the label, Nye Sko steps up the label’s efforts for a new 12” series. London- based, Norwegian artist Sju joins the Snorkel crew with a  dreamy vocal track that whisks us off into exotic realms on the wave of a disco beat.

Olefonken and Øyvind Morken take on remix duties with two very different versions coming from the pair. Both eye an early evening dance floor, staying pretty close to the original tempo, while stripping it down to essentials and in Øyvind’s case adding some of that schizophrenic charm of his. 

While Øyvind drifts off into the uncanny valley, offering some dissonance and tension where there was none before, Olefonken stays pretty close to the original with his dub and sole service mixes, only emphasising the attraction of the original. 

Hubbabubbaklubb – Axelsuperklubb

Taken from Hubbabubbaklubb’s debut record, Dr​ø​mmen Dr​ø​mmerne Dr​ø​mmer, Et Annet Sted gets the remix treatment by another Scandinavian legend, Axel Boman. The ponderous original hastens some at the hand of the Studio Barnhus boss and Swedish DJ. 

Jangly electronic drums replace the original beat, intersecting the laissez faire atmospheres of the original as electronic basslines bounce through the workout. 

This particular edition of the release gets a bonus remix from another legend, Superpitcher. He takes Fjellet front the same LP to different heights, accentuating Morten Skjæveland’s vocal in a trippy re-arrangement of the original. 

Acts like Superpitcher and Axel Boman fortify Hubbabubbaklubb’s appeal outside Norway, and leaving much of the original tracks in place in these remixes, it suggests a kind of perfection in the originals that is hard to improve on. 

 

Olefonken – Ubuntu Tutu

Olefonken at his best! The producer and artist shares something of his DJ instincts in this release which has gone down as a modern day classic since its release. There’s something of the balearic in Sun City with its keys, bongos and stabs evoking the sounds of eighties House of the mediterranean. 

Ubuntu Tutu is a more laid back affair,  with its soft klangs and electric pianos. You’d be forgiven for thinking this could be a Hubbabubbklubb track, especially with the ghostly presence of Morten Skjæveland cooing in the background, but there’s a clear intention for the DJ there, and it’s made its way into a few significant DJ bags since. 

Hubbabubbaklubb – Eddie & Suzanna

A Hubbabubbaklubb original Eddie & Suzanna tap into that distinctive appeal of the band first heard on Mopedbart. The “koselig” Norwegian feeling that permeates through Hubbabubbklubb’s sound is reinforced with themes that touch on the collective consciousness of the region. 

Eddie & Suzanne named after a local cult film, was the second single from Dr​ø​mmen Dr​ø​mmerne Dr​ø​mmer and tugs on some shared nostalgia that even people born after that period (including Hubbabubbaklubb) could enjoy. 

That track is joined by Virklighet, the only B-side that clearly was destined for the LP, but cut out at the last minute. Shimmering guitars, elastic basslines and glimmering synths are redolent of the 1980’s palette in which the band thrives. 

Putting this out on a 7 inch with the extra track, shows something of the Snorkel philosophy in giving something a little special and extra to the fans and collectors of this music. 

Raaja Bones – Boardwalks

The obscure figure, Raaja Bones has contributed more to the Snorkel catalogue, than even Olefonken with an LP, an EP and a tape featured on the label. Boardwalks is the middle child and between the experimental outlier that is Sleepwalks and the soul-searching ambience of Black Dreams, Boardwalks is the artist’s most lively and engaging release. 

It probably has the most in common with the Snorkel’s sound if there was a sound that could be attached to the label. Vintage synthesisers and drum machines come together in snappy electro-funk arrangements that would have Bootsy Collins tapping his feet. 

After a triptych of records for the label, Raaja Bones has disappeared into the ether, but here in Boardwalks he leaves us wanting more.  

Normann & Ole HK put together a mix of “sexy, groovy and sophisticated club music” for the latest edition of the Jaeger Mix

After two years of Helt Texas, we finally get the opportunity to talk to the two DJs behind the Thursday concept. As the latest edition to the Jaeger Mix series, the DJ duo delivered a mix that they consider ” a good representation of what we do at Helt Texas.” 

They talk about their origins, other projects in the music. world and what it takes to establish a successful night like Helt Texas in what was one of the most in-depth interviews for the Jaeger Mix series, while we listen back to it all.

You can hear the mix and read the interview here  or just play the mix below. Find out more about Helt Texas here.

The cut returns to the blog with selection of new- and re-issued records illustrating vinyl’s timeless quality

AI producers; the ceo of Spotify saying there the artist time is worth nothing; and the general devaluation of the recorded music has had the music industry in a tailspin of late. Is there any point in a record on a platform saturated by the greased palms of well-heeled capitalists? 

I believe there is. Even if an artist is putting it out for the sake of pure personal enjoyment, it will always be there. Who needs an audience. And if you want to get very purposeful with it, there is always the vinyl format. 

Yes, it endures, and even though we’ve not been as active in singing its praises of late, it remains. In an age where the 2 min song is a trend, informed by social media and you never quite know the extent of human involvement in the artistic endeavour, one thing is for sure; those issues are moot in the context of vinyl. 

Nobody is going to invest in anything less than their artist integrity in the format and releasing something on vinyl is an honour that something like the logic of AI will never understand. 

So here we are again, back to the format that started it all, this thing called club culture and the place that continues to take pride of place in that culture in Oslo, Filter Musikk. Roland Lifjell and Sverre Brand at Filter Musikk have had their own evolution too, with a new sleek looking website and tons of interesting new and re-issued records coming through the doors.  This is the Cut with Filter Musikk. 

Larry Heard – 25 Years from Alpha (12″)

Old heads do prevail and it takes an old head to get us back to what we’ve lost sight of along the way. 15 years on from when it was first released Larry Heard injects some Hi-Tech-Soul back into Techno with 25 years from Alpha. The electronic music legend’s record prevails with a sensual touch where elegant melodies float over rocky Electro- and House drum programming. 

It’s timeless in the sense that it maintains that Larry Heard appeal that has been there since the 1980’s and has wavered little. As with everything he touches there’s an immersive quality to his soundscapes and driving development where keys seek out new melodies continuously. 

Released during a time when we were all rolling in the deep-ness of House, this record would have certainly found an audience on the dance floor back then, but in the context of today it’s very much outlasted its zeitgeist and its timeless quality is only strengthened. It doesn’t matter what era of Larry Heard you land in, the artist’s music is prevalent. 

Casco – Cybernetic Love (12″)

Are you ready for Cybernetic Love? In today’s context, probably not. Casco takes us back to the1980’s where cybernetic love seemed so innocent in the context of an Atari or calculator on your wrist watch. What seems insidious and creepy today, feels charming in the Italo disco producer’s hands back in 1983.

Robotic voices sing sweetly, cutting through the undulating din of chirping synthesisers. In the instrumental version there’s a kind of chip-tune quality to the accompaniment, lending to an otherworldly nature throughout the track. The label, House of Music makes this music attainable again in the vinyl format where classic Italo-Disco records like this one have reached astronomical prices. 

Bufo Bufo – Beelzebufo (12″)

Hard-hitting electro galvanising the modern dance floor for the great rewind. Sometimes sounding like it came straight out of the 1980’s when electro was still emerging as its own genre out of a tangent of Hip Hop Bufo Bufo’s Beelzebufo foregoes subtlety for jacking kicks and scratchy samples. 

A lot has happened since the birth of electro and Bufo Bufo seems to want to fold in the shared human experience of dance music into the space of this record. Rave, acid and even Jungle sit side by side and every now and then there’s a tinge of balearic sequences rippling through the formidable drum programming. 

Klasse Wrecks as a label continues to find these unique characters in the dance music realm with Luca Lozano and Mr. Ho establishing an entire sound for their vision of the dance floor. Bufo Bufo doesn’t break rank for the label’s 49th record and even falls in step with the labels more jagged approach to production. The sleekness we found on the artist’s last two records is hewn on to a rough edge where the beats and samples jut out in jagged 

Fmvee – who do u love? (12″)

“Lived experiences are transmuted into an amorphous bricolage of pummeled (sic) kicks, synthetic textures, and diaristic details, what they describe as an act of ‘remembrance,’” according to the press-release for this one. That is some “lived experience” Fmvee went through begging the question, are they ok…

“Who do you love” has its serene moments however, a sonic parting of the sea, where the dissonance and glitches are swaddled in a soft blanket of pads and detuning plucks. Rhythmical patterns seem to slip through the artist’s grasp as they dissipate into nonsensical raps, while the melodies just hang onto a thread, before they come apart. An oscillator unravelling into a scribbling sound of uncomfortable incoherence. 

Even when Fmvee tries to get it together for “sobbing” at the end of the record, the soulful vocal track is undermined by eerie electronics that pick at the listener’s most inner insecurities and turmoil. 

It’s not easy listening, but there is some kind of comfort here in that you won’t feel alone in your despair. Fmvee is clearly going through some shit here on this record and if they can make it through, so can you. 

Skudge / 543FF – LRC003 (12″)

Opening track “departure” is nothing but misleading in name, because this is Skudge doing what it does at its best. The Swedish Techno outfit takes a rare sojourn to  Lazy Reflex Complex where they join label head 543ff on a 12” split. When the rest of the world is going harder and faster, Skudge and 543ff  keep the record grounded in what would be defined in the trad-Techno realm. 

It’s odd calling this style of Techno traditional in any sense, since there is nothing conventional underpinning anything here. Musical theory is reduced to notes that fall between the cracks and rhythms swirl in hypnotic repetition, that rejects the notion of anything like a beginning or end. In 543ff “zoning” it’s hard to find any exit, as you’re being sucked through a whirlpool created by a drum machine, suppressed by an oppressive atmosphere.

After three releases, it’s Lazy Reflex Complex won’t be lured over to anything constituting a trend and with artists like Echelon and now Skudge making an impression on the very young label, it seems they are intent on hitting the reset button on Techno to a point where it was last respectable. 

Tickets and lineup announced for ØyaNatt 2024 featuring Grooverider & Dillinja (30 years of Metalheadz), Ben UFO, Yu Su, Wallace, Perel  and much more.

Øya festivalen’s official afterparty is a go and like every year Jaeger opens two floors to some of the world’s finest DJs for 4 nights in August. Every year things like budget and common sense go out of the window and we escort some of the scene’s leading DJs through Jaeger’s doors.  This year we celebrate 30 years of Goldie’s Metalheadz label with Drum & Bass icons Grooverider and Dillinja, hosted by Oslo’s own DnB and Jungle tastemakers Bigup on the opening night of the festival.

Ben UFO, Yu Su, Wallace and Perel follow the rest fo the week with Helt Texas, Schmooze & Brus, Frædag and Sunkissed rolling out the red carpet for your guests with their respective residents filling out every floor. Dubwoofa, Hubbabubbaklubb,  g-HA & Olanskii, Drunkfunk, Fjell, Tech, Simon Peter), DJ Stuk, Salamanca, Max Lok, Ole HK, Normann and MC Kaman & Kash round out the busy schedule.

From a hill in Tøyen to the beating heart of the city, Øya’s nocturnal activities resume at Jaeger yet again in 2024. As the immense din moves in from Oslo’s east end our Funktion One systems burr in anticipation, harmonising with the frequencies transported across ancient ley lines since 1999. Jaeger hosts two floors yet again with a visit from Drum n Bass legends Metalheadz, Ben UFO, Yu Su, Wallace and Perel as Bigup, Frædag  and Sunkissed host the weeklong official afters at Øya festival 2024. 

07.08 – Wednesday 
30 years of Metalheadz x Bigup:
Grooverider (UK)
Dillinja (UK)
Dubwoofa 
Drunkfunk + Fjell + Tech + Simon Peter

08.08 – Thursday
Helt Texas x Schmooze & Brus:
Ben UFO (UK)
Normann & Ole HK
DJ Stuk + Salamanca + Max Lok 

09.08 – Friday
Hubbas Klubb x Frædag:
Yu Su (CN)
Wallace (UK)
Hubbabubbaklubb DJs
g-HA & Olanskii

10.08 – Saturday
Nightflight x Sunkissed: 
Perel (DE)
g-HA & Olanskii + Vinny Villbass + Ronny Rabalder + Daniel Vaz + Asbjørn E + A:G 
MC Kaman & Kash 

We spoke to Shakèd about his upcoming release for Det Gode Selskab as they prepare for their Yoyaku boat and harbour party followed by the official after party at Moving Heads on Sunday.

Shakèd is the latest addition to Det Gode Selskab’s roster, sliding into the record label’s lineup like he was always meant to be there. His debut for the label, Space Invaders thrives in the minimal landscape with elements of Techno and House converging over starved rhythms where there is as much emphasis on the space between the beats as on them.

The Dutch artist is one of the very few non-Norwegians to make it onto the label, sharing many of the sonic traits that has established Det Gode Selskab as one of the leading lights in Norway’s club land.    

Space Invaders marks the latest release from the collective-turned-label, re-establishing that prowess for the minimal groove that they have shown now over various VAs and a handful of EPs from the core group of DJs and artists established around the label. 

Shakèd taps effortlessly into these minimal ideologies, as the title track swerves into familiar territory with a piercing kick drum and twittering circuit boards. Elsewhere robotic vocals and gleaming stabs bring the futuristic theme to life. The EP moves from one glissando bass line to another, distilling the sound of the record down to a silky shimmer that hovers over infectious grooves. 

Shakèd’s experience shines through with a production touch that keeps everything tight and effervescent. With over 10 years working in the electronic music realm his sound is well established. He’s also a busy figure in Amsterdam’s nightlife, and spends his time between various aspects of the music industry there, including doing bookings for Yellow House. Recently he’s been signed to the interwave agency, finding a home with a big pedigree and a roster including familiar names like Magda, Satoshi Tomiie, Cabanne, Maher Daniel, O.BEE & Tomas… and much more. 

While he might be new to Det Gode Selskab, he’s no debutant, and it shines through on this latest record. After the official release party at Jaeger a few months ago, Shakèd is back with the Det Gode Selskab this weekend for their Yoyaku boat and harbour party and with the official afters at Jaeger for Hetty and J.André’s Moving heads, we caught up with Shakèd to find out more. 

You’ve been working on music for over ten years?

It’s been over twenty years already. I started playing drums when I was 11 and I’m 35 years old now. I started electronic music when I was 15. 

It doesn’t surprise me that you tell me you’re a drummer, because there is something about drummers that just have a natural knack for electronic music. It’s that focus on rhythms.

That’s it. It’s very groove and rhythm-based. You only need three pitches and to play with a rhythm and then it starts to work. 

As a drummer, were you playing in bands? 

Yes, I used to play in punk bands. 

What brought you over to electronic music?

I was staying over at a friend’s place and woke up to some strange sounds. It was my mate making beats on fruity loops, and I was, “wow, what the fuck is this, I need to get involved.” Immediately after that, I sold my drum set and bought a laptop and never looked back. Instead of only playing one instrument, which I always thought was kind of boring, now I can play every instrument.  

Was there a big learning curve?

So big! It was before Youtube. Even though I’m a nineties kid and I was raised with electronic music like Moby, Faithless, Gorillaz and a lot of Trance, I had zero sense for structure. It took me forever, if I’m being honest. It took me at least 8 years to figure out that I have to put a clap on every second kick. 

I’ve spoken to drummer-cum-producers in the past and they often tell me that they’ll incorporate some kind of live drumming in their tracks. Are you in that school of thought?

I never really got that far in drumming. I always found learning notes and learning sheet music very boring. I never took the next step. When I discovered computer music, I started all over and I could just turn knobs and be absolutely mesmerised by it. I didn’t have any clue what I was doing, but I had fun doing it. I would only play live and I would bring my laptop everywhere, plug into an aux cable and tweak filter knobs. Only fifteen years later I started to get somewhere. 

You mentioned Trance, which is obviously big in the Netherlands, but were you ever a part of a bigger scene and were you going to any clubs?

I was lucky enough to grow up in a very cultural city called Amersfoort. I had friends who had older brothers that would go to House parties. At some point I won a bet with a friend and got his spare ticket to I Love Techno, in 2005. There I heard Alex Under play a live set and that was such an eye opening moment. From that moment, I didn’t rest until I knew how to do that, and I’m still at it now. 

Although you were only tweaking filter knobs in the beginning, today you clearly have a sound as a producer. At what point do you start developing that sound?

My sound is the result of 20 years of electronic music experience, walking around the dance floor and in the scene. This is my take on electronic music. It was influenced by my early days with Faithless and Moby as well as going to that Techno phase in the beginning for me, and then going through hardcore and Trance, and at some point it became minimal and Tech-House. I prefer to call my style Tech-House, because that’s what it is, somewhere between Tech and House.  About 7 years ago I got in touch with minimal and the Romanian style, that’s also when my sound became more mature. At the same time it has been influenced by the Dutch school.

Do you feel that when you started making your style of music, that it was a natural evolution or did you have to work at it to get it to that point?

About ten years ago I was scouted by a big agency called David Lewis and they were really big into Tech House and the commercial side of things. It was really then that I noticed that music was so low and unintelligent. It really bothered me. I felt uncomfortable with the quality of music that was presented to people in the commercial segment of the scene. It was around that time that I discovered VBX and Slapfunk and that really pushed me to set the bar for myself. I really invested in taking it to the next level and making really intelligent meaningful music. Slapfunk and VBX are the promoters that showed me the pinnacle of this kind of music.

In your music today there is an accent on the atmosphere and a sound design element. Did you change the way you produced music in the shadow of that experience?

When I first came to the realisation that I wanted to make more intelligent, meaningful music, I first spent a lot of time on trial and error in trying to find my sound and trying to compare my sound to others. That meant that I was putting too much pressure on myself to the point that I was not actually making music anymore, but just being more generic about it. I think it is very important for me that my music is mine and there are no rules around it. 

That’s also why I never wanted to do music school, because I really prefer if it’s my own language. I decided to make whatever the fuck is in my body. I don’t try to think or compare it, I just do what’s there. My approach is that I work at it till it’s finished and then upload it to soundcloud. I believe that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I just make it as best as I can. 

Was that process behind space invaders, did you have those tracks up on Soundcloud before Det Gode Selskab nabbed them?

Yes, I usually upload the first version of it and that’s what I send to the label. Space Invaders followed that process. 

Did you know of Det Gode Selskab before you sent it to them? 

I initially knew them as a fanboy and then a mutual friend of ours Sascha from keepitgoing, he introduced us to each other. Then I invited them to play in Amsterdam for Yellow House, the place that I book for. 

It’s not just the Space Invaders EP, but also another one coming on their VA series, Jack‘s Favourites.  

Like I said I’m a super fan, and I think we really appreciate each other’s creative output for some reason. It just really clicks that way. 

Tell me a little about Yellow House. It seems like you work in many different areas of music, not just an artist. 

I also work as a nightlife- and social cultural entrepreneur, to facilitate new talent and keep the landscape fertile for the next generation.

I find that Amsterdam has always had this nurturing awareness of nightlife and is constantly trying to facilitate club culture, even through public funding. Is that still the case?

That is still the case, but it’s not going by itself. You always need people. I felt  the call to step up in that way. It goes in phases, and we have a good thing going on now. I strongly believe for the health of our future, we have to keep working together.

What is the main musical outlet in Amsterdam at the moment when it comes to clubbing?

Luckily there’s a lot of people active in the nightlife and there is a healthy mix of different genres. There’s a big Techno community; a big Trance community; and some underground things, but the status quo is still very House orientated. The sort of underground that I love is getting smaller and more niche. It’s had a good run, and it’s good if every couple of years new things come to the horizon as well. At this moment the Dutch scene is reinventing itself towards a new status quo. 

But niche is good, because if things get too popular, they tend to get watered down too.

For sure. It’s different because the budget changes. When there’s fewer people showing up, we have to re-invent the parameters for it to work.

What will you be packing in terms of records these days and the upcoming set in Oslo?

I think my sound has changed a lot over the last two years. It has been very minimal and lately I’ve been inspired by the underground where people want a bit more energy, a bit more party and a bit more action, especially after covid. I also feel that, and the urge to bring more energy to my productions and sets. It’s getting back to what I used to do, I used to play a lot of anthems and high energy stuff. When I got into minimal, there were a lot of rules, and now there’s a lot more possible in the underground. All of a sudden I feel a lot more free and confident. 

We speak to Børre about his newly established Kora label; his history with music; and erring on the experimental edge of electronic music ahead of his appearance for Flux

Electronic music has always been about pushing boundaries and conventions. Why try to replicate the sound of a guitar when you can conjure sounds from space? Why placate primitive impulses when you can create rhythms and textures beyond the scope of rational thought and human instincts? It’s been electronic music’s eternal pursuit to give us sounds and structures that have never been heard before and advance our approach to making music. 

In recent years this approach has been stifled by the perfunctory demands of the dance floor in electronic music’s favoured habitat, the club. As it’s risen in popularity, dogmatic tendencies have led down a rabbit hole of standardised forms and practises to a point where even in the age of AI, electronic music has but one design; that of replicating existing, often traditional forms of established genres. 

Exploration is left to the margins, while established forms of Techno and House dominate a scene, but for every mainstream institution there will always be an underground counterpart pushing at the boundaries of known conventions. While any undercurrent trend has been all but decimated by Techno’s popularity in recent years, there are still people toiling at the fringes and one such person and label is from right here Oslo. 

Børre is an artist working within the wider electronic music scene in Oslo and alongside collectives like Flux and Ute, he’s established his own sound within this musical sphere and it’s not necessarily Techno or Trance. His Label Kora released its first VA in April this year with a truly international cast of artists contributing tracks that go from irreverent ambient creations to gnarling bass exhortations.

Alongside familiar names, Børre contributes to the sprawling sound of Kora where the label and the artist are free to explore new boundaries on personal whims. Two records in already and the label has hit an impressive stride right away, with Asmus Odsat on the first EP a month after the VA. With more to follow soon and a visit from Børre to Jaeger’s basement, we caught up with the artist and fledgeling label boss to find more. 

At about the same time I sat down to type this, you’ve just released the next EP from Kora. Why did you turn to that artist to inaugurate the label’s first release outside of the VA?

I have actually known of Asmus for a couple years. Not on a personal level, but through playing some of his tracks. He has this quirky, weird and playful approach to electronic music that also works really well in a club setting. So I reached out to Asmus to ask if he wanted to be part of the VA, he sent me a bunch of tracks and it went from there. We picked one track for the VA, and then we started to curate an EP. The EP in itself differs a lot from the VA.  I would consider it to be more of a “summery” EP. Even a bit cheesy at times, but in a clever way. I really like that about it

That VA you mentioned is a sprawling collection of tracks that dive deep into experimental waters. It defies categorisation for the most so even when things are ambient or Techno, it avoids the homogenous trends of those genres. What is at the heart of the sound or ideology of the label for you? 

My ideology for the label is very simple: To release the music that I love and feels like it deserves to be shared with the world, not depending on genre or function at all. And of course that might sound a bit obvious, but that is what I want to do, and why I started the label. My goal is for Kora to become a platform where I could just as well release an experimental jazz album as I could release a techno 12”. Even though it of course naturally revolves around electronic music, as that’s where I come from and where I spend the most time. 

You’ve come out strong with two releases in a short space of time. What were the circumstances around the creation of the label?

I have thought of starting a label for years. It has been something I wanted to do for a long time. Now the time feels right, I like where I am in the musical universe right now, I feel like I have landed a bit, and I’m where I want to be in terms of creating and managing a label. 

There was a heightened interest for this kind of music with labels like Raster Noton, PAN and to some extent leading the charge ten years ago, but then it got kind of swallowed up by Techno’s dominance. Why did you feel the time was right to establish Kora now?

I don’t necessarily feel that the time is more or less right now. The time will probably never be right for this kind of music. The majority of people will never be attracted to this music in the same way as I am. For me it’s as easy as this is the music I love, and therefore feel like I want to share it, shape it, and help bring it to more people. I feel like electronic music is kind of in a shapeshift now, especially when It comes to the club aspect of it. The last years (especially in Scandinavia) it has been dominated by trance and faster & harder techno. I feel like it’s starting to move into a more openness towards music that is more abstract and not always 4×4, also in a club setting. At least to some degree. 

On the VA, you too provide a more percussive beat-driven contribution. There’s obviously some connection to the dance floor. What is the label’s relationship to the club? 

I don’t want Kora to become a label that is purely music for the clubs, but the relationship with the club will always be there and will probably always be very obvious in some way. Personally I find club music to be an incredibly exciting form of music. Club music in general has a main purpose, and that is of course to get people to move, dance and sound good on a big rig. Around that you can pretty much do whatever you want. I really like that whole approach to music.  

Peder Mannerfelt is the other artist on there providing more of a dance-floor focussed track. As one of the more established artists on the roster, what does he represent for Kora and how did he arrive at the label?

Peder Mannerfelt is an artist I have been an admirer of since I first got into electronic music. The way he approaches club music represents why I find club music so exciting. He has these amazingly weird and left field tracks, that at the same time works so well on a dancefloor. And he never stops exploring new sounds. How he ended up on the first Kora release is a rather boring story though. I sent him a DM on Instagram, sent him some music and it went from there. 

Between Sweden, Copenhagen, France and Norway your collection of artists on Kora stretches across a large region. How do you find artists for the label?

In some way or another I stumbled across their music – mostly online. 

What’s your personal history with electronic music and how did evolve into DJing and production form your first experiences with the artform? 

When I was about 14 I got really really into hip hop. I bought some equipment and pirated a copy of Ableton, and started making beats. That kind of evolved into exploring more left field hip hop and beat music. I got really into Flying Lotus and that whole LA Brainfeeder kind of thing. That opened up the door to explore a wide variety of electronic music. I got into more IDM stuff like Boards of Canada, Aphex Twin, Autechre; the obvious ones. The obsession with electronic music kind of developed from there. Then I started going to clubs in Oslo, and of course that got me into more club-oriented music and eventually I started DJing and hosting some parties. 

In keeping with what I’ve heard from the rest of Kora, your own music likes to skirt the margins of experimental electronic music. What are your instincts when it comes to making music and what laid the foundation for those explorative tendencies in your music?

It’s just my musical preference. When I make music I more often than not have no clear plan of what I’m going to make beforehand. I pretty much always just go with the flow. I think the  eagerness to explore sounds has been something that has been with me since I started making music, and also something that is totally necessary for me to keep enjoying making and playing music. The most exciting part of music for me is to find something new, something you feel is untouched and unexplored. Even though that’s not something I have in mind when making music, I think that it’s something I am unconsciously striving for in a way.

Some of the DJ mixes I’ve heard perpetuate that kind of attitude in terms of the music you select, but at some point especially in the club context you have to draw a line when it comes to playing that kind of thing. Where does that line exist for you?

It can be tricky sometimes. I think for me, I just play what I feel makes sense in that specific moment and not try to overcomplicate it. Djing has, in some sense, become more of like a concert sometimes, which gives more freedom to do what you want. But most often I am playing a venue where 99% of the people are there just to party and dance, not because of you as an artist.

Of course I always try to in some extent play in my own sound, and to challenge the crowd, but I am also there to make people dance, so I can’t always drop a 10 minute weird beat-less track just because that’s what I would like to hear at that moment. In the end I think it’s about finding that spot between not being afraid to try what you want to do, but also respecting that most of the time it’s not about you, but about the party. And as I said It totally depends on the setting you are playing in.

Which came first for you, DJing or making music and do you feel there should be a sonic connection between the two?

Producing definitely came first for me. I started making music when I was about 14, and did not start to DJ until I was about 20. I feel like there always will be a sonic connection between the two. I have my way of thinking about music, and in the end I like what I like, so there will always be a sonic resemblance to some degree. I always admire DJ’s that can do it all though. I feel like a truly good DJ can play a calmer daytime party at 120 bpm, and then go play at 160 bpm in a dark basement, and one should still be able to somewhat hear that it’s the same DJ playing. 

What about the label, do you feel it should represent what you do as an artist or DJ, and conversely do you try to communicate that again through our own music and DJ sets?

I think to some extent the label will be a representation of me as a DJ, yes. Not in the way that I will play all the music I release, or even all the types of music I release. It will probably resemble my DJ sets in the way that I am a bit all over the place when it comes to DJing; As I am when it comes to music in general. 

I’m into so many types of music, and also DJ a lot of different types of music, and even though it will be somewhat aesthetically similar it will also differ vastly in style and purpose. That is definitely gonna be the case with Kora as well.

The label is only a couple of months old so I’m getting ahead of myself a bit. Has the first few releases lived up to expectations? 

Yes! The first release has been very well received.

Has it perhaps influenced the way in which you will approach the rest of the releases and the future of the label?

 Not really. For now I will continue to just go with the flow and do what feels right to me.  

What else is the foreseeable for Kora and yourself that you’re eager to share?

There’s a lot of exciting things coming up. For Kora there´s first and foremost Asmus Odsat’s full 12” that will release sometime late July/early August along with a remix by Sputnik One. I was in the studio just last week finishing up the mixing of a project that we are releasing this fall. Also have planned two other very exciting projects that will arrive late 24 and early 25. I am also gonna release my own EP somewhere in there. That will also be on Kora. 

Lastly, can you play us out with a song?

Dmitry Krylov – Age Of Aquarius Ft. Kostya Molokanov.  

One of the less clubby tracks on the first Kora VA, but also one of the most exciting for me. Dmitry will have a full project out on Kora this fall. He is really one to look out for. 

Flux are back at Jaeger taking over the basement for all of July with some special guests and residents.

Shaking the foundations of the basement, the Flux collective brings their concept to Jaeger throughout July. g-HA & Olanskii give the Oslo collective the keys to the basement for every Frædag in July and between residents, local- and international guests Flux bring their distinctive take on Techno to Jaeger. Anemi, Bjerregaard, Naboklage and Skodde represent the flux collective with appearances from Børre, Igubu, Komet99, Maara, Axel FU, Mørkøe, Sabel and LDS. 

Here’s the full programme:  

05.07 
Sauna: g-HA & Olanskii + Øyvind Morken
Basement: Børre + Igubu + Naboklage

12.07
Sauna: g-HA & Olanskii + Pete Herbert + Olefonken
Basement: Maara + Komet99 b2b Naboklage 

19.07 
Sauna: g-HA & Olanskii + Øyvind Morken
Basement: Axel FU  + Bjerregaard + Mørkøye

26.07 
Sauna: g-HA & Olanskii + Prins Thomas (3 hour set)
Basement: LDS (live) + Sabel + Skodde (Live)

You can find more information here and tickets here. 
Read an interview with Flux here and here.

Mysticisms label runner, DJ, writer and artist Piers Harrison answers some questions via email 

Piers Harrison is a music enthusiast of the most intense kind. Everything he does between DJing, running a label, making music, reviewing records or even writing liner notes in other peoples albums, stems from an almost obsessive dedication to the music. 

It’s a very special dedication that goes to the deeper ends of our collective music culture. Since his earliest expressions in music, he’s been devoted to the margins of popular music culture, where obscure dub cuts and chugging disco edits lived side by side in a colourful sonic melange of sounds. 

He’s earned a reputation for his digging habits amongst his peers and when it on occasion manifests into its own artistic creations it folds in the same eclectic approach. He started making music as part of the Disco-infused group Soft Rocks and from there he’s made notable contributions both as an artist and remixer while Djing all over the world. 

Today he runs label Mysticisms alongside Stuart “Chuggy” Heath his devotion to the music has never waned. Mysticisms has been at the forefront of that UK digger scene where it has provided a steady stream of future discogs “wanted” releases. From icons like Scientist, to headlining artists like Tornado Wallace and on to our very own Øyvind Morken, Mysticisms releases have garnered a lot of attention amongst record collectors and DJs alike for its broad yet concise approach. 

Behind every occultish record sleeve from the label lies a cult-like musical phenomenon whether it be an original track or a re-issue. It’s as much an expression of the versatile and truly eclectic people behind the label, as it is for the artists featured on the label and recently its subsidiary dubplates has expanded on that vision with, as the title suggests, a reggae/dub informed sound. 

Between running the label and the myriad of other things Piers does behind the scenes, he is first and foremost a purveyor of sounds and a DJ, where he brings his idiosyncratic tastes to various dance floors around the world. 

He comes to Jaeger this Friday, playing alongside mysticisms affiliate Øyvind Morken, so we caught up with him in London over email to find out more. 

Hey Piers. Thank you for taking the time to talk to us. Let’s talk about London. Where are you going out and /or playing at the moment and what do you find your audiences are particularly reacting positively too?

I’m quite an old man now, so maybe not the best barometer of London clubland. I hope there are kids out there smashing it up to some wild sounds and having the time of their lives. I sometimes come across free parties out where I walk my dog. It’s lovely to see that the joys of repetitive beats and various refreshments have not lost their allure for the youth of today despite constant news pieces suggesting otherwise.

I really enjoy the Giant Steps Sunday dances. They’re a wholesome and life-affirming way to close out the weekend. It’s a nice social thing, with an appreciative, knowledgeable crowd and great music on an excellent sound system. Ron Trent, a month or so back, was a total masterclass. I was there from the first tune to the last.

Brilliant Corners is probably the place I play the most. I recently did a late session there with Brian not Brian; that was an absolute hoot. It seemed well received, too, so I think we’ll be back for another one at some point. I loved playing in the studio at Little Portland Street, a semi-private spot with London’s most bananas sound system. It’s a complete DJ’s dream: everything sounds so lovely, super intimate, flexible hours, the biz.

After dubstep (and to a lesser extent Post-dubstep) the attention in terms of club music moved to Berlin, and then Brexit happened. How has that all affected the scene there, specifically for more obscure artists and DJs?

I think London is like New York, y’know. Reports of its death will always be exaggerated. Yes, the city is horribly expensive; I’m sure running parties is a nightmare, but it will always attract people who want to make something happen.

I have nothing good to say about Brexit whatsoever. The least of it is that it’s made touring more expensive and complicated for artists lower down the food chain.

What’s at the core of what you like whether it be Djing, making music or simply listening to something at home?

Tough one. I guess my tastes lie at the intersection of house, reggae and balearic stuff. I like some humour and lightness of touch in music. I’m not into super austere stuff; I love vocals and don’t shy away from things that might be a little quirky. Records with a lot of personality. Hence, the name of my little edit label.

What led you down the path of Djing and making music initially and what was always at the heart of your musical explorations during the early stages of your career?

I first started trying to make mix tapes at the age of 12 or so. I was equally obsessed and frustrated with figuring out how and why songs would fit together in sequence. That’s not changed at all. I’m pretty basic, really. I have no desire to make albums, soundtrack films or play live. I want to find and present interesting music to the best of my abilities.

Your first musical outlet was the group, Soft Rocks if I’m not mistaken. It seemed to emerge from an era when older elements like disco and synth-wave converged with modern club music genres. How did you arrive at that intersection of music?

Yeah, we were in the second wave of nu-disco. We all hated that term at the time and saw ourselves as anything but. In retrospect, a lot of brilliant and creative music emerged from that period. And a lot of utter dross, too. I started learning about a wider world of music then – afro, rock stuff, post-punk, just leftfield dance music. It’s still a massive part of who I am musically and what I do.

I owe a debt to Chris Pure Pleasure, my friend, a partner in Soft Rooks, and record dealer, from whom I gained a great deal of musical knowledge. Then again, I paid a decent chunk of his mortgage for a couple of years, so I guess we’re about even.

Calling you a vinyl enthusiast would be something of an understatement. What continues to draw you to the format between DJing, your own music and Mysticisms?

Well, there’s been a bit of change there. I previously only used vinyl, mostly just because I was really comfortable with it. I’ve been at this for a while; for the longest time, this was the only option. It wasn’t a choice; it was just what you did.

I am now at least 75 percent digital. I lean heavily on my own edits and play loads done by friends (shout to Jonny Rock for coming through with heavy artillery!). I enjoy finding music on Bandcamp, too.

I still constantly buy records but only take them to places where I know they will sound okay or where there is no other option. Brilliant Corners is vinyl only, for example. I’m bringing a bag to Jaeger as I’ve heard nothing but good things about the system and setup there!

What are the challenges in finding and presenting music in that format today?

The obvious one is the expense. Records are a serious financial outlay, and I’m endlessly thankful to the people who buy what we put out when other cheaper formats are so readily available. Logistically, it’s a nightmare, too, with pressing plant delays and so forth. Still, I can’t say I’d released something properly without it existing in a physical format.

Mysticisms is such a concise and very unique expression, and even though the music is always different, there’s something at the nucleus of it that ties it all together. What is at that nucleus for you?

I have always wanted Mysticisms to be a house label like On-U Sound was a reggae label. It loosely adheres to the conventions of the genre, but there’s a huge amount of freedom within those limitations. It just has to make sense to Chuggy and me. A relatively knockabout filter disco record can sit next to something super deep, like the Scuba record. It works in our minds. I can only hope it does the same for others.

From iconic artists like Scientist to in-demand artists like Tornado Wallace, and then onto more obscure ones like Øyvind Morken, the artistic scope is quite varied. How do you and Stuart pick these artists for the label and how does it reflect your own tastes?

We now have the dubplate sub-label, so that’s home to the more reggae and dub-informed, downtempo stuff we both love. We want to support new music, but selling it is a challenge, which makes us sad. We had hoped that Mysticisms would be 50/50 reissues and new releases, but in reality, it’s weighted in favour of the reissues. We try to get new stuff out there by doing the various artist Alchemy samplers.

Obviously the art is a huge part of the label’s identity, too and the occult theme that runs through it all. What and who planted the seed for that, and how do you feel it reflects the music on the records? 

Chuggy had the name and the idea of the little triangle chap, who has ties to the ancient British occult. I worked up some crappy line drawings, and then we handed it over to the designer. The designs have mutated and developed from there, depending on the release. Chuggy is the creative director visually. I say yes or no and lob in the odd idea.

My girlfriend is a practitioner of magical arts, so our home is equally full of records and tarot decks. I love the iconography, even if I don’t fully buy into it. I suppose it’s a belief system that is as good as any other and much better than some, such as capitalism.

Between DJing, making music, running the label and writing liner notes, what continues to keep you motivated in terms of music and if the love for it ever wavers, what usually draws you back into it?

Music has been an obsession of mine for 35 years. I think about it constantly, and I’ve made most of my friends through it. I’ve been having an eight-year-long WhatsApp conversation with Toby Tobias about it. I am always excited about music and prefer to avoid looking back and falling prey to nostalgia.

Besides your gig at Jaeger, what else do you have to look forward to in terms of music in the near-future?

I have a few nice gigs incoming. Over the next couple of months, I’ll be in Ibiza, Bucharest, LA, San Diego, and Istanbul. I have to give a special shout-out to the Love International festival, which is super special each year, and I’m looking forward to doing another morning session there for Test Pressing.

The best thing about DJing internationally has been making friends along the way, so I’m excited to be playing with Øyvind in the basement at Jaeger. He’s a proper DJ, putting in those hours at residencies, playing at all parts of the night, working with guests. This is stuff that makes you. 

He absolutely killed it at Koko when he opened for Chaos in the CBD last year. Uncompromising but accessible. Pure Morken! I’m going to have to stay on my toes!

Lastly, can you play us out with a song?

It’s not something I’ll be playing in the basement at Jaeger, but I’m currently obsessed with this slice of deep, lofty jazz-funk.

Ralf Moufang & Elastic Headache – Still On My Mind

From Kids Love Bass to Mr Promising Start, Seth Raknes talks to us about his latest project and how he got there ahead of his set this Friday.

Seth Raknes has never been one to label easily. When he came here to perform his debut LP as Mr Promising Start last year, I was expecting something of that UK bass sound with which we’ve associated him and his time at Kids Love Bass. Instead we were taken down a wormhole of cinematic abstraction towards a kinetic creative identity. 

“I wish I was better at this“ is an album of deep introversion, drowning in a miasma of lush electronic textures rooted in the lower ends of the frequency spectrum. On Jaeger’s sound system it droned and intimidated with Seth’s vocals growling at you through distorting machines. Playing on a backdrop of video as abstract as the music, it draws the listener/viewer close to the artist. 

At some point and unprompted, the entire audience sat down on the floor, like they’re listening to an old friend talk about a recent journey, and that is what it felt like; it’s an album that takes you on a trip towards Seth Raknes most inner creative soul. 

“I wish I was better at this“ is the latest evolution of an artist and DJ that was been deeply intertwined in the fabric of Oslo and Norwegian club culture, and while it marks a departure from the DJ booth, I found that it still maintains that immutable tether to club music and that club sound.

Seth lives in Barcelona today, but he continues to make regular visits to Oslo, and with his newly established label Lauguna Luminosa, it looks like we’ll be seeing a lot more of him in the coming future with more releases primed. His next stop will be at Jaeger, opening up for Todd Edwards and with another release shortly on its way, we called him up to find out more about his future, his past and his journey to Mr Promising Start. 

The last time you were at Jaeger you presented your debut LP. Was this your debut as both Mr Promising Start and Seth Raknes? Because I can’t believe with your history that you hadn’t released anything before.

That’s my first full release under any nickname or alias. I’ve had some obscure remixes, but this is my first original work. 

I know it took you six years to record and finish it. Was there something from the outset that planted the seed for this project?

It was a mix of everything. I dabbled in different sounds before landing on anything. For this particular project, I decided on the name and the vision I had at the same time. It was in 2016, and I was living in Bergen at the same time. 

I came back to Oslo, and went into the studio. I made a bunch of sketches, which were just instrumentals, but I had already decided I wanted to record vocals on them. I went to Roland (Filter Musikk) and got some tips on recording techniques. Then I moved to Barcelona and the project was put on ice.

It took a long time to finish it. I kept moulding it and working it. I sent it out, but in the end a few people pushed me to release it myself, and it took another year to set up my own label.

You mentioned that you had this vision for a sound in your head before you even started it. What exactly was that idea?

I’m still trying to put it into words, because part of it is a subjective feeling and image. I have this sense of colour and atmosphere when I think about what I want things to sound like.

To be more specific; I wanted to make electronic music that wasn’t really locked into one particular grid or genre. In a similar way to how I DJ; influenced by the different styles and tempos. 

I wanted to have vocals on it, to separate it from whatever else is out there, and I like writing lyrics, but I don’t have a voice that can sing. I was pre-determined to process the vocals to fit into an electronic landscape. 

When you talk about writing lyrics, were there any particular lyrical themes running through the album?

Yes, I had a theme to it and a style that probably comes from rap music as a reference. I also made it with the mantra that I didn’t want to overthink it, so sometimes it’s close to gibberish. I try to focus more on keeping the flow against the backdrop of electronic music where there is a lot of mathematics.

There is a lot of my self-deprecating humour around anything from anxiety and depression to more light-hearted stuff. There’s a whole song there called “customer-service” about how people come to talk to you in the booth while you DJ. 

I wrote that during the peak of the pandemic, and I hadn’t done a DJ gig in ages and it’s me reflecting on how nice it is to not have to deal with certain aspects of Djing, like people ordering a drink from you. Overall, there’s a sense of humour in everything. 

Between the lyrics, the sound, the visual aspects like the video, and the performance of the LP; Was it always the intention to create this sprawling multimedia project?

It wasn’t the idea from the beginning. It goes back to your previous question; when you asked what the vision was. I am particularly inspired by audio visual stuff and film in general. A lot of the songs on the album have references from movies or series, which captures these moods and references the lyrics. There’s always an image present when I work on music.

There was never an idea to create visuals for it, but that happened when I started working on the art direction with my good friend, Eivind Sillah-Guttuhaugen (one more thing). He said; “you should do a music video.” 

When I started working on the music video together with director Vi Duc Truong I had this idea for an intro piece for the music video and then the ball started rolling. I do this a lot when I’m up late and I can’t sleep due to insomnia. My brain started churning and I thought it would be cool to have some simple visuals going for the entire album, during that listening party at Jaeger.

It turned into a short film. I forced my friend Gustav Tønnesen to help me film the thing in Barcelona. 

Talking about the intro, it sees you skateboarding around Barcelona, and while doing some research for this I found an article with an 18-year-old Seth Raknes on skateboarding. Music and skateboarding have always had this symbiotic relationship, and skate videos have always impressed this kind of narrative through the music. Is that something that influenced you with the creation of this LP?

On the musical side it has very little influence. I wasn’t even skateboarding at the time when I started the album. It was more prevalent on the visual part, and that was on purpose, because that aesthetic is part of my identity. Especially with those VX cameras that we used and the format. I also went through the skateboard world when finding people to help out. 

I have a bit of a complex relationship with skateboarding. I like skating, and I like the things it has given me, but I don’t like labelling myself as a skater for various reasons. When it came to the visual aspect however, it totally made sense to include that in there. 

Did your relationship with music and DJing start through skating, or have you always tried to separate those two parts of your identity?

I wouldn’t say I separated them. If anything, I think music took me away from skating. I was more into skating in my teens and then in my late teens l found I couldn’t really identify with skating.

The music genres that most of the skaters I knew listened at that time, wasn’t the music I was interested in. I started going away from rap and things that I had listened to in my teens and getting more and more interested in electronic music.

Most of the people that I was skating with were in either one of two camps; rap and mainly boom bap or guitar music. And then you had two clothing styles based on that, and that was just too segregated for me. I never really cared what others were doing, I just did my own shit. 

*photos by Christian Tung

Was it Djing that piqued your interest initially when it came to electronic music?

It started with Djing. I wanted to work with music, but I couldn’t find my place. I was working at a local skate shop in my late teens and I would burn CDs to make mixtapes for the store. People would come in and ask what these CDs were, and people wanted to buy them or make mixtapes for them. 

At the same time I started going out and I would hear a lot of the same songs at parties, and I thought; “maybe Djing is my calling”. I wanted to work with music, but I didn’t have any talents. I could write raps, but I couldn’t physically do them and I dabbled in music production, but couldn’t play any instruments. 

At the time there was a label called Pass It records at the forefront of Hip Hop and I knew a lot of people involved in that and one of the people in that group was Daniel Gude. I approached him and asked; “how do I start Djing.” I also asked William “Nasty Kutz” Wiik Larsen (DMC champion/ super-producer) to show me some basics and I practised. I threw my first party at Blå, calling on a favour and twenty people came and I lost a lot of money. 

Not too long after I started playing with Daniel as Kids Love Bass. 

And the rest is history…I just want to come back to the mixtapes. Who or what was informing your listening habits and helping you find the music for these mixtapes?

It was the Internet. In the early stages, I was going to music blogs and using limewire. A little bit later, when it came to electronic music, I started listening to Internet radio stations and I was kind of in the middle of that blog House era. 

DJs like Diplo were crossing genres between rap and electronic music, which made sense to me as well as Grime and UK club music. On the other side, being a DJ in Oslo you learn more about House and Techno, being such a small scene and with Daniel being my partner and his huge collection of music, you also find out everything from Disco to Boogie.

I know you’ve never been one to be pigeonholed in terms of what you play, but is there anything like a sound that you look for in music you play or buy?

The easiest way to sum it up, would be to look at what was going on in London in that era. Particularly that Plastic People, Rinse FM thing where dubstep and garage started crossing paths with darker Techno and House. You would hear wobbly basses on a House or Techno track. With Kids Love Bass it was the same thing and we had a preference for things that came out of that world.  

Colloquially in London it was being referred to as future bass, purely for lack of any definitive term.

Yeah it was a weird time. Still to this day, it’s a little unclear. It was called post-dubstep, future bass and then there was UK Funky that was part of that, but they had their own label on it. 

That classic question of “what do you play or what do you make”… as soon as I started Djing, I haven’t been able to respond to that with a simple answer and I still can’t. (Laughs)

Did you find, like me, that a lot of the artists and DJs that came out of that era, that were bridging all those genres and styles, eventually moved into more traditional styles and became very conventional Techno or House artists.

Yes, definitely. There were some names that I feel faded away and got lost in the sauce, but I can also understand that. It’s hard to find your footing. They would make one song that sounded more Housy and they would get booked to a party and drop a dancehall track, which would empty the floor, because people were just there for that one House song. 

Now you see artists coming back to it, like L-Vis 1990. 

That’s the same with your album. It harks back to that creative melting pot of that era.

The interesting thing is; I made that album thinking I would appeal to that type of “Bass” crowd, but when I dropped the album the people supporting it were coming from more typical backgrounds, people like Laurent Garnier or Joris Voorn. 

Were you thinking of the dance floor, the DJs and the club setting when you were making this album?

Everything I make is shaped to sound good on a club system, but no it wasn’t made to fit into a DJ set. It’s club music, but made to listen to at home. With all the elements, and the details, it’s not that stripped down, I totally understand that it wasn’t picked up by DJs and used in the club context. It wasn’t intended to go down at peak hour in Berghain.

And you can’t make an album for that either.

For sure, and I took out tracks for that reason too. 

Will those tracks make it onto a future EP or LP?

I don’t think so, I’m done with this process for the most part. What I will probably do is a few tracks as instrumentals and some remixes. 

Is that why you set up the label too, as an exclusive vehicle for your future releases?

I think it’s mainly for me. I wouldn’t mind doing something for someone in the long-term future. But it’s so much work and I don’t feel like I can be responsible for other people, for now. It’s mainly for me. I have a ton of music laying around and I have more ideas for other projects. 

So it’s only the beginning?

Yeah. I’m in the process of the second release, which is an EP dropping on June 21st. The EP is called “monetize your soul.” This time I’m trying to get into the club. I’m dropping it to try to get into the festival circuit, hence the title; I’m trying to sell-out with a smirk. There are some inside jokes about trying to please crowds and following certain trends. I picked the songs because they fit that mould, but I made the songs just trying to have fun and see what works for DJs. 

I have a lead track called “waffle of the week;” it’s about time I made a waffle anthem. It’s a straight up House track with a little bit of UK Funky and UKG references. It has some cooking sounds sampled in there too. I’m making a video for it, and I will drop that track exclusively on bandcamp on the 7th of June, when the party is going down with Todd Edwards. 

And I imagine that waffle of the week will make it into your set on that night.

I will for sure play that track and a few more from the EP. So if you want to hear it on a good system and you’re in Oslo on June 7th, you know where to be.

