TD salutes… DIYNAMIC

As deep/tech house label Diynamic prepare to release their first compilation, we talk to co-owner SOLOMUN (right) about soul, deepness and the state of the house scene…

We’ve always been fans of proper deep house here at Tricky Towers, so it’s nice to see the genre getting some decent props at long last. It wasn’t all that long ago that admitting a love of melody-driven, emotion-rich deep house was a major fashion faux-pas. Not that this ever worried us, of course – we’re all about as fashionable as a button-up M&S cardigan – but it must have been frustrating to those who produce and play the stuff for a living.

There is certainly a strong argument to say that interest waned in deep house because it got a bit, well, dull. I used to buy and play deep house all the time, but got turned off by the glut of identikit, supposedly ‘soulful’ 12s that began to flood the market. I like a nice bit of jazz as much as the next bearded nerd, but there are only so many flute solos and boring Hed Kandi-does-broken beat remixes you can take. No wonder most producers and DJs looked elsewhere for inspiration.

Now deep house is back, back, back! Not that it every truly went away – the Detroit connection, East Midlands soundsystem types and other ‘usual suspects’ kept putting out decent material. The difference now is that there are a whole host of relatively young, enthusiastic, up and coming producers pushing their own take on deep house. Inlfuenced by recent trends in techno and tech-house, they’re coming up with tracks that take the best of tech-house and add an extra-hot dollop of emotion. There are plenty of sweet melodies amognst the bleeps, blips and hypnotic chords, too.

One label that’s consistently been at the forefront of this belated deep house revival is Hamburg’s Diynamic, home to Solomun (part owner with sometime studio compadre Ariano Troillo), Stimming and H.O.S.H, amongst others. The Diynamic sound is far more warm and melodic than, say, Innervisions, but sharper and brighter than some of the Omar S/Theo Parrish style material. There’s space in the mix, but it never gets too sparse – there’s always some musical element to tug at the heart strings or set the pulse racing. Just look at Solomun and Stimming’s ‘Eiszauber’ – the perfect fusion of deep and techy.

In October, Diynamic will release their first compilation, ‘Saturday, I’m In Love’ (no, we’re not sure what they’re on about, either). As you’d expect, there’s a disc of label highlights mixed by Solomun which really sets out the Diynamic agenda. It rounds up two years of releases, treading a fine line between the familiar (the previously mentioned ‘Eiszauber’, H.O.S.H’s ‘Steppenwolf’) and little-known. Perhaps of more interest, though, is the first disc, an unmixed selection of brand new, unreleased cuts.

It’s here that the comp really comes into its own, alloing each of the label’s now familiar artists – and friends – to strut their stuff. As you’d expexpect, there’s some great stuff, much of it exploring the blurred boundaries between tech and deep house. Solomun and Stimming’s opener, ‘Lemniskate’, is a particularly good example of this; icy, haunting and sparse, yet deep and rich, too. Similarly detached is ‘Your Lonely Nites’ by Trickski, someone you’d always rely on to provide suitably hypnotic fodder. There’s plenty of melodic fare, though, too. Take Solar & Poppcke’s quietly anthemic ‘Night Train’ or Jay Shepheard’s ‘Beast Regards’, a midtempo workout that will please nu-disco heads as much as deep housers. The rubbery synth bassline is particularly good. Then there’s the seemingly impossible to pigeonhole efforts of Oslo’s Ost & Kjex. Their ‘Sicksnack’ is just plain bonkers; vocal house from another dimension, complete with Detroit synths, dub harmonica and satisfyingly old skool drums.

It’s a fitting celebration of one of the most on-point house labels of recent times. It’s also a good excuse for us to talk to the label’s totem, Mladen Solomun himself. He’s not an easy man to track down, but he eventually calls us from his cousin’s house via Skype. “I’m in Croatia,” he tells us enthusiastically. “It’s a beautiful country. Here is where my aunt and cousin live. The water’s so clear and everything is perfect. You must come to Croatia!”

It turns out the Bosnia-born German is on holiday, taking a much-earned break. There’s no doubt that he’s earned it – over the last 18 months he’s gone from a virtual unknown to talked-about househead number one. As well as his material on Diynamic, Mladen has released a string of must-hear 12s on Compost, Sonar Kollektiv, Dessous and Four:Twenty. It’s made him the toast of European dancefloors. And so, we reckon, he should be.

“I don’t know about that,” he says modestly. “It’s great if there’s someone outside who loves it. What is important is that I like it, and I’m not always 100 per cent with a track. You know how it is – every artist thinks he can do it better. There are other people who are better.”

