Ellen Allien: I like to make people laugh and dream

ELLEN ALLIEN SPEAKS ABOUT WHAT MAKES BERLIN’S CLUB SCENE SO UNIQUE, UPCOMING RELEASES ON HER LABELS, PLANS FOR A NEW ALBUM, IMPRESSIONS FROM TOURING IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES, HER PARTY “WE ARE NOT ALONE” AND OTHER INTERESTING STUFF

Being one of the leading forces of Berlin’s techno scene, Ellen Allien always carried an incomparable personal touch of her musical style with her, as she describes as “a hard and funny type of energy full of positivity, which can be at same a bit melancholic but not too dark and always with a sense of humor”. This is what all Ellen Allien’s musical affairs are about.

Ellen Allien spreads her influence and approach as the mastermind of her labels – a long-established platform for high-quality electronic music – BPitch, and a new one – responsible for emotional and functional techno UFO Inc. Besides forming the musical policy for the labels by selecting the best and most unusual electronic music from all over the world, Ellen Allien is well-known for her own musical productions – eight solo albums, a bunch of EP’s, remixes and impressive collaborations.

Her music perfectly reflects the spirit and lifestyle of Berlin’s club scene and with a twisted and technically advanced mix of the contemporary techno sound, real rave attitude and some of the weirdest tunes, covers it’s present, past and future. The passion for Berlin, its liberal 24-hour nightlife and unique clubs with special identities is in the DNA of Ellen Allien’s music and could be noticed as well in many music videos which she actively releases for her tracks. As a promoter, she takes an active role in Berlin’s club scene with her parties ‘We Are Not Alone’ which is one of the finest 48 hours of Berlin’s techno adventures that happens bimonthly in the club Griessmuehle.

We had a chance to have an interesting conversation with Ellen Allien during her tour in Mexico about the latest releases on BPitch and UFO Inc., her approaches in creating music videos, what makes Berlin’s club scene so unique, plans for a new album, places in the world where she likes to perform and other interesting stuff.

Interview: Dmitry Tolkunov

Hi! It would be great to know what you have been up to recently in your musical production – do you have any exciting new releases, or maybe plans for a new album or some remixes?

At the moment I have just opened a new label in 2019 called UFO Inc. and started to release a lot of great music there. One of the upcoming releases will be the music by Heidi Sabertooth, she is an artist from New York and she does really great New York weird techno, very loud and noisy, she plays live shows and DJ sets as well. I really love her music. Then I’m going to release Alien Rain which is a project from Berlin.

Read more

Abe Duque: I pulled myself out of the game

ABE DUQUE TALKS ABOUT HIS NEW MUSICAL PLANS, NEW YORK’S NIGHTLIFE IN THE ‘90S, THE OPPRESSION OF THE POLITICALLY CORRECT NARRATIVES, MARTIAL ARTS AS A MEDITATING PROCESS AND OTHER INTERESTING STUFF

Abe Duque has been around in techno music and New York’s nightlife scene for more than a quarter of a century. His powerful and always recognizable sound has provided a few generations of nightclubbers with trippy and unforgettable moments on the dance floors, as Abe Duque’s nights in the legendary Limelight club became the cradle to shape New York’s techno scene during the ‘90s.

However, despite all these impressive credentials, Abe Duque can be described as one of the most underrated artists in the techno world. And this low profile is due to his own informed choice which is the logical continuance of underground roots and once chosen path. In the era of superstar DJs, when an artist became a product of marketing which is pushed by the managers whose main goal is to maximize profits, Abe Duque still keeps the spirit of the 90’s in his music production whose main characteristic is an always moving forward experimental sound with a sense of humor and mostly focusing on the music itself than on the artists ego.

Staying away from deserved blazes of glory, nowadays, Abe Duque has swapped the life of a demanded and actively touring all around the world artist to a happy and harmonic family life in his hometown city New York. He became very picky about the gigs that he performs and does them currently only when he is sure that it is the right place and right moment. But according to Abe’s words soon he will be back on track with a bunch of powerful releases and maybe good techno music lovers will be lucky to catch him again somewhere in the world with his fantastic live shows or DJ sets.