We discuss music technology, drugs in the 90’s and club culture with electronic music savant, Daniel Troberg ahead of his appearance at Jaeger

Electronic music instrument designer, producer, DJ, radio host, label owner, vinyl enthusiast, festival organiser, and club-music savant. Daniel Troberg wears many hats, and everything he does either has a root in, or branches off, from electronic music. Since the age of 17 he’s been involved in the clubbing scene, starting as a DJ on the Åland Islands at the peak of club music’s second wave; when things were still experimental, but starting to get a foothold in the mass consciousness. Hosting parties like Out of the Blue, Minimalize, and Science Fiction with his friends while “not even being old enough to drive,” Daniel played a vital role in Åland’s nightlife in the 1990’s.

A computer savant for as long as the personal computer has been around, Daniel was more than just a DJ and music enthusiast. He started hacking MSX computers to create rudimentary electronic music as a young child and by the time he came of age, he was programming machines to do his musical bidding, releasing records under aliases like Elektromekanik, The Player, and Erase.

By the late nineties he started working for electronic instrument company Elektron, playing a hand in the design of their first trailblazing machines, the Machinedrum and the Monomachine. Working at Elektron, he designed what was to become one of the world’s most iconic samplers and drum machines, the Octatrack.

Today there isn’t a Techno setup around without an Elektron machine and most of the live iterations still use the Octatrack at the centre of their setup. Next to Roland’s original XoX series, Elektron’s machines are iconic with Daniel’s influence on electronic music.

Based in Los Angeles today but “working all over the place” Daniel is currently involved in another synth company, ASM, as well as representing the “holy grail” of mixers: Zaehl, a company made famous by the association to legendary early Kraftwerk producer, Conny Plank. He DJs regularly, ever faithful to the vinyl format, playing all over the world and hosting his regular show ‘Transition’ on radio station Dublab.

He continues to record music for labels like Detroit Underground and Acid Chicken while also running his own label, Sonidosys. During a visit to Berlin’s annual synth messe Superbooth, he’s also making a few stops in some DJ booths around Europe and Scandinavia, including Jaeger’s this weekend. We caught up with him via phone to find out more about his musical history, his work with Elektron and his thoughts on electronic music and the culture.

How was Berlin?

It was very nice. It felt like the start of the party season.

And you were there specifically for Superbooth?

Yes, and I also played at Klunkerkranich. It was the 10-year anniversary for Bitwig (DAW). Stimming and Rust played too, both fantastic sets, and the place was packed.

Was there anything at Superbooth that excited you for the future of music technology?

I rarely get excited these days. I think everything is just a rehash, but thats ok. I think the next thing is the implementation of AI in both hardware and software, but what I am excited about is also the opposite. When someone make products that are at the extreme opposite end of AI, where you step back in time and bring forth old and sometimes absurd technology instead. Or combine the two. It’s those extremes I’m personally interested in at the moment.

When it comes to your own music today, where do you usually start in the creative process? I find in your music there’s always this experimental thread that appears to be exploring the possibilities of the machine.

My main workhorse is the computer with a DAW like Ableton or ProTools. Bitwig, Renoise, and Metasynth gets used too. I still have a bunch of hardware and I usually like to sit on the floor and have my stuff around me and record half an hour or so of material. Then maybe patch things in a different way and then record again, and so on. It’s just interesting to have different approaches, because I can get different results. I like to not remember how I did things, because then it gets boring for me. Then again, at times I take my two Octatracks to rework stuff I’ve recorded previously.

I’m glad to hear that you still use the Octatrack… Can you separate that machine builder/creator part of your personality with the artistic side?

Yes but it has taken time. My analytical mind like to think of instruments as to what they can offer to a user. With the Octatrack, the idea was to have it be able to play back pretty much any musical style, tempo, time division and so forth. It wasn’t meant to be a Techno machine. That was the last thing we all wanted back then, because it’s so obvious. But it is also great at it. My artistic side like to have inspiring instruments, tools, and toys to play around with. Like the Octatrack, or the Hydrasynth Explorer.

The Octatrack is very much a performance tool and when we’re talking about performance and recording, are those two separate things for you?

These days with the amount of real-time and on-the-fly editing, and the fact that one can jump between recording and play modes fluently, I’m basically playing live as I’m recording. It’s so interactive these days. I also often apply this to mixing, and effects. Sort of what they did in Jamaica with the early dub techniques. So, I don’t think there is a large gap between performance and recording to be honest.

And is that where your music comes from, in that live performance moment?

I’m not really a live performer. It all depends on my mood. Sometimes it’s nice to just print down a melody into a sequencer. When I work in Ableton, Bitwig, Renoise, or with hardware, it usually gets loopy. But when I work in ProTools or Metasynth, it’s more linear. I do drone and ambient stuff too, and that has a much longer cycle. I don’t treat it the same way as a rhythmic loop for obvious reasons, so usually thats where ProTools comes in.

You mentioned the drone and ambient projects, and you have so many other aliases with a prolific output amongst them, but where did it all start?

I got my first computer in 1983. Shortly after that I wrote my first lines of basic code that made simple melodies. At the same time, we also had a reel to reel at home, so I was recording things on that. And I got a little toy keyboard. In terms of making actual tracks, the computer was indeed involved in the process but that was a bit later on. Then came hardware synths, samplers, and so on.

A reel to reel machine seems pretty unusual to just have around in the eighties.

It wasn’t super unusual, because that was one of the few mediums you could record onto with good quality. Thinking about it now though, I don’t think anybody I knew had a reel to reel at home, but my dad did have one. He liked to listen to music and he had excellent taste. It wasn’t a high-end studio reel-to-reel, it was a consumer reel-to-reel.

When it comes to computers and coding, why did you think to use it as a tool for music, instead of creating video games?

Music has always been a means of escape for me. I have always listened to a lot of music, and music from computer games was just one more channel for me to tune in to. A computer game that had the slightest little sample in them – because for instance a Commodore 64 can play back samples in a very rudimentary way – would freak me out, because it just sounded so otherworldly. By the early to mid eighties, as breakdancing became popular, hearing the robotic music that the breakdancers was moving to, made me somehow realize that computers were partly involved, or more correctly, that electronics were involved. It was sort of a revelation to me. It fueled my obsession with music.

Did that lead down to a road with club music?

That came later of course, but yes, it was inevitable. With that came an interest in DJing. My good friend Johan, who started DJing at the school discos, lent me some turntables and a mixer. When I started 7th grade, I connected with him on a musical level, as he had records and turntables.

When did you start putting on events?

It started in 1994.

So right at the cusp of a House music’s next evolution.

Yes and around that time there were a lot of interesting styles and music that was coming up too. The home recording revolution helped to push that. Cheap boxes that flopped in the 80s was now used and abused to make alternative music. It also started to get quite aggressive. It was a hot pot of everything and I really liked the experimental Acid tinged techno and house that came around ‘93/94.

Who were some of those influences?

Too many to mention, but I used to buy records from a guy down in Gothenburg and he was tied in with suppliers in Detroit, like Underground Resistance. He was also tied in with the Delirium record shop in Cologne, which would later become Kompakt records. Stuff that was coming from The Netherland and the UK was fantastic too.

What are you leaning towards in terms of music in your DJ sets today?

I don’t really like new music that much. I think most new music sucks to be honest. There are very few things that excites me, but what I like is finding music that is mind-blowing, and then exposing that music to people who hopefully haven’t heard it before. If you are a DJ, or Selector rather, your mission is really to pick songs and tracks and present them in an interesting way; be a curator of music. I like to concentrate on the vinyl format, because thats what I grew up with.

You are still traveling around with a bunch of records right now?

Yes, because I don’t want to compete with the younger generation of DJs. I really just want to be an old grumpy guy that knows vinyl. That’s good enough for me. On the other hand, it is having a bit of resurrection too. So in a way, it might be hipper than ever, not sure.

Are you still finding new music on vinyl, or is it about collecting those old records?

I find really good new stuff from time to time. What’s funny is that there are so many reissues right now. I go to places like Hardwax in Berlin and find amazing music, there’s no question about that. I have some particular styles that I prefer; I like a certain type of Techno, House, Italo Disco, Electro, Ambient, and some quirky 80’s stuff. I don’t play too dark stuff. It’s got to have funk and it’s got to lift and challenge the listener in some way; and I usually don’t like music that you want to hang yourself to. (laughs) There’s enough bad shit going on in the world anyway.

There’s something in that approach to the sound of club music that I find is really indicative of Swedish Techno, Electro and House from your generation and era. Was there something in the water there during your time coming to the fore that you believed laid the foundation for all these amazing producers and music to exist?

New styles of music is usually contributed by two things: drugs and technology. Music has always been informed by the drug of choice and at that time it was ecstasy. The nineties was fueled by it and it was reflected in the music. Then all the boxes in the 80s that sort of flopped sales wise would started to get heavily used in the 90s because they were cheap. The MI business also got wind of this. In 1995, the 303 (Roland bass line synth) and the 909 (Roland rhythm composer drum machine) were starting to get more expensive and so companies like Roland released products that latched on to this new found popularity, like the MC303 and so on. As for Sweden in particular, I believe some additional factors were at play: a well funded school system that had music education on the curriculum, and an economic upturn in the 80s that enabled a lot of kids to have access to home computers.

You touched on legacy there with the Roland machines, and thinking about Elektron today, I don’t believe there is a live- or studio setup that doesn’t have an Elektron machine in the mix. When you guys started doing the Machinedrum and such, did you ever think it was going to have this legacy?

Yes. The Machinedrum and the Monomachine were quite niched when they were released. The Machinedrum was released during the height of the laptop frenzy. Very few people bought a drummachine that costed about as much as a laptop itself, the timing was actually horrible. But that made it special too. After a while, laptops weren’t as cool anymore. In comes Octatrack.

I remember my friend getting a Machinedrum back in the day for like $1000 (still cheaper than used 909 even back then) and it just seemed like a revelation. A year after getting it he still barely touched the surface of the possibilities of the machine.

Machinedrum and Monomachine sales weren’t great but they slowly became cult instruments, because they were very special and some big producers and acts started using them, like Autechre and Sophie. The units were kind of expensive, and the word was that they were hard to use. My opinion is that they are the easiest things to use. For example, Sophie was an excellent producer and sound designer and she used the Monomachine in a way that made it sound like you’re rubbing your hands against a balloon or something. Insane sounds! She was the last true renaissance producer to use the Monomachine, and it’s thanks to her they are $3000 now. (laughs)

Proving the fact that it and machines like Octatrack are some of today’s legacy machines and you helped create that.

Yeah, with the Octatrack there’s really nothing like it, except for a somewhat intricate computer setup, and it’s still going to be around for a while I think.

Back to present however, is there anything on the horizon for you that you are excited about?

I do have a festival on the Åland islands. It’s called Kokong. It’s the third year we’re doing it and it will be held on the 2nd and 3rd of August. I’m from there and we’re a small team that is trying to create well curated and specialized electronic music festival that focuses on ambient and experimental electronic music, and then later in the evening it turns into House, Techno and Acid. I’m also about to re-release my old Electromechanix catalogue, it’s about 50 tracks in total. I did 9 vinyl releases from 2001 to 2003 and then I have some unreleased tracks to go along with that.

Any musical highlights for you at the festival?

We only book fantastic acts of course, but TM404, Tinman and the Åland duo Havsmörker gets me extra excited. Havsmörker are awesome and they are also my colleagues in this festival. I did a remix for them that DVS1 is currently playing quite a lot. So if someone wants to come and explorer Åland, have some local pancakes, and listen to some electronic music, August 2nd and 3rd will definitely be the time. The webpage is www.kokong.ax.

Spending a night with our newest residents Mona Blanchard, Axel FU and Dara Woo as they get in a groove with Jaeger’s Tuesday night concept

The dance floor is pulsating to some two-step rhythm like a single human mass. A disassembled vocal interrupts in quaver stutters echoing over the heads of the audience. It’s an unusually warm day for April; arms and legs exposed to the cooling elements. The sound pressure drops with a metronome-like countdown for 16 bars and then with an almighty thud, a kick drum breaks free, moving through the crowd like a sonic tsunami. There’s a physical surge as people bunch into the tight space of Jaeger’s courtyard. It’s hard to believe it’s just past midnight on a Tuesday.

Axel FU (Aksel Aasen) conducts the crowd through the song, massaging the best out of the tracks with some subtle eq nudges. Alongside him Mona Blanchard and Dara Woo wait in the wings for their turn at the helm of their weekly club night, M.A.D; a concept which takes its name from the three DJs at the centre of the night. Tonight it’s certainly living up to its name.

Inaugurated in January 2024, M.A.D is the latest Tuesday concept on Jaeger’s calendar. Its origins lay in the monthly Wednesday night, Frensday, started by Axel and transposes the central theme of that monthly club night to Tuesdays, with Jaeger as the nucleus.

During the day Axel is Jaeger’s bar manager, and Dara has been employed in the bar at various stages of its history. “It’s evolved  from the dance floor to the bar and from the bar to the dance floor again,” and today she is also the assistant bar manager. Both  Axel and Dara have DJ’d regularly at Jaeger and it was at Ola Smith-Simonsen’s (DJ Olanskii and head booker at Jaeger) insistence that they created the night, to “freshen (Tuesdays) up,” according to Axel and to ”bring in a young crowd” according to Dara. They enlisted the help of frequent Frensday guest and actual friend Mona Blanchard and set off establishing the Tuesday concept in what was one of the harshest of winters in living memory in Oslo. 

M.A.D follows a history of concepts that have always found different solutions to what is probably one of the most difficult nights to pull off on a club’s weekly programming. The common consensus, including Dara’s, is that Tuesdays “suck” as a club night, but there is still potential there. It requires something “interesting” to draw people in and more importantly bring them back, but even with the club night in its infancy, Axel can already “see people coming back, and a lot of different people coming back.”

This latest Tuesday is the culmination of all these efforts coming to fruition. Axel is at the controls, and the energy is frenetic. “It’s easy to maintain that energy if that crowd is there,” he remarks later. There’s a sense of hedonism in the air, the unbridled enthusiasm of youth that a lack of “grown-up” responsibility brings with it. The music is frenzied and uninhibited; each DJ follows in the sonic footsteps of the last, without necessarily stepping on the other’s toes.

It’s taken the trio of DJs since the start of the concept, back in January, to find each other musically. While their “biggest challenge” is still going back to back, Axel feels that they are at a point where they can at least ”reach each other halfway” with Axel sandwiched in that middle position between Dara and Mona, musically speaking. “We are quite different in our range of music and groups, which is really interesting,” explains Dara. They’ve all played together at some point in the past, but as a trio, these Tuesdays have been a baptism of fire. 

While one would assume DJing being a common thread between them, there’s an even stronger connection through their love of going out, listening to other DJs, and being in that environment.

Mona, a French/Norwegian moved to Oslo “to experience this part of my culture” six years ago, and fell in with a group of friends where music was the “big link” and DJing was ubiquitous amongst them. It’s through that extended group she met Axel and eventually Dara. Dara, who had ”started to learn how to play ten years ago, but never got to practise, ”has been a fixture on Oslo’s intimate scene, both working in it and being a part of it from the dance floor. 

Both Mona and Dara had similar experiences post pandemic when they focussed all their efforts on DJing. Mona had been furlough at the time of that first Frensday, while Dara,  exasperated from pursuing a nine to five, poured her efforts into the thing she knew inherently; after all “it’s more fun to be a DJ.” 

In what has become a common theme since the covid catastrophe, the M.A.D generation is leading the charge in Oslo for a new wave of club music enthusiasts. It’s as if the lockdown has programmed a permanent F.O.M.O with people like Dara and Mona seemingly constantly on their way to a dance floor. 

Mona “need(s) to see people everyday” while Dara always has “some birthday or some friend playing out” even if she’s not playing. Both would “rather go out” than sit at home and the dance floor often beckons in those situations. Mona says she gets her “energy from being around people, and being around people means going out to dance.” Axel is the more reserved of the them, but will still “go out to listen to friends play” and when he’s not working or playing himself, he’ll be at Jaeger listening to one for the guest DJs coming through town. 

Has this laid the seed for some kind of scene to exist in Oslo? Big friend groups, many of which include DJs hosting all sorts of parties around the city, seem to have gathered momentum in the last year. Many of them were the ones taking to the forest at a time when the venues were still heavily restricted. Today they seem to be dominating the club spaces around town. 

“It could be a community,” suggests Mona “but it’s almost too big to be a community.” With so many of them constituting DJs and each with their own concepts, it appears more fractious than any kind of scene. For Mona it’s a way to compartmentalise her nightlife habits. It’s more about “understanding the events and choosing” which one you’ll attend than any kind of sonic signature. A generation that’s had every style, genre and region of music at their fingertips, music is not as reductive as it used to be, and their tastes have far reaching and overlapping zones of interest. It’s thoroughly represented through the three individuals behind M.A.D. 

Mona’s high energy impulses, Dara’s tunnel-carving visions of the dance floor, and Axel’s sprawling tastes, converge in an chaotic tapestry of club music, with no central theme to really speak of. I pry them for any kind of umbrella term, but I’m only met with some vague assertions that won’t exclude anything. 

“We’re really different,“ suggests Mona, and “what brings us together is not the kind of music we play, it’s more about this project.” We’re also good at going out of our way to find music that matches each other,” adds Axel. “Here I’m being challenged a lot by trying to find these guys musically” while Dara suggests it’s about always “navigating towards the middle.”  

At its heart it’s always about “ discovering new music” according to Mona, and this can take the form of new releases and undiscovered gems from the past. Whatever they do is based on finding that connection with the dance floor. It’s “not alienating a crowd,” according to Axel, but they also understand that the crowd they’ve started cultivating are not going to enjoy any “easy listening” music. They might draw the line at “Skrillex remixes” themselves, but if “somebody were to play it and it works…. Then that’s cool too.” 

Every week they “learn something” according to Mona and “it’s always about this night working out.“ And here it becomes about more than just music. From social media’s prevalence – “it’s a free work tool, that would be dumb not to use” –  to the finer details of the arrangement of the dance floor – “ I go into floor manager mode before my set” – they go over every aspect of the club night, to make it a success. 

Dara and Axel’s experience behind the scenes are crucial, in that they notice “patterns” in everything that they can utilise. Everything from the settings on the heating lamps to the layout of the tables on the fringes of the dance floor plays a role in a sense of inclusivity from the night. “Just working here you pick up on things,” explains Dara. It follows her into the booth where  it’s “helped a lot in the last two years” in establishing her role as a DJ too. 

It’s hard to quantify that standing behind her as Dara takes the controls from Mona. There’s the slightest of resistance between the two tracks Dara settles into her stint, venturing into the distinctive deep trenches she likes to carve late at night. The fevered crowd finds a new pulse, and the frenzied excitement moves into a harmonious wave ebbing through the night. The rest of the night progresses with the intensity waning little before the curfew bells rings. They’ve found that rare groove of successful club night, and it sounds like they are getting into their stride.   

We celebrate the 17th of May this week with a some of Norway’s finest and most stellar selectors

It’s probably he only time and place where traditional dress meets the club dance floor. As the sounds of brass bands dwindle into the air and the various breakfasts settle, we swing open our doors at 12:00 to welcome one and all to our 17th of May celebration at Jaeger.

Skatebård, g-HA & Olanskii, Anders Hajem, Henrik Villard, Perkules, Monojack, Simon Field, Nordiks, Jean Eudes, Mulo, Schmooze & Brus, Synne,  Dara Woo, Ornella and of course MC Kaman & Kash serve dance floor tunes… and hot dogs throughout the day and night. 

Starting in our courtyard and moving into the basement as dusk creeps closer, we maintain two floors of unbridled House, Disco, Boogie and more for the annual event. Bouncing bass and stepping grooves under a sunny sky go on till late with residents and guests under Norwegian flags.

Here follows the full schedule and you can find more information on the event page:

Gården

12:00 – MC Kaman & Kash 
15:00 – Anders Hajem + Henrik Villard + Perkules (Boring Crew Records)
17:00 – Monojack + Simon Field (Basement)
19:00 – Nordiks + Jean Eudes + Mulo (French Voyage)
22:00 – Skatebård
00:00 – g-HA & Olanskii

Diskon

22:00 – Schmooze & Brus
00:00 – Synne
01:00 – Dara Woo & Ornella

ID:20

Josh Ludlow and Ben Lewis from Make A Dance answer some questions via email as they get ready for Oslo this Friday.

Make A Dance (or the acronym M.A.D if you prefer) are part of a musical wave of artists, labels, producers and DJs that have come to the fore pafter the pandemic through a sound that can only be described as post-club music. Drawing heavily on the earliest sound of House, Techno, Electro, and Acid, where all those things were still in their infancy, people like Make A Dance’s. Josh Ludlow and Ben Lewis have taken club music back to its proto DIY roots.  

Possibly informed in a pandemic culture sans-clubs, it’s a sound that harks back to a time where all those genres and styles were a little more fluid and less rigid. It easily extends beyond the dance floor, where a whole generation was introduced to club music outside of its intended context. 

For music that thoroughly adopted the form-follows-function philosophy up until only recently, labels like Make A Dance and producers like Josh and Ben have reintroduced the hedonistic pleasures associated with this music. There’s  a joie de vivre for the dance floor and frenetic fervour that even transcends any physical space. 

They made an early impression with their breakout single, “I need Somebody,” garnering the attention of all time greats like Cinthie and Laurient Garnier out of the gate. Its appeal was likely cemented in those fundamental building blocks of House music where a soulful vocal fills the gaps between kinetic machines. The stuttering introduction and a glistening sonic pallet updates the sound for a modern audience, but its charm is already timeless. 

While that record laid the foundation for a Make a Dance production duo to exist it also instituted a label of the same name, which today has evolved into two labels and a family of artists that extend the sonic signature of the duo that started it all. Today it can go from foaming Acid to shimmering Electro and it’s split between the main label and its M.A.D edits subsidiary, perpetuated by the duo behind the label and their friends. 

They’ve already amassed a dedicated following and between their records, DJ skills and events they are the total package. They’ll join us at Jaeger this Friday, so we hit them up via email to delve into their origins and some of the ideas that informed everything they do.  

Hello Ben and Josh. Tell us about how you met and the creation of Make A Dance.

We met through our EX girlfriends (Big up the Ex Girlfriends!)  The seeds were sown as we instantly bonded over music. A few months later a chance and impromptu back 2 back laid the foundations of the partnership and then Covid sealed the deal with us being in close proximity during the lockdown. 

Individually, what were your paths to electronic dance music and what are the major differences between you two in terms of taste in music?

Josh: Mine was Metal – Drum & Bass – Breaks – House – Balearic Wonderment

Ben: listening to late night radio in my room and being exposed to drum and bass was a big one for me. Then some early albums I bought in my early teens were ‘Moby – Play’ and that fatboy slim album with all the bangers – both got me very excited about sampling and the endless possibilities. 

How did it coalesce into Make A Dance when you started working together? 

MAD: As mentioned before, we had time to kill during the Lockdowns, and when we could intermingle we would have multiple day long sessions writing tunes together. On a whim, Ben had the idea of pressing up a 12” with the fruits of our labours and thankfully for us every bedroom DJ had money in their pockets and time on their hands to dig and it sold out. The rest, as they say, is history.

You are based in London. Was there anything happening in the scene over there that influenced the timing of starting the label? 

There were friends of ours, Jive Talk, Krywald & Farrer, Semi Delicious that were already pressing up white labels so that was definitely a bit of an impetus. It’s been great as we’ve all continued building our respective projects, collaborated and in general supported each other. We like the camaraderie 

Today, Make A Dance is a production duo, a few labels, and a club night. Besides it all revolving around the two of you, what is the central theme (sonically and /or thematically) that ties it all together?

As we wrote in our M.A.D manifesto at the beginning of all of this: It’s all about the love of the dance, and that’s always kept in mind. The only real rule is that we play out what we sign and that we like the artists as people as well as for their traxxx.

Are there any other record labels or artists that were an early influence?

So Many! From the early days, things like Fabric Fridays, Ed Banger, 2many DJs, Plump DJs etc

You went from establishing the concept to quickly garnering some attention from the scene. Why do you think it appealed to people immediately and what do you contribute to this early success?

I think people responded to the playful DIY nature of it. We also have managed to release constantly from the very start, sticking to our simple bare bones aesthetic. With such saturation in the dance scene and in life in general, it’s important to be consistent with whatever your craft may be.

“I need somebody” was the first track and it was a breakout with the likes of Cinthie and Laurent Garnier singing your praises. Tell us a bit about the making of it and how it connected with the origins of the label.

The final track you hear was version 20 something of attempts, thankfully we had time on our side as it took absolutely ages to finish. We can’t take that much credit for it really as it’s based around the amazing Keisha Jenkins vocal from the original. I guess you could say Make A Dance has Aunty Keisha to thank for our early success!

Did you know you had a hit on your hands there before releasing it, and how did it inform the sound of the duo and the label going forward?

We had no idea other than a feeling that we liked it. We had no gigs due to the time it was written so we had absolutely zero dance floor feedback. It would be interesting to see a world where artist’s/producers never received feedback on their work and just released music for themselves …how would music have progressed?

You mentioned the DIY nature of your music. Your music always seems to draw on house/electro/acid’s earliest origins, but updated for today. What is it about that epoch of club music that remains so consistent in your opinion and how do you contextualise it in a modern dance floor? 

Good question. I think we have to be careful not to be too derivative, our music of course borrows heavily from the period we most enjoy which is the late 80s early 90s. Probably the only reason it sounds at all new is because we use a computer to make it haha.

I see your M.A.D edits as an extension of the philosophy of those roots. What planted the seed for that sub-label to exist?

We just felt it was important to make a distinction between the main label and the edits as they are so different. The edits will only ever be limited run and vinyl only (unless we get rights to release digitally). It’s a very fine line to tread releasing edits, and probably warrants a bigger ethical discussion in 2024. 

The tracks you chose to edit aren’t always the obvious Disco things however. What do you usually look for in terms of a track you want to edit, and how do you generally approach the editing process as artists?

Usually it has to be something that we’ve never heard edited before and secondly it has to work in our sets. Other than that, anything goes.

And when you ask an artist like Lex Wolf to submit something, what do you look for in those edits? 

Lex seems to have a clinical problem where he can’t stop making edits, and the other problem is that they are all amazing. We usually sift through an enormous selection to get each edition. With all our edits EP’s we have a loose theme of play listing each EP like you would a DJ set, with a warm up track, a groover, something peak time and something WEIRD.

What about the artists you’ve released across both labels; are these people you have had a relationship with before and what are the essential ingredients for a Make A Dance artist and a record?

It’s really varied from release to release, it’s more that we have a personal connection with the music and this always has led to getting on with the artist. We’ve found that people who make like minded music tend to be like minded, it’s such a direct form of communication in that sense. Of course there are exceptions to the rule…

Which came first, Djing or production?

Josh: Production

Ben: DJing

You’ve played places like Fabric recently. Where were you playing before the label and how have you had to adapt to playing bigger venues? 

Thankfully we are still playing in smaller rooms, and long may it last. We’ll leave the big room stuff to the professionals. 

We both had projects for years before M.A.D so due to that, we quite quickly started playing at places like fabric in London which is mind blowing. That relationship has been a huge part of our story and something we’ll always be grateful and proud of. Fabric was the formative place for both of us growing up.

Everything you do I imagine is to perpetuate that Make A Dance sound and mood, but on a dance floor ,context is always essential. What are the essential elements that you try to relay, especially when you play a venue or city you’ve never played before, like Jaeger?

Watch the act before, be prepared for anything and hopefully we can start under 120bpm as that’s where you get the most horizontal hip action and a lot of our favourite records reside. That being said, we love to slam it too!

Are there any specific highlights in your record bag/usb-stick that you are looking forward to bringing to Jaeger?

Josh: Yes! I’ve been loving playing Lextended Vol.2 – it just keeps giving. Also hoping to play some WAX. I’ve only gotten turntables recently and it’s fully reignited my love for DJing.

What else is on the horizon for Make A Dance in all its various guises that you’d like to share with everybody?

Lots and lots of releases lined up, some special collaborations with other labels, many parties and finally a range of clothing.

We caught up with Why Kai ahead of their LP launch at Jaeger to talk about their debut album and the history of the project

Jazz and electronic music have been curious bedfellows in Norway. Artists like Bugge Wesseltoft, Nils Petter Molvæar and more recently Hilde Marie Holsen and Stain Balducci, have been exploring the borders of these genres. It has developed a rich history in the confluence of musical styles in the region in a way that is very uniquely Norwegian.  

The latest addition to this legacy has been Why Kai, the solo project of session pianist, Jazz musician and club music enthusiast, Kai von der Lippe. Together with drummer Elias Tafjord, Why Kai has been a staple on club stages including Jaeger, and has recorded a few seminal EPs since establishing the project. At that convergence of the dance floor and Jazz, Why Kai lives closer to the loop-based phenomena that dominates club music, plying their craft in the physicalíty of their instruments. 

Fingers dancing over keys while percussive elements permeate with transcendental grooves, Why Kai’s music is made from the technical ability of accomplished musicians but thrives on the dance floor. As a live band it’s as appealing as a visual spectacle as it entices in the sonic realm and for the few EPs they’ve released it’s something that they’ve echoed remarkably well in the recorded format. 

They take this a step further with their debut LP, “The Tourist” with Kai enlisting the skills of Elias in a more dominant way in the recording process. It sounds like Why Kai performing in your living room, and some familiar songs from their live repertoire evoke images of the duo on stage through the record. 

A sweeping narrative in sound transports the listener through songs and vignettes that relay some hidden plot through its 12 songs. Between keys and drums the tracks are instantly familiar if you’ve heard Why Kai on stage before. Leaving enough room for the pulse to take root, songs develop in organic, and often very technical ways that encourage deeper listening. 

On a weekday in Oslo, we caught up with Kai and Elias in a cafe in Grünnerløkka to find out what lies beyond the obvious in their debut record and the history of the project ahead of the official launch of “The Tourist” at Jaeger.  

Kai, you mentioned this is a solo project. However, the few times I’ve seen you play live as Why Kai, it’s always Elias on the drums. Is it still a solo project?

Kai: It has become more of a duo project, and then we sometimes play with a bigger band live, depending on the setting. On the recordings, it’s me making the music and Elias creating the drum parts, especially now on this album. It’s a blend of electronic drums and acoustic drums. 

Elias: We always start with a base of electronic drums, but now we’ve started experimenting with acoustic drums. When we play live, I always use effects on the acoustic drums and combine those with the electronic drums. 

Who programmes the electronic drums?

E: That’s Kai.

K: But the drums are important. Without the acoustic drums it would have been static. 

E: It also makes it quite different from other electronic artists, because of the acoustic elements; like the drums and the piano.

There is something quite visually appealing to seeing somebody actually play the drums in the club setting. 

K: It’s so visual and such a whole body experience.

You’re both quite accomplished musicians and you’ve obviously studied music at a high level. Is that how you met each other?

E: We actually found out that we’re from the same neighbourhood recently, but we only met at Foss, the music high-school. I think the teacher saw us as the Jazz guys. As we got older, we started dancing a lot together, going to Jaeger a lot on Tuesdays and Saturdays. We found we had this common love for electronic dance music.

Did you have a Jazz background before going to high school?

K: Both of us have parents who are Jazz musicians. I started with classical piano lessons and then moved from that to playing with a jazz teacher at Kulturskolen at Grønnland. 

E: I grew up with my dad touring a lot when I was a kid. So, when my mom couldn’t handle me, I went on tour with my dad. He was a tuba player that played in this traditional world Jazz band. 

K: You had the drummer of that band as your teacher.

E: Yes, and my teacher had the drummer before him as a teacher. I’m third in the line.

That’s a dynasty! What kind of Jazz were you exposed to at that early age?

E: I was more of a New Orleans traditional Jazz kind of a guy, because that’s the stuff my dad played. He was also involved with some African- and Asian musicians. It was a blend between world- and New Orleans Jazz.

K: The early stages, I was also a product of what my dad listened to and played. Which was the Bill Evans and Keith Jarret style of Jazz piano. 

So, not too experimental?

K: No. When I started at high school I got into Bugge Wesseltoft and Nils Molvær and clubby jazz from the nineties here in Norway. When at university, that‘s when I really started experimenting with freeform Jazz, but that’s true for both of us I think. 

E: My sister is also an electronic noise musician. Getting that from early on as well, put me on that path. 

What brought you guys together and how did the solo project arrive?

K: We had another trio, playing club music. It was a collective thing and more showy. 

E: It was almost like a rock show, with us going; “fuck you, we’re playing club music!” We had silver tights as costumes with hair and makeup. The other person was a raver/clubber, and we thought we had to make this music that we listen to all day. 

It sounds a bit like LCD Soundsystem or !!!. Is that what you were listening to?

E: We hadn’t dived into those groups yet. 

K: It was more like Techno and Deep House. When making this music it was a mix of the fact that we can play it, and it gets more show-based. 

In terms of going from the three-piece to Why Kai, what was the major change in the music, besides the fact that you were missing one person. 

K: I went abroad to Copenhagen to study, and they were very focussed on what is your sound, what’s your music. That’s when I started making this music, and that turned into the first EP. Coming back to Norway, I started thinking about how I would play it live. Unlike the other project which had the live element as the main focus, Why Kai was more about making a record, and then afterwards thinking about how we’re gonna play it live.

Why is this live aspect so important to you?

K: The whole project is about organic played music meets static electronic music. It’s very natural to play live with live musicians, and we come from playing live. We’re not so much studio rats. 

E: We’re Jazz cats. (laughs) 

Were there any particular objectives in creating a sound for Why Kai?

K: I listened to a lot of Norwegian composers that were not in the electronic music field. I saw similarities in some of their compositions and electronic club music, in the way they were built up. They’ll have a groove going, with interesting elements evolving on top. Most of the club music I listen to is very minimal, based on the loop. I wanted to bring the development of the compositions in Jazz to club music.

Not to disparage electronic music, but do you ever feel that you have to dumb it down a bit as accomplished Jazz musicians, or can you incorporate those more complex ideas from Jazz into this music?

E: Yes, of course. The whole harmonic and tonal world Why Kai moves in, is very influenced by Jazz. It might be a bit subjective, but I feel when you start a Jazz solo, it’s very much like Techno music; you have to build up a room. It’s the same principle in electronic music, that the audience can just sit there and enjoy the flow of energy. 

K: Of course there are elements like playing situations to consider. If you’re playing late night between DJs, for example, you can’t have too many slow, low energy moments. We will compensate for that. And on the other hand if we’re playing for a Jazz festival to a sitting audience, then we’ll have to adapt the music again. 

If the context of a Why Kai concert can go from a Jazz festival to a nightclub, is there a specific audience in mind when you’re creating the music?

E: No, but it’s for the dancing audience.

K: At the same time, I don’t want to tie myself down to one particular audience in the making of the music. I try to just follow what’s on my mind.

There is something to the recorded material that relays the way you sound as a live band. Is that a consideration when you approach the recording process and specifically something you had in mind for ”The Tourist”?

K: Yes, I usually make it without playing as a band. On this new album however we have some parts that were recorded as jams, that we chopped up afterwards. And then we’d improvise over that again. But most of the songs are based on a production setting.

E: What we did there was improvise around an idea. There were perhaps some boundaries. We’d probably used 20 seconds of 30 minutes of improvisation.

K: Most of the melodies, which were composed, were also born from improvisation. 

Why an album and why now?

K: Because it was finished, I guess. (laughs) It was a long process. The music was composed over a year ago. We started a label for electronic music, so setting that up and learning that process happened at the same time.

Is it any different from the first EP, because it sounds like it was made around the same time as the EP?

K: Some of the tunes are a bit like the first EP, but then I wanted to move away from it too, so some of the tunes are quite different in my opinion. 

Do you feel that you’ve found something with this album that perhaps wasn’t there at the start of the project?

K: I’m not entirely sure. What the project will be in the future, isn’t dependent on this album. What I wanted to create – and it’s the same for the first EP – is that I didn’t want to use too many electronic sounds, and if I use them, I want them blended with acoustic sounds. I would chop up improvised samples from bass or prepared guitar and make a groove from that to get that organic feel. 

Do you find there’s always a kind of challenge in incorporating electronic sounds in acoustic environments and vice versa?

E: At least in the live format; to blend these things to get the way we wanted the sound to sound. They are sonically different and if something is wrong it takes so long to fix it, and it almost removes the original idea completely. It’s way different than just hitting a drum or a piano; where you’ll know what to expect. 

I feel it started from a perspective where the acoustic sounds were the boss, and the electronic bits were added, but now it’s slowly turning. Electronic sounds are so much more piercing. The machine is the boss. At the same time I realised it’s us that have to make the pre-sequenced things groove, it’s not those things that make us groove.

What I really liked about the album was this narrative that follows through it including these little musical vignettes that bridge certain songs. What was the idea behind that?

K: I had this idea of the whole album going into one piece, so the groove never stops. The songs are at different tempos, so some of those “vignettes” are accelerating or decelerating. 

E: We went into the studio with an idea, which is kind of bold, because you can always slow down a track in the production, but we actually played those with the click track going down in tempo and then there’s no turning back from that. Kai worked it out beforehand. 

K: And, in some vignettes, speeding the tunes up after the recording. The tonality changes when you speed the song up. So, we had to calculate what that tonality would be in reference to the changing BPM. 

E: There was a lot of maths going on. 

Do you think alot about sound-design in the recording process?

K: Yes for sure. To some extent, to not get it to sound like a specific instrument. A lot of the melodic sounds are a mix of some synthesiser and a prepared piano. 

Are there some other musicians present on the album, because at some stage I hear some double bass?

K: Yes I asked some friends that play bass to play these notes and do some weird improv sounds, and then I would chop it up afterwards.

E: The last single, “Creator of the Salt”, that’s that idea.

How do you translate that type of thing back into the live context again?

K: This is what we’ve had some problems with. In some sense many of those chopped sounds are the sound of the project. It’s pretty hard to replicate the same sort of idea live. 

But it will still just be you two playing live at jaeger for the album release?

K: Yes, but for Jaeger, because of the club setting. 

We discuss the creation and rise of Toy Tonics and the scene from which it was born with its creator Kapote ahead of the Toy Tonics take over at Jaeger

One of the most recognisable labels, both visually and socially, Toy Tonics has been a staple of record shops and DJ bags since that first Hard Ton record back in 2012. Born out of the Gomma label, Toy Tonics took the sprawling sonic universe of that label and focussed it towards the dance floor. 

It soon surpassed the expectations of founder and contributor Mathias Modica (aka Munk aka Kapote) who would channel all his efforts into the subsidiary, and eventually close down the parent label.  

Today Toy Tonics is known for its sonic identity as a dance floor label that impresses a musicality that goes beyond the repetitive loops of club music. A healthy stable of artists including COEO, Black Loops, Cody Currie, Sam Ruffillio and on occasion Kapote, relay a dance music born from the most physical exertions and cultivated in the metric language of machines. 

Between its base in Berlin and its origins in Munich, Toy Tonics undercuts the prevalence of Techno in the region with a unique approach to House music. Through their artists and extended family they’ve made a serious impression on an international audience over the course of their existence. 

Today, a Toy Tonics record is one of those records you simply take to the listening station. There’s an instant recognition there and a satisfied expectation that appeals to many. 

It’s an extension of the tastes and impulses of the man behind the label Mathias Modica and a very personal and individualistic sonic portrait of the modern dance floor. With a Toy Tonics takeover at Jaeger on the calendar, we caught up with the man behind the label and club night to talk about the meteoric rise of the label; its sonic identity; and the regional curiosities of running a House label in a Techno city.  

Recently, Techno has been awarded unesco heritage status in Berlin. As an artist and label operator, erring on the side of House (for the sake of simplifying), while working from a scene with closer connections to Berlin, what are your thoughts on this?

It’s quite funny;  isn’t it? They should ALSO have given this to Detroit, Chicago and Düsseldorf; the cities where techno as far as I understand it, was born. 

Düsseldorf because all techno basically is rooted in that mechanic, four to the floor, robot aesthetic that KRAFTWERK invented in the mid 70’s.

Chicago because there they turned the electronic dance music that the Italians created in the early 80’s into that aesthetic that was the basis for early house music and that later became the foundation of what the guys in Detroit turned into that was known as techno.

Berlin people in the early 90’s adapted that and made it bigger and created labels and clubs ( as well as Frankfurt and Munich people).

But culture is fluent anyway, and so it’s hard to say where a certain style comes from or who should get the applause or prizes… Techno and early house would not exist without the Japanese machines and synths,. so Tokyo probably could also receive UNESCO awards.. :)

What have been some of the difficulties and/or advantages in releasing House music in a region that is dominated by the harder styles of electronic music? 

I am Italian and was raised in Munich. As you might know the basis of house music is (Italian) disco.. . and also Munich was one of the 3 disco capitals in the late 70ies. Moroder, Donna Summer, Silver convention, Freddie Mercury have been living in Munich and created what was known as “the disco sound of Munich“. Munich was the capital of discotheques with more clubs than any other city in the late 70ies they say (in europe). So Disco and House music (that comes from disco) is in my blood and part of my culture. As techno comes from house music, it’s not far away.

Then the fact that Berlin is full of techno and trance clubs but not so many house people made it easy to grow here. It’s a fact that if everybody does the same thing, it’s not easy “to be special“ :) 

So when we started to make our Toy Tonics parties in Berlin 5 years ago, it went very fast from an audience of 300 people to 800 or 1000 people. And now we have a huge audience. We are in all the relevant clubs with our parties and that diverse, organic dance music we stand for. We are regulars at Panorama Bar and we do a lot of events in former techno clubs like OXI, Griesmühle or Funkhouse.

When we spoke to COEO, they also mentioned that the “Giorgio Moroder/Donna Summer/Musicland Studios history” in Munich might have something to do with the richness in music from the region. What are your thoughts on this, and do you think it helps with the fact that a label like Toy Tonics got such a foothold there?

Yes as I said above: when u grow up in Munich as a DJ and dance music lover you grow up with a lot of older people who have crazy record collections or have been partying with people from the Moroder clique or run record stores of former DJs that used to play record in these legendary places. Or you have DJ teachers that tell you about the disco times or explain how to play records in a real “disco way.“ I mean; Munich and New York club culture was in many years quite a parallel affair. So a lot of my DJ teachers used to go to Mancuso’s Loft or hear Larry Levan playing and they handed down these points of views on the way to “read a dance floor“ or “create a vibe.“ 

Would Toy Tonics have had the same success if it originated from Berlin for instance?

Toy Tonics was basically launched from Berlin because most of us live there, including me, who’s lived there for the last 10 years. I have been DJing in Berlin since I was 22 years old.

Berlin wasn’t always a techno town. In the years between 2002 and 2012 the key clubs were places like RIO, SCALA and others. Indie dance and a combination of Rock, Hip Hop, Disco and other styles was the cool thing. Everything was very colourful, including the clothes. 

The new wave of techno and trance started in 2012. It’s a revival, basically techno is a retro music from the 1990’s and it had  a big comeback after 2012. Now techno and trance is a mainstream pop phenomena with commercial festivals and DJ stars who get 200.000 euros.

House and indie dance are still small compared to that but soon this will change :) Like in the early 2000s, when techno and rave culture went underground again. And instead indie dance and house became bigger. In 1998 everybody wanted to be a raver, and the love parade attracted 1 million people. In 2003 there was no love parade anymore and nobody wanted to be a raver. Instead DFA records, London Nu Rave, Daft Punk and the French touch were the cool thing. Times are changing right now again.

Toy Tonics is very much an institution in Munich and the label is very much linked to the area, with mainly artists from that region signed to the label. What was the landscape like in the beginning for the label, and how has it developed since?

Actually it’s not like that, the only Munich artists we have are COEO. Munich has changed a lot in the last few years and it’s a technological city now. Apple and Google have their European headquarters there. That’s why I left the city 15 years ago and now live in France and Berlin. The Toy Tonics artists come from London, Italy, France, USA and Brasil,  Amsterdam, But most live in Berlin with me.

Your own history in music is about as diverse as the city itself, between your aliases Munk and Kapote, the labels Gomma and then Toy Tonics. What was your introduction into the world of electronic music and what informed your own eclecticism?

I come from a family of musicians. My parents brought me to classical concerts and jazz at an early age. I studied jazz piano but I was also singing in hardcore bands. I tried to be a rapper and produced electronic ambient stuff at an early age, so this eclectic approach has always been there. 

As I explained before, being in Munich and being Italian means you have dance culture in my blood. So in a certain moment it made sense to connect my love for good music of any type with the DJ culture and try to create my own thing.

With Gomma you really stretched the purview of electronic music, and the connection with the dance floor would be tenuous compared to Toy Tonics. What consolidated for you in terms of musical ideas by the time you created Toy Tonics and established the alias Kapote? 

 Around 2014 when we started Toy Tonics we realised that there will be a massive new wave of dance music based on the 4 to the floor aesthetic. As Gomma was an extreme, wild style label where we did everything from avantgard industrial hip hop (The Rammellzee) to freak folk (with the Franz Ferdinand side projects) and proto house (headman) or electronic experiments. With Toy Tonics we wanted to create a label that basically does only dance music. It’s based on high quality house- and disco culture, based on the funk of afro American and Italian dance music culture.

It’s not often you see a sub-label become the dominant label, but that’s a little bit of what happened with Toy Tonics and its parent label Gomma, I feel. What caused you to shift your main focus to Toy Tonics over the course of its existence, and how has it been informed by what was happening around you?

Everything has its time, and I always look to the future. I don’t like nostalgia or being retro. So I thought it’s fresher to close Gomma in 2015 and concentrate on new things, Toy Tonics (with a new crew of artists and partners) and Kryptox. Our sublabel for bands from Berlin.

What are the origins behind the name Toy Tonics?

It’s a fun way to write TEUTONIC, which is an old way of saying, “ the people who lived in the region where Germany is now”. 

Tell us a bit about that visual aesthetic that is so instantly familiar; where did it come from and what is the idea behind the unwavering nature of that visual aesthetic?

I am surrounded by artists and graphic designers. Many of my friends are artists, older ones with big careers and lots of success as younger ones who studied at art academies or were part of the Berlin underground scene. As I love art (and alternative design ), I  always thought I wanted to include this into the label. We also do fanzines, poster and t-shirt designs that we sell on our webpage and exhibitions. 

It’s fun to create a whole musical and visual universe that stands out. We did this already with Gomma records between 2002 and 2015 and now we do it again with a new team.

At Toy Tonics there is still this insistence on musicality in terms of artists playing instruments, but it’s always in perfect harmony with the insistence on the groove for dancing. What was the thinking behind this and what do you think it brings to any kind of sonic identity for the label?

 I think the best DJs and most interesting electronic producers are the ones who also play real instruments or have been playing in bands and concerts. You simply have a different knowledge about music when you learn piano or guitar when it comes to writing a track or song. You work with chords… and chords create emotions and vibes or if you are a drummer you make totally different beat patterns with drum machines.

So most of the DJ producers I look for on Toy Tonics have this kind of background and I am sure that makes a big difference. People who dance to our music or our DJ sets maybe don’t know about this background but they FEEL it.

Is it a conscious decision on your part to find artists that fit that sound or are you lucky enough to just be surrounded by these artists?

It’s a natural flow. I meet people or I’m introduced to people and then we hang out, we DJ together or talk about music and then things happen. 

Do you ever find yourself in a situation where an artist you really want on the label has submitted music and it doesn’t fit the sound or is perhaps not just not quite there and what do you do in a situation like that?

All kinds of things happen. Some people seem to fit and then others don’t or are not obviously perfect for us, but later we realised that we are a perfect match :)

As an artist that releases his own music on the label, how do you approach music you want to put out for the label?

I don’t release much music. I’ve probably made 1000 tracks in the last 20 years that have  never been released. I prefer helping other, younger people to make good music and in many of the Toy Tonics releases of other artists I have been helping or co-producing. Maybe this will  change, and I will release a lot of kapote music in 2024 :)

Is there some kind of critical consideration as a label owner that goes beyond what you do with other artists releasing on the label?

I am never happy with my own music, so I don’t do much. I prefer playing the piano alone at home. 

Toy Tonics is very much a label born from the nightclub dance floor. I believe there have been some situations where the introductions to new artists for the label have been made on the dance floor. How does what you hear out on the dance floor and your relationships with the nightclub inform what Toy Tonics is?  

If you go into pop music history you see that EVERY pop music started as a DANCE music. Dancing is the most natural thing to humans besides talking and making love :) So it’s super natural to make a music label that creates mainly dance music. Because GOOD dance music can also be music to listen to and the nightclub aka the dance floor is the place where general trends in music can be born. From the waltzes and Mozart’s minuets to Rock n Roll, Hip Hop or Garage Rock, that was all music made to dance to before it became “popular radio music“.

I imagine the Toy Tonics club nights are an extension of that. Besides bringing over artists from the label, what do you hope these nights try to convey to other audiences in other regions?

People should meet each other, talk and dance together, make friends and then fall in love, kiss and make babies. That’s all I want. 

Third Attempt introduces the band and picks the five performances and artists that has inspired this new evolution in the project.

Third Attempt is evolving again. As a solo artist Torje Fagertun Spilde’s Third Attempt project has already amassed a large discography, and today he’s no less than a consummate performer. He’s released albums that have enamoured and have transformed those tracks into live performances that move across dance floors with toe-tapping grooves.

Third Attempt is no stranger to Jaeger’s stage, nor is he unfamiliar with playing with others like Bugge Wesseltoft.  Now he’s ready for the next phase of Third Attempt, as he debuts the Third Attempt band at Jaeger this Friday. Leading up to the showcase, we caught up Third Attempt’s Torje  to find out a bit more about this next evolution and some of the live acts that have inspired his own live performances. 

What was the inspiration or idea behind putting the band together for this event?

Since the move from Tromsø to Oslo I’ve been on the lookout for somebody to play with on the regular. I’ve wanted to set up something like this for quite some time. Many of my tracks are either heavily sampled or recorded with real instruments. So it always made sense to engage in something more band oriented, besides the clubby stuff. Also after a great live round with Bugge Wesseltoft and Kristoffer Eikrem in 23, I found myself more and more inspired by the format. 

My childhood friend Jonas (drummer) reached out to me around a year ago, having moved back pretty recently from the east. He was eager to play and I accepted. I really have to give him most of the credit for shifting this concept into gear. We’ve seen each other progress since we were kids, so it made perfect sense. Didn’t take us long to get into it. 

