interviews, from a to v

changing it up a bit, here's some interviews you should be reading, from some artists whom you should be following - in my humble opinion, anyway.

ABDULLA RASHIM one of my current favorite producers does a rare interview with dissolve, talking about his identity ("i like the rumors") and his thoughts on techno ("i like horizontal music"), among other things. cool stuff. check it out, then hit the repeat button on his excellent anatomy mix from last year! and NYC fans, here's another reminder: for his north american debut, he's playing the bunker in brooklyn next friday along with the mighty luke slater.

HUERCO S i got to see huerco s dj at a ridiculously fun party here in chicago a few months ago. i've been really digging his rough, spaced-out approach to production and dj'ing. he's a relative newcomer, hailing from kansas, but has already put out a handful of very nice records over the past two years (including one under the name royal crown of sweden), and now he's preparing his debut LP, colonial patterns. here, he catches up with FACT to talk about the US midwest's dance music scene, basic channel and more.

JEFF MILLS another interview over at FACT, the title for this one sums it up: "people just don’t ask for better anymore. i think we’ve lost the knowledge of how to do that." jeff mills: always forward-thinking and always worth paying attention to. he's about to release a new album, the jungle planet, so be on the lookout.

REGIS the UK techno boss sits down with spectrum for a nice, long conversation. topics covered include his early days as a music listener and producer and singing "happy birthday" to the ukrainian mafia. his label downwards turns 20 this year; aside from an anniversary compilation featuring chicago's karl meier and jonathan krohn (aka stave, who put out a very cool and sadly limited LP recently called reform) among others, regis and meier will be playing an oktave party at smart bar on saturday, november 23rd. very very excited about that one!

VLADISLAV DELAY great news for fans of vladislav delay, aka sasu ripatti: the finnish experimentalist is launching a new label, simply called ripatti. in this interview with electronic beats, he talks about his latest endeavor, which looks to be a "studio diary" with vinyl-only releases, and his move from berlin back to finland, and touches on some of his older albums ("i don't have a single copy of those records"...!). you can hear short samples of the new label's first record at his soundcloud page. looking forward!

... and that's all for now. happy thursday!

hear a new track from regis and russell haswell, aka CONCRETE FENCE

alert! UK veterans regis and russell haswell, each long at work at their own uncompromising musical pursuits, are teaming up for a three-track EP, under the moniker concrete fence, on one of today's better experimental labels, the berlin-based PAN. the record, new release (1), looks to be released at the end of the month, and i think we can expect a heavy dose of raw, droning, maybe-you-can-call-it-techno, if "industrial disease" is any indicator. graciously shared via the PAN soundcloud, you can wig out to that track below.

stream the new british murder boys

the new CUB record from regis was my jam last week... now here's this: where pail limbs lie, the upcoming two-track EP from british murder boys, aka regis and surgeon. (if you're not familiar, get yourself educated with FACT's handy guide on the industrial techno super-duo.) the record is due out next week on the new mute sub-label liberation technologies, but before then we get a pre-release youtube stream of each track in full - a very nice move from the label, methinks. of the pair, i currently prefer the b-side "in another country" which is more sneaky and cerebral than "dead sun." overall, pretty cool stuff, so do it to it!

CUB - C U 1 / C U 2

my current jam is C U 1 / C U 2... the second and most recent CUB record produced by karl o'connor (aka regis).

while the four tracks across this and the prior release use a generally similar supply of sounds, the versions on the new record are noticeably faster-paced when compared to the first record. if i had one gripe about that one, it was that those sub-120bpm tracks sometimes felt too slow. that's less of a problem here on C U 1 / C U 2: each side's bpm measures in the mid-120s, which should make them much more workable for club dj's.

"C U 1 (original mix)" holds its own as a high-grade workhorse track that's more closely aligned to the sound of the previous record. but the clear winner - the best thing yet from the project - is "C U 2 (UST funk mix)" on the flip. buzzing, sinewy riffs abound, and that track's last section is layered with subtly soothing psych-out drones. overall, premium stuff from regis as expected, and certainly one of the year's more impressive techno records. hear for yourself:

new british murder boys (regis! and surgeon!)

and of course - following up on the regis CUB news - techno chin-scratchers have already raked up a storm in response to the news that regis and fellow UK techno pusher surgeon are reuniting to put out another record, where pail limbs lie, under the name british murder boys. check out the preview video here: