Sub Squared: A New Project

We speak with Paul Cooper of Project Squared about his new black paper bag project, Sub Squared.

Over several cups of tea on a cold east London night I met Paul Cooper for the first time. He invited me up to his apartment to listen to some of his favourite records, recent purchases and to talk about his label Project Squared, which was then readying the release of Kowton & Tom Dicicco’s joint Untitled EP. Project Squared at the time was releasing an intriguing concoction of garage, dubstep and dub techno influenced music, with the label's inaugural release giving one third of the Livity Sound troupe, Asusu, a place to release his first record, with the Bristolian following up with a second 12" the next year. 

Project Squared delivered other 12"s from Manchester duo AnD, whose 2011 Algorythmic Love EP remains in total contrast to the “harder harder harder harder” techno they are producing today, while Estonian artist L-OW provided the Pinpoint / Diver EP. That particular release featured an impressive and extended Furesshu edit of "Diver", whose dubby and functional Lucid / All I Want EP made way for the first remix by Shifted.

It’s been two years since that night in Bethnal Green, with Cooper moving to pastures new in Australia, while TEA relocated itself to London. Since Cooper's move to Melbourne he's become a familiar face among the local scene, hooking up with some of the city’s more accomplished, albeit underground, techno producers such as Ben Mill, aka Ground Loop (and the soon to be CTZN alias), and Craig McWhinney who ended Project Squared’s two year release drought with the syncopated and body rhythmic Make Your Mess EP.

Amidst this globe trotting a new pursuit has taken shape, Sub Squared, a fresh venture independent from Project: Mooncircle, the hip hop imprint run by Gordon Gieseking that is parent label to Cooper's Project Squared. So with all this talk of labels, sub-labels and projects, we caught up with the Sub & Project Squared boss, over email this time, where he spoke to TEA about a new life down under, his fascination with the cosmos and the pictures NASA takes of it, being heckled during a set at London club Plastic People, supporting MC duo Cannibal Ox - and the debut 12” from Sub Squared’s first signing, Siberian artist Ghostek. 

Paul Cooper has also provided a mix to showcase some of the upcoming Sub Squared material, including the just-released Ghostek 12" which you can stream below, while further exhibiting the Sub Squared aesthetic. 

Hey Paul, how’s it going?

Very well thanks James. Staring into excel at work, focusing on music in my spare time, seeing friends, enjoying my girlfriend's company, trying to stay sane.

It’s been a year since you made the moved to Melbourne from London, how are you finding the change?

Melbourne has many things that London doesn't and visa-versa, for example for me having such sparsely populated incredible countryside close by is amazing after spending all my life living in the south east of England. The food here is a lot better in general than in the UK, the atmosphere about the city is a lot more relaxed, the weather of course... On the other hand I miss London's clubs - being able to go out and hear cutting edge international and national djs and live acts on decent systems. 

There's a lot of Djs and producers in Melbourne but there's not really any club spaces that are focused primarily on the sound system. The Black promoters put together the best venue that I’ve experienced here in a basement with a properly setup hired system. It makes me wonder why someone with the cash to setup a club can’t do the same.

You’ve hooked up with local producer Craig McWhinney since you’ve been there?

Gordon (co-founder of Project Squared) initially put me on to Craig's music before I even knew I was moving to Australia. We talked about doing a record via email, then I found out I was moving over here and we started hanging out once I was in town. His “Make Your Mess” EP came out on Project Squared back in February this year. We've got a pretty similar taste in dance music and we get on well, they'll be a McWhinney EP coming out on Sub Squared next. There's a bunch of other local mates that I should call out too: Daniel (Filipovic) and the Pinksilver boys, Nic Tuohey, Ground Loop (CTZN), Lost Few and Lorenzo from Black, Will Elder, Phaon and Glen (Daniel), Asha Dirge, Carlos Matic, Kloke and Enclave. All great producers and-or DJs. 

Before we get on to your new sub-label, how are things going with Project Squared?

Things have slowed down with Project Squared. We’ve only released one record since the start of 2012. It’s not as if we ever had a particularly full schedule – we put out three 12"s a year for a couple of years – but one record in two years is obviously pretty sluggish. Part of it is perhaps just not coming across music of enough calibre to warrant release; part of it is having a series of unfortunate situations where I had releases that we wanted to put out, but the artists changed their minds about the tracks before release. 

Another part of it is that I run the label with Gordon Gieseking, a long-time friend and partner musically, and our taste is getting pretty divergent. That makes agreeing on releases and putting them out difficult. This is pretty much why I started Sub Squared. Saying all that, we're getting the next Project Squared release together at the moment which will hopefully be out this year or early next year. Neither of us feel the need to put out music for the sake of it - we wait until we can find something that we both think is amazing. 

So Sub Squared is your primary focus now? 

At the moment I've got the Ghostek release on Sub Squared imminent, but also as I said we're trying to get the tracks for the ninth Project Squared release sorted. There's also the second Sub Squared release from Craig McWhinney planned, just got the pre-masters from Craig today, so things have picked up a fair bit recently.