After a few successful sessions, Jonas got Elias on board (Guitarist). Which completed the trio.

I usually am a bit uptight when it comes to performing. But these guys have really loosened me up a lot. It’s always a real good time when we jam together. I’m happy to say I’m really look forward to playing this friday!

Give us a short introduction to the other two members of the band.

Jonas and Elias met at UIA (Kristiansand) studying together. They both have a degree in music, and studied under big names like Jan bang, Øyvind Nypan (Jazz-legend) and Karl-Oluf Wennerberg (A-ha), to name a few. Recently graduating with impressive track records. Both are working as professional session- and live-musicians, Jonas has among many things worked with both local and national pop-artists. Elias is currently also active in his Norwegian metal-band called Våde. 

What will be the fundamental difference between this performance and a solo third attempt performance besides the obvious fact that there are more people on stage. 

This group is first and foremost exploring Third Attempt tracks in a brand new, organic setting. With more open arrangements and room for improvisation. Live elements make the tracks come alive in completely different ways. I guess you could say it’s a less clubby angle, more concert / show oriented. Still maintaining the recipe though. Spiking the energy with live drums and guitar, with a special nod towards funk, soul and disco. Visuals included! 

We asked Torje to pick Five  live acts and their concerts that have inspired this project. 

OMA Hip Hop Instrumentals (Live in Tokyo)

Torje says: Impossible not to link the entire performance. World class performance in familiar and unfamiliar hip hop instrumentals. Sounding great in a band setting which is rare in this genre. 

The hip-hop instrumentalists, OMA has been a social media phenomenon for their unique interpretations of Hip Hop classics. From the Golden Era to the post 2000’s pop hits,  OMA strip the tracks down to their instrumental components, where the samples return to their original state through the musicians. They put their own spin on it, but there is also something to the tracks they choose to interpret. All the MF Doom 

Glass Beams – Mahal EP

Torje says: Ninja Tune’s latest addition. Mystical, funky and hypnotizing funkyness. Really like the outfits and overall aesthetic as well.

One of Guardian’s “One’s to watch” this year, Glass Beams is Australia’s latest hyped export. Western sounds playing with eastern dialects, Glass Beams relay something exotic and mysterious in their musical approach and it’s only affirmed by their own mysterious visual aesthetic. Appearing behind face shrouds and playing instruments that look like they were born from Ursula K. Le Guin novel, the oblique band is an exciting curiosity.

D’angelo – Chicken Grease @ The Chris Rock Show

Torje says: Extremely funky. Good times overall. Probably in the top TV performances

The living enigma D’Angelo during his peak Voodoo period, before descending into obscurity and becoming a recloose essentially. Always shrouded in mystique, the reluctant sex symbol showcases his incredible performing talents for this rare archival footage from the Chris Rock show.

Little Indian – Live

Torje says: Nils is a visionary and a big inspiration. I have seen him live multiple times. In my opinion, this live version surpasses the original. 

Serene Jazz, punctuated by some trip hop rhythms and disembodied vocal samples. Nils Petter Molvaer combines that Norwegian tradition of advanced Jazz sonics with contemporary electronics in bringing something unique to the world. It’s a longstanding tradition personified in its latest phase by an artist like Third Attempt. 

Daft Punk – Around the World / Harder Better Faster Stronger

Torje says: Grew up on this duo. Alive 2007 in general is a great record. I think this is a creative mashup of all their hits. Huge energy. If I had to pick one it would be this. 

Probably still one of the best electronic live acts, Daft Punk were one of the first a dance music artists to take their music to arena- and festival stages. The robot-men know their way around a sequencer and synthesiser in a way that seems they are plugged into them, and during the Alive period they had found a way to manipulate them in a series of live shows and an album that brought a new dimension to their tracks. Here they consolidate two of their best known songs for an energetic peak time delivery. 

Semi Delicious and Lifetime on the Hips boss Demi Riquisímo talks about establishing his labels and more ahead of his visit for Bypåskefestivalen.

Demi Riquísimo and his label Semi Delicious thundered on to the scene back in 2019, and has since cultured a discernible sound that has garnered a lot of attention and praise in the club land. Its origins as an exclusive vehicle for Demi Riquísimo has blossomed into a cabal of familiar- and new artists perpetuating the sound of the label and has even spawned another label in the form of A Lifetime On The Hips. 

Built on the DIY ideologies of the roots of club music the sound of the label reflects that with dusty synthesisers and jittery drum machines touching on everything from acid to Techno and even early Trance prototypes. It’s a reflection perhaps of Demi Riquísimo’s own origin story as a Detroit born, London-raised record collector, but goes beyond that with a no-nonsense “if-it-ain’t-broke” attitude.

At its most functional the music is reserved for A Lifetime On The Hips with both labels adopting the vinyl format in their designs. While Semi Delicious is the flagship label, its sister is “all killer no filler” strictly focussed on the dance floor. It’s receiving the same kind of recognition as its parent label since its inception last year and with Demi Riquísimo at the helm perpetuating its ethos and sound, Semi Delicious, its sub-label and artists are gathering a lot of momentum. 

Demi Riquísimo (not his real name) is something of an enigma. We know there was some kind of DJ and production career before the moniker, but it’s clouded in the past and the way in which he’s established the new alias and labels, suggests an experienced history in this field. We are lucky that he’s obliged to answer a few questions for us ahead of his visit this week to Jaeger, so we could unearth a little more of the man behind the label and the ideologies. 

I understand from other interviews that DJing came first for you. What was it about the craft that drew you to it?

Yes DJing definitely came first for me. I was very intrigued by vinyl and a friend had some belt driven decks that I enjoyed having a go in my teens. When I moved to Bristol for university I soon got glandular fever which meant I wasn’t going out but I managed to save some money to buy some decks and a batch of wax. I practised non-stop. About 6 months later I did my first club gig. 

What kind of inspiration and/or instruction did you get from what was happening around you in Bristol?

When I was there it was very bass heavy and I was very much into jungle and drum n bass. This translated into my DJing and record shopping. I also started running nights with this sound pallet but as the years went on I started to incorporate other sounds and genres into the events and later on in my production. 

Your label Semi Delicious started concurrently as a vehicle for your own releases. How did it (and does it) relate to what you are doing as a DJ; do you see the label and your music as an extension of your sound in the booth?

I feel running the label is all about control about what you want to release and when you want to release it. I like to release music in the moment that I’ve personally finished recently or signed recently from other artists. I think this way I’m able to translate playing current releases in my sets. So many cases with other labels I would get music signed that came out 2 years later and by the time it got released I’d never play it at all. 

I know you studied production, but what was your relationship to making music before your studies?

Most of my friends I lived with in Bristol were quite big gamers which never really appealed to me. I lost my creative output after leaving school as I used to do a lot of art work to pay my time. So I downloaded a demo version of Reason 4 music production and really enjoyed it so I bought a copy and just got really stuck in. I think at this point my shift from DJing to producing became apparent in my spare time. 

I’ve read you started Semi Delicious out of a necessity since nobody in your extended music circle wanted to put your tracks out. What was it in those first original releases that made you want to put these out into the world?

I just really believed in the music I was producing. A few artists said it wasn’t for them when sent to them in the demo format. But the same DJs were giving the tracks five star reviews and requesting the vinyl when it was delivered to them in promo form. It’s funny how we judge our feedback on the way music is sent to us. 

What do you usually aim to achieve with your music before you set out on a track and where do you draw influences from outside of music? 

I normally start with some kind of sample idea and build around that. Or I turn on all the gear and have a jam. Sometimes going in with an idea is helpful but for me not all the time. Just triggering some weird sounds is enough for me sometimes. 

As Semi Delicious expanded to include more of your music and other artists, what were you trying to establish with the label in terms of a sound or a collective ideology?

For me the label is just about releasing good dance music and records that will still sound good in ten years. That goes for my music and others. The second ethos is creating a community of artists and friends where we can all grow up and rise together.

How would you describe that sound today and has it evolved since the initial releases?

I believe the sound is alway evolving and it would be too hard to describe the sound. If  you listen to the releases over the years and from the different artists so much of the music is very different and has its own identity. So yes for sure the sound has evolved since the initial release and will continue too.  

Last year you set up A lifetime on the Hips as a sub-label which in your words is “strictly all killer, no filler.” Why wouldn’t these tracks fit the Semi Delicious profile?

They would fit for Semi Delicious. The difference between the two labels is semi delicious is more eclectic so some of these big killer tracks would be accompanied by other types of music. 

What’s it like operating, not just one, but two vinyl labels today; What are some of the challenges you face and why this continued commitment to the vinyl format?

It is tricky and the costs always go up not down. But I feel as long as the demand is still there and the music is still strong and getting good feedback I’ll always be passionate to release on the format that is so close to my heart and reminds me of first becoming a dj. 

Do you think there will ever be a time when the format will not be sustainable anymore?

I thought yes to this 10 years ago but now it’s more popular than then. I feel this is due to everything becoming too accessible in the way we consume music in the last 10 years. I think people like to put the value back into the music they’re investing into. 

Besides your own label, what are some of your more recent acquisitions that are currently your go-to weapons for the dance floor?

I’ve always been a big fan of the label Tessellate and The Trip and their music. Love on The Rocks is a label I’ll always love and play music from as well. 

And lastly can you play us out with a song in anticipation of your visit to Jaeger?

‘Square One’ by Kosh is a track I’ve been playing in every set of late

The lineup for our annual Bypåskefestivalen is now confirmed with some familiar faces and new concepts joining the city blowout.

We leave the white powder to the mountain and take up residence in the beating heart of the city. It’s Easter and while the rest of the city hits the mountains and slopes we’re making our stand in our urban enclave of bass. The annual Bypåskefestivalen returns with our usual coterie of residents and guests taking over the long weekend at Jaeger. Double Trouble, Schmooze and Brus, Helt Texas, Flux, Frædag, LYD, Footfood and Moving Heads take residents over the course of the week with guest appearances by Skatebård, Demi Riquísimo and much more joining our residents across the two booths.

Our latest Sunday concept Moving Heads and the guys behind Schmooze & Brus and Flux mark new additions to the Bypåske concepts with each bringing their own unique take on the clubbing landscape to our two floors, from the airy heights of uplifting House music to the determined underground and platonic shifting rumble of Techno. Familiar guests like Prins Thomas, Skatebård and Footfood stay the course in 2024 with international visitors Shonky, Demi Riquísimo and Den Anden Side breaking up the local roll-call.

See the entire lineup here and find more information about the festival here and the individual events here.

27.03 – Prins Thomas + Isoebel + Skatebård 
                BCR: Anders Hajem + Henrik Villard + Perkules

28.03 – Helt Texas: Shonky + Normann + Ole HK
                 Schmooze & Brus: DJ Stuk & Salamanca + Max Lok

29.03 – Frædag: g-HA & Olanskii + Demi Riquísimo 
                 Flux Collective x Den Anden Side: Bjerregaard + Matriark + Johannes Astrup  

30.03 – Nightflight x Lyd: Nora Pagu + Olle Abstract + MC Kaman & Kash

31.03 – Footfood: g-HA & Olanskii + diskJokke + Vinny Villbass
                Moving Heads: Casablanca 303 + Tonchius & friends + Hetty & J André

We fired off some questions to Munich/Berlin-based duo COEO as they head to Jaeger for Schmooze and Brus this Friday and talked about origins, Munich and their keenness for Djing.

Florian Vietz and Andreas Höpfl are COEO and they have been making music together since their teens in Munich. They started making an impression in the age of the music blog, and their tracks like “Get Down” hit an immediate nerve with their deep, luxurious sound capturing a zeitgeist that dominated the dance floors at that time. 

As the time went on their music matured, but never losing touch with that youthful charm that they’ve cultivated early on, as they folded elements of Disco and Jazz into later productions. Their long standing relationship with Munich-based record label Toy Tronics, have provided a consistent platform for releases from the duo with labels like Razor and Tape and Shall not Fade also flocking to their music to break off a piece of COEO for themselves.

Their latest record “Rush Hour” finds the duo in an energetic furore, charting a course for bigger rooms. An uplifting melody bounces between tireless beats as strings smooth out the arrangement. The duo’s history with 90’s Hip Hop and a legacy of Georgio Moroder and Donna Summer in Munich have coalesced around a distinctive sound for the pair, built on the foundation of those earliest releases.

Their work in the studio has built bridges to the world‘s most sought after DJ booths and as DJs COEO are equally adept, garnering a reputation today as one of the most enigmatic DJ duos out there. They’ll arrive at Schmooze and Brus this week and we took the opportunity to find out more about their early days, their relationship with Toy Tonics and the future of COEO.

Hey guys and thank you for taking the time to talk to us. I’ve read some interviews and I know you were friends long before COEO. What was the catalyst for you to start working on music together?

Florian: When you are young you are full of energy. We wanted to be creative and start our own project. Everything you see on TV or hear on the radio is so far away, but when you start listening to underground hip hop or electronic music you realise that this is music by young people and for young people and you can be part of that scene. We wanted to be like our role models and I think this was the catalyst of starting to make music.

Andreas: And also our acquaintance with a crew called Scrape Tactitions, who were very successful in the turntable championships- the ITFs, International Turntablist Federation- played a big role for us, because it also got us very involved with DJing and the possibilities that turntables offer.

Were you working on music individually before then, and how did you find yourselves adapting to each other in the studio/creative endeavour?

Florian: No, we haven’t had any solo projects before and couldn’t even play any instruments when we started our duo. We were 15 when we bought our first turntables and DAWs for sampling music. In the beginning it was a slow autodidactically process and more like a learning by doing thing. But we were growing with our own tasks. By the time Andy was studying audio engineering and Florian learned to play piano. In the studio it never looked like Instagram producer videos where people are jamming together. Working in the studio together can be really annoying if the second person sits next to you and has to listen to 150 kick drums you can choose from. We prefer to work on ideas on our own and then finish tracks together. It can be really helpful to hear someone else’s opinion. :-)

As I understand it you are based in Munich for the most part. Munich has this incredible House music legacy. Tell us a bit about the scene there and how it shaped the start of your career.

Andreas: Of course, Munich was a great influence. When we went out at night, we were always soaking up the music and the atmosphere at the clubs. For its size Munich always had a more than adequate range of clubs that played house music. In the past we had magic nights in clubs like Die Registratur, Erste Liga, Awi and Kong, nowadays we love to go to Charlie, Goldener Reiter and Blitz- just to name a few. But at the moment we have to attend our own shows so we don’t show up there that often anymore. Moreover I moved to Berlin.

Florian: But also Munich based labels such as Toy Tonics and Public Possession give a lot back to the scene. They give artists a platform to create art, they throw parties in museums or off locations, sell fashion in their stores and thus gather a lot of young talented people around them. Many house Djs like Max NRG Supply and Rhode & Brown have radio shows on Radio 80K which is Munich’s most important community radio. We also love Benjamin Fröhlich’s Permanent Vacation label which has an incredible output of tasteful contemporary house music.

I feel that the city has always been this dark horse on the scene, bringing more provocative artists like DJ Hell and Skee Mask to the fore, as opposed to Berlin for example. What are your experiences with the scene there compared to the rest of Europe and what makes it so unique in your opinion?

Andreas: Good question, maybe because of its Giorgio Moroder/Donna Summer/Musicland Studios history Munich has always had a great sense of self confidence and has not looked to the left or right. This could be the reason why it has developed and preserved its own style until today. In general it makes no sense to compare cities like Munich & Berlin, or Paris & London, as each city has shaped its own culture, and that’s a good thing as it ensures a high level of diversity.

What was it about House music that particularly appealed to you, and is it something that has always been there for you both as a group and as individuals?

Florian: I remember getting tired of Lil-Jon-esque Hip Hop in the 2000s. I loved midschool 90s Hip Hop, but the presence of mainstream hip hop made me search for something more different and more real. Being a kid in the late 90s I only knew house music as pop projects in the charts. As I grew older I discovered house music again from a totally different perspective. In the beginning there is the Charts-Dr-Alban-house music, but finally you understand and share the values of this whole movement. We quickly fell in love with 4-to-the-floor music.

With the Techno scene being the prevalent thing people associated Germany with, what does it take for a House act like yourself to make an impression and have you witnessed a change in attitudes since coming to the fore?

Andreas: Of course, techno always had a big presence in Germany, and of course it still does today. That was probably one of the reasons why we were first successful abroad and only later managed to gain a foothold in Germany.

When it came time to make your own music and leading up to your first single “Get Down” what was it solidified for you in terms of the sound of COEO?

Florian: Before that time we were experimenting a lot with music like Ramadanman and have never been fully satisfied with the result. With releasing Get Down on Globelle we thought this is the sound we want to make for the rest of our lives. From today’s perspective we think that it was not our best production. Especially technically we would make a lot of things different today, haha. 

I remember that track hitting a nerve with the blog community at a time when blogs had such a strong influence. What are your memories of that time in terms of how that track was received and what did mean for you going forward with the project?

Florian: It was a special time when the possibilities of the internet were explored and some nerds put their knowledge about music on the net. I remember that we listened to or read some blogs like “beatelectric” several times from the first to the last post. Every now and then I catch myself going to old blogs we loved and hoping that they will be continued, but unfortunately many of them are no longer existing. 10 years ago these sites were a big part of the scene and super important to get attention as a small artist. And of course we were proud of being featured on these pages and getting a lot of positive feedback.

Those early tracks are luxurious adventures into the deeper realms of House music, and it came at a time when Deep House was really the sound du jour. Was there anything in the air for you at that time which moulded the sound of those first releases, and what is your relationship with those early records today?

Andreas: Indeed, we were strongly influenced by and loved Deep House music at that time. We still like our early records, but I think we have been listening to our own releases too many times, haha. After playing it a thousand times you are no longer feeling it the same way. And that’s why we are always a bit critical about our music. But this is okay. ;-)

It was not long after that, that you released your first track via Toy Tonics, in a relationship that lasts to this day. I’ve heard the story of how you met some of the people in a club in Munich, but what made you want to release music with them?

Andreas: We have been fan of Mathias Modica’s (Kapote) music long before he founded Toy Tonics. We loved his output as Munk and saw him play a few times in Munich. Gomma was his label before he was running Toy Tonics. After we found out that Mathias started something new we paid a lot of attention to the new label and quickly realised that our music is similar to the music Toy Tonics is releasing.

They already had some success with a couple of Hard Ton releases at that point. Was there anything in their sound that you felt coincided with what you were doing and did you feel you had to adapt to the label at all?

Florian: My impression is that both the label and we have been in some sort of a discovery mode at that time. We didn’t think we had to adapt to the label that much. We were just hoping that they liked the music we produce.

Listening to a record like Feel Me (2014) and then Music for Friends (2021) the fundamental elements are still there, but there are elements of Jazz and Disco that have taken more of a foothold in these later records. Is that something that has matured in your own music, and is it something that matured alongside the influence of Toy Tonics?

Florian: Jazz and Disco have always been essential for us. We grew up with 90’s hip hop and house music that sampled a lot from the disco era. This is also how we got in touch with music from the 70s and 80s and we still love it. But I guess our sound always corresponded with the Zeitgeist at that time and the years before covid have seen a huge Disco revival on dancefloors in Europe. We loved it and that’s why our productions were a little bit more organic than in the beginning. Toy Tonics was going through a similar development and of course also had a big influence on us.

There’s more of this Disco / High Energy sound in your latest release, Planet Earth. Tell us a bit about this release and what were the sonic goals you were trying to achieve with this one.

Andreas: With this EP we set ourselves the goal of making a dancefloor record that covers different aspects of a club night. Fast or slow peak time tracks, but also tracks to start an evening with or to play at a later hour. We wanted to show a facet of ourselves that you don’t necessarily get from us when you go on spotify and listen to our top plays, which give the impression that we still specialize in disco edits, haha. Here the focus is on showing a little bit of the range of what music we like and play in our sets.

Besides these new elements, what do you feel has been the greatest evolution in your music in your opinion between something like Feel Me and Rush Hour?

Florian: Feel Me was heavily influenced by Leon Vynehall’s remix of Kevin Griffiths’ Acid Splash. In the early days you try to produce and sound like your role models. Sometimes it works and you get a result you are happy with that sounds like the original. Sometimes you end up somewhere else. This can also be fine but also means that you can’t exactly realize what you plan or imagine. I think this is the biggest difference to nowadays. We know exactly what kind of music we like, what kind of music works on the dancefloor and what synths or drums we have to use to make a track sound like this or that. This is the evolution. With the experience we have nowadays we can realize our ideas easier.

Your staying power has been impressive, especially at a time when social media and the internet creates such a volatile atmosphere for music’s relevance. What do you put down to that consistency?

Andreas: One thing for sure is passion- we honestly love what we do. Another thing is that we simply love every kind of music and we don’t limit ourselves to a certain genre. If you get bored of the same sounds I think it feels natural to try something else and move on.

As an artist it is good if your music continues to develop. When we were kids we didn’t understand why A Tribe Called Quest’s The Love Movement was produced by Jay Dee in the beginning. It was no longer sounding like the sample Hip Hop of Low End Theory or Midnight Marauders. But after a while we realized that this was the sound of that time and they were taking the next step. 

Nowadays we love the album and understand why an artist sometimes changes its sound. Maybe you don’t follow a “How to build your own franchise”-guideline when your sound doesn’t sound the same over the years, but for us it was never primarily about the money. We want to produce what we feel and what feels right for us. In the beginning it was deep house, then we were producing a lot of disco edits and disco influenced house music. Now our sound is becoming a little bit more ravier again and we welcome Italo and Prog House elements in our productions.

Your touring schedule as DJs has kept you pretty busy these days and I suppose like all other artists at the moment, the releases are just a way to get you into DJ booths. Do you guys feel that is the case and has DJing taken a centre stage for you in recent times?

Florian: Yes, indeed, Djing has taken a centre stage for us. We have even found little time to work on new output in recent years, but this is not necessarily a problem for us. We really like what we do. And we are very grateful for what we call our jobs.

What is it about DJing that scratches that creative itch for you?

Andreas: If you are on the hunt for a special records for ages, you finally hold it in your hands, play it and the people on the dancefloor go crazy, it is one of the best moments you can Imagine. 

Is it something that you assume is an extension of your work in the studio or do you feel it’s something completely different and does that ever feed back into your work in the studio?

Florian: Of course, it always affects our productions as well. We want to make music that (also) works on the dancefloor and makes people feel good and ecstatic.

How do you feel you compliment each other musically in the DJ booth and is it the same in the studio?

Andreas: Over the years we have become a very well-rehearsed team, maybe because we talk a lot about music we discover. 

Your sound as artists and DJs is something I believe resonates with what we do here at Jaeger. For the uninitiated, what can they expect when you visit?

Florian: People can expect a high energy journey that ranges from classic house to progressive house with some percussive breaks and excursions to disco.

And lastly, can you play us out with a song?

Andreas: Nanda Rossi- Mil Coracoes (Max Hammur Edit)

Dandy Jack speaks ahead of his visit this Saturday for Det Gode Selskab‘s monthly club night at Jaeger. We talk early days the future and his next record on Det Gode Selskab’s upcoming VA.

Martin Schopf has been at the confluence of electronic music for as long as Techno has been around. From the obscure experimentalist to rhythmical wizard, he has garnered success at various points of his career in many different guises going by his alias Dany Jack or the many variations of that moniker since the early nineties.

At the height of his popularity he and compatriot and friend Ricardo Villalobos ushered in a new and wholly unique era for Techno as the minimal tag appeared on the scene. Releasing records alongside Ricardo as Ric Y Martin or as a solo artist, Dandy Jack became a household name in record bags and DJ booths.

He’s released classic records in today’s terms on the likes of Perlon and has worked with everybody from Atom ™ to Matthew  over the course of his career.

Best known for his adept hand as a producer it was a world away, and again not really, from the DIY beginnings of the industrial electronic movement he first encountered in Berlin back in the eighties; where he as a young Chilean seeking refuge from a dictatorship started developing his artistic voice.

Today, he calls Geneva home. It’s a “very calm city” compared to Berlin, he says over a telephone call, “but good for making music.“ He is still very active on the music front, and his next release is on its way. The track, called Divine in Chile, comes courtesy of Det Gode Selskab’s next compilation Jack’s Favourites #3.

It’s an explorative Techno creation that goes as deep as the mariana trench, while a female vocal entices with its siren-like charm. Dandy Jack is in full effect here channelling those always-present latin-infused influences through his enigmatic grooves. There’s always a hint of experimentalism that follows his music, but it’s curtailed from spiralling out of control by the magnetism of the dance floor.

It’s this release we’ll be celebrating this upcoming Saturday for the next instalment of Det Gode Selskab at Jaeger and we get in touch with a chipper Martin, preparing for his upcoming set.

Dandy Jack: I’m really happy coming to Oslo, to see my friends.

Mischa Mathys: It’s not your first time playing here. Do you remember the last time?

DJ: It’s been a while. The last time was with Sonja (Moonear) 3 or 4 years ago.

MM: Are you and Sonja still together?

DJ: Not as a couple, but we’re still friends. We live in the same city, and we take care of our daughter together.

MM: And do you still collaborate on music?

DJ: We are not collaborating on music at the moment, but we are working together on the label, Ruta5. Sonja is quite busy, so I take care of almost everything, but we put together parties and everything else to do with the label.

MM: I see there are constantly new releases coming from you, not just as an artist, but also producing other people’s things. Are you in the studio every day?

DJ: Yeah, every day. I’m doing three things: I’m making music for me; I’m producing music for other people; and I’m teaching. I also organise workshops, I’m travelling quite a lot and lately often to Ukraine.

MM: Are you teaching production?

DJ: I teach how to mix down, and how to use compressors and mastering. Everything with Ableton, basically. I think I have a good knowledge on how things should sound.

MM: They couldn’t ask for a better teacher. You have over 30 years of knowledge in the field of production. Do you feel that you have to disconnect as an artist in order to do the other stuff?

DJ: This is perhaps a problem. I can have too much influence on my students and those people that want to be produced by me. In the end, it sounds like I did it. I become something like a ghost producer, but that is also OK, I don’t have a problem with that.

MM: And then there’s also the artists you put out on Ruta5.

DJ: I try to integrate a lot of other people, but when you take somebody on to the label, you also take on the responsibility. That’s more difficult.

MM: You mentioned you’ve signed artists from Ecuador and Japan, and you’ve worked with a Venezuelan girl too. That’s quite a global reach.

DJ: Ruta5 was born in Chile so I get a lot of requests from South American artists. It’s not frequently that I hear something interesting, so I’m also open to accept artists like this Japanese girl too. I always have a personal relationship with the artist and the goal is to create a friendship. Recently this young Russian woman who wants to release on my label; that for me is incredible.

MM: You don’t think this might be a bit controversial considering that you work in Ukraine as well?

DJ: I don’t like to politicise this thing, because people are people. She is not a Russian, she’s just a human being to me. A lot of Russians are also victims of their situation. I’m talking about young musicians. The next generation of young musicians, they just want to express themselves, and they can’t leave their country. I can relate because I also lived under a dictatorship in Chile and left the oppression and torture. You can’t open your mouth, otherwise you end up in jail. It’s horrible.

MM: I actually wanted to ask you about your time in Chile under Pinochet, because seeing the world as it is now, it’s gotta be quite relevant to your own experiences?

DJ: It’s a really frustrating situation at the moment. The illusion that humans could change is not happening. I have a feeling that we still need some generations to make a society work with establishing new interesting values, because the values today are down. It’s horrible what is happening now. Wars and people killing each other like in Gaza, it’s a horror trip.

MM: Let’s rewind to when you left Chile under the dictatorship for Berlin. What was Berlin like during that time?

DJ: We were all really young and enthusiastic. There was a lot of hope, thinking we could change the world. It was a very creative moment.

MM:This was the 80’s and I want to ask you about Sub Rosa, the first project specifically.

DJ: I was 16 years old.

MM: That was more industrial to what you are known for today.

DJ: It was inspired by Throbbing Gristle. It was pure industrial music like Cabaret Voltaire. These guys were inspiring, and I had the capacity to value this music. Many people didn’t understand it. I grew up during a time when people were listening to rock music like Santana. When I listened to On the Run from Pink Floyd the first time, I was 8 years old, and I was shocked by the depth and the possibility in music that makes you travel. This was the fascination in electronic music for me.

MM: Did you always have this association with the dance floor in terms of this type of music?

DJ: The dance floor came much later. In the beginning I didn’t agree with this Techno movement from Detroit. I found it a bit boring. It was depressing to experience this wave of electronic music coming into this world of electronic music, which I considered much more open. It was too simple for me.

MM: So what changed?

DJ: If it wasn’t for Ricardo Villalobos who said; “Martin, stop refusing and come to a club with me and dance to a boom boom boom, ” I wouldn’t be doing it. Back in the eighties, we had this inner conflict in our group, but in the end I accepted it.

MM: Was it that atmosphere in the club and listening to the music with other people that changed your mind?

DJ: Yes, it was about me leaving my arrogance at the door, and then I understood the complexity of the simplicity. I realised a dance track can also be interesting.

MM: People don’t always realise it’s not just about programming a drum machine. It’s about a groove and without it, the machine is just a metronome.

DJ: Yes, and I also had my latin influences to fall back on, like cumbia. Latin American music is rhythmically more complex than Techno. I had to find a way between both; the complexity of the rhythm combined with the industrial sound.

MM: As you started combining these sounds, at what point does it become second nature to you and you start putting records out?

DJ: In the beginning we were just copying tapes. James Dean Brown was a bit older than me and he was already connected to people from the 80’s industrial stuff. He had four tape recorders at home and he was running a tape label. We started making tapes in the beginning. The first record I made  was a project with Tobias. At that time he was called Pink Elln. He made the first pressing of a single that we did. It was a 45 and we distributed it by hand.

MM: Working in Berlin, as somebody from Chile – an outsider – was it difficult getting your foot in the door and into the scene there?

DJ: Yes, it was super complicated. In the end, me and Tobias, we split with another person in the group because he wanted to continue in the industrial stuff, and me and Tobias were making more “commercial” stuff. We got a contract with Sony music. If you listen to that music today, you understand it is far from commercial. It was an interpretation of commercial music that we had in our head when we were 23. Everything was new, and nothing was established.

MM: And then you hit a nerve and people like you and Ricardo Villalobos ushered i n this new era for Techno music. What was key to that success?

DJ: We had the opportunity to grow up in a moment when everything was fresh. There was also this mix between the moment, talent and the mission. You need all three elements to do what you are doing and then it obviously inspires a lot of other people. We were not trying to make a repetition, we were trying to make something out of nearly nothing. Everything came together in terms of what was happening with electronic music and the industry.

MM: Considering your early music and what you’re doing now, do you think you were ever pigeonholed during the Perlon era?

DJ: I was doing so much more stuff than what was released; thousands of tracks I did in the moment. I have the impression that my inspiration is not always the same. I like this phenomena that music looks like a camera. We live in a frame of time that is really small. I can still live from the ideas  developed ten years ago and it still sounds amazing.

MM: Let’s fast forward to the present. We have to talk about the next Det Gode Selskab release. Do you remember making Divine in Chile?

DJ: Yes. This girl (vocalist on the track) comes from Hip Hop. She’s a young girl from Venezuela and I met her on the street. She sings and raps really well and her approach to music is, she wants to be famous. When it came time to record the vocals for this track, she came with her own vocal producer. I played her 5 – 10 tracks of mine and this one, Divine in Chile, was the most harmonic one. For me it was an experiment, and I’m quite happy with the result.

MM:  Was it always intended for Det Gode Selskab or was it just a result of what you had on  hand at that time?

DJ: At the moment when they asked me, this was the best track I had to give them.

MM: Is that a request you get often; to make tracks for other labels?

DJ: Yes people ask me to make a track for them, but I don’t do it very often. I did this because Det Gode Selskab are my friends and I like to support them. I usually keep it for myself and turn it into four tracks, and put it out on my own label.

to be continued…

At the end of 2019 things couldn’t have been worse for Niilas, but then an album, a Spellemann and a new defining sound ushered in a new era of success and creativity

The winter of 2019 was a strange time for Peder Niilas Tårnesvik. He had just broken up with his girlfriend of 7 years, and then a double tendonitis in his wrists and then an eye infection exacerbated the situation. Just when life looked its bleakest and things couldn’t get possibly worse for Peder the pandemic arrived too and shepered in an unprecedented time for our society and more turmoil for the artist called Niilas. “It felt like my life had crumbled to pieces in a matter of weeks,” he says over a telephone call in a raspy voice. 

Things started looking up however. “At the exit of that long and dark tunnel, I had a closer relationship with making music,” he continues. Back in 2019, as he was working his way through that “fairly extreme” experience of a relationship ending, illness and the pandemic, he found solace in the music he was making and as he forged a closer relationship with that music some things began to click for him.

Niilas had been making and releasing music since 2014 and had even found some early success, but there was always something missing. “I got a lot of wind in my sails early in my career and I was comparing myself with Kygo, Røyksopp and Cashmere Cat; all these really big stars.“ It “almost destroyed everything,” however, as Peder used these artists as a watermark in his own career, an unattainable goal in reality for an emerging artist only at the start of his career.. “I put a lot of pressure on myself to become mainstream successful.“

Tracks from that era like “Ocelote” are uplifting sojourns through tropical hues of synthesised mallets while restless beats move listlessly from phrase to phrase in continuous evolutions of the rhythms . They are crafted meticulously and clearly touched a nerve within the zeitgeist,  but capitulating to what was happening around him only left Peder “really frustrated with the music scene.”

Peder kept releasing singles and EPs however, racking up the plays and the streams, and even though there was a relative hype around him and his music, he would never come close to those millions of streams and plays he sought. The frustration only intensified as a result and he kept “stumbling into creative walls, not finding my place in the music scene or finding my sound.”

Niilas performs River of Noise live at Jaeger

It would take the experiences of the winter of 2019 for a sonic identity to emerge for Peder. When he began putting the tracks he was making together, the red thread that would form the foundation of the album would reveal itself. Instead of chasing those unattainable reaches of success, he simply succumbed to the music. “After that process of letting go of all the expectations and comparisons; that experience really helped me in transitioning into the artist that I have now become.”

“Pieces fell into place” for Peder and his artistic identity in the album, because it solidified the sound of Nillas, where there was definitely a “before and after.” It brought something innately personal to the fore in the process and he found himself delving into the deep recesses of his psyche in something that laid buried in a collective history. He hadn’t really explored these recesses much in the past but within the context of this new music he was making a latent cultural heritage revealed itself in the artistic endeavour. “It has a lot to do with integrating the Sámi aspects of my identity,” he explains.

Peder is Sámi; a direct descendant of the indigenous people of northern Norway (Sápmi) and today their cultural heritage is polluted in the muddy waters of Norway’s politics of forced assimilation and of the discrimination the Sámi people have endured since the creation of a Norwegian state. Many people have lost their cultural identity and for Peder it was about redefining that in his music as he started to consolidate the themes and concepts around this new era of Niilas. 

It wouldn’t be easy though. “Since I don’t have the Sámi language and the traditional Sámi joik; I was struggling a bit figuring out how the experiences of coming from a Sámi family and coming from up north in Sápmi, how can that work in the electronic landscape.”

If it sounds abstract, that’s because it is, especially in the context of electronic music, but there is something peculiar to the music on “Also this will Change”. It taps into some natural instinct and an immersive sound quality. Synthesisers and samples gallop in and out of some vague idea of a time signature, following “circular way of thinking about time and structure within music.” Peder likens it to walking a mountain or forest path; “Even though the path is the same and the person is the same, there are always a lot of variables. It’s a lot about shifting perspectives between macro and micro.” 

It’s impossible to ignore that exchange between the natural world and the music, as field recordings and the burbling nature of the music make some direct associations with the Sámi’s own concepts and ideas of nature. It goes as far to speak of similarities between many indigenous traditions from other parts of the western world. At a recent event in Iceland, Peder  was struck by the musical concepts he shared with other artists from other “indigenous communities” like Greenland and Canada.” They particularly resonated with the “seemingly common ideas of connecting with nature;” in what seems to be a universal ideology in a culture that lives off the resources of the world around them. There is often a natural sympathy and a calm balance with nature in these cultures. 

This is something that definitely feels like it’s in the air at the moment with the winds of change blowing throughout indigenous worlds. From TV shows to movies, music to visual art, there has been notable activity from indigenous artists making their mark in popular culture at the moment. This cultural wave has largely fallen on this next generation’s shoulders as they, like Peder, try to grapple with a cultural heritage they might have lost through decades, if not centuries of discrimination.

Peder is not trying to be “overtly political” in his music, however. “I wasn’t bringing up this thing as an active choice,” he explains. “ In retrospect, across the whole Sámi community, people from my generation are taking their Sámi heritage back, and for my parents’ generation, dealing with a lot of the family trauma they were exposed to, and figuring out what to do going forward. And for my grandfather’s generation, they are also dealing with on-hand experiences of Norwegian society mis-treating their rights.“

“At the time it just felt that this is something I have to do right now, and I’m not sure why.” It’s easy to see it today in the context of the shifting opinion of a cultural wave moving across Scandinavia, but back in 2020, when Peder released his debut LP it wasn’t like he was tapping into this wave and even if you know nothing of his cultural heritage the music is still there without its reference points.

While, in the background there is this cultural heritage and the artist making the music, the nature of this stark electronic music, often without vocals, doesn’t insist on it. As Niilas, Peder folds in an eclectic palette of references in his music. From broken beats, to four to the floor  House music, to ambient constructions, he makes land on each musical island as he journeys toward those uncharted territories of what Sámi experimental club music could be. He’s used recognisable tropes in popular dialects of western electronic music as stepping stones towards this goal. He’s a product of his generation and like his peers his “artistic upbringing has had a lot to do with finding an immense amount of music from all over the world” through the internet.

From Flying Lotus to Biosphere, these have all informed a broad sonic landscape of influences. In the past, Peder, in search of a musical community online, was trying to harness all these influences and musical touchstones in making a connection to the “strange phenomenon” of the “deconstructed club music” community. Through the ideas of that community, Peder had created all these “fake rules that you found for yourself online” and promised never to make a four-four track. Armed with this set of rules and chasing the success it never really manifested for Peder in the way he’d imagined and he soon realised that this  “can be really destructive for the creative process.”

“I just let go of all of these rules and realised that making a House track is not the end of the world. When you let go of trying to have too much control over the material, the artist within shows up.”

Racking up a further three (“and a half”) albums in the same amount of years, Peder has cultivated an artistic sound that seems to be endlessly creative and the results speak for themselves. In 2020 he won the Spellemann prize for “Also this must Change,” an honour that validated his new sonic identity and “was a big confirmation that I’m not just making it for myself, but other people are actually listening to it.”   

It put the wind in the sails again, but this time there is some substance to it, and after following his debut with “Stepping Stones” and an ambient indulgence called “Hydrophane,” he closed out 2023 with his most recent album “River of Noise,” a record that has been lauded as much as his first.

River of Noise doesn’t mark any kind of departure from his debut or the albums leading up to it, but something broods beneath the surface. Tracks like “5th floor” almost completely dissolve themselves from any natural associations but you can still find those cultural touchstones in the names of the intro track or the quaint fiddle coursing its way through “Pyromid.”

The album is the penultimate step on an evolutionary ladder that finds Peder moving into slightly different territory. “Through the last 4 albums, I’ve been going through what the Sámi experience has had on my music and now it feels like I’m not dealing as directly with those Sámi influences, but working with those colourful dance tracks. They don’t have to be part of this heavy concept.” He’s already finishing up a couple of tracks in this vein, but at the same time he’s just finding enjoyment in the act of performance, whether playing live or DJing. 

The Spellemann is there on the shelf, but the ultimate validation for Peder these days is that “connection to the audiences. People get something from the music. That’s where the juice really is, it’s not getting a superficial award – but it’s easy to say when I’ve actually won it.” (Laughs) 

* words by Mischa Mathys

We discuss the prevalent appeal of Olav Brekke Mathisen and Sideshow Jøgge’s N.A.O.M.B with Snorkel’s Olefonken and Snorri as the album gets the reissue treatment from the label and an official release party at Jaeger this Friday.

There are albums that live outside of their time. For a multitude of reasons, they never truly get the recognition they deserve. They might even inform a zeitgeist, and still not garner the same kind of distinction that their peers enjoy. It’s almost like they’re designed for obscurity, cultivating a brief dalliance with their audience before disappearing from view. Like a one-night stand at a star-crossed intersection it’s a fleeting encounter destined for wistful nostalgia. 

There are those however that never forget that encounter; hold onto it for a lifetime as a memory of sonic perfection they strive their whole career in an attempt to pay due diligence. Snorkel records’ Olefonken and Snorri are those kinds of people and Olav Brekke Mathisen and Sideshow Jøgge’s NAOMB is one of those albums. 

NAOMB or Nugatti all Ova me Butty came out over twenty years ago. It was a record that made an indelible impact in Oslo’s space race towards a “Nu” era of Disco at the time with artists like Prins Thomas, Lindstrøm and Todd Terje at the helm of the ship. While the aforementioned went on to great heights, Olav and Jøgge broke off at the first stage, making a contribution that was brief, but no less significant. International media outlets like Jockey Slut were quick to sing their praises, but as their one and only LP, and very little else in the form of music to follow from the pair, they kind of slipped into obscurity, at least in the music scene.  

Jøgge would become an actor, and Olav set his sights on writing, neither to ever venture into the world of recorded music ever again. You could argue if they had kept at it, NAOMB would enjoy the same kind of reverent awe as those first Prins Thomas and Lindstrøm records and as an album there is no reason it couldn’t still hold its own alongside some of Oslo’s more revered albums. Analogue synthesisers and grooves made for dancing bounce through 12 tracks, and they’ve hardly aged. The timeless nature of the sounds and their breadth of their musical dialect provide a touchstone from almost every decade of “dance” music; from progressive funk of the 70’s; the post-jazz inclinations of eighties and even right up to the French staccato of late 90’s House, it’s all there and it’s survived remarkably well. 

While the duo’s inactivity in the music scene might have certainly played a role in the album being largely forgotten there are still a few musical diehards like the people behind Snorkel, that will endeavour to shine a light where necessary. After a chance encounter with the pair, NAOMB gets the reissue treatment and what they’ve done is installed it in its rightful place in the Norwegian canon of music. As the label prepares for the official release party at Jaeger and the duo prepare for their accompanying live show, we got in touch with Snorkel and hopefully Olav and Jøgge to find out more about the origins of the record and its significance today. 

How did you meet Olav and Jøgge?

Initially, we were just kids trying to keep up with the cool of what our older brothers and their friends were listening to at that time, and Olav and Jøgge was one of them, so we were lucky to see them play live several times and thought they were cooler than a popsicle! And against all advice, we later took the plunge and actually hung out with our boyhood heroes. Lucky for us, they turned out to be two loveable guys! 

Has N.A.O.M.B always been on the back of your mind as something that you want to re-release, or was it triggered by the chance encounter?

N.A.O.M.B had always been on the back of our minds ever since we heard it at high school. It’s like the plague – you can’t get rid of it even how much you try – the only difference is that you don’t want to get rid of it either. It’s like a black cup of joe on a moonless night! 

That said, Snorkel wasn’t initially conceived with reissues in mind, despite our deep admiration for labels putting in the work to unearth exceptional music. However, two albums left an immense impact on our musical taste: dibidim’s debut album “Riders” and Olav Brekke Mathisen & Sideshow Jøgge’s “N.A.O.M.B.” If you plot these albums on a spectrum, everything in between shapes the Snorkel sound today. This release is the final token atop our totem pole, the foundation for everything else to come.

What was it about the record that endeared you to it in the first place? 

When we first laid ears on the record, it was like the musical equivalent of finding a hidden stash of chocolate in the vegetable drawer – delightfully unexpected and rebellious!

What were Olav and Jøggee’s reaction when you told them you wanted to reissue it?

It seemed like they didn’t believe us at the beginning. It was probably only when we started showing up at their doorstep that it dawned on them that we were serious! Now that it has become a reality, they have showered us with joy and gratitude, something we find peculiar and surreal to grasp, considering that for us, releasing this on our own label is a dream come true!

Did they tell you what was behind that title and the acronym for “Nugatti all Ova me Butty”? 

Oh, we never mustered the courage to ask! Some mysteries are better off remaining unsolved, you know? 

The record would have come out originally at a time when there was so much focus on Norway and Oslo specifically for what would be coined as Space Disco. Was it as well received as some of the other records coming out of Oslo at that time?

Even though “NAOMB” has been tucked away like a hidden treasure, unlike the more well-known Norwegian Nudisco classics of its time, it managed to catch the ears of influential DJs such as Doc Martin, Gerd Janson, and the late Andrew Weatherall, among others. Ironically, we used to be the secret-keepers, now 20 years later yelling from the rooftops about its triumphant return! 

It’s a timeless sounding record and it’s aged magnificently well. What in your opinion has contributed to its longevity?

Well must be that secret sauce – lubricating nugatti all over your butty!

Was anything changed in terms of music or post-production for the reissue and what were the reasons for those decisions?

The tracks “hasjbox” and “fluffy the vampire” are included on vinyl for the very first time, which they weren’t back in 2003. And also the whole album ends with Olav’s stunner “take to the sky” which is a really nice prick over the I, as we say here in Norway!

The original LP was never released on vinyl I believe and Snorkel is very much all about the analogue. What was the biggest challenge putting this on vinyl, and do you think putting out like this, in a format that it was never intended for, brought something else across on this record?

The biggest challenge was to get the boys to remember anything from 20 years ago. Where are the original projects? Do you have any back up disks etc. But then again the first song is called “hasjbox” so yeah, you see where this is going!

Is this going to be the start of some new music from the duo or is it destined for one-night only?

Going through the old disks uncovered a treasure trove of forgotten gems. As we are working on Snorkel’s new 12” series, who knows? We might just get more from OBM & Jøgge in the near future…

In our exclusive interview with rising Norwegian House music star Meera, we talk origins, influences and the impact of her breakout single.

Meera’s name is on everybody’s lips at the moment. Every club concept and DJ in Norway has been trying to lure the DJ and producer to their nights. DJ booths from Ibiza to Oslo have welcomed Meera alongside older peers like Black Coffee and Simon Field. Her star has been consistently rising and her DJ talents have been a serious demand following the trajectory of her break out single “Music for Humans.” 

With some early support from the likes of Black Coffee again, Damian Lazarus and John Digweed – to name only a few – Meera started to shake the world’s dance floors through some of the world’s most influential selectors over the last year.  She’s followed the success of that record with two equally strong releases in the form of “Telefon” and “Clean the Turbines,” solidifying a sound for the young artist early on.

Between rhythmical foundations that err towards non-western traditions and euphoric melodic expressions that touch hedonistic heights, Meera has cultivated a unique sound forged on the foundations of House music. She’s emerged as a solitary figure with her productions hard to define and as it extends to her DJ sets, equally divergent from anything going on around her. 

After making her debut in Oslo and at Jaeger last month for Simon Field’s basement event, Meera returns to Jaeger’s booth this Saturday for Olle Abstract’s LYD. As much as we’ve followed her progress ver the last year, we know very little of the emerging artist and with her visit looming we caught up with her via telephone for an exclusive chat with Meera.  

Where are you at the moment?

I’m at home in Stavanger.

I read your biography and it mentioned that you grew up with your dad blaring music everywhere. What kind of music was he playing?

It was a lot of Hard-House, classic House and a lot of Hip Hop too. 

Does he come from a DJ background too?

He’s been DJing since the eighties.

And that was your musical education?

It was my introduction to DJing. 

How long have you been Djing? 

I’ve been DJing since I was fourteen, so 12 years ago.

Has there ever been any sonic influence from your dad, because I remember when I was 14, my taste couldn’t have been further from my father’s?

I mostly play my own music. 

So you didn’t start by playing the records that were just around at home?

I started playing digitally with Serato and stuff on the laptop. I didn’t start playing vinyl until two years ago?

Are you finding some classic gems in your Dad’s record collection today?

I do sometimes, but there is just so much music.

Was it always electronic music for you?

When I was young I was mostly into emo and rock, so a lot of My Chemical Romance and Linkin park, that kind of stuff.

How did you arrive electronic music from there?

I think I discovered Daft Punk and it snowballed.

Which Daft Punk era was this?

It must have been when the “Around the World” video was on MTV. 

At that point, did you change your whole attitude towards music and it became only about electronic dance music?

I was pretty into it, but I was incorporating French House with Rock and Hip Hop; everything I liked. I have always been appreciative of all kinds of music. 

I know Stavanger has had some really good DJs that has come out of it, but was there anything like a scene there that could cultivate your interests early on?

There was a small community of DJs starting up. We had this open-deck night at a bar that I used to go to, it was a cocktail bar. I would go there with some friends and it was pretty open to everyone.

How did it develop from there. Did you go into production from there?

O no, I started producing when I was 10 years old. I was already making music.

You were making music before you even started DJing. So was the point to get that music out there so people could listen to it?

Not really. I just thought both things were fun, and I did them independently. 

One doesn’t really effect the other?

When I was DJing at 14, I was mainly playing EDM and that kind of stuff and he music I was making, was more like Filter House, Garage and Drum n Bass. It was very different.

What was the route to the first release, “Music for Humans” because you must have been making a lot of music up to that point?

I did self-release an album and three EPs, but mostly it’s been only for me. I have this Soundcloud profile of really old tracks. It’s not something I advertise, it’s just out there.

Is it similar to the more recent stuff?

Not at all. 

Considering how big Music for Humans became after its release, is it something that you anticipated when you were making the track? 

I don’t really remember making it. I just sent it to the people VOD (Vinyl on Demand) and they really liked it. 

Did you expect it to be so well received, not only by the public, but by your peers; people like Black Coffee and Damian Lazarus?

No. I just thought it was cool that VOD was interested and then it just kind of blew up in a way. It’s been pretty surreal seeing huge DJ support and playing the track and the EP. 

That also led to playing to places like Ibiza. Are you still playing in that cocktail bar in Stavanger? 

Yes, I still do once or twice a month.

There must be a huge difference going from something like that to a Black Coffee night in Ibiza.

It’s pretty jarring.

Do you feel you have to adapt to that kind of crowd?

Not really. When I DJ, I play what I want to hear so it doesn’t change a lot.

