a fine example of that is the second track on this debut for never learnt: ‘vital ital rub’ is codeine paced yet lucid for its ever shape-shifting ten-minute duration. it’s a sci-fi future landscape, basically, inhabited only by a woman going “coo” and some circling spaceships. heady as it is, the tranquil pulse underpinning the whole thing also gets you, and keeps you, nodding. the title track (like the flip, also a collab’ with buddy borai) is another synthy watercolour landscape, though this time it’s one carefully littered with smooth stabs, ticking hits and pinging bass notes. the brush strokes throughout are subtle, slowly adding layers and tension to something that is at once beautifully restrained yet effortlessly emotive.

listen/buy it

so have you always been an electronic music fan? what sorts of sounds have given you your kicks over the years?

i’ve always loved music and sharing music with people. kick’s wise: prince was the dude who made me want to pick up a guitar and thus start making music, when i saw purple rain when i was about 10 or 11.

i love the first daft punk album, early basement jaxx – pretty popular stuff, but great nonetheless. good house music always touches me, recent stuff mcde, move d, john talabot album, lone, that moodymann remix of pollyn was a bit special, some of mosca’s stuff is pretty cool in that bumping new/old garage style.

and what’s your own background? are you a fashion designer or entrepreneur or tee shirt lover or…?

i made music for a good few years, and over that time had the good fortune to develop relationships with various labels and musical fruits.

i had had various mcjobs to support my musical income, and the idea for millionhands came to me during a long cold winter when i was living in berlin. i guess i am an entrepreneur now. i wasn’t when i started ☺

club culture and clothing don’t have the best history – what was your plan when you first started the shop? did you know what you did and did not want to do? how so?

judge jules was a big influence…. ho ho ho.

no, i’d always been a bit precious about creative projects. trying to make stuff too perfect, i was lucky enough to have a mentor when i started who just kept pestering me to get started. the goal quickly became ‘sell that first t-shirt’. which we did and it grew from there.

i remember not so long ago when hawtin got seriously dissed for his clothing range – now it all seems ok. what’s changed do you think?

ha. i went to the launch hawtin’s range when i was in berlin. crazy asymetrical bizzle. nothing that i would wear, but fairplay to him for taking it on. saw this graphic the other day, just said ‘haters gonna hate’.

i get the feeling sometimes from ‘the scene’ that it’s bad for people to try new stuff, different styles of music, different flavours, but as a creative individual i think that that’s what keeps you sane… innovation comes from experiments, not from doing the same stuff you’ve always done. the interesting shit happens when you get out of your comfort zone, so personally i take my hat off to him.

is it all single-handed? have you sourced all the tees etc yourself? what are the things you look for in the products you sell? quality, materials, eco-friendliness etc

my wife molly has helped a lot, she keep things moving behind the scenes as does my good friend and talented designer lee murray.

in terms of the products we sell, we are about quality and we tend take the eco option where possible. the idea behind what we do can be summed up as ‘boutique merchandise’. the physical side of this industry has been shrinking for a while. long gone are the days where you could press up a vinyl record and know that if it was half decent you’d sell 3-4k copies. you can see the shift in focus with the records that appear on vinyl, it shows the emphasis is shifting to quality, not quantity.

basically we’re about providing quality design lead garments for the musically erudite…. or simply put, decent t-shirts for folks who like a decent t-shirt and bit of decent music. in a relatively small market one way to set yourself apart is by providing the best that you can possibly can, that’s products, service, interactions & associations.

what’s been the hardest part? have you learnt any lessons?

accounting would be the hardest part – or maybe just the dryest. i’ve learned so many lessons. i try and read business and marketing stuff when i get the chance, not dry textbook style stuff, but people like seth godin (for anyone thinking about starting a business his book ‘purple cow‘ is a must)

…there’s a phrase that’s stuck with me, i forget where it’s from, but it says ‘you learn by doing’. i’ve done a fair bit of that; from visiting factories in turkey, to having labels sewn on the wrong way up on 150 t-shirts. done ticked off the list and learned from.

and do you do the in-house designs yourself or…? what’s the inspiration for them?

back to my main man lee murray again for a large proportion of the work, though i like to keep my hand in with 3 or 4 new things a year.

