Recently in Influences Category

OK, here's where I 'fess up to one of my aliases I generally play down or don't mention, since I don't believe it really represents me (now) but reflects the person I was 15 years ago.

Back then, around 1994-95, I was heavily into Tresor and relatively new label Force Inc. Music Works, who were tossing out EPs and compilations by artists like Cem Oral (Jammin' Unit/G 104), Ingmar 'Walker' Koch, Thomas Heckmann (Age/Exit 100), Alec Empire, Wolfgang Voigt (Mike Ink/Love Inc), Jörg Burger, Cristian Vogel, Ian Pooley, Khan Oral (4E/Bizz O.D.), DJ Rush, Gene Farris, and Martin Damm (Biochip C/Subsonic 808).

We actually toured Biochip C to Australia in 1995 through my label IF?

Anyway, a bit over a year ago, somehow hankering for a bit of old school Force Inc. acid techno action and nostalgic as heck (I'm still not quite sure why!), I did a couple of tracks that were a vaguely adequate homage - then asked Biochip C to remix one of them. That mix was released digitally through Elektrax here in April 2009, with another mix by Bitch Shift (Ben Mill).

We even did it under the dodgy name 'Psyborg-9' (a reference to actor Ernest Borgnine).

Then I promptly forgot all about the release.

I still drop Martin's Biochip C mix out and about sometimes - it really is a nice late 2000s reconsideration of that mid '90s Force Inc. sound; the mix also has some screaming peaks and troughs that are just made to get people, well, crazed.

It's not quite what I'd term my 'style' now but it rocks my socks in spite of my better judgment.

Today, it all comes flooding back. I was pottering around on YouTube; I was supposed to be focused on my other writing deadlines - but then I found this little baby. Someone I don't know with the YouTube tag-name obscuretoonzage recently did a videoclip for the Biochip C remix of Psyborg-9.

And it's a mad, mad video I just had to share about a bit. Obscuretoonzage, whoever you are, cheers. You've restored my faith in the marvels and fun-filled mayhem the Internet can still provide!

At the moment I'm doing this completely self-indulgent series of articles for Impact magazine over in the UK - focusing on what I've unoriginally dubbed The Greatest Anime Ever Made. Most of it's selected by me, much of it is obvious (Ghost in the Shell, Akira), and on the feedback front I've conscripted a lot of local Japanese filmmakers, manga artists, anime crew, and - well, since they're cool and I dig their muzak - DJs and producers.

One of these helpful talking heads has been Shinji Tokida, who runs the record labels Fountain Music and Plaza In Crowd, and he cites Akira as the number one anime experience in his lifetime. "I love Akira - I even had the jacket," he recently told me. "I love the drawing touch and the characters' eyes, as well as the universal future concept which struck my mind when I was still in primary school."

Tokida also cited Mamoru Oshii's early opus Patlabor. "Oh, the Patlabor movie - I watched it when I was in elementary school; also I collected the manga and read it on my futon. I was a heavy fan and I remember that I bought the model kit, but I was too young to figure it out and put it together. Still, it was a good memory."

Then he pulled back to the here and now.

"These days I'm only into music, so I don't watch movies or TV and I don't read comics."

When I pitched the idea at Shinji this week that I'd like to extend beyond the anime references and talk to him more about his labels and himself, the man was thrilled. "One of my dreams has been to be interviewed by someone - thank you for fulfilling that!" he enthused.

Without a second to breathe, it seems, Tokida is off - the guy is a joy to quiz.

"I started DJing at 17, scratching records - I'd just changed instruments from the guitar to turntables and got right into hip hop. Then, in my Tokyo years, I came across more valuable music like house, jazz, soul and funk - and at last I arrived at techno. This was my true start to explore the business of music in my life."

Thus there are his record labels.

"The Plaza name was founded in front of my Mac at the funeral of Michael Jackson as he set forth for the heavenly world. It's a is techno label, with the concept being a dream crowd, all the people in the world together in one party. Fountain Music is more beautiful electronic sounds. I started a label more than ten years ago, when I was 19 - at that time I was crazy about the Mo' Wax label, and I read a magazine article that said the label owner James Lavelle started the label at 16 years of age. I just felt that I was so late starting a label after that!"

That early experiment folded later, however. "The label closed and for three years I did nothing - then I saw a beautiful woman at Nagoya Station, and it got me thinking: What is beauty? I thought about that on the train, and I just dreamed that if everyone is beautiful, the world would be a happier place. On the train home I decided to start new label."

Other influences include "Derrick May, Ryuichi Sakamoto, and also Yoko Ono", while he cites fellow labels like M-Nus and Cocoon. "But I have a dream to make my label a major player like Sony or EMI, because I am a music lover."

At the current time Tokida is pursuing more humble ambitions, but he's always looking to expand the horizons and is keen to share these ideas with others.

"We do CD pressing and distribute in Japan and Europe; we also do some digital releases. We're currently working on the new Popnoname CD release Surrounded By Mars - we got the finished product just today," he says. There's a promo video on YouTube here.

"Popnoname is my best friend in Cologne along with his producer Marc Knauer who runs the Italic label."

And then there are all the other artists he's currently working with.

"With DJ Yellow I feel a real sense of destiny, from Dave Angel there's super high energy, Dublee is an intelligent man, Sans Soleil is our first contracted artist, my neighborhood friend Takaaki Tsuchiya, new artist Temma Teje, Thopa, Death on the Balcony, Synethesys, Genevieve, and Astrid Suryanto." He pauses for breath. "These are the older friends we're working with, but we're also connecting with new artists such as Soundsquirt, Ney Faustini from São Paulo, Ron Schubert, Peter Clamat, Peter 'CWB' Mooka and Trancemicsoul. 4/4 Kicks Kiss and Sasaki Hiroaki, Louis Haiman and Masha Era are the latest inclusions."

Then there're the remixers they're calling in: Dubfire, Dave Angel, Mijk van Dijk, K.P.I., James Ruskin, Si Begg, Donk Boys, Dave Tarrida, and more (apparently) to come.

Shinji says he also often works with Hiroshi Watanabe (video here) and Greek artist Echonomist.

"The designers I'm working with on artwork and so on are my very old best friends Quenta and Beople [Yukifumi Uchida], and one of my bigger influences comes from Mars Gallery Tokyo and photographer Rikki Kasso.

Japan has a great history of cool electronic musicians - like YMO, Isao Tomita, Susumu Hirasawa, Ken Ishii, Takkyu Ishino, Fumiya Tanaka, DJ Krush, Satoshi Fumi, Hifana, Merzbow, Captain Funk, DJ Warp, Cut Bit Motorz, Toshiyuki Yasuda and Shin Nishimura.

"Techno's root is also in Japan," declares Shinji. "Technology and industry make people intelligent and active to love."

Any interested parties can check out Tokida's two labels online at Beatport (Plaza In Crowd and Fountain Music), plus they also have a new podcast out mixed by Tokyo-based DJ Temma Teje.

"We have to blast out this solution to all over the world and get in touch to all people who love music!" Tokida enthuses.

Regular readers of Fun in the Murky who bother to wade through my long-winded hack articles may have noticed a trend (aside from the same recurring questions) - namely that a lot of the time I'm also working with the interviewee on something for my label IF?, they may have just (charitably) done a remix for me, or I'm doing something myself for their label.

This isn't always the case, but as I say it is a trend, and I've even noticed this myself - god forbid.

The reason is simple. Because I'm in close contact with them working on the musical angle at the time, these people are finally vulnerable to me to hit up for an interview - and given that my other day job is hack journalism, and I only really want to work with people I (a) respect, (b) am hugely influenced by, or (c) I've become mates with and want to sing their praises, the interview/article thing seems appropriate. Luckily these people are usually too nice to say no, so they indulge me, and we end up with some interesting written fodder to browse through here.

Justin Berkovi was the latest such 'victim'.

I first stumbled across Justin's music when I picked up his Crouton vinyl on Mosquito, and it became a pivotal member of my DJ sets and my patchy radio show on 3PBS back in Melbourne just over a decade ago.

I've been a huge fan since, keeping an eye on his stylistic tangents as much as I've tried to follow up on his releases through other labels like Music Man, Force Inc., Sativae, Drought, Pro-Jex, Djax, Neue Heimat, Harthouse, and Berkovi's own Predicaments.

"I've never released anything for Tresor," he quips, "although for some reason everyone thinks I have!"

So when Simon Nielsen (aka DJ Hi-Shock from Elektrax) approached me late last year to suggest we release my Little Nobody track Metropolis How? as a vinyl release with remixes, I couldn't think of a better practitioner to suit the moment... along with, of course, two other another canny remixers in Hi-Shock and James Ruskin.

We actually released this wax at the beginning of this week (that's unsubtle hint #2, in case you're wondering).

So far as I'm concerned, biased and all, Justin's remix is revelatory - he picked apart the slow, grubby, vaguely distorted acid slant of the original track and made the journey his own entity; think a mesmerizing remix defined by little incidental noises and hisses, the occasional snare, and a subtle, slightly dark orchestral flourish.

"It's pretty laid back," Berkovi himself assesses. "I didn't want to do a slamming techno track for this one, just something a with some tech-house influences and more subtle than an out-and-out banger!"

So, as per my usual wont and as you can probably guess by now given the artist bytes (above) and the title to this story, I did something I'd wanted to do since the late 1990s - I finally interviewed Justin Berkovi.

The following is the simple Q&A; his answers are stand-alone gems.

I didn't want to bury them in more rambling text, as I figure you've copped more than your fair share of that in this introduction. Big thanks to Justin for his remix, his words of wisdom, his time - and his cracking sense of humour.

I've been into your stuff since the year dot, but a little bit of research indicates you've been producing your own stuff, first off with Mosquito or Sativae, since about 1997. Is this correct?

"I did my first tracks before this but my inaugural release was on Mosquito in 1997. My first ever track - I think! - was 'Tonight', which ended up released on Mutter a few years later in 2001."

The stuff on Force Inc. was quite mad; I loved it, of course. How do you feel about that early stuff now?

"The Force Inc. period was when I was first starting out so I loved doing these early EPs. I still like what I did back then, they were good times! The Force Inc. EPs gave me good exposure - one was an NME Dance Single of the week - and allowed me to produce my first album [Charm Hostel] quite early on."

What inspired you to set foot in the studio yourself?

"I was originally into old electro such as Mantronix, and then old school techno, Detroit stuff, early Djax-Up-Beats, and so on. I'd always wanted to produce music so it was just a question of trying to get more gear than an old drum machine I had knocking about. I was just desperate to produce music, whatever it was going to be."

Where exactly were you born, and what's it famous for?

"I was born in Watford. It's fairly famous for Watford Football Club, which was at one time chaired and funded by Elton John. However, in the main Watford is a total shit-hole and I avoid it at all costs. It's full of rich chavs who want to fight each other."

You've remixed Cristian Vogel, Subhead, Hardfloor, Digital Primate, DJ Rush, and now this Little Nobody track for me. How do you approach the rejigging process and how do you go about personalizing it with the Justin Berkovi stamp?

"Usually I'll just grab all the parts and then create my own track. If the track though has a unique thing for me such as a crazy bassline or just some element I really like then I'll work my mix around that. I don't have a set remix style and I'll often create two remixes, one harder one and one more introspective."