Perhaps, but few have had such an impact on a scene that was, as we have discussed, seriously in danger of becoming stale. At times lately it feels like we’ve been drowing under a mountian of boring, soundalike minimal records and snooze-worthy, prog-tinged tech-house. The Solomun/Diynamic sound has been a thrilling antidote to this – a veritable gust of fresh air.

“Over the last three or four years there have been more fans of this sort of music we are making,” Mladen agrees. “It’s very hard to describe what is happening right now. In every track you have a little bit of techno and a little bit from deep house, but what genre it is I don’t know. Whether it’s a tech-house or minimal or house record, it needs a small hook. A bit more harmony and soul. It doesn’t matter whether it’s house or minimal, it needs that hook.”

“Soul is very important to me – it is the number one thing. It could be a techno track or a house track I am making, but it is always important to me that there is soul.”

Soul is most definitely evident on such quietly anthemic outings as ‘Feuervogel’ (one of many collaborations with his friend Stimming), the string-drenched ‘Samba’ and undeniably big ‘Deadman’. Even defiantly early morning offerings like ‘Beauty & The Beast’ feature an element of funk and soul amongst the rumbling sub bass, aquatic beats and old skool bleeps.

This balance between heavyweight dancefloor pulse, hypnotic rhythms and soulful melody is something Solomun has been working on for a long time, first through years DJing in Hamburg – most notably at his own DIY parties – and latterly in the studio. “I think my sound is a mix of the things I’ve heard over those years, the music I am passionate about and the music I have played. All the stuff I produce has influences from all these things. When I DJ, if it is a good party and I have the chance, I like to play 124 BPM all night. That way there is a lot of space.”

Originally a hip-hop, funk and soul fan with an obsession with breakdance-friendly B-Boy beats, the 32 year-old first fell in love with house and techno in the 1990s after years obsessing over the new wave synth-pop of New Order and Depeche Mode. After re-igniting his passion for DJing eight years ago, he first stepped foot in a studio in 2003: “There was a good friend of mine who had a hjip-hop label. We started working together once a week. At this time I was so full of ideas and I really wanted to produce my own music. For me it was also practice time – I learned so much from my friend. I saved some money to buy my own stuff and from three years ago onwards I spent all my time in the studio to check things out. It was a very massive and important time for me.”

Fired up by spending time in the studio, Mladen teamed up with sometime DJ partner and friend Adriano Trolio to launch Diynamic at the beginning of 2006. Their first release was the ‘Solomun E.P’, a three-tracker featuring collaborations between Mladen, Adriano and Gebruder Ton. Slowly but surely, over the next two years the Diynamic sound took shape, and the label began to grow. More local producers joined the fray, most notably H.O.S.H and Stimming. As well as releasing their own well-received material, each collaborated with the label’s fast-rising front man.

“Working with these guys, it was amazing. Stimming and Hosh are the only people I’d like to produce with, because we have the same opinion about music and the same flow. There are no arguments. It’s my opinion that everything you do in your life, it’s good if you have two or three good friends beside. So I am very lucky that now everything is cool with these guys and we have a nice future altogether. These guys are great - they have the same heart like us and are honest.”

With the compilation due to drop soon, we reckon Solomunn’s stock – and that of friend Stimming and Diynamic as a label – will rise considerably in the next 12 months. So what can we expect, music-wise? “The next release on the label will be a track by Stimming called ‘Una Pena’ with a remix from Argy. After that comes a collaboration between me and Ost & Kjex. It’s also a very funny track. It’s got a Hamburg version and an Oslo version. These guys are crazy. They always have a lot of ideas. Too many ideas for one track!”

And what about you, Mladen, we wonder – is there an album on the way? He’s surprisingly coy on the subject. “I am thinking about an album, of course. I’m hoping next year, maybe winter. First, I need a little bit of a break and when I get back I have some remixes for NRK and King Street, then a release of my own on Diynamic. It is important for us to make the album for Stimming, and we want to do two video clips. I have met some guys who can do it.”

And with that, we let him go and enjoy his holiday – we reckon he’s deserved it.