We were lucky to have a chance to talk with Abe about his current lifestyle, his passion for analogue equipment, New York’s nightlife in the 90s,  the oppression of the politically correct narratives in modern society and other curious things.

Interview: Dmitry Tolkunov

Hi Abe! It seems that you have had a long break from touring and producing music. Will there be any chances to hear some of your new music or to see your gigs soon?

Hi! For the last few years, I’ve been dedicating myself to something else. Basically, my wife got pregnant with twins and I’ve been raising two girls. For me, it is the biggest thing in my life and I decided to drop everything else and dedicate myself to the family 100%. It is very hard to have a family life when you are a DJ because you are traveling all the time, especially the way I was traveling around the world 24/7.

Read more

Chrysta Bell: Everything that I am doing is to get on stage

CHRYSTA BELL TALKS ABOUT HER PASSION FOR LIVE PERFORMANCES, HOW SYMPATHETIC SHE IS TOWARDS A RUSSIAN AUDIENCE, THE ILLUSION OF TIME, AN ENERGY EXCHANGE, WORKING WITH DAVID LYNCH AND MANY OTHER INTERESTING THINGS

As Chrysta Bell’s long-time artistic and life partner, and world-known film director David Lynch describes her: “Chrysta Bell looks like a dream and Chrysta Bell sings like a dream. And the dream is coming true.” And it is not just a pompous poetical metaphor, it is an objective impression that Chrysta Bell makes on people through her stunning and untypical beauty, her charming voice and breathtaking and infernal music.

Having been in the music since her teenage years, Chrysta Bell started her way in this industry at the age of 18 as a singer in the popular Texas bebop band, 8 ½ Souvenirs. At the age of 21 she had a memorable meeting with David Lynch, who as a sensitive person with a developed fantasy, remembers his first impression after meeting her this way: “The first time I saw Chrysta Bell perform, I thought she was like an alien. The most beautiful alien ever”. This meeting led to a fruitful artistic and romantic union, one of the first results of which was a song “Polish Poem” that Chrysta Bell made with David Lynch for his film “Inland Empire”. The further developing of this union led to two albums that they made together “This Train” and “Somewhere in The Nowhere”. Somehow, these two beings have excellently artistically supplemented each other and we can say that the music on these records, on one hand, showed to the world Chrysta Bell’s unique charisma, and on the other, deeply reflected the strange and trippy vibe of David Lynch’s movies.

Chrysta Bell’s latest musical affair covered the territories of different musical styles and concepts. She made an album “We Dissolved” with a well-known and respected producer, long time P.J. Harvey collaborator, John Parish, which had a bit more of a jazz, blues and rock sound compared to the works she did with David Lynch.

Chrysta Bell’s latest, 4th album “Feels Like Love”, which she has done with the co-author and producer Christopher Smart, has much more of an influence of dark disco, new wave and post-punk and in her description is “like everything culminating together in my spirit and my artistic expression, it’s like an explosion”.

Besides being a busy songwriter and performing artist, Chrysta Bell releases her powerful talent in other fields like modeling and being an actress. Her biggest acting achievement at the moment is as one of the leading roles in David Lynch’s series “Twin Peaks: The Return”.

We had a lucky chance to chat with Chrysta Bell about her latest album, passion for live performance and the level of energy she gets from different audiences, the philosophical concepts that keep her wondering, working with David Lynch and many other interesting things.

Interview: Dmitry Tolkunov

Hi Chrysta Bell! Thank you for finding time for us. It would be great to know what you have been up to recently in music. As I understand, not long ago, you released your new album “Feels Like Love” and your main activities are probably connected with this work?

Hi! Currently, my main focus is on a tour that will start just in a few days, which will be called Time Never Dies, which is also the name of one of my favorite tracks from “Feels Like Love”. Time Never Dies is a kind of expression that is particularly close to me and my personality, I am really intrigued by thoughts that go beyond the cosmic horizon and things like time and the illusion of time and cycles of our nature and humanity, these things keep me awake at night. Time Never Dies is like a romantic encapsulation of this vertical feeling of spinning in circles. I like to play with these kinds of concepts.