Not many people know, but you were once releasing hip hop beats as Mr Cooper. Has any of that translated into production?

I used to make hip hop, both production for rappers and solo-instrumental stuff. At first I was in a group called Mummy Fortuna’s Theatre Company during a particularly emo patch of my late teenage years. We released on Lex Records, a fledgling Warp Records offshoot at the time. I remember playing a set of Mo’ Wax style Hip Hop at Plastic People before realising or caring about how important the club was, we supported Cannibal Ox once as well. I remember at that show being up on stage in a packed club shitting myself, the audience went really quiet when we got up and someone shouted 'don’t fuck up'. The nerves must have been pretty obvious rather than the usual Hip Hop bravado. My mate Joe always carried the shows though, he was an incredible rapper.

After that I released two solo instrumental albums. The first initially as a CD-only release on Wimm Recordings from Tokyo, then (I released it) on vinyl with Project Mooncircle, and then (I had) another LP exclusively on Project Mooncircle. I also produced a track for Sage Francis that came out on Epitaph. 

For the last three years or so I haven’t really been able to finish a track. Occasionally I sit down and have a go at it, and I’ve got some promising loops on the computer, but the passion for making tunes isn’t there anymore and I never finish anything. It was hard transitioning from hip hop; (going from) entirely sample-based production, to trying to use clean, electronic sounds, to trying to make techno and dubstep tunes. I care less about fitting into a genre now though and producers like Miles, that seem to use a lot of samples and do it in a really freeform way, might lead me back to production. I need to get more disciplined about sitting down and getting back into it though. 

I know you are a big fan sounds from the UK. Is Sub Squared an outlet for that?

I like the ‘UK sound’, and you can definitely hear that in the first release from Ghostek, despite the fact that he comes from a mining town in Siberia; but the label isn’t meant exclusively for that sound. As I mentioned previously, it’s really just meant as an outlet for my own taste in unreleased music, rather than a collaborative venture as what Project Squared has been so far. 

Ghostek’s record has elements of garage, dubstep and darker techno, the second record from Craig McWhinney that I’ve got lined up is more firmly rooted in techno. On the other hand I don’t particularly want to release music that just sounds like stereotypical stuff from a current niche genre, but a good tune is a good tune. It’s best not to philosophise too much about it; just release what you really like, and what you still really like after a few weeks of listening. 

The label has a cosmic aesthetic.

I spent quite a while trying to come up an idea for the artwork. The obvious choice - to keep costs low - is to do hand stamping, but it’s been done to death, and besides I’m in Australia and the records are in Europe. After a while I settled on using images from the Cassini probe programme. Incredible photographs of Saturn’s moons, with shadow, contrast and colours that are amazing. I love the aesthetic of them, seeing pictures like that makes you forget about your daily bullshit, just as an good piece of music does. I recommend a google image search. 

So I guess you could call it a scientific aesthetic, not a science-fiction aesthetic? Did you see that meteor that flew over Russia in February?

I did read about the meteor strike at the time, but any link between releasing a record by a Russian producer and having what appears to be an asteroid on the artwork is purely coincidental! I’m not really interested in trying to portray a 'sci-fi' aesthetic, we’re not going to go all Jeff Mills and start having flying saucers on the labels or having concept-records about what it’s like to travel at the speed of light. Saying that though, links between the image of the label, and films like 2001(: A Space Odyssey) are easy to make. I love that film in particular, as well as a lot of other sci-fi film and literature, so I suppose that influenced my choosing of the photographs on some level.

Where does the connection with Ghostek come from? What is it that you liked about the release to have it as Sub Squared's first.

He sent a demo to the Project Squared email address.  I heard his earlier stuff and thought it was good, but the tunes in this demo were in a different league. I think he’s really found his own sound in the tracks on this release, more so than his previous stuff where you could hear the influences a lot more. I’m missing Plastic People too, and this to me, is a FWD record through and through. It captures a period of time when I was living in London and going out to a lot of nights where this sort of thing was being played.

What can you tell us about Ben Mill's CTZN project?

I don't really know what Ben's intention is with the CTZN project to be honest. He's played me the tune in the mix, which is really held-back and sparse, and another one that was quite banging and abrasive too, both under the same alias. You'll have to ask him for the conceptual detail. The important thing is that more Ben Mill, Ground Loop, CTZN tracks exist in the world.

What are your future plans for Sub Squared and Project Squared?

Release more high quality music on both labels. 

Tell us about the mix?

I wanted to do a mix that showcases the forthcoming Ghostek EP, so it includes three tracks from the record, and some other forthcoming music from Sub Squared. Worked around that are a bunch of other recent records that I’ve bought since coming to Australia – I haven’t got my whole collection here with me so it’s pretty much only new stuff. The first 40 minutes is all from vinyl, after that I mixed a few unreleased and digital only tunes in Ableton and glued it on to the vinyl section.

And how have you found any tea you like down under?