You've been producing music and interacting within the music industry for a long time now. What's most changed in the electronic/experimental music related music industry over that period?

"That's a big question! So much has changed. Years ago I think vinyl played a very important role in the industry - people had to wait for white labels or promos, a buzz was created, and then the entire process of selling or buying a 12" was played out over time. Now everything is so instant. You've got a zillion digital labels releasing all kinds of crap and sifting through everything is really time-consuming.

"It's just a completely different landscape now, not as rock and roll in some ways as before - I mean I'd never have predicted seeing techno DJs Twittering about what Wagyū beef they're eating or how many times they've been to fucking Nobu - hilarious!

"But techno goes round and round, in and out of fads - from the minimal explosion has come a general acceptance of a much broader style of techno, so whilst the narrow fads might piss people off they often lead to things evolving later. Which is a good thing!"

What else keeps you motivated?

"Good, clever music and sounds that blow me away. I've always been a sucker for producers that use innovative and unique sounds - I'll often hear something in a track, it could be some strings or an effect or anything, and that will inspire me. My motivation now comes from producing again - I'm about to release my first music in over four years, so am excited about this and just keep wanting to produce tracks."

What gear/software are you making most use of in the studio at the moment?

"I still have a few bits of hardware left, but mainly sample it. My main production tool is Logic and my live tool Ableton. I'd like to make the switch to producing only in Ableton but keep going back to Logic. I prefer the timing of Ableton; it reminds me of my old hardware sequencers I used to produce with."

Which part of your studio is the most vital facet?

"Hmm... tough one - I'd say some of my outboard because it's now taking the flatness out of computer music and warming up my sound, making it more like my older productions."

Which current crop of artists and labels are grabbing your attention?

"Too many to mention! I still follow all the old guys but like a lot of well-produced stuff by Gary Beck and newer artists from minimal and tech-house to techno. I don't really listen to one or two genres or artists - I just go by what I like when I hear it."

If you were pressed into a corner and forced to confess under great duress, how would you define the sounds/styles you're currently making?

"That's easy, really - I'm doing deeper stuff under my Nightrax thing, and tougher, darker techno."

What upcoming Justin Berkovi productions/collaborations/events we should know about for 2010?

"I'm putting together two mixes for some artist podcasts - they'll be a trip down old school techno memory lane, and then a special preview of my new live set. I've got a Nightrax-style EP coming out on Eevolute, the imprint run by Terrace and Estroe, I have a remix for Jurek Przezdziecki coming out on Germany's Whirlpoolsex Music, and I'm in the studio working on a series of EPs for different techno labels. I'm planning on releasing a lot of stuff in 2010 as well as starting touring again with my live set."

You've also run your own label Predicaments - is it finished by the way, or just taking a nap?

"Predicaments is finished. I loved running the label but because I did everything it was just too much work in the end - you need help with running a label! Saying that, I'm actually thinking of starting up Nightrax again for my deeper music."

You released Subhead, Dave Tarrida, Steve Glencross, DJ Rush, Adam X and Miss Kittin on Predicaments, along with records by yourself. What were the label's perimeters, and how did they change over time?

"To be honest the label didn't really have a 'style' as such; it was just good techno by people I liked and got on with."


What's it been like releasing through all the other cool labels you've worked with over the years?

"It's been great - you meet like-minded people who want to release your own music! All the labels are different and it meant a lot to me to release stuff on labels that I'd respected so much in the past."

CDs are a disappearing facet of the music industry, and a fair amount of people in electronic/dance music circles are cutting back on vinyl these days because they say it just doesn't make back the money invested. How do you feel about this?

"It's just the way it is. We could chat about the demise of vinyl till the cows come home - of course I feel it's a shame, I love vinyl! There is just nothing like it and I have to say that I miss seeing DJs use vinyl out... but times change. Vinyl can still be a wonderful way to add kudos to a release, though."

Either way, is digital download really the future of music?

"I guess so. I wonder how this will evolve, because there are so many 'digital labels' out there at the moment. Is giving everyone a chance to release music easily a good thing? Who knows! There's certainly less quality control than before!"

How do you foresee techno and electronic music in general developing over the next 12 months?

"Well, techno has just gone from strength to strength in the last few years - a big plus for me because it's made me return to producing and wanting to play out again. I think it's simply going to be a good year for techno and electronic music in general, there is some great music out there with real guts and soul."

Lastly - how do you like your mushrooms cooked?

"Well done with no water. Preferably as part of a great breakfast in Melbourne with a great coffee."

...care to add anything else?

"Just to say thanks for everyone who has supported me over the years and I can't wait to come back in 2010 with my new live set, releases, and immerse myself totally back into techno - bring it on!"

Founded in 1989 by Alan Herrick and Jenny Liang, Auricular began as a humble little record retail store in the Lower Haight neighborhood of San Francisco and slowly carved out a small niche for itself by offering in-store performances by Hafler Trio, Merzbow, Zoviet France and Nux Vomica.

"The store became kind of a central location for experimental and noise artists within San Francisco," assesses Herrick in retrospect.

"It may be due to the fact that we did not carry much major label material and were always willing to consign material from local artists or it may have been part and parcel of my tastes and intrigues."

Out of all this music and noise grew the offshoot label, Auricular Records, which began with the release of the first Auricular Audio Magazine on cassette, back in the days before DIY artists or labels had access to CD-R.

"The label started as cassette only releases focused on friends and family," Herrick says. "The first compilation releases was all locals who performed live together regularly. It was just another way to try to get some of the music out there to be heard. Quickly the label evolved from a handful of local artists to include tracks from artists all over the world on our releases. The money was tight then and CD production was expensive. I never had enough money to release anything in large quantities and cassettes were limiting but we did OK and got by."

In 1992 Auricular Records closed the doors of its retail shop and the label went into long-winded hiatus - until resurfacing two years ago with a fresh approach to experimental electronic music and releasing innovative material by a new array of artists.

"I decided after far too long to get back into it all and resurrect or revive the label and start working with artists and releasing my own material again. This resulted in instantly coming in contact with new people and starting to produce the largest number of releases I ever had to date. It is now 20 years from the dawn of Auricular Records and we have over 100 artists who have appeared on our label and over 70 releases, with many more planned."

On Discogs it says that "Auricular Records was a small independent music label dedicated to preservation and support, as well as distribution, of the works of world wide experimental music artists." Is this still the main perimeter - or have things changed?

"This is still the main perimeter. I re-focused efforts on Auricular Records several years ago with the intent of continuing to find new artists and to expose as well as reinstate work with some old friends and projects of my own.

"After a few years of diving back into the music scene I am discovering the things that have changed and what is working and not working so there's a change in perimeter - or, rather, a shift in focus. I am moving more towards more 'special edition' releases such as a CD that is accompanied by a book, boxed sets of art and audio, retrospectives and maybe some audio/video projects."

Herrick shrugs. "The whole idea of an independent music label has changed drastically in the past 20 years and I am still formulating how Auricular will evolve beyond this and still work within the perimeters we have in the past. In 2009 I started a sister label, Ambit Din, which aims to explore and provide a vehicle for release of a new canvas of sound art focused on field recordings and compositions that use field recordings and their main backbone."

Inspiration itself comes from some interesting sources in this particular case.

"I come from a very musical family and I can't recall a time in my life where music hasn't played a significant role. Musical composition, sound art and audio experimentation is all an extension of my palette of emotions. I've used sound to express a lot of things that would have otherwise gone unspoken, or things I do not have words for.

"I have experienced or utilized music in ways most people would use drugs, meditation, or spirituality and shared some very intimate relationships musically that could only occur as part of the creation of music. I wouldn't say I have been so much inspired to create music as much as compelled or driven by my own inner workings."

He goes on: "I was born is Middletown, CT, established along the western bank of the Connecticut River - which served as the original home of the Mattabesett Native Americans. It is probably most famous for Wesleyan University. I only lived there until age eight.

"Oddly enough, a major turning point in my musical education came at about age 10, while listening to a radio very late at night. I've no idea what the show was or who was broadcasting, however they played a piece of music by a professor from Wesleyan that had been entirely composed from the sounds of different types electrical switches turning on and off. This absolutely amazed me at the time and probably played a very significant role in my thinking towards the potentials of music and sound. I have never been able to to track that recording down since."

Herrick himself has made music with Big City Orchestra, Sense-Net, Concerto Infernal, Haters, Ultrasound, NU33.3X, Turntable Orchestra, and Amphead.

"Most recently I've worked with a close friend and very talented composer, Brent Goodbar, on a project called G:NOME. I've also worked recently with Space Gambus Experiment - a project out of Malaysia - along with collaborations with Math Lewis of Noisepsalm and also collaborative efforts between Nux Vomica and Voice Of Eye," he says.

The man has been producing music and interacting within the music industry for quite a long time now - so what's most changed in the electronic/experimental music related music industry over that period?

"What hasn't changed?" He quips.

"Our medium for recordings, our production methods, our distribution models have all changed. Each of these has changed so drastically that it's difficult to say what has changed the most. Technology is the number one thing that has changed, probably. The advances in computers, access to bandwidth, storage, software, and media have all had profound effects on every single aspect of the music industry from what makes and artist to how and album is created or purchased. It just keeps on going and going doesn't it? I'm not sure I can foresee anything in particular happening, I just know it sure isn't going to stop!"

Motivation is another matter that's connected. "Most likely the constant change and the absolutely huge amount of music I haven't heard yet keeps me motivated. The other primary motivating factors are the artists themselves, and the friends and family we have built along the way."

In his own studio productions things have also changed.

"I switch things up a lot depending on mood and project. Logic Pro is my number one studio software environment - after years of frustration and irritation with ProTools, I hung it up, turned to Logic and never looked back. Other apps I utilize fairly extensively for sound creation, at the moment, would be Reason and Gleetchlab 3. The Mac is essential - it keeps the sounds, mixes, produces, rips, communicates, and distributes. It is my most important tool in the studio for productivity as well as during downtime when it's time to relax and enjoy and explore things."

Which current crop of artists and labels are grabbing his attention?

"I've been very heavily into net labels lately - I've been following, and really enjoy, Justnotnormal, and/OAR, Wandering Ear, and Feedback Loop to name just a small few. This is just a small list of a large number of labels and artists who are out there creating music for themselves, pushing boundaries, doing unique things with sound and audio production and turning out some truly interesting material that provokes and intrigues."

Describing your own music is something a lot of artists are loathe to do and Herrick seems bemused by the notion. "This question was so much easier to answer when there were five genres of music," he suggests, "but now we have 45,000 ways to say the words 'techno' or 'alternative'. My work has always fluctuated between noise, electronic and ambient - I am going to stick with 'SoundArt'. I've always liked the ring of it and it encompasses, to me, a wide range of styles and possibilities."

How about if we pose the same question for Auricular?

"Auricular has always been a bit more diverse and I keep it that way because I like it to showcase and reflect all the different styles of music I enjoy or my curiosity is piqued by. The idea of Auricular has always been to showcase the unusual or unheard. In the process we have unearthed brilliant pop, grand noise, incredible electronica, and some unclassifiable and indescribable material. There have been several times I've said 'This doesn't fit in with our imprint' - then the release is out or a track is on a compilation and sure enough it fits right in."