After “Music for Humans,” came “Telefon” and “Clean your turbines” and there is a distinctive sound that emerges between those three releases. Was there a conscious idea to establish a sound for yourself or was it just because they were made around the same time?

The time difference between those tracks is pretty huge. I think it was just the direction the tracks ended up going in. I didn’t consciously try to make them sound like each other.

Well it’s very unique since you have these Latin- and African rhythmical motives under pinning these melodic, ethereal on euphoric synths. How did you come upon fusing these elements in your music?

It’s just a result of me drawing from the all the music I like.

How did the African and Latin elements specifically arrive into your palette?

Keinemusik and pablo fierro kinda drove my interested in seeking out more non-western music. That’s when I really got into that sound, and since then I’ve been listening to a lot of African Rock and Disco from the 70’s and  80’s. I discovered artists such as itadi, polibio mayorga, la solucion, and mulato astatke who have all had some kind of impact on my sound.

After these three releases do you have anything coming up, that you’re excited to talk about yet?

I have my collaboration with Danish trio Tripolism coming on Friday, that will be on Ultra. And then I have an Ep coming on Crosstown rebels in late February. Then I also have one coming in black book records in April or March. 

Are they all kind of similar to the sound you’ve already cultivated through the first three releases? 

The next EP is going to be kind of similar and the other two are going to be a bit different.

Thank you for talking to us Meera. We’ll see you in the Dj booth next. 

I’m really looking forward to playing at Jaeger again. 

We caught up with Henriky via Berlin to talk about his music, Quirk, the Gode Selskab, his formative years, queer clubbing in Berlin and Bikini Wax ahead of his stint at Jaeger for Lokomotiv

From the suburbs of Oslo, via the UK ato eventually Berlin; and through Garage and House to minimal, Henriku’s path to the wax has stopped on many different elements of club music to get to his debut record Rush/Fantasy. While he never set foot in a club before leaving Norway, and with little input from anything he was hearing at home, Henriku has waded through a curious path in music. His associations with Quirk and Det Gode Selskab run deep, as the building blocks on  which his own approach to the minimal landscape has taken foothold. 

It was at one of Det Gode Seslkab’s boat parties where the seed of ambition was planted towards a career as a producer. After a stint at university where he studied the production art, he found his calling in the sonic landscape of those peers before embarking on the next chapter of his career at Quirk where he found a kindred spirit in the label’s founder Alexander Skancke. After a few collaborative releases via that label, Henrikuu released his first solo record “Rush Fantasy” via Det Gode Selskab records in what could only be described as fate.  

Henriku’s tracks  like “I wanna party” are club tracks with a purpose and a sense of frivolous fun that engages as much as it propels. There’s a sense of infectious enjoyment that courses from that track all the way through to a track like “Pillow Talk”, taken from “Rush Fantasy”. 

A DJ that operates in the extended minimal landscape, Henriku is a regular fixture in Berlin’s booths like Hoppetosse as well as some of Oslo’s booths like Jaeger.  (He even played at the very first Helt Texas.) He’s been coming back more often recently as his star continues to rise back home in league with his efforts in Berlin. He maintains a very close relationship with the Quirk family and together they’ve started to carve out a sonic identity based on the minimal sonic landscape and imbued by a queer vision of a minimal scene. 

We caught up with Henriku via phone call just as he was about to head out for a shift at the iconic Bikini Wax to talk about his music history, Djing and the queer scene in Berlin, as he prepares to return to Jaeger for Lokomotiv’s Romjulsfestivalen takeover. 

What have you been up to this weekend?

This weekend I played Iat Sisyphos, playing back to back with Alexander Skancke, my good and beloved friend. We played from 05:00 – 09:00 on Sunday morning. It was lots of fun. 

Are you playing every week in Berlin at the moment?

Unfortunately, no. I only started playing club gigs about a year and a half ago, with the first Quirk night. It still goes in waves for me. Some months I have plenty, some are a bit slower. November has been quite well. The week before we had a Quirk night at Hoppetosse. 

What is the atmosphere in Berlin like at the moment for DJs? I can imagine there are quite a few DJs out there at the moment. 

For the time being it’s quite alright. Personally, I think it’s a matter of point of view. A lot of people view the amount of DJs as competition, but I truly believe there is space for everyone to be creative and have success. It doesn’t have to come on other people’s terms. Yes, there are a lot of people, but there are also a lot of opportunities. That’s why the city attracts so many DJs. 

Are there new communities cropping up as well, or is it pretty much each man/woman for him/herself?

I think it’s both. I’ve found my community in Quirk. It makes the process of creating so much more fun, when you are building each other up, rather than stepping over each other. 

I always thought Quirk was Alexander Skancke’s label. Is the community, artists releasing on the label, or is it like a collective?

For the time being we are a total of five people that have released on the label, but mostly it’s just close friends at this point. It’s more like our friend circle. It’s artists who have released on the label, but it’s also broader, like the regular faces we see at our gigs, and good friends. We  are friends who like a similar kind of music and a core vision. 

From what I heard, it does seem like the label has a sound and it’s very much emphasised by the different releases and artists. How did you find your voice within the label?

Absolutely. Alex and I didn’t meet until 2019, and before we met we actually had a similar background in terms of the minimal sound, but from different points. Alex has been in the game a lot longer than me. He went through his minimal phase, went to sunwaves and then moved to Berlin, while tapping into those early nineties influences. And I have walked a similar path. I was obsessed with UK garage – that was my entry point – from UK garage I moved into House and then I moved to Berlin where I really got hooked on minimal. I went to Sunwaves where I got more hooked. From there I opened my horizons back to the roots of House and Garage and started exploring more Techno sounds. The red thread of minimal remains. That’s what makes the Quirk sound cohesive, if you will. Most of the people that are involved in Quirk at the moment, share these points of reference. 

It’s interesting that you mention UK garage as your entry into club music.  It’s not something you would associate with Norway at all. What led to that introduction?

I had a couple of friends from my gymnasium who did a year abroad in York, England. I visited and that’s where I had my first club experience. It was a funny mixture of commercial hits and UK Garage. The UK Garage and House Garage sound resonated with me and I needed to find more of it and find out what this was. 

Was this also the start of DJing and making electronic music for you?

I went back to the UK after this and to the Leeds festival where they had these camps that would play Garage and Bassline. And after I got home from this festival, I realised I need to be more in touch with this rather than just listening to it. I really wanted to start producing, but I was talking myself down saying; “no I don’t have any musical background, it’s way too late for me.” I tried DJing instead, and I bought my first DJ controller.  

I enjoyed it, but I realised it wasn’t enough. I looked into software for producing music, and thought I might as well try. I taught myself the basics through You Tube tutorials. By the end of that year, I managed to put together some tracks, and they were something. (laughs)

It was also at this point that I just finished gymnasium, wondering what I would do with my life and it was actually my dad that came across a university in Berlin that had a music production course. 

I’ve read an interview with you, where you mentioned you never actually went clubbing Norway. Is that correct; did you have no connection to the scene here before you left for Berlin?

Yes, that’s completely right. I had one friend who really enjoyed it. She had great taste in music and we reconnected when I was around 18 years old. She had already gone to a few raves and parties and showed me a lot of really cool stuff. At this time most places had an age limit of 21 so it was really hard. Before I reconnected with her nobody had wanted to go out with me. Luckily I linked up with her and the last party I had gone to was Det Gode Selskab boat party. I remember leaving that party, thinking there’s something really special here and it would be so cool to do something like this someday. This sparked something in me that really sent me on a mission to Berlin.  

I guess the Garage influences fell away when you moved to Berlin?

That is exactly what happened. Coming to Berlin and hearing Techno for the first time at Berghain and Griessmühle … The Techno scene was very different. Garage influences weren’t easy to find.

I wanted to ask you about something you said in another interview. You felt that there was a lack of queer representation in your scene in Berlin. Even in Berlin?

Yes, even in Berlin. There is a gap in the market. I am very curious about starting something up with some friends. Maybe if I find the time and energy. For the time being, it’s very locked in with contemporary Techno. Hardgroove is very big and so are those fast-paced sounds. There are some slow-paced sounds based around House music, because there is always the panorama bar to the Berghain. In terms of the minimal sound you’ll find at places like Hoppetosse, there’s not much going on for the queer folks. 

So it’s dominated by a straight audience, or the straight industry side of things?

It’s a combination of the two. There are definitely queer people that enjoy the music, but perhaps they’re not always the most inviting places for queer people. It’s not like there is any alienation, because there are still queer people showing up. In Berlin it’s very extreme in terms of the safe spaces these queer parties provide. Living in Berlin and experiencing that every weekend you get a bit spoiled. I  just think there should be a safe space for queer people to enjoy minimal music as well. I also think there is something to the fact that queer people are seeking High-Energy music. 

And you never got sucked into the hard and fast Techno that places like Berghain and Griesssmühle were doing?

I actually enjoy it on occasion. This summer I went  to a lot queer parties and spent some time with friends in Berghain as well. I think it’s fun as long as it’s groovy. I probably won’t produce it myself, but in terms of having a fun time, I can absolutely enjoy it. I need some ups and downs in the energy. What I miss in that scene is a story-line. 

When it came to the music you are producing today and in the context of Berlin, what was it that pushed you in that direction?

It was during my time at university. I made two really close friends in Sammy Lewis and the other one was Trent Voyage (who has also been releasing on Quirk.) As we were getting to know each other we saw we had a similar vision, and that was very influential on all of us. We went out and got a lot of input together; a lot from Griesmühle and Hoppetosse was a second home. 

It was really born from the club; what you were hearing in the club was directly influencing what you would do in the studio?

Absolutely. I see myself as a club kid, figuratively and then sometimes literally as well. There are influences from other kinds of music, but club music is what I do. 

It’s interesting that you mention club kids, because when I listen to your music, and the stuff you made with Alexander, you get the sense of having a good time. “I want to party” is probably the most on the nose example of that. 

Exactly and that is also one of the core values of Quirk; we don’t take ourselves too seriously. We just want to make fun, engaging music. Bringing these vocals in like that song, is part of it.

I’ve found there are often vocals in your music and adds to that sense of engagement. What do you look for in vocals when you add them to your music?

A lot of the vocals are my own recorded music. It brings a lot of freedom, in terms of the vibe or what I want to say, literally. I am also a huge fan of samples, when it comes to bringing in a vocal sample, it’s random. My sample library is big, but usually it’s about playing around and finding something that suits the sonic landscape of the track. I feel like the meaning almost always follows the act, and drives the direction of the track. 

When you  are using your own vocals is there usually a theme to the lyrics or is it all in the spur of the moment?

It’s often a combination. If I have a loop that I’m working on I might start writing things down on a piece of paper. I don’t have a strict formula. The ”I want to party” track for instance was on the spur of the moment. It started as a joke. Alex gave me the microphone and we were both hungover and the energy was a bit low. Alex was rolling his eyes, but also laughing. So I made a build out of it and played it back to Alex. 

Yes, you do convey that sense of having a good time, not just with that song but others too. We talked mostly about working with Alex at this point, but this year you brought out your first record of original material for Det Gode Selskab too. 

Yes, this was the first track I released on my own. I already had a few tracks on the digital compilation with Det Gode Selskab, but for the time being I only have one solo record out.  It came out on the 17th of May by accident. 

Did working with Alexander influence anything in your own music?

Yes, absolutely. It’s hard to say exactly what, but this aspect of jamming around, playing things on a keyboard, and finding a groove rather than programming things. I love to sit with a mouse and click things in, it’s a super fun process and I will continue to do it, but I will also incorporate some live jamming. It adds a little bit of soul. 

Alexander also introduced you to Bikini Wax, I believe. And now you work there?

Yes. I’m on my way there in an hour actually. It’s such a cosy atmosphere which I really enjoy. I was a long time customer for a long time and to be surrounded by records all day, and getting to learn new stuff about the history is such a privilege. 

What kind of influence has that had on your DJing?

It definitely has affected  the way that I look for new music. I’m listening to new music all day, so I’m trying to think long term in terms of which records I buy and also how they fit in my collection. 

Are you a little more hesitant because of the prices of records these days?

Of course. It’s not only that though it ‘s also about space. There are always records on the floor these days. 

We caught up with Hilit Kolet from Shanghai to talk about her musical history as she prepares to make the journey to Jaeger’s sauna again.

Hilit Kolet is a rarefied talent for these times. She has all the credentials: A job at an iconic record store; a classically trained background; legitimate studio experience; a knack for crafting dance floor cuts; and a sincere appreciation for the music above all else. She’s been celebrated by the radio jocks; lauded by her peers; played in some of the most influential spots; and remixed some of the best there is, yet her approach comes from a unique sincerity that is at odds with current trends. 

Her musical output is considered and her style as a DJ bristles with that eclectic attitude that only a record store employee has. She’s already established a reputation as a DJ’s DJ, built on the foundation of an avid music collector and enthusiast, born from her days behind the counter at London’s Black Market Records. Hers is a diverse collection of musical touchstones, coalescing around the expansive House and Techno music universe and when it comes to a dance floor, there are few who know it better.

Her breakout single “Techno Disco” via Defected topped all kinds of charts with successive releases only re-affirming her abilities and her sonic diversity. She’s remixed and been remixed by the likes of Terry Farley and Mike Dunn and her edits, like that of  Laurient Garnier’s “Crispy Bacon,” lives in infamy alongside its predecessors. 

While the piano provided the springboard for her musical education it’s the records that have provided the most significant impetus for Hilit’s musical adventures and as such there is only one place she appears most at home; the DJ booth. 

Last year, we had the pleasure of meeting Hilit for the first time and after a session for Øya Natt, we’re pleased to have the UK DJ and producer back  at Jaeger. Hilit Kolet arrives on the Sunkissed ticket this Saturday and we took the opportunity to probe the DJ and artist more about her interesting background and some of what is on the horizon for the artist. We find her  in Shanghai on the eve of the release of her remix of Why We Dance for Terry Farley & Wade Teo. 

Hello Hilit. It’s a pleasure to meet you. Tell us where you are at the moment and what you’re listening to? 

Hey, nice to meet you too. I’m currently in my hotel room in Shanghai having played last night. I’m listening to a new remix I’ve been working on, which is coming out early 2024, and also to a new beat I’ve started on the plane. It’s slightly different to what I’ve been making lately and I’m thinking it could make a nice collab with a vocalist I’ve been chatting to. Or I might just delete it and start a new idea, dunno.

I read that you were still doing piano recitals by the time you started getting into electronic music and DJing. What was the main catalyst in terms of artists, tracks,  albums or genres as you switched over?

Yes that’s right. My mum was working as a piano teacher all through my childhood, she was teaching children on our beautiful grand piano, which took up most of the sitting room… I spent all my afternoons on the sofa watching the lessons, and when I was about five, I started becoming somewhat of a disturbance, telling students to ‘go home because it’s my turn to play the piano with mummy now’ hehe. I ended up training at the local conservatoire, doing the full thing, 4 times per week, including recitals and playing with the orchestra and all. I discovered electronic music at around 12 or 13 years old, back then I was listening to early Kenny Dope, Cajmere, Marshal Jefferson, Deee-Lite, Xpress 2, Yello, Steve Pointdexter, Leftfield – Leftism, Laurent Garnier, Robert Hood, Todd Terry’s sax album, Chemical Brothers, Daft Punk – Homework, Pet Shop Boys, Yazoo, Basement Jaxx, a real mix. 

It took me a few years to completely ‘cross over’ but at one point I did. Classical music was a great way of processing pain and challenging emotions, but it was mostly about a heavier spectrum of feelings. Now, I discovered that music was also a way to express joy and passion and excitement, and it was really refreshing and somewhat liberating too.

How does that early musical education influence what you do today and what was the main challenge in going from traditional musical training to electronic music intended for the club? 

That’s always been an interesting subject for me, because I think that in many ways, having had a traditional, classical music background was counter-productive when I first started experimenting with music production. With DJing it was very helpful for sure – all those music theory and music literature lessons I took as a kid have trained my ears really well, and it made mixing intuitive and easy, but producing my own music felt different: it was too ‘sacred’ almost. 

It took me a while to work out that this was a direct repercussion of the strict Eastern-Europe mindset they had at my conservatoire: sheet music only, Chopin, Debussy, Schubert, Beethoven, memorising your chords, learn 26 pages all by heart. The teacher nearly fainted when I asked if I could try some jazz or improvise a little for a change…

And of course, producing music, especially electronic music, takes a lot of improvising and a ton of letting go – of music theory and of all other “rules” too. I do feel like I’ve come out the other end though. I’ve taught myself to give in to “happy accidents” as oftentimes they make the best bits. Plus, life is messy anyway right, so art should only follow suit.

You spent some time working at Black Market too. Besides being surrounded by that kind of music all day, what did you take away from that experience?  

Working in the shop exposed me to musical scenes that were not on my radar at all, like dubstep and drum & bass – two genres the shop played a pivotal part in nurturing – and while they’re still not my go to’s, looking back it was certainly nourishing for my overall musical diet, and it was also a good exercise in keeping an open mind musically. I do think that as a DJ and a selector, it’s important to develop a sonic identity, or a ‘sound’, but it’s also important to remain curious musically and to try and break out of your own echo-chamber.

How has your taste evolved during and after your stint there and are there any records from that time you refuse to ever part with? 

Well I was working there over a long period of time, 7-8 years, so ultimately my taste would have changed a lot during that phase anyway, but one thing I do know is that my understanding, my ability to map the underground dance music landscape, labels, artists, scenes and how they brewed, was nothing comparable before and after. Records from my time at the shop that I will never part with – there’s so many as I’m not parting with any of my records hehe, but here are a few: Mr. G – Space Bassed, Cassius – Youth, Speed, Trouble, Cigarettes (Radio Slave Remix), Rolando – The Afterlife, Theo Parrish – Falling Up (Carl Craig Remix), Alden Tyrell – Touch the Sky (which actually features MD on the vocals), John Tejada – Now We’re Here on Kompakt, Luke Solomon – Space Invaders (Andomat 3000 Remix) on Rekids, Jon Cutler feat. E-man-  It’s Yours and so many others.

Were you DJing before Black Market? 

Not really, not professionally anyway. I was always collecting records and I was really into radio. I was 12 when I decided I was going to be a radio DJ and a music journalist, mainly so that I could get my hands on promo copies, and later on because I wanted to help others discover the music that I felt (and still feel, most of the time) was saving my life. So that’s what I did, while exploring and studying both electronic music and clubbing as cultures. It was very obvious that it was my ‘thing’ in life, but for some reason DJing in clubs was never something I had on my list. 

It was only when offers to DJ came in while I was working at Black Market that I thought, “well maybe I should give it a try, after all, I always go out hoping to hear the records I discovered this week, I always think to myself, mmm I would play this record with that record…”. Literally everyone around me was like – “thank you! Finally!” and I felt really odd and a little silly that it made so much sense to them, but never even crossed my own mind.

What was it about DJing that first intrigued you and what does it mean for you in terms of a creative outlet that you wouldn’t necessarily get from producing and/or playing the piano? 

It’s an obsession. If I’m into a track, I have to hear it again and again, and the only way to get it out of my system is to listen to it on a really big rig, a few times, and dance to it…. Ha. I think it’s the same for most DJs? I can only guess. I’m limited doing that at home (even my daughter tells me off!) so it’s kind of a necessity.

DJing has always been this fleeting thing, subject to contemporary tastes and impulses. What remains sonically consistent in your DJ mixes for you? 

Lately I find that I need equal measures of groove and drive in a track for me to get into it. I can’t have all groove or all drive. A funk injection is good, also a touch of sex appeal. I also like my music raw, or with a raw feeling if you know what I mean. Yes I go through a lottttttt of tracks before I find something I dig.

I believe you have some experience working in a studio too. Is there something to working in that environment that changes the way you approach the creative aspects of making music? 

Yes, I owned a high-end recording studio with my ex-husband for nearly a decade and that’s where I also picked up production. It was stuff of the dreams, a 64-channel Neve desk, one of the largest synth libraries in the world, all of the plugins you can possibly think up, same for sample libraries, and it was so much fun, but it was also really distractive.

These days I’m mostly in the box in my smallish but cuteish home studio, with the odd 909 or SH-101 thrown in, but I get ideas down much quicker this way – and isn’t music mostly about ideas – as is all art? 

I mean, you can’t make a bad idea better just by using the latest plugin, and it’s also not about the number of analogue synths you’ve invested an arm in, or how many channels you crammed your project with… It’s about having a vision and a certain feeling you want to put across, or at least that’s how I see it.

Your next record, ‘Hot Mess’ will be coming out next year and I had the pleasure of hearing the tracks. What were some of the ideas behind that record, and how it came together on Rekids?

Oh you have, I’m glad to hear this. The starting point for ‘Hot Mess’ was the decision not to use any loops, so it’s a 100% programmed drum machine werqqqout. I made the first version of the track on a pretty intense day and I remember thinking, wouldn’t it be great if I somehow managed to capture how I was feeling at that point AND get rid of it at the same time… Very quickly I had this relentless groove going, and I then felt it needed a raw, emotional vocal to give it contrast. It took quite a few versions before it was finished. I was working with the vocalist remotely over a few sessions and playing about with arrangement and mixdowns quite a bit because I’m a bloody annoying perfectionist, but I think it was worth it. When Matt Edwards said he wanted it for Rekids I couldn’t be happier. I’ve been following Rekids since day one and absolutely adore everything they do.

And Mike Dunn is on the remixes and brought some of that Chicago flavour to it.  What’s your relationship with Mike and what were your first impressions of the remix?

I met Mike at a festival in Croatia a couple of years ago. I think by now you’ve probably realised I’m a massive Chicago house fan and of course, I’ve been collecting and playing Mike’s music forever, so to have him remix my music is simply incredible. I love the deep groove spin he put on ‘Hot Mess’, it’s so different to my original and I think that’s exactly what makes a remix interesting.

I guess edits and remixes like this next one for Terry Farley and that infamous Laurient Garnier edit keeps you busy too. How do you usually approach these tracks, especially when you’re handling a legend like Terry Farley’s work?

Edits and remixes are two very different creatures as far as I’m concerned. I’ve done quite a few edits over the past couple of years of ‘classic bangers’ (as I like to call them) that I wanted to play out but felt needed an updated finish, both in terms of sound as well as arrangement. I’d try and pay respect to the original while put a little spin on it, but mostly I’d just aim to make a modern version of the original that sits well within my DJ sets. That’s what I tried to do with Laurent Garnier’s techno anthem ‘Crispy Bacon’; Laurent loved it and played it and so did Carl Cox, Patrick Topping and others. It still amazes me that Laurent then decided to release it on his new album’s limited edition boxset… What an honour. 

When it comes to remixes, I think they could potentially hold more room for creative freedom, so that a release package offers the remix as a different flavour to the original. With those, I would try to find a hook or a few hooks that really clicks with me, sometimes use another distinctive sound off the original, and mostly have my own drums and sounds on top. That’s what I’ve done with my remix of Terry Farley & Wade Teo’s track, which is out this weekend on Rekids. And yes Terry is a total legend and a bit of house dad and mentor to me, which I’m super grateful for.

A lot of energy in that one. I assume playing a track you’ve made out is never too far from your mind when producing music?

Absolutely, I first and foremost produce music I want to be playing in my own sets, it’s how I got started with producing. 

There are a few of your contemporaries that have capitulated to the 3 min track to appease the Spotify algorithm, but both this remix and Hot Mess are well over 5 min. What are your thoughts on dance music producers following that trend and where do you draw the line in your own music in terms of appeasing an audience?

The 3 minute edit is usually an additional version a label would ask the producer to cut, with radio and streaming in mind. It’s something I can understand from a business point of view but having to butcher an arrangement you’ve tweaked again and again for the dancefloor is far from fun… Which is why it’s a relief that labels like Rekids don’t ask for these versions.

You’ve said in the past it’s all about the crowd and the night for you. This will be your second visit to Jaeger. Any idea how this night will go?

I’m looking forward to it so much! I absolutely loved visiting and playing Jaeger last year, I was so impressed with everything about it, from the amazing system to the acoustic treatment of the room to the oak smell to the double-headed mixer to the crowd and of course with Ola and the team. This time I’m back with a ton of new music I’ve made over the past few months, including a couple of brand new tracks I’ve not played out at all yet, so I can’t wait.

And lastly, can you play us out with a song to set the mood? 

Of course, here’s my new remix of Terry Farley & Wade Teo feat. Kameelah Waheed ‘Why We Dance’, which is out on Rekids this weekend:

Hilit Kolet is on Instagram and Spotify

We meet up with Oslo’s newest musical arrival and Badabing artist, Casablanca 303 to talk bout his musical history and more in a Q&A.

Alejandro aka Casablanca 303 is really settling into his life in Norway. “I really like the music and the nature,” says the Colombian artist over a coffee in Gamlebyen. We’re walking distance from his home, where he also has his studio, and he talks in excited terms about the artistic and “bohemian” community that thrives there. 

While little is known of his career outside of Norway to us, Casablanca 303 comes from an established background as a DJ in South America, and has been making waves in Bergen and Oslo since relocating here with his Norwegian partner in 2018. It was in Bergen he first got his “foot in the scene, assisting at concerts, parties and even raves.”  

There he found a welcoming community, none more than with the Mhost likely crew, who operate their labels and event series out of the city. It was with them he would release Perspectives, his first record in Norway, before moving onto Oslo and finding a new home for his music through Vinny Villbass’ Badabing Diskos imprint. 

That EP, Lucid Dream / Estereograma established the name Casablanca 303 in Oslo too and as he prepares for his first live show since the release at Jaeger, we caught up with the artist and DJ to talk about his music history and more. 

What was your involvement in music before moving to Norway? 

Back in the days I was working as a tour manager for a festival in Colombia for some international artists and that gave me some connection to the US. I played some clubs in Miami and also met some producers. But I was in that moment, still defining my sound and what I really liked. 

Miami really? There is an incredible underground electronic music scene that we still revere with the likes of Miami bass. What was your experience of the city?

Miami has a lot of layers. If you land in South Beach, you get the commercial, overcrowded pop scene. You have other things that also happen in the city; underground stuff in terms of art and music Miami has other sounds. Every city has these mass-consumption parts and then other more bohemian / hipster parts that are more open to underground sounds visuals. 

What was Colombia like; is there a healthy underground electronic music scene there?

Yes, Colombia has a lot of everything. You have a lot of layers of music. There are those artists that want to explore more of the caribbean- or roots music of Colombia and transform it into electronic music. There are two artists that I know that have played at Jaeger actually, and they are into that thing. Mítu is one Colombian band and they employ some afro rhythms and vibes with an underground electronic music. I couldn’t call it House music or anything like that. It’s just electronic music and it works. We also have artists like Felipe Gordon, who are killing it internationally. He’s younger than me and it’s so cool to see him blooming. 

How did you make the transition from being a tour manager and working in the scene to making your own music and releasing records?

Much before I was a tour manager and working at festivals, I was Djing and gigging. I was playing all over Colombia and the Caribbean. I also played in nearby countries like Ecuador and Peru.  

Would you say you were a successful DJ back home?

Yeah, back in the days. It’s easy when you have some of your friends own the best clubs. I was playing regularly. I’ve been DJing since 2010 more-or-less.

That must have been quite an adjustment, being at that level and then playing for what I can only assume is much smaller audiences and a smaller scene.

Since moving to Norway, I’ve been playing some. Mhost Likely in Bergen got me some gigs, and here in Oslo I have found some collectives in my niche, mainly House music, Disco and balearic; sub-genres of House- and electronic music. I don’t play as often, but I’ve started  transitioning from Djing to being a live performer. That’s my main goal, I just want to play my own music. 

Do you find it more fun than Djing?

In some way, yes. I really like to play instruments. I am  a former guitar player, and I’ve been playing since I was 11. Even though I don’t play the guitar much in my productions, my music starts from the guitar, and then I translate it to synthesisers and music software. My music is all about improvising, and that’s what my live performance is all about; it’s my music and then I do some extra things on top of it. 

I was going to ask about the guitar, because I noticed the guitar in your music, and I could tell there’s some background in playing in bands from what I heard. Is that the first thing you did in music?

Yes, when I was 17 and 18 I played in a Death Metal band. I’ve never been a radical person when it comes to genres, so when I wasn’t playing in the band I was playing Rock n Roll or Jazz. The same has happened in electronic music. I focus on certain things, but I’m really open to genres. Even pop music, good pop music isn’t bad.

How did you get into electronic music from there? 

I think metal had something to do with that. There were some Scandinavian bands that were transitioning from certain sounds of death Metal into more industrial territory, incorporating beats. I started liking the synthesisers they were playing and realised it was danceable. 

What was your first engagement with pure electronic music, like House or Techno?

I think it was when Groove Armada played in Bogotá. I was at the beginning of university, around 2006 and there were a lot of electronic music artists coming to Bogotá. Another artist that came over was Armin Van Buuren. We have something similar Russefeiring – when you celebrate the end of school – and some promoters take a chance to bring some big artists and promote some parties. 

From DJing did you take some time to develop your own music before you started releasing music?

While I was DJing, I had already  started producing, because I had some experience with the bands I was in. I was also finalising my education, so I didn’t have much time to produce my own music. At first it was all in the computer, but then I started getting some analogue gear, because I wanted to just plug it in and record the synthesiser, like we would with metal. It took me a while, but I would say that I only started recording electronic music, a little before moving to Norway. 

Was Visions your first record?

Yes, but before that I made a cover version of a popular Colombian artist. At that time I was captivated by Deep House and its melancholic sound. 

Yes, it reminds me of something that might have appeared on Life and Death or a Stephen Bodzin record. I noticed however that by the time we get to the Perspectives EP on Mhost likely, there’s a change in your sound. Would you agree?

Yes, definitely. It’s also the transition of me moving to Norway. 

Ok, was it a direct influence of moving here? I thought I might have heard some Scandinavian Disco influences in there, but I didn’t want to be presumptuous. 

Yes, I started to dig more into Disco and House music. I wanted to experiment a little and I was influenced by what was known of Norwegian music in South America which was Space Disco. Even though I don’t do Space Disco, I take some elements from Space Disco, from artists like Prins Thomas, Todd Terje and Bjørn Torske. I really like their eclectic style. 

And this was around the same time you started working more with hardware?

Yes. There is one piece of gear I’ve always wanted, and that’s the Moog Voyager synthesiser. I bought it here  in Norway second hand and that was one of the best days of my life.  The guy that sold it to me lives in Årdal which is close to Sogndalfjøra. It was so cool driving through that nature to go and buy this synthesiser. This synth, whenever I’m blocked creatively, I stop producing and just tweak this thing and suddenly  a sound would emerge. That happened with my last EP (Lucid dream / Estereograma) for Badabing. 

Besides the synth, were there any ideas that laid the foundation for that record?

I’m trying to produce this House music sound, but trying to give it personal space. I don’t consider myself a pioneer,  I just take the things that I like and mix it up and turn it out. 

Are there any artists or influences that you aspire to when you put these things together as you say?

Absolutely. I used to like what KiNK was doing before. He is really good, because he captures a lot of genres that I like, from piano House, jazzy House, a little bit of Techno and breakbeats. It’s insane, he can play whatever he wants. He mixes his knowledge of music to play and perform and that’s something that inspires me. Also my friend Felipe Gordon; he is another person that performs his instruments and that’s what you hear in his music.

 

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Talking about performing your instruments, is that how you usually start your composition process with a piano line?

I usually start with a groove, like everybody else. I start with some percussion and then I take the synthesiser or guitar and provide some bass-lines. I also like to play with samples and manipulate them to create strange melodies. In that EP for Mhost Likely, I re-sampled myself and reversed some loops and created some foundations and textures. 

You’re playing live at Jaeger. Will that be your live debut in Oslo?

I tested it out at Musikkfest this year, for Olle Abstract at Dattera til Hagen. He was the first person I met of the legends here from Oslo. He was so welcoming and he played my tracks in his monthly podcast. That pushed me, and sometimes you need that. 

Part two of our roundtable conversation with the Flux Collective talking about and looking toward the future of the scene ahead of their event this Friday.

In a mere 2 years, Flux Collective has established a profile in Oslo’s club community that rivals even some of the most established Techno concepts around. Going from the forests in summer to the clubs in winter, they’ve garnered a dedicated following in Oslo’s clubbing community, which is starting to reach tendrils in the rest of Europe carried on the wings of the label.

Aside from their own solo efforts as DJs, artists and live performers, each member of the collective takes on specific roles within the organisation, which runs more like an enterprise than a community. It culminates in a multi-layered approach that covers each aspect of club culture and is currently looking towards new avenues that will take them into more abstract regions. 

Last week, we talked to them about their origins, their thoughts on the Techno scene and more. In part 2 of our extensive Q&A we cover the future possibilities of the collective; their move from Oslo’s forests to the clubs; and how a pandemic opened up the floodgates for this new scene.  They’ll be releasing Metamorphosis n this week to celebrate 2 years of Flux, with a dedicated event in our basement to mark the occasion. 

Mischa Mathys: Andrea, you mentioned something earlier about the explosion of Techno. That concurs because what people were calling Techno here was essentially Tech House in my opinion and then suddenly there was this huge demand. Before that there was maybe Void and a few very niche DIY concepts doing this kind of sound, but then suddenly exploded. What do you guys think was the catalyst for that in Norway?

Andrea (Anémi): I just think that Norway has been hanging behind. Techno was a new thing for many and people were excited about it because the scene has been made mainly around minimal, or Tech House. The new kind of sounds that arose really had younger people talking about it. 

During the pandemic everybody was feeling suppressed. A lot of young people, especially the people who hadn’t been able to go out in the clubs, even though they had come of age, had been angry and disconnected. I feel that’s why Techno flourished, because it’s these people playing underground music and making home raves or home parties.

Henrik (Skodde): Because so many new people were discovering underground music and just calling it Techno. I was playing every favourite I had as a child. So we can play Techno, Hard Trance, and Trance. Nobody cares but everybody cares, because people are very accepting. Not right now, but at the beginning.

Andreas (Skodde): One thing that’s really cool about the Oslo Techno scene right now – and we have a lot of communication from outside of Norway–  the scene is different because if you host a party in Berlin, it’s only one sound the whole night. In Oslo you can get Breakbeat, hard Techno, Psytrance, Ghettotech; you can get everything in one night. The Oslo scene is completely different from anywhere else in the world right now, because of the forest raves. A  lot of the DJ’s don’t even know about these big artists, they just know what’s going on in Oslo.

David (Bjerregaard): I have an idea and it has to do with politics. If we look at the rest of Europe, especially central Europe, Norway is very conservative when it comes to partying. We have a lot of rules and we have very strict rules regarding drugs as well. For a long time Techno and the whole scene was frowned upon by clubs because they didn’t really dare host these kinds of parties; because they would get a lot of pressure from authorities. 

Mischa: Yes I remember a stint here at Jaeger where we couldn’t even promote a night as a Techno night. 

David: But I’d say that in the last five to ten years the cops are also much more lenient. It’s more liberalised with taks of legalisation and so on. So that combined with the covid shutdown, reset the attitude to a lot of people who run the clubs. They saw there’s a huge demand for this kind of music, so it became a renaissance for this music.

Gaute (Naboklage): But why is there such a demand for this music? 

David: Well, there was always a demand. It was gate kept and then it was shut down for a year and a half. And then after that, they were like, “okay, let’s give it a shot” because they kind of forgot how it was. I had never been to a Techno party in Oslo before covid. I’m sure they existed but to me it was completely unknown.

Gaute: People keep telling me that we had parties before. I never saw it. People would say, don’t think you’re doing anything new. 

Mischa: People in your age group?

Gaute: No older people and they’re like, “oh you think you guys are doing something new we had parties before.” You probably did, but not at the same scale. They didn’t have 500 people. 

Skodde – the young people, who were not used to clubs, were so free at the raves and suddenly they came into the club and if you were dancing too hard or had your shirt off someone would tell you, you can’t do that.

Andreas: Henrik and I have been in the Techno scene for 10 years. We were in a friend group where everyone listened to Techno before covid. We went to Berlin, we went to Amsterdam, we did all these things because there was nothing happening here…  And when there was nothing else happening, the forest raves happened. The people came to the forest and did the thing. There’s a reason why people like Techno and listen to it and when you go to a Techno party a certain amount of time because that’s the only place you can meet friends, of course you’re going to enjoy it. 

Gaute: A lot of people who hadn’t gone to Techno things before, went to it and they were exposed to something new. For Norwegian people if there’s something that’s a little bit different their default thing is just to be like, “no, this is weird.” But because of this lockdown, people allowed themselves to be more open-minded and then at some point it became trendy.

Henrik: Because the raves were the only opportunity to go to a party, people actually got to experience or rave music, in the way it’s supposed to be listened to, not through a set of headphones.

Gaute: At the same time if a 20 something kid and his friend just throws a party, they really can play whatever they want, but if you play a DJ gig at a club, there’s a lot more expectation.  There’s this very rigid structure for what you do and what you play in this time slot and if you fuck up, there are no more club gigs. 

So you have this incentive to conform to whatever they’re already doing at a club. Whereas if you’re just throwing a party with a friend for fun during covid, then you’re like “ok fuck it, let’s just play whatever.” You can play for as long as you want, and you can do whatever you want. This allows people to experiment and do a lot of fun stuff that never would have happened in a club and this kind of opened Pandora’s box.

Everybody groans in agreement. 

Mischa: Going from the raves to the clubs as a concept, what have been some of the biggest challenges?

Gaute: The crowd is really different.

Andreas:  It’s really the bouncers.

Gaute: Also the opening times. It’s so hard with the people arriving at the club, a bit before 1am and then they leave around 2am. Maybe they stay until three. You have two and a half hours, whereas for a rave you have eight hours of curated music. 

Andreas: Also our crowd doesn’t like clubs actually. That’s the hardest part because the young people, who were not used to clubs, were so free at the raves and suddenly they came into the club and if you were dancing too hard or had your shirt off someone would tell you, you can’t do that.

Mischa: So getting your people to the club is not going to be easy, right, so, how do you motivate them? 

Gaute: There are limits to what we can do, but we do what we can with what we have. Something I’m really upset about is that Norwegian music events are all funded through alcohol sales. If your music isn’t inclined to sell alcohol then it’s a lot more difficult to do events at nightclubs.

Andreas: That’s actually why we’ve moved more and more towards Jaeger and ditched a lot of the other clubs. I really like the vision of Ola because he’s really into the music. 

Mischa: You guys are still doing the raves on top of this, so why do the clubs at all. 

Gaute: The logistics are extreme; It’s like doing a 30 hour shift.

David: It’s weather dependent… Because you can’t do it in winter. And it becomes a little watered down if you do it every two weeks in the summer. There’s no way we’re able to do it anyway. 

Gaute: … and there’s the police and there’s a bunch of idiots doing drugs. If you have 150 people, close people that you know can behave, then it’s fine. But once it’s 500 to 1000 people, then the odds of one person doing something stupid is quite high. It’s really frustrating because if we were allowed to set up the infrastructure to do it in a responsible way, then we would. We have to keep everything super low key. If we ideally could communicate with the police and maybe an ambulance or something, but you can’t do that because then they’ll just shut you down. 

Andreas: We also want to do things as legal as possible. 

Gaute: Because we want to run a label and we want to live off of music and then you can’t just do illegal shit.

Mischa: Is that something that could still be realistically achieved in the current music climate, living off music, especially as a collective?

Andrea: I think it has to be a combination of different things. We have some interesting ideas on how we want to go forward with Flux. The label has been doing well but it will take some years to get it all around.

David: And the parties fund the label basically. 

Gaute: We do a lot of stuff for free if not everything. 

Andreas: We only got 3000 NOK each this year. You can’t bet everything on one horse. You need to do several things and that was our vision from the start.  

David: We basically don’t take out any fees from our own parties and we spend everything to either make better parties or to book artists, to build our network of connections. For instance, we took some of the people that we had here (Jaeger) this summer, to the forests. Then the rest goes into the label. 

Mischa: So, you are trying to start a community outside Norway as well?

Gaute: We want to export the Oslo scene to the world. 

Andrea: And it’s happened naturally because of the label; the people whose music we released, are the people we’ve been talking to and invited to our parties. 

Gaute: They’ve played our stuff at the famous German club. 

Mischa: How do you find out the artists that land on the label, especially outside of the collective. 

Andrea: You just have to be a big nerd. I just have a radar and pick up on what’s around. 

Mischa: Do you specifically look for anything in terms of a sound, and do they have to represent something like a Flux sound for you?

Andrea: I have some plans for the next few releases. We actually have been releasing quite a lot for just being able for two years and we have released a lot of Oslo-based artists, because we wanted to support local artists. From that our sound has just been growing, but we are going to have fewer releases and more curated releases. 

So we are putting more effort in the production. At the start, it was more like, “oh, I like you, you should release on our label.” Haha. This was so cool though and I am happy for all the releases we have had with all these amazing people. We have evolved a lot since then though and I am excited to work on new curated releases. We have a lot of attention in Europe actually and all around the world, which is really cool, being a small label.

Anemi – We want to take people through a journey, also on a deeper level.

Mischa: Is there a confluence between the artists on the labels and the ones you book for the events? 

Andrea: Hmm, we have booked artists we wanted to collab with and artists who already have released music with us, but it doesn’t always have to be an agenda with them. It’s just that we dig their music and their persona somehow. 

And originally we were going to do a lot more art, but it’s coming next year. We’ll be doing more events focused on visual- and conceptual art. 

Andreas: We want to work with modern art and experimental visual exhibitions with light and sound.

Gaute: An audio visual space for events, where it’s not just blasting music with a strobe, but more like an installation; a whole production. 

Andrea: We want to take people through a journey, also on a deeper level.

Henrik: This is really important to do here in Oslo, because of the short opening hours clubs and we’d like to not just play the night shift every week but build an experience.

Andrea: We’ve just been doing so much, playing every weekend and we have just been growing steadily towards the thing we actually want to do; which is the combination of a lot of things. 

Mischa: Do you think that after the pandemic and after you set your own standard in the scene that there’s a lot more people coming up, copying your formula

Andreas: Yes. I think it’s a compliment 

Gaute: I want people to come to  our parties and be like, “fuck, I could do this better” and then I want  to go to their event and be like “shit, this is better, we have to be better”. If they play the exact same songs and do the exact same thing, that’s pretty lame, but if they do something different but better then that’s amazing. We should inspire each other to improve our own unique things.

Andreas: Because we have the connections with the clubs and the bookings, we have actually helped a lot of the competition getting into the clubs.

Andrea: Flux has always Invited a newcomers and up and coming artists and will continue to.

Henrik: I do feel there are more different collectives and more concepts under the umbrella of Techno music now than there used to be for House music, just three or four years ago. 

Andreas: The scene supports each other much more. Even people I thought didn’t like us, when I get to talk to them, they do and vice versa. The Techno scene in Oslo is really kind of nice to each other and supportive.

In part 1 of a 2 part Q&A session we talk to Flux Collective about Techno’s current trajectory, the creation of the collective and how they arrived at Techno, individually.

It feels like we’re teetering on the precipice of something in Techno. Social media is a constant stream of DJs playing to crowds of thousands when it’s not showing queues outside of some of the world’s leading techno clubs.There are tutorials on YouTube about dressing appropriately for club nights and even mainstream TV shows are making references to Berghain (or “Ber-gain”). 

It’s prevalent, and its popularity has surpassed nearly every other electronic dance music category, but as it continues to reach tendrils into popular-culture, it’s diminishing its underground affiliations in the process. 

As something grown from the subterranean caverns of disused power plants and dystopian motor cities, where musical laymen re-appropriated machines to create futuristic noise, it was always supposed to be a counter culture. Its continued acquisition into mainstream culture however has seen the tawdry side of music business and popular culture eradicating much of those original values and DIY ideologies of the genre. What we’re seeing now is similar to what happened at the turn of the century for Techno, when big rooms and festival stages saw it divided.

Yet again, factions are starting to emerge with one group exploiting its current popularity for their own success while another has turned on its heels, taking the music back to the underground. The Flux Collective consider themselves part of this latter group. 

A collective of producers, artists and DJs, the Flux Collective host events, they release records and they facilitate a community for Techno enthusiasts in Oslo, even when there are no places to host them. Their raves in and around the city’s forests have left their mark on the next generation and alongside the likes of Ute Klubb and Monument they have helped establish the next era for Oslo’s Techno scene. Between the events, their label and the artists involved, their efforts have made a formidable impression in the 2 years they have been around and they keep pushing the boundaries of the music and the scene.  

Together, Andrea, Andreas, Henrik, David and Gaute have been a force in Oslo’s underground since their inception and in a short time they’ve managed to carve out a significant portion of the clubbing community for themselves. Their label continues to go from strength to strength and the latest compilation, Metamorphoses marking their 2 year anniversary will only go to cement their staying power. They are a hard group to pin down as individuals with each bringing their own set of skills and personality traits with them, but as a group they are cohesive (even if they might not always agree with each other.) 

As they arrive at Jaeger to celebrate their birthday next week, we sat down with all five of them to talk about their history, their thoughts on music and the future of Techno. Our conversation was broad and extensive, so we decided to break it up into two parts. Here follows part 1. 

Mischa Mathys: Where do you guys find yourself at the moment with a version of Techno that is going harder faster? 

Henrik Ottersbo (Skodde): From my point of view, I see a lot of similarities to what happened exactly 20 years ago. We had Techno and Trance in the late 90s here in Oslo, and some were moving towards a more commercial; doing the Tiesto thing while others kept to the original progressive Trance and Techno vibes from Tresor. And I feel like we are on the same path right now. 

Mischa: You think it’s going to move underground again?

Andreas Ulstein Granum (Skodde): Yes! 

Henrik: Yeah, I feel our sound is going to be more underground, with the other people going in a more commercial direction. 

Andreas: Hard Techno right now is basically EDM.

Gaute Holen (Naboklage): The biggest Techno DJs, their instagram is just super professional videos of festival drops. It’s so far removed from what we’re doing. 

Andreas: It’s just the same rave stab in every song. (Mimics the sound) It’s the same as EDM basically just at 150 beats per minute. 

Gaute: I think we’re trying to experiment and do different things. As the hard Techno is a lot more popular, I feel like we are bored of hearing everyone play the same everywhere. So we’re just trying to keep it interesting for ourselves by experimenting. Right now it’s more glitchy and weird.

Henrik: …and more groovy…

Andreas: … and not that hard, with more baselines.

Gaute: There’s also Hardgroove, that’s really popular. 

Mischa: Yes that seemed to come out of nowhere and it’s based around the Ben Sims label, but isn’t quite that either.

Gaute: Yeah, exactly, but now it’s taking off and happening in parallel to the Hard Techno thing but it’s fun.

Andreas: She (Andrea) was the first to play Hardgroove in Oslo after covid, right when clubs opened… and now she doesn’t.  

Andrea Emilie Eriksen (Anémi): Haha, yes. I had a phase where I played Hardgroove and other genres as well. I have evolved my sound pretty heavily since I started playing out. It’s a continuous journey where I feel I am finding myself more and more and that reflects on the music I play and vibe with at that moment. Same with Flux. We are not following any rules.

Mischa: We’ve been using the term Techno, but in the context of Flux, it seems like it’s more of an umbrella term, for what is essentially machine music made for dancing. And anything from Breaks to Ambient can fall under that umbrella for you.

Andreas: Other people are labelling us as Techno, but we’re always trying to say we’re an electronic music record company. If something is in a state of Flux, it is constantly changing. That’s our core – We always want to develop and not be labelled as any one thing. 

Mischa: So put a name to it.

Andreas: Electronic underground music. 

Andrea: Experimental electronic underground music, maybe.

Mischa: And if you were to describe the sound of this to a layman?

Henrik: Weird, groovy, witchy, experimental, industrial.

David Bjerregaard Madsen: Not that industrial. 

Everyone shouts out in protest.

Andrea – We are open for new artists and new sounds and you don’t have to be Techno, just be something that is unique or something that is really good. 

Andreas: You (Henrik) think industrial is the thing that you think of Tresor in the 90s, but industrial now is just hard Techno.  

Henrik: Yeah, thank you for the correction, I’m an old man in an old man’s body. (laughs) But yeah, also some psychedelic can fit in there.

David: Psychedelic soundscapes with Techno drops. 

Andreas: I think some commonality in where we’re heading now,  is textures and layering. Almost like a cinematic approach to producing music. 

Andrea: We are open for new artists and new sounds and you don’t have to be Techno, just be something that is unique or something that is really good. 

Gaute: And it shouldn’t be completely new, but something a little bit different from what you heard before. It’s better that it’s different and bad than it being really good, but exactly the same….

Andrea: …boring.

Andreas: For the audience too, it’s boring to just follow trends, and do the same as anyone else. In our production right now, Henrik and I (Skodde) are really into the groovy stuff but we’re still into the raw Techno that we came from. It’s much cooler to sound like nothing you heard before then like just ripping off everyone else. 

Mischa: Henrik, you were talking about being around for that period in the early 2000’s when Techno turned to the underground again, and I believe Andreas called you a boomer at some point. Are you the elder statesman of the group?

Henrik: We’re the same age. I grew up with a mother and father listening to Trance music. And also a friend of mine introduced me to a record called ravermeister. It’s a compilation with Trance, Trance-Techno, Hard Trance, everything from 1995. When we started listening to this record, we were four years old so by the time I was seven I wanted to become a DJ. 

I started to produce music before DJing, because Djing at that time was a lot more difficult to get into. It was all vinyl, and giving two record players and a mixer to a seven year old was too expensive. 

Mischa: Is that the case for all of you, did you all get stuck into this free from a young age?

David: For me at least. I’ve always listened to electronic music, maybe not as long as Henrik, but since my mid teens. But DJing, I only got into it four years ago, because I thought it looked cool…

Everybody laughs

… and then I just bought some equipment. I actually enjoyed it more than I enjoyed looking cool. I also had never been to any raves. Right after getting into this, I organised raves with my friend. This was right when covid happened and as it happened, we were like, “oh well, everything is closed, so we might as well put a rave together.” I did that for two years and then I got in touch with Andreas, who I knew from high school.

Andreas: We’ve known each other since 2008 or something. He was my friend’s little brother’s friend. He was just a guy I picked on.

Mischa: Andreas, you were doing raves by the time David reached out to you?