TD Interviews… HATCHBACK

Last year’s debut Hatchback single, ‘White Diamond’, was undoubtedly one of our favourite singles of 2007. Like mate Dan Judd (best known as Sorcerer), Samuel Milton Grawe makes magical music – star-gazing instrumentals that owe as much to Neu! and David Axelrod as they do to obscure electronic disco and classic European prog rock. With a debut album set to drop in September on Lo Recordings, we thought it was about time we caught up with the man Hatchback…

TD: So Sam, what first inspired you to make music? We’re guessing you were playing around with sound long before ‘White Diamond’ came out…
SMG: “Well I’ve been making music for a long time – since I was 14 years old maybe. I’ve always loved music and at an early age, the first time I saw a synthesizer I was fascinated by it. That was when I was maybe five or six, and that was a little Casio. Since then I’ve always loved music. I always loved listening to tapes in my Walkman. I traveled a lot as a kid and that was the thing that you had with you. At high school I really got into progressive rock like Yes and Pink Floyd, and I started making music like that on keyboards and on the computer. After that I got into stuff like Tortoise and Stereolab and Future Sound of London, and started digging more electronic music. Since then I’ve steadily been plugging away making music that sounds good to me. I have influences in the thousands and there’s no one thing. I think you’ll hear it if you listen to the album. There’s not one thing I’m going for, more so I feel like every track is its own little world.I like the way that if you listen to a later Beatles track, every song has its own production universe and sound that they’re going for. That really interests me. Artists now with the way labels are, their albums will have a “hit song” and the rest of the album tries to sound like that. I love those kinds of records where every song sounds a little different, like Simon and Garfunkel or the Beatles, so that’s kind of one thing that influenced me.”

TD: The first track we heard of yours was of course ‘White Diamond’, which was a revelation when it first came out last year. It seemed to fit in with the Balearic/cosmic mood of the moment, despite – we’re guessing – not being directly influenced by either…
SMG: “As far as ‘White Diamond’ goes, I wasn’t trying to do something Italo or Balearic – I’d just been watching the movie ‘The White Diamond’ and I was trying to make a kind of floaty new age track. That’s what happened…”

TD: Lets talk a bit about your debut album, ‘Colors Of The Sun’. Although it’s pretty varied and takes in a lot of influences, it hangs together particularly well. We’d say that was down to the distinct atmosphere you seem to generate. The same could be said for your material with Dan Judd as Windsurf. Does Dan have similar influences to you?
SMG: “Dan I always think of as the Jackson Five, hip hop and R&B music from the 80s, and I’m Pink Floyd and Krautrock, and somewhere in the middle we meet. I think those are the things he came to earlier in life. I love those things now, and he loves krautrock and progressive rock. That was definitely what I was nto when I was 14, 15, and I appreciate a lot more now. We just came from different places to be in the same place.”

TD: We hear from Prins Thomas that there’s a Windsurf album due very soon on Internasjonal?
SMG: “Yes, it’s done. We’re waiting. It’s due any minute.”

TD: That’s Norwegians for you. Mind you, you guys are in California, which is a pretty laidback pace itself…
SMG: “Well, we both have jobs and we do other stuff, so we’re just happy it’s happening. In a way we’re both waiting for albums to come out. The Hatchback album represents maybe two and half years of tracks I made for myself long before there was talk of an album. So if it comes out next month or the month after it doesn’t matter, we’ll just keep making more tracks.”

TD: Do you think being based in California has any influence on the kind of music you’re making? California does have a musical history that includes both quite freaky psychedelic sounds and really laidback stuff…
SMG: “I think that it has. It’s not an everyday thing when you’re living in a city and just farting around, but there’s a natural influence, maybe more so than musical. An influence of driving North along the coast. I forget, having been here for ten years, how mind-numbingly beautiful it is. That kind of space, that environment, has had a profound influence on me as a whole. Both Dan and I have traveled together – we’ve been down to Mexico and other places in California – and those experiences are always fun. They always refresh us. Whenever we’ve come back from Mexico we’ve always made great music, because you still have that vibe in your mind.”

TD: I have to admit that when I first listened to ‘Colors Of The Sun’ I had this image of you and Dan driving round California in a clapped-out old bus, Ken Kesey style…
SMG: “I wish! I definitely have hippy commune dreams. I wish I lived in a geometric dome and raised goats! Maybe one day if I sell enough copies of the album!”

TD: Musically, although there are strong electronic influences, ‘Colors Of The Sun’ is not a dance record by any means, but those getting into yours and Dan’s music are primarily DJs and clubbers. Do you find that odd at all?
SMG: “I don’t know. We’re definitely not DJs – I don’t think either of us know how to beatmatch. There are things about that kind of music that we like. We’re certainly making some form of electronic music, it’s not necessarily club music though. DJs in general, and hip-hop DJs… I’m always amused that Dr Dre found some sample from David Axelrod. It’s strange to think of him listening to those 1960s records to find that sample. With DJs it’s the same. Prins Thomas, for example – he owns thousands and thousands of records, I’m sure he doesn’t just listen to club tracks at home.”