Herrick smies. "I'm very happy with what has happened with Auricular. I've met some incredible artists and come in contact with wonderful people over the past 20 years and I wouldn't trade those relationships and experiences for anything. Auricular has constantly evolved over 20 years and I want to keep it evolving. Right now I'm struggling with the direction to take it in from here and repeatedly I see it moving from the audio realm into the multimedia realm. Whether this happens, only time will tell."

What's next through Auricular?

"Auricular will be releasing some new artists, most of whom have appeared on recent Auricular Audio Magazine compilations. There are upcoming CD releases planned by Rhedcerulean, Noisepsalm, Nux Vomica, Andrez Bergen and old label veterans Big City Orchestra - which features Phil Knight of The Legendary Pink Dots. I have a retrospective 10-year audio, video and curio boxed set planned for Minmei Decelis' project, My Boyfriend The Pilot. I've been working with the very talented The Amber Tapes, from the UK, to release a CD with an accompanying book of his visual art that correlates to the audio works.

"Recently we released the first in a series of collaborative recordings between Nux Vomica and Voice of Eye as a dual effort between Conundrum Unlimited and Auricular Records. There will be several more recordings coming out in that series. I have been working furiously to remaster all 12 of the early Auricular Audio Magazines to offer as a CD box set, however this project may be put off until the 25th anniversary and be much more involved to include book, video etcetera."

Any upcoming Alan Herrick productions/collaborations/events we should know about for 2010?

"I am hoping to be able to work with Brent again on a new G:NOME release and I hope to continue collaborations with Math of Noisepsalm. I'm sure we will have some new Nux Vomica material and we are hoping to start working on some soundtrack work to some old silent films very soon - I'm going to be vague so as not to give away too much on that project."

CDs are a disappearing facet of the music industry, and a fair amount of people in electronic/dance music circles are cutting back on vinyl these days because they say it just doesn't make back the money invested.

"I don't think I've ever made back money on any release I have ever done on CD. It's more and more difficult to sell through downloadable distribution and make any money at it. The proliferation of net labels and free distribution of music can certainly keep a music consumer pretty happy - I am a huge audio junkie and can barely keep up with what I can get for free online. I have almost ceased purchasing music and I should be a person who stands up and supports the small labels trying to make a go of it.

"The music industry is in a state of reinvention and all labels, major and small players, are wondering how things will pan out. Not making the money back will certainly curtail or limit what I do with Auricular and my own music projects but, in the meantime, I am not going to stop doing it. I stand behind the audio I find and manufacture and distribute. The Auricular family of artists is a fantastic group of people and I'll always try to find a way to keep working with them and others moving forward regardless of the bleak finances involved."

Is vinyl dead?

"I see it making a comeback these days,even if within a small subsection of humanity. I'd love to be able to say it isn't dead because I truly love vinyl as a medium for audio more than any other out there. I could probably embark upon a lengthy and insane-sounding diatribe on this but will spare you. I do not think vinyl is dead per se, I do think our model for recording mediums and distribution is in great turmoil and almost any medium is close to dead. It is a shame to say the MP3 is our strongest option these days. Technology has finally given people the ability to create pristine multitrack recordings in their own home with next to no cost involved and a very small learning curve yet we distribute these recordings in a format that sounds worse than an ill-tuned FM radio. I am still baffled by this. I am going to keep my room full of vinyl until there's not a stylus left on the planet."

Is digital download really the future of music?

"I'm not sure... I could not have even imagined it as a possibility 20 years ago so I am pretty sure I can't imagine what is to come. It's a good bet the folks who listened to the first wax cylinders could not have even fathomed an 8-track of Foghat being snapped into the car deck. I think we have a long way to go with downloadable music and it is certainly still in its infancy. We will hopefully see leaps and bounds in quality as technology and bandwidth permit. It may not be the future, but it's our immediate present and near future."

Lastly - how does Herrick like his mushrooms cooked?

"Grilled, with shallots and red wine, and a pinch of salt."

One of my favourite German record labels over the past five years has been Kitty Corner, through which Paul Birken, TSR, Luke's Anger and Mark Hawkins have released some scintillating vinyl.

It's run by Axel Sohns who also runs subsidiary label Slidebar Recordings (with way cool artwork by frequent Fun in the Murky commentator Marcin Markowski), and he makes exceptional music himself - making the man prime fodder for one of our completely self-indulgent Q&A sessions.

Tell us all about Kitty Corner and how the label got started - in 2006, right?

"The concept existed a bit longer, but the main problem was getting the financial base - so finally, in the middle of 2006, my label project was ready to be realized. The first question was what to name the label. It was really difficult to find a unique name in the wide range of labels that exist these days, so I started to type in random words in an English dictionary... and after a while I found Kitty Corner. It sounded really amusing, so I asked some friends about their opinion, most of them were really into it, and KCR was born. The next step was to find the right distributor. The first release was planned with another artist, but after some negative replies from distributors I decided to ask Mark Hawkins to do the first release; after that I got in contact with Possible Music Berlin and worked in cooperation with them until the end of 2008. Since the beginning of 2009, KCR and my other label Slidebar are distributed by deejay.de."

How about Slidebar Recordings - what's the difference?

The idea behind Slidebar Recordings was to start a label which is more open minded and a platform for experiences. Another reason was to release more 'various artists' projects, and of course records at a faster pace; I think it doesn't make sense to release every month a new record through KCR. With two labels, it's easy to split projects and plan out in advance."

What inspired you to start making your own music?

"I came to electronic music through a Frankfurt-based radio station called HR3. There was a show every Saturday with well known artists like Sven Väth, Chris Liebing and Pascal F.E.O.S. This was really essential stuff and I listened to my recorded tapes for weeks - because MP3s didn't exist at this time and it was even really difficult to get DJ mixes.

"After a while I started to collect records and that made it possible for me to choose the stuff directly that I wanted to hear. I bought most of my records at Klang-Art in Wiesbaden - but unfortunately it's been closed now for 4 years - and at Overdrive in Mainz. After a while collecting vinyl, I got Proppellerhead's Rebirth from a good friend. Some will laugh. Of course it's a really simple program without much variation, but in the beginning it was a lot of fun. I think this was the point at which I made the decision to produce instead of just mixing."

Where were you born, and what's it famous for?

I was born in Wiesbaden in Hessen, a city near Frankfurt, but I live in a province called Rheingau. It's well known for viniculture and lots of taverns along the river Rhein, and of course the beautiful countryside. I'm not a fan of large cities, so I'm really glad to live there, but I think this is mostly habit."

I noticed you've worked under the name Escope. Any other under groups/aliases?

"Escope was my first pseudonym when I started making music; after a while I changed to my real name. I also had some gigs in Frankfurt with my mate MonoPascal as Symphonic [ctrl] Error. It's always a lot of fun to play back-to-back with him and I can imagine doing this more often."

Running the labels or your own production work: which avenue gives you the most satisfaction?

"Both are a lot of fun and it's always a pleasure to work together with other artists who support my labels. I try to keep everything on a friendship-based level instead of strictly business, because it's not in my interest to work with music like this. Unfortunately, however, producing music is currently ranked beneath my day job because my job eats up a lot of time and it's really difficult to find the right motivation during the week. Mostly I try to be creative on weekends, but I hope better times will come soon."

You've been producing music and interacting within the music industry for quite a long time now. What's most changed in the electronic music related music industry over that period? Or at least in the Frankfurt techno scene?

"What's changed most, and I think this is what everyone would say, is the switch to the digital medium. Of course it's a relief for DJs to rock up to clubs with only a notebook with lots of music uploaded on its hard drive, instead of a heavy crate jammed full of vinyl - with a smaller music collection.

"But a classic DJ for me is someone who mixes real vinyl. Another reason for me to prefer the black gold is to that feeling of holding something in your hand, which has personal worth for me, and of course I like the analog vinyl crackle. And as callous as it sounds, MP3 is worthless so far as I'm concerned and I would never pay for an immaterial digital file to save it on my hard disc. So of course it's bad when good tunes are only listed in digital stores.

"But the worst phenomenon is the creation of the mass of Traktor DJs out there. Every second guy who listens to electronic music has a drive to be involved in the techno scene, so many people just stop listening only to the music; instead they start to produce and mix try to be famous without any of their own ideologies. Sure, it keeps the music alive, but this makes it more difficult for every newcomer to establish oneself in the scene - and a lot of talent disappears in the wide range of hobby-musicians.

"The internet has done a lot to contribute to this. It has never been so easy to get lots of tracks and music software for free. Just start a sharing program and after one hour, here you are: The new star in the sky.

"The party scene has also changed. This is really sad. I remember a time when there was a kind of spirit and parties were something special for the night... Today it's more a selfish thing and the community feeling is totally lost, a reason why I rarely visit parties in my region anymore. Another Important thing is the kind of music which is played here. Everywhere is the same sound - the DJs play mostly a constant line without any highlights in the sets; this is not only boring but also it sounds like they play only two tracks for the whole night."

So what keeps you motivated?

"Sometimes I ask this myself this question, but when I look at the market there are a lot of labels which stopped releasing or changed their styles, so it's also a kind of job for me to keep this genre of music alive; what I like myself, I mean. There can be no talk of making money - I mean the times are over to live only on pressing-up vinyl - but so long as people like and buy the releases and I get positive feedback, I take this as my motivation to go on."

What do you foresee happening with the music we care about in 2010?

"This is a difficult question but I think that the speed with which the music turns up and it will get away from the ass-shaking 'clacker' sound. I noticed that there's new hype in development with the current Advent/Industrialyzer sound. So many hard techno and minimal DJs changed their BPMs to meet somewhere in the middle, and a lot of producers are starting to copy the sound. This reminds me a little bit to the 'Schranz' hype from 2000.

"What I hope, for the future, is that this stereotype thinking in genres throttles itself and all different styles of electronic music will find themselves together. I mean it's totally sad that the UK sounds like dubstep didn't find their way to West Germany, but nobody knows what the future holds in stores."

What gear/software are you making most use of in the studio at the moment?

"Currently I'm learning the ropes of Ableton Live in combination with Native Maschine and the Komplete stuff; I also use some hardware from time to time, especially the DSI Mopho and Nord Modular, but my midi interface is currently broken so my production setup is limited to software use only."

Which part of your studio is the most vital facet?

"I know what I need as a part of my studio - and that's a pack of cigarettes near my keyboard. It's strange because normally I don't smoke during the week, but when I sit in front of my gear I smoke like a chimney. That keeps me motivated."

Which current crop of artists and labels are grabbing your attention, and why so?

"Oh there is a lot of stuff I like, but currently I'm listening a lot of dubstep and little bit breakcore from artists like Ebola, Kid606, etc - and, of course, my classic records themselves, most of them from the middle of the '90s with my all-time favourites by Paul Birken, Cristian Vogel, Audiovoid, Chris Sattinger, DJ ESP, Distorted Waves of Ohm, Unit Moebius, and Crystal Distortion."

If you were pressed into a corner and forced to confess under great duress, how would you define the sounds/styles you're currently making?

"I'd say there's no special sound that I follow. Usually when I start a track I don't have a specific idea of it's supposed to sound or be; it begins mostly by playing around with my synthesizers to explore new tones - which is an important production process in my tracks. Back to the question: When I have to define my sound, it's just techno with experimental influences."

Back to the labels - how do you feel about the course of Kitty Corner four years later? Did you achieve what you set out to do with the imprint, and what direction would you like to take from here?