When I first got here I was shocked by the prominence of the 'tagged bag' on the tea scene (gives a poor brew, and the tag always ends up in the water) and I was considering ridiculous ideas like getting my parents to send over boxes of clipper tea bags from the UK. I'll put that down to early days homesickness. I quickly discovered Bushell’s rounds, which are now the stock tea bag of choice in the Cooper household.

TEA

Sub Squared Soundcloud

Sub Squared Facebook

Sub Squared Bandcamp

  

Tracklist:

01. Ghostek – Jaws  [Sub Squared] 

02. Line Cook – Zero [Basement Floor Records]

03. Breaker 1 2 - 2 [Forbidden Planet]

04. Berk Offset – Essbudenbude [Klangscheiben-Records]

05 .Ghostek – Vampires [Sub Squared] 

06. Asusu – Velez [Livity Sound]

07. Zeitgeber – Body Out [Stroboscopic Artefacts]

08. Tum Hulbruk - Dimens [LNUK Records]

09. Walton - Homage [Keysound]

10. Ghostek – No Way Out [Sub Squared] 

11. Kevin McPhee – In Circles [WNCL Recordings]

12. Tom Dicicco - Future Fiction [Project Mooncircle]

13. Craig McWhinney - Pulse For Harvest [Sub Squared] (forthcoming)

14. CTZN - Citizen One (unreleased)

Paul Cooper Sub Squared mix Duration: 1:23:04

TEA with François X

Once upon a time the only name that instantly came to mind when talking about French techno was Dj Deep. And although that may still be the case, there’s now a long list of other names that follow. One of those names is François-Xavier Zoumenou, a Parisian producer commonly known as François X that’s leading an awakened French techno scene. A Dj Deep protégé himself, Francois X runs Dement3d, a party-turned-vinyl imprint set up with friend and progenitor Heartbeat in 2011 to support his fellow French and Parisian artists.

So far the Dement3d roster includes four-piece electronic band DSCRD, shadowy duo Polar Inertia and the recently unveiled Hiss : 1292 collaboration François X does with Swiss act Opuswerk. Not surprisingly Francois X’s career began on Dj Deep’s Deeply Rooted House - now known as Deeply Rooted - back in 2009 with the aptly titled debut EP Future Roots Vol3. He then followed this up with two equally impressive 12"s for the label, with his most recent, The Countdown, reigning in a remix from Marcel Dettmann.

Speaking with François X over email after he supplied us with a star-studded podcast, the Frenchman promises new EPs, while sharing an anecdote of being with Dj Deep at the Centre Pompidou, taking on electro house at Paris Social Club, talk of a new ambient act called Ligovskoï and a rare tea that’s only found in the south of France.

Hi François. First of all thank you for the mix. How and where was it recorded?

Hi. The mix was recorded in at home with a bit of vinyl on some SL-1200MK2s and some digital files using a USB on some CDJ 2000s. It was recorded during a Sunday afternoon after a heavy lunch.

What was for lunch?

A beautiful epaule d’agneau aux frutis confits

Is this podcast representative of your DJ sets?

I usually tend to do long mixes, sometimes that’s a weakness of mine; trying to blend tracks too much which can have me lose the energy of an aggressive mix. I come from a house background in terms of DJing, specifically the mid ‘90s era - the Vega Morales era - where each track was built like a song. You had to mix them very smoothly, knowing when the bass started, the breaks, it was definitely a challenge. Applying this style of mixing to techno is an interesting way of revealing the best parts of the music and sometimes it creates new tracks, because sometimes you mix a beat for three or four minutes with just a kick and a hi-hat. But you have to be careful, as I said, to not lose the energy of the music.

All of your releases as François X have come through Deeply Rooted House. How did you hook up with the label?

The label is now called Deeply Rooted, which is Dj Deep‘s label, one of my closest friends. We met at the end of the ‘90s, when even then he was a French electronic music pioneer, a real leader. I was a young and naive boy trying to gain some experience in electronic music and I met him during my regular visits to record stores. The label (Deeply Rooted House) didn’t exist at that time, hanging out a record stores was just a way of learning - and I can tell you that having a guy like Cyril (Dj Deep) around could be pretty intimidating, but it was definitely the best way to learn. He is a very honest and passionate person that’s dedicated his life to music.

Years later he started Deeply Rooted House, but at that time I wasn’t producing, I was DJing a bit while I was finishing my studies. It took me a long time to get my hands dirty, but Cyril encouraged me to finish tracks and offered me the chance to release my first EP on Deeply Rooted. To be honest, this was very kind of him, because I don’t think my release was at the level of the previous releases, in terms of quality, but I definitely jumped on board and here I am.

You have three releases on the label, are there plans for a fourth?

For sure. At the moment I have time to make music and I am preparing an EP for Deeply Rooted.

How important is Dj Deep to the French and Parisian music scene?