TD: One of the things that’s interesting about [Prins] Thomas and Hans-Peter Lindstrom is that although their influences are different to yours, they’re very much into interesting 70s synthesizer music and progressive rock - which is a trait shared by quite a few of the Norwegian ‘space disco’ producers. It seems strange that there are these parallel scenes going on across the other side of the world where people are influenced by similarly odd things, and the music that results shares some similar atmospherics and characteristics…
SMG: “There was an interview for a local newspaper here that talked about the Norway-Bay Area connection, because there are a couple of other artists here – ARP and Dominique Leone – who are signed to Norwegian labels. I don’t know why – maybe it’s because we both have West Coasts, maybe it’s because watching the sunset over the ocean is profound. I could have something to do with the environment.”

TD: You traveled around a lot with your parents when you were young. You must have had some amazing experiences you on your travels - at such a young age - which shaped your outlook and opened you up to different types of music…
SMG: “Yeah. One thing that I always loved was film soundtracks. My parents were really into Abba and the Eurhythmics for some reason. Obviously I was exposed to a lot of Indian music and different sounds and places. I saw a lot of the world. It’s a special experience – it’s not journalistic. I can’t just recall all the places I went, but there are still times when you smell something or hear something and it brings back memories. There’s something about music and smells that brings back experiences. Sometimes you try and get a vibe where it’s recreating something from that.”

TD: You mentioned film soundtracks… is that a big thing for you?
SMG: “Oh yeah. I always loved film soundtracks and just instrumental music in general. A lot of club music is instrumental, but it serves a different purpose. It’s functional music. Bands like Tortoise or what we’re doing is serving a different purpose.”

TD: You like to get a cinematic feel to your music, and when it works – as we’d argue it does on ‘Colors Of The Sun’ – it allows people to imagine whatever they want really. It might conjure up certain images for them, but it will be different for every person…
SMG: “Exactly! In a way it’s a shame you have to put titles on songs, because it should be that everyone can title it for themselves. I kind of think of it as a soundtrack for what I’m doing – riding the train to work, or driving my car at weekends, whatever it is. Before I was releasing records, that’s what the purpose of my music was – entertaining things to listen to on the Walkman. Now it’s cool that other people are into it and it’s somebody else’s soundtrack too.”
Hatchback’s ‘Colors Of The Sun’ album is released by Lo Recordings in September

Tricky Disco talks to... MOVE D

For a man who’s released some wonderful techno records over the last few years, Heidelberg’s David Moufang isn’t all that positive about the way the sound is heading. “Techno isn't very exciting to me these days, as to me it lacks depth,” he sighs. “It sounds to me like music just being made for purposes. This is why I and many others seem to be rediscovering deep house. You may argue that the substantial deep house records were made about 20 years ago, but my point is that there is substantial deep house coming out right now – Underground Quality, Workshop and Sistrum to drop a few names.”

Moufang has always appreciated music with depth and melody, so it’s no surprise that he’s finding techno’s current obsession with the abstract and linear tough to hande. Those who’ve followed his near 20-year career celebrate him as a producer with a keen ear for soul and melody, even if few of his productions could be categorized as ‘soulful’ (not in the conventional sense, at least). If it’s emotion-rich electronic music you’re after, then Move D productions will certainly be right up your street.

“To me music only matters if it is emotionally involving,” he states. “From Bach over Monk to Larry Heard, Underground Resistance and Squarepusher, music has to touch me emotionally – maybe that's why I never really got into minimal techno as they do it today - the true minimal techno was done over 15 yeras ago by people like Rob Hood and Sähkö. This music also had emotional value - I don't want to get personal, but i don't hear this in most of today's mnimal stuff.”

Moufang’s love of emotion-rich music manifests itself in the way he makes music, particularly in his use of certain chord structures and sound sets. “Harmonically I have some preferences which prevail through most of my stuff,” he muses. “Clearly rather minor than major, looking for slick, yet unpredictable chords, progressions and arrangements. So even if I explore different styles, I hope that all my work features some of the same qualities like depth, space and colour.”

Moufang has never been one for pigeonholing, and has enjoyed a career as varied as you’d epxect for someone with nearly 25 years experience in music. He started off playing in bands in the early 80s, before taking up DJing in 1987. Since then he has achieved so much – largely to little widespread acclaim – making everything from ambient dub to slinky house via IDM, spacious deepness, electro and jackin’ dancefloor fare. Hell, there was even an 80s disco-influenced outing for Compost Black Label.

“Throughout this time there have been a few moments where I felt that a change is imminent,” he reflects. “Most clearly when I started to get into house and techno. On the one hand I felt a big excitement, but a lot of it was caused by the techno scene as a movement and the changes it brought in social, cultural, clubbing and even political aspects. On the other hand there was a sense of great new musical freedom, which I had been dying for after 80s dance music – especially R&B and hip hop – had become so formulated. It was very clear to me that there was a great potential for stuff that hadn’t been done – this is why Jonas Grossmann and I started the Source Records label and made us confident that we would have something of value to add to the whole.”