Read more

Max Cooper: Visualizing the Infinite

MAX COOPER TALKS ABOUT HIS LATEST ALBUM, BRINGING SCIENTIFIC IDEAS INTO MUSIC, HIS PASSION FOR VIDEO ART, WAYS OF VISUALIZING THE INFINITE AND OTHER INTERESTING THINGS

Max Cooper has always stood apart from most popular DJs and electronic music producers. His music couldn’t be clearly categorized and marked with some understandable for the masses cliché. His approach is based on a lot of musical influences and on his scientific background as well.

Studying genetics and system biology at university has made a large impact on Max Cooper’s art. His impressive shows, which he plays all over the world at big festivals and some of the top clubs, are full of scientific ideas. These scientific concepts, plus his passion for video art and emotional electronic music turns each of Max Cooper’s performance into a unique and unforgettable audiovisual experience.

Max Cooper’s latest album “Yearning for the Infinite” was specially created on its base visuals and, for now, is the quintessence of his practices in bringing global messages into the art by linking music, science and video art together.

We had a chance to talk with Max Cooper about the underlying themes of his latest album, the way he visualizes the infinite, his works in the field of audiovisual installations, musical influences, favorite places to perform and many other interesting things.

Interview: Dmitry Tolkunov

Hi Max! You have just made a great new album “Yearning for the Infinite”, which is a really big and serious conceptual work complemented by stunning and impressive videos for each track and also has a special visual content when played live. Can you please tell us a bit about this work and its main idea and message?

This work was a commission from the Barbican Art & Music Centre in London. They commissioned me to do a piece with the main theme being around new technologies and their impact on society, especially things such as fintech and machine learning. They sent me their brief and asked me to come up with a project idea for a show and for an album. I tried to take the main idea of showing the results of the technological advance and how humans endlessly pursue things like wanting more money or their football team to win or to achieve some things – this endless need for growth and pursuing of goals which are the characteristics of the western culture. These are the main underlying aspects of this work.

Read more

Carl Craig: We were serenading Detroit and building our idea of the musical future

TECHNO LEGEND CARL CRAIG TALKS ABOUT HIS MUSICAL INFLUENCES, NEW PROJECTS, DETROIT TECHNO SCENE, FAVORITE SETS AND HIS PASSION FOR BREAKING EXPECTATIONS

Carl Craig is one of the leading forces of Detroit techno – a musical genre that was born in the mid 80’s of the previous century and reflected a sorrowful atmosphere of a dying city with closing car factory’s and serious social problems, as well as the passion for futurism, new technologies and desire for a brighter future.

Carl Craig made his first steps in music with a mentorship of one of Detroit’s techno godfathers – Derrick May, who saw a large potential in young 17 years old Carl and helped him to release his first track. This was a lucky start, which helped Carl to get noticed by the expanding audience of followers of the new and groundbreaking for that time techno music.

Right from the start of his musical career Carl Craig achieved a reputation of the artist that was always breaking expectations and had a deep passion for experiments with different musical forms. For different kinds of projects, he had a bunch of monikers like C2, BFC, Paperclip People, 69, Innerzone Orchestra. Mainly the originality of his style is based on bringing the influences of other musical genres into techno music, starting from classical music to jazz, funk and disco. As Carl perfectly describes his adventurous approach in doing music: “I have a bad habit of getting my hands dirty in every little thing, and I really do enjoy it.”

The status of a true legend that formed and influenced much techno music is not having Carl Craig resting on the laurels. He is, maybe even more than ever, full of creative energy that helps him to play dj sets and different kinds of live shows in the best festivals and night clubs all over the world, do new music and run his own label Planet E Communications with a fantastic catalogue of releases that can be described techno’s best golden collection music.

We had a lucky chance to talk with Carl Craig about his new exciting projects, musical influences that formed his style, Detroit’s techno scene, his social activity with running his own foundation, favorite sets as well as many more interesting things.

Interview: Dmitry Tolkunov

Hi Carl! It will be interesting to know what you have been up to recently in your musical production – some new releases, remixes, interesting collaborations?