"Difficult question. Quite honestly I have no idea which direction it'll take, but for sure you have to move on with the times, so it's no secret that the sound will change in the future - but I can say that I will remain faithful to myself. I only release what I like and I don't want follow the current hype or trend to boost the number of sales. I prefer the tunes which pump in the club to freak out to, instead of the click-clack sound... So I'll still keep this angle up for sure."

What's currently afoot with the two labels?

"I don't like to plan too much in advance; doing that only adds stress to hold to deadlines! [laughs].

"At the moment Slidebar 03 is in stores with no one else than Little Nobody as Funk Gadget - it's a remix project with some great artists like Si Begg, Dave Tarrida, Paul Birken and Patrick Pulsinger, who all make the EP really different in style so there are tracks for everyone. Slidebar 04 is also planned as a various artists release - it will be with Lief Ryan, Doshy, Nino Fight & Smees, Jesse Hall and Kid606. It sounds like an amazing compilation! KCR, since the last release, has had a little break - but will be back in the near future with Subhead's Jason Leach."


Any upcoming Axel Sohns productions we should know about for 2010?

"At the moment nothing special is planned, but when I have something that's worth releasing - and I'm satisfied with it - there could possibly be a track or two in the near future. We'll see..."

Lastly - how do you like your mushrooms cooked?

"I like my mushrooms in a white wine cream sauce with garlic and garden herbs, and as a side dish a baguette."

When I was five-years-old, I went to the late lamented Gardiner toy shop and bought a toy robot with the money my Nan gave me for my birthday: a made-in-Japan, wind-up tin carouser whose major identifying feature was a big 'W' emblazoned across his chest.

Just occasionally I still wonder what that 'W' really meant. Is it some secret identity or code? 'W' for 'Wind-up'? An honest Jenglish mistake, like Wobot? Nothing earth-shattering at all?

I still have old Dubya. He's like Old Yeller, but never bites. He's rusty, missing his arms, and has been deconstructed several times, but he still works when you tweak the metal key that's stuck above his right foot.

He sits proudly atop the mantle next to my desk, having returned to Japan from Australia nine years ago. We even found his mint-condition, spitting-image double at the Yokohama Tin Toys Museum, which was a bit unsettling for us both.

It's Dubya's fault my childhood infatuation for robots moved on from the Cybermen and Daleks in Doctor Who and the Cylons from the original series of Battlestar Galactica, on into giant robot mecha-action anime - starting with gems like Mazinger Z and Tetsujin 28-go (better known outside Japan as Gigantor).

Some things don't change, like my penchant for things robotic - no real surprise then that the name of my new Little Nobody vinyl EP through IF? is 'Robota'.

However there's another trace element influence here. Nope, it's not related to the project by Star Wars art director Doug Chiang - I only just discovered that today on Google while doing hack research for this piece - nor the freaky 'educational and therapeutic devices' promoted here. It isn't even a wayward misspelled homage to Styx's 1983 classic 'Mr Roboto'.

Instead I nicked the name off Wikipedia.

Yep, you read right. I was checking out the entry on robots and the origin of the word, and deep in there I discovered this pearler: "The word robota means literally work, labor or serf labor, and figuratively 'drudgery' or 'hard work' in Czech and many Slavic languages. Traditionally the robota was the work period a serf had to give for his lord, typically 6 months of the year."

Being a lazy git myself with an eye forever on the couch, I decided to call the track 'Robota'. Nothing deeper than that, I'm afraid - though we can always pretend otherwise and toot some people's horns.

For this baby I originally shanghaied into the arrangement Japanese producer Toshiyuki Yasuda - one of Si Begg's favorite musicians who'd just finished working at the time with Señor Coconut, a.k.a Atom Heart - to do his bloody brilliant robot-style vocoder vocals as Robo*Brazileira.

"Robo*Brazileira is my singing alias, a fictitious Brazilian robot," Yasuda patiently explained to the unenlightened (in this case myself) at the time. "For me, the robot is one view-point with which to see ourselves as humans. To see us more cautiously, I think I must have external eyes."

With an attitude and moniker like that I had no real choice but to get the laddie involved.

Then to do their own wind-up remixes of the original combo we first lassooed in the insanely respected Mr. Steve Stoll - a man who's released motorized techno over the years on labels like Proper NYC, NovaMute, Djax-Up-Beats and Harthouse.

I was a huge fan in the '90s and first interviewed him just over a decade ago (along with a more recent chat for FITM here); fact is that the guy continues to steer my personal techno inclinations pretty darned effectively and I love his drums - both real and programmed.

We also got on board the irrepressible Dave Tarrida, whose output through his old label Sativae and since then through Tresor, Musick, Neue Heimat, Dancefloor Killers and Feinwerk has been my repeated refill cuppa tea for years; his recent stuff continues to kick my butt about, and he nicely hit me up with some canny comments last year for the FITM piece on digital downloading.

Rounding out the remixing troupe is Germany's Cem Oral (a.k.a Jammin' Unit/Ultrahigh/4E), a man we also previously featured in Fun in the Murky - here - and the erstwhile genius behind Cube 40's 'Bad Computa' and Air Liquide's 'Robot Wars'.

How on earth (or indeed off it) couldn't I include him here?

Finally, I indulged in a wee bit of the tyranny-of-distance e-mail mud wrestling thing, this time between Tokyo and Sydney, as me and fellow Aussie Simon Nielsen (DJ Hi-Shock of Elektrax notoriety) did the final mix.

There's a ripe possibility we'd together like to intimate that this record is machine-based disco-funk-tech for the next decade - the promo propaganda sheet says precisely that - then suggest you should hop online and order the wax now, since it's available from today (surprise, surprise)... but the fact remains that none of these musos, who are also mates of mine, would be so pretentiously narcissistic. They're cool individuals with a great sense of humour and a definite interest in music for music's sake.

So instead, for shameless promotional reasons of a more ulterior bent, I gathered together all the boys involved in the vinyl remixes and bounced around some silly robot-related queries. Far from earth-shattering, completely self-indulgent and occasionally obscure, this reads as follows:

What do you really think of robots and robot culture?

"I think we Americans need to embrace our robot brothers and welcome them into this country," Steve Stoll espouses. "I never get mad when I see a hard-working robot having success; I mean isn't that supposed to be the American Dream?"

"I think I have a old fashioned view about robots," says Cem Oral. "The friend of man, the enemy from outer space and such is more my cup of tea than robots doing the industrial jobs of man. Robot culture? Tell me more about it."

"Robot culture may include our wishes or desires rather than real future," muses Toshiyuki Yasuda. "So it's good to be fantastic and dreamy even if they have useless functions like singing."

When Dave Tarrida thinks robots, he thinks Japan. "I love Japanese culture in general, with all the gadgets, technology, etc, and robots have always gone hand-in-hand with this," he says. "There's nothing better than heading into their toy stores and checking out the robots and anime figures!"

In a war of robots, which one would win?

Stoll: "The shiny ones with big meaty claws."

Oral: "If you mean man against machine, I think man because there still hasn't been a robot created instilled with the will to live and energy through belief. But who knows..."

Tarrida: "My money is on the robots."

Yasuda: "No war please."

Why do boys often obsess about robots?

"Because they do what you want and they are strong. Definitely a power thing," Oral says.

"I am actually obsessed with analog synths, so perhaps it's a similar obsession to want to control/program things - but mostly I think it's because boys have too much free time," muses Stoll.

"Robots have various aspects that boys love: They could be vehicles, arms, servants, friends..." Yasuda ponders.

"We all love the futuristic escape from reality - but the make believe is slowly becoming the reality," adds Tarrida.

What's your favorite robot (character or toy)?

"Armitage the Third, the sexy robot that could bear children," suggests Stoll.

"The one from the original 1951 version of The Day the Earth Stood Still. A 'good' against 'evil' one. I was eight years old when I saw that movie and I got very, very inspired!" (Oral)

"Mazinger Z, from my youth. It was the first real robot animation I ever saw." (Tarrida)

"Of course my fictitious Brazilian singing robot Robo*Brazileira."

What's your favorite law of robotics as suggested by Isaac Asimov :

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey any orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

Stoll: "I think most robots are against Asimov's 'Laws' as they take all the fun out of being born robot."

Tarrida: "I'm down with all three."

Oral: "Law number 4: A robot must switch off by ORAL command."

Yasuda: "There must be a loophole in there, whether I like it or not."

Do robots actually need laws?

"Don't think so. They're limited by their programming." (Oral)

"Maybe not. Limitation instead of laws would be enough, but the idea itself that laws are needed is interesting." (Yasuda)

"We all need law, right?" (Tarrida)

"I've always thought robots should be free to run ape-shit through the streets, with big flaming red LED eyes and flailing metallic fists; I mean that's what they do in the wild, so who are we to put restrictions on them?" (Stoll)

What's your preferred robot-related movie?

"Maybe Metropolis, the original robot movie." (Tarrida)

"I haven't watched too much robot porn, but the few I have seen are pretty good." (Stoll)

"2001: A Space Odyssey. 'Daisy' was sung by a robot!" (Yasuda)

In the original Astro Boy (鉄腕アトム ) our hero shoots a cannon concealed in his buttocks and in Mazinger Z, Aphrodite A (アフロダイ) fires missiles from where her breasts should be. Which part of the human anatomy do you think makes the best weapon for a robot?

"I personally have always liked butt cannons, but only as a secondary weapon to the trusty titty pistol." (Stoll)

"Haha, well you mentioned some parts. I would add the rectal flame thrower." (Oral)

"I'm still a fan of the fist. You just cant beat an old fashioned punch." (Tarrida)

"Eyes!?" (Yasuda)

Is it possible for a robot to have a sense of 'music'?

"Of course - as robots become more human like, they must take on what humans feel." (Tarrida)

"Sure." (Stoll)

"Maybe. Humans have definitely a sense of robot in the music." (Oral)

"Yes! It may be an additional function but it often occurs that kind of useless things turn out to be very popular features." (Yasuda)

Why are robots necessary?

"To do human work. That was the idea of automation." (Tarrida)

"They wouldn't be necessary in a world where people got up off their lazy asses. I hate lazy people with their robot butlers and fancy sexbots. By the way, I only like sequencers with knobs and I also hate midi and fuck Protools. I also hate when people download tracks illegally, and then blame their robot for doing it when they get caught." (Stoll)

"I think they're definitely not necessary. In my opinion they belong to the Industrial Revolution and therefore lead nowhere but self destruction for mankind. But on the other side we're lazy and love our little helpers and seem to be willing to pay the price - it's a Faust thing." (Oral)

"Not necessary." (Yasuda)

What kind of robot/automated helper is essential in your life, and why so?

"The cruise control in my car on long road trips." (Stoll)

"Hmm, the only servo motors I can think of are in the hideaway lights of my 1968 Cougar..." (Oral)

"My Mac." (Tarrida)

"Not essential." (Yasuda)

Describe your remix of 'Robota' in 21 words or less.

"Automated dance music for humans, and robots if they like." (Tarrida)

"Rrrraaaaaawwwwwwwkkkkkkkk. That's robot-speak for 'techno'." (Stoll)

"A more mechanical-sounding perspective of the iron made friend. Inflexible but funky!" (Oral)

What angle did you choose to take in the remix you did, and how do the Robo*Brazileira vocals sit with that interpretation?