and re the hook ups you’ve had – are they just brands/labels you like yourself? are people keen to get involved? i guess an extra revenue stream…

the idea is to work with people that i like. it’s more fun that way. we’re getting approached by more and more labels now, which is really cool. it feels good to be recognised for doing something well.

anyone turned you down/anyone you’d really like to tie in? let’s hope they’re reading…

not so far!

would you like the label to continue growing or will you preserve the boutique nature? i must say it’s that which appeals quite a bit to me – being able to wear clothes not every fucker on the high street has/knows about…

both, i think we can grow, but we’re still looking to preserve the boutique nature of what we do. we’ll keep it niche.

any big plans for 2012?

millionhands music will be launching, which is supremely exciting plus we’ll be starting a weekly radioshow which will be podcast via ituens and available on soundlcoud with guest mixes from various collaborators and friends.

anything else you like to say/big-up/brag about?

can i big up all bagshot crew?

you just did.

how are you? what’s been keeping you busy?

at the moment, there’s lots of things to do to start “office recordings”, our new label run by my close friend christian fladung and myself. he is doing mainly all the artwork stuff: silkscreens, stamps, it’s a lot of handwork and i’m taking care of the musical side. hopefully the first release will be out in the middle of may.

how have your tastes evolved in the last year? you listening to anything new or different than normal?

i’m always open for new music and stuff. jazz, hip hop, drone, experimental or folk for example. i read some blogs and also discovered bandcamp – it’s unbelievable what outstanding music you can find there. so, it’s evolving all the time.

there’s not much info online about you, is that a conscious thing? do you prefer to stay in the shadows?

there are some musicans who give themselfes a mysterious touch while they never show their face, don’t give interviews and so on…. i like those things. it’s fun and sometimes it really makes curious about the artist. in my case it’s different- nobody knows me.

i’d say your influences are quite clear – theo, moody etc – but how do you go about channelling these into something your own, something unique, when producing? is it a challenge?

moodymann, theo parrish, daniel bell etc- with these producers it’s the same like with a tribe challed quest, wu tang clan, de la soul for example… it’s more like a keystone for me. the same with 60s and 70s soul music is probably a keystone for these guys.

as a dj, i’m directly influenced by listening to a lot of records every week. more or less aware. i’m always searching for sounds, grooves, or feelings which work well for me. that is sometimes a huge challenge.

in an interview a while ago you said you wanted to teach your self a little more piano, more formally, did you manage that? did it help?

not so much. i can play some children’s songs now. but that’s all!

do you think that formal training is missing from a lot of music today? is it important or can you get by without it?

i think you get faster results if you are trained but it’s not important. everybody is able to make techno music. you just have to feel it. i really like that.

does it take you a long time to get in the right frame of mind to write music or do you do it as and when you feel it?

the best results come up if i feel it. sometimes i sit in front of my gear 10 hours and nothing works… i leave my studio with this groggy music head and burning eyes… and then, two hours later in an unpredictable moment this “feeling” is coming up -and i go back to the studio…

how did you hook up with slices of life for your new ep?

i met barbara preisinger (the founder of s.o.l) a couple of years ago. i absolutely respect her work as label owner and dj .besides that she became a really good friend of mine.

after some gigs we played together, it was clear- we like the music taste of each other. at some point she asked me if i’m interested in doing a record for s.o.l. i was very happy about that .

you seem to only release one or two eps a year – why is that? do you consider yourself more a dj or?

i don’t like to release too much. i’m absolutely fine with two ep’s per year. maybe a few remixes or collaborations with friends.

now you’ve been in berlin a few years, is it still as exciting a place? does it still inspire and influence you or is there any risk it limits creativity ‘cos all the deep house people are together in one place or….?

it’s still really exciting here!, everyday life and people, music, record shopping, partys, friends ,neukölln, subway, späti,.. those are some things that inspire me.

of course berlin is the base for many house producers. in my circle of friends
there are just a couple of house cats like skipson, the achterbahn d’ amour‘s (iron curtis and edit piafra), johannes albert, or the retreat posse . we share the same passion but mostly everybody is doing his own thing. i love to hang out , talk about music stuff and sometimes we share our thoughts about new productions. for me thats very important and it doesn’t influence my creativity in a negative way-quite the opposite.