Hi! I’ve been working on a new project with my longtime partner Moritz von Oswald and we are almost done with it. Also there is a new Kenny Larkin record coming out that I did a remix for and I’ve done some things with Seth Troxler for his project Lost Soul of Saturn. Also, I’m continuing to do the series of “Detroit Love” compilations on my label, and we just had Stacey Pullen’s record released in this line and a lot of releases are yet to come.

Read more

Rebolledo: Trying to make the world a better place

REBOLLEDO ABOUT PLANS FOR NEW MUSIC, IMPRESSIONS FROM THE LAST BURNING MAN, MAYAN WARRIOR MISSION, AND OTHER INTERESTING STUFF

Mauricio Rebolledo is one of the most notable dj’s and musical producers in the world of modern dance music. He got recognized by the lovers of contemporary sound through an impressive number of interesting releases on leading electronic music labels like Kompakt as well as through running his own label with a sarcastic name Hippie Dance.

Besides being an actively touring dj and a fruitful musical producer, Rebolledo is also known as a musical curator of probably one of the most significant musical stages on the famous Burning Man festival called Mayan Warrior. His deep and thoughtful sets that he plays annually on the top of Mayan Warrior на art-car on the festivals closing ceremony already became for many impressionable beings a life changing experience. Rebolledo is also a co-owner of two famous clubs in Mexico – TOPAZdeluxe in Monterrey and M.N. Roy in Mexico city.

We had a lucky chance to chat with Rebolledo about the specifics of the sound of electronic music in his home country Mexico, the idea and mission of Mayan Warrior, impressions from last Burning Man, plans for new music and some other interesting things

Interview: Dmitry Tolkunov

Hi! It would be interesting to know what you have been up to recently in your musical production – any interesting releases in plans?

Hi! Lately I was working on a remix for M.A.N.D.Y, they are re-releasing one of their classical tracks from 2000’s and asked me to do a remix for it, I was very excited about it as if they are my really good friends and I really like this track as well. I’m also working on a new track for the Kompakt labels compilation called “Velvet Desert”.

As for my label Hippie Dance I have in plans to release soon some great music of Lasser Drakar who we can say is an electronic music veteran here in Mexico, it will be some amazing stuff that he have done in the beginning of 200’s but it never got released, it will come out in November.

Read more

Gary Numan: When I saw Blade Runner for the first time I wasn’t looking to see if I’d had any influence on it

GARY NUMAN TALKS ABOUT WORKING ON HIS NEW ALBUM “INTRUDER”, AN UPCOMING UK TOUR, PLAYING WITH DIFFERENT IMAGES THROUGHOUT HIS CAREER, HIS RECENT LIFESTYLE, FAVORITE PLACES TO PERFORM AND VIEWS ON MODERN REALITY

Gary Numan is a remarkable artist, a true legend that influenced a lot modern music in areas of style, sound and new aesthetics. His long and impressive career is full of breathtaking ups and dramatic downs, starting in the middle of the 70’s in his hometown of London, when he formed his first band Tubeway Army. First singles of Tubeway Army were made in the punk-rock style. But soon, Gary Numan discovered the magical world of synthesisers and moved to a more electronic sound, perfectly reflecting the futuristic vibe and new emerging forms that were in the air at the edge of 70s –beginning of 80s.

His first single in the new electronic direction was “Down in The Park” and was soon followed by “Cars” and “Are Friends Electric” which achieved massive commercial success and took top chart positions worldwide. This mega success was followed by first two solo albums, “The Pleasure Principles” in 1979 and “Telekon” in 1980. At that point Gary Numan became one of the leading new world pop-stars with an incomparable sound and stage image. His approach to sound production which he used in these first albums by giving synthesisers a hard edge sound by playing them through guitar pedals became a big influence for the biggest industrial bands like Nine Inch Nails and Skinny Puppy. His stage image of an androgynous android was heavily inspired by science fiction images of future dystopias of the newly emerging cyber-punk genre and was really capturing peoples imagination. Also in the line of dystopian android image and electronic music with an infernal vibe, starting from these first well-acclaimed works, sincere and self-centered lyrics became a serious conceptual part of all Gary Numan’s songs and the trademark of his style of songwriting.