"I just thought 'If I were a robot, how would I sequence this?', and it seemed to work." (Stoll)

"I cut out the words robotica and dance; why cant robots dance too?" (Tarrida)

"Hmmm." (Oral)

What do you think of the record's artwork by Marcin Markowski - and is this your style when it comes to robots or are you more serious-minded?

"The artwork is catchy!" (Yasuda)

"I like robots that look like they want to rip off your arms and smack you around; Markowski kicks ass!" (Stoll)

"I think they are half of the concept and I really like them. Serious-minded is something that should be avoided like a disease." (Oral)

"I love it, the green really stands out, it's a really striking image." (Tarrida)

What do you think of the over all record musically?

"It's a great mix of versions, important for a remix package." (Tarrida)

Is vinyl a bit old fashioned for a release that's focused itself around a sense of the 'future' - or can robot iconography and ideology be suitably retro as well?

"Robots make records, so I think it works fine." (Tarrida)

"Edison cylinders are old fashioned and hard to beat-match with. Vinyl is still viable and now unprofitable." (Stoll)

"The vinyl sound fits that kind of music very much, I think!" (Yasuda)

Why are records important these days, anyway?

"For their bigness!" (Yasuda)

"Sorry, they're not. Vinyl isn't handy, it's heavy, gets scratches, eats up your space at home, costs a fortune, needs oil... BUT IT SOUNDS BETTER THAN ANYTHING WE GOT YET." (Oral)

"It's good to lift heavy stacks of vinyl to stay in shape, but remember to bend at the knees. I recall changing apartments in New York and the movers saying 'What the f**k do you have in these boxes?!'." (Stoll)

"There's room for both vinyl and digital in this world." (Tarrida)

Would robots prefer to play wax or digital?

"Of course robots have access to both the Internet and a built-in player!" Oral laughs. "To please his master he's able to DJ with several decks simultaneously."

"The record would be nice for the contrast, " hankers Yasuda, while Tarrida is more the realist here: "Pre-2005 robots would play vinyl, and post 2005 would play with Serato..."

And Stoll is right on the money.

"All serious robots listen only to Morton Subotnick - Google him, kids - on vinyl," he says.

"I should also point out that they only use audiophile turntables that're synchronized to the earth's exact rotational force. By the way, robots are seriously offended by Kraftwerk's portrayal of them and have openly vowed to destroy Florian; that's why he left the band." (Stoll).

For what it's worth, 'Robota' is out now via Prime Direct in the UK.

American producer Vincent Capuano, known to mates as Vinz, conjures up techno under the alias of V1NZ.

He's remixed Wyndell Long and Virgil Enzinger, has cut tracks for labels like Proper NYC, Naked Lunch and Elektrax, and some people would have you believe that this cat is one of the real faces of future 'proper' techno. I'd agree with 'em, but I'm biased - I always did have a hankering for this style, Vinz is a really nice guy, and he's currently doing a remix for me as well.

Anyway, disclaimers aside, here's a nice little fireside chat we just shared:

I've been into your stuff for just over a year now, but when I did a quick check of Discogs it indicates that you started production releases in 2009 - correct or not?

"My first actual release was the 'Basic Human Behavior' EP released through Proper NYC back in September 2008."

You're also DJing now as well - how long have you been doing that?

"I started off strictly producing tracks but around a year ago, after messing around with Traktor, I started to experiment and was really overcome with excitement. Instead of mixing together sounds to create a track, I was now mixing together tracks to create a set - which eventually started to become a real blast when I mapped out all of the effects, looping utilities, etcetera, to my XONE 3D. Since then I have played at several events over here. The nearest city with an actual nightlife is Montreal and I'm currently speaking with several cats up there regarding parties/clubs/festivals that I aim to become involved with."

How'd you first get involved in this music?

"This goes back to the mid '90s. At the time New York City was experiencing an explosion in the rave scene; it was less about clubs at the time and there were mainly free outdoor parties spread out across the city. We would head out on a Friday night to Roseland Ballroom to attend a party which would run until 6am or so. Then we would drive over the bridge into Queens and set up the generator, turntables and speakers in a random park, under a random bridge, in a random neighborhood.

"Witnessing, hearing, and feeling the vibe and the sounds emanating from the speakers totally blew my mind. I began visiting record shops and picking up mix tapes so I could start to hear more and more techno. As I listened I become very interested in producing my own beats and grooves. I worked three jobs the summer of 1996, bought myself a Roland R-70 drum machine, and began laying down patterns and such.

"For me production is a very personal thing; I tend to sit in the studio and write tracks straight from my heart and mind. It is a great way for me to output my thoughts and feelings in relation to what is going on in the world and my life in general. A very artistic approach I take - sort of like painting a picture.

"DJing for me is equally as enjoyable yet in a different sort of way - in this case the ability to shape and build a specific feeling and lay it on a crowd and have the chance to interact with people on the dancefloor is really special. I love the feeling obtained by twisting knobs, pushing buttons, and mixing together several tracks at once... It's a wonderful thing to hear, feel and witness the effect that the music has on people."

The stuff on Elektrax and Android Muziq has been quite mad (I love it, of course). How would you describe your output, and do you differentiate between these two labels?

"Elektrax is a harder-edged sound, heavier and faster than the sound of Android Muziq. I get a lot of my influence from techno artists of the '90s such as Jeff Mills, Steve Stoll, The Advent, Surgeon and others. I use elements present in that style of techno and apply it to my Elektrax productions as well as the tracks I create for Android Muziq. For Android the application of these bits is deeper and more on the minimalistic tip. It's fun to produce more than one kind of techno."

Where exactly were you born, and what's it famous for?

"I was born in New York City, which is the city that never sleeps. I guess it's not surprising that I turned out to be the person that never does."

You've remixed Wyndell Long, Virgil Enzinger and Max_M. Any other upcoming remixes I should know about?

"Well I've also remixed for Miro Pajic, R-Play, A. Paul [Naked Lunch], and several others, and in addition there are some upcoming remixes coming out I'd like to mention - one of these is for DJ DeH on Foot Fetish Records, another for the BCR Boys on Proper NYC, a bangin' remix for Brad Lee, and the 'Robota' remix for someone we both know which is going to be wicked!"

How do you approach the remixing process and how do you go about personalizing it with the V1NZ stamp?

"In production I'm still what many would consider old-school in that I use Logic as my primary sequencer. Most of the artists I've spoken with have jumped on the Ableton bandwagon these days but I feel that the sound quality and organic feel I get with Logic gives my productions a unique sound. When remixing though, I do use Ableton. For remixes I will take the parts given to me and drop them into Ableton; I then rewire Ableton into Logic, and add my own blend of percussion and synths from inside of Logic - while allowing Ableton to handle all of the time stretching of the parts.

"Logic and Ableton are at the center of it all but I also have a nice analog modeling synth by Novation on the hardware tip and I'm using a large number of VST/Audio Units plugins for effects and sounds. I've become a big fan of the WAVES Renaissance Compressor and drop it on inserts, sends, as well as the master bus. I also use IKMultimedia's T-Racks mastering suite which provides some really nice tools to get that final touch on a track. A really sweet soft synth worth mentioning is SURGE by Vember Audio - it has this warm feel to it, which is something I have not found in other tools. One of the most important pieces of gear that constantly grabs my eyes attention in the production process is my rack-mounted spectrum analyzer by Behringer. I don't use it to shape the sound but rather as a visual tool/reference to help me keep my mix-downs tight."

Which part of your studio is the most vital facet?

"Black lights, blue lights, red lights, and other tripped-out visuals help very much. Making music for the club, I need to feel as if I am in that club."

How do you stay motivated in an industry with few financial rewards these days?

"As I mentioned when I lived in New York City I was surrounded by quite a scene for dance music. Going out and being amongst the music was a big motivation for me. After moving out of the city, into an area where electronic music and clubs are given relatively little to no attention, I immediately needed to find a new form of inspiration. Traveling north to Montreal and attending after-hours events is a big motivation - I can head up there for a weekend, return to the studio, and get a lot done as a result of my experiences there. I've met many cool DJs, promoters and clubbers up there and it really is a blast to visit that city."

Which current crop of artists and labels are grabbing your attention?

"The new talent that is turning up on Android Muziq is very exciting, with one artist in particular: Octave from France. He's a production machine, with brilliant minimalistic gems delivered on a near weekly basis. The new label out of Argentina, Subsequent, is sure to bring a bangin' dose of harder techno in this coming year. Then if we head over to Germany there's Mirko Scheider and his label Foot Fetish, which seems to consistently deliver solid techno that has been turning up all over the charts on Juno.

"I still listen to the veterans as well - in effect Jeff Mills, The Advent and Surgeon. Recently I've been introduced to Casual Violence out of the UK, and let me tell you he has got some wicked, dark productions out there as well. I could go on forever, but lastly I'd like to mention two more labels: Naked Lunch and Labyrinth are really great sources for tasty techno."

If you were pressed into a corner and forced to confess under great duress, how would you define the sounds/styles you're currently making?

"Simple question. Here goes: Healthy doses of proper percussion, crisp and defined - yet subtle and intricate - combined with eerie, melancholic synth scenes and a twist of darkness, topped with just the right amount of boom."

What's upcoming for V1NZ in 2010?

"One big one I would like to mention is the upcoming V1NZ vs. R-PLAY 'Blackjack' EP, which will be my first ever vinyl release. It's coming out on Android Muziq this June. Also I'd like to mention an upcoming release for Subsequent Records, the new label in Argentina run by Luis Ruiz - it's Subsequent 04, Experimentool, featuring V1NZ and A. Paul. 'Experimentool' is a collaboration between Mirko Scheider of Foot Fetish and Jimmy T. Kindt. A. Paul is the label owner of Naked Lunch, and one of the most well known DJ/producers in the techno scene today. My track on this release - called 'Recovery Process' - is a real banger - and a lot harder than the other stuff I've been creating lately.

"On the DJ-tip I'll be turning up from time to time on Daz Furey's 'El Exilio' radio show on fnoob.com. The show is currently being streamed on Sunday afternoons and evenings. I was asked to be a part of this and I gladly accepted, with my first mix broadcast on March 21st."

You've released through labels like Elektrax, Android Muziq, M_REC, Antiritmo, and Naked Lunch. What's it been like working with these people?

"It's absolutely wonderful. One of the best things that has come out of my involvement in the music scene are the abundance of relationships I have developed across the globe. It is really great working with all of these guys; I think I may need to move out of America." [laughs]

What else are you up to?

"Well I'm currently helping out Simon [DJ Hi-Shock] doing A&R for Android Muziq - that's really been a blast working with the label. As an artist I think I've also learned quite a bit while holding this position!"

CDs are a disappearing facet of the music industry, and a fair amount of people in electronic/dance music circles are cutting back on vinyl these days because they say it just doesn't make back the money invested. How do you feel about this?

"Well there're still a fair share of DJs who use the CDJs and avoid Traktor and Serrato. Of course they buy their tunes the same places that digital DJs do, so I guess they can be lumped together as one, but vinyl production these days has become quite expensive for labels - although it really depends. We've had vinyl releases on Android Muziq that have sold out in a matter of a week. I think vinyl is a wonderful thing, and it will survive - something about having that physical product in your hand with artwork and all. To me it has much more meaning and value than an mp3. We are still respecting vinyl over at Elektrax. Not every release is pressed. But there have been and will continue to be vinyl releases for sure."