where and when was the mix recorded?

at home on march the 27th.

what was the aim with it?

it’s been exclusively made for you

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

watch out for “office recordings”. we got some great remixes by matthias reiling & astrup and soulphiction for the first and the second ep! the first and the second release are by myself. what about talk about ep #1 and #2

what do you like to do outside of music?

drinking coffee and riding my bike.

download teshcast s ~ baaz or listen below

baaz has decided to keep the tracklist to himself for this one so if you fancy id-ing any tracks in the comments section… go ahead!

releases will be limited affairs coming on vinyl only, and already erudite sonic expert andrew weatherall has gotten behind the label’s second release, playing it on his much loved 6music show last week. says the pr of the first release…

“mother rose #1 takes in three original tracks plus a remix from italian disco legend danielle baldelli. the tracks were composed using traditional live overdubbing techniques and many a non-traditional instrument raided from the creatorʼs childrenʼs toy cupboards. mixed on a neve console before being committed to vinyl directly from quarter inch tape, mother rose 001 is the playful sound of two talented musicians indulging themselves and letting us into the hi-fidelity party.”

i’ve listened and can confirm that is certainly the case.. think strident, indie licked guitars married to dub tempos, trentemoller-esque atmospheres and plenty of organic instrumental funk. tip!

keep in the loop at mothersrose.tv and keep eyes peeled for the first release, which is due out imminently.

they aint for the faint hearted is the first thing to say: opener ‘yoyga’ has a monolithic bass stab riding along in time with fizzing and hissing static straight from some post apocalyptic city. it’s spare but intimidating with a shimmering synth loop playing over and over as intricate little sound designs bring life to the otherwise bleak arrangement: it’s uneasy and futuristic in a way too little techno is nowadays, and hints at a passion for grimy dubstep. then, ‘brawa’ is again about abstract atmospheres and desolate sonic landscapes. saw-tooth synths rip up and down as kick drums thump yards apart from each other in a most intimidating and paranoid way. the whole thing sounds rusty and decayed until some little water droplets appear midway though, but even then the track remains firmly in the dark and edgy recesses of broken techno.

the harmonic rays which open ‘tengenan’ hint at lighter moods, but as soon as the massive bass drops, you know you’re in for another bumpy ride. said harmonics return throughout, up-lighting the whole arrangement like a white laser in a pitch-black room. the contrast of such optimistic sounding light and devilishly bouncing bass and breaks is a stark one, but one that makes something hard at heart actually quite easy to love.

listen/buy it

friday 20th april is the date for your diary; the date this 300 capacity party will play out in the raw yet chic and heavily paradise garage indebted space that is, um, the garage, complete with one-off artworks, great lighting, candle lit walk ways, exposed brick walls and graffiti’d toilets. blasting out a connoisseur selection of deep house and disco from the fire truck dj booth (an actual old chevvy that used to be used as a real fire truck) will be linkwood – creator of boutique house sounds for friecracker and prime numbers – the revenge – arguably single handedly responsible for the disco house revival of recent years – and simon morrell, who is combining the best of both on his own burgeoning fina imprint.

the event will cost you 8 sheets on the door, 6 in advance from ra or hush-house themselves.

ahead of the party, you can check out this tasty promo mix from linkwood and the revenge, and if you’re about in leeds, don’t forget to check out the record shop attached to the garage, namely waxwerks, normally open from around midday.

how’s 2012 been so far?

great! my new ep “aspen” was well received and i ve just finished my debut album. i’m really happy about how everything worked out, especially about the features. seems like “a forest” is the best i have done so far.

and how was 2011 for you now you look back – did your tastes or music evolve much? what got you excited?

i guess things are always evolving – the taste of what i’m listening to and the music i produce. seeing ki records grow and getting our music distributed by kompakt was great.

i assume you must have spent a lot of it working on the album – did you have a vision from the start for it? was there a strong concept or is it a collection of singles or…?

not really a strong concept, but nevertheless it reveals kind of a story if you’re listening to the tracks in their order. i produced the whole album in a small garden house in the woods, just a room and a window with a view into the forest. so everything kind of belongs together.