In the 80s, Gary Numan moved a bit from pure electronic sound and like all real forward-thinking artists who are always looking for something new, started to experiment with other musical genres like jazz, funk, soul and disco which was followed by changing his stage image to a less futuristic look with more references to an elegant gentleman’s style with classy suits. This period was marked by such albums that became, with no doubt, cult classics like “Dance”, “Warriors”, “I, Assassin”, “The Fury”.

In the 90s, Gary Numan faced a creative and personality crisis, his albums were far from commercial success and he was even thinking about leaving the music business at one point. The quintessence of this period was when his album “Machine + Soul” was released in 1992 and according to Gary’s words, nothing was right in this work; the music, the clothes, the haircut. But soon, he managed to reinvent his music and look, turning to a new style with a more guitar oriented, heavy industrial sound as well as a kind of gothic post-apocalyptic stage image. This path brought Gary Numan’s career and creativity to a new level, being marked by the album “Sacrifice” in 1994. Since that moment, within his next albums he mostly followed this new sound and style, making a bunch of well acclaimed fan and critic albums throughout the 90’s and into this century.

He recieved big respect from Nine Inch Nails, the band leader Trent Reznor mentioned that Gary Numan was one of his biggest musical influences, covered his song “Metal” and invited him him to join Nine Inch Nails on tour for a number of shows. Other artists that covered and used samples from Gary Numan’s songs includes such a wide range of bands that represents many different styles like Blur, Moloko, Basement Jaxx, Fear Factory, Sugababes and it certainly played a good role for introducing his music to the new generation.

At the moment Garry Numan lives a happy family life in sunny LA with his wife Gemma and three daughters and successfully combines it with an intensive music career, releasing new albums, videos and touring all over the world. We were lucky to talk with Gary just before his big tour in the UK about his new album “Intruder” which is going to be released next year, the evolution of his stage images, his favourite places to perform, and views on modern reality as well as other interesting things.

Interview: Dmitry Tolkunov

Hi Gary! Thank you very much for finding time for us. As I understand you are really busy at the moment with recording a new album… Can you please tell a bit about this work – with whom are you working on it, the name of the album, its general musical direction and vibe and when it will be finally out?

The new album is called ‘Intruder’ and I hope to have it out in September 2020. I’m working on it with Ade Fenton as producer once again, so it will be our 5th album together. Musically, it’s still heavy, epic electronic, with a strong leaning towards a film score vibe, but with vocals, obviously. It looks at the climate change problem from the point of view of the planet itself. It considers Earth a living thing and humans as a virus that need to be destroyed for the earth to survive. Climate change, and the temperature rise, is a planet level version of a fever.

Read more

Westbam: I still feel the same excitement, plus I have more wisdom

WESTBAM TALKS ABOUT HIS PASSION FOR HIP-HOP, BENEFITS OF MODERN TECHNOLOGIES, FAVORITE COLLABORATIONS ON THE LATEST ALBUM “RISKY SETS”, HIS RECENT APPROACH IN CREATING MUSIC AND VIDEOS AND NEVERENDING EXCITEMENT

Maximillian Lenz, mostly known by his stage name Westbam, is one of the most influential Berlin dj’s, a true raver who was responsible for the massive techno-culture explosion at the edge of the 80s/90s and reaffirmed his position as one of the most interesting and creative artists on this scene during the following decades.

Maximillian started his musical journey with forming punk band Anormal Null in 1979. In the mid 80s he got more interested in dance music and went deeper into Djing. At that point he got his now well known DJ moniker Westbam — a kind of reinvention of Afrika Bambaata’s name that showed his passion for early hip-hop music. As Westbam, he quickly achieved the status of being one of the most interesting and forward-thinking dj’s of his time, the one who was pushing DJing from just selecting songs for the moment to a new art-form that is based on the way of creating musical compositions using records and mixing effects. Starting with playing eclectic mixes of electro, new wave, italo disco and hip-hop in the legendary club Metropol in West Berlin, Westbam soon turned his head to the most futuristic sounds of house and techno.