Very important. Like I said before, he was there when it started; I mean he was there for important times in the growth of contemporary electronic music. That makes him very important for the French. He’s a mentor for a lot of people. I actually have a story about the impact of his mentoring: One day we were at Beaubourg Museum and we stumbled across on one of his followers who told him that he has loads of Dj Deep radio shows from the early ‘90s on cassette. That’s the kind of thing you will experience hanging out with Cyril.

He did, and does so much. Like, before anybody else, he brought American DJs like Kerri Chandler to Paris, while fighting to book guys like Marcel Dettmann and Ben Klock. He has a vision few people have, but as they say; he’s ‘no prophet in his own land’. He’s sometimes underrated and misunderstood because people today like to put things in boxes where they fit, but if you don't fit in one box, what happens? People get disorientated.

That is the case with Deep because he played techno, then house, then techno and so on, not because he was tripping, but because the scene and the music evolved in a cycle. He had that kind of intelligence to catch the best of each era. But guess what, he is still here, playing at Berghain, rocking Trouw or sharing the decks with me at Concrete dropping unreleased Jeff Mills tracks. In a time where you need to put out records to get booked, that’s quite an achievement. That makes him very important for us, he’s creating a legacy.

Your most recent production was a remix of Polar Inertia for Dement3d. Remixes from you seem to be rare. Do you enjoy remixing or is it something you avoid? 

For me it’s fine to remix other people’s tracks, it’s just I don’t have the chance to do it that often. The remix for Polar Inertia is a like a family affair. They are my friends, so it was natural for me to do a remix for them. Although I have done a remix for a new label called Ressort Imprint scheduled for September.

How are things going over at your label Dement3d?

I’ve been running Dement3d with my friend Heartbeat for two years now. At the beginning it was more-or-less a kind of hub for our friends DSCRD and Polar Inertia, a place where they could have their first releases. But now we are in phase two and it's time for us to represent and make music for the label. So I did an EP as Hiss : 1292, a collaboration with Opuswerk. I have also just finished an EP as François X  which will be ready in October or November. There are plenty of other projects to come too.

This label is a strong project and we’re willing to develop every aspect of it so we’re not stuck in one style. People to tend to forget our roots and with the Polar Inertia Remixes EP and now this new Hiss : 1292 project, it’s clear that we are now open to do more ‘danceable projects’ and not only focus on experimental stuff. I mean it’s important that people understand our vision, which is music, good music; not trends or intellectual hype. We started the label with a strong visual aesthetic, people responded well to that, but it’s not everything. 

In Paris, which is our primary audience, the younger generation is trying so desperately to link any form of techno to any form of contemporary art. They are so attracted to these new codes: black and white arty pictures - tracks that aren’t so danceable: dark music. Sometimes they forget what it’s all about; house, techno and the club.

You could say that we are a part of that foolishness, but now it's time to get back to our roots. We will always put a lot of effort into our cover art, to discover and push new artists, and develop strong projects outside the regular boundaries of techno. But it is very important for us not to be pinned to any one corner or stuck in a single style. 

What is the story behind Dement3d? How did the label begin?

Dement3d is the story of two close friends who share the same ethos, same music taste and the same philosophy. I met Julien (Heartbeat), my label partner during our formatives years, about 10 years ago. We were part of a strong house community in Paris. He launched Dement3d as a local party around 2005-2006. The party grew and we felt it was quite important, so at one point Julien wanted to do something; turn the party into something more professional, like a label, and he asked me to join him. We started a new version of his party and we tested ourselves by playing all night long to see if we truly shared the same vision, and we did. It was a key moment in seeing what Dement3d is today.

We began to book international DJs in bigger clubs like Djoon and then we got ourselves a night at the (Paris) Social Club. If you really knew Paris at the time, throwing techno parties at the Social Club was like a putsch, the club was famous for hosting the French touch of electro-banging parties. And there we were, two guys booking the techno mafia. I mean when I look at the lines ups we had it’s quite impressive, we had some big names; Dettmann, Sandwell District, Surgeon, Planetary Assaults System, Shifted. This all happened in 2009. 

Around the end of 2010 our inspirations changed and we put an end to our parties and started thinking about something new. That was around the time where we started to hang out with DSCRD and Polar Inertia. We were amazed by their music and the idea of a label became all the more obvious. The label’s intention at first was to push new artists, especially Parisian acts.

Our vision was to embrace all of our roots and inspirations in the one place, that’s why some people were a bit shocked when we released more four-four orientated EPs, because people were used to - I don’t know why - but something more, arty maybe... But let's be honest, we aren’t really releasing avant garde music, there’s no masterpiece in our discography just yet, so why pretend? For me it’s cool if one record is very experimental and the other is very classic, with no other intentions than destroying dancefloors. We aren’t elitists and we don’t want to be.

Could tell us a little bit about your relationship with Polar Inertia?

Polar Inertia is a French duo. They are very secretive so I’ll keep it brief. We met them three years ago through friends and we started to work with them. They made quite an impact with their debut EP (Indirect Light) and it help set up the label internationally. We have a close relationship, we always try to push them because they have so much potential.

And your Hiss : 1292 just debuted on the label. 