a very new aspect for me is the use of vocals besides remixing or sampling. i collaborated with the danish musician gry noehr bagøien and mohna, singer of the hamburg based band me succeeds. those tracks are some of my favourites from the album. it lifts my music to a higher level. besides that there’s also a song with the lyricist and poet marcus roloff, which i’m really proud of. it features some threatening poem passages, which fit my sounds perfectly.

do you ever think about who might listen to your music, or when, or do you write more for yourself or…?

first of all i do it for myself. when i make music i don’t think in genres or who could listen to it. i just make music i feel like making. but of course i’m very happy if someone likes it.

how does your aspen ep fit in? is it a good teaser?

definitely it is a good teaser. there’ll be a smooth balance between up-tempo tunes and atmospheric songs, altogether with some surprises. it will be a listening album you can actually dance to.

i can hear things like pantha du prince, efdemin, dial records in the ep… am i at all close?!

i guess that pawel, pantha du prince are also combining electronic sounds with the aesthetics or instrumentations from other music styles. this approach is kind of rare in electronic music, particularly in dance music.

dial records, especially paul kominek (pawel) and hendrik weber (pantha du prince) were my first contacts with the electronic music scene. in times of myspace they wanted me to send demos and in the end i released a couple of tracks on pawel’s imprint orphanear. but they’re only a small part of my inspiration. i’m into several kinds of music. in the last months i haven’t listened much to dance music.

what impact has cologne had on you as a producer and fan of electronic music? are you involved in a scene or are you more isolated than that?

i’m that kind of guy who likes to work for himself. being in the studio, just me and the music is what makes me happy. so yes, i like to isolate myself from things that are going on outside. it’s a quite lonely process but it definitely works best for me. so the city i’m living in doesn’t play a big role for my music.

and what music did you grow up around – does that still influence you now do you think?

i remember my father listening to joy division. it’s still a big influence.

when did you first come to electronic music – what did you like about it, can you remember? and can you remember what it was you were listening to?

i always wanted to make music but i guess i was just too lazy to learn an instrument when i was young. the first time i listened to electronic music on the radio, i was like: that’s it! you can do it by just using the computer.

tell us about ki – what made you start the label? was it hard to get distribution with kompakt sorted?

we started the label with the intention to break boundaries and to release what we like no matter the style, genre or the popularity of the music. we stick to electronic music though as it is where we all come from and what we enjoy the most. i guess we were quite naive in the beginning but got an idea now how this thing works. i remember when we started calling up shops to sell my first ep “heights” to them. at that time we had also been in contact with peter armster of word and sound, who kindly got us on the phone so that we had the chance to ask questions and get some advice as far as getting a distributor is concerned. he is a very experienced guy and is already living in this music-world for so long. we did not get into was but got a smaller distributor at that time called dance all day, which we stayed within the beginning, they truly believed in ki.

to be a part of the kompakt family now is a great honour and we really appreciate the big effort everyone is doing to get our music into the shops. it wasn’t easy to get listed at kompakt, the happier we are now that things worked out in the end.

what are your aims with the label – do you have any goals or ideals about the sort of music you want to release? is it about feeling or relationships or?

we especially like music with a certain mood that the sounds deliver. the music we release is most of the time about feelings and atmospheres.

how important is the art and overall package to you? i know you are vinyl mainly…

if you have the chance to produce a product that comes in a plain white front and back package, then you need to print on it. we always want to get the best out of everything, like having a nice artwork and some extras, like stickers or posters.

what does it add, and how much effort goes into the art (and in fact how do you match cover art to the sounds inside – is there a link at all?)

ki tries to make every cover special and we are lucky to have so many talented artists around us. to me, music is already art but i enjoy expressing myself not only throughout the music but even more through the cover-design, videos and so on. with every record we release, we are trying to find the perfect match for the cover art to make it a special piece for everyone.
at the moment we are postponing our third split ep only because the coverart is not done yet. which is ok, better then releasing a record that has not the artwork it deserves.

where does that love come from do you think, and why is it important?