Is vinyl a dinosaur - or just becoming more of a select option?

"It definitely isn't dead - there're plenty of DJs still using the vinyl and there are certain clubs especially in Europe that only allow DJs to play the vinyl. One thing worth pointing out is this: If you go to Juno and search vinyl for techno, most of what you find is techno. If you go to Beatport and search digital releases for techno, I would say about one out of every 20 tracks you listen to is actually techno. It seems that vinyl has more respect for sound quality in general and genre in as well. Cassette tapes have the ability to die, and I feel this has already been happening. But vinyl, nope. Vinyl will live on."

Either way - is digital download really the future of music?

"We can't ever predict what the future will bring. Hundreds of years down the line music might be an artifact of our bloodstream... perhaps we might be downloading tracks directly to the human body. [laughs]. As for now it seems to be the primary source of electronic music for DJs. But remember - there was a time where the only way you could hear true underground electronic music was through buying vinyl."

How do you foresee techno and electronic music in general developing over the next 12 months?

"I think dark techno is on the rise, and I think eventually the click-clack minimal will be replaced by true minimal in the form that it was when it was born: Steve Stoll, Robert Hood, Surgeon, Jeff Mills, and so on. I'm not saying that the sound will go back to what it was then, but production quality is on the rise, so new sounds and new sculptures of the founding forces will prevail."

Lastly - how do you like your mushrooms cooked?

"I tend to saute them with some olive oil, white wine, garlic, lemon, and oregano."

British DJ/producer Jerome Hill runs Don't Recordings and frequently pops up on Fun in the Murky - not only because his label "has been fighting against the blandness and sheep mentality that pollutes the techno scene", but because it (and Hill) also happen to produce and play mighty fine tunes.

I read on Discogs that you first got your turntables "in 1990 after being inspired by the pirate radio sounds of London." How accurate is this, and could you add a wee bit more info into the mix?

"Sure, that was the year when I discovered 'electronic' music. Before that, thanks to my dad, I was a late '50s/early '60s rock and roll enthusiast (and still am)... but in 1990 me and my friends started listening to the London pirates, in particular Fantasy FM and in particular DJ Hype, who at the time was spinning everything from acid house and hip hop to Brooklyn breaks and Belgian techno; it was a really inspiring time and looking back you can hear the music gradually morphing into what people now generically call 'old skool'. Without a doubt my favourite years for electronic music are still 1990 and 1991."

Where exactly were you born, and what's it famous for?

"Exactly? pretty much on the corner of Shepherd's Bush and Hammersmith in West London, famous for... erm... difficult question, I suppose the BBC. Also the junkyard in Steptoe and Son was situated in Shepherd's Bush, and the Only Fools and Horses theme tune sings about buying dodgy tat [small, cheap, and usually tasteless items] 'from a mush in Shepherd's Bush'. The very embodiment of glamour!"

You worked with Rob Stow as Groove Asylum; is that project finished now?

"It's not 'finished', but it has been dormant for the last eight years or so - mainly due to both of us being busy with work and not living near each other anymore."

How do you draw the line between DJing and production, and which avenue gives you the most satisfaction?

"For me, DJing is playing records. Production is knocking around ideas on equipment and computers - a clear line and I'll always be a DJ first 'cos there's so much well made and inspiring music that's already been made that people don't get to hear enough of. For me it isn't just about mixing and scratching records, it's about searching for, obsessing about and digging around for different styles and weird little cuts or snippets. That little two-minute gem on an otherwise rubbish album that no one else is gonna own; that freaky rockabilly cover version with a massive drum break all the way through and bass so big that even the techno heads are gonna go for it..."

What keeps you most motivated?

"Discovering new and old music, and discovering artists who are making it well. I'm a terrible vinyl junkie and I'm also addicted to following evolutions and trails from many types of non-electronic music. Also of course the amount of noncommittal, wishy-washy tripe that gets passed off as music and forced down the throats of the spoon-fed majority... That's a big motivation 'cos the more of that that gets shat out into existence, the more it needs balancing out."

What do you foresee happening with the music we care about in 2010?

"The pessimist in me foresees less and less being released and even more genre nitpicking. It's like the ocean froze over and now the ice has cracked and all the bits are floating away from each other in different directions, so it's time to throw each other a line and start pulling it all together again - strength in numbers... or something like that! I'm not saying join the ice back together, but maybe realise that all the bits can co-exist next to each other and it's still 'ice' and you don't have to call one bit 'north-west ice', because it's happened to have floated two degrees north-west ...or something like that!!"

What gear/software are you making most use of?

"At the moment I'm using a Nord 2, Waldorf Pulse and a smug, temperamental and overpriced Macbook Pro!!"

Which part of your studio is the most vital?

"I do have an old horn style gramophone of which I'm very fond and my monitors give me lots of pleasure - but the decks and mixer get the most use."

Which artists and labels are grabbing your attention right now?

"It goes without saying that everyone whose music I release on the label always grabs my attention. Aside from that it's always hard to answer fairly whilst on the spot, as inevitably you forget loads of people, but I'll try... Here're a few off the top of my head: Subhead (still), Ghislain Poirier, North of Ping Pong, Grimjaw, The Bug, Ben Pest, Norman (Snork/HörspielMusik), Gruff Records, Edan, Imperial Leisure, Fedka the Irritant, Finders Keepers label, Mantrap Records out of Dublin, Quick and Smart continues to blow me away even after his sad passing... DJ-wise, it's eclectic locals like Onken, Lusinda, Controlled Weirdness, Warlock, NoyeahNo, Kriminal Mixes, Dexorcist and anyone who mixes it up!"

You've released stuff yourself through Hydraulix, Yolk, Über and Stay Up Forever Collective Vaults. What's your relationship been like with these labels?

"They're an excellent bunch who love doing what they do and have been there pushing their thing since the day dot. Throughout the mid/late '90s and '00s we always played on the same soundsystems, squat parties and clubs and were privileged to witness the crazy good old days of squat parties... even though we play and release different stuff from each other there's still lots of common ground and we go back a long way."

You've run your own sensational label Don't since 2000, through which you've released some of the best current electronica by Paul Birken, TSR, Jason Leach, Luke's Anger, Grimjaw, and your own fine self. Why did you originally start the label?

"For the usual reason: A surplus of material and nowhere to release it. Rob had wound down his Gravitation label in '99 and we had this track in our Groove Asylum live set that was always a popular one - loads of chopped up Dancemania-style beats and I'd scratch in an old UK hip hop accapella (MC Duke's Riffin) over the top on 45 and it just always went down really well so we recorded it in Rob's studio and that became the first release on Don't. It goes for silly money on Discogs now and I'm always kicking myself that i didn't hold some copies back. Then it became just a question of inviting my favourite characters to record tracks for the label plus a bit of sniffing around for fresh material from fresh artists. A particular highlight for me was re-releasing and remixing one of my favourite all-time techno tracks 'Sit on the Bass' from Autonation, a track I've been playing in my sets for the last 20 years... scary!"

How do you feel about the course of Don't ten years later? Did you achieve what you set out to do with the imprint, and what direction would you like to take from here?

"Definitely achieved what I set out to, which was to release only really good music IMO by only really nice people, and for it to have its own identity which I believe it does, and be able to exist on vinyl without releasing lowest-common-denominator music or bowing to current trends."

What's next through Don't?

"Next up is the new Luke's Anger EP ['Zapp the P'Ram'] which is out about now through Veto distribution - big shouts to Harvey, Neil and Rich. I'm really happy with this EP, and you can check it out at swervingthecommunity.com

In the '90s, when you broke through, for me the real movers and shakers of innovative electronica were all British: Cristian Vogel, Si Begg, Dave Tarrida, Subhead, Jamie Liddell, Tube Jerk and Tobias Schmidt. Were you into any of these guys' work at the time?

"Yep. All of them. Begg, Subhead and Lidell used to make my jaw drop with every release while Vogel, Schmidt and Tarrida had particular tracks that would completely blow me away! Tube Jerk/Tim Wright has such a distinct style which I love although I only found him after he released on Sativae in 2000."

What do you think of the "newer" guys shaking things up these days like Luke's Anger, Ben Pest, Paul Birken (not really new at all!) and Donk Boys?

"Well, Paul is a hero of mine from his mid '90s releases and is bestowed with one of the best attitudes in the game. If only everyone in techno had his passion, humour, talent and way with words. Luke always impresses me which is why I'm so happy to host him again on the label! Ben is a good mate and also insanely talented and passionate about his music, the only reason i didn't get anything yet for Don't is that my better half snapped it all up for her label Victim... heh-heh. The Donk boys are great too... love that updated dbx/bleep'n'skip style.

What new Jerome Hill releases can we look out for?

"Well, there's my remix on Don't 017 and there's a new one on a new label that's just come out under a different name... there'll also be an EP a little later in the year on Don't as well as bits and bobs here and there - is that specific enough?" [laughs]

A fair amount of people in electronic/dance music circles are cutting back on vinyl these days because they say it just doesn't make back the money invested. Is vinyl dead - or just becoming more of a select option?

"It's been diagnosed with a serious illness but not going down without a fight!"

Lastly - how do you like your mushrooms cooked?

"I don't care as long as they're chunky quarters and not floppy slithers."

Towards the end...or rather, just more recent than other things...Twerk was making music that in almost no way resembled what he started off doing. The first couple of records I picked up from that guy were definitely of the harder variety. Much harder. His metallic clanks, wobbly acid slurps and strong kicks were always done well.

Cesar Alcantar vs. Twerk "Los Colores EP" Organised Noise 05
00 - Los Colores
01 - Crazy Horse
11 - Cages
[ Discogs ]

Shawn Hatfield AKA 'Twerk' runs Audible Oddities

Buy used @ Discogs' Marketplace

If you're a regular peruser of this site you'd already be aware of British producer Mark Hawkins, who additionally channels through music under the alias ###. He's unleashed his stuff via labels like Pro-Jex, Djax-Up-Beats, Neue Heimat, Mosquito, Victim, Kitty Corner and Snork Enterprises, and up till recently ran his own cool label Crime.

I can't be arsed going into a further bio disposition here, since we talk about most of that during the course of the interview that follows below; we interactively carved this out over the past week, to and fro, and throughout Mark has been exceptionally entertaining, interesting, at times revelatory, and right into the whole process - all of which, combined with his music, make him one very inspiring individual.

After just a few days of this banter I feel like we're mates, and his wife even took some lovely up-to-date happy snaps to add into the story.

So, without further self-centred ado from me, read on.

Yawn question. What inspired you to start making music?

"I guess my Dad leaving his guitar lying about when I was about two years old - then he played me John Foxx, and then Afrika Bambaataa & the Soulsonic Force's 'Planet Rock' and I was hearing Kraftwerk and all the '80s synthpop stuff on the radio, so then I really wanted a synth; I had to settle on a cheapo Casiotone home keyboard, and I really wish I'd known how cheap you could have picked up a TB 303 or TR909 in a junk shop at that time!"

What happened to the Casiotone? Do you still have it?

"You know, I really have no idea what happened to that little home keyboard, I guess it probably ended up in a junk shop somewhere - wish I'd kept it and circuit-bent it, could have been an interesting little piece."

Where exactly were you born, and what's it famous for?