Yes, it’s me and my friend Hendrik, who produces as Opuswerk. The collaboration started in Geneva where he lives and I relocated there myself. It is a new thing for me to collaborate with someone - and especially with Hendrik - because our music is made with analogue gear, which I don’t use for my solo project. It was quite an experience. I learned a lot about programming synths and it’s helped me improve technically. The results have been great; we have so much fun jamming in studio, even his newborn girl reacts to the music. This a long term collaboration for me and we have a lot music in the pipeline.

                     

There’s been no original François X material since 2011. What has that alias been up to?

Resting on a desert island. But no, more seriously, I have a regular job which takes up most of my time and I didn't have the energy to produce more music. Sometimes you don't feel anything; just a lack of inspiration. So why bother people with randomness and emptiness. That’s what I think. I prefer to stay silent when I don't have anything relevant to say. Things are less hectic now though, so I have plenty of time to get back on track.

What are you working on at the moment?

Like I said before, I’m running Dement3D; I have an EP scheduled for October on the label. I have another on Deeply Rooted to be released god knows when. But more importantly I need to improve my day-to-day production skills. It's very important you do that today because there are so many good producers out there. I hope 2014 will be a busy and inspiring year.

What's next for Dement3d?

We have lot music to come. First up is a new maxi from the DSCRD crew. It’s very experimental and personal as usual - then my first solo EP for the label - and something from a new ambient act called Ligovskoï, some new Polar Inertia and many other things.

The French scene seems to be very healthy at the moment, how does it feel to be part of it?

I'm proud to be a part of it, it’s refreshing and inspiring. But I don't take it for granted because what I call a scene is not what’s happening in Paris. For me a scene is a place where the emulation of people creates new art and in our case, music. At the moment the French scene that you are talking about is a bunch of dope crews throwing great parties. So you could say the clubbing scene is alive, yes, but a scene, not yet. The club scene in France is on fire, you have a lot of young and small crews who put a lot of effort to get things done, it’s ridiculous. In Paris we are very lucky to have a crew like Concrete who have achieved so much. Their parties are the best at the moment and have incredible line ups. And even though they have their critics inside of Paris, they’re doing a tremendous job.

Why is the French scene doing so well at the moment do you think?

After the darkness there is light. That’s exactly what’s happening in Paris right now. Nowadays people are more united. The music styles are narrowing toward a centre point. It was not the case 10-to-15 years ago. The crowd was not ready to mix. I remember going to house parties and not getting on with other crews who shared the same taste just because they weren’t part of my crew. Today the music we like is a federation of people from all sorts of horizons, it’s a good combination.

I like it, it's refreshing and I think this one of the key reasons for the French rebirth. The crowd is getting younger; it’s a new generation with more energy. We are becoming more professional in a way too, promoters are more devoted to the music, and maybe the mainstream system is becoming boring for the youngsters who are looking for authenticity. Those factors create a good combination and take our music to a higher level. A level well deserved.

And finally, do you have a favourite tea?

It’s a rare tea you can only find in the south of France. It’s made of red dry fruits.

Do you know what it’s called?

I'm still looking for it. 

TEA

Pic Credits: Matthieu Cannavo

François X Facebook
François X Website

Tracklist:

01. Function - Gradient Intro [Ostgut Ton]
02. Adriana Lopez -  Acta [Modularz]
03. Kalon - Man Is The Superior Animal [Sandwell District]
04. Ben Klock - Gloaming [Ostgut Ton]
05. James Ruskin - Massk [Blueprint]
06. Headless Horseman - Graveyard (Perc Remix) [Headless Horseman]
07. Truncate - Ratio 2 [Truncate]
08. Planetary Assault Systems - Black Tea [Ostgut Ton]
09. Insync & Mysteron - Trackdown [Plink Plonk]
10. Shifted - Trouble [Mote-Evolver]
11. Regis - Untitled [Downwards]
12. Joe Cocherell - Commerce Above All Else [Frozen Border]
13. Clouds - Chained To A Dead Camel [Overlee Assembly]
14. Andrea Belluzzi - Dream (Trip Version) [Par Recordings]
15. Lewis Fautzi & Nuklear Default - Turn [Soma]
16. Drumcell  -  Disturbance (Pfirter Remix II) [CLR]
17. Shifted - Sektor D [Avian]
18. Truncate - Focus V2 [Truncate]
19. Marcel Dettmann - Range [Ostgut Ton]
20. Carl Craig - A Wonderful Life (version) [Planet E]

TEA Podcast: François X Duration: 1:05:36

Fresh TEA - Ctrls

To begin with Lasse doesn’t even like half of it, says Troels Knudsen, the other half of Northern Structures, a Copenhagen pairing who berated the second half of 2011 with a salvo of gravel-pit techno via Adam X’s Sonic Groove imprint. “He (Lasse) is the guy that got me into all the industrial stuff,” Knudsen says, “My stuff has always been a bit more dancefloor”.

