teshno

if you know your shit then you will know acheterbahn d’amour: it is the german duo consisting of iron curtis and emerging producer edit piafra who have crafted plenty of raw, wired-up analogue house and acid for both frank music and absurd’s acid test series. the duo have another ep of similarly classic sounding, firm house that’s both deep and purposeful due out on frank soon, and so i jumped at the chance of hearing where edit’s tastes lie when it comes to other people’s music.

answer? a very nice place, and one that takes in rush hour stuff, tyree offerings and contemporary moodyman shizzle to make for a house mix that bumps hard and makes good progress. pinging and jacking like chicago’s best to start, teshcast o then pushes on through some dense acid scribbles and emerges in the final third somewhere all together more heartfelt and warming… not bad in just 45 minutes. (oh, be sure to check out edit’s delightful, pop inclined, um, edits, too)

there’s not much info online about you – can you fill us in on how you got to this point?

it took a lot of patience

so nüremberg… is/was there a scene there you grew up around? is that were you first came in contact with electronic music?

i actually grew up in a very small town near nürnberg. in the early 90s i developed an interest for electronic music. i guess it all started with happy hardcore, breakbeats and jungle from the uk. when some of my friends got their drivers-licence we started going out in nuremberg. at that time there was a lot going on with electronic music there, lots of clubs and record stores. the most influential thing for me were the nights at a legendary club called “boot” (boat). the music they played there (mainly acid techno like hardfloor and house in a strictly rhythm style), the vibe of the club and energy of the crowd just blew me away. everything was so fresh and exciting!

some years later i moved to nuremberg and got to know lots of nice people being involved in music, parties and cultural activities. i started playing and having residencies at different parties and venues and finally doing my own parties in a more subcultural surrounding i felt comfortable in. at one of those party nights i got to know johannes (who wasn´t iron curtis yet). we quickly knew that we share same interests and started playing together regularly. our latest and still existing project in nuremberg is called pumping velvet. it´s a party night we run together with martin, who´s an old friend of ours. it´s about house, disco and techno in a traditional and heart warming way.

how long until you started playing and producing it?

a bunch of friends and me bought our first pair of turntables and a mixer in autumn of 93. the producing part then took some time: about two and a half years ago i started working with ableton live and doing edits because i fell in love with disco again. a bit later i began to add my first beats and stuff. and then iron curtis and me recorded a 20 minute drum live jam. when oliver from absurd recordings wanted him to contribute a track to the acid test series, iron curtis remembered the recording and asked me if i would like to cut it to a normal track length and add some ideas to it. that was our first collaboration in producing music and the track is called “your love (in a live jam)”. so i guess mr. curtis just pulled me into this mess.

why and when did you move to berlin, and how did that change you, your sound, your tastes?

i moved to berlin in july 2011. some time before that i had already quit my office job i was working in for 12 years. and as we were already doing this achterbahn thing it was just a good opportunity for me to make a change and concentrate even more on music, djing and stuff. luckily my girlfriend also wanted to live here

i haven´t thought about that a lot, but i guess berlin hasn´t changed me much up to now. my musical taste was quite settled when i moved over. for me the main difference and most inspiring thing about living in berlin is that i´m surrounded by people who share the same musical interests and that there´s a constant exchange of thoughts and ideas with them.

how come you only just hooked up with iron curtis to produce even though you’ve been mates ten years?

basically i´ve never planned to produce music and i thought i´m just not able to do it. the reason for that might be that i can´t play any instruments or had any musical education. i´m still astonished how much fun it is to produce your own stuff. overwhelming!

what works about the duo, achterbahn d’amour? who does what?

the main thing is that we know each other quite well and share the same taste in music. most of the time it works like that: each of us is constantly developing track ideas, drum loops, melodies or sketches of complete tracks which we then listen to together. we talk about if it would fit the achterbahn sound and if we would like to continue working on the track. in most cases we then arrange the tracks and work on the details together.