Andreas: I was doing a lot of music stuff. I organised Hip Hop parties, House parties, a lot of stuff. I started off with black metal actually. I really really like metal, that’s the thing I listen to the most.

Mischa: Andrea how did you get involved with Flux, amongst all this testosterone?

Andrea:  Haha. I try to break it up with some feminine energies. We (Andreas) met here (Jaeger) actually, seven years ago, on the dance floor. 

Andreas had already played out for a while and was a bedroom producer then. He teached me how to mix and that just became our hobby at home.To Mix and listen to music. We started Flux Collective in the pandemic and we did some raves together the summer of 2021 which kind of just escalated. We also did one with David who also was doing his own raves. Same with Gaute; everybody was just doing the thing out in the forest. We had no plan with ending up here you know, it just happened as we went on doing the stuff we loved and just followed our hearts. Flux first started out as a rave-series, then a label and club-series shortly after closer to the fall/winter of 2021.

Mischa: So the idea for the label has been there from the beginning?

Andrea: Our first release was 2 or 3 months after we started out. It was Skodde’s first release. 

Mischa: What were you doing before Flux, Henrik?

Henrik: I used to play at Villa, as Good Mood with a friend of mine. We worked together for five years and at some point I wanted to do more Techno and he wanted to do more House.

Naboklage – And then all the people who were organising raves met by showing up to each other’s things. 

Mischa: Gaute that sounds similar to your story. You were in Toalettkollektivet (which had a residency at Jaeger), which was doing House music originally, and then both you and Leo (foufou malade) moved over to the darkside. 

Gaute: Yes, we had a bunch of events here. At some point I said; ”right now, I don’t listen to any House music, I don’t want to play house music anymore.”  And then Leo and I started something called Tempo instead, which was the polar opposite of what Toalettkollektivet was; No rules, do whatever you want, just like back in the old days before they invented all these sub genres and it was like; “let’s go to a rave and there will be music.”

Mischa: This was before Flux?

Gaute: Yes, and originally the first Tempo event was supposed to happen before Flux was a thing, but ended up happening around the same time as when I released a record with Flux due to restrictions coming back. The second Flux release was my release. I joined as an artist, but I helped out with a bunch of stuff too.

Andrea: We were in it together from the start, actually. Attending all of the events together, hanging out. 

Mischa: So was the idea behind Flux to merge all these satellite things you were doing separately?

Gaute: Exactly. 

David: It was Andreas who picked his favourites. 

Gaute: …Stole people from the other crews.

David: It was Andrea who had the idea though. It was August or September 2021, that’s when she made the instagram page. I didn’t really understand what it was all about and then a few months later I got it when I joined officially. 

Andrea: It was just a natural progression, all of us working together. It was just meant to be, you know. (laughs)

Andreas: The thing is Andrea has the ideas and I’m a bit of a doer; I like to get shit done. So when she tells me she wants to do something, I would have already called everyone I know, we’re starting tomorrow and she’s like; “that wasn’t what I said.”

Andrea: Things happened quite fast and the culture was really booming. After the pandemic it was sensational, freeing and magical to hang out in the woods and dance and listen to music. 

Mischa: Stepping into forests as the pandemic shut everything down, was there some competition out there?

Andreas: We actually didn’t know the competition until after covid. 

David: The competition is much bigger now than during the pandemic. This summer has been really heavy and it’s been hard to get people to pull up to your rave because during the pandemic, you go to one or two, if you get to know about them or you don’t go to any at all. Now it’s fucking everywhere.

Gaute: People didn’t really care about who was playing or who was throwing the party. And then all the people who were organising raves met by showing up to each other’s things. 

Mischa: I guess you could avoid stepping on each other’s toes when you know each other. 

Gaute: Exactly. That’s something I feel we’ve been trying to do. For example; Earlier today, some guy messaged me to ask if I was going to do a rave next weekend. We try to coordinate.

Andreas: The communication is really good and we’re like, everyone knows each other. 

Gaute: We help each other, we rent out shit to each other. We lend stuff. It’s super nice. 

Ivaylo talks openly about the end of his personal relationship and how Lab Cleaning Jams rose from those ashes as the DJ, producer and label manager embarked on this new phase of his life.

It all came crashing down for Ivaylo Kolev one day in 2023. As  he sat in his car, faced with yet another unsurmountable responsibility on the back of a year of unrelenting upheaval and turmoil, the dam finally burst. The sleepless nights and unceasing worry had nowhere else to go, and manifested in the only way possible as tears welled in his eyes. After his partner and mother to his three children abruptly left him last year, he’s been caring for his three children alone while facing a tumultuous legal battle with his ex-partner, the kind you only see in hallmark movies. 

In the past, Ivaylo could channel those emotions and anguish into music, but this creative outlet had laid dormant during the last year as all his energies focussed on the life-changing situation at hand. “I wasn’t able to make music, mentally,” says the Bulgarian DJ from his home in Asker, Oslo. Sitting in his light and airy dining room, things aren’t exactly looking up yet, but Ivaylo’s disposition is surprisingly upbeat. He has always been nothing but candid face to face, and that stoic personality forged behind an iron curtain and cultivated in the cultural inclusivity of a dance floor, has been nothing but amicable.    

“I still see the connection; That’s what Lab Cleaning Jams is all about, it’s just jams, just music.” 

When it comes to music Ivaylo’s dance card has never been anything but full.  He is a familiar face on Oslo’s DJ circuit, playing almost every weekend and the man behind the Jaeger Mix concept amongst others. He is also Jaeger’s logistics man and the face of the club when it comes to our visiting DJ guests. And when he’s not doing those things, his the label manager for Prins Thomas’ Full Pupp. You might also remember him from his label Bogota records. 

Downstairs in his basement studio in Asker, a few physical copies of the last Bogota release line the shelves. “I give them to friends,” says Ivaylo when I refer to the remnants of the label he has declared defunct. Will he ever revisit that label I ask, knowingly. “No, That boat has sailed;” comes an immediate reply. “Everything is personal for me, how can you work with art and not be personal?” 

Bogota Records is particularly personal and had a specific connection to his ex-partner and as the relationship broke down, he abandoned the project. It’s taken him the better part of the year to come to terms with the end of that era and forge ahead with the next phase of his life, but whatever he is going to do, it won’t include Bogota records. That’s why I’m here, talking to him in the basement studio. He is on the verge of ushering a new epoch in his music and it will be called Lab Cleaning Jams. Named after his monthly mix series, the concept has now turned label and by the time you read this he would have already released the inaugural record in the form of a 3-track digital release, pragmatically titled Jam 1-3. 

Down in his basement studio he plays me a few snippets from this and a few of the future releases. Boblebad has the honour of the next release after Ivaylo and the first track from them he plays is instantly recognisable as Boblebad’s distinctive disco-infused jacuzzi Jazz.  There’s some similarities to Ivaylo’s own productions but by the time he gets to Boblebad’s second contribution; an erratic jittering piece that looks towards some acoustic IDM interpretation, the connection is severed. The contrast is obvious, but Ivaylo disagrees. “I still see the connection; That’s what Lab Cleaning Jams is all about, it’s just jams, just music.” 

Ivaylo skips far ahead into some unfinished pieces from his own catalogue. Immediately there’s a correlation between these pieces and the first two tracks he just put out via Lab Cleaning Jams.They’re all different to anything that has come hitherto from Ivaylo. In the case of the Jam sessions, Ivaylo forgoes the dancefloor-friendly sequenced sounds for some acoustic elements. A cymbal splashes, a double bass rumbles, keys jingle and even a saxophone tweets sweetly in tonally adrift Jazz improvisations. 

For now, most of these tracks are still ”just edits” and while some might take a day to finish others “might be two weeks” away from completion. In one of the most recent creations a reggae vocal sample suddenly appears through a din of upbeat piano and it’s completely unexpected. Where did that sample come from? “I don’t know,” replies Ivaylo. “I have so many samples and I don’t know where they come from.” He’s been amassing a sample library of note since he started making music in 1996 and it can go from his earliest musical indulgences behind a drum kit in various Jazz-fusion bands between Bulgaria and Norway to a year’s worth of sessions recorded in a bachelor-pad-turned-studio back in the early 2000’s. “I literally have everything,” he says through a grin. “The only thing I need to play is melodies.”

After digitising everything back in the day, he only needs to dip into this sample library he’s amassed. Most of the time he’ll only add a bass line or melody and while this is something that has been consistent in his creative process for as long as we’ve known him, there is a subtle difference in the type of samples he’s started using in this new era for his work. 

There’s an organic touch which becomes immediately evident when you listen to Ivaylo’s first outing, Jam 1. The beat skips between conga and hi-hat, while a sine wave punches a hole in the first step of every bar as a kick drum. When a Rhodes piano joins the melée in staccato stabs we’re in Funk and Soul territory and any reference to Ivaylo’s more functional intuitions are laid to rest. “I want to work with musicians, I want to work with real music,” he explains of the ideas behind the new tracks. 

“If you listen to the music from before it’s darker – Now I feel free. ” 

After a long period of being in “a dark place” with the sudden change in his life, he felt that he needed “to listen to live piano and live bass”. It was like starting from scratch, with a new point of focus, coming together around this new label and nudging Ivaylo’s music into a different direction. These new pieces are lighter than anything that came before them, with a spring in the step of the rhythm and a buoyancy in the melodies. He realises that his situation during the period leading up to the eventual turmoil  “kept me in a dark place. I had to run as fast as I could to the light and my light is the music. If you listen to the music from before it’s darker – Now I feel free. ” 

I sense there might be another reason that this music has shifted so dramatically from the kind of tunnel vision-functional demand of club music. As somebody that works behind the scenes in the club scene in Oslo, Ivaylo sees all sides of the DJ booth and what he’s seen in club music over the course of the last year has only dissuaded him from those dance floor inclinations. 

“When it comes to club music, I’m bored. I’m bored of the music because it’s the same, I’m bored with people that make something different just to be different, but end up sounding the same as all the other ‘different’ things.” Ivaylo misses the “art” of making music in a period where everything is dictated by industry and business. “It’s obviously not because of the music, it’s because of the mechanism behind everything” and when everything is so “artificial”  Ivaylo finds it necessary to adopt a more “organic” approach in the music he is making now. 

It’s something that has spilled over into his DJ sets too. “I’ve come to realise I’m not a good DJ…” he says pausing for me to make the obvious argument before he continues; “when I have to play a 2 hour set. You have to create your vibe, and that takes time.” There aren’t many opportunities to do this today especially amongst younger audiences that crave the immediate and perfunctory right from the start and lineups feature a host of DJs packed into a 4 hour lineup in Oslo. Ivaylo “worried about the younger generation,” particularly at a time when “everything is divided” as it is, but he has enough skin in the game and enough years in the DJ booth to bide his time and work through it.

Between the changes in the industry and the changes happening in his personal life, Ivaylo found a life-line in this new label. Where most in his situation, specifically those that work in the club music atmosphere, could have easily sunk deeper into the vices that inherently follow club culture, Ivaylo did the opposite. He’s stopped drinking and smoking after 30 years and spends most of his free time making his own yoghurt and jams while tending to the sprawling garden we look over from his dining room window. 

I’d like to think this is reflected in the new music he is bringing out and he thinks that’s because whatever he does in music and his label he needs to stay “loyal to my personality.” He thinks it’s just about being “honest with the music” and that has afforded him some aspect of freedom a year later.  If Ivaylo’s honesty in music is anything like the candid personality sitting behind the artist, it will certainly shine through Lab Cleaning Jams and the music he is making now. 

Funk for Forest do everything for the groove. Born from the lineage of Funk that transcends their collective years at times they channel a music legacy directly to the dance floor today.  The fleeting lineup, which can grow to ten people, comes from a long line of Norwegian live acts who fuse Funk, Soul, Disco and more obscure genres into accessible dance floor cuts. From the upbeat Frank Znort to the futuristic fusion of Flammer Dance Band, Funk for Forest joins an impressive lineage of live dance bands in Oslo’s history.  

Cultivating a sound that skirts the fringes of black American music, but updated and honed to accommodate a dance floor where the DJ reigns supreme, Funk for Forest brings a new dimension to timeless- and future classics. Their references are eclectic and engaging as they create live edits from familiar pieces, channeled through their distinctive musical proclivities. 

Funk for Forest are unique today as they’ve approached their craft solely from the stage. At a time when  bands arrive fully formed with at least one record and a label deal, Funk for Forest have opted for the more traditional route as a live band first. Rumors are abound of some recorded material on its way, and Funk For Forest will undoubtedly soon hit their stride in the recorded format too, but for now they are a live band in every sense of the word. 

We caught up with the band via email to talk about this upcoming performance at LYD this Saturday, some influences and we got to know a little more about the emerging band. 

Hey guys. Can we start with a roll-call; Who’s in the band and what do they play?

The ensemble changes slightly from gig to gig, but for the upcoming show at jaeger the band consists of Elias Løstegaard on bass, Elias Tafjord on drums, Jesper Fosdahl on guitar, Viktor Ognøy on percussion, Thomas Antonio Debelian on percussion as well, William Foreman on keys, Eira Elise Øverås on trumpet, Mikkel Brekke on trombone and Jeanette Offerdal on saxophone. 

What brought you all together and what was the music that you initially all bonded over?

The band was started by Jesper and Elias with a wish to have an arena where we could play the music we loved the most, that being funk, afro-funk, disco, club music and all other iterations of the funk-genre. We just reached out to the best people around, and people we knew got a kick out of the same music as us. Turns out crowds also love groovy music, who would have known. 

The Funk element in your name is pretty self-explanatory, but how does the forest factor into it?

The name is a slightly corny pun playing on the environmental activist group Fuck for Forest who most memorably, in lack of a better term, fucked on stage at Quartfestivalen 2004. Initially the name was just for fun, but we also try to be a band with a focus on sustainability. Not flying to gigs, putting some of our payments from gigs in environmental funds, buying second-hand stage outfits and other things like that. A good example is that we are making some merch for our Halloween gig at Jaeger, the t-shirts are made here in Oslo and the profit from the merch-sale goes to Regnskodsfondet. 

It’s unusual lately to find a live band that is not already fully formed with records and a label behind them. Why have you opted for the alternative route?

Funk for Forest was always designed to be a live experience, so it made sense to just start playing and having fun with the project. Our hope is that crowds recognize how fun the show is, so we opted for a sort of word-of-mouth approach. It just felt the most natural to us, and it takes away the pressure so we can have full creative control. 

I hear a lot of familiar pieces, reworked, but you’re not exactly a cover-band either. How would you describe your live show for the uninitiated?

We take a lot of inspiration from DJs and the club culture, so that’s what we try to be; a live, 8-piece band that acts as a DJ playing you the grooviest edits of the music we love. Some of the tracks we play are truer to the originals, while others are more complete rearrangements. We always try to create the “Funk For Forest”-edit, it’s more fun for everyone that way. A big focus has been on making the set flow together, with seamless transitions between the tracks so that the party never stops. We also try to command less attention than your usual band would, so that the crowd can focus on each other and enjoy the grooves. We want to see you dance.  

What do you look for in the songs or the elements that you incorporate in your live show?

If we think people would dance to it, That’s always the main priority. We also look for material we can make our own, or we think would work well with the ensemble we’re rocking at the time. And it always has to be groovy.

You guys play a lot of music that’s older than most of you. What is your relationship with this music and how is it generally passed down to you all?

Everyone in the band has some level of music-education, so a lot of it has been introduced to us from fellow musicians and the environments we were taught in. We also love the music we play, and there has been a lot of digging through catalogs trying to find the perfect tracks. Our love for funk has been expanded a lot through working with Funk For Forest. 

Besides the obvious Funk influences like George Clinton, what are some of the less obvious touchstones for Funk for Forest?

As mentioned earlier, we take a lot of inspiration from house and disco. Todd Terje and Dimitri From Paris are huge inspiration to us in that area. We also love older funk ensembles like Average White Band and disco acts such as Roberta Kelly, as well as more modern funk-and-disco-harbingers like Orgeone, Cory Wong, Nu Gunea and so on. Also the Norwegian funk scene is super cool, we love artists such as Flammer Dance Band, Hubbabubbaklubb and Sex Judas. Many mentioned, many forgotten, but there you have some obvious touchstones!

With 8 people in the band, I assume many of not all of you are also engaged in other projects. What does Funk for Forest represent in terms of music that you don’t necessarily get to do anywhere else?

It’s not that often you get to play music written by somebody else, in your own creative package. It’s an arena where we can play fun music, the music we love the most, where we can really let go. We love to dance, and to be able to play music for people with the sole intention of making them move is something we don’t get to do often!

Who are some of the live bands that have inspired your own performances?

All of the bands and artists named above are brilliant, but a new discovery for us is the French artist/producer Dabuell, the live concert with his band from Paris that is up on Youtube is a gem and has been a source of inspiration and joy ever since we discovered it. Stuzzi from Sweden is a great live-act as well and I think an honorable mention is the Sunday-staple Frank Znort at Blå; always good vibes and great energy.

There’s talk of some original music coming. What can the listener expect that would be a bit different from the stuff you’re doing now?

We don’t know how much we want to give away, but yeah we are making some music and when the time comes we are looking forward to sharing it with everyone. It has to be groovy, that is the most important thing for us, and I know it is for our crowd as well. 

Will any of it be making an appearance during the show at Jaeger?

Probably not. We want to make sure it’s done right by the high Funk For Forest standards of excellence before we premier anything. There is still some time before the gig so we will see, it is going to be a great party anyway, and we can’t wait to dance with you all!

Lastly, please play us out with a song.

In the spirit of the funk and the disco, it has to be: Parribean Disco – Cotonete / Dimitri From Paris.

We dig through the legacy of one of Detroit’s finest, Octave One as they make their way to Jaeger’s basement for another round of their awe-inspiring live show.

In Detroit, “everything was around us” according to Octave One. The brothers Burden are an indelible addition to the early history of Techno and one of Detroit’s finest exports. Born into the environment that birthed everything from Motown to the Model T automobile, the Burden brothers tap into a vast and extensive history of music and machines that all feed their singular creative output as Octave One. While Lenny and Lawrence are the central figures as the performers of the group, most of the brothers have a hand in some production aspects and running their label 430 West.

Their success is a stark contrast to circumstances into which they were born at a time when Detroit was going through one of its many downturns. “When the car industry declined, it caused a lot of problems in the city,” Lenny and Lawrence told Bridges for Music. People “went from making a lot of money to none” and “had to leave to survive.” That was happening as they grew up and for those that didn’t have the resources to leave there weren’t many options, especially for kids coming of age. For most being born in that environment in the USA there were two options, the military or prison, and for a few lucky ones there was also, sports or music. For the Burden brothers it was the latter and things got noisy real quick… 

“Having all of us in the house playing music could be kinda chaotic at times,” they reminisced in a Musicradar article. Their mum was nothing but supportive, because if it was noisy, she could be content with the knowledge her children were safe. It was ”a form of discipline because she could count on knowing exactly where we were.” The brothers had had a rudimentary musical education from elementary school, and it was emboldened by an eclectic musical taste. “We have a great love for early Old school RnB, Rock, Industrial and even some HipHop,” they told 15 questions;  “… our influences are endless!” 

They weren’t alone in their music adventures during this period., because while they were developing those influences, a whole city seemed to plug into the same wavelength, and Detroit Techno started to emerge. The Burden brothers had already been consuming “tons of Chicago House,” by the time the proto sound of Techno arrived with the likes of Model 500 and Transmat records and the transition was an effortless one. 

Techno was still in its infancy with the first wave of artists to emerge, but the Burden brothers would be there on the cusp of it too, even if it was still early days. “When we started in 1989, our exposure to Detroit techno primarily came from the radio and clubs, but you could have easily escaped it because there wasn’t a lot of it.” From that exposure, they bought “a couple of drum machines and synthesisers” and started making their own music. “It seemed amazing to us that we could make a whole song with just a few pieces of equipment.”

At the centre of their sonic explorations was the Roland TR909 drum machine. “Once we got the 909 I was hooked – that machine’s like a drug” Lawrence told Musicradar. “With the 909 we always say that if we sell that then it’s over.” The drum machine became the centrepiece from which they started to construct their own music, influenced by what they were hearing around them in Detroit. They were embedded in the scene early on, working the lights at the music institute (Derrick May’s joint) amongst other things, but they were not gonna get a free hand out either. Derrick May wouldn’t even give them a DJ set at the place they worked and the cassette tapes they sent for peer review from the labels around them “got rejected quite a few times.” They continued to work at it and the exposure to the new sounds of Techno emanating from places like the music institute undoubtedly only fortified their efforts. 

After a few more cassettes their work finally paid off with a release in 1989 on a forthcoming Transmat compilation and the follow up to the genre-establishing Techno! (The New Dance Sound Of Detroit) compilation, simply called Techno 2 – the next generation. At the time they were still unnamed. “We were put on the spot by Mr. Derrick May when we were asked what was the name of our band,” they recalled in Electronic Beats. “He left the room and we did a very, very quick ‘huddle’ to come up with a name on the fly that we felt best described us, and the name Octave One was born. And it meant and means all of us (Lawrence, Lenny, and Lynell) working in one accord almost as if sharing the same octave.” The track, “I believe” inaugurated Octave One as a fixture in the second wave of Techno coming out of Detroit alongside the likes of Carl Craig and Kevin Saunderson.

Not merely content with that release, the Burden brothers launched their own label right out of the gate, establishing 430 West almost directly after their debut. It was almost unheard of back in the early nineties for an unknown electronic music act to start an independent label. “Apart from Richie Hawtin’s Plus 8 and Carl Craig’s Planet E, not that many people had started their own label back then. We did it out of necessity because Derrick didn’t put out a lot of music on Transmat and we were ready for our next release.” 

430 West came “a time when even a bad record would sell a couple of thousand” and what started as one record soon took on a life of its own. In a couple of releases they established not only a sound for Octave One, but also for their label. Taking those rudimentary Techno archetypes of the generation before them and refining it, they had hit a nerve both in Detroit and Europe. There was, and remains a subtlety there that feigned the brutalist functionalism of the sole drum machine for a richer texture, even going so far as to set up the subsidiary label in the form of Direct Beat for their more functional- exploits and artists like AUX 88.   

Throughout the mid and late nineties they toiled away at both the label and the Octave One project, releasing records that have been coveted by collectors and enthusiasts since they were underground rarities at their time, most of which have only been appreciated with the advantage of hindsight.

Octave One became a touchstone for anybody interested in that early period of Detroit Techno, but this doesn’t mean that struggle has come without success for them. In 2000 they broke new ground with a crossover hit in the form of Black Water. The track sold over a million copies, thanks in part to the soulful vocals of Ann Saunderson, breathing live into the bubbling synthesisers and accentuating the emotive content of the strings.  

Black Water came at a significant time. Not only would it be one of the last examples of physical records selling into those high numbers, but it came at a time when the height of popularity for electronic dance music. As more people flocked to the music, the clubs,  the radio and even MTV, exploited this popularity with big business getting behind the genre for the pay day. As the big-room started selling out, most of the protagonists moved their music and act back toward the underground in this period, while some even abandoned these genres altogether for the likes of Punk and Disco, waiting out the tawdry commercial aspects that took hold.

Octave One took to the former, adopting an “adapt or die” approach during this period. “75% of our monetary gains came from sales, but a few years later it came from touring,” with Octave One becoming a fully formed live group. “I was supposed to play live by myself,” Lenny told Musicradar about the origins of the live set, “ and Lawrence would DJ his set right before I was supposed to hit the stage. I had his mixing console and all of his gear in front of me and was trying to do everything myself when Lawrence jumped on stage.”

Octave One, the live show, was born and soon it would also be immortalised in Techno lore thanks to their inclusion in Jeff Mills’ iconic exhibitionist mix and video series. From that Octave One set on a new trajectory as one of the most sought after live groups in electronic dance music and club culture. Their hardware-heavy set has decimated some of the best club sound systems in the world.

It all “happened organically” and as “the record label started to suffer” in the wake of the internet and everything else, they too started to “slow down being record label guys and concentrate on being performers.” As performers they’ve excelled in their field and there are few live Techno acts that can match the ferocity and experience of Octave One. “The fun part was playing the music” and while their recording efforts took a back-seat to their live performances, they still maintained a regular release schedule. In the last few years they’ve even resurrected and paid homage to a couple of their old aliases in the form Random Noise Generation and Never On Sunday respectively. 

Never On Sunday harks back to the early nineties, but as an album you can’t help being reminded of Black Water, with vocals from Karina Mia all over this thing and emphatic melodies and loud-like textures coming together in accessible, radio-friendly tracks. 

Softening the more functional edges of their live show, the record favours a more varied sound, but retains that elusive soul that remains the core appeal of Detroit Techno to this day.  “Thousands of people still want to experience Detroit techno that was born from the struggle of our lives,” the artists explained in that piece for Electronic Beats, and today more than ever, “from that, inspiration can be born.” Be inspired.

We get a sneak preview of the up and coming V/A compilation series from Det Gode Selskab while we talk to DGS and Phill prince about the origins of the track and more.

Groovy, melodic, minimal and uplifting springs to mind when you put Phill Prince’s Lost the Key on for the first time. It’s the same words I would and have used to describe Det Gode Selskab Records, the label facilitating this release from the Italian courtesy of four part V/A compilation series coming out this fall.

Phill Prince is a leading light in the Italian underground as the mastermind behind Milan’s PLGRN party set. He is a DJ, producer and promoter and shares many of those core values of the Det Gode Selskab.  With a few invitations back and forth, including a visit to Jaeger’s basement this Saturday, they have found kindred spirits in each other.

Lost the Key cements the friendship as bongos rally around a bouncing bass arrangement and breezy keys; an ode to the end of summer and happy memories from nightlifes mishaps. There’s a serendipity in the title that I’d leave the artist and the label to explain, which re-enforces that sonic bridge between Phill Prince’s music and Det Gode Selskab’s sonic identity.

Lost the Key is a party-starter, its infectious rhythms and stark sonics only has designs intended for the dance floor. We talk to Phill Prince and then Det Gode Selskab about this new track, the upcoming compilation series and the next DGS at Jaeger while you get the exclusive preview.

Interview with Phill Prince

Hey Phill. First off, give us a little background info on you and PLGRN?

My musical journey started at a very young age when I fell in love with the drums. As a kid, I couldn’t resist the allure of electronic music, and that fascination grew over the years.

I began performing in local clubs when I was just 15. I established myself as a DJ, and my sets covered a range of genres, from house to techno. I guess my family’s deep-rooted passion for the disco tunes of the 80s and 90s played a significant role in shaping my musical taste.

My journey into music production began during my time spent in clubs near Venice. I enrolled in specialized training courses for music producers across Italy. There, I started crafting my groove and percussive rhythms using analog machines and MIDI modulation.

With the release of several productions on different labels I’ve been fortunate enough to have my productions supported by several international artists like Jamie Jones, Marco Carola, Jaden Thompson, Rich NxT, East and Dubs, Rossi, and many others. I’ve also had the privilege of performing at renowned venues like  E1 London, After Caposile ,Goya Madrid, Destino Ibiza,Liquid Room Edinburgh, Storgata26 Oslo, Studio69 Berlin, Taboo Paris, Altavoz Venice, The Bus Barcellona, Musica Riccione, Super Club Milano, Apollo Club, to name a few…

Established in February with my partners Jacopo and Pietro, Pellegrino has emerged as a vibrant hub within the Milanese nightlife scene, dedicated to cultivating the unique musical expressions of its DJs, distinguishing them from the typical genres often presented at various events. Milan’s Apollo and Super Club played a key role in bringing this concept to life, dedicating a specific space within the nightlife scene to this format. This support led Pellegrino to obtain a monthly residency at the club, where he introduced a musical direction focused on Minimal, Techhouse and Microhouse genres in the heart of the city.

With Pellegrino, our goal has been to turn the clubbing scene into a musical sanctuary for Milan’s nightlife lovers, a destination where they can relax and enjoy themselves after a busy week, a chance to hear new artist profiles. It became the music destination the city craved. We brought a fresh, original and distinctive idea with a shared musical purpose that resonated with our participants. Our continued support and enthusiasm further fuelled our determination to continue with the project, even after the challenges posed by the closures and prolonged suspension of nightlife due to covid.

How did you find the guys at DGS and what drew to their sound and vibes originally?

Expanding our boundaries has always been a goal of ours and to do this we need to build a community around formats that have similar interests and a musical identity that matches ours.

We started looking for profiles that were interested in this kind of project and shared these ideals, and fortunately we managed to get in touch with the guys from DGS. Their profile was already known to us for several releases on their Power House label that our DJs often support in their selections. 

This aspect, together with the magnificent human side of the creators, led to this magnificent connection and constant showcases between Italy and Norway.

Tell us about how you made Lost the Key?


The composition of ‘Lost the Key’ can be considered as a fusion of both analog and digital elements. This project originated within the studio environment, where we embarked on the exploration of various drum patterns characterized by their distinct freshness and a pronounced techy influence. These explorations were complemented by the incorporation of closed and open-hat sequences, firmly rooted in a classic house style.

The melodic dimension of the piece was meticulously crafted through the modulation of a synthesizer sample sourced directly from the Yamaha Rm1x. This process imbued the composition with an ethereal quality, lending it a constant and deep tonal foundation.

Further enriching the sonic landscape, the central sound was developed using a Roland TB-3, creating a lead acid element that steadily evolves until the track’s reset. This dynamic transformation maintains a consistent energy throughout the composition, evoking associations with a ‘dance floor’ siren, thus encompassing a spectrum of moods that transition seamlessly from deep house to more electro-inspired moments.

The overall structure is characterized by a series of fluid and invigorating grooves, imbuing the composition with a sense of freshness that harmonizes seamlessly within the final mix.


What’s the story behind the title of that track?

Often, the titles I assign to my records are intricately linked to genuine, tangible experiences. In this particular instance, I found myself within the confines of my studio, engrossed in the process of crafting a central melody revolving around a foundation of meticulously constructed kicks and percussion.

As time passed, it became evident that the hour was growing late, and the moment had arrived for me to conclude my work and head home. However, a sense of unease began to grip me as I realized that my keys were nowhere to be found. The ensuing search for these elusive keys proved to be a nerve-wracking ordeal, as I grappled with the mounting doubt and frustration that came with each passing moment.

In a moment of uncertainty, I gravitate back towards my analog machines. In the process of experimentation, a profound connection emerged between the ‘siren’ I had meticulously crafted, the intricate interplay of the drums, and the ethereal pad. It was within this creative juncture that the composition began to take shape and evolve.


What is it about your sounds as an artist that you feel worked well with the sound of the label?

My sound is currently honing in on a distinctive style that spans from minimal to powerful house, affording me the versatility to explore various creative avenues. In this instance, I identified a harmonious connection between my own musical approach and Dgs’ direction. This record, in my perspective, reflects several facets of the house genre that align with the neo-90s vibe of the Norwegian label. Nevertheless, it retains a notably minimal groove that harmonizes with my broader body of work.

How does the track reflect your sound as a DJ?

I aim to craft something vibrant, drawing inspiration from the 90s house sound while maintaining the tempo of today’s minimal-deep tech trend. It’s a dynamic interplay between pad and lead elements, engaging the audience and keeping them on the dance floor. That’s what I strive to create and simulate for the audience – an electrifying energy

Give us a glimpse into your record bag for this upcoming event at Jaeger. 

I have a selection of diverse records at my disposal, but my exploration is an ongoing evolution. My musical focus leans towards a raw house sound, occasionally delving into Romanian minimal influences, while consistently incorporating elements of electro and tribal rhythms.

From labels like Rawax to Kann Records, and including Terry Francis’s latest EP on Hallucienda, along with exclusive previews of my forthcoming releases in the coming months, some of which are recent unreleased creations – all of these elements contribute to the musical journey I aim to craft.

Interview with Det Gode Selskab 

Hey DGS. How did you first hear of Phill Prince and PLGRN?

Det Gode Selskab and PLGRN made their first acquaintance in April, when they invited Tod Louie to play at Super Club in Milano. High five to keepitgoing. for connecting us.

We decided to keep collaborating, and we invited the crew to Oslo at the end of May at Prindsens Hage where we did an outdoor garden party in the middle of the city.

Where does DGS and PLGRN crossover in terms of sound for you?

In many ways the people behind PLGRN and the DGS crew share similar passion and values for the underground club scene. They put their whole heart and love into what they do, and it’s very contagious and loving.

They have high standards, confidence and big hearts which, for us is very important in this scene to keep it healthy and progressive. So all of this made it all very natural to continue developing our Milano – Oslo partnership.

We also see ourselves steering more into the direction of collaborating with labels and concepts rather than booking highliners for Det Gode Selskab nights. That kind of collaboration is what feels right for us.

What attracted you to Phill Prince’s sound as an artist and why did you want him for this compilation?

His sense of grooves and the way he works his music as a DJ and producer. He gives a lot behind the DJ booth and his transitions and build ups are very charismatic and captivating. He is a super DJ and when were introduced to his music we saw a lot of quality that  has a natural place with our label.

Tell us what you first felt when you heard Lost the Key.

Upon first listening to “Lost the Key” by Phill Prince, I was instantly transported back to ADE 2022, a memory etched with the comical misadventure of Karl Fraunhofer misplacing our apartment key, which eventually found its way into the Amsterdam waters on a Monday morning at the docks. A chaotic moment, though it ultimately concluded on a positive note. Despite the unexpected acrobatics involving scaffolding around our residence, the tale culminated with the locksmith’s timely arrival to restore access.

It’s minimal, groovy and there’s that functionalism there that we all associate with DGS. How does it differ and expand otherwise from the classic DGS sound for you?

It gives some of the same qualities, percussions and sound that Luciano’s Cadenza label has offered us as DJ’s throughout the years. That “terrace” Ibiza-sounds from 2012-2018. It’s a sound that historically has been part of many of our events throughout the year. It works very well!

What does this reflect the rest of the compilation?

Our compilation invites the sound of our collective of artists and new and old friends and acquaintances that we meet as a label, DJs and event series. It encompasses the sound of our label and our extended network and is usually not very genre specific but obviously revolved around the groovier sides of dancefloor music; consisting of house, italo house, tech-house, minimal, techno, breaks and drum & bass.

Tell us a bit about what you expect from the upcoming night with Phill.

He will take the lead for the last two hours of the night, and what to be expected is some serious groove and passion behind the booth. He has a unique style and ability to create forceful transitions that invite a full and playful dance floor.

Of Norway talk about their new album, their working process, some secret aliases and a very special live show that will follow their official release party at Jaeger.

It’s hard to define the appeal of Norwegian electronic music. It’s a melodic contingent; a love of vintage synthesisers and drum-machines; an eclectic musical history; and a brooding melancholy that’s as sweet as it is foreboding. At the best of times it’s only a couple of those things that distinguish Norway’ s artists, but for one group it’s all of those things and that’s why Of Norway live up to their name. 

Their latest album stands testament to that. Smeigedag is no exercise in restraint either as Chris Lynch and and Vegard “lil” Wolf Dyvik tap into their shared history together to construct a forlorn ode to summer. Melodies dissociate in that familiar happy melancholy that doesn’t strain the patience, while progressive rhythms tap into some ancient ritualistic pulse. The racks go from the euphoric House exaltations of “Love” to the moody ambient embrace of “Second coming,” with melody and texture remaining at the forefront of their work. 

It’s instantly familiar, not merely for its Norwegian connotations, but as a consistent thread between this latest and Of Norway’s previous records like “Accretion” and “The Loneliest Man in space.” The latter had been our last contact with the group before the pandemic (even though we learn that they’ve released another record since), and from that album’s electro-leaning affiliations to this latest record, the core of the group’s sonic signature has remained unchanged even as they drift into different musical regions.

After four albums and a host of EPs, Of Norway Chris and Vegrad haven’t evolved the sound as much as they’ve cemented it. They’ve enjoyed a healthy and productive relationship with Connaisseur records, releasing all their albums on that Offenbach-based outlet while releasing EPs and singles for the likes of Darkroom Dubs, Bedrock and Do not sit on the furniture. Oddly for a group called Of Norway, their music has been more successful outside of Norway even though Vegard and Chris have been fixtures in Oslo’s scene through institutions like iconoclastic and Kill your Ego. 

As DJs Chris and Vegard continue to play around town and abroad on occasion, and as artists we’ve come to expect a regular release from Of Norway. Their history with electronic music in the scene goes back to the early 2000’s and there’s more to Of Norway than meets the eye, including a couple of secret aliases. This amongst other things piques our interest around Of Norway, and ahead of the official release of the album, we reach out to the group with some questions.

As the duo prepares for the official release party at Jaeger, we call Vegard and Chris to find they are currently working on a very special live show, and Chris’ phone is buzzing with guestlist requests… 

 

Where are you at the moment?

Chris Lynch: We’re in the studio, working on the live set. We’ve just got booked to play Berghain so we’re a bit nervous. 

O wow. That’s big news. Is this due to Smeigedag and is the live show going to be largely based around the new album?

Chris:  Yes, it is. Andy Baumecker (Berghain resident and booker) really liked the promo that he got and he got in touch with us asking: “do you want to play the album plus other recent things that we made.” 

Vegard “lil” Wolf Dyvik: There might be some older things, but it’s mostly the newer stuff.

Chris: It’s a slightly different sound to our earlier albums. It’s a little more dance floor…

Vegard: Is it?

Chris: Yes it is, if you compare it to the Accretion album. It’s a little more club friendly. 

When you have something like Berghain coming up, do you take that context into consideration when preparing your live set or do you present the songs pretty much as they are from the album?

Vegard: I think we’re pretty true to our album. We don’t change our sound for clubs anywhere. 

Chris: It’s more about the sequencing or the tracks we choose to play. If we play an open air space, you can play the more trancy stuff, or if we play a basement it’s more bass-heavy. If we have 20 tracks in a live set, we’ll only play 6 or 8 of them. 

Vegard: The difference is we are preparing a lot of tracks and we have a system so we can just jump to any track we want. Which means, like a DJ, we don’t have to play our tracks in sequence. We won’t change the way the tracks sound.

And you are able to react to the audience as well, since you have twenty odd songs at your disposal?

Chris: Yes, and you can take the bassline of one track and put it into another song. Like if you were a DJ and you had like a hundred stems that you could just put in wherever. We’re not getting booked to play large stages, we’re still in the small clubs, so it makes sense to play something that fits in there. 

Vegard: Also when we used to take a guitarist/ bass player with us, it was more like a concert and people would just stand and look at us. We want people to have a fun experience dancing, presenting our own music. 

Chris: If there’s too much shit going on people are just standing, and you get a lot of guys scratching their beards. 

Ok, we should probably talk about the reason for this interview; Smeigedag. It’s the first record in a couple of years for you and it seems like there are some disparities with this record and the Loneliest man in Space, which to me was more electro-leaning while this one is more straight…

Chris: Yes it’s more House-y. We don’t really plan stuff, it just happens. 

Vegard: It’s kind of a corona-thing. A lot of the sketches were made during corona.

Chris: We just missed going out. We actually made another album between those two, which was made during covid. It was called the Soft Apocalypse, and it was more dark and ambient. It was a darker record and this one is a lighter record.

Vegard: We made most of it during summer. 

Chris: I remember the label said; “ah you really missed summer,” didn’t you? It really came around quickly, around July.

Of this year? That’s a quick turnover. 

Chris: Yes, I think it started out in May and we were done by the end of June. 

Vegard: We have a very close relationship with Connaisseur. We sent a couple of tracks to Alex (Fitsch) and said; “maybe this could work as an EP.” And he was like; “actually maybe this could work as an album.”

Chris: So we thought; “guess we have to make some more music.”

Vegard: Whenever we make an album, with the exception of Accretion, which took ages, it’s two or three weeks and then we have most of it down. 

Chris: That first album took absolute ages. We didn’t know what we were doing, it was years ago. We were maybe overthinking it. 

Vegard: And now we have hundreds of sketches. Whenever we start a track, we just go through the library.

What is your working process like?

Chris: We get together twice a week religiously. We meet up at 18:00 every Tuesday and Wednesday and work till 21:00-ish. It’s almost like going to soccer practice, but it’s a lot more fun. 

That’s disciplined. At what point do you realise a track is done and when do you recognise that they’ll work together on an album like Smeigedag?

Vegard: Well, we only release albums via Connaisseur. The label helps out with what goes on the album, to be honest. 

Chris: Basically, we have a private folder on soundcloud and stuff everything in there. We do the first selection and then we send it to the label. Connaisseur is more like an old-school label in the way they are involved in everything from the sequence of the tracks to the length of them. New labels don’t invest so much time in it. It suits us well. 

How many songs did you deliver for the label on this occasion?

Chris: This time we actually didn’t deliver enough. We actually had to make another one. 

Vegard: There were a couple of tracks they didn’t want. 

Chris: It started off as an EP with three or four tracks, and they asked to make it an album, and now it’s a mini-album. I still call it an album but the label calls it a mini-album. 

Did you guys have an idea in terms of sound when you were still working on it as an EP, or was it just that it coalesced around a sound because you happened to be working on all the tracks in the same kind of timeframe?

Chris: I think it’s mostly the timeframe. 

Vegard: When we planned it as an EP, we took three of the finished songs, because we thought they might fit together. It was more like we had some tracks that fit together and not that we went for a sound. 

Chris: It’s hard to go for a sound. 

Vegard: We don’t know what we want to do. 

Chris: Sometimes these tracks are in their sixth or seventh version and the starting point is something completely different. 

What ties it all together for you on this album? 

Chris: Euphoric warmth, with a classic Norwegian underlying melancholy which has a dark depressing edge in there.

Vegard: Some of the sketches in there were from when I lost my cat. 

Chris: We have another EP coming out on Bedrock (John Digweed’s label) and they are basically homages to Vegard’s cat. 

Were you influenced by any tangible thing at the time, except the fact that Vegard’s cat died?

Vegard: When I started the sketches I wanted everything to be melancholic and warm. For Christmas one year, I got digitised video tapes from when I was little. 

Chris: Me as well.

Vegard: So on the cover of the album, the two little kids, that’s me and Chris. 

Chris: All the canvas videos on Spotify, all that stuff is from our own home movies from the late 70’s early 80’s. 

Vegard: That kind of inspired me. 

Chris: The fuzziness and graininess of the video and the way the sun bleeds into the photograph.

Vegard: You know, when life was good. (laughs)

Chris: You know The Doors track, Summer is almost gone. Not specifically the track, but the feeling. 

What’s interesting is that when I first listened to the record I immediately had this sense of haziness that you talk about, like an old polaroid captured in sound. But I didn’t have the words to describe it until you just said it now. 

Chris: Yes, we actually managed to find it now while talking to you. It all hangs together, from the video to the press photos and the cover and the sound, it’s quite cohesive. We’ve managed to get hold of some thirty summer postcards from the 70’s and they are going to be in the limited edition vinyl album. 

Vegard:  A summer greeting from us. 

Have you guys known each other for that long?

Chris: We’ve only known  each other since the early 2000’s and we started making music together since 2006. I did a radio show at Radio Tellus back in the days, and Vegard was there playing some times. We were both DJs and knew each other through that. Oslo was quite small and the DJ scene was quite small back then. 

And then you played together at iconoclastic?

Chris: Yes I started playing with Deadswan and then Vegard joined us later, We were a trio for some years. So, we’ve been doing different projects together, but the Of Norway project has almost always been House-based music. 

Vegard: It’s always been quite emotional. 

I was listening to one of our early records, Karpathian Thirst in preparation for this interview, and that Of Norway mood is there from the start. Then again, do you feel your music has evolved?

Chris: Definitely. I can’t really say how, it  just has.

Vegard: I think, we’ve been doing this so long now, and we’ve been through so many different things, that we have so many reference points that we can put this together. 

Chris: Something that’s nice about getting older, is that you can step back and see the big picture. When you’re young and get into something like minimal Techno, then everything is about that and you can’t judge anything else, because you think everything else is shit. Like we like to say in Norway, you’ve got to get out of the duck pond. You get more oversight.

I remember iconoclastic happening around the same time you started Of Norway. It was at the end of the electroclash era, so there was still this melting pot of various genres and styles…

Chris: It was the end of electroclash and the beginning of the blog-house scene. It was very eclectic, so you took stuff from all over the musical map and popped it in there. 

Vegard: It was very energetic and rough.

Chris: And Punky in a way. 

Exactly and when I first heard of Norway it didn’t sound like the offspring of any of that, but something completely different again. 

Chris: That was just one of many things. At that time we both lived as DJs. I played indie music, and I played Drum n Bass at Kill your Ego and Sykemekanico. I also played old-school Hip Hop.

Vegard: I was more into US-House and Garage. 

Chris: I realise it’s quite confusing, because we’ve always had the same DJ names and you never know what you’re going to get. Musically we’ve been all over the place. I think reference-wise, we can be influenced by absolutely everything; even a sound in a Nick Cave record.

Do all these eclectic influences feed into this one project?

Vegard: We’ve grown a bit wiser now, so we’ve chosen some monikers. 

Chris: We do produce music under different names, so we have three names that we release music under. 

What are the other two? 

Chris: They’re both secrets. One of them has released a lot of music. Now it’s easier, if something sounds like Of Norway, we’ll just continue as Of Norway. We enjoy being secretive, because we’re men in our mid forties, and if people knew that they probably wouldn’t sign us. 

Tell me about your relationship with the label Connaisseur and how that started.

Chris: Vegard had the first contact with Connaisseur.

Vegard: It was a very long time ago. I don’t remember how we got in touch, maybe Myspace. I know why they signed us. It was because we were called Of Norway, and we looked like a black metal band. 

Chris: Our press photos were in black and white and high-contrast, and we had this hand drawn necro logo. It was completely different from what you hear musically and that caught their interest. 

Vegard: The tracks had titles  like Karpatian Thirst.

Chris: Yeah, they were all metal names. After that, we were included on the compilation, and we thought that’s it. Then they invited us to play a place called Bar 25 in Berlin, which was this hedonistic, legendary club in Berlin. After that the ball started rolling with Connaisseur and they signed more and more stuff. 

Vegard: They are also friends now. We even made a track for his (Alex) daughter. 

Chris: Song for Eva is dedicated to his daughter. All proceedings go to her educational fund.

I assume they were based in Offenbach back then. How did you hear about Connaisseur recording in the first place?

Vegard: I had some records from them.

Chris: They had a massive hit, years ago with Patrick Chardronnet called “Eve by Day.” Soundwise, we’ve never sounded like anything else on the label. 

Vegard: We’ve never sounded like anything on any of the labels we’re signed with.

Chris:  Everytime we get signed to a label, we think; “why the hell did you sign us?” (both laugh) We don’t fit in anywhere. 

Vegard: So therefore we fit in everywhere. 

That’s a testament to your music. It can reach a large audience. Do you feel that your music translates better outside Norway than in Norway?

Chris: There’s no reason for it, but I definitely think so. It’s definitely Germany and the US that are the biggest territories for us. We’ve had a few releases on an American label called Do not sit on the furniture.

Vegard: I think it’s because we’re not so actively part of the Norwegian scene as DJs anymore. 

Chris: It’s not been on purpose, it’s just happened. 

After this record and the gig in berghain, what else is on the horizon for Of Norway?

Chris: We’re releasing a record for Darkroom dubs. We’ve got some stuff on Bedrock. We have something on a label called Sum over histories (Frankey and Sandrino). Otherwise on the DJing and live side, we were unfortunate after corona, and lost our agent. We’re free agents so we’re not getting many gigs at the moment. 

Hopefully having Berghain on the CV will help, hopefully…

Words: Mischa Mathys

Jaeger is back on the Oslo World programme for 2023 with an extensive lineup across four days as we help the Oslo institution celebrate 30 years.

30 years is a long time and we’re proud to be a part of that tradition for as long as we care to remember. The world descends on Oslo for a music festival celebrating the sonic bedrock from the four corners of the world every year and 2023 will be no different. From right here in Norway, to India, to Lebanon, to Ukraine, and via Berlin we cover the furthest reaches of global music for one week in the year as Oslo World arrives at Jaeger. From the esoteric to the exotic, in the universal language of electronic music, Jaeger celebrates the extensive sounds of the world over two dance floors with appearances from Nefertiti, Dara Woo, Gela, Nur Jabber, Soju Princess, Olga Korol, Sous Vide, Suchi, Det Gode Selskab and a host of Jaeger residents and friends. We kick off on the 1st of November.

Programme schedule:

01.11 Oslo World: Nefertiti + Dara Woo + Gela
02.11 – Helt Texas: Nur Jaber + Soju Princess
03.11 – Frædag x Sous Vide: Olga Korol +  Per Hammar + Thomas Skjaerstad
04.11 – Nightflight x Det Gode Selskab: Suchi  

Tickets are now available at ticketco with more tickets available on the door on the night. Watch this space for further information coming soon.

Marius Sommerfeldt is back. The other half of De Fantastike To is releasing records again under the eponymous Sommerfeldt with a couple of notable releases in the last year. While he’s remained a fixture in Oslo’s DJ booths throughout, most notably as a member of the UK-leaning Løkka FM collective, his output from the studio has been limited until 2022 “Colours” on Paper Recordings and reinforced by the most recent “Tell me What to do” via Vinny Villbass’ label, Badabing. 

“Tell me What to do” sees him working with Løkka FM colleague, Toshybot (legs 11) in a signature Norwegian House aesthetic bridging worlds between US House, UK Garage and Space Disco. Toshybot’s baritone rides ebullient synthesisers, bubbling in the lower regions crisscrossing the trellis-like percussive section. 

Last year’s “Colours “ saw him rely on the same formula with vocals supplied by Sigmund Floyd on this occasion. Textures evoked a dreamy soundscape through a dazzling haze of synthesisers that seemed to arrive on a milky cloud. 

There are obvious similarities between his and Mikkel Haraldstad’s 2010 breakout track “Neste Stopp Morra Di” in as much as it maintains that infectious “Norwegian House” formula, but it’s updated for a modern dance floor. Besides a change of name and a new palette of sounds, Sommerfeldt carries the same spirit in his music and finds the artist refining his sound in collaborating with other artists yet again. 

What is it about these collaborations that bring out the best in Sommerfeldt and what does this new era in music define for the Norwegian artist? We sent over some questions to Marius via email to find out more as he prepares for his upcoming visit to Jaeger for Olle Abstract’s LYD. 