"I was born in Barking, which is a suburb of London - famous for being the place where Captain Cook got married. The River Thames had quite an effect on the place, so there were a lot of shipbuilders & a fishing fleet there. That's why it's there, it basically started off as a fishing village about 10 miles out of the centre of London. Now it's been swallowed up by the city, and to be honest, it's sucked the soul out of the place, it's more like a run down inner-city area now, a lot of crime and deprivation. It's kind of sad to see when I hear from my Dad how there used to be a cool music scene there in the late '60s/early '70s, y'know, kind'a freak scene or whatever. Probably to do with the total death of the old idea of subculture in the 21st century."

What do you believe has replaced that idea?

"Well, these days I think the people coming of age right now have a little bit of everything - maybe if you're 16 or 17 now, in the UK - at least if you haven't been sucked into the Simon Cowell pop idol machine - you're either listening to grime/dubstep or Emo, whatever that is. I guess drum and bass still has a following here, but I'm not sure if it's getting any fresh blood - I suppose it must do to be able to continue to exist."

Why the aliases ###, DJ M.H., and "The Spider" - any special meaning behind these?

"The Spider was just a nickname from years ago, so that's kind'a why it got used for my first release. I then ended up using my real name for the Djax stuff as I had no ideas no concept or anything, I was trying to think of something unpretentious and cool sounding to use, but it just never happened, so it was kind of an accident that I've ended up being stuck using my real name to put out music under, because of course once you start having records out on Djax, everyone else you do stuff for wants you to use the same name as you did for those releases.

"Funnily enough at the time that stuff came out, I did the Pro-Jex records too and I was gonna use my name again, but when I first signed to Djax they kind'a wanted my name as an exclusive thing to them, so I had to quickly come up with another name - I think there was a bit of rivalry between Djax & Pro-Jex at the time, there were a lot of the same artists releasing on both labels, so if it had been for any other label it probably wouldn't have been such an issue. Anyway, it kind of stuck and I think it fitted well for more Chicago-influenced stuff.

"### was a more recent experiment in trying to do something different - set up a kind of slower techno and house influenced thing, I guess also influenced by the more recent minimal sound too, although that's become as much if not more of a dirty and misused word as techno... so much chaff around and not enough wheat. Originally I wanted it to be completely disconnected from me, completely anonymous, but of course market forces got the better of that one, and the name I'd used for the Djax releases was requested for use again. But I guess I'm no wiz at marketing, I've just come to the point where as far as physical releases go, I don't really care what name I'm going under, I'm just happy to get stuff out on plastic now."

### is more recent and ongoing, right - but I'm guessing you've discontinued the use of DJ M.H. and 'The Spider'?

"It's debatable as to whether ### will see the light of day again as the sales of the last record weren't so good, but I might use it in future for free digital releases. DJ M.H. Is pretty much defunct unless I have a sudden desire to make ghetto house, and The Spider has definitely been killed off." (laughs.)

Do you make music under any other aliases?

"I did a record as 'M25' for the B-Rave label in 2003."

You've been producing music and interacting within the music industry for quite a time now, so far as I know since that classic split EP with Michael Forshaw in 1999 - 'Beast With 2 Backs' - on Mike's label Chan 'n' Mikes. Were you doing stuff before then?

"Yeah, I was writing, learning how to use the studio as it was all hardware back then, just honing my skills really, trying to get some leads on getting stuff out, and DJing at a lot of parties."

How did the split 12-inch with Mike come about?

"He heard me playing live in a forest in the back of a van just when he was thinking about going home or going to sleep - I made him come back to the dance floor with my sounds!"

Over a decade later, what keeps you motivated?

"My love for the music keeps me motivated more than anything else. To be honest, I'm happier on a Saturday night to have the whole night in the studio just to craft something for my own pleasure than to be playing at a party - that said though, a great party can be a great motivator as then you can see people enjoying your creations, but that can't be the ultimate aim, especially as tastes change, and not necessarily in the same direction as your own."

When you do play out, is it important to make people groove? Or is it not an issue?

"Oh definitely, otherwise you might as well just be messing around in the studio on your own -although I believe it's important not to use the lowest common denominator to achieve that. 50 percent should be people saying "What the hell is that? I never heard anything like that before" and 50 percent should be people really wigging out - it doesn't always work like that, I feel it's important to experiment, but not for just the experiment's sake; there has to be a certain amount of function, but that is where real talent lies for me, being able to make something that's really fresh, you know, so fresh that it takes 10 listens to really 'get' it, but then when you 'get' it, it's just stuck in your head and making you want to move - you hear it in a club and then it's stuck in your head for the next week. If I'm listening to other peoples music, particuarly if it's 'dance music' I want it to be challenging as well as making you want to move."

What integral changes have you noticed in electronic music over the time period you've been involved?

"I think the biggest change has been just the fact you can go online and check out anything these days - I remember when it was like maybe someone you knew had a certain record, and you really had to search through the racks to find it. Maybe you would have it on a tape if you were lucky, but then you had to have the vinyl; now you can go online, get it on Soulseek and be playing with it in Traktor five seconds later.

"So then you've got no kind of restraint, everything is so available that it takes a lot of excitement out of it - add to that the fact it's so easy to run a net label now, so the amount of substandard stuff you have to wade through to find the good stuff is unbelievable. And I guess also we're a long way now from the big bang of the rave explosion - that was like 20 years ago - so it's like how say prog rock was by the end of the '70s/ beginning of the '80s, and I really don't know if there is any hope of anything, as far as music goes, having the impact like the punk or rave scene ever again. However, I could be saying exactly the same thing as some people were in 1975 and in 2010 the next big thing is gonna hit!"

So what do you foresee happening with the music we care about in 2010?

"As far as the kind of techno/electronic music I want to make is concerned, it's starting to look like the only way that it's possible to get it out there is via free downloads. If you try and sell mp3s of that stuff you end up only selling like 30 mp3s a lot of the time. And this fact really made me question my motives a couple of years ago - I almost gave up making music after writing my album and then not being able to sell it, especially as it wasn't as pure as I wanted it to be as I was trying to get it released, some of it was a compromise to get it out there.

"But then after a while I started writing stuff again just because I wanted to, and now I'm really glad I didn't sell my gear. It would be nice to take the risk and pay for some vinyl to be pressed but I'm personally in no position to do that right now. So really I'm not thinking too much about where it's going to go, I'm just waiting to see if there will be another musical revolution."

If you were to get all God-like and create that revolution yourself, where would you start?

"Seriously, if I knew the answer to that question I would already be doing it! Although really I guess it all comes down to coming up with something new that people are going to take to, and more than take to, have people going really wild about and have the confidence to stick with it - although if you're actively trying to create a new sound, you're gonna find yourself down a creative dead end - I think these things happen by accident, and no-one can predict when or where they are going to happen. I mean, you think the rock dinosaurs thought that the Pistols were going to come along in '76?"

Are you a fan at all of the Sex Pistols and their punk cohorts? Music-wise or for their ideology, I mean?

"Well, I've always liked John Lydon's attitude to a lot of issues - apart from a few things I heard him mention with regard to Margaret Thatcher recently, saying 'Well, at least she shook things up a bit' - which I think really is a bit in poor taste considering the amount of people that suffered due to her policies in the '80s: the communities that were destroyed as the manufacturing and utilities industries were either privatised or smashed to pieces, and continue to suffer due to the ideology she promoted, by which the whole world is suffering what with the financial crisis and climate change, which I believe is being accelerated due to those ideologies.

"Sorry, I'm digressing here, bit of an axe to grind as I hate what that woman stood for and where it has left us in the 21st century - although I guess it's relevant to the question in a way - it really was the last thing I would have ever expected to come from his mouth, but anyway, I think the Pistols were a real turning point for British culture and society. No-one had ever said anything like 'you dirty fucker' before on TV, they kind of blew the door off the hinges and were the first people to be really publicly obnoxious - that was refreshing at the time, I guess. Musically, though, I was listening to a lot of punk stuff, still do from time to time, particularly punk which was a reaction to the Tory government of the '80s like Crass and Subhumans; also some of the US bands like Black Flag, Minor Threat, and definitely the [Dead] Kennedys, they were great - I love that spoken word piece that Jello Biafra does that's like the mantra from some totalitarian regime: 'People refusing to give urine samples WILL BE SHOT!'.

"So it definitely had an influence on my music.

"At the end of the '90s techno seemed so smooth and the emphasis was always 'Yeah, it's really well-produced' - but to me, what's the point of having something that's really well-produced but says nothing? I'd rather hear something really raw that has awesome drum programming, or a real hooky synth-line that gets lodged in your brain. So I definitely felt that the whole thing needed a boot up the arse around that time with a good dose of punk attitude - right now I feel like I'm just ticking over, but back then when I was starting out, it was like we were on a mission. I felt that there were only one or two acts around that time that really hit the nail on the head for me - Subhead and [Michael] Forshaw. Right now I can listen to stuff that came out at that time from [Cristian] Vogel and [Neil] Landstrumm and those guys and I really love it, but I needed something with a bit more bang, like their '95/'96 stuff - so it was a bit of a mission then to go against the grain and do something different to the majority of techno that was coming out at the time - I have to say Subhead really were the original techno punks, though!"

What are your thoughts on the initial musical concepts undertaken by that other '70s movement, British industrial stuff from the likes of Cabaret Voltaire and Throbbing Gristle?

"I never really heard or picked up on that really - the closest to industrial stuff I got into was all US stuff like NIN and Ministry I guess..."

What gear/software are you making most use of in the studio at the moment?

"The usual suspects of Akai MPCs and Nord modular, but I just recently updated the recording side of things with a Macbook Pro running Ableton and a SE condenser mic - I'd love to get into field recordings and just generally record random sounds, and maybe also get back into the sampling side of things; I've neglected that since selling my Akai S3000XL. Would love to have some of the old gear back that I used for the Djax stuff like the Roland JD 800, but it's the space and the money, and I have more than enough tools at my disposal right now."

What kind of sampling do you prefer to do - splicing together field recordings or snippets of movies/music?

"I've used a lot of the latter, and I'm only just getting into the former, but I think both have their place."

Would you consider any song, musician or movie sacrilegious to sample - or is anything fair game?

"There're probably taboos in regard to good taste - I mean I wouldn't go sampling from a speech by Hitler or anything like that as I think you'd be really playing with fire on that one, plus the fact that you'd run the risk of some Far Right lunatics getting into your music - but sacrilegious? I don't know - I think pretty much everything is fair game so long as it's not in extremely bad taste. I always thought cover versions of stuff originally performed by, say, Hendrix or Janis Joplin, a real waste of time - you're just going to show off your short-comings - unless it was like when Mike Flowers Pop covered Oasis' 'Wonderwall'... Although I think Oasis are pretty rubbish, to be honest. Music for people who aren't really interested in music." (laughs.)

Which part of your studio is the most vital facet?

"I guess the desk - otherwise I'd have all my machines on the floor! I'd miss my Mackie too, I think!"

What food/drinks keep you fuelled throughout production time?

"Latte machiattos all the way."

Any sugar?

"Always!"

How many teaspoons?

"More than I should have, I guess."

Which current crop of artists and labels are grabbing your attention, and why so?