Moufang and Grossmann forged a reputation as purveyors of dubby ambient, IDM and electronica as Deep Space Network, using Source as a way of releasing similarly interesting electronic music in the early 90s. “The early 90s were a very good point in time to be there at the forefront, helping shape the future," he enthuses. “After all this time i think that we actually succeeded and there are a number of releases on our label which laid out blueprints for later explorations – albums like 'Electronic Congress', 'Sato Yumiko', 'earth II infintiy', 'kunststoff', 'Kobat', 'Live&Final fridge', 'Conjoint', 'Personal_Rock' and 'Sad Rockets'.”

With such a vast and varied discography behind him – including releases on Warp, Modern Love, Philpot and Plus8, amongst others – you’d expect Moufang to be a touch world-weary, and certainly not as fired-up and excited about the future as he is. “Today I still get excited about good music and probably there have never been better times for finding good electronic music - despite the state of the industry," he chirps. “There is so much good and diverse stuff out there – it seems that nearly everything has been done or at least tried by now. These days my motivation rather lies in redefining than revolutionizing music.”

Moufang is certainly trying his hardest, and recent years have seen a spate of quality releases. For all his talk of finding techno boring, his releases on Modern Love – ‘Drane’ and “Ac1d’ – are both superb examples of pulsing, sparse modern techno. Yet it’s his more deep house flavoured releases – some of which should probably be classed as tech-house – that have been most impressive. It’s almost as if he’s taken the best aspects of European techno – the pulse, the space – and added a touch of much-needed soul and emotion. His new 12” on Shanti, ‘Between Us’ (featuring the wonderful ‘Lush Summer Rain’) is a particularly good example of this.

Yet despite this deep house success, Moufang has no plans to limit himself in future. “Music to me is all about variety – be it as a DJ or a producer. I would not be happy to do just one thing and I often get bored when I am out and I hear a DJ who is playing one single style all night. Recording artists that I admire have the power to reinvent themselves – like Miles Davis, The Beatles, Talk Talk and Richard D James.”

DAVID MOUFANG PICKS HIS TOP FIVE RELEASES...

Deep Space Network – 'Earth II Infintiy' (Source Records)
“This is important as it was how things started for me and Source Records”

Move D – ‘Kunstsoff’ (City Centre Offices)
“I think it seems to stand the test of time and some of it still sounds as if it had been done tomorrow rather than yesterday.”

Reagenz – ‘Reagenz’ (Source Records)
“This was the first time that I enjoyed a collaboration as a fruitful realtime live improvisation. It was with Jonah Sharp.”

Conjoint – 'Berger/Kodge/Moufang/Ruit' (KM2)
“Because of the dialogue of the generations - it was a blessing to work with such experienced and gifted players and composers like Karl Berger and the others.”

Move D – ‘Featuring DJ Late’ (Workshop)
“It put me back on the map.”

Tricky DiscoMix: The Kelly Twins' 'Galactic Jams'

We've got a bit of a treat for you today in the shape of a brand new bodypoppin' old skool mix from our very own turntable robots, The Kelly Twins. Those who've heard any of their sets in Bristol (where they are residents at best before: and Byte, as well as running their own UFO bash) Plymouth or at Dulo in Sheffield last Saturday will know what to expect - a booming selection of shit-hot old skool tuneage masterfully mixed. Sean and Dan are not known as "the robots" for nothing.

So here it is: their very first old-skool mix up: Two DJs, two turntables, one mixer, recorded live to disk in the old skool manner. No edits or overdubs - the recording is as it was when they recorded it. Yours truly was on hand to witness the recording and there was a great flow and vibe. The resultant mix is fantastic - a proper journey through old skool electro, P-funk, Miami bass, freestyle, electrofunk, 80s funk, synth-pop and gawd knows what else. Enjoy!

THE KELLY TWINS: SAY NO TO CRACK (AKA GALACTIC JAMS)