in general we are all art lovers at ki. we can imagine releasing a collection of prints, paintings or other stuff besides music from our crew in the future. it’s important to us to have the whole package. for “a forest” for instance every single track of the album will have a unique drawing that we’re going to raffle online. so you always have a visual part in addition to the music

are you happy to stick as an artist on your own label or would you like to branch out or?

due to that i’m a control freak when it comes to my stuff, i’m very happy having everything in my hands.

i understand you’re into photography – are those sort of fuzzy, soft focus, aged aesthetics like the ones on your facebook profile ones you like generally or just in art?

i have a collection of some vintage cameras. i’m a big fan of the dynamics and colourings of the pictures they produce, especially polaroids again lately. i’m using them for the covers or as a reference for paintings.

can any photography techniques be used in music making do you think? are there any shared parts of the creative process?

for me it’s the same thing, when i’m making music like when i’m painting or photographing. it’s the moment of inspiration and you have the choice how to let it out. let it be in images, sounds or everything you can imagine.

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

we are planning a tour alongside with the release of the album.
i can’t wait to play it out live.

what do you like to do day-to-day, outside of music?

cycling, painting, photographing, and just being outside.

listen below or download teshcast t ~ christian löffler

tracklist:

1. nils frahm – keep
2. apparat – good bye (instrumental)
3. pawel – kramnik
4. christian löffler – signals
5. philipp priebe – growing fire
6. james holden – 10101
7. throwing snow – pyre
8. dauwd – ikopol
9. koreless – up down up down
10. me succeeds – riemerling (arp aubert remix)
11. ripperton – the sandbox (mark august remix)
12. oni ayhun – oar 003
13. trentemoeller – shades of marble
14. telefon tel aviv – the sky is black

‘bamboo forest’ is next, and the joy of the track is in the way various elements move in the mix. a slinky hi hat, for example, starts buried deep down inside a bouncy rubber kick, but slowly grows louder and moves right into the centre as smeared synthscapes evolve all around. it’s deceptively simple and takes close listing to appreciate, but once you lock in and allow your mind to wander as the music slowly unfolds, unfurls and evolves, it’s a deeply hypnotic experience.

‘quazen groove’ then kicks that bit harder with a certain air of ‘fuck you’. a constant and thin ticking sound suggests techno, but louche drums and the brazen mid tempo kick keep things deliciously deep and house-y for six an a half minutes of rolling back room pleasure. like i say, this is not something that will grab you from a 30 second online clip, but it certainly gets under your skin when you give it the time it deserves.

buy it/listen

rather than simply chuck an out-of-the-box deep house groove beneath three classic tracks, though, sammy d, ryan williams and michael tello deconstruct each to its component parts before rebuilding with a true sense of musicianship. first up is ‘the real thing’ – an eight minute jaunt through lazy, tambourine-peppered drums and organic percussion that samples key phrases from marvin gaye & tammi terrell’s seminal ‘ain’t nothing like the real thing’. it’s impossible not to love, frankly, as is the bobby hebb referencing edit, ‘sunny’. this one has firm but frayed sounding kicks, the soft focus melodic smears of the original and some infectious hand claps all woven around each other as marvin’s oh-so-sweet voice floats gently above.

finally, mayer hawthorne’s cover of the festivals’ ‘you’ve got the making of a lover’ comes over all sun-kissed and blissed-out with searing strings sitting atop a slow but bumpy groove. though few people needed these songs (re)introducing to them, the way they have been reworked here makes them essential all over again.

listen/buy it

how are you? what’s been keeping you busy?

i’m fine, thanks. currently i’m preparing different music and non-music related projects. living in hamburg for one year now, it finally feels like things are coming together.

how long have you been making music and djing? what got you first infected?

growing up in a small town, i was always interested in music that was unknown to the people around me. in the first place this was mainly music like sonic youth or velvet underground. but what really got me into electronic music was efdemin’s self-titled debut lp. it really opened my mind and changed my general approach to music. i then started playing at small events around late 2008 and got my hands on producing music in september 2010.

how did you hook up with purple maze initially? did they have much involvement in the music you released on their first two eps?

i really have a difficult relationship with all my work. but right after i had finished “rave” i was feeling very comfortable about it, so i did send it to delsin and they forwarded it to purple maze. i was really lucky and have to thank these guys a lot.