Troels Knudsen this year launched his Ctrls project, a solo endeavour geared toward break-neck beats and heavy duty loops that pay homage to his love of bumping ‘90s techno and drum and bass. “It’s definitely more dancefloor...I like a 140bpm workout if I can make it work, like the late ‘90s Mills stuff,” Knudsen explains.

One of the few labels today to consistently release high-end techno at full tilt is Belgian imprint Token, run by Kr!z. Speedy techno bulwarks Phase and Inigo Kennedy regularly release on the label as have Oscar Mulero, Go Hiyama and Xhin. Ctrls is the latest artist to join Token’s roster after Knudsen sent Kr!z the track “Socket”, which was swiftly snapped up and pressed for Token’s 22nd release. It wasn’t long after Token bore birth to Ctrls that Knudsen’s music attracted the attention of techno’s hungriest jocks, including Norman Nodge who commissioned the track for his recent Berghain 06 mix. 

“Everything Berghain related is like ‘yes awesome’ and I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t an ego boost, but it just gives you confidence and makes you feel like ‘right, this is full time now and lets do something with this’. It’s a really powerful motivator,” Knudsen says, adding “I feel there is something very active going on there (at Token), Kr!z is very conscious about the Token sound,”.

Token was an obvious home for the Ctrls project and match made in the industrial underground of European techno. “I simply hit Kr!z up,” Knudsen says, “I’m a massive Token fan. It’s exactly the sound I feel like I can Identify with, there’s still lots of energy,” he says. “I stopped drum and bass and I knew I wanted to do techno, so I was practicing for a while before I felt ready to show everyone what was going on,”. 

The Ctrls project was a bedroom secret from 2008 until the release of “Socket” earlier this year. Everything before, Knudsen says, was still a little under produced. After Kr!z’s intake of “Socket”, Knudsen then specifically produced “Social Vector” and “Encrypted Sex” to round out his first solo EP. “The nature of techno is technical and you have to know a synthesizer, you have to have some idea of systems; even the Downwards guys who call themselves ‘situationists’ still operate under a thought-out system,” he says.

Ctrls may not necessarily be exclusively Token, but he does pledge an alliance to the Belgian imprint saying Ctrls is definitely “Token focused”. “Once you are in there, there is a family, it’s a very verbal thing with lots of back and forth and discussions and things like that, which I really like,” Knudsen continues.

Northern Structures is still a big musical priority for Knudsen, but he says once the necessary deadlines have been met, he then has time to focus on Ctrls. But it’s not only Northern Structures and Ctrls that take up his studio time, Knudsen also works under the moniker 2400 Operator, a shaded house collaboration with Copenhagen DJ and promoter Daniel Savi that has so far released music with Tartelet Records and Underground Quality.

“Leave that reverb, don’t adjust it, this is house,” Troels Knudsen says, impersonating Underground Quality kahuna Jus Ed. “I am a techno person,” Knudsen admits, before explaining his predilection for house music. “It’s really relaxing making house and I really like some of the people I have met...I knew about working with house music, but I’ve never really tried it before, you learn to keep things very instinctive and traditional. The whole peace-love in house music thing, even though it’s not a conscious movement, there are a lot of people that go for that. It’s charming and a bit romantic,” Knudsen says.

Daniel Savi and Troels Knudsen aka 2400 Operator

The 2400 Operator moniker is his escapism from the usual balls-out abrasiveness of his Ctrls and Northern Structure productions, and he says Jus Ed is a big inspiration for his continued embrace of house music. “He (Jus Ed) is one of my favourite people in the scene I think, he has so much character and personality. I’m really going to try and find a way to keep the house stuff alive. If it’s going to be as 2400 Operator or as someone else, it’s really hard to tell,” Knudsen says.

Knudsen is also the envy of many bedroom producers who are still trying to get their head around basic to intermediate synthesis. Playing live is an important aspect of his and Northern Structures’ production and performance tenor, which is also something that seems to be ingrained within Danish electronic music. “I feel like I have a lot more to work with (in Copenhagen) and it feels like everyone does too. A few venues opened and closed but we still have Culture Box and it’s really turned up the heat. There’s some other crews as well, its been very ambitious, some of it may have been a little unrealistic, but there’s definitely life that has been created that doesn’t want to die right now,” he says.

Ctrls will debut his live show alongside DJ sets from Marcel Fengler and Norman Nodge at Fabric on November 24th and Knudsen offers some insight into the evolving process of his live show and studio production. “The main thing with Ctrls is that every single sound is made by me. When I found out I could do that, I think it gave me a nice personal touch. Everything is mine, I might get the same results when using a 909, but the process is hugely involved,” Knudsen explains.

Teleport is a developing program that Knudsen employs for his live show. “Everything is done on a laptop, but I’ve found some new software which will allow me to be hands on with the plug ins, which is like having a whole rack of synths. As far as I know I am the first to really take it on stage,” he says, adding “To me it feels totally live, there are no samples involved so I really tweak everything, so there will be actual improvisations if things work out in time,”.