1. D.St - Crazy Cuts [Long Version](Island)
2. Whodini - Haunted House Of Rock [Vocoder Version] (Jive)
3. Man Parrish - Hey There Homeboy (unknown)
4. Donna Allen - 'Serious [Dub Version]' (21 Records)
5. George Clinton - 'Scratch Medley: Do Fries Go With That Shake?/Pleasures Of Exhaustion (Do It Till I Drop)' (Capitol Records)
6. Newcleus - Space Is The Place (Sunnyview Records)
7. Royal Cash - Radio Activity [Vocal Long Version]' (Royal Disc)
8. Tramaine - 'Fall Down (Spirit Of Love) [Dub Version]' (A&M)
9. Midnight Star - 'Operator [Vocal/LP Version]' (Solar System)
10. Two Sisters - 'High Noon' (I.R.S Records)
11. L.A Dream Team - 'Rockberry Jam' (Dream Team Records)
12. The World Class Wreckin' Cru - 'World Class [Remix]' (Kru-Cut Records)
13. Jamie Jupitor - 'Computer Power' (Egyptian Empire Records)
14. Rodney O - 'These Are My Beats' (Egyptian Empire Records)
15. Hashim - 'We're Rocking The Planet' (Cutting Records)
16. Chris 'The Glove" Taylor - 'Tibetean Jam' (Ploydor)
17. JJ Fadd - 'Supersonic' (DMC)
18. Dynamix II - 'Just Give The DJ A Break [Club Version]' (Cooltempo)
19. Omega II - 'Sonic Boom [Vocal]' (Showroom Records)
20. The League Unlimited Orchestra - 'Things That Dreams Are Made Of' (Virgin Records)
21. The Cure - 'The Walk' (Fiction Records)
22. Kissing The Pink - 'Big Man Restless' (Atlantic)

Download The Kelly Twins 'Say No To Crack' Mix >>

Visit The Kelly Twins' MySpace >>

TD Interviews… PRINS THOMAS

First of all, apologies for the lack of updates of late - things have been super-hectic in Tricky Disco land. The good news is that we're back with a bang! Yesterday we had a wee chat with Norwegian disco daddy Prins Thomas about his forthcoming Full Pupp label compilation, future plans, forthcoming projects and life in Oslo. We were going to stick it up in a few weeks time, but since Thomas told us some interesting stuff about his plans for a solo album - and what his next album with old pal Hans-Peter Lindstrom sounds like - we thought we'd share it with you. So here's the interview in full...

TD: So how are you Thomas? You seem to be very busy these days…

PT: “Yes and no. I can decide whether I want to be busy or not. I only need two factors to satisfy me – to make music and spend time with my family.”

You seem to be out DJing so much these days though…

“Yes. I can’t really take any more gigs though. It seems like my career is going well [laughs]. I would never have guessed it. Everyone knows you normally get a year or two if you weren’t established in the 90s or something, but the gigs are still there and people keep inviting me back, so I can’t be shit [laughs].”

When we get out and about we hear so many good things about your DJing. We visited Make Up in Ghent a couple of months back and Dirk - who’s also your boss at Eskimo - had a lot of nice things to say. You’re off back there next week aren’t you?

“Usually I never know where I’m going - I know where I’m going this week, but if I try and remember where I’m going in two weeks I mix them all up and I think I’m going there this week. With the gigs I try and think just a week at a time - like I know I’m going to Berlin and Ukraine this weekend. For most people that’s more than enough, travelling to two countries. I don’t know where I’m going the weekend after, but I think it’s Belgium!”

Things seem to be going well with the label [Full Pupp] - or should we say labels now, as there’s Internasjonal too…

“Yes. I never talk about figures when I talk about success. For me, I think it’s going well because I’m allowed to put out the music I like and there are always some people who are into it and buy it. But it’s not big numbers or anything.”

Yes, but selling any records at all in this day and age is very good…

“Of course. I’ve been thinking long term from the first 12” – I don’t think ‘this record must sell this number’. I don’ really mind putting out stuff I know that people won’t get. Like I just put out this Discodomo 12 that I really love, but it’s really hard for people to get into. Even people who are into the same stuff as me might not like it, but it doesn’t really matter. Long term it has to make sense when you look at the whole back catalogue.”

One of the things we love about Full Pupp and Internasjonal is that there’s always plenty of variety to the releases. Some releases you can play to a wide variety of dancefloors, while some of the others are brilliantly strange and specialist. Is that a fair appraisal?

“I think that’s up to the listener or buyer to decide - I never really think about it. Almost everything I make now - or have been making the last couple of years - I don’t sit down and say “right I’m going to make a dancefloor track”. I may have a vague idea, but in the end I often can’t make up my mind. I might put out some 12” tracks that 99% of people might think ‘you can’t put this out as a 12” track’, but I don’t care. It’s up to the listener. Maybe some of the tracks I pick as personal favourites that work, and maybe some are personal favourites that don’t work, but it doesn’t really matter.”

Internasjonal was set up to put out non-Norwegian stuff wasn’t it?

“Yes…generally. I’m not saying there’s never going to be Norwegian stuff on there as well - I’m already getting some remixes from friends here of Internasjonal stuff - but the plan was not to fuck up the one good idea I had for Full Pupp, which was to release my friends’ stuff and keep it in the family.”