the first ep was then compiled with tracks i had already finished. while working on the second ep, we had very close contact but they gave me all the artistic freedom one could desire.

about that music – its refreshingly dark, broken, weird. how did you end up producing that style? is it the aesthetic you like in all music?

the music is a result of everything i ever experienced in every possible way processed through my mind, which is in fact also a product of experiences. what i like in all music is when people make the effort to do something different. it doesn’t have to be right, but i always appreciate the effort.

how do you get it sounding so aged? is it something you work on or just the kit you use that makes it that way or….?

no, that is just me. it reflects the person that i am. some things happened in my life that don’t happen to most people. the way i digested them made me the mentally mature person i am now.

how hard was it to find your own style, having you been making music for years and these are the first to be released or…?

it was not hard at all, because i never searched. a never think about my own style. i’m gonna make records that will sound really different to the ones released, but will still have a common idea: it is techno, but not as a formal scheme, more as a conceptual approach, to innovate and question yourself and everything around you.


what sorts of things influence and inspire you musically or otherwise?

in general, i prefer roughness and honesty over anything pretentious. i always appreciate it when artists follow their own way and devote their lives to the art. this is why i really admire artists like arthur russel or sarah kane. in a way i think its all about romantics in a classical sense. it’s about strong emotions, negative or positive, the feeling of being powerless in this complex world, being at the mercy of fate. the metaphysical brutality of inter-human relationships, the pain of unfulfilled or impossible love. it is about fear and desire. the conflict between your nature and the culture you live in.

you’re based in hamburg, known in electronic circles as a hot bed of house – does it feel like that living there? you part of a community at all or?

you can definitely feel the immense influence dial and smallville had on the scene in hamburg in the last years. these guys are doing such a great job and provide a space to meet and exchange for everyone who is into deep electronic dance music. i definitely feel part of this community, but more in a way of friendship. musically, i try to be my own scene.

i believe you work in a bar there – is that right? how do you find making music around working a semi-normal job?!

yes, you can find me behind the bar at golem, which is the prototype for an ideal venue for me. on the main level it is a classy bar with excellent drinks and great djs playing all kinds of music from soul to early electronics and african music. from a secret door in a bookshelf you get to the basement. there is a really intimate club with superb lightning and air conditioning and you have the best local djs like helena hauff, rvds and phoung-dan playing. there even is a small cinema next to this room then. i’m mainly working there on the weekends, so, besides some freelancing, i can work on music whenever i want weekdays. but as i don’t have anything close to a studio, not even speakers, i mostly do this night times with headphones in my bed.

when and were did you do the mix? is it a reflection of your dj set?

it maybe reflects my dj set as a condensation of something like a 4 hours set. i recorded it on a tuesday night in my bedroom.

what kit did you use to do it? are you bothered about the ‘how’ or just the end results?

i think the ”how” clearly defines the end result and this mix would have been better if it was recorded with a proper set up. i collect vinyl for the love of it, but lack the budget for turntables and a mixer.

you do a live show, too, right…?

yes, when i moved to hamburg i didn’t wanted to dj digitally anymore, so i started working on this live set, which is now a fully improvised ride through noise, ambient, acid house and techno, influenced a lot by kassem mosse, redshape and morphosis. so far it worked very well in small intimate venues like the infamous golden pudel club.

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

i’m taking my time to work on a new ep for purple maze and look forward to play some more live shows. besides that, i also work on some more abstract music, maybe do a radio drama and work on non-music related stuff.

what do you like to do outside of music?

i studied philosophy, which still bothers me. besides that, i’m into different kinds of arts and aesthetic experiences. you can always get me with some good food.

listen below or download teshcast s ~ yør

tracklist:

1. julia holter – the falling age
2. peaking lights – amazing and wonderful
3. arthur russel – hop on down
4. black to comm – void
5. demdike stare – the stars are moving
6. lucy – eon
7. efdemin – there will be singing (dj koze remix)
8. kassem mosse – untilted
9. omar s – track #8
10.keith worthy – rockit science
11.redshape – dark & sticky
12.claro intelecto – night of the maniac
13.masayoshi fujita & jan jelinek – stripped to rm
14.throbbing gristle – hot on the heels of love