“Being able to write new things on the spot now is very attractive to a lot of people,” Knudsen continues. “Electronic music is very hard to just sit down or stand up and play, you have to programme things and it's usually not a format where you can just jam out of nothing. But producers are getting really ambitious right now and I think there's a lot of us that want some of the spontaneous options traditional musicians have”. 

Ctrls plays Berghain on November 10 as part of Norman Nodge’s Berghain 06 launch alongside Marcel Fengler, Redshape, Aña, Mark Broom, Answer Code Request and Norman Nodge.

TEA with Dino Sabatini

The word "dark" is commonly used to describe the work of Donato Dozzy, Giorgio Gigli and Dino Sabatini. The three lynchpins of contemporary Italian techno.

But is dark really the right word? Be it hypnotic-drone, brooding minimalism, deep techno or the many other ways its been penned, does this necessarily need to translate to “dark” and “sinister”? Ask Dino Sabatini if he is a “dark musician” and he would probably laugh.

Dino Sabatini and the Munich based imprint Prologue have played an important role in rejuvenating a strain of Italian techno since the latter parts of the 2000s. In 2008 Sabatini help launch Prologue with the “No More” EP, following up with the "Daughter Of Phorcys" EPs in 2010. 

Since these releases the label has cultivated a “sound aesthetic” that Dino Sabatini is often credited for providing. But what differs Prologue from other labels pushing a similar sound is its artists outside of Italy like Samuli Kemppi, Cio D’Or, Milton Bradley, Iori and Mike Parker are producing music that shares many parallels, but also inventive differences, with the original leanings of Dozzy, Gigli and Modern Heads.

In 2012, Sabatini took his music outside of the studio and away from hardware, and started collecting sounds and samples from all over world and infusing them with tribal themes and influences. The result was Shaman's Path, his debut long player for Prologue and a personal interpretation of the bridge between life and the afterlife.

Pat Woodley-Davis caught up with Dino Sabatini over Skype where the two spoke of Greek mythology, tribal rhythms, the role of the Shaman, a new Modern Heads album and Japanese tea. 

Italians seem to be fascinated with the darker side of music as you have spoken about by citing Italian acts Lory D, Sounds Never Seen and Goblin as influential. You also enjoy talk of The Cure, Sisters of Mercy and Joy Division. Why are you and so many other Italians attracted to this “darker” sound?

Well I don’t know, because of my age? Maybe dark music was the music of my time? I don’t know many people in Italy who are listening to dark music at the moment. But people could be listening to productions from Elettronica Romana? With Giorgio Gigli and Donato Dozzy, we tried to make something different from the start, with our own ideas and concepts. Maybe I am the darkest, but everybody makes music for our environment. Claudio PRC, he is one of the guys who is following our style of music. Nowadays too many people follow the same sound. I don’t know why people say “your music is dark”. Sometimes I don’t feel like a dark musician (laughs).

Tell us about the tribal influences in your music at the moment?

With Shaman's Path, it was an experiment to find something different. For example, I used more tribal sounds because I was looking for - and - found some different, minimal sounds I could use inside my dark place. It mixed things up from the dark techno and also opened up my point of view. It was also partly a technical reason. I produced the album in my studio, but the album comes from everywhere, some of the tracks were made around the world. This is the first time I have experimented with digital production. With Modern Heads it was all analogue, but with Shaman's Path, I recorded some sound samples and voices from around the globe. Reaktor is like a huge library of sound with digital machines. I found it hard to stay in my studio, so I thought why not have my studio around the world. 

What brought about the move away from darker techno into more tribal techno?

Tribal for me is the root of the rhythm in music. It’s the root of techno music. Tribal music is a big thing, especially with rhythm, it’s a big thing in house music. Now I just try to find the right mix - a new era - to merge techno with some tribal sounds. It wasn’t so much research into African sounds, I have a great respect for African people and their music and I don’t want to mess with that, but for me it was just an experiment to have the right mix of techno and tribal stuff. I like that rhythms can very hypnotic. 

The CD will be released as a mixed album. Is this so the album can be listened to as an entire piece or concept? 

Yes of course. Listening to the CD version you can tell I followed a concept. The main concept was to create a bridge between reality and imagination. The shaman figure looked to represent that. Shamans are considered by some tribal populations as a link between life and afterlife and to be able to cross that bridge people have to follow particular paths. Shaman's Path is my personal interpretation of that.

Do you think this is what techno producers must do for techno albums to become more relevant than ten individual tracks coupled with an intro and outro?

I think everyone should do what feels right. I think it depends on the type of media you want to use. My project was to make a CD and a vinyl package. I thought I'd give the album a different direction, find a good compromise between normal listening and club listening.

Mike Parker says Tom Bonaty is fantastic to work with and very supportive of artists. When deciding to create an album, did you discuss it with Tom for a specific release on Prologue?

I’ve been working with Prologue for a long time now and I know how Tom wants the music. Usually when I am producing for Prologue, I know what he wants. With Shaman's Path, there is a Prologue touch. My first EP with Prologue is different to what I am producing now. At the beginning, Tom wasn’t totally happy about my style, but then I did the Daughter of Phorcys EP and it was totally different. With Shaman's Path, I just came back with an idea to keep it less techno, but to also follow the Prologue ideal, to include some ambient stuff, but still in my style.