In 1989, when the Berlin wall came down, techno music and night clubs became one of the most distinctive signs of this new time and Westbam became one of the leading figures in an evolving cultural movement. According to Westbam, techno became at that time a kind of soundtrack of liberation and played an important social and political role especially for East Berliners, and today’s Berlin techno fame is in many ways an echo of that era.

Westbam stood behind the events that pushed the development of this rave scene, as the organizer of the trademark festival MayDay and a dj who played on all legendary Love Parade’s. At the moment, he’s retired from his promoter and event organizer duties and just enjoys himself as an artist who only dedicates himself to creative things like making new music and playing it to the people. He regularly releases his music as well as composing new tracks everyday just for the listening pleasure and in order to make the sets that he plays in clubs and festivals exclusively consist only of his material. Throughout his career, Westbam made a huge number of contemporary dance music hits and epic rave anthems which covered different genres from electro to techno and house music, as well as conceptual albums, remixes and collaborations with big artists that stand far away from the electronic music world like Iggy Pop and Brian Molko. His successful work in this wide range of musical genres always carried a mark of his personal style – always very experimental, energetic and with a sense of humor.

We had a chance to chat with Westbam about his latest album “Risky Sets”, passion for hip-hop culture, benefits of modern technologies, his approach in creating music and videos, retiring from the event business as well as some other interesting things.

Interview: Dmitry Tolkunov

Hi! As I understand your main new work is the new album “Risky Sets” that was released just a few months ago? Can you tell a bit about it and did the creation process took a long time?

Well you know, these days, I don’t work on tracks as long as I used to do in the early days of my production – in the 80s and 90s. I believe that a good track must be done fast, and when you are working too long on it, you are losing the main idea. But the hall technical process of making this album happen took a long time as I had a lot of collaborations on “Risky Sets” with different unbelievable superstars. And it was a long way, confirming everything with their management. And as time goes by while you are doing the same work, there comes a moment when you run out of ideas. Because of this long process of confirmation of everything it was evolving for a long time, so at the moment when everything was finally confirmed, I had around 10 versions for each track of the album. And think it all worked well at the end and I’m really satisfied by “Risky Sets”.

Read more

Afrika Bambaataa: Into True School ways and Futuristic waves

AFRIKA BAMBAATA TALKS ABOUT NEW MUSIC, HIS RECENT TOUR WITH JAMIROQUAI, DEVELOPMENTS IN HIP-HOP, THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE ZULU NATION AS WELL AS MUCH MORE

Afrika Bambaaataa is one of the key figures in modern music as we know it. His influential role is as the inventor of hip-hop – one of the most popular music genres nowadays as well as a cultural movement that also includes things such as graffiti, break-dancing, a recognizable street style and technically advanced way of DJing.

As the inventor and godfather of hip-hop, Afrika Bambaaataa is responsible for its birth as a cultural movement, as well as being the one who stands behind its ideological base. Being a warlord of the cruel Bronx street gang, Black Spades, in the early 1970s, he radically changed his lifestyle after a trip to Africa and doing some research into African history. After coming back to New York, Afrika Bambaaataa decided to part ways with the criminal life and to start to promote a new way of thinking for the black people’s community, which he called –Universal Zulu Nation. Universal Zulu Nation became the philosophy and way of living which gave birth to the early True School hip-hop. The backbone of its ideas was to stop bloodsheds on the streets and to start sorting all conflicts via DJ, rap, graffiti and break-dance battles. The new style and music, which was then called hip-hop, was borne in the bowels of these battles. Many former street gang members said that hip-hop saved their lives.

After becoming a respected and well-known figure in New York’s cultural scene for throwing parties in the Bronx where he was DJing, organizing different kinds of art battles and promoting Universal Zulu Nations ideas, at the beginning of the 80’s Afrika Bambaataa began a successful career as a recording artist. His first release “Planet Rock” became a superhit which stormed the charts worldwide. The melody from Kraftwerks song “Trans-Europe Express” which was used in ”Planet Rock” also made Afrika Bambaaataa famous as one of the first sampling pioneers. Releases that followed shortly after – “Looking for a Perfect Beat” and “Renegades of Funk” helped him to achieve international fame and he gained the status of a forward-thinking artist that brought new concepts into modern music.