"To be honest, I think the situation in 2010 as far as labels is concerned is fucking dire - almost everything released sounds like a dumbed-down regurgitation of everything that has gone before; it has become so 'safe' that to me it seems almost pointless to buy new records these days. I had a quick flick through the Juno new releases after you asking the question as I really wanted to find something to rave about, but no, nothing - particularly in the techno sections. The irony is, that techno has become a total parody of itself, a self perpetuating entity where there's a whole bunch of producer/DJs so scared to put a foot wrong with the audience that they have become as boring as everything that techno was supposed to be reacting against - it's depressing. That said, I have found some gems in unexpected places when buying records over the past 12 months - Omar S for example: he took the old school acid house sound and twisted it around and came up with some stunning moments, and then you find that in the house section; I mean, what's with that?

"And for all the flack that Minus take, they are probably one of the more daring labels out there these days but I guess they can afford to take the risks. Against the backdrop of that, there are some really talented people out there such as Youngman, JE:5 and others who do mind blowing stuff which just isn't getting out there - and that's when I really think about getting the label back together to get that stuff out there, but then it's time and money and the rest of it.

"Some of the originals are still on form - Vogel always impresses me and I like some of the stuff Landstrumm does, but I have to say his last album wasn't so much bag; some of the things he's done where he's really twisted around the dubstep thing have been great though and brought something really original to the table when most people in that scene just want the same beats and the same wobbly square wave bass over and over. It's just like drum and bass in the '90s all over again, but on 33. So yeah, I guess it's time for a counter-attack, either giving a load of stuff away for free via the website or pressing some vinyl, would be nice to do both, but I think it's more likely to be the former rather than the latter."

Why is it that talented people like Bill Youngman, Jesse Hall and even Jason Leach (despite the Subhead legacy) don't get the attention that they deserve?

"I think in regard to techno music in the wider context, the lines were drawn a long time ago as to which artists were going to be really big - not to say that a lot of those people don't deserve the recognition they have, and that the doors have closed, but it seems to me that the only new people making waves and getting really recognised to the point where they can live from the music seem to have to adhere to some kind of template and not step out of line. It's all very safe - I mean the possibilities to live from performing and producing have become very limited due to a lot of the revenue streams closing down, but I guess the real issue is, producers of real left-field electronic dance music don't make stuff which is easy for people to get with; it's music for the select few as it isn't so lowest common denominator - it's edgy."

If you were pressed into a corner and forced to confess under great duress, how would you define the sounds/styles you're currently making yourself?

"Buzz-saw bass, sample-and-hold acid, mouth house, and I have new skool folk songs planned too."

You like traditional folk tunes, or is this something that completely overturns the tradition?

"I can't get with English folk music - my Dad raves about it, but I can't be doing with all this 'Hey nonny no' business. Irish folk I can get with - proper hard drinking music. And strangely enough, I guess, American folk music sounds pleasing to my ears - I like the kind of crossover with punk that happened in the US with their folk music, particularly with bands like Bad Religion. They definitely had a US folk influence. But the strangest folk music I ever heard was from Lithuania - my wife is Lithuanian and she was playing me the folk music that they have there, and it's almost like Gregorian chants or something; I really want to record some next time I'm over there but then do something with it - something for the field recording project."

You've released stuff through Pro-Jex, Djax-Up-Beats, Neue Heimat, Mosquito, Victim, Kitty Corner and Snork Enterprises. What's your relationship been like with these labels?

"Generally amicable, sometimes strained due to financial and artistic differences - we do our best to get on though!"

Any strange or outrageous requests from a record label?

"I had some German guy calling me once who really wanted trax from me but they 'Must be over 150 bpm' - I ended up telling him that maybe he should write it himself if he wanted to be so specific. I also had a gig offer once, also in Germany, where the guy was saying 'I don't have so much money for you, but I can get you a pretty girl for the night!'. Needless to say, I declined his offer!"

You run your own label Crime; what's afoot with that outlet?

"It's currently in a coma, which I'm not sure it's ever going to come out of - I think if I was to do a label project again I'd like to start afresh, new ideas, new concept. For now I'm just getting my money's worth out of the URL registration."

In the '90s when you broke through, for me the real movers and shakers of innovative electronica were all British: Cristian Vogel, Si Begg, Dave Tarrida, Subhead, Jamie Liddell, Tube Jerk and Tobias Schmidt. Were you into any of these guys' work?

"I was into all of those guys' work! You forgot [Neil] Landstrumm there too - I didn't break through 'til 2001 really, though; I mean, the first record came in '99 but it almost fell totally under the radar until a few years later when I had all the other stuff out. But yeah, I was big into those guys, but also I was big into the Jay Denham stuff, Chance McDermott & D-Knox - that kind of Chicago-meets-Detroit techno that really rocked my world round about 1997."

Why do you think the combined output of both city styles had such an impact?

"For me, I love Chicago drums, funk and rhythm, but Detroit had the melodies and vibes - the music from Kalamazoo, the home town of Knox, Denham, etcetera, from 1995-98 was to me a perfect fusion of both. It's also music I think isn't recognised enough. I actually met D-Knox in Warsaw a few years ago and was telling him how we were all blown away by 'The Body of Christ' and records like that - real raw, and hard but really funky with these really deep melodies running through them, but you know, you could mix them up with really banging hard techno and it just worked, really awesome stuff, and he was like 'Sheesh, yeah man, that's when we were doing the crazy shit, we wanted to sound like no-one else'. I think maybe that's when music comes out the best, when the creators are coming at it from that attitude."

How about the stuff coming out of those cities today?

Well, I hear Jay [Denham] is living in Munich now, and Donnell [D-Knox] is in Warsaw, and I don't know what Chance is doing these days so I'm guessing there's not much going on in Kalamazoo - Spectral/Ghostly is based in Ann Arbor though, near Detroit, and I love a lot of their output. James T Cotton, Audion, Deadbeat, and that kind of stuff; I think Omar S is from Detroit too. Chicago is house central, though - I do love some good deep house, but it would be nice to hear some variety coming from there..."

What do you think of the 'newer' guys shaking things up these days like Luke's Anger, Ben Pest, Grimjaw, Paul Birken (not really new at all!) and Donk Boys?

"Luke I have to give props to for sure as he gave me a Zip Drive PSU which allowed the MPC2000 to come back to life, I owe him some trax for that. I guess the music he does isn't so much what I'm really looking for right now, but all credit to him for doing his thing. Grimjaw and Donk Boys I'm not really familiar with, but I love a couple of Ben Pest trax and have been trying to track down the vinyl, actually."

His 'Glitterati Fashionista' EP on Bonus Round is brilliant - have you got that one yet?

"This is the one I'm trying to track down - Ben, if you're reading this, I would be playing it out mate if I had a copy!"

What new Mark Hawkins releases can we look out for?

We have the Mark Hawkins & Je:5 'Absurdly Connected Machines' 12-inch coming on Snork Enterprises' offshoot Relax 2000 this month, and possibly a release on Input Output at the end of the year, but that might just end up coming out through my website. I could imagine in five years the concept of a record label becoming a thing of the past and every artist just having their own website with a Paypal-donate button on it; it's getting that way now, if only for electronic artists who don't want to record cliched minimal, dubstep or hard techno."

Some book publishers are following that option too, meaning that the authors actually end up with a higher percentage of the 'profit' from the sales of any books - so long as people do make that donation. Are people in general generous enough to do so?

"I couldn't say, to be honest - maybe I should try it out on my website?" [laughs.]

Any upcoming remixes/events we should know about for 2010?

"I have possibly a DJ gig in Berlin at the end of February, one for sure in Leeds at the beginning of March, and a live show in Kassel, Germany, at the end of March. Quite a few other shows in the pipeline potentially, just the dots have to be joined up. And I think me and Jess JE:5 could well be remixing my Russian friend Vadz's 'Nuclear Volgodonsk' project this year - he used to work as a sound engineer at his local radio station in Taganrog, southern Russia, and they got some voice actor in to record the warnings to go out on the radio should the Volgodonsk nuclear power station go boom, as it's only 180 or so kilometres from Taganrog - so he's still got all the original vocal recordings. That could well be quite an interesting project."

Speaking of Leeds, do you know the goings on of the Gonzo/Dead Channel crew up there?

"I didn't but I do now, I'll be checking it out!"

You seem to be doing a few different things with Jesse Hall - how'd you guys hook up and how do you find working together?

"He's an old, old friend - from before Uglyfunk, old Leicester illegal party days - and his talent has always blown us away, but he's always shied away from being at the forefront of things... Which I think has held him back insofar as people hearing what an amazing talent he is. Hopefully the projects we're working on together will make the world a bit more aware of his talent, we don't get so much time to work on stuff and I have to constantly hassle him to get stuff done, but when we get time together in the studio to work on stuff it just seems to work. We can just jam it out and it's just right; where I'm lacking in an idea he comes through with that missing idea and it just works."

CDs are a rapidly vanishing medium, and a fair amount of people in electronic/dance music circles are cutting back on vinyl these days because they say it just doesn't make back the money invested. How do you feel about this?

"Well, the remix project I mentioned before will most probably end up being another free Net release, which is a shame in one way, but the future in another - it makes it available for everyone so it's all inclusive. And on top of that there is the financial side: if you can't sell physical product, and people in the main want only free downloads, it means I have to go and work eight hours a day and so have less time to work on music and my output becomes less and less, which is really what saddens me the most. But maybe some of that is just life choices, and my priorities have just changed as I got older."

What priorities are key to your lifestyle now?

"Well, I'm becoming a bit of an old fart to be honest - I guess my wife and daughter always have to come first, and I'm far more interested in having a family and a stable life than being in clubs until god knows what time every weekend - I mean, I like to keep my hand in, of course, and it's nice to go away and do a show every two months or so - but I certainly wouldn't like to be as dependant on the whole thing as I used to be. The downside of that though is less time to work on music, which is sad. I guess the good thing is now, though, when I'm working on music, it's because I really want to - which means the quality is always going to be higher...not just going through the motions to keep myself recognised enough to keep on getting bookings just to pay the rent. It's a real treadmill, that one!"

How old's your daughter? Mine's 4.

"She's 5 - and getting into playing the drums..."

Is vinyl itself dead - or just becoming more of a select option?

"I think it will always be there, in many ways I'd love to see it become just a collectors' thing and all the money go out of it, so there wasn't so much of this totally shit music coming out on it - save it for the really special stuff..."

Do DJs really need to continue to use vinyl, or can they instead construct entire sets out of stuff they've downloaded off the Internet?

"Why would you need to use vinyl when you have about 10 different ways of playing music these days? I'm not into vinyl snobbery, but it does have a unique warmth."

Is digital download really the future of music?

"Maybe, but I'd like to see more people actually feel the joy of playing an instrument themselves - this is something I really want to get into in the next year although I fear the electronic music output may well suffer as a result."

Which instrument? Back to the guitar your Dad left lying around?

"You know, I thought about buying a guitar again just to have around - maybe do some field recording-style guitar cut-up electronica - but really, I want a piano but the wife is saying we don't have the space for one right now. Yeah man, jazz pianist; I love jazz, you know - not the trad shit, but the like beatnik Charlie Parker/Miles Davis kind of stuff. They were like your original Aphex and Vogel but, you know, really the innovators - some of the first people to say 'Hey, you don't need to play from that music in front of you, just make it up as you go along'."

Lastly - how do you like your mushrooms cooked?

"Raw, straight from the hillside so the gills are still pink, not brown..."