from time to time we spontaneously create something from scratch in little jam sessions. that´s how “into the wilde”, a track of our upcoming frank release, came to live for example. we recorded it right before leaving for a dj set at a berlin club. for me it´s just double the fun to share the joy and excitement of (making) music with someone. i´m really glad to have an experienced and skilled producer like iron curtis on my side from who i can learn plenty of things. and as achterbahn d´amour offers him the chance to live out his love for the more rough sides of dance music, i guess we both profit from the project.

tell us a bit about your next frank release and how you hooked up with the label…

on frank 03 we have an up-tempo house track with lots of classic jacking drum workouts and a bassline that is just emotionally captivating (i´m very proud of that bassline). then we have the more tool-like “the middle of” and last but not least a little melodic but still raw jam with hand played bass and a certain pop appeal. frank music is run by our friend johannes albert who also lives next door to johannes curtis. it´s just cool to do a record release on a friendship basis. we were very happy to do another one for frank, as we already contributed two tracks to the label´s first release.

and what is the main aim with the moniker? what are your inspirations for it?

achterbahn d´amour is more about the raw side of electronic music. we are strongly inspired by jacking chicago house, acid, techno or even ebm. though we don´t want to restrict ourselves by musical genres. we just like raw and dirty tracks with a certain emotional strength.

will you produce stuff on your own at all, too? you seem to like doing pop edits?

there are no certain plans for a “solo career” as a producer. i feel like i´m still in a phase of learning, trying and failing concerning making music. for now being involved in achterbahn d´amour is absolutely satisfying. let´s see how things develop for me.

i will definitely continue doing edits – which i mainly do for dj purposes – just because i´m in love with so many different styles of dance music, especially from the early days. disco, new wave, synth-pop…no matter what. there are so many classy old tracks still worth being played out.

how did you come up with the name edit piafra? anything to do with edith piaf?!?

yes indeed. i had a dream about edith piaf performing with the dead kennedys.
quite inspiring that.

where and when and using what kit did you record the mix?

i used a pair of 1210s, an old djm300 and traktor scratch. the mix was recorded in my living room on tuesday the 10 thof january round 8 p.m. neukoelln time.
i smoked a lot of cigarettes and wore my lambswool slippers.

what was your aim with it? is it the sort of thing you´d play out?

definitely the kind of stuff i´d play out. no special aim, just tracks i was in the mood for and l like at the moment. some all time favourites like koro koro and new stuff like the theo parrish remix. hopefully i created some kind of a flow…

what else you got coming up/are you looking forward to?

first of all the frank release which is going to be out in the beginning of february. i´m also looking forward to our upcoming dj gigs. besides that we have lots of tracks we want to finish. and hopefully there will be a return to absurd recordings for another round of acid test madness later this year. of course i can´t wait for another great summer in berlin.

who are you day to day outside of music? what do you like to do?

i´m trying to figure out what to do job wise. contact me for offers or ideas!

besides that i really like to cook with/for my girlfriend and friends. at the moment i´m discovering the wonders of indian cooking. did you know that ghee is nothing else than what we call “braune butter”? even if alfons schubeck is more and more turning into an old greedy jerk i have to admit: he always knew about the power of this ingredient.

download teshcast o ~ edit piafra or listen below

tracklist:

virgo four – lost inside of you / rush hour
unknown – tscm bellstroke
vakula – a1 / unthank 02
hakim murphy – nikki muscles / metamorphic
sweet exorcist – track jack / warp
bam bam – where´s your child / desire records
son of sam – nature makes a mistake (jack plug dub) – running back
helium robots – jarza (theo parrish translation 2) – running back
no smoke – koro koro / warriors dance
the exaltics – one circle / creme eclipse
virgo four – blue mood / dj classic cuts
tyree – hard core hip house (joe smooth remix) / d.j. international
tang – horizons / emphasis
terrace – no more video / djax up