A press release claims that you are one of the artists "responsible for providing the well known Prologue sound aesthetic". How does it feel that people have said you have shaped one of techno most contemporary and forward thinking labels?

This is a big question (laughs). It’s true, I was responsible for the first musical touch on Prologue. I don’t want to take too much credit, I have contributed, but every artist has done something important. Everyone has contributed in his or her own style. For me, at the beginning, it was just my point of view on the music and Tom agreed with that. 

Did you think that Prologue would become the label it has when Tom first contacted you? 

No, believe me at the beginning I thought it was a joke (laughs). Tom asked me ‘Hey, Dino, can I have your tracks because they are amazing’, but then it was two years until they were released (laughs). But after the first couple of releases, I realised what Tom wanted to do with Prologue. After the second release by Giorgio (Gigli), I was able to see that Prologue would become a great label and now they are arguably one of the bigger labels in the world, which I am really happy to be a part of. 

How is your own label Outis Music going and how did your first start it and why? How does it differ from other labels you have worked with?

With my music, I don’t always want people to say this is right or this is wrong. I want to be able to decide myself what is right and this is my reason for Outis Music. With Outis Music I can decide to make different music, you know? I can just follow my own ideas without interference from other people. Also, I can decide to collaborate with people like Giorgio Gigli, Brando Lupi and Donato Dozzy, but in a friendly way, with no pressure. I get a lot of help from Alessio who runs K1971 promotion, he is one of the owners of Elettronica Romana. For Outis, it’s a label that follows a dream, like Elettronica Romana, which is just to make music with my friends or on my own. Obviously it will be different in style to my output for Prologue or others, but at the moment I like what I am doing with Outis. 

At the moment I am careful with what I'm listening too. I try to escape from techno sometimes. I have a lot of requests for remixes or to make tracks for other labels and sometimes I struggle to find the inspiration to think “this is fucking cool”. So sometimes I like to take a couple of months off and listen to other things and find something different. 

Tell us about the connection Outis Music has with Greek Mythology.

Yes. I’ve loved Greek Mythology stories for a long time, so it’s a good feeling to have these stories and my music come together.

You seem to collaborate a lot. Do you enjoy collaborations? 

With Gianluca (Meloni-Modern Heads), it was a duo, together we experimented with different sounds and the experience was different, a total live experiment. We played a couple of times completely live, like once at Panoramabar without any computers and it was a total experiment. Then of course, we focussed everything on techno music. But our lives went in different ways, I moved to Berlin and he stayed in Rome with his son. We decided to collaborate over the internet, but again that is different. 

Are your collaborations done in the studio?

When you have a close relationship, like me and Gianluca, you are able to work together to share ideas. If I’m working alone, it’s different. That’s the problem with collaborations. It was the same with Giorgio, he came to Berlin so we were able to make something together. Now usually when I go back to Rome I try to meet with Donato (Dozzy) and we try and take a few days to make music together. The reality is now we share tracks over Skype and make music using Skype as a communicator. Music is about friendships and feelings as well as the music. 

So different things happen in the studio that don’t when you collaborate online?

Of course, of course. When I’m in Rome, each day is a new kind of light. It’s really important for me. In Berlin, there isn’t much light. Maybe this is why I made some darker tracks (laughs). But usually when I go to Rome, everything is different. I meet my old friends, my family, the feeling is different. 

How have you seen your productions evolve since the early days of Modern Heads, but more specifically since the "Daughters of Phorcys" EPs.

Daughters of Phorcys was my entry into a certain kind of techno music. Modern Heads was different because of Gianluca’s touch. But with Daughters of Phorcys it was the first time I had an idea of the construction of my sound. It was very important. Also, it was almost a mistake. After the album, people recognised my name and thought that I was doing Modern Heads on my own. So I split with Gianluca, and we decided to do a different project together, still Modern Heads, but... Maybe it’s time to do a Modern Heads album. Maybe it will become one of my projects in the future. 

What’s coming up for Dino?

The Modern Heads album is an idea. I’ve spoken with Gianluca about starting it up again, but now I have my own concepts and style, we need to find a different style. We need to find some time and we need to stay together. I want to meet up with Gianluca sometime next year for a few months and work on something. We’ll see what we can do. I hope it works, Modern Heads was my first project and I love Gianluca as a friend, so I would love another shot to do something. I’m working on a tour for Shaman’s Path and trying to work out a live set. My live set is totally different. I want to put more importance on the live set, I want to be able to transmit clearly the atmosphere of my album in a live setting. I hope that by December I am ready to do it live. No problem with DJing, but I want to prepare a really good tour for the live set. 

Finally, what is your favourite tea?

Vanilla. Also Japanese green tea, but vanilla is my favourite. 

Interview: Pat Woodley-Davis
PIcs: Tea Gaurascio