He began to spread the influence of hip-hop culture and Zulu Nations worldwide and after his trip to France, he inspired the founder of French hip-hop scene Mc Solaar to start to make music too.

During his musical career, Afrika Bambaataa has made a bunch of successful albums and singles and has had many opportunities to collaborate with great artists from different musical scenes, such as George Clinton, James Brown, Nina Hagen, Westbam, Bootsy Collins, and Gary Numan. Nowadays, he is still full of energy and tours worldwide with his DJ sets and live shows, releasing new music as well as not forgetting his role as a mentor when doing public talks to promote Zulu Nations’ ideas.

We were lucky to catch Afrika Bambaataa between his tours, talk about his recent tour with Jamiroquai, the essence of Zulu Nation ideas, his plans for new music, and other interesting things.

Interview: Dmitry Tolkunov

Hello! What have you been mostly focused on recently in music – making some new tracks, touring, or combining these things?

First Peace Be Unto You and the good people of Earth and Beings of Beyond in our Universe. Rotherham Afrika Bambaataa has been focusing on recording many new songs and music for humans to listen and dance to and just came off a successful tour for our brother, Jamiroquai, in many countries as well as some DJ club dates. We have new songs out that you can only order online. New songs called “Funk On The 1, Tribute To Sly and The Family Stone”, ”Do Them Old Dances”, ”On The Dance Floor” featuring Lord 7even and EDollaz, “Radar” featuring Dominique. We have our True School Radio Station every Tuesday on streetwireradio.com with Dr. Shaka Zulu,Lord Yoda X from 8 pm to 12 and our 24 Hours a Day True School Radio On trueschool.airtime.pro for people who just like all types of good music and are tired of hearing the same 10 songs on other radio stations, can now switch to True School Radio and enjoy good music from Earth.

Read more

Laibach: Our sympathies were always on the side of communism with a human face

photo: Ciril Jazbec

LAIBACH TALKS ABOUT THEIR PLANS FOR NEW PROJECTS, IMPRESSIONS FROM THE TOUR TO NORTH KOREA, PHILOSOPHY OF FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE, SYMPATHY FOR COMMUNISM WITH A HUMAN FACE, AS WELL AS MUCH MORE

Laibach is not just an ordinary band in its traditional meaning. A more correct categorization of them would be as an art-group that uses music as one of the main tools for promoting their visions and ideas. During their almost 40 year existence, Laibach was involved in many other projects besides recording and performing music – like visual art, creating a virtual state and political party, making soundtracks for theatre projects and other memorable affairs.

Right from the first days, Laibach invented their own original concept that was mainly based on references to totalitarian aesthetics with the provocative use of images from Italian futurism, socialist realism and allusions to Nazi Germany symbols. These methods were completed by Laibach’s stage image, as all group members wear military-style uniforms during the shows.

As well, even the group’s name has a controversial meaning for many people, Laibach was the German name of Ljubljana (the capital of the band’s motherland, Slovenia) in the Middle Ages. The way Laibach communicates with the rest of the world also stays within the strict line of their concept, the group sees themselves as one organism and stands for a de- individualization method – none of Laibach’s members ever give personal interviews and all public statements are made on the collective behalf.

Due to this shocking for average philistines approaches, Laibach was banned in their home country Yugoslavia at the beginning of the ‘80s and was given the status of dissidents. Like real resisters, they looked for alternative, contraband ways of presenting their art to people and founded NSK (NeueSlowenischeKunst/ New Slovenian Culture) collective, which worked in the fields of visual art, graphic, video, theatre, philosophy and gave the band the possibility to hide and to perform in a partisan kind of way under the mark of NSK. At the end of the decade when Laibach achieved international success, they sorted their fragile relationship with the authorities and started to perform legally in Yugoslavia again under their original name. At the beginning of the 90s (when Slovenia became an independent country), Laibach finally received full well-earned respect and the country’s pride for them as the main Slovenian music export.