That’s what gives Full Pupp a unique identity. Because the releases are all from Norwegian artists it gives people a focal point for what’s happening in Oslo…

“It’s our one selling point, besides the fact that I think the music is great. Like you said, although there is lots of different stuff coming out it tricks you into thinking that there’s a unity to what’s happening. At the time when I started my first label Tamburin, which was 2001 I think, I was just fed up with everyone complaining that there wasn’t anything happening in Norway. Everybody was working on there own and everybody sent out demos to English labels and Americna labels. They wanted to be identified with, say, Paper Recordings or whatever, but in the long term that doesn’t give anything back to you as a producer or the Norwegian ‘scene’, if you can call it that. The only thing you’re contributing to is another catalogue number on Paper or whatever. So one of my ideas was to hopefully in time build up something that would make people look to Norway for exciting stuff and maybe get more excited about making stuff here, which I guess it has, together with what Hans Peter [Lindstrom] has been doing. Obviously there’s been stuff before in Bergen, but that had very little to do with what was happening in Oslo. It was inspiration wise - people like Erot and Bjorn Torske meant a lot to me personally and inspirationally, but what was happening in Bergen was very hyped. A lot of people jumped on the bandwagon and wanted to be part of it. At the same time people started like slowly making music here in Oslo, but there was never any hype surrounding it.”

Until we came over and hyped it up in iDJ magazine last year…

“Yeah. The press have managed to hype it up a bit, but at the same time it isn’t dead yet!”

Well, we tried to be realistic about it, be enthusiastic but say that it is a relatively small bunch of people and only a few clubs. One of the things yourself, Per Martinsen and Strangefruit were saying last year was that it may look from the outside like there’s a lot going on, it’s only a relatively small thing. However many people there are, it’s still exciting…

“I know there’s a lot of stuff that wouldn’t have happened or been noticed if it hadn’t been for me, Terje and Lindstrom having more success. A lot of people who gave up a long time ago and said ‘I’m not going to put out 12”s any more, there’s no point in doing it’ have got back into it. I’m not saying we were the first to do it, but what we did was show people that it is possible to get your music out and get gigs if you work hard at it. With most hype, people can sit in their studio, make a single and become part of a wave in some city somewhere. Here, people actually work - most people at least - hard. For me, it’s a 9 to 5 job now. I still enjoy it as much as before, but I’m going to the studio 10 till 3 or 4 Monday to Thursday. If I’m going somewhere on Friday then obviously I’m not going to the studio, but then traveling at weekends, back on Sunday or Monday and straight back to the studio again.”

The last few years have been pretty productive for you with solo stuff, remixes and the stuff with Hans-Peter. What are you doing studio wise at the moment? We know you’ve been doing another album with Hans-Peter…

“Yes. We’ve finished the album for Eskimo, but have no idea when it’s coming out yet because we have to wait until Hans Peter’s album is out. We made a point of not rushing anything. Eskimo heard the first tracks from the album three weeks ago - until then they’d not heard anything since the last track from the ‘Reinterpretations’ album.We made so many tracks - there’s probably 180 minutes of music. We’ve chosen roughly 76 minutes for the CD and then all the other stuff we’re trying to work out what to do with it. It might be two CDs coming after each other, we’re not sure yet. There’s also quite a lot that needs doing if we’re going to have a 12”, because the album is 95 per cent live - us playing live in the studio.”

So it’s a bit of a progression from the first album then…

“You could say it’s a progression or a regression! I don’t know!”

You’ve got back to your live roots then…

“In a way, but at the same time I feel it’s definitely going forward. With the last album we tried to make an album - now we’ve made an album. Nothing was planned, everything was based on what we played in the studio. It came naturally, although we tried to give each other some kind of limitations, like trying not to start working with MIDI stuff to early in the process. As little as possible syncronized stuff - most of it should be live. That’s one thing. I’m also working on my own - in the last few months I’ve more or less come up with an album of my own stuff, so there’s definitely going to be a couple of singles from myself on Full Pupp and most likely an album sometime next year. I’m also spending a lot of time co-producing stuff on both labels. A lot of the stuff I get sent now is demos. Instead of passing it back and forth, people ask me if I can mix it down, which suits me fine because I work really quickly when it comes to stuff like that. Some stuff I get sent completely finished. We’ve just mastered the full Windsurf album…:

I bet that’s good - the E.P was very good…

“I think the album is better. It’s probably easier to get the 12” the first time because it’s only four tracks to listen to. Now you get a bunch of other tracks and they’re all quite different to each other. To me, it’s just like when I’m listening to some of Hans Peter’s stuff - they use quite a lot of unusual chords and chord progressions. It’s not just major minor chords. If you listen to most of this cosmic stuff it’s basically just a groove, a few loops and some boring samples.”