Is it fair to say that you were on a musical hiatus as an artist for a while, and what were some of the determining factors for that break?

That is fair to say. And truth to be told, the break was all about finding my own sound as an artist. I’ve been working with people in groups most of my career, so I spent some time searching for inspiration and developing my own sound.

What is the current status of De Fantastike To?

It’s currently on hold, but we might go back in the studio again. We’ve been talking about it, but I guess that life just happened for both of us.

And what eventually brought you back to making new music as a solo artist?

The never-ending fascination of making music. I have so much music in my head that needs to come out! It’s kind of an obsession, really. Fine-tuning a kickdrum or adding some reverb on a synthline is meditative.

How do you feel your solo stuff differs from DFT’s work?

There is a slightly more jazzy aspect in DFT’s productions. A good combination of Rave-Enka and Sommerfeldt in there, I would say.

In between you were still DJing and it seemed most of your efforts were concerned with the Løkka FM project. How did you arrive in that collective and what was it about the UK sound specifically resonated with you?

We were just four people having a strong relationship towards british club-music. We met over a couple of beers and started talking about the lack of a proper UKG night in Oslo. Needles to say, we did something about it! I mean, UK did the American house-sound, but on steroids…

What’s not to like?

How has it informed your work beyond the DJ booth and in the studio?

I’m producing house, but with a pretty huge amount of swing in basically everything. I even did a upcoming remix for Center Of The Universe and Nikki Oniyome, which is pretty similar to garage 

One of the people that was involved there with you, Toshybot, also makes an appearance on your latest Badabing record. And this is not the first time you’ve both worked in the studio together. What planted the seed for this creative collaboration, and besides adding vocals to your tracks, how has he influenced your work?

We have been friends for a long time, and music-wise he introduced me to stuff I haven’t heard before. It’s just a joy to work with him, and our studio-sessions are so much fun!

On your 2022 record Colours, for Paper Recordings you also featured a couple of vocalists in the form of Sigmund Floyd and Nora. What is it about the vocal craft that draws you to singers in your music?

I love working with vocals! It’s even more complicated in terms of leaving room and space for a vocalist in a track. I mean, vocals can be at times horrible in a club-track, but when done correctly it just makes sense, right?

What do you look for in a vocalist?

Some edge, a roughness, soul, I mean the voice goes deeper than just singing the right notes! I usually leave some happy accidents in there from the sessions. Sigmund did a first take on our latest release, and he did miss slightly in a part towards the end, we were just.

Nah.. fuck it!

At what point does the vocalist enter into your creative process and how much input do you have in the writing process including the lyrics?

It differs, I usually do the sketch of an instrumental and send the rough demo. Then we do maybe a rec session or two while I finish the production, constantly sending the vocalist new versions for approval.

You worked with Sigmund Floyd (Palace of Pleasure) who is also in Legs 11 with Toshybot.  What is your relationship with that crowd and are there any plans to work more with the people behind those two groups?

Yeah. They are my friends. I love those guys! We used to share studio as well…

I’ve never played in a band before, so we might form Legs 12? A collab would be really cool!

They are very much in that indie electronic pop world, while your work very much lives in the House music circles. Where is the crossover between these two worlds for you?

I like independent music! Both genres usually work with synths, drum-machines combined with organic instruments. It feels playful and live.

What first got you interested in House music and how has it developed to this point?

My brother’s cd-collection and Olle Abstract on P3 as an early teenager. I mean House-music? It was out of this world right? Made by machines, computers and stuff, it was like a one-man band. Needles to say, I absolutely loved it!

Your sound on a record like Tell me What to at times flirts with that Norwegian nu-disco aesthetic. It’s very ethereal at times, with dubby rhythms and charming arpeggios floating through the record. What kind of influence has that Oslo scene played in your own development as an artist if any?

I guess I try to produce house, but I don’t like that way too formulaic stuff, so I just throw in a lot of my influences to make it interesting for myself and hopefully, the listener. I guess I’m a product of the DJ / Oslo scene in that way. We usually have to include different genres, tempos and styles,otherwise me, and the crowd get bored.

What do you consider the effects of people like Lindstrøm, Prins Thomas and Todd Terje on the artists that came after them, artists like yourself?

They paved the way for a quirky more leftfield Norwegian approach to club-music. DIY stuff, I mean it’s a hard country to break trough, producing underground electronica. They just did it by themselves. That still inspires me!

What have you taken from that scene that came before you into the music that you are making today, and how have you made it your own in your opinion?

It has always been a huge inspiration as the early generation paved the way for disco, house and techno in a country which is ultimately pretty remote. Prins Thomas was even the first person who signed us as the now defunct  Sommerstad (together with Mikkel Rev) That helped me alot in terms of my career and also the way I work with and hear music.

After a few singles/EPs over the last two years, what’s next for Marius Sommerfeldt and what is the ultimate goal for you when it comes to making music?

First of all, this is what I want to do. I had other jobs in my life, but music is my passion. I keep getting better, and I’m slowly taking my studio-setup to the live-stage. I’m testing the setup abroad in Lisboa this September.

I want to record an album, hopefully at my cabin this autumn with Sigmund Floyd.

I’m also releasing a new EP, a remix and some more tracks as Sommerbad (me and Boblebad) and also on Full Pupp as Cocktail Sport (with From Beyond and Boblebad) So to summarize it: make tracks, DJ, travel,  play live and generally have a good time doing it!

We sat down with Simon Field during Øya week to talk about his debut LP, Need No Music and his journey to this moment. He celebrates the album release at Jaeger this Friday.

It’s taken Simon Field 10 years to produce his debut album. At 53 years of age, it might be assumed he left it pretty late, but stretching  behind this watershed moment, is a vast experience that covers a very large spectrum of  the music business. 

A song-writer, composer, producer and lyricist, Simon’s accolades span the length and breadth of the music industry and yet you’d be hard pressed to find his name anywhere. An artist working in the shadows, he’s penned and produced music for the majority of his life, and while you probably haven’t heard of him, it’s likely that you have heard his music before. He’s created music for film, written pop-songs, played at esteemed venues like Ministry of Sound, and worked with some of the best in our scene yet for the most part he’s feigned the recognition in favour of the creative endeavour.

10 years ago he made the leap to solo artist releasing his first House-infused records, mostly  via Perfect Havoc on Spotify, culminating in a lengthy discography that has garnered millions of streams and half a million monthly listeners. Tracks like “Shake the tree”  have made him a household name in regions as far afield as Mexico –  a tour on the horizon there – while remixes for the likes of Kelis and Nina Simone have bridged the divide between the accessible and functional in Simon’s music.

His debut album, No Need Music, arrives filling the gaps more effectively between these two worlds. With a foot in two worlds, Simon Field is both an accomplished recording artist and a DJ, and in his  efforts to consolidate these two aspects of his artistic identity he has created an album that pushed his sound closer to the dance floor. Tracks, specifically “made for the club moment in mind,” and an ambient finale bear the fruits of this labour. 

We meet in the middle of Øya week with the dominant pulse of a kick drum playing staccato thuds in the background. The Bergen born, Oslo native has been indulging in the music in Tøyen park and beyond, but he’s perky and perched on the edge of his chair. Never taking himself too seriously, he interjects often with a stifling laugh and while he he stops short at name-dropping he is eager to broach any musical subject and very excited to talk about his new LP:

“They are all club tracks, besides one beautiful ambient” piece that concludes the LP.  “Last summer I did so many cool festival gigs, and I decided that I want to do new original material at every gig,” explains Simon for context. He set himself a goal: “alright I’m doing ten gigs, let’s do ten new songs.“ Each track was specifically created to suit a moment at each gig, with factors like previous DJ and moment in time taken into consideration and the result is a 12-track LP that covers a wide range of situations. 

Even the finale and the only beat-less indulgence on the record, Es Vedrá was a conscious effort to “reset the room” in the knowledge that the previous DJ would drop him off at the region of 136 beats per minute. The track’s dominating synth swells through the air while a “persian” vocal flutters sporadically in what Simon describes “as one of the best tracks I’ve ever written.” It’s the only introspective departure from an album that is firmly rooted in the predetermined foundations of House with little more than one breakdown per track diverging from the obstinate rhythms. Percussion and bass dominates, in unceasing movement with even the ever-present vocals moving through the tracks in stochastic “ahhs” and “oohs”. Listening to track like “Gack Gack” where there’s so much emphasis on the lower frequencies, I’m not surprised to find it is in fact in the bass where Simon’s musical roots took hold. 

Born in Bergen his musical education was passed down from an older sibling. “Growing up my brother listened to Earth Wind and Fire, so my first music was Funk and Soul, and that’s been with me forever.” Those sounds awoke an appreciation for the bass guitar and “the first thing I wanted to do when I picked up the bass was learn how to slap.” 

Learn to slap, he did, and it went much further than that, as Simon set his sights on that precursor for Funk and Soul, Jazz. When he moved to Scotland for school, he took evening courses at a Ronnie Scott tutorial programme while studying towards a degree in Science management. “I spent four years figuring out what I don’t want to do with my life, ” laughs Simon. “By the end of the study I was doing more gigs than being in school,” and an interest flourished whereby he “just leaned into every bit of literature and videos I could find.”

Returning home to Bergen he started playing in “several bands,” most of who modelled their sound on the likes of Donald Fagen. “We all wanted to be doing Steely Dan,” he remembers, playing “as many chords as possible” which would later prove to be an important aspect of his writing skills especially as he started producing House music. 

“I can actually put that into my music and it’s beautiful when working with singers,”  he insists. In House music’s pretty conservative constructions where there’s little room for the kind of thematic movement that is usually associated with the likes of Fagen, this adds a dimension to Simon Field’s music that sets him a little apart from the status quo and perhaps part of his international appeal. This harmonic intervention on the part of the artist helps humanise this stark machine music. It often also sits alongside Latin rhythms, a familiar trope in House music and something that is close to his heart, as the determining factor from which all Simon’s groove is distilled.

“Everything I do in music is played with that (latin) quantising,” expresses Simon. It’s been a feature of his music in all forms for as long as he played bass, and he feels that it’s “fundamental to every music genre” and the source to all music. “You get into this groove and your job is to get those asses to move.”

Getting those asses to move on his debut album, he calls on his extensive experience working on a myriad of music from Country to Hip-hop. It has taken him to places like LA, where he’s written and produced songs for prominent artists and producers that he is not able to mention by name. It was during these surreptitious musical activities that he would start developing a sound forged in electronic music. “While I was doing all that other stuff, I started programming to make the writing more clear for the people I played with.” He had a “huge love for synthesisers” from his band days in Bergen when he started switching out his bass guitar for synthesisers – “the band didn’t always like that” (laughs) – and “started collecting synthesisers and making music” based around those electronic instruments. 

“My publisher said you can send off stuff to films, so I started sending off portishead-like songs that I thought no-one wanted.” People did wanted them nonetheless. It wasn’t his first foray into music for tv. Back in his band days, his group Elle Melle contributed the title theme to TV2 Frokost TV, but this time his music would find an international audience through placements in series like Calfornication. “A lot of music for Californication which is a Funk-House kind of blend” and “that really kicked it off.” Funk being much of the predecessor to House “definitely” bridged a gap between Simon’s work as a bassist/composer and House music, but House had not been an unknown entity either.  It was “there all the time” but it had been a kind of “party music” until one point ten years ago, when things started to click in place for Simon. 

In a pitch for something that would most likely be assigned to another artist on disco:wax the label said: “we could release this as it is and you could be the artist”. That track was, “The music is you” and it “totally switched everything” for Simon who dropped everything else for a more singular pursuit. ”I just said ‘no’ to anything other than House music from that point.” 

A decade later with an extensive discography behind his back, Simon is confident he made the right decision. “I’ve done this project for ten years now and listening back to my first demos and first releases, that’s coming full circle now.” The essence of what he created in the beginning with a track like “The Music is you” is still there in “Need No Music” with Simon’s rhythmical foundations and his insistence for vocals remaining central to his work. 

On the album the vocals often favour a more abstract approach, but Simon’s presence of mind in his musical pursuits is still there. “I’ve been trying to get to this place all along,” he suggests. ”All these people putting money into your music, are saying you should do this or this” he dismisses today, blowing a raspberry as he says it and it’s paid off in his favour. His music has featured on the likes of BBC Radio 1; he’s remixed and been remixed by the likes of Todd Terry and Erick Morillo, and with  a DJ touring schedule that sees him play in the venues like Café Mambo in Ibiza he doesn’t need the validation either. 

He’s not playing as much as he was before covid – ”travelling in Europe every week at least” – but the gigs are still rolling in, and while he’s something of an unknown in Oslo, in London  his “music works really well,” especially since his home-label Perfect Havoc is located there. What started out as a hobby, just developed naturally for Simon and now he loves nothing more than to DJ. 

“Playing live has always been my favourite thing and DJing is just the same. I’m really living the music when I play.” His next DJ event will be at Jaeger to celebrate the release for the album and he’s asked Monojack, Blichteldt and old friends Tube & Berger for the occasion. “There are definitely many DJs that I have played with over the years that I would like to bring (to Jaeger), that’s why I’m so glad that Tube & Berger said yes.” 

It’s through club nights like these that Simon is looking to recontextualise his music for the next audience. “I feel like what I’ve done on Spotify, I should have made it more club from the start,” he considers for a moment before adding; “Then again, I love those songs, and they work on radio and they’ve taken me places.“ “Need no Music“ will move his audience closer to the heart of the dance floor, but as it remains destined for Spotify, he has no intention of disappointing his legion of fans; fans, including people like Erick Morillo and David Guetta and stretching as far afield as Mexico. 

We go ten years back in time to the release of André Bratten’s debut album to look at the lasting legacy of Be A Man You Ant before he performs live in our basement this week

There was a time in Oslo where you couldn’t get away from André Bratten’s Trommer og Bass. It seemed to be spilling out of every DJ booth in in the city, the sheer force of the track decimating every track that had come before or after it in the same set. 

Its impact couldn’t be overstated. Even before it was released Jennifer Cardini, who had sent that track to be mastered for her Correspondant VA, quickly understood its power. “The sound was so powerful; the sound was so big,” according to Jennifer Cardini. “When we got Trommer og Bass, I wrote to him (André Bratten) and asked; ‘hey can we get a pre-mastered version, because the version you sent has a compressor and limiter on it.’ He wrote back to me saying no it hasn’t, ‘that’s the premaster actually.’” It says something about André Bratten’s mastery of the studio as an instrument, and the complete nature of his music, but that alone doesn’t count for the sheer appeal of the record. 

It was a Techno record with just enough of that Norwegian melodic nature to make it appeal to a broad audience, while finding its own lane in a scene that would soon be dominated by the draconian influence of Berlin. It could be played at a peak time House set, and be admired outside of the club context. It was a big room track with all the trappings of a dance floor hit that would reaffirm the name André Bratten in a new sphere of club music. He put the track out again on Math Ion Ilium after it appeared on the Correspondant VA in a move he thought would be “smart to do” and which offered the bridge into new sonic possibilities from his previous LP, and debut Be A Man You Ant.

Trommer og Bass took from that album’s more demanding Techno inclinations and expounded on it, but it was the striking debut that had enshrined the name André Bratten in the electronic music scene in Norway and beyond. Be A Man You Ant hit a nerve with Disco riding a tidal wave of popularity across the globe and the album quickly found its own sweet spot just ahead of the curve. 

André Bratten was not unknown by the time Be A Man You Ant saw the light of day. He had carved out a name for himself in Oslo as a member of the delphic Hubbubbaklubb with its quixotic melodies and its mechanical rhythms. As a founding member of the group, he was instrumental in the early success of Hubbubbaklubb, playing a significant role in their breakout hit Mopedbart. Most would have been content as a lynchpin in that group, but such is André Bratten’s personality, that he is always looking to explore new worlds and new sounds in music.

He had already established himself in a studio across the hall from Lindstrøm and Prins Thomas and as the younger upstart amongst these relatively older heads of the Norwegian Disco scene, Bratten set out on his debut LP, tongue firmly in cheek.

“(M)y first record sort of started over dinner with Prins Thomas.” recalls André in an interview with Deep House Amsterdam from 2015. “I was just being a little kid trying to prove myself, and we were talking about this whole space disco sound, and I was bragging like ‘Making a disco record is easy!’ so I made a disco record even though he was obviously much better at writing disco than I was.”

André Bratten might not have the same prowess as Prins Thomas, but he definitely made it his own. His mastery of the studio would prove to leave no stone unturned in his approach to music and Disco too would not be left unchallenged. “I am a technical geek,” Bratten once told Electronic Beats during an interview and this fascination with the technical aspects of music has cemented in an impressive arsenal of vintage synthesisers and machines which are often talked about in venerated and covetous tones. Using these old machines seemed to play in Bratten favour when he was recreating the sonic signatures of this retro-fitted music, emphasising their inherent character which in part laid the foundations for the original genre. 

Happy arpeggios flit through dramatic soundscapes that contain all the drama of a Disco anthem without sacrificing the danceable beat. The opening- and title track paints by numbers as syncopated beats echo through vintage effects while euphoric bass-lines dig towards the centre of the dance floor. In a happy dichotomy however, there’s very little tying the record to compatriots like Prins Thomas, Lindstrøm and Todd Terje, who had already planted a flag. Bratten’s sound was bolder, and more striking and when you get to a track like Aegis other elements start coming to the fore in a serious divergence from the national tropes. 

“Aegis was a more Techno-ish, more British, more border community kind of vibe,” André Bratten told us in an interview with this blog. With just a “twist of Techno”, he produced something that sat outside the Norwegian Disco trends, and yet couldn’t be completely extrapolated from it either.  “I had to think a little about politics, I couldn’t do a super weird Techno record first,” he said, but elements of what was to come in the following EP was already there. It’s true that most of Math Ilium Ion was created and produced before his debut LP, but like everything else, Bratten’s approach was nothing but a calculated response to what he was hearing around him and finding his own niche within that. 

He didn’t want to be compared to Lindstrøm, an easy task for the media, who sought nothing else to pigeonhole him with his studio neighbour.  “It’s hard not to becauseI share studio space and use analogue synthesisers and drum machines,” he told Electronic beats, but Bratten was intent on making his own mark, and used tracks like Aegis, and his singular approach to the studio to make an indelible mark. 

There’s something more stark and at times abrasive to Be A Man You Ant and even when dealing with uplifting melodies, it’s clouded in a perpetual darkness. “You can’t make music that is not personal, sure, but that’s my arena, and it’s not for anyone else,” he said when we talked about the mood he creates on tracks like Aegis and Trommer og Bass. Whether he’s being manipulative or aloof is unsure, but he’s less inclined to talk about these “feelings” behind the music. “I don’t want to be a dictator of what people feel. I find people that need to talk about the personal input in their music need to see a shrink.” Yet, even to an uninformed listener they are ever-palpable in his music. 

Later in the André Bratten catalogue records like Gode and Pax Americana would emphasis and enhance the emotional depths the music can flow to in pronounced soundscapes orchestrated around melancholy electronica, but for Be A Man You Ant, they are very much subverted for the overall estascism of the Disco beat. There’s a depth there that belies the happy-go-lucky nature of the Disco formula as chirping synthesisers clash with dissonant harmonic movements, infusing the music with a sense of drama that only somebody like Arthur Russell could achieve. 

It was a brief dalliance with the Disco genre, but its impact some ten years on is no less significant. While André Bratten would go on to make everything from wavy pop-electronica to warping bleep Techno, Be A Man You Ant would be left to its own devices in the artist’s catalogue, a hermetically sealed slice of perfection for its time and beyond.

Bratten moves on quickly in terms of music, and you’ll never find an artist repeating himself in the studio. At times this even makes it hard to pin-point the results with any kind of artistic identity, but each record, including Be A Man You Ant has tis time and place in his wide arching catalogue. When we spoke to him back in 2015, he said;  “I think the Norwegian scene is missing a proper Techno guy, so I’m trying to be that guy.” For a while he was that guy, playing blistering live sets and making uncompromising Techno on records Math Ilim Ion or skiddish broken Electro on records like Valve, but what he established on Be A Man You Ant remains intact. Ten years on it’s a modern classic and a record that still garners some fanfare whenever it comes on. 

Fredfades is a prolific talent. An artist, a producer, a DJ, a facilitator and a label boss, he has his fingers in a host of pies, while maintaining a regular 9-5 throughout. A founding member of the Mutual Intentions franchise, his musical projects extend from producing records for the clan including Ivan Ave, solo records, a host of collaborative projects like those with Jawn Rice and Tøyen Holding.

In the past year alone he’s released a solo record, a collaborative record with Sraw, a Tøyen Holding record and oversaw a host of Mutual Intentions releases, all while DJing regularly in Norway and abroad. With the increasing popularity of Tøyen Holding, Fredfades has also become a household name in Norway, syphoning some of the group’s open-minded fans into the world of electronic music, and specifically House. 

Alongside his other efforts, Fredfades has positioned Mutual intentions in a unique position in Norway and beyond as a label, whose bread and butter is in Hip Hop, but whose musical exploits go into the farthest reaches of the dance floor and even Jazz. Alongside an increasing popularity for club music Fredfades star has risen with his classic-leaning House aesthetic finding the ears of new audiences everywhere. 

His latest record Caviar showcases his mastery of vintage synthesisers and drum machines alongside a knack for effervescent melodies and accessible arrangements. The album, like his previous records, straddles that elusive gap between the functional and the approachable, where they can exist both in the club space and a set of headphones. 

He’s just about to play Trevarefest in Lofoten when I call him up. “The weather up here can be pretty crazy, but this year it was alright, especially the first day which was amazing.“ he says. Trevarefest precedes his upcoming appearance at ØyaNatt for Jaeger on Wednesday in what is already a busy summer for the DJ. Between playing, making records and his efforts with Mutual Intentions he still has to maintain his day job and it’s at his computer I find him at this pursuit when we talk. 

*photos by Christopher Næss

What is your day job, is it still graphic design?

Kind of. I studied graphic design, but at the time there was nothing like UX. I changed jobs last year, and before that I worked for a company that does a lot of apps, for Norwegian and international companies. I’ve been doing that for 11 years. 

When you mentioned the work you do, some things kind of fell into place for me, because there’s quite a visual and physical component to the merch and extra’s you and Mutual Intentions produce; From the packaging on the vinyl to things like the silk head scarves. What’s in those kinds of things personally for you and how do you think it contributes to what you do musically? 

Yes I mean designer is my profession, and it’s kinda been all the way back since 2008 ish. But for the past twelve years I’ve been working non-stop with technology and user experience. I’m a very practical person, and that’s easy to see in my daily work as a designer/UX guy. I’m about solving problems, not designing in a way that creates problems, as some people choose to do.

 When it comes to our label and merch, I still don’t do much myself, we use Hans Jørgen Wærner (our in-house designer) and hire various external designers, and I do some very strict art direction and feedback with these designers/illustrators to get the most out of them and maintain the loud and clear way of design and communication that I do believe we (our label) tend to have as the only design principle/consistency across our projects. 

But to answer your questions properly: most people don’t have a record player but still like to support the artists they listen to. That’s why we spend a lot of time making nice products for all listeners, and not only record collectors and deejays.

I think I’ve asked you this before, but how do you find time for the music and everything around it, and manage to be so productive?

I just always make music on the weekends. I think it started out when I grew up. I lived in a very small apartment with my father and I was never comfortable making music when he was there, so I just did it when he was working on Saturdays and travelling.

What kind of music were you making when you still lived with your dad?

When I first got into it I started producing Hip Hop. I bought the SP303 – that was the first sampler – in 2005. Then I bought the MPC the year after and then in 2007, I got the SP1200, that’s when I really started making beats.  

I assume that you were still learning how to operate the machines back then, but if we return to the present, when you do work on music, are you working to get a song out each time you touch these machines or are you still exploring creatively?

How I started making beats was very primitive in terms of the process. It was always about over-dubbing. I would start out with some samples and then some drums, and overdub with some samples, and then overdub again with something else.

I never had a proper soundcard (used to capture the sounds on computer recording software). So I always arranged and mixed everything in the boxes, which meant that I had to make everything sound nice before I sampled it and then hit play on the MPC (sampler). 

It’s not until recently – probably 2018 – that I had a proper soundcard with multiple inputs. So now I work very differently. It’s kind of a more jammy approach to making music. I make rough drafts, with like six layers of sound and then I just dump it into the computer and open stuff later on and if I like it when I hear it later on, then I get to the actual production. 

Then you must be working on songs all the time at the moment, and from the outsider perspective it seems you are in this very productive creative period. 

Actually, I feel like I’m producing less. I’m definitely doing more sketches. I do hundreds of demos, but I only set a few aside for working on properly. 

With all these projects you’re constantly working from Tøyen Holding, to your solo stuff and the collaborative projects like with Jawn Rice, do you know what you’re working on from the moment of inception or do you only consider that part when you’re opening up one of these “demos”?

I never have any plans for my music, I just make it. For example, when I saw I had a few solo songs finished, I decided to put them together in a mini album. If I would have six or seven songs with Jawn, maybe we will finish a record. With the Tøyen Holding stuff, there’s a goal to work towards, like an actual Rap album with 18 songs. 

I guess the process is very different from making a Rap record to making a Fredfades record?

Yeah, the Tøyen Holding stuff is completely sample based. It’s not about composing or producing, it’s about having the backdrop and rapping over it. 

Do you feel like you have to be in a particular state of mind for working on music in general and does it differ for different projects?

I only make music if I’m feeling good. I’m not the type of person that gets inspired by stress or emotions. I’m always positive when I’m in the studio, it feels fun to be there and I always have a good time. 

Out of all these projects, it seems that Tøyen Holding has hit a nerve. Why do you think it’s so popular at the moment, and do you think it spills over to your other projects?

Yeah, I think it helped my Caviar album a little bit. Previously, it’s been a bit hard to sell the House releases in Norway, but this one went extremely well. I think a big part of it is because people know me from the Tøyen Holding project. I also think that club music has become very commercial and it’s a very normal thing to say you are enjoying Techno music and House music, which it was not 5 years ago. 

Between all these elements that you experience working with Mutual Intentions, between Hip Hop, dance music and even Jazz, what do you think is the main draw these days?

Our label has always been hard to grow as a label, because we have too many hats on. For us to put out Hip Hop music in Norway is definitely easier than to put out electronic music. Rap is the world’s biggest genre, so it will always appeal to more people than electronic music.

As I said, I also feel that electronic music is more commercial. It splits the scene in two; the people like myself, who tend to believe that I understand the history of the music and on the other hand you have the people who do festivals and spotify playlists, who mixed what we would consider genuine with what we consider sell-out. In my opinion the festivals should be responsible for teaching people about proper music, but sometimes it’s just “babes” in black leather bikinis playing 150 BPM techno.

Yeah it seems like it’s become about aesthetics rather than musical content, because everything is so determined by social media, good looking people playing terrible music and it’s spilled over into the clubs, especially the big room kind of places.

How I see it is people just know how to sell themselves, jump on the wave, and use it to generate money, or attention or whatever they’re seeking, and it’s not about the music. 

Of course, it’s a subjective matter. I just feel that together with the whole genre becoming commercial, problems (if you want to call it that) will appear.  

Let’s talk about Caviar for a bit, because as you say it is a club record, but it’s also something that is more accessible than your average House record, because of the vocals and the nature of melodies.  Was that a conscious decision on your part?

Not really. I like to DJ a lot and  play club music, but whenever I make music myself, it tends to be more introverted and laid back, which is more natural for me. I’ve always used jazzy chords and I make mellow music and it affects the way I think. I’ve never seen myself creating bangers. Some of them will be 128 BPM but they would still be a bit more mellow. 

There’s the definitive bridge in your music between Hip Hop and House, which reminds me of the early 90s and late 80’s when these things were a bit more interchangeable. Are  you trying to bring these two worlds together in the way you approach your own music?

No, it was never my intention. I guess it’s just where I came from. The very first House songs I liked were sample based, just drums and some loops, but after a very short time, I figured out the songs I really liked were composed and produced. 

Can you give me an example?

I think it was when I first discovered Larry heard and realised he didn’t sample anything. That’s when I really got interested in electronic music. That was the first thing I loved.

Was there any overarching  musical theme to Caviar, or was it simply the period that they were made in?

It was made over a couple of years. The way I did this, I had this playlist with all these other songs, and I tried to divide them into two different projects, where I prioritised the best cuts and spread them over two records. So I have another finished ready, which sounds similar because it was all from the same time.

Why did you decide to put out two mini records instead of just one for Caviar?

I mean – it’s not two mini records, I just had so much music that it made sense to turn it into several projects. It’s already 8 tracks on that Caviar album, which is a lot for the format, if you know what I mean? Some friends even wanted me to release them as classic 12″s/EP’s with only four songs on each release. But I kind of like to give as much value as possible to the customers that buys my music, and a lot of the music I make is kinda introvert and not very clubby, so it’s natural for me to think that it will be consumed more in an “album listening context ” rather than having the songs ending up played by DJ’s in clubs. That’s why I felt that it made sense. I’ll probably do the same with eight more songs, then go from there over to a more “Maxi-EP-focused” approach. 

So, was there any creative impulse that fed into these two projects, something like a synthesiser or a sound?

I really enjoy this sound from Italy and the UK from the mid-nineties, where they just used the stock sounds of the synthesiser. So when I buy a synthesiser, I just factory reset it, and I don’t create too many patches or stuff. I think it’s fun to use the ready-made stuff. I really like the references to the classic patches. That’s why I like these Italo and British records from the nineties, because it all just refers to the machines. 

In terms of writing the music, how much do the machines dictate the direction your songs take, or do you have a preconceived idea that directs you to specific machines?

When I do hiphop stuff, I like to sequence the beats I make on the SP1200 inside the SP1200’s sequencer. But when I do use that sampler for House music, I prefer sequencing the sounds stored inside the SP from an external sequencer, which in my studio would be my Sequentix Cirklon or my MPC 3000. I always work very layer based, because that’s where I come from. It always made me approach music production in a very primitive way. Sometimes I copy my sequences around and reprogram and arrange it slightly on the hardware sequencers first, but when it’s time to actually produce and process and arrange the music, I usually disconnect my Mac from my studio setup and work with headphones in Ableton and might then go back and hook it back in the studio setup if I would need another layer or sound or something. I’ve been making beats on the MPC 2000, the 2000 XL and the 3000 since probably back in 2007. 

This record, like your others, also features a ton of collaborators. Was there any reason you wanted these people on this record, and what do you usually look for in collaborators?

I feel really confident composing the foundations of the songs, the grooves, the chord progressions and stuff, but I often struggle with, for example solos. So I use people like Arthur (Kay) on my records. Otherwise it’s just random people that have been in the studio, where we’ve been drinking beers and making music together.

What about the vocalists, because a lot of them are American?

Yeah, they are all American. One of them is MoRuf from Jersey, he’s one of my favourite rappers. It was the first time for him rapping on a House song. The other guy is just somebody I stumbled across on instagram. His name is Kristian Hamilton, and he’s an extremely talented musician. 

While we’re on the subject of collaborations, I really want to talk about the SP1200 record. It’s something the geek inside of me really enjoyed because of the process of making the record. What planted the seed initially?

Sraw has always been an Internet friend to me, since back in the Myspace days. He was always one of the producers I really enjoyed listening to. We had so much similar equipment and similar interests. At some point, around 2012 (when we started working on this record), I decided to fly him over and hang out for a few days and create some beats. I’ve visited him in Sweden and we’ve just been going back and forth a few times. Obviously it wasn’t enough and as you can’t change the music digitally, we had to actually ship the floppy. 

Was there ever a vague idea of what the tracks would sound like completed, or was it a matter of getting the floppy back and it would be completely changed?

It was more about a layered approach, so we wouldn’t fuck up each other’s stuff too much. 

It was that raw beat-type feel to it, that really emphasises the character of the machine.

Yeah, you really don’t need that many elements with that sampler, because  you get so much free texture. It automatically sounds nice.  

Do you think you’ll do it again?

It took  a very long time to do that record. I don’t think we’ll do it again. I’m happy to release Sraw’s music on Mutual. It’s extremely great. 

International and local acts fill the week in August as Jaeger yet again hosts two floors during ØyaNatt tin 2023 again. Tickets and lineup are up now.

When the sun sinks on Tøyen park and the last of the live acts echo down the hill we give in to nocturnal habits and make a beeline for the city where ØyaNatt starts to simmer and dir with the sounds of club life. In the annual tradition, Jaeger hosts two floors across the week including the Wednesday in 2023. Telephones, Fredfades, Teebee, Dave Clarke, Anémi, Chloé Caillet, Paramida, Slindre and Ellka join our residnets and residencies for a week of club music where we pull out all the stops and things like budget and common sense go out the window.

This year BigUP hosts a floor from the basement with a night of Drum n Bass and Jungle featuring a local treasure and a world-class drum n bass icon Teebee. We’ve got the Baron of Techno, Dave Clarke on the other side of Helt Texas and this Frædag showcase some rising stars in Chloé Caillet and Paramida alongside Oslo club concept, Lokomotiv. In a turn this year, Sunkissed takeover the sauna for the closing party with Elkka and a live performance from Vinny Villbass.

Here’s the full lineup and schedule:

09.08 – ØyaNatt x Bigup

Fredfades (NO)
Telephones (NO)
Teebee (NO)
Drunkfunk + Fjell + Tech + Simon Peter (NO)

10.08 – ØyaNatt x Helt Texas!

Dave Clarke (UK)
Anémi (NO)
Normann + Ole HK (NO)
Manu Rochina (NO)

11.08 – ØyaNatt x Lokomotiv x Frædag

Chloé Caillet (FR)
Paramida (DE)
g-HA & Olanskii (NO)
Slindre

12.08 – ØyaNatt x Sunkissed x Nightflight

Elkka (UK)
g-HA & Olanskii (NO)
Vinny Villbass (NO)
Sunkissed allstars (NO)
MC Kaman & Kash (NO)

Tickets are now available via our ticketco page and you can find more info about the events on our program page.

In the BCR triad of creators we’ve spent a lot of time focussing on two, namely Anders Hajem and Henrik Villard. Always at hand with the next release, a mix or some kind of musical news, Anders and Henrik are responsible for the majority of BCR’s output, seemingly, but not actually, neglecting their third, Perkules aka Jens Wabo. 

While Jens has been the quieter member of the group, his presence is no less trivial. As a founding member he orchestrates much of the label, events and now mix franchise, even while as an artist he favours a more conservative output. Apart from a couple of singles in 2021, he’s remained content with his duties behind the decks, and when he does release something he offers a little outlier to the norm both at BCR and any concurrent dance floor trends. 

His latest, “Show me Right” is an infectious exercise in crossing the lines between saccharine bubblegum melodies and functional House grooves. With a percussive palette going off-script in the Roland X0X annals and with uplifting chords issuing from some distant nostalgia, there’s a lot to appreciate and much that entices.

It’s only his third release, all of which come via the BCR platform, and challenges any generic status quo in terms of sound if any did indeed exist. It arrived on BCR last month and with more slated for the near future including a remix from Justin Cudmore for Perkules, there is much percolating on the Perkules front, so we took at as a premise to finally interview the third member of BCR and complete the triptych. 

We caught up with Jens during a sunny day in June, the week after launching the return of their Summer Residency, Sundaze at Jaeger. Like Anders and Henrik, Jens is a reserved character, a stoic quiet kind of person that seems mature beyond his years. We have much to discuss, and to me he’s still very much a blank slate, a piece of the BCR puzzle that will finally complete our purview of the Oslo label and events series. 

Where do you fit into the BCR universe?

Anders and Henrik are super ambitious in their artistic pursuits. They  are constantly in the studio making three to five songs a week, and their music keeps getting better and better. But my output is not that consistent, so it’s hard for me to have that as my main thing.

Were you producing music before you met them? 

Yes, but not that much. Anders and I had grown from mainly Rock music into (House) music together. I was kinda dragging him in. I make music 20 minutes at a time in these bursts of inspiration. 

Did you start off with DJing or were you still playing in bands when you started discovering House music?

I guess both. Bands were way before. When Anders and I met, he had recently bought some DJ gear and then we started playing around with that together. 

What sort of stuff were you playing in the band?

Anders played guitar and I played drums.

And in terms of music, what did it sound like and what were you drawn to?

Where I’m from, in a town called Tonsberg, which only has 40 000 people, having to play in a band is all about compromises. It was bands like Queens of the Stone Age, Turbonegro, and scandi-wave bands like Hellacopters. 

What  got you into electronic music?

I feel like anybody that has an interest in music, has some cool uncle figure that just pushed music in their direction. I have two older brothers like that. Since I was  5 or 6 years old, every christmas and every birthday I would get really cool CDs, like Discovery from Daft Punk and Melody A.M by Røyksöpp. But I had to re-access it when I was a little bit older.  

I guess when you were learning to play drums and as a teeneager you really got into a one track mind where you avoid anything that is not related to Rock music or drumming and it takes a while to rediscover music that was always there in the background?

Probably. I think around the time Daft Punk’s Random Access Memory was released, which was a good bridge into House music.

That record celebrated 20 years this year. What was it about that album for you?

The way I assess that album is that they tried to make a synthesis of all the records they sampled in the past. It’s kind of like George Duke, early Michael Jackson, and Chic with Nile Rogers on the guitar. 

And that got you into electronic music in terms of DJing or producing? 

I’ve always been interested in how things work. So, when I found Daft Punk again, I was straight into Youtube to find some videos of how they sampled and everything. It probably all came at the same time, the sample stuff and listening to “alive” and some of their DJ sets, even though it was more machine based. 

From there you slipped in House and deep House. 

Yes, and more commercial stuff. 

What kind of stuff?

That was early Spotify days, around 2011, Probably whatever was cool back then. I have no clear picture, but it was mostly deep stuff and French-wave too.

In the structure of BCR, how do you differ from those guys in terms of the music you DJ?

They are hungry in a way that I don’t feel I can match. If you are going to get that good in something like music, you have to be monotone in a good way. They have that, and I’m all over the place. Henrik is good at keeping his sound, in terms of building his identity as an artist. For me that goes beyond music. I have some other things I would like to do. 

That brings me to your last release, “Show me Right,” because that’s almost like a bubblegum track and very different from the other stuff coming via BCR. Was that a conscious decision?

Yeah. I feel like we’re privileged by having our own (platform) that we can experiment in that way. That song has been ready for release for over a year. As we started playing at Jaeger a bit more we tried to incorporate a bit more proto-House and synthesised-bass disco. I got super-inspired and tried to make something like that. It was hard to nail the sound. We had originally been in touch with Storken to help us release it on other labels, but that fizzled out, and we released it ourselves.

Which helps with expanding the catalogue of the label again.

I feel that the releases should have a strong identity, that’s most important for us. 

Listening to your next release, Echelon which has more in common with nineties  big-room House music, it seems you’re easily swayed into new avenues in music.

Exactly. It’s hard for me to do stuff that I’m not 100%  into and that shifts all the time.

Justin Cudmore is on that record too as a remix artist. How did you meet?

We never met, actually. We are super fan boys mainly. That’s our first identity and our second identity is producers. So, we just reach out everywhere. We wrote to him and he actually lived in Oslo for some time. 

Why did you want him to remix that track specifically?

Anders and I, when we got super into more club music, Justin’s Twisted Love EP was a top ten EP of all time. 

What’s your process as you start making music, what instrument kicks it all off?

Drums mainly or I find one specific song that I love and I just have to figure it out. I feel like when you listen to as much House music as we have to, it tires easily. You wouldn’t eat the same pizza for days in a row, for example. 

Do you think knowing how to play drums has an effect on how you approach electronic music?

Probably. If I’ve read an interview with a producer and in the interview it comes out that they play drums, it often makes sense to me. The music is mostly rhythmical instead of melody-based for me. It’s more important where the notes are located than what note they are. 

Playing at Jaeger as much as you do, especially in summer for your Sundaze residency, do you believe it has had an impact on the way that you DJ?

Yes. We felt more confident to look broader; I think that is one of the advantages of Jaeger, the musical identity is broad. 

Do you ever feel the pressure in the current climate to pitch up your tracks in a scene that is going faster and harder all the time?

When we started in 2019, that’s when it really started to happen and we were also more into Techno and faster stuff at the time. Then we thought let’s see what goes on in the other direction; to look in the cheesy department and see what’s the least cool thing and rather play that if the songs are good rather than being in a coolness arm-wrestle with those guys. 

And it’s not like they are not drinking from the same fountain. It might be faster and harder, but there’s always a vocal line and a melody. 

I agree. It’s 2000’s pop stuff with an acapella over a fast rhythm track. 

Does Sundaze have any effect in the way you’ve approached your sets?

What we talked about after last summer was, playing 5 hours every Sunday over summer is the best way to get better. We’re just trying to explore more, take more risks and trying to take advantage of having a consistent 5 hours together. When you play once a month you have to go back some steps every time. We can just start wherever we ended last week. 

We speak to the creators of Dorm!tory to talk queer theory, music and a safe space to play ahead of their event this Wednesday.

…And when the lights go out… “that’s when the Homies play”. 

Dorm!tory arrives at Jaeger this Wednesday. A new concept from some of the people behind Evrysome, Dorm!tory expands on the queer philosophies of its predecessor in an event that redefines queer as  “something more related to the fluidity of gender” in the club context. Its creators, Pedro Leal, Eduardo Miranda, Johannes Strand, Daniel John and Terje Dybdahl represent every corner of the globe as “a gay group inside the queer group and a queer group inside humanity.” From the Philippines, to Mexico, to Brazil to… Mysen, the group are a multicultural mix that cover a couple of generations of club enthusiasts. 

For their first event they’ve invited kindred spirits Por Detroit’s Perfect Lovers. As their Mexican counterpart Por Detroit reflects some of the same queer ideologies Dorm!tory will set out to adopt and alongside Bears in Space, Dick Dennis, DJ Brødskive, globaldrama and O/E they’ve amassed a musical lineup that will soundtrack Dorm!tory’s conceptual designs.  

We met the creators behind the event on a rainy summer’s day in Jaeger’s bar where they spread themselves over a couple of chesterfield sofas. Besides Terje Dybdahl (Tod Louie / Dick Dennis), introductions are necessary before they dive into the creation of this new concept.

“In the queer discussion masculinity is a topic that is outside of the identities that are inclusive, because of how toxic masculinity has become through the years,” according to the creators and they hope that the event will be a “solution for the toxic masculinity that affects everything inside or outside the queer world.” They want men to take ownership of the topic of masculinity. Why “should we have the feminist do all the work” they ask as they seek to create an “event that can bring back masculinity and men as the focus group,” which they then hope will add to the discussion of “new perceptions of gender and patriarchy.”  

All of this happens in the abstract, and for Dorm!tory to succeed it needs to be a party. The name reflects “something sexier and kind of secret” to appeal to their audience which still include gay men in every hue of the rainbow spectrum to a point where it can include “straight men that enjoy other men’s company.” 

They want to “build an infrastructure where we can all thrive and dance with each other” even if you fall between the gaps of every identity group out there. The collective hopes Dorm!tory will be that space where the exclusivity of certain events and spaces would be negated. 

For the youngest generation that might have “lost something, especially with covid” in what was already an era fraught with minefields in social interaction this is more important than ever for the group. “Growing up with social media,” in the way that this generation has, there’s a “different way of approaching people.” There’s an inherent “scepticism” which has only hardened with the “social isolation” we encountered with covid. As a group they hope to create a space where it’s “ok to just have a chat with someone” without the judgement that is taken at a superficial value through something like Grindr.

“At the end of the day we are humans with different needs and the friendship and the connection is most important.” Dorm!tory seeks to have a truly democratic space where you can stand “shoulder to shoulder” with somebody different, and there’s no better place for that than the dance floor in their opinion. 

In that context the soundtrack plays an important role and as such they’ve decided the programming at this party will definitely be rooted in the 70’s and 80’s; “First and foremost disco and house from the eighties.” They’ll look to “gay icons” like  “Patrick Cowley and Sylvester” for inspiration, paying homage to the roots and early “history of house music and queer culture.” They’ve assembled a host of DJs to relay that message for the very first session with even somebody like long-time Dick Dennis favourite, O/E abandoning his stoic Techno uniform for some 80s hi-nrg disco. 

They’re especially “honoured, having Perfect Lovers and Victor Rodriguez” from the queer concepts “Por Detroit” and “Bears In Space” from Mexico City in L.A. The booking happened almost as a “calling from the universe somehow.” On top of that, the burgeoning Oslo queer- and ballroom phenomenon Globaldrama and the established DJ Brødskive start a very busy billing with the incorrigible Dick Dennis completing the lineup across two dance floors. 

In what they describe as a “celebration of the night,” at the apex of the witching hour they’ll go completely dark in the basement, simulating the situations of collective dormitories where the Homies play, when the light turns off. It’s an opportunity to “explore each other blindly and not be judged by appearances,” and even “break the rules” a little. 

With so much of the queer scene being infiltrated and co-opted by a straight majority, it’s important for Dorm!tory to retain some of that rule-breaking and non-conformist ideologies that permeated queer culture from the start. “Dorm!tory doesn’t assume the queer identity as an umbrella, but we take the demand of people who are escaping out of that umbrella.”

We discuss safe zones, being provocative, Oslo’s queer scene, everything about satan and sex, and the legacy he leaves behind, as Deadswan bows out of the DJ booth.

Reidar Engesbak is the absolute anathema to every pearl clutching conservative out there. He is a queer artist that has re-appropriated every stigma middle-establishment could throw at him and co-opted it in a provocative creation that is part politics, part performance, and consumes every fibre of his being. It imbues his many different guises; Deadswan the DJ, Enegesbak the journalist, Reidar Deadswan, the eternal club kid, and when we go further back, Genitalia and Sadomaoistan too.  

For over thirty years, he’s been a pillar of non-conformity on Oslo’s queer scene (although he’s originally from Bergen) with some confluence between the extended LGBTQI+++ and DJ scene, pre-dating even some of Oslo’s most established selectors. His club nights Strictly Kinky and Iconoclastic, live on in infamy today, while his progressive politics continue to find an outlet through the written word as one of the leading voices of Norway’s LGBTQI++ magazine, Blikk. At the height of his notoriety, performances as part of Genitalia shocked and caused outrage as he and his peers paved the way for the next generation of queer people. 

At the heart of all these different projects that Deadswan’s created over the years is something that is “always sex positive and always very queer” and in terms of music this would be captured in “dirty samples and raunchy sex stuff” and include “everything that is about satan and sex.” 

Strictly Kinky would give queer people their first space in Oslo; Iconoclastic would brandish banners admonishing any form of facism; while Genitalia would rebuke any form of homophobia. In one of Genitalia’s most notorious exploits, they doused Eurovision star and “pray-the-gay-away” advocate Carola in beer during their performance at Rockefeller. The incident caused quite the furrore, leading Reider to write an op-ed piece explaining the group’s actions through Blikk, incidentally laying the foundation for a career in journalism through those very pages.

Today he’s one of the elder statesmen of the scene and he’s more likely to start a conversation than cover an unsuspecting audience in blood (more on that later). While by his own account he has “mellowed” with age, he remains politically active and continues to be a visceral voice and face on the leading edge of the queer scene. His provocations have tempered with sobriety and married life and in his husband – “who’s handled so many of my quirks” – he’s also found “a rock”. And with this new clarity in his life, he’s decided that there will no longer be any Deadswan to direct some of his energies in the future.

As of the 1st of July 2023 during a DJ appearance for Olle Abstract’s LYD, Deadswan will be laid to rest, the final swan song and a celebration of one of the most thought-provoking and exciting DJs to emerge from Oslo. Why is he choosing to bring it to an end now? I met up with Reidar over a reserved coffee to talk about this and the impressive career and legacy he leaves behind as he retires the moniker. 

Deadswan: Let’s get one thing straight. I’m hopeless when it comes to years and you know, remembering. So we have to wing it. 

Mischa: That’s fine because what I want to start off with was something recent; the fact that you’re stopping Djing. Why?

Deadswan: I don’t know. I’m at this place in my life where… Okay, this is what my therapist said: “You need to find out who you are without the DJ thing.” When I get invites, it’s always as Reidar Deadswan. I think I’ve felt kind of trapped in working this face on the gay scene. So I’m trying to figure out what I’m going to do. 

Mischa: And what’s that?

Deadswan: Move out of the city. We have a house in the country. I really liked my own company. I’m not afraid to be alone. 

Mischa: Earlier, you talked about being provocative. Have you always been provocative; even as a kid growing up in Bergen?

Deadswan: When I was growing up at school they tried to bully me, but you can’t bully me because I always knew that I was different. Every week on Fridays for instance, we had this class hour where you could bring music and play it to the classroom. I always had to play last, because then the rest of the kids could leave. It was just me and the teacher playing new wave. They didn’t get me at all. The teacher got me. 

Mischa: Was music an important part of being provocative right from the beginning?

Deadswan: Yes, I remember when I discovered Soft Cell. That was an eye-opener for me.  That’s always been my group. 

Mischa: From the first album, the Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret? 

Deadswan: Yeah, that one and before that it was Adam and the Ants. I went on a school trip to Oslo and they had this shop in Grensen; where they sold t-shirts and bondage gear and stuff.  I came home with an Adam and the Ants t-shirt with bondage imagery, and my mother was like,” what?” I  wore that to school and my bedroom walls were full of Adam and the Ants and then Soft Cell.

Mischa:  Tainted Love would have been huge, though. That was in the charts. 

Deadswan: Oh, yes. It was a huge success. People write them off as they were one hit wonder but they had hits. I mean it was really memorabilia and non-stop erotic dancing –  which is picked to be the first ecstasy record – I never heard anything like it. 

Mischa: So when you are playing this kind of stuff to the kids in the school, even tracks we consider hits today, they still thought it was weird?

Deadswan: They didn’t understand anything. 

Mischa: Following these acts, were you just listening to the music or were you also trying to emulate them in terms of how they presented themselves, like what they were wearing?

Deadswan: Yes, I went to school with my homemade bondage trousers, based on Adam Ant. You know, obsessed!

Mischa: At what point do you think like;  okay, I’m playing all this music. Let me try and put it together as a DJ set.

Deadswan:That was when I moved to Oslo. Because when I moved to Oslo, I got involved with queer activism, and we had this group called the pink rebels. We were running around at night, spray painting walls and having demonstrations.