During their career, Laibach experimented with different musical genres, starting from industrial in their early days to neo-classic, gothic and techno-pop. They are known for specific covers of other people’s music. Laibach has put its touch on recognizable heritage like The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical “Jesus Christ Superstar”, 80’s pop-rock tunes by Europe and Opus, as well as much more. With the help of Laibach’s touch, this cheerful music began to sound like blood-chilling, infernal marches. This trick shows the essence of the bands art-method, which can be described as deconstructing and bringing to the spotlight the demons of a repressive and totalitarian ideology that lives in mass-cultural clichés. However, besides puzzling people with these strange and dark covers, Laibach has made a bunch of conceptual albums that are based on their own music and lyrics with serious messages and statements in which they shared their views on modern reality and showed themselves as anti-globalists, supporters of social justice and opponents of capital power.

Having a passion for experiments and exploring new territories led Laibach to exciting projects such as concerts with symphonic orchestras, covering some of Bach and Wagner’s classical music, and taking part in one of the most surreal music affairs of our time – Laibach’s show in North Korea.

Laibach is still full of energy, working at the same time on a few new projects, shooting remarkable videos and touring around the world. We had a chance to talk with them about their recent plans, latest tours, impressions from their North Korea tour, Nietzsche’s philosophy, as well as many more interesting things.

Interview: Dmitry Tolkunov

Hello! As I understand Laibach finished a big European tour with the new album “The Sound of Music”? How was it generally? Do you have some memorable moments of the tour to share?

The gigs are all listed on our web pages. The tour in general was good but touring itself is very difficult, extremely demanding logistically as well as socially and it is killing many bands and relations, so only the strong survive. On the other hand, tours and live concerts are probably the last remaining mechanism of the traditional, romantic distribution of music and ideas, based on physical exchange and collaboration, and we are always relieved when we do a good show and a good tour – and stay alive.

Read more

Mad Professor: I take it easy

ONE OF THE GREATEST AND MOST WELL-KNOWN DUB PRODUCERS, MAD PROFESSOR (KNOWN IN NORMAL LIFE AS NEIL FRASER), TALKS ABOUT THE 40TH ANNIVERSARY OF HIS LABEL ARIWA SOUNDS AND PLANS FOR CELEBRATING IT, HIS LOVE FOR AFRICA AND THE ANNUAL FESTIVAL THAT HE HOSTS IN GAMBIA, HIS FAVORITE PLACES TO PERFORM, AS WELL AS MUCH MORE

Mad Professor is known as one of the key figures in the second generation of dub musicians. His label Ariwa Sounds is a true and established trademark in the dub and reggae world. This year, Ariwa Sounds is celebrating its 40 year anniversary which is quite an age for an independent record label. The label’s catalogue consists of around 350 releases with many big and cult names in the dub and reggae world like Lee Scratch Perry, Sly and Robbie, Pato Banton, Jah Shaka, Horace Andy, as well as much more.

A lot of big-name artists from other musical genres like Grace Jones, Massive Attack, ORB, Perry Farrell asked Mad Professor for remixes in order to get his specific and unforgettable dub touch on their music.

Mad Professor was kind enough to talk with All Andorra about his latest releases, his music festival “Back to Africa” that he hosts annually in Gambia, his current semi-retired and easy lifestyle and other interesting stuff.

Interview: Dmitry Tolkunov

Hello Neil! It would be interesting to know what you have been up to recently – are there some interesting releases on Ariwa Sounds, maybe some collaborations that have to be noticed, or plans to go on tour?

Ariwa Sounds has already been going for 40 years and we are celebrating the anniversary this year. Due to the anniversary, I’m mostly busy now with reviewing the label’s catalogue – we have around 350 releases, which is quite a lot for an independent label. It is good to go back and to refresh our memories about the great music that was out on Ariwa Sounds. I am now preparing a lot of re-issues of the old releases in their original sound and we are also going to publish some old music that was recorded in Ariwa’s studio but was never released before.

Read more