Certainly, it could be argued that there’s a lot of stuff coming out in the cosmic/nu-disco sphere that’s getting very cheap and predictable…

“Yeah. It’s a really cool combination - some cool drums and some funky bass and some echo - but at the same time I hear all these tracks coming out which sound like a really bland version of what I’m getting bored of myself. At the same time it’s kind of strange, because for me naturally because personally I’ve gone on to do other stuff. There are always people who expect you to ‘flog the dead horse’ or whatever, otherwise you’ll turn your back on what you’ve created.”

That old thing of “I’d like a remix - can you make it like that one you 18 months ago which I liked’…

“Yeah! But hey, that’s life. I’m not in the music industry, I’m making music. It’s funny - the most positive feedback for the Windsurf stuff came from James Holden. I think that says a lot. You have all these nu-disco producers who were saying ‘I don’t like it - I can’t play it’. But then you have these people who you think are blind musically because they only play techno, they’re the guys who actually picked this up.”

If you expect that every release that Full Pupp or Internasjonal puts out will be a certain tempo and style, then you’ll be disappointed, but that was never what either label was about…

“Yes, but it would have been good if people actually listened to the music instead of talking about it. And I’m saying this to a journalist… [laughs]”

Coming back to the new compilation, how did you settle on which tracks to put on ‘Greatest Tits Vol 1’, because not everything you’ve released is on there…

“The criteria I used was that it had to show some of the variety of the label. I wanted to pick an interesting 80 minutes rather than a bland CD of samey sounding stuff, and not just play all the obvious stuff. None of the biggest sellers are on there - neither Todd Terje’s ‘Eurodans’ or my ‘Fehrara’ are there, for example.”

We were quite excited to see that there were quite a few unreleased tracks on there…

“I think you’ve got to do that or otherwise it’s just a cash in [laughs]. To me, it’s like I’ve been doing the label for quite a long time now. For me personally it feels longer than three or four years, because I did the other label and worked with some of the same people on that label. Full Pupp is a continuation with what I did with Tamburin. I felt it was just time to do a round up, because when we started the label we planned one release at a time and things went quite slow - it was always a few months between singles, and people were asking all the time ‘have you wrapped it up or is anything coming again?’ Now the schedule is pretty tight. Also, people have been asking to get the old tracks digitally, so this is a way of getting some new listeners…”

And reward the old listeners as well…

“I think it’s a pretty good package anyway if you’re into that sort of music, because there’s some stuff on there you won’t be able to get in other places. There are some unreleased tracks and also some older, really obscure tracks from the first label.”

‘Prins Thomas & Full Pupp present The Greatest Tits Volume 1’ will be released on July 21

Daly Edits

Fast-rising deep house producer John Daly (Feel Music etc) has started a new blog called Doublewide Edits, where he'll be posting various sneaky re-edits and reworks he's done over the years. The first edit, of Santana's 'Bahia', is a rather nice piece of summery goodness. Head over to the Doublewide blog now to check it out:

www.doublewide-edits.blogspot.com

Incidentally, John's also just completed an excellent remix of Toby Tobias' 'The Feeling', which should be out on Rekids shortly. Keep an eye out for it!

Bank holiday craziness

Just a quick few lines to thank all those who made it down to our best before: Bank Holiday bash at Timbuk2 in Bristol on Sunday. It was arguably one of the most atmospheric, electrically-charged parties we'd done - despite the crushing, last-minute news that our headline guest Andy Butler (from Hercules and Love Affair) had cancelled due to record label commitments in New York.

Obviously we were gutted about this, and the last minute notice we had gave no time to source an adequate 'headline' replacement. In the end, though, it all turned out fantastically well, with nearly 350 people (pretty much capacity) joining us for a memorable party. Both the main room - decked out with a suspended balloon ceiling, complete with flashing lights inside selected balloons, mirrorball and strobe - and second room were rocking throughout the night. In the second room there were brilliant sets from Al Dare, The Kelly Twins (who once against proved they're amongst the best party DJs anywhere) and Bernie & James L, who finished the night off in riotous fashion. Meanwhile, major props to Placid and Legendary Tone & Dan Donnachie (down from Leicester for the craic) for playing brilliant sets in the main room. Yours truly finished off, playing a mix of classics and unknown gems. One particular bloke was so appreciative of my selections he gave me a full-on kiss. It was that sort of night!

Thanks again to all those who headed down. We'll be back with more big parties later in the year, and will be continuing our residency at The Bank. Watch this space!