And then we started taking over London pub (Oslo). One of the guys who worked there, who was also in pink rebels, got the opportunity to use the back room. It was an empty space so we got to make our own club there, called Shame Club. That’s where I started DJing. 

That was during the whole Madchester wave. So, it’s Stone Roses, Happy Mondays and British dance music like S’ Express, but of course Georgio Moroder, Donna Summer, Sylvester. 

Mischa: Was there a big scene in Oslo for that kind of music back then?

Deadswan:  No, we were one of the first places to play Acid and British Dance, but I always mixed it up with stuff like Deutsche American Freundschaft, Nitzer Ebb and Front 242. 

Mischa: Was there a bit of a queer scene happening in Oslo at that time? 

Deadswan: No queer scene. It was just the gays. Even there, we were the weird ones, we were the queers and they were the gays.

So then we started Strictly Kinky. Trying to cater to the more alternative crowd, but without sexuality being the main issue. So, we knocked on So What’s (where jaeger is today) doors. 

They were really reluctant. Because we had already started this group called Genitalia, which was doing performances. So they were like, “we’re not sure if this fits here,” but we were regulars so they knew us. 

They gave us a Sunday during Christmas and we redecorated the whole club. We built a huge vagina that you had to walk through, which we could never do today because he was made of plastic. If there had been a fire we would all perish. (laughs). We covered the walls in anime japanese porn.We made a real fetish club and people who dressed up got in for free. There were strictly no photographs allowed and we had performances, like a guy in the corner polishing boots. 

Mischa: It sounds like a torture garden.

Deadswan: Yeah, it was absolutely based on torture garden and it was a success. So What started giving us more dates, not like proper Fridays or Saturdays because it was still too alternative. But eventually, they saw that we could pull the crowd, and then we got very big headed. 

So we thought; “Let’s take this back to Bergen.” We rented a big pink bus and called it, “The magical Oompa Lumpa tour.” We filled it with freaks and drugs and went over to Bergen, where my parents were sitting on a patio looking down with a glass of white wine watching the freak show unfurl. 

Mischa: At what point do you start doing the iconoclastic stuff?

Deadswan: When So What closed we moved Strictly Kinky over to Kraftwerk, with Chris Lynch. And then after a while Little Wolf came along, So then that’s when we started, Iconoclastic. And then we moved it to Kill Your Ego.

Mischa: Was it a continuation of Strictly Kinky?

Deadswan: No, it was separate, it became more about the DJ. 

Mischa: This would have been around the time, or even before the time of our Electroclash became popular?

Deadswan: Yes, it kind of co-emerged.

Mischa : There was something in the air where people got tired of House and Techno. Did you go through the same thing? 

Deadswan: I didn’t get tired of it. It was more about looking backwards and finding the more obscure electronic sounds and movies. Liquid Sky was a huge inspiration for being weird and alienated, you know.  It was kind of tongue in cheek, but electroclash was still really frowned upon.

Mischa: Is that the kind of DJ style you always liked and preferred? 

Deadswan: Yes, I didn’t beatmix at all.

Mischa: When did that start?  

Deadswan: It started at Kill Your Ego, when I started playing with Lynch and Little Wolf, because they are really turntablist. I hung out there after hours iust playing and mixing and recording every night.  I could never beat mix on vinyl though. I have a huge library of CDs, and I’m not sure what I’m gonna do with it after Deadswan. (laughs)

Mischa:  At the same time you were doing Iconoclastic in Oslo, we  also had parties all around the world, especially in London, doing similar things, like Erol Alkan’s Trash. Was something in the air at that time for you? 

Deadswan: Yeah, We travelled to Nag-Nag a lot. I got to know Johnny Slut and Fil OK. Which was amazing because they were doing the same thing as we were doing. But the thing that differed Nag-Nag in London to Iconoclastic was everyone was speeding their tits off in Oslo. We brought over Princess Julia and we brought over War Boy and they were just shocked by the amount of drugs in Oslo. There was a kind of punk energy in the clubbing here.

Mischa: That reminds me of what you talked about earlier Genitalia. There was a very punk element to the performances that somehow also found its way on national TV.  From what I saw in a Youtube clip it was something like Club Kids doing sesame street. How did that happen?

Deadswan: We got this call from NRK and they said you want to come on an audition and I was like, no, I don’t want to be on national television. But we got there and dressed up like we used to, and we said:  “If we’re going to do this, we have to do it our way.”  I mean, they’re really strict, but they bent the rules for us. We did it for a year or something every Thursday. 

Mischa: What was the theme?

Deadswan: The theme was trend. We got sex-exploitation movies that we reviewed on air. We showed clips and then we talked over them. Describing what we were seeing and stuff. It was really trashy. It was kind of a talk show. Tongue and cheek, absurd. 

We got these really weird fan letters from jail from a guy who watched us religiously. He had this business idea that he would go to Germany and dig up all Nazi skulls and make them into piss pots and go to Israel to sell them.

I put this letter on facebook many years later and somehow that post ended up with this guy. So he sent me a message and befriended me. (laughs)

Mischa: Did he end up creating his business?

Deadswan: No, he didn’t. He had some issues, but he came out on the right side.

Mischa: Genitalia was a performance group, first and foremost however, was there a musical component to it?

Deadswan: Well, we got a record contract, and the guy who ran the record company also wanted to be our manager, and we were like; “what? This is weird”.  We didn’t end up doing that. 

Mischa: But you did end up in a musical group, Sadomaoistan. 

Deadswan: Yeah. But that was just the performance part.

Mischa. And what did that entail? 

Deadswan: Things like cutting ourselves…  On one occasion, I got this cleaning bill from Rockefeller because of that. Genitalia were Siamese twins, so we had these corsets joining us. And then we just got out our razors and started cutting each other.

This was at an AIDS benefit. Because we thought, “What’s the most scary thing that queers can experience?” Yes, sperm and blood! Nobody got it. We had such fun, but backstage was just full of blood so we had to pay for that.

I have this great picture of me with all the cuts. And then the photographer was “just one more, just one more” and I fainted. 

Mischa: And what did the organisers say, they were not happy?  

Deadswan: No. It was the same when we went to euro pride in Copenhagen. We were booked on the main stage and pride had become such a corporate thing. So we thought “let’s do something provocative.” The vocalist ate a lot of chilli con carne. And at the end of the show, we attacked him and – I’m not sure what we put into his mouth – but when he had to vomit, he vomited a rainbow flag.

The organisers came and took our badges, and ordered us to leave and “don’t come back!” We were always kind of more queer than gay. And we wanted to challenge the whole idea of this gay community thing. Sometimes with intentions and sometimes just for fun.

Mischa: I think people like you probably paved the way for a lot of what’s happening now especially in terms of being queer and being a DJ, but at the same time that kind of thing would not fly these days.

Deadswan: Yeah. The thing is, now, it’s all about safe spaces, you know. Everyone has this list of things you’re not allowed to do and we never had that. If we had any trouble, we had to deal with it. And I’m kind of worried that people are lulling themselves into this safe zone thing. There is no such thing as a safe space. You have to maintain it.

I think everybody should be woke, I can’t see the problem with that. If you have these kinds of strict rules; no homophobia, no transphobia, no racism, no sexism, you have to consider how you deal with it if it occurs. That’s where you have to have the focus. 

Mischa: Although you were in Sadomaoistan, you never tried your hand at music?

Deadswan:  No, I had always been a fan. I tried to go into the studio, but sitting listening to the same sound bites over and over and tweaking just bores the shit out of me. I always think that the best music has been made or someone is sitting making it now so i’m gonna discover it eventually. 

Mischa: Do you feel like the music that you played had to be an expression of who you are?

Deadswan: Yeah. That’s why I always loved everything with dirty samples and raunchy sex stuff. 

Mischa: What are you playing these days?

Deadswan: Yeah, that’s a question. I don’t want to say Deep House but I mean, I like epic, K-hole, tunnel stuff. I really like (I can’t say this,) Nina Kravitz. I mean what the fuck happened to her? I don’t understand but I really like her. I think it’s really hard to pinpoint what I play. I go back and forth. 

Mischa: Is there any period that stands out for you in terms of Djing?

Deadswan: Iconoclastic. Because we mixed everything up from, a-ha to Plastic Bertrand to Leila K to Kraftwerk. I remember DMX Krew was booked at Kill Your Ego. He played upstairs, and we had Iconoclastic in the atrium. He was just standing there looking up at us, and he was just; “what the fuck is this?” He did not get it at all. I think he came when we played “I’ve been losing” you by a-ha.

Then I wasn’t limited to beat mixing. But once you start beat-mixing, it’s really hard to get out of that loop. I was much more free when I didn’t beat mix. And then it becomes kind of like, you don’t want to fuck it up. So, I think that’s the drawback. 

Mischa: That brings me back to why you’re not DJing anymore. Is that part of the reason?

Deadswan: I’m not into the party scene anymore. Everything goes in at 140 bpm now. 

Mischa: I thought 140 BPM would have suited you?

Deadswan: Well, it’s the same as getting into black metal, if you really dive into it, you find the piece in there. And I guess that’s the same with the Techno that’s being played now, but I’m not really invested.

Mischa: That’s interesting. Because I thought this would have been the perfect time for a character like Deadswan to exist.

Deadswan: Yeah. Well you know like bands they always do come back so you never know, I just want to go out without this. I want to focus on other stuff. 

We give the keys to the basement to Flux Collective for every Friday in July.

This is what the sound in the basement is made for; machine music with designs on the bottom end and a dance floor. For one month in July, we’ll explore the soundsystem’s limits with a residency from the Flux collective. The Flux collective take over the basement for a whole month as Naboklage, Skodde, Anémi, and Bjerregaard bring their Techno concept to Jaeger with a host of friends and international guests joining the collective at Jaeger. Featuring appearances from Rove Ranger, DJ Broke, foufou malade, Nattl4mpe, Alsén, Betong, Take Kataka, The Unborn Child, Minus Magnus, Olav Eggestøl and BUGRUPPE90. 

With a host of international guests and a fair few local friends, Flux make the basement their home in the first of a Frædag x Flux joint venture. Frædag keep it cosy in the Gården with g-HA presiding over the weekly residency with guest appearances by Vinny Villbass, Mental Overdrive and Hetty while Flux shake the foundations down in our subterranean liar.

You can find all the events on our programme page.

From his earliest days as a young DJ and enthusiast around the likes of Paradise Garage to his award winning work as one half of Masters at Work, Louie Vega is a House music institution today. We sat down with the DJ and artists between soundcheck and a set at Jaeger to talk about legendary sound systems, DJing as a 15 year old, MAW and the next  step in the Vega dynasty.

Louie Vega has played on some legendary sound systems throughout his career, especially when he was starting out. He was there during the dawn of the club sound system in New York, when people like Richard Long and Alex Rosner were designing some of the best sound systems for the likes of the Loft, Paradise Garage and Zanzibar. These places and systems would become the archetype for everything that we know today and inform much of what Ola and Jaeger’s been creating down in the basement over the years. 

Louie Vega is as much a disciple of these sonic prophets as he is the continuation for their work and legacy. He was there at the source and is one of the direct descendants of audiophiles like Rosner and Long and the DJs that made those sound systems great like Larry Levan and David Mancuso.

It takes a while for that to sink in as Louie darts between each speaker enclave in Jaeger’s subterranean sonic liar; his enthusiasm for a sound system has not tempered in the slightest. 

“That was a special time,” intones the New York DJ  through a smile, when I ask about those early days in New York. “Those were the pioneers and the ones who laid down the blueprint.” New York at that time was a mecca for sound system culture, and from the impromptu street battles (which Louie knew all too well) to the legendary clubs that were born during that time, we still hold in much esteem as the catalyst of our culture today. It was like the city “had 25 Ministry of Sounds,” according to Louie and it’s this legacy that still informs everything he represents today. 

“I’ve been around great sounding sound systems as a kid already,” elaborates Louie. He was “not even playing the clubs yet,” when he started “going to the clubs and listening to the DJs and absorbing” everything. He might have been half a generation too late for places like the Loft, but as soon as he could, he started going out to the likes of Paradise Garage with his older siblings. Louie recalls his first acquaintance with Paradise. “I was 15 when I got into the Garage because of my sisters. I went to a members-only night. That was the first time I saw Larry (Levan). I’ll never forget hearing all these great records like ‘street player;’ all these records that we love now, we heard them there early.”

At 15, Louie was already a veteran DJ, having started from the impossible age of 12. By his late teens he would be established. Hosting block parties around the Bronx from a young age –  ”I had a big soundsystem too; six stacks” – Louie started amassing followers in their thousands and by the time he got his first  shot at an established club, he “brought all the young kids’” with him. That led to his first residency at New York’s Devil Nest, and every Friday and Saturday night he would have the place packed. “I had 2500 – 3000 kids in the club at that time, I was only 19.”  Alongside the other established DJs of the time like David Morales and Tony Humphries, Louie was “the kid” and the honorific “little” stuck because of his relative age. 

Over the years Louie dropped the “Little” misnomer as he became one of the elder statesmen of House music and DJing during the late 1990s. As a solo artist and one half of Masters at Work with Kenny Dope, Louie Vega is a household name today within House music echelons and beyond. 

“How are the ears,” I wonder after all these years listening to these punishing sound systems. He says he’s been “lucky” that they’ve been holding up all these years, without much extra thought to protection – although he has an appointment to be fitted with earplugs soon. 

Louie’s unalienable American ability to engage and his ebullient character makes conversing a pleasure; a humility that’s down to earth. Throughout his career he’s become a monolith in House music circles, a true legend that stands shoulder to shoulder with the likes of Frankie Knuckles and Larry Levan and one of the pivotal figures in bringing House music to the masses. “That’s what they say,” he says in a coy smile that suggests he doesn’t agree, but with 8 grammy nominations and one on his pedestal, Louie Vega has the accolades to validate that claim. 

He continues to be a giant in our scene today, with a legacy that spans generations and continues to hit a nerve even if it’s out of the influence of popularity. Judging from his social media he is always playing or on his way to playing somewhere and yet he still finds the time to release a record… or four. 

His latest, Expansions in the NYC is a quartet of records that celebrate his hometown and offers a birds-eye view of the sonic quality of the party-series that Louie operates under the same name. Elements of House, Funk, R&B, Afro, gospel and those omnipresent Latin influences converge on the extended LP with the help of some heavy collaborators. Moodymann, Kerri Chandler, Joe Clausell, Honey Dijon and many more assist in Louie’s love letter to New York city. It’s a family affair with the presence of his wife Anané and son Nico, really reinforcing the connections across twenty two classic House tracks and on Cosmic Witch things get eerily serendipitous as a song originally composed by Dwight Brewster.

“The crazy thing” says Louie “is Dwight Brewster, he wrote that song – and he was in my uncle’s band on the first album.“ That uncle is Héctor Lavoe of course; the latin crooner who worked with the likes of Willie Cólon and Fania All Stars in congress with a successful solo recording career. Between his uncle and his father, an accomplished musician in his own right, Louie found a firm foundation from which to build his own musical dialect. His formative years in music had cemented something early on for Louie. “When it’s around you,” he says of the music, “it instils itself in your brain and in your ears and you start developing.” 

It seems this has gone full circle in the Vega family, with Louie’s son now showing the same kind of potential for music as a younger Louie did. As the son of an accomplished DJ, Nico Vega used to follow his father and mother around the globe as a kid, joining them for the likes of their various Ibiza residencies and Miami winter conferences, where daytime events allowed the younger Vega to be around them as they worked. “It’s always been in his blood and in his mind,” suggests Louie, but it seems he’d been pretty reserved about exploiting the family business.

Although he played piano and guitar, he never showed much interest in his father’s home studio, ironically called Daddy’s Workshop. It was “not until I invited him,” that Louie says he saw some potential in his progeny. After hearing him play and programme keys in the studio, Louie gave his son an Ableton studio setup from which he could explore this latent talent further. Louie “started hearing bass-lines and beats, and I was like what is going on, this sounds like records I would play.” It ended in Nico Vega actually mixing down a track on Expansions in the NYC. “It’s amazing… He learnt it on its own,” beams Louie like any proud father would. 

Later that evening Jaeger’s basement is filling and people are starting to press closer to the front. The air seems suddenly charged with something. Towards the back, where there’s more space, a crew of younger dancers, have been breaking out some fancy footwork the entire night, but even they seem to turn their attention to the DJ booth as people cheer on the guest of honour. Louie, wearing what has become his signature wide-brimmed hat, cuts in the first track and sets off. 

The crowd is a heady mixture of young and old, touching on most of Oslo’s cultural sectors, much like Louie’s music touches on those eclectic sounds of New York’s diaspora. I remember Louie’s last appearance at Jaeger and it’s a very similar crowd and I brought it up with him during our conversation earlier. “When you go to my parties it’s a mix,” he says happily and he’s become aware of the generational spectrum that occupies his dance floors. “That’s the way it is now,” he agrees. “I get the parents and the kids, which is beautiful.” Some of the parties he plays in New York, still bring out those original faces that followed him from the Bronx into the city all those years ago. “They kept on following me wherever I would go,” he claims. “Even to this day, some people that come to see me play in the clubs, they were there 40 years ago, it’s crazy.“

The main difference between then and now however is that Louie has a lifelong career as a DJ and producer and when it comes to House music records, the name Louie Vega and Masters at Work has become synonymous with the genre and he maintains that position by staying relevant, with an incredible enthusiasm that just won’t seem to wane. Does he ever feel he needs to stay contemporary though?

“I’m doing my own thing, and the goal is to create your own lane,” comes his reply. He has dominated that lane for his entire career, and his sound has become so intertwined in the sound of House music it’s often difficult to extricate the name Louie Vega with House music. As a recording artist, he’s “dedicated 35 years” of his life to the genre and from the first record he did in 1988 to his latest that dedication has been determined and consistent. 

It all started innocently enough for Louie. He was still cutting his teeth in New York’s club scene, playing his records to the dedicated few he brought with him from the Bronx, when record labels started noticing his skill. It was still a time when label heads and A&R guys would be visiting clubs to hear what works and what’s hot. “They always wanted to know who’s new and who’s happening,” and Louie ticked all those boxes for Joey Gardiner, the A&R man for the legendary label Tommy Boy records.

“There’s this record that I picked from Minneapolis, called Running by Information Society,” recalls Louie about their first meeting. Running “became the biggest record of that club and when we got the band to perform there was a line around the corner.” Joey Gardiner sought to licence the record for Tommy Boy and with Louie’s predilection for the dance floor in mind, enlisted the DJ for remix duties on the record. “I never remixed a record,” thought Louie at the time, “what am I gonna do? Gardiner said; Louie… just come into the studio and tell me what you hear.” Suddenly all these elements that Louie hadn’t heard on the original jumped out at him from the mixing console. “I heard all this movement,” remembers Louie gesturing in the air.

“Next thing you know, that record became huge and from there things started growing. I did another one for them, ‘What’s on your mind,’ and that was a pop hit.” It was Louie’s first foray in touching the charts with a House track but wouldn’t be the last. 

“I was doing pop music,” insists Louie, “but trying to give it a little dance thing.” Working from little more than a drum machine a keyboard, pop artists like Debbie Gibson started enlisting Louie for remix duties, and when Marc Anthony eventually called for Ride on the Rhythm, the success and cross-over appeal of that record, would lunch Louie Vega into the upper tier of recording artists and make him a household name across the globe.

Everything coalesced with Ride on the Rhythm including Masters at Work. It was right around that time that he first met Masters at Work partner, Kenny Dope. Louie tells the story:  “I was in the studio  for six months, I wanted him to make beats for some of the records and he ended up working on a lot of it. From there I was like we got this thing that feels good, let’s make a record from scratch and we did that Ride record on the B-side of Ride on the Rhythm. And I was like; there’s something here, it’s a different feeling- this happens when we’re together.” 

From there on Louie Vega only existed in the context of Masters at Work. They would continue remixing pop artists like Debbie Gibson and Marc Anthony, but these remixes would take on a different form, stripping back the originals to their essential parts and reconstructing them in what would become a uniquely Masters at Work sound. Louie and Kenny would “use the B-side of records and put Masters at Work dubs” on the other side which used little more than a hook.  

“Imagine hearing Britney Spears today,” explains Louie searching for the analogy, “and  there’s a dub in there that’s underground. That’s what we were doing. And then everybody wanted a Masters at Work mix.” And everybody is hardly an exaggeration. In the 1000’s of remix credits MAW enjoy, names like Michael Jackson and Diana Ross make regular appearances, and  with names like Bjørk and Ce Ce Pensiton dotted throughout, there was nothing that Louie and Kenny’s midas touch didn’t reach. 

It cemented the Masters at Work sound and also put those records in the hands of an ever changing audience. Coming across a MAW record today in a used shelf, it still elicits a special feeling, like you’re holding something of innate quality and extraordinary power. It’s the result of “working 14 hours a day for ten years,” according to Louie. “That’s why it had such an impact – it was a big body of work and it was consistent.” And there is still more to come from it. Recently Louie and Kenny have been unearthing a treasure trove of forgotten sessions from that time in a new series called MAW Lost Tapes.

“MAW lost tapes are all those old tapes from those ten years,” explains Louie. “We took them out of storage and as we looked through them we found new music we didn’t hear before.” Pieces of records that landed on the “don’t use” piles all those years ago are now being recontextualised in a series that’s 3 releases deep so far and has much more to give. 

It’s just another project in a never-ending stream of projects for Louie Vega. His work ethic is incorrigible and yet when you talk to him there’s effortless ease to the persona, like he’s just stepped off a beach somewhere. Making time for our conversation between a soundcheck and a dinner reservation, while trying to arrange a lost bag from the airline, Louie doesn’t wear even the slightest sign of stress on his entire demeanour. It’s something that he carries with him to the booth as well and its effect is infectious. There’s an enjoyment there that has diminished little and it encapsulates everything, from making records to playing records, and hearing a new sound system for the first time.

It’s hard to let him go, I could ask a million questions. We barely skate over his time during New York clubbing’s heyday, the creation of MAW and what it was like to win a Grammy. He talks in reverent tones about wife Anané’s music, label and their DJ collaboration for The Ritual – “That came by mistake” – and in the laundry list of names he praises, people like Larry Levan and Frankie Knuckles make regular appearances. There’s a humility there that seems unusual in the context of his own contributions to this music.

Listening to Louie later that evening in the basement, that affable nature permeates through the music, and its effect on the dance floor is visible. People crowd the booth, and at the end of the night, everybody is eager to get a picture with Louie Vega. He respects every request, a smile never leaving his face, and then he is off to his next appointment. 

Words by Misha Mathys

Steffi has been there at every stage of club music. From playing the dark bunkers in her native Netherland to that 5am slot at Berghain where she holds a residency, and then back to some obscure hole-in-the-wall in a  2nd city, Steffi’s range as a DJ extends far beyond the scope of whatever style-du-jour-box people try to place her in. There’s an instinctive quality that tugs at the core of the body and a sensibility that goes way beyond the immediacy of the beat. 

It’s something that extends to her work in the studio too, where she can deliver the enthusiasm of peak time at one end of the spectrum, or delve deep into the inner workings of her machine with scientific-like precision at the other end. At the core of her work is a innate understanding of the legacy of this machine music, hewed to a pristine perfection that has covered a fair few albums and Eps, most of which for Berghain’s Ostgut Ton imprint if not for her own labels, like Klakson, Dolly or the newly established Candy Mountain imprint. 

Candy Mountain marks a new chapter in Steffi’s career, coming at the same time as a permanent move for her and her partner Virginia to Portugal from Berlin and providing a platform for her latest LP and the first album outside of the Ostgut franchise, The Red Hunter. A label, studio, retreat and much more, Candy Mountain sits alongside Klakson and Dolly in Steffi’s extensive scope on club music. As an artist, Red Hunter took Steffi’s sounds on the borders of the dance floor with broken beats, and brooding synthesisers floating through the arrangements. Dedicated to her late mother, the record finds Steffi in a reflective and serene mood, without completely disengaging with the sound of her club sets. 

There’s a lot that’s in flux with the sound of Steffi’s sets at the moment and a lot in congruence with the sound of her Klakson label. Where Dolly took up most of her time during her tenure in Berlin it seems Klakson has focussed Steffi’s attention towards the sounds of Electro, EBM and the dance floor’s outlier genres. It’s taken up a clarion call for these genres and styles with artists like 214, Fastgraph and The Hacker contributing to the label alongside Steffi’s own contributions and her collaborative projects like Negroni Nails. 

Does this mark a new phase for Steffi, and how has her move to Portugal affected her music and her pursuits as a DJ? With these questions and more burning, we sent off an email to Steffi ahead of her appearance at Jaeger tonight. 

Let’s start with Candy Mountain, and your  move to Portugal. It seems like you are establishing an electronic music community down there with studios, a label, a retreat. What is the history behind Candy Mountain and what does it all entail?

We bought a house in Portugal in 2017 to spend our time between Berlin and the Portuguese countryside. In 2020 we wrapped up our lives in Berlin, ended up moving everything to Portugal permanently and we set up Candy Mountain. Candy Mountain is a label, studio space and creative hub. It is an artist-driven platform based here in the countryside of Portugal but operates on a global level. The studio sits in the middle of nature. artists can live and work under the same roof with zero distractions in a tranquil environment. The perfect space to work and also connect with the local scene in Portugal. we both feel that it’s important to give something back to the place we moved to and welcomed us so we hope to do so with this new concept

.I know you and Virginia had already been living between Portugal and Berlin in the past, but what inspired the permanent move?

We wanted to move eventually but covid 2019 came and we were in lock down in our house in Portugal and realized it was not going to be a small one so we decided to pack up Berlin as traveling up and down became impossible.

And from what I understand, it’s a little outside Lisbon, and somewhat remote. Why there?

Nature!

I know this might be a bit of an abstract thing, but do you think it’s had an effect on your music and anything in terms of DJing since the move?

It had a massive effect on my mindset in the positive sense. It’s much easier to unwind here than in a city and I am focussed on different things here. 

So far Candy Mountain is an exclusive vehicle for Steffi, but I assume that will change as the results of these musical residencies come to fruition. What’s going to be the first release from a guest artist and what’s going to be the process for selecting music for this label in particular; does it have to come out of that studio specifically?

CaMo002 will be a 12 inch by Tracing Xircles with an amazing D-Bridge remix! Nothing needs to come out of the studio in the end but it’s there if people want to come over and use it for a possible release. Locals or artists abroad. It’s all about options and making things happen in the end. The idea is all about collaborations with people we appreciate in our inner circle and opening the door to the scene here in Portugal.

Tell me a bit about the studio, because your Berlin studio was well documented in the past. Has it basically been transplanted from Berlin to Portugal and what if any fundamental changes have affected your workflow?

It’s basically a mirror from what I had as a set up in Berlin merged with Virginia’s studio. The workflow is pretty similar actually. On top of that, we have a great outdoor space for small parties and get-togethers and the ground floor is a super cosy studio apartment to stay in with a dj set up.

I am aware of the thematic concept behind Red Hunter in terms of a record dedicated to your mother, but was there a specific musical concept or goal behind it?

I have been writing this album over the last 3/4 years and the foundation of these songs were done in so many different settings and places rather than writing it in one go what I normally would do. Looking at it from a more conceptual aspect I really wanted to dive deeper into my rhythm sections and take that to a next level. More definition and detail was my main goal. Small melodies on top of complex and heavy beats. Rhythm becoming an melodic element. The red hunter, it’s the first track I have written in this particular vain/mood and also defines the sound of the whole album perfectly for me. When I finished this track I knew I wanted to write a whole album in around this song and it was clear where the sound needed to go. It gave me the kickstart of the whole creative process for this album basically.

Candy Mountain finds itself in what is already a busy label franchise from you, alongside Klakson and the Dolly suite of labels. Where does Candy Mountain fit into that spectrum in terms of sound and concept?

It has no stylistic boundaries so we can just jump and take a free fall :-)

How do you decide what gets the attention and what goes where, especially in terms of our own music?

Well klakson and dolly have shaped themselves up quite well during the last 20 plus years. Dolly is more house and techno related and klakson has always had a focus on electro so that line is quite clear. I don’t feature myself too much on those labels because I always wanted to release other people’s music and build up artists for those platforms. I have worked with ostgut ton for my solo stuff mostly and when it was time to spread my wings it was the perfect time to found a new imprint for my album with Candy Mountain.

It seems in recent years Klakson has also taken over a bit from Dolly in terms of your focus. I know you’ve said in the past Klakson is a label you’ll pick up when the time and the music is right for it. What is it about this period and the music you’re bringing out on the label that has encouraged this flurry of activity recently?

The beauty is that I can play around so much and one does not exclude the other. Important for me is though when there is nothing to tell on one label, it just takes a pause so it never loses quality but just takes a nap. klakson woke up because the time was right and had a lot to tell. It’s a great dynamic to juggle between brother and sister. Stay tuned because there will be some interesting new stuff coming on Dolly. She has new stories to tell. 

Personally, I feel that it is the perfect time for a label like Klakson to exist, with something a little more cognitive for the dance floor. And I feel from listening to your last LP and some of your recent mixes online, that you might feel the same. Where do your musical allegiances lie at the moment when it comes to what you’re listening to, playing and making?

My pallet is so wide when it comes to playing and making music. I find it very unattractive to focus on just one thing as my taste is simply too diverse. I am a music freak and I buy whatever I like to hear and play whatever I feel like. I love being able to have a side of me that produces and plays abstract electro, IDM and broken stuff and the other side that loves dance floor stuff like house and techno. It’s always been like this. It resonates on my labels, dj sets and through my productions and remixes. 

If we listen to an early track like Yours, and then most of Red Hunter there’s a clear distinction there, but then if you throw in a track like All living things from 2017 there’s an evolution too. As an artist how do you reflect on these different periods in relationship to where you are now musically?

Evolution. For me it’s a journey and I have dreams and goals and ideas on the horizon I wanna reach. All of what I have done so far are logical steps in my creative development. Like I said I love being able to go abstract and push the boundaries there but I also love to write straight up dance floor stuff. Over the years as a producer I became more and more skilled to be able to do that and this is amazing for my creative expression.

Is there any relationship to the music you’re making today compared to what you were listening to and playing back when you started in the Netherlands as a DJ and promoter?

Yes, I knew all along that one day I wanted to make an album like the red hunter one day and of course the musical influences shape you as a producer big time.

What was your focus back then in terms of music and how did it inform what would become a  career? 

The passion of music has been the main drive. Always. I never had any plans to be making money from dj-ing or producing music. This all went gradually to be honest. I do have to say when I moved to Berlin in 2007 I was aware that this could be a possibility for me to drop my work as a free-lance graphic designer and live off of my dj gigs but even then I wasn’t focussed on dj-ing being a career. Is it a career or am I just doing what I love most, making music, throwing parties, dj-ing and releasing other people’s music? When it all gets serious, yes it becomes a business but the main focus is and will always be music, music and music. 

Going from somewhere like the south of the Netherlands to Berlin and then to somewhere remote like Candy Mountain, is there a sense of coming full circle for you and what’s the biggest fundamental change for you as an artist and DJ between those early days and now?

I am from a small town in the south of Holland and I could not wait to move to the city when I was 19 because it was suffocating me big time. I lived in Australia in 1996-1997, then Amsterdam for 10 years and then Berlin for 13 years and at some point I closed a certain city life chapter for me and really wanted to be in nature and moved to a village with 200 people. How ironic hahahahah!. That’s quite the full circle journey I’d say. like technology, the biggest game changer in the scene. For example virtual reality and the global impact it has. Quantity over quality, visibility over anonymity, virtual reality over living in the moment. So on so on so on ;-)

Ok Steffi, that’s all the questions I have. Thank you for indulging me and I only have one more request. Can you play us out with a song?

Last Days Of Innocence by Driven By Attraction

I can’t pick just one song, because I love the whole EP!! :

With a whole host of guests, including an international visit, this year’s 17th of May promises to be like no other.

Away from the honking brass of marching bands, tucked in an alley just beyond the slow moving procession of Norwegian banners, Jaeger offers a brief dalliance with a dance floor. A dance floor filled with everything from Brunader to sneakers, in a sunny courtyard in May, with soundsystem contirubuting to the festive noise that swathes the city for Norway’s National day.

This year is a little different… with a national holiday the next day, allowing us to extend the annual DJ marathon a little longe into the night with more DJs than ever, including a visit from Skatebård and DJ Boring on the same day. We kick off from 12:00 in the courtyard and pace ourselves throughout with some of our closest friends joining our residents across the two floors.

You can see the full lineup below as well as on the official event.  We’re doing limited guestlist spots for those that want to secure entry early, so please contact us at info@jaegeroslo.no for more information.

Gården

12:00 Kash & MC Kaman
15:00 Anders Hajem, Henrik Villard, Perkules (Boring Club Records)
17:00 Olle Abstract
18:00 Guy, Fritz, Nordiks (Futoria, French Voyage)
21:00 Skatebård
23:00 Dara
00:00 g-HA & Olanskii

Diskon
21:00 Mapusa
22:00 Synne
23:00 Ole HK & Normann
01:00 DJ Boring

Chez Damier’s legacy is dotted through the history of club music. From its early days in Chicago to its heyday in Detroit and its satellite adventures in New York, Chez Damier was there. What started on the dance floor went on to the booth and beyond as he became an uncompromising epitome in the nascent sound of House music with tendrils of influence that extended towards styles like proto-Techno and to new regions like Paris. 

He played pivotal roles in the creation of  KMS (Kenny Saunders’ label), the legendary Music Institute in Detroit and the Belleville Three (Techno’s original figureheads) before going on to establish his own path with Ron Trent in the creation of the now legendary Prescription and Balance Records. Besides contributing to some of the label’s biggest releases like Foot Therapy and Morning Factory, the labels also offered a platform for the likes of Romanthony and Stacey Pullen, from which they went on to achieve greatness.

Chez Damier’s contributions to dance music in its earliest forms were fundamental to the development of the scene and its eventual popularity. By the late nineties he and Ron Trent had been installed in the annals of House music as legends, but such was Chez Damier’s integrity and dedication to the music that when he could have easily cashed in on his popularity he instead took an hiatus. When Ibiza and festival stages came calling, it was so far removed from those humble beginnings, that he took some time off and waited out the storm.

After what would become a lengthy absence, he came back even more determined and more enthusiastic. He took up Balance records where he left off, established House of Chez alongside, and immersed himself back in the scene as a DJ and an artist. As a producer that always sought that collaborative artistic process he has engaged with many new and exciting producers, establishing projects like Heart 2 Heart, and channelling that impetuous spirit of House music’s origins into the present for the next generation.

He is, needless to say, an accomplished and seasoned DJ with the accolades of a veteran in his field and yet he is still buoyed by that enthusiasm of his 15 year-old self, discovering House music for the first time. His sets are undeniably unique in today’s landscape and as he prepares another for Jaeger we caught with the DJ, producer and label owner to find out more. He talks about those early days; his hand in coining the term Techno; new beginnings; and having that last dance with Frankie Knuckles.

*Chez Damier plays ByPåskefestivalen this Wednesday

Hello Chez. It’s truly an honour to be speaking to you. I believe we’re catching you at an interesting period with the new label House of Chez and a lot of new music coming from you. Is there something particular about this time and place that‘s inspiring these new projects?

Yes, it’s a new generation. With a new generation there’s always new inspiration. So, new inspiration and being able to continue to sow back into the community or the culture that we’ve worked so hard to keep going.

House of Chez alludes to your interest in fashion. I’m reminded of something that Sadar Bahar told me; that House music was a lifestyle more than a genre of music back at its beginnings. Is this you bringing these two worlds together again and where is crossover for you in these two creative outlets?

Yes, since I started out, I’ve been inspired by the fashion aspect, so now I’m going to incorporate that in probably doing some merchandising, some shirts and t-shirts. I think it’s a full circle for me in particular, more than anyone else.

I believe there’s a Heart 2 Heart album on the way too. What can you tell us about it and what does it represent in terms of where you are at the moment in terms of the music that inspires you?

That’s like my baby now. That’s the first album project that I’ve ever worked on. It’s just special all the way around. I can’t tell you if there is anything particularly special, but the sessions were amazing. It was all written and recorded in Paris over a four and a half year period; going to Paris four and five times a year, for about a week at a time. So, it was a long process because of the distance. We never once brought the project into our own world, only when we came together. H2H is a super special project for me. 

This new project is you working with another artist again. You’ve worked with so many people in the past, and some legendary figures to boot. How is H2H different, and how is it the same as the other collaborations?

Actually to be honest with you, the only thing that changes when working on this project or collaborating with other people, is that you grow. So you learn how to put the egos down, you learn how to put the muscle flexing down, you learn how to cohesively understand people’s energy, and that’s something only time could have taught me. Especially someone who has as much energy as you, so this makes it more special than all the other ones. 

Funny enough, I was talking to MK about doing a mix on this project, because he was the first person I was a student of and it was kind of funny talking to him about my first new album project versus the very first time we worked together. What makes it special this time around, is maturing. 

In H2H’s case your partner is somebody with strong Techno associations. Back in the day there was a lot more of a fluid approach between dance floor genres, and over the years it’s gotten more reductive. As somebody with a foothold in both the origins of House and Techno, how do you get around those strict parameters, especially today?

Actually technically, I’m probably the first in the electronic business to combine House and Techno. Because my roots were in Chicago, dance culture was also in New York, but my experience of music was in Detroit. So, Detroit is where I learnt my sound, and its combination (of all that). I don’t get around it actually, I just look at it as energy. Here’s what I want to do, I want to share my soul. I know it could be easy to follow the trends and do the 3 seconds hands up in the air. I just refuse to do it. If I have to do it, I quit. Don’t get me wrong, the person who has energy has energy from the start. I like it all, and I’m always going to incorporate it in my music and my sets. 

You’ve not only been a part of a scene, but actually helped establish it. What keeps you motivated and drives the momentum in your creativity and work these days?

It’s always knowing that you don’t know. It’s always having the wish that you want to try something you haven’t tried before. It’s also learning more about your energy and how to work with other people’s energy. So, to me that’s the inspiration. I’m not an on-demand artist, I’m not a machine. So when God gives me the inspiration to do something, I’m just doing it. I’m just being a vessel at this point. 

I know you took a little break from it all back in the early 2000’s and I admire your resolve at that time in not going down the hyper-commercial rabbit hole. Ultimately it was the right decision, but what brought you back into the fray? 

What brought me back is this young artist out of Paris named Brawther. He brought me back, because he made me realize the initial mission was never completed. When me and Ron started Prescription records, it was the intention to find like-minded artists like us, we created Balance to be that extended service of artists that also were motivated and inspired by different sounds. When we divided, I shut the whole thing down. So it was always like cutting something off and never seeing the continuation of it. Years later, Brawther gave me the inspiration to realize it wasn’t over. 

What was the hardest part of coming back into it?

There was no hard part at all. It was very welcoming, thanks to Red Bull, thanks to Cyber distribution in Paris, thanks to my publisher in Paris. All of these people were very supportive, encouraging me to either reissue things or come back into the game. These people made it possible for me to do it without being stressful. I have Secret Sundaze to thank, because Secret Sundaze were also responsible for letting me be the first one to sign to their agency. That was really inspiring to work with them. 

I heard it mentioned that you actually coined the original and first Virgin “Techno” compilation record, which went on to label that whole sound as Techno. Do you remember the circumstances around that and your involvement with that legacy?

Yes, I was the one that suggested it to be called Techno. I was just joining KMS at the time, and Derrick (May) was one of my DJs and the music institute. It was just like being ahead of my time, understanding what Juan Atkins was doing and trying to create something that I thought would collectively speak for what was happening at the time. Yes, along with Neil Rushton, I was the one that made the suggestion that we call it the Techno album. Many people don’t know that.

Do you have any regrets today in how Techno has been adopted as this kind of catch-all term that has somewhat gentrified the esoteric origins of that original Detroit sound?

I don’t really like what’s happened in Detroit today, to be quite honest with you. Because Detroit has narrowed the focus to Techno when it was a music capital since the beginning of time. I just don’t like where it’s going, I don’t like the whole kind of ”this is our situation,” when it took many people. It’s like; if you don’t understand the history, you don’t understand the future.

You were there for those seminal moments of House music’s creation from Chicago to New York. What were some of the key experiences for you personally during that time?

Actually it wasn’t even about personal experiences. It was about the newness. We were all fascinated by the fact that there were music bars and conferences that were built around this new music that we were being a part of. It was really inspiring to be face to face with other artists that were behind it. We didn’t have press at that time to show who these artists were. So when we were going to Chicago or New York it was always amazing to finally meet, greet or see these other artists. It was a very inspiring time, at least for me. 

As somebody with this incredible legacy that you have, and the experiences you have from the booth, what were the most fundamental changes you’ve experienced in the scene over the years and what are some of your thoughts on where we are today compared to when you started?

One of the things that I would love to see more of when I have the pleasure to play, is people engaging and enacting with each other more, being inspired by one another. This will always be amazing to me. The things I don’t particularly care about, is what I see at a festival level. This quick sensation that people are getting for this peak moment, is complete suicide, if you ask me. To me, at the end of the day I don’t find it edifying. At the time, I think it’s going to cause some future problems. 

Listening to a Chez Damier set today, Is there an element of something that people would find instantly familiar as Chez Damier, even as you play music from others?

Yeah, I mostly play music from others, and I’m still playing demos from myself, so people don’t know it’s me until they ask me. For me it’s more or less the same. In the beginning, I played more classics, because it was something that I had to prove my roots. This time I actually have the freedom. Before I was coming in with all my guns, but now I get the chance to tell a story. I think over time, people will be able to recognize me by the energy I bring and not necessarily about what they see.

Communicating with an audience is essential to the DJing experience and for that there’s usually a common ground between them and you. How do you maintain that connection with audiences that keep getting younger and younger and what other factors do you feel you are constantly having to adapt to as a DJ today?

I always put myself in their position. I was fifteen years old when I first got mesmerized by House music, and I was sixteen years old when I had my first Frankie Knuckles experience. So for me, I’m just giving back what I was given. It’s easier to relate to a younger audience when you can remember when you were young. 

And besides that… what are you packing these days in terms of music and are there any records you’re particularly eager to bring to Oslo and Jaeger in a couple of weeks time?

Apart from a couple of cuts from the new album, just my presence, I’m eager to bring. And hopefully the spirit of Frankie Knuckles, because the last dance with Frankie k was in Oslo 9 years ago , which is also the anniversary of his passing. So for me, it’s an emotional moment, this year in particular. So it should be exciting. 

The full lineup for Bypåskefestivalen 2023 at Jaeger will include Chez Damier, Dan Shake, Traumer and Funky Loffe

Apres ski in the city with a whole load of bass. We descend from the mountain slopes to the heart of the city, where a wall of sound awaits. Insulated in the warmth of our funktion one system our basement cabin offers a refuge in sound for the city dwellers and nocturnal pariahs. We host a weekend of uncompromising talents for our annual Bypåskefestivalen again at Jaeger. Featuring guest appearances by Dan Shake, Funky Loffe, Traumer and House legend Chez Damier,  alongside our residents and their local guests. See the full lineup below and head over to facebook for more event info

05.04 Bypåskefestivalen:
Chez Damier
Prins Thomas (6h set)
O. Blom

06.04 Helt Texas!:
Traumer
Normann + Ole HK
Capodanna + Ida B + Sondre

07.04 Skranglepåske x Frædag:
Dan Shake
Oskar Pask + Petter Celius + Umulius
g-HA & Olanskii

08.04 LYD:
Funky Loffe + Olle Abstract
MC Kaman + Kash

09.04 Foot Food x BCR:
g-HA & Olanskii + Vinny Villbass + diskJokke
Anders Hajem + Henrik Villard + Perkules

10.04 Mandagsklubben:
André Bravo + Thomas Sol + Jennifer Bravo

Hi all, DELLA here. This week I took the opportunity to chat with, Slindre (formally Snurrebass), an up and coming House DJ and founder of Norway’s fiercest queer club night <LOKOMOTIV>. This Saturday, he will be joining me in the basement for Della’s Drivhus and together we are going to set the club on FIRE. Are you ready to get your groove on? I am!

Slindre, thank you for taking the time to chat with me. Let’s get down to business. 

I am so excited for Saturday! Can’t actually believe that I’m going to play at Æ with you!! A friend of a friend attended your event in Gøteborg a couple of weeks ago and absolutely loved it. I’ve never played B2B with anyone before, but hey, it’s gonna be fun to do it for the first time with you. 

You and I just recently met and our love of House music made us instant friends. Please, can you tell us more about who Slindre is? 

Slindre’s heart beats for House music and melodic techno. I love a groovy bassline, cheeky lyrics and soulful vocals. And I live for sweaty dance floors. 

How long have you been DJing?

I ordered my first DJ gear in January 2022, so that makes it one year and three months to be exact. 

What made you want to begin DJing?

I’ve been listening to House, disco and techno for as long as I can remember. Music has always been a source of happiness and a sense of freedom for me. I’m always searching for new music. I love the feeling when I discover music that makes my jaw drop and gives me chills from head to toe. The last couple of years I started to get more and more fascinated with how DJs managed to build up sets like stories, with a narrative and exciting twists and turns. I wanted to start DJing quite some time before I actually did, I guess it was something as boring as janteloven that held me back. But, luckily that wasn’t enough to stop me from going for it. I was immediately hooked. 

You formally went by DJ alias Snurrebass, why did you decide to change your artist name to Slindre?

Hehe, well. When I got my first gigs last spring, I couldn’t completely own that I was a DJ, and Snurrebass had a kind of an ironic twist to it. Now I don’t feel the need to distance myself from being a DJ anymore, so Slindre just feels more right. 

Who are the producers & DJs that inspire you most?

I keep finding new inspiration almost daily. There is almost too much good music out there! But, I definitely draw inspiration from Honey Dijon, Todd Terry, Dennis Quin, Green Velvet, Mr. G, Superlover and Saison. Lately, I’ve also been listening to Roy Rosenfeld quite a bit. He produces really smooth and beautiful downtempo tracks that move me emotionally.

Do you produce music?

Not yet! But I am definitely planning to. 

You are the founder of the new HOT queer concept LOKOMOTIV. Can you tell our readers more about your club night? 

LOKOMOTIV is a passion project created by me and my husband for lovers of electronic music and dancing. Everyone is welcome at LOKOMOTIV, but our target audience is gay guys. So far, it’s been a massive success with a packed dance floor on all four events. It’s been a blast! We even took the event to Stavanger in March. Check us out on Instagram @lokomotivclub

What inspired you to start Lokomotiv? 

Well, there were two reasons. Firstly, we wanted to create a club concept we ourselves felt was missing in Oslo. Secondly, in the beginning it wasn’t easy getting gigs at my favorite clubs. LOKOMOTIV became an opportunity for me to share my passion for music with a big crowd.  

Do you feel there is a lack of queer club nights in Norway?

Yes! That’s why we started LOKOMOTIV. We’ve been saying for years that there aren’t enough queer club nights, so instead of sitting at home complaining, we decided to do something about it. 

Why do you feel it is important to showcase queer artists in music? 

Representation is important everywhere. But when it comes to House music, club culture and queer history, they share an important bond. The underground clubs were a place for queer people to get together, party and be themselves long before we could do so openly. I play music with a lot of gay references in different ways, mostly because it’s really good music, but also as a nod to gay and queer history.  

What are your thoughts on current social issues such as USA wanting to restrict drag?

It makes me sad. 

Have you personally experienced any obstacles being gay and being an artist?

No, not at all! And I don’t expect that to happen either. 

Do you work full-time as a DJ? What is your day job?

I’m a psychologist, specializing in family and couples therapy. So that’s really a contrast to grooving it out in the DJ booth. 

Do you intertwine the two into your music? 

Haha, well. I can’t say that I do. Not directly, anyway. The common factor is that I have a passion for both. And that both therapy and DJing a set is a process, which hopefully leave you feeling better with yourself and the people around you at the end of it. 

Other than the obvious (LOKOMOTIV), what is a favourite club / club concept you’ve experienced?

Oh, tough question. Some of my best nights out have been in NYC. I think I’m gonna say Battle Hymn, by Ladyfag. Elli Escobar is a resident and he is someone I hope to book for LOKOMOTIV one day.

Tell us what we can expect this Saturday in your set at Della’s Drivhus.

You can expect one very excited DJ who’s going to play the House music you didn’t know you needed. It’s going to be impossible for you to stand still.

Any upcoming gigs or events you would like to inform our readers about? 

We have many exciting plans for LOKOMOTIV in 2023. The next event will be in May and is going to be something special. I’m also looking forward to Pride at the end of June. I can’t disclose specifics just yet, but let’s just say that it’s going to be a good week for those of us who enjoy House music.  

I look forward to sharing the booth together at Della’s Drivhus! Together we are definitely going to create nothing but pure, rainbow vibes. It is going to be good fun, especially our B2B set. ❤️

Check out more of Slindre’s music here:

Have a listen to my opening set for my former guest, Mood II Swing. What a night! 

See you all on the dancefloor this Saturday. 

Follow me on my socials to stay updated! 

Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/djdella_official/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/djdella

Kisses, 

DELLA

Alienata occupies a unique space in the world of Techno with an all-encompassing approach that encapsulates everything from IDM to Electro. She’s thrived in the culture’s underground corners since taking to the decks in 2004, where she’s carved out a sound in sets that span “obscure electro, ACID, dub, IDM, dark disco, jakbeat, hypnotic techno, industrial atmospheres, break beats, cosmic jazz , UK electro, Detroit and Chicago” influences.  Traversing the outer regions of club music, Alienata truly channels an inter-galactic language through her musical tastes.

Originally from Spain, Alienata has been residing in Berlin since 2011 where she joined the Killekill (Krake festival) family on her journey to become one of the city’s most dedicated figures. Admired for her approach to club music, her sets pulsate with the energy of the dance floor as she pushes the dynamics across the whole spectrum of club music.  From the furthest recesses of Techno’s reach where artists like Aphex Twin reside to the functional club constructs that motivates movement, Alienata has a very unique approach to her selections. 

It’s not often that Biosphere and Neil Landstrumm are mentioned in the same breath, but like her sets, Alienata is both, not obvious, and distinct in her musical designs. It trickles down from her sets, to her production and her label, Discos Atónicos, where she has channelled her musical tastes into an equally determined platform over the last 5 years. Although versatile, she maintains a unique sound which is hard to pin down to one specific element and it’s through this that she stands out in the larger Techno landscape. 

Ahead of her appearance at Jaeger tomorrow night, we caught up with the DJ, producer and label honcho for further insight into her musical tastes and her approach to DJing and music. 

Hey Alienata. Where are you at this moment and what are you listening to right now?

Hello : )

At this moment I’m enjoying touring a lot! I’m having great experiences & connections in all the places I visit. In terms of listening 

I’ve read somewhere that you’re a fan of Biosphere. That obviously resonates with us here in Norway. To me, a record like Patashnik is one of those perfect records to play after a night out. Do you have a record like that; something you like to put on after a particularly good night?

Yeah, I deeply love Biosphere!

And regarding your question I think Substrata is that record I always found perfect to listen to after a good gig (or even after a bad gig! haha) Another one: Selected Ambient Works by Aphex Twin. 

I often hear Aphex in your sets too. Where is the crossover between the music you listen to at home and the music you play out?

Well, when I’m at home I tend to listen to slow beats, downtempo, I love that flow so much. Obviously “that flow” influences me when I make my musical selections. 

Versatile would be an understatement when considering your music and DJing and yet there’s something there that ties it all together. What is that fundamental element in your musical tastes in terms of making and playing music?

I think that fundamental element is a mix of galactic sounds, a sense of funk & groove & and a touch of psychedelia.

What first planted the seed for these musical tastes to develop and when was that? 

I used to help a friend who distributed records to most of the DJs in my city. First in a record store and then he would do it from home and I would give him a hand. I spent all my time listening to all kinds of music. I didn’t care about the genres or styles. were being trained without my realising it.

Has it always been about electronic music or was there a point or event that initially brought you to the sounds of synthesisers and drum machines?

Let’s just say that I have always loved rhythm and atmospheres, since I was a child. I used to listen to classical & psychedelic music all the time when I was about 12/13 years old. It was a kind of therapy for me. Through sound I was inspired to write and build parallel worlds where I could escape from reality. There were a lot of problems at home and I needed to transcend them in some way. Music has always had that “magic” component in my life.

Was there a big community of kindred spirits in Valencia when you were discovering this music and how did it influence your own evolution from fan to DJ? 

Totally! Actually I am originally from Murcia (not Valencia!) and yes, I have always had the good fortune to surround myself with spirits who were quite advanced in every sense of the word. Not only in electronic music, but also in krautrock, post punk or wave. Let’s say that when I discovered the language of music I did it almost in a shamanic way. 

How did you get into DJing and what do you remember of those initial experiences behind a set of decks?

It all happened when I was living with my friend who I was helping distribute records (I mentioned before) He had a brutal collection of vinyl, all kinds of stuff. We were all the time listening to music. And my curiosity grew and grew, so when I was alone at home, I used to sneak into “the magic room”, pick up records randomly (because I knew I was always going to discover something interesting) and start playing. And I would practise for myself, without anyone knowing it. It was almost a ritual for me. 

Were you exploring those bridges between IDM, Electro, Techno and EBM right from the start and what did you establish in your approach to DJing even back then?

I never had any barriers when I started to play music. Everything that fit or caught the attention of my ears had a place in my initial sessions. I didn’t care about styles. I could fit in the same session some Neil Landstrumm with Miles Davis’ Doo Boop and many other things in between. The music, beyond the styles, had a strength, a way of telling stories that in my way of understanding the sound at that time fit in. A bit mystical I would say.

Has it evolved in any significant way since then?

Of course, it has evolved in terms of knowledge. But the spirit is the same. 

I assume Djing remains your first love.

I deeply love to play music, from the deepest part of my heart. It’s the language with which I have learned to communicate with the world. Sometimes complicated to explain in words!

…and Discos Atónicos a close second?

Discos Atónicos is my baby.

I was previously involved in other record labels with my other collectives but in the end I was always left with the feeling that I couldn’t do 100 percent of what I wanted to do.

So after years and when I felt the time was right, I started with Discos Atónicos, Being my own boss and having all the freedom to edit whatever I wanted to edit. 

When you do make a track or remix something, is there an instinct to try and express a similar sound or mood in these pieces and how would you describe that mood or sound?

If I’m honest I don’t usually have a certain mood in my head when I make music but it’s true that there are certain patterns that I repeat: the broken rhythms, the atmospheres a bit dramatic, the bleeps and… I love pads! I need depth in some way. 

In an interview from 2019 you said you were in the process of re-inventing yourself. What was the reason behind this re-invention and what did it entail or lead to?

I believe that in the end, life is a process of reinventing oneself all the time. I have a terrible fear of boredom! I could say now, in 2023, that I am still in the process of reinvention and I hope it never ends! I say this with all the positivity in the world. 

When I think of Techno (and maybe this is just a generational thing) I tend to think of the kind of music people like you play. But Techno’s popularity has brought new, not always positive connotations to the genre. What are your personal experiences in the scene regarding Techno’s popularity today?

It is a bit confusing at times. Suddenly you hear “techno” everywhere. in clothing stores, on buses, at the dentist’s office! Even my mother suddenly has techno notions!  It has become something “popular” indeed and with it has come mediocrity, banality & sometimes pure entertainment.

I guess the popularity of the genre is certainly beneficial to everybody playing or making the style, but in general terms it seems to have marginalised the original counter-cultural spirit for the sake of a business model. As somebody that represents the former to me, how are you able to find  your place in this paradigm shift today?

Of course it has its benefits, at this moment in my life I can make a living from it, something that would not have been possible in the past. For me the most important thing is not to lose one’s own essence.  Don’t sell your soul. Keeping real for real. Keeping curious. Sometimes I get the feeling that it is almost an extravagance to say that but it is crucial. I feel it’s almost a kind of mission, to educate the ears, the fantasy, the magic of rhythm. I want to share everything I have learned (and am still learning) along the way. 

Where do you see it going, because at some point I think we’ll have to start making a distinction, by the time Beyoncé brings out a Techno LP at least?

Techno is like Pop Music, yes. Even writing this sentence I find it hard to believe, but it’s true. To be honest, I am a bit confused about this… but at the end of the day I always find originality, hybrids and fusions of styles which, although in a more accessible way, still seem interesting to me. 

What does this all mean in terms of finding new music or do you find yourself turning more to older records and re-issues?

I always check all kinds of music. There are a lot of current sounds that I love. I think that in the middle of all that we were talking about, there is quite a lot of quality, at least if you know where to look for it. And the reissues are also good, and of course, I always keep an eye on them, you always rediscover things that you might have missed at another time!

Quality is the key, old, new, whatever!

It seems more important than ever now for labels like Discos Atónicos to exist. What are some of the challenges of releasing a record today in the contemporary landscape and how do you overcome them?

It is definitely becoming more and more complicated in terms of economics and waiting times.

Especially for underground labels. In my case there is even an extra complication because I self-distribute it. Prices have risen sharply since the pandemic times.Shipping costs have gone up. 

Everything has become more expensive, shops are buying less copies… it is a loop. I am currently considering releasing more material digitally and limiting the series on vinyl. After all, as a consumer I use digital a lot, I love bandcamp. 

What keeps you motivated in terms of releasing records and keeping the label going?

My motivation is always to share music that somehow feels timeless, fresh, with quality.

Things that I would immediately play and that I will never get tired of listening to.

One way or the other, I’m always lucky to find what fits in my label. Sounds that give me goosebumps. Tracks that are like little movies. Artists who I admire so much or new artists that I just discovered and I can feel their potential and I want to give that opportunity.

So you create a kind of small family.

And playing this music to an audience?

That’s a fantastic feeling. When you know something is good and you can’t wait to share it!

Thank you for taking the time to talk to us Elena. One last request. Can you play us out with a song?

Ohhh only one???

Then my choice is Underground Resistance – Death of My Neighborhood

A beauty. 

Thanks for having me!

To say Anthony Rother is prolific would be an understatement. Whether releasing EPs and 12 inches for the likes of Marcel Dettmann’s Bad Manners label or extensive (21 tracks) albums like AI Space via his Bandcamp page, the German artist’s output is unyielding. It’s built on an unrelenting work ethic that serves Anthony Rother as a self-contained artistic universe, complete with world-building concepts and a distinctive sound. From his online jam sessions to his hybrid Electro sets, there’s a determined purpose before he even lays a finger on the record button with an ideology that’s deeply rooted in the sound and aesthetics of Electro.

Anthony Rother has been at it since the mid nineties and after releasing his debut LP Sex with the machines, he’s been championing the sounds of the Electro genre for a whole generation. He became a prominent figure in the electronic underground in the early 2000’s with legendary records like Hacker and Popkiller combining his love for dark impulsive rhythms and humanoid vocals channelled from the formative experiences of listening to Kraftwerk. He established Datapunk during this time, a label that launched the careers of many established artists before the business end of the music all but consumed Anthony’s efforts and he took a break from music altogether around 2008. 

In the process of getting some distance from the industry, he came back to making music eventually, and in a big way. Today his output schedule rivals some of his most productive years of his early career, and with a sincere and dedicated approach to Electro, Anthony Rother is more determined than ever. He is always working on music with an endless wealth of creativity spurring the artist and producer  forward.  His pursuits towards new avenues of exploration in the Electro paradigm have taken to extremes of the genre’s stylistic traits. 

When it comes to Anthony’s music it’s pure Electro, but it’s never complacent. Always striving for something new in his music, Anthony is propelled to new frontiers and each production only functions as a way to the next. In seeking new languages in this machine music, he is always one step ahead of his curve.  Albums like AI Space capture these musical developments in intricate and expansive Sci-Fi tableaus while his hybrid Electro set seeks to find a bridge between Electro and the club. It’s a self-contained musical world that he has created through his music and ever since he came back to this music, Anthony Rother has extended this immersive universe. 

We caught up with Anthony Rother via telephone call to talk about this world he’s developed and his approach to Electro. Our conversation drifts into AI, Offenbach and his hiatus, but it always returns to Anthony’s first love, Electro and his eternal quest for a fresh take on the genre. 

Anthony  Rother plays a Hybrid Electro set  at jaeger this Friday.

Mischa Mathys: Where are you at the moment?

Anthony Rother:  I’m here in Frankfurt in Offenbach. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of Offenbach; it’s the town where the Robert Johnson club is located.

MM: Yes, I’m familiar. We’ve had a few guests from your neck of the woods at Jaeger in the past. People like Roman Fluegel, Ata and Gerd Janson. 

AR: Yes, these guys are from Frankfurt but Robert Johnson is in Offenbach. 

MM: And your studio is also there?

AR: Yes, it’s in the old Logic Records building, a record company from the eighties and nineties which released Snap! amongst other things.They owned the building and that’s where I have my studio. Roman also had his studio there. It’s a very famous place and has a bit of history in the electronic music scene.

MM: Does it still have a musical community around it, or is it like everywhere else at the moment, every man is an island?

AR: Yeah, every man is an island. I can only speak for myself, but I go there I make my music and I leave. When I was in this building in the 2000’s, I had more to do with people on the other floors, but now I’m more concentrated in making music, than having fun, and drinking and making parties. I think my interests have shifted a little more to a different place. You know how it is?

MM: As you get older, your priorities change, right?

AR: Of course, yes. (laughs)

MM: But the music never changes?

AR: No, the music stays the same. I think today I’m more focussed on music than when I was younger. 

MM: You’ve had such a prolific output, and it was a bit difficult for me to find an entry point for the sake of this interview, but I thought we could start with Bad Manners 9, which came out last year. It feels like it is a bit of an outlier to what I’ve come to know as the Anthony Rother sound in recent years.

AR: Bad Manners does not reflect what I do today. The EP is an EP that me and Marcel (Dettman) put together. 

MM: It was only a brief dalliance with this style of music.

AR: You can’t say that either; because over the last ten years I’ve always worked on four on the floor tracks and experimented with these kinds of tracks, but I didn’t release the material. I just started releasing in 2017 again, with tracks on Danny Daze’s Omni Disc label. Since then they all reflect a continuous Electro style searching for a sound that works well in the club and has much energy. What I do today is purely based in Electro and writing about human problems in a digital computer language. 

MM:  Considering these concepts of human stories in a robot language in your work I also find you recontextualise them in a dystopian universe, but how do you arrive at these worlds; Do they come from books, movies, music or is it something that happens naturally at this point?

AR:  If you see my artistic life as this evolving thing, I would say that on my debut album Sex with the Machines, I was heavily influenced by Electro from the eighties, like Karftwerk and of course sci-fi movies. It was a melange of all of this. I’ve invented some kind of language for myself based on my influences that I recreate every time I work on a new album. It’s not something that I have to work at, it comes natural to me. 

MM: Is it rooted in something in your subconscious at this point and does it start with the music or at a point when you start adding lyrics or vocals to your music?

AR: Mostly it starts with the music. When I’m working on an album, I’ll have a title for the album and at this point I’ll form the ideas. Let’s take AI space (the latest album), it’s an evolution of artificial intelligence that we are witnessing now. When I started writing this album, AI wasn’t such a mainstream theme as it is now. It was the stuff of nerds. I did some research on it and got ideas for stories or personal experiences that I coat in this kind of language. It’s a back and forth, but it starts with the music, then I get a theme, and from this topic I derive all the other things. 

MM: Tell me a bit about your research into AI for this album. What conclusions did you draw about the future of AI?

AR: I must be careful about what I say about the reality of the situation, because I’m an artist. I’m not a professional AI programmer, so my knowledge as an artist is to paint a picture and to discuss it in an artistic way. It’s a mainstream question, and I don’t have an opinion, because you can approach the answer in different ways. It’s a diverse subject for an artist though and you can either paint a dystopian picture of an AI that takes over a world or on the opposite end a utopian world where an AI is our digital butler. 

MM: But do you have any thoughts on the reality of AI in terms of music?

AR: So, if we debate AI making music, does AI replace me as a musician? I’ve thought  about it, but I don’t feel threatened. Everything that is standard music is threatened because AI is very good at learning. So for me as an artist it’s very important that my music is so special, and so forward-thinking so that AI can’t reproduce this as a cliché. But as soon as I release it, it gets into the learning stream of the AI and I have to advance myself again. I’m always in a kind of race with AI. 

MM: Have you experimented at all with AI in making music yet?

AR: I have tried it, not in terms of making music, just to see what it will do. I asked an AI to make music like Musique Non Stop from Kraftwerk.  And it proposed 4 tracks to me. Most of them had an Electro beat, but it was nothing like Musique Non Stop, because Musique Non Stop is such a unique piece of music that it was impossible to reproduce it.

Personally I would not use AI, because making the music is the first and the best thing, the result is just the last step. Making the music is the most fun. 

MM: My experience with AI is that it lacks the imagination in that process to get to the end result, and I think this is something that is particularly unique to your music. It’s almost like you create these fantasy worlds that you are able to escape into when you make music.

AR: Exactly. In German we say, the way is the goal.

MM: I like what you said about having to be one step ahead of AI to stay progressive. In the scope of the Electro paradigm, and the stylistic traits of that music; How has it developed through your own artistic pursuits?

AR: That’s a hard question, because there have been so many phases and I’ve worked on so many different aspects of it. I’m still working on it, because in the last few years I’ve been trying to produce a kind of Electro that could be played in the club, and has the energy of Techno, but is still considered a 100% Electro. 

My plan is to work in different aspects of Electro and to try and find new elements to it. I’m willing to break from the stylistic concepts to try and find something new in terms of Electro. I might have to surrender some classic elements to get to that point.

MM: What are you finding you have to surrender in terms of making it work in a club these days; is it about stripping it back and making it more functional?

AR: This is a good question. It’s a kind of energy that needs to be in the track. You can have a complicated production and it will still work in a club. You have to play it out to find out. I usually play it out and from that I know what needs to go into the next production.

MM: You don’t go back to the one you played out or an older production?

AR: No, the concept is to be one step ahead. I’m always in a kind of twilight zone, not knowing what’s going to work. I think this is the best position to be in when you’re writing music if you wanna do something fresh. 

MM: Do you specifically make everything for the purpose of playing it out in your hybrid Electro set or are some things made purely for just the recorded format?

AR: I produce the music for the hybrid Electro set and I play it like a kind of DJ. I’m basically my own record shop. I produce so much music that I can play only my own music. This is the concept and this is where all the music comes from. I’m in the studio everyday, because I need so much material for the hybrid Electro set. From ten tracks that I produce, maybe one or two I can use in my set. 

MM: Is the intention to release as much of that music as possible?

AR: At first it wasn’t. But now I’m releasing my albums on bandcamp. You can see it as a full artistic concept. The hybrid Electro set represents my work as an artist in all different media. 

MM: So it’s its own self-contained ecosystem with you in the centre of it. 

AR: Exactly. 

MM:  Are you able to adapt to a crowd like a traditional DJ would?

AR: I can adapt to the crowd within the limits of my own material. I have a lot of material, because I’ve produced so much stuff and I try to produce various instances of Electro. It’s not just a show. It’s not so easy to explain without using the word DJ, but I don’t consider myself a DJ. 

MM:  And it’s very much contained within the universe of Electro?

AR: Exactly, I tried to do it years ago with some four on the floor tracks, but then in 2016 I started shifting to Electro. During the pandemic I decided that I will play only Electro in my hybrid set.

MM: Why did you decide that?

AR: Before that I was in between, but during the pandemic I wanted to prove if it was possible to do an Electro-only hybrid set. I want to be a 100% Electro artist. If I do something else I’ll use a new project name. This is my mission till the end of my life; to find all the different aspects of Electro available. 

MM: That’s a serious dedication. What is it about Electro that makes it so appealing?

AR: I think this is my nature.

MM: It seems that you clearly set out a path for yourself, which is quite the contrast to a few years back when you went on a bit of a hiatus. That  seems at odds with your work ethic. Can you tell me what happened there?

AR: Yes around 2007 -2014, after the Datapunk hype, I lost myself for various reasons. One of the big reasons was that I was dragged into a kind of a business thing, which I had not enough knowledge about. I think I made every business error I could make as somebody that has no experience. I was exhausted. Everything looked so positive, but it turned out that everything was just business. 

MM: What did it take for you to get back to a point where you could  start making music again?

AR: For the longest time I was just trying to find myself again. I was ripped into a 1000 pieces, and I had to find the right pieces that really reflect me. In 2013 I produced Netzwerk Der Zukunft and this album helped me to put together the pieces of the real Anthony. Today I can say I’m complete in a sense that I know who I am again. I can trust myself and the decisions I make. Today I can distinguish between the business and the real stuff and the real stuff is the most important thing in my artistic life. 

MM: Did you feel that when you got back to it that it was the same as that initial spark when you got your first synthesiser, when you heard Electro for the first time or when you made music for the first time?

AR: When you’re creating in a sense that you do something real, it’s always a very deep experience. It’s not the same but it’s very different in depth. When I first created Sex with the Machines (my debut album), this had deep moments, but what I do today is deeper. I have more knowledge and have more possibilities. 

When you’re young, being naïve has a certain magic. This is something you lose because you get more knowledge and you gain more experience, and  I’m jealous of my younger self in that regard. On the other hand when you are naïve and young you’re often two-stepping into the wrong spots. (laughs) 

MM: What is your relationship today with an album like sex with the machines?

AR: I’m still listening to it. I’m still amazed by it. It’s not part of my creative process today, because that album has its own tone and is of its own time. For me it’s a great moment in my artistic career and it always gives me good energy. 

MM: Is it something that you ever reference in your music today?

AR:  I referenced parts of Sex with the Machines for my 2018 album 3L3C7RO COMMANDO, so yes.

MM: Looking at your studio from what I’ve seen online, it seems that you are still using many of the same old machines you would’ve used back then. How do you continue to use these machines in music that seeks to progress too?

AR: I work with old machines but I also have tons of new machines. I’m always cycling around. I have a basic setup and I change it in different ways. I’m always shifting with technology in search of that freshness in this style of music. 

Serge Jazzmate, is a rarefied phenomenon in the club music scene. The DJ and event organiser has remained a determined presence in Ukraine despite the war and in an extremely difficult and terrifying situation he has helped retain some semblance of a scene in his native Kiyv. Between the sounds of air raid sirens and Russian projectiles, Serge’s music also permeates the air, offering a glimmer of hope in sound for a scene under serious duress. 

A resident and co-founder of LOW, and frequent guest at ∄ (k41) Serge Jazzmate has been a fixture on what was burgeoning scene in Ukraine since 2007. A true facilitator, he helped arrange events and parties when he was not playing sets that trip across vast musical borders. He can be found operating in that record-enthusiast/selector universe where all the attention is focussed on the music and the DJ is an enthusiast and entertainer. 

Before the war broke out with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, he had also been a prominent figure appearing on lineups like Brave! Factory, Strichka and Rhythm Buro Natura as well as playing abroad in places like Berlin. His nomadic sets, moving  between everything from “Brazilian bossa nova to Electro,” have become a staple at his LOW residency, which recently celebrated its 14th anniversary with an event in Berlin.

Today, the festivals are on indefinite hiatus but LOW and the spirit of the people behind the scenes, people like Serge, continue to bring some kind of momentary relief to Ukraine’s clubbing community. It’s only fleeting under the current curfew, but it’s there, an allegory to that unyielding Ukrainian spirit.

We caught up with Serge via email, and he was kind enough to give us a few moments of his precious time to find out more about the current situation and his own history ahead of his set in Jaeger’s sauna with Pavel Plastikk this weekend.

Hello Serge. Perhaps you can start by giving us a brief glimpse of what life is like in Kiyv at the moment. 

Hello, Misha. People live their lives, go to work, and children go to schools and kindergartens. Of course, it is not a normal life when your country is being destroyed and filled with blood, but we have to adapt to the situation when you, your family or your neighbors can be killed by a rocket or drone in a moment in a peaceful city. It’s about every single settlement across the largest country in Europe.

This war has been going on for a year, and it seems to just be intensifying leading up to the anniversary. Can you tell us how it’s affected you personally and the toll it continues to take on the Ukrainian people?

Complex issue. The ongoing war is taking a significant toll on the Ukrainian people’s mental health, with many experiencing trauma and anxiety as a result of the violence and uncertainty. Defenders and peaceful people die daily, infrastructure and industries are being heavily damaged, and significant damage is caused to nature. We apparently have no other choice than the retreat of the aggressor’s army, otherwise Ukraine will cease to exist as an independent state. This will provoke, firstly, a previously unprecedented new wave of emigration from Ukraine, and secondly, it will unleash new wars and global changes since WW2.

A lot of your peers and fellow DJs have left Ukraine for places like Berlin. What is keeping you there and how are artists like yourself surviving there at the moment and what about the conscription?

I have the opportunity to leave the country, but I am kept by the business (I run a company), my favorite city, exceptional people and favorite clubs ∄ and Closer. To make a living only as an artist is not possible right now. I passed a medical examination and I can serve in the army but I have postponement.

I see you are playing regularly in Kiyv, even now. How are you able to maintain some kind of semblance of a scene there?

All businesses have adapted to the new reality and continue to adapt. The city somehow has managed to maintain a music scene, with local artists continuing to perform in various venues. There are even some brave djs from Europe coming to Closer from time to time which deserves huge respect. I guess there are about 3 million people in Kyiv now.

What are some of the main obstacles in putting on events and DJing in the city at the moment?

First and foremost, the curfew from 23-00, so all events end no later than 21-45, since employees need to finish their shifts and guests get home in due time. Secondly, the lack of electricity. Almost every venue has a generator that solves this issue.

What’s happening with concepts like LOW and do you see a time ahead when you can simply pick it up again where you left off?

Thanks to our friends from PRU Y RVU, we just celebrated the 14th anniversary of LOW in Oxi Club in Berlin. All our residents arrived from different countries and we picked up our two favorite dj’s who previously played LOW in Kyiv – Tako (Music From Memory) & Maurice Fulton (BubbleTease Communications). It was a truly unforgettable and amazing night full of love, music and unity. Obviously, we won’t be able to hold events at home, and we’ll probably continue to hold special parties in different countries.

Clubbing has often been an outlet for people during periods of great distress as an escape for the harsh realities. I know in Serbia for example, club culture offered people a lifeline during their time of war. Is there anything like that happening in Ukraine at the moment, or is the war simply consuming all?

Absolutely. When you live in a constant negative emotional field, in fear and anxiety, with many restrictions, music and dance positively affect the state of people. Each participant buying a ticket directly helps various units of the army, funds, etc. Most venues collect and share profits. It’s win-win. Everyone is working on ways to help our defenders in an affordable way on the home front.

You’ve been involved in club music and club culture for a couple of decades. How did you get into this music and how did you get your start as a DJ?

Music has accompanied me since childhood. When I was at school I began collecting CDs ranging from Detroit techno, Brazilian bossa nova, Trip Hop, Disco, House, Reggae, Electro, Funk. It was a collection of many thousands. Later I started collecting records on the basis of my CD collection. I bought two Technics 1210s and a Pioneer DJM 300 mixer and in 2005 started training and playing extended sets at home.


My first paid gig happened in 2007 and after that more invitations followed. By that time, I had already met my partner in crime and the best Ukrainian dj Pavel Plastikk. We started playing together, and in 2009 LOW Party was launched at Xlib Club. On a separate note, Berghain/Panorama Bar seriously influenced and inspired me when I visited it as a clubber in 2008 and dreamed of the day when I would play upstairs.

What was the scene for electronic music like there before the war?

It grew rapidly from 2014-2015, new clubs opened, the young scene developed, first-rate international electronic festivals were started such as Brave! Factory, Strichka and Rhythm Buro to name a few.

Even when Covid happened, the Kyiv clubs managed to stay afloat. A striking example of which is Brave! Factory Festival 2021, which attracted over 10 thousand visitors (with a huge proportion of foreign ravers) and a club located on Kyrylivska Street (∄), which was launched a few months before the pandemic and also gathered full planes of European tourists. Europe was in full lockdown at the time. Our economy could not afford it, so businesses worked within the existing rules and adapted to the situation without proper governmental help.

You’ve eschewed the producer/DJ paradigm. What is it about DJing that fulfills your creative pursuits and why have you avoided producing your own music?

Well, I’m a DJ and a collector. I’m happy with what I do, where I am and what moves me.

Your musical selections are quite broad with sets that can go everywhere from Disco to Techno. What is behind this eclectic approach?

It’s basically dependent on the club and the party. Sometimes I would play more straight sets, sometimes eclectic. Mixing genres came from the beginning when I started listening to the records. DJing just reflects your tastes, your mood and your understanding of the dance floor in the moment. This skill is experience, you should live them in time.

Is there anything specific that draws you to a piece of music and what is the main thing you look for in a piece of music to play out regardless of genre?

I think drama is the most important thing to achieve, regardless of genres. 

What have you found people are gravitating towards today in these trying times and why do you think this style of music works so well in the current situation?

It is difficult for me to answer. Perhaps this is something other than what is being played elsewhere, like the same type of house or techno, when it is difficult to distinguish whether something has changed over the past three hours, if you understand what I mean.
Some people like 140 BPM, some people like 160 BPM. Some people just like more meaningful music where there’s a soul and emotion.

In the past, there had been some sense of collaboration between Ukraine and Russia’s Djs and artists, but I assume the war has completely broken any sense of camaraderie. Has succeeded in alienating a whole generation of Ukrainians?

I can’t answer for everyone, but in general of course, there is a very small number of artists, citizens from a neighboring country, who supported Ukraine. We keep a close eye on every artist and promoter.

What’s going to stop this war in your opinion and how can we as club- and music enthusiasts continue to help the Ukrainian people? 

Those who started the war can stop it very quickly. Keep helping Ukrainian people in any possible way, keep pressure on your governments with more & more weapons and sanctions. I understand that you also suffer from the economic consequences now but it is incomparable with other consequences which could happen later.

A year on from the war in Ukraine we host a Ukrainian DJ Marathon to raise funds for the cause

It’s one year on from when Russia invaded Ukraine and to show our support, Jaeger is hosting a Ukraine relief benefit with a Ukrainian DJ marathon this Friday. We’ve assembled a iost of Ukrainian DJs and given them the keys to our basement and sauna with all proceeds going to Musicians defend Ukraine. Stanislav Tolkachev, Nastya Muravyova, Danilenko, Serge Jazzmate,Pavel Plastikk and  human margareeta represent Ukraine for this event hosted by g-HA & Olanskii and Frædag. Jaeger and Frædag present an evening with Ukrainian DJs as our effort to continue to place the spotlight on this war in the only way we know how, the music. It’s a peaceful protest of dance and camaraderie with our Ukranian counterparts and we give them full rein of both floors for this Frædag.

More information about the charity can be found here: https://shpytal.com/musicians-defend-ukraine/

More information about the event can be found here:
https://www.facebook.com/events/488518603454373/

and tickets here:
https://jaeger.ticketco.events/no/nb/e/fraedag_x_ukraine_takeover_stanislav_tolchachev__nastya_muravyova___serge_jazzmate__human_margareeta

In 2021 Biesmans released his debut LP P Trains, Planes and Automobiles via Watergate Records. The record was created in the void of the idle routine of a world-wide pandemic and it brought Biesmans work to a world craving stimuli from mobile devices in lieu of the tangible. It solidified around the multi-media tendencies of social-media with the artist working in the strict confines of a concept and a specific work ethic. The result was a series of video clips, taken from iconic eighties movies soundtracked by Biesmans’ ebullient machine music. 

Contextually, it couldn’t be more perfect. Biesmans love of vintage synthesisers and his Belgian musical heritage set a modern backdrop for these nostalgic images. It coexisted in harmony with Biesmans’ previous EPs, which he was able to transpose perfectly for a multimedia experience. After a few aliases and projects going as far back as 2007 and an earlier career as a working DJ, Biesmans had landed on a sound that could adopt an eponymous moniker, and it was  facilitated by his close relationship with Watergate.

Going from the technical staff to an artist on their roster, Joris has a family-like bond with people behind the Berlin superclub, record label and agency. Although he is no longer one of the house’s sound guys, today he can still be found in the booth, playing vinyl alongside people like Sven Väth at the club. He has channelled his enigmatic sounds as an artist to the decks where Djing has been a creative outlet for the artists since his days as a teenager. 

With his next stop being Jaeger’s basement, we called up Joris Biesmans to find out more about what is a fairly unknown biography. Over a glitchy telephone call, I hear a friendly and relaxed Joris Biesmans and in the distance I can hear cicadas chirping and birds calling, interlaced with the hustle and bustle of a busy city. 

It sounds very tropical where you are.

It is very tropical; I’m in Goa! 

What are you doing there; are you on holiday or are you playing? 

A bit of both. I just want to take it slower in January. I’m playing here on Saturday, and I’ve been travelling with my girlfriend. I’m mixing business and pleasure. We did Egypt, Cyprus, and Beirut, and from Beirut we went to New Delhi and visited the Taj Mahal and everything, and then we went to Mumbai and Goa. 

I want to start talking about your roots in Belgium. There’s obviously that huge tradition of synthesiser music there with New Beat and some of the original Techno pioneers and I feel that I can hear it in your music too. Is that something you felt growing up there? 

I discovered that stuff later on, I have to be honest. I grew up with Eurodance and Trance stuff. This was in the ‘90’s. I started playing music in ‘96 when I was 13 years old. I hear all the hits from back then now; the young kids love them again. That was the thing I grew up with. 

Later on, I dived into this EBM stuff like Front 242. When I studied music Luc van Acker (Front 242 collaborator) was one of my teachers. I was very much focussed on House and Techno in my early years. I had no classical music training, and that would come later on and that’s how I got into that heritage. 

What were the Trance records that you were listening to back then?

Like the Bonzai stuff, and also a lot of German imports back then. Records from artists like M.I.K.E and Yves Deruyter. Back then we called it retro House, but then it was not even 10 years old. I remember there was a bit of a hard House, but also more Trance from artists like Marino Stefano or even early Tiesto records. Later on I also imported music from DJ Deeon, DJ Bone and Juan Atkins, all over the place. I still have these records, scattered between Belgium and Berlin. 

Was electronic music always around growing up, or was there some kind of realisation that happened in the nineties?

It was always there. You had all this Eurodance stuff on the radio and as a 12 year old you’re not immediately drawn into underground music. So you have to first get into it, and the electronic music you heard on the radio planted some seeds. 

The club culture in our little town was actually not that bad at all. There were lots of places where you could hear this stuff. We would go to a bar after school which would play really good House and Techno. In this genre, we had a lot of opportunities to listen and to discover new music. Today, they traded that all in for huge festival stages. 

I read somewhere that you were very young when you got your first synthesiser. At what point do you start making your own music?

It happened simultaneously. My brother and I had a clubhouse in our backyard. My brother was more on the technical side, and I just started getting into electronic music and he brought home – literally in the same year – some software called fastracker. I was never a trained musician and I found it so intriguing that I could make music (without any formal training). 

I was recording music on cassette and playing it in the little clubhouse. It was very innocent. It was so basic, but it was cool. 

At what point did you think this could be a career?

This was really playing around. I think I released my first music only around 2007. Weirdly enough when I was 16/17 years old I was really into this thing that I felt this was something I wanted to do for a living. It took me really long before I could live from it. I was always doing it, but it’s only been a few years that I have been doing this for a proper living. 

Yes, I wanted to ask you about that because the first Biesmans record only surfaced  in around 2018, but it sounds like you’ve been working away at it for some time.

Yes, it’s a fairly new act. 

There were aliases and you had been part of a Hip Hop act… 

Yes, Wooly, the Hip Hop act was from my school days. 

So what solidified for you around the time of Biesmans in terms of music? 

I started studying again in 2009. I did three years in music school. Before that I was playing a lot, mainly in Belgium. These were the myspace times. Things were going really well, and at a certain point I wanted to learn more. This broadened my horizons. I started making completely different music. I discovered some electronica stuff that I completely missed out on previously. 

And then moving to Berlin, I was all over the place. I was making music as TV(e) and I had this ongoing project with Cashmere. I was  making so much different music, I was a bit stuck. I felt really lost. I really had to regroup myself in Berlin, and becoming a technician at Watergate, there was so much musical education. 

My entire weekend was clubbing and you get to hang on club music again. That’s why I decided to focus on one thing. I was going to go back to where I started again, back before the school started, but with the information I learnt from the school. I was going back to club music and just using my own name.  

When I listen to your music I pick up on a lot of Italo references…

I’m a big fan. What  shaped my Italo love the most, was the actual machines. I love vintage synthesisers. Honestly I don’t have such a big Italo background but you take a Juno 106 (synthesiser) and it immediately sounds like you’re going to make music like this. These machines really inspire me to make music like this. 

Is that where most of your creative influences come from, the machines?

Yeah. The machines shape the sound a lot.When I have an idea the main thing for me is to just get the music out there. I’m not a purist. 

If you are listening to other music, are you taking  in those references as well?

I start with a blank slate, but I’m always taking in references. I love to DJ, and I love to look for new music. This is an essential part for me. The stuff will get absorbed somewhere and that will be released when I’m in the studio. 

This ties into what I wanted to ask you about your debut LP, “Trains, Planes and Automobiles.” The concept of pairing these video clips with your music seems quite strict. Did they have a strong influence on the way the music sounded?

Definitely. It went 50/50. I was also making songs and finding the right video for it, but I was also finding videos, and making songs. No matter which direction I started, it was always starting with a very visual image in my mind. These are references you definitely hear on the album, because you have some downtempo and atmospheric stuff that’s not designed for the dance floor.

It was Corona time, so I was watching a lot of these old movies. The film scores of this stuff are always so good. 

Why did you choose this particular era of films?

That’s also the moment I felt more nostalgic. Being in this eighties sound and having  these machines I was really drawn to it. This was always my trademark, that vintage sound, but updated for a modern club use. 

Was it about making a new soundtrack for those clips?

I wanted to be active on social media. So, the idea of the album was not initially an album. Everybody was using social media a lot, so I thought  let’s find a way to trigger all these senses. I was doing these POVs, and they were working well from my studio. So to give it a different direction, I thought, let’s do some film scores. And that worked really well. It was a good bridge to stay in the picture.

Did it start off as a vague idea and then quickly turn into a strict set of parameters?

It started off with an idea to do three tracks a week for a month, just to give myself a challenge. You make it really explicit, three tracks a week and you get your audience involved. Afterwards, a friend of mine told me; “hey but this is actually an album that you are making.” 

I did the whole thing in a month and then after I started making edits of the songs and more recordings and fine-tuning it. For me it’s the closest thing I could get to an album, it’s really just one thing. It was just one concept within this time frame. It was making a picture of that moment of my life and being as close to it as possible. That worked really well. 

That record came out on Watergate and you’re close to the people at Watergate. Does it help being in an environment like that for the freedom it presents?

I actually wanted to release it myself via bandcamp. It was a bit rougher at the time. Alex (from Watergate) was like: “why don’t work at it a bit more and you can release it via Watergate.” Then they wanted to give it the proper attention with gatefold vinyl, artwork and the whole thing became much bigger. They just heard the album and they said let’s do the album together. 

How did they feel being that person working in the background, working on the technical aspects, to being an artist on the label?

Now, I don’t do the technician job anymore; I stopped about two years ago. When I joined the agency, I told them I didn’t want to be a technician anymore, because my intention was that this was always my way into the music scene in Berlin. I’m still very closely connected to the club. If I’m in Berlin, I  visit the club at least once a week. It’s a bit of a second home.

What effect has being a technician had on what you do as a DJ in other clubs?

I don’t think it’s affected the type of music that I play. What I think is really important is the sound in the DJ booth, and I notice these things. At Watergate we had a very high standard of what we would like to meet. This is also contributing to the best possible outcome for a club and the artist. I notice that this is not common. You see it from both sides now and I have my eyes open. 

I’m sure you’ll enjoy playing at Jaeger then. 

Yes, I’ve seen videos of this very nice DJ booth which is also very dedicated to sound. I’m looking forward to that. 

“Do you know Frank Sinatra… He’s dead… he’s dead,” Miss Kittin cackles in a distant tattoo as the Hacker’s electro beat chugs along. Few memories play out as vividly as when I first heard “Frank Sinatra” by the Hacker and Miss Kittin. I distinctly remember where I was, who I was with and the feelings that the record elicited. Today, it still evokes a visceral memory of surprise, awe and humour; not for its content within the current landscape, but for what it meant back then. 

Taken from the now highly acclaimed Miss Kitten and The Hacker’s “First album”, that formative experience with “Frank Sinatra” laid the groundwork for a musical taste that sought some distance from the mundane of what electronic music had to offer at that time. It was provocative for all the right reasons and brought electronic dance music back to something that was always intended to be; indifferent and at times completely at odds from anything in mainstream culture.

Not only did it cement an admiration for The Hacker and Miss Kittin both as a duo and individually, but it was also my introduction to a label via a compilation with some curious cover art and a name that would be difficult to forget; International DeeJay Gigolos Volume 2. 

Baptised by the record label that bore its name, International DeeJay Gigolo – which is often shortened to just “Gigolo” – the compilation left an indelible mark and informed a big part of my musical education; not merely for the music from the label but for an entire musical universe that would come before and after it. It’s a label that would grow as my own musical tastes evolved, and in the process of presenting new music, it would also be my introduction to an entire musical history that was distant and elusive to a still somewhat uninformed and still naïve enthusiast. Gigolo leads to Jeff Mills, takes a sojourn via Tuxedomoon, is entangled in the existence of Kraftwerk, and makes connections with contemporary labels like R&S. Throughout it all it keeps introducing the listener to new music and artists like Tiga, Mount Sims, Terence Fixmer and Adriano Canzian, and at the centre of it all; DJ Hell. 

Gigolo Records has been a significant chapter in the annals of club music. Even esteemed DJ,  DJ Harvey professed his admiration for it in DJ mag back in the day and for many DJs and enthusiasts of the same ilk it remains an important touchstone. It will be forever associated with the electroclash moment, but for anybody with eclectic tastes it goes way beyond that moment, tying the dots between Punk, Disco, Hip-Hop, Techno and Electro.

Gigolo came at a crucial time for club music and it not only found the perfect zeitgeist for its own ideologies, but went a long way in establishing that zeitgeist. It stood out amongst its peers for its unique and singular vision, driven by its sole owner and musical visionary DJ Hell (Helmut Josef Geier). It established a moment in music history we aren’t likely to witness again with that intensity. It wasn’t a specific sound – more a lack thereof – but an attitude that was at the heart of Gigolo and it all starts with the man behind the label. 

To understand Gigolo, you’ve got to take a trip through the history of one of the most enigmatic and individual DJs that has ever lived. A true and determined underground figure, DJ Hell’s history moves through club music history like Dante traversing the nine circles. Key figures and moments crop up in his own biography as if he’s recounting the story of our global scene, the faceless narrator of unflappable character. He’s never stealing the spotlight or craving the attention of his counterparts, but he’s always there, in the shadows working on the fringes like a true uncompromising underground hero. 

His career as a DJ starts with the advent of the nightclub, a concept still indistinguishable from the discotheque during the eighties. In Munich, or more accurately, a suburb outside Munich, a young DJ Hell is cutting his teeth, playing music from his local discotheque’s collection – DJs did that back then, when the music policy was still dictated by the sound of the place rather than the disc jockey. DJ Hell had shown a knack for picking the right records from the communal collection, consolidating it into a career as a DJ and then later a producer. 

Moving from the suburbs to the city DJ Hell became one of the first House DJs in Germany, parlaying his skills for mixing records into A&R for the Disko B label before becoming an artist and producer with his breakout single “My definition of House” on the then burgeoning R&S label. His work as A&R took him from Germany to New York, possibly sowing the seed for an eventual move to New York to be a resident at the infamous Limelight club alongside Jeff Mills.

This is where a large part of the story of International DeeJay Gigolos begins. In 1993 DJ Hell was a resident, sharing the booth alongside Mills in one of the most iconic eras and places for club music. It’s here where the story of the club kids of New York begins and ends with Michael Alig’s eventual descent into murder. Yes, DJ Hell was there for the beginning of that too.

It was DJ Hell’s close associations with Mills that planted the seed for Gigolos to exist. After hearing a couple of Disco “edits” from the wizard being turned at limelight, DJ Hell approached Mills with a proposal to release the music. Both DJs knew that the music wouldn’t suit any of Mills’ Techno labels, and he agreed to give the music to Hell to establish International Deejay Gigolos. This was a big deal. Jeff Mills hardly ever licences his music outside of his own labels and here is giving DJ Hell these tracks for free! 

“Shifty Disco” wasn’t the first catalogue number on Gigolos – no that honour goes to D.J. Naughty and David Carretta – but it was released in the same year the label sprang into existence and set the tone for what the label and this music would become. It turned it all on its head. Here’s the original Techno innovator, making Disco-inspired House, and what do you know… he’s very good at it. That raw impulsiveness that is Jeff Mills, is all over this record, but it’s channelled towards the fringes of Jeff Mills’ known universe, where vocal samples and strings sit buoyantly alongside syncopated hi-hats.

Shifty Disco and Gigolo came as a revelation in the late nineties. As we were marching into the millennium, Electronic club music became more and more codified. Lines began to be drawn in the sand, between House and Techno and Trance and its quickly-emerging subgenres where there had never been any distinctions before. Some factions started garnering superstardom on the basis of playing records to a dance floor, while others were happy toiling in the underground benefiting from the hype. It was a time of hyperinflation for club music’s equity stake in popular culture and DJs were playing to millions at the likes of Love Parade while producers like David Morales and Paul Johnson (original underground figures) got played on MTV. As it became trendy without much resistance from people that saw an easy buck, all sincerity went along with it and by the time the troubadours were playing saxophones alongside fedora-clad DJs playing “lounge House” nobody with any taste would be caught dead listening to a DJ, except maybe one – DJ Hell. 

DJ Hell and Gigolo were one of the few instuítutions that not only remained unique during this period, but also bridged a lot of gaps for people moving to and from electronic club music. As the owner, A&R and creative director for the label, DJ Hell’s punk-informed attitude to music and the business of music was one of the most authentic for a time of uber-commercialism for electronic music. There was no specific promotion, no hype, just an ideology and a look that resonated with an audience either coming to electronic music or moving away from the tawdry aspects of the music. 

As the label started to take shape and by the first compilation an aesthetic started to emerge based somewhere between the pop-sensitivities of Andy Warhol and the kitsch machismo of  the Arnold Schwarzenegger artwork for the label. (Later Arnold’s people would sue Gigolo for the use of his image, but that’s a whole other article). It was all carefully orchestrated by DJ Hell and even today a Gigolo record still jumps out at you from the shelves for its curious artwork featuring Amanda Lapore and Sid Vicious. 

Early releases from likes of the disco industrialist David Carretta, the eco-nihilist turned Hi-NRG punk Chris Korda (“save the planet, kill yourself”), House cadettes the Foremost Poets and Electro stalwart DMX Crew, not to mention the Hacker and Miss Kitten set a road map through electronic music that looked like a Jackson Pollock painting created by an AI. Even when Gigolo was releasing straight up House music, there were elements of something more going making unlikely connections between distant musical universes and it was quirky but above all idiosyncratic. There was an approach in breaking down barriers that permeated through it all, and although it was in the air with people moving away from what House and Techno became, Gigolo played a significant role in defining this period as Electroclash. 

If there is one track that defined this era and this spirit in music and offered something of a breakthrough, this would be “Kernkraft 400” by Zombie Nation. Today that song has been immortalised in football stadiums the world over, but before it was that it set a watermark for what Electroclash would become. It’s instantly gratifying melody and fervent joviality, becoming an instant earworm for a whole generation of club-goers. It cemented the career of the artist and synth-wizard Florian Senfter, defining an era and a sound that would soon be immortalised through Gigolo. Right now, it might be as far removed from the original context as it was intended as a football stadium chant (or not actually considering DJ Hell’s own love for football), but even back then it was also probably the biggest crossover success for the label and the artist. Between the saccharine melody and the rocky nature of the synths that called to mind more Emmerson Lake and Palmer than it did Oakenfold, the record has clearly stood the test of time. It was and remains the definition of Electroclash and you can hear its influence on everything from Alter Ego to Boys Noize. 

Much like the whole ethos of International Deejay Gigolo, Electroclash was based on the absence of a particular sound rather than a specific genre. The prefix Electro is something of a misnomer, referring more to an epochal sound and character rather than the literal understanding of the genre Electro. It would fold in everything from Synth Pop to Disco to Techno with a focus on electronic sounds and an iconoclastic approach that tore down institutionalised barriers installed by “purists.” Electroclash held a middle finger up to the dogmas of electronic club music, establishing one of the most fertile and unassumingly progressive periods in electronic music. It came at just the right time at the end of the nineties when electronic club music was becoming more rigid and formulaic in the wake of some crossover success. 

DJ Hell saw all of this from his vantage point at a point where he himself had been established, and positioned International DJ Gigolo Records right at the centre of this incredible creative mælstrøm. There would be nothing expected or pastiche that came out of this period for Gigolo. Records like the electro-rock of Zombie Nation would live side by side with the rest of the catalogue, with the only common thread between these records being their raw and impulsive nature. There was an energy that sought to decimate the conformity gathering momentum in electronic music, offering a lifeline to a musical scene that was getting complacent.

The label  would never fall victim to this complacency and a record would never deign to cash in on the success from the last. The diversity of the label’s output was something like collage for someone with an attention deficit disorder. If for example “Kernkraft 400” was the record that broke the mould, it wouldn’t assume to take centre stage, and DJ Hell would pivot to something  completely different again and again. There was no blueprint or method, it was purely the impulses of a DJ with remarkably eclectic tastes and a laser-like focus, proven by the early success of a record like Zombie Nation’s and Dopplereffekts “Gesamtkunstwerk”. That last record had almost nothing in common with the first even though they were released around the same time, and today, much like “Kernkraft 400”, “Gesamtkunstwerk” stands as another classic record from that same era.

During a recent interview for Tiga’s podcast “Last Party on Earth”, Hell talks purposefully about this record as one of his greatest achievements as a label boss. From the artwork to the title, and of course the music, “Gesamtkunstwerk” is a masterpiece. Arriving, anonymously, via one of the legends of the Detroit scene, namely Gerald Donald (previously one half of Drexciya), it might seem like an obvious choice for a successful record, but at the time people were still just discovering the truly underground sounds of Drexciya and their other Detroit counterparts. Dopplereffekt was still unknown with some mystery around the main actors of the group, but you didn’t need to know the origin story to fall in love with the record’s dystopian grooves. 

Hell and Gigiolo brought Dopplereffekt to the fore with this record. It was probably the purist from of Electro that Electroclash would assume, demonstrating a mass appeal value for the Electro genre that we hadn’t experienced since Uncle Jams Army in the eighties. Electro had been a DIY indulgence for comic book nerds and synthesiser geeks, but even a stubborn rocker  hearing “Gesamtkunstwerk” for the first time, it was all s/he wanted to hear after. In 1999 when the LP was released, it stood as a linchpin for the whole Electroclash movement. The comical panic of Y2K, makes for a perfect backdrop in the group’s fantastical prose about sexual congress with mannequins and obstructing human fecundity, while machines drummed out rhythmic devices like a automatron motor city factory. 

There was a sense of absurdity at work even when the music was quite serious and it came to define the likes of the roster at Gigolo. Things like providing a platform for the aforementioned Chris Korda’s and his “church of euthanasia”; releasing Mount Sims’ “Hate Fuck” as a single for radio; and putting Amanda Lepore on the cover of records obviously provoked, but the intention was always with sense of fun, DJ Hell’s tongue always firmly cheek. A kind of Roy Lichtenstein for the new millennium, Hell and Gigolo took a slanted approach to pop-culture through a soundscape only JG Ballard could envision, and it worked. The records would be released into the world without any pressure from the label for the artists to do interviews or promote their work, and a whole generation flocked to them without much goading. There was something considered about the final product around a Gigolo release, which extended from the music to its packaging and it stood out on every record shelf.

It was an entire world contained, built around a cult-like family of freaks that Hell cultivated like Charles Manson without all the killing and with some actual musical talent. It’s possibly best represented in the funny, almost outlandish 2005 Gigolo documentary, Freak Show, where Hell takes the gang on the road, from Germany to the states, featuring a young Tiga, Miss Kittin, Traxx and a host of characters you couldn’t possibly write today.