Mancunian duo AnD rose to prominence in 2011 following a slew of ground breaking

releases characterised by their refurbished, stripped back and Dave Clarke-inspired brandof techno. True vinyl purists, the two maintain fierce analogue production principals and showcase this in their heavy hitting live show.

AnD’s modernistic approach has been endorsed by trailblazing UK imprints Project Squared and Idle Hands, whilst their purist ideologies have been employed by the visionary Horizontal Ground, Black Sun Records, Electric Deluxe and Repitch labels. Meanwhile covert productions on their own self-titled white label series has seen the pair embrace the shadowy outskirts of techno, furthered by a collaboration with Headless Horseman, Sunil Sharpe and D.Carbone for the clandestine Brothers imprint.

Together with Tom Dicicco, the three artists established Inner Surface Music back in 2011,which has already garnered support from the likes of Regis, Surgeon, Lucy, Norman Nodge, DVS1 and many more.

TF: Tell us something about you. Where did you studied and who influenced you to explore musical processes?

AnD: We both have quite different backgrounds Andrew studied graphic design and Dimitri studied electrical engineering. Music was something that came to both of us quite early on Dimitri played several musical instruments as a child and Andrew was collecting records and music from his early teens and started to dj at 17. With djing and producing music we both got sucked in and when we first met up to write music together 15years ago its been the same ever since. We both influence each other and this comes across in the work, two peoples creativity becoming something different.

TF: When you look back to your career with all its highs and lows, can you imagine having done things differently? Is it more fate or choice?

AnD: No one should ever regret what they have done, we all make our choices and should stick to them. We are happy we made the choices we have and worked hard to create a body of work, this is the only way to approach anything.

TF: You haven’t given much interviews and you remain quite discreet despite of the recognition your productions and contribution to the techno culture. Do you think that an excessive media exposure tends to cause harm to music?

AnD: Definitely puts a different type of focus on everything, most of the time it´s all just a big pile of bullshit when it comes to social media. People who seem to take care about what they do in all art forms, don’t get the recognition they deserve. People don’t really care! but when people post selfies and egotistical posts everyone is in for the good time!

Sometimes media also play things safe, they say they support the real underground but a lot of the time its hard for talented new artists to get features on their sites or magazines. The truth is if it doesn’t sell copies then they don’t want to know. It would be nice to see journalism and writing taken to a creative form again supporting a far wider spectrum of musical releases and not just the next big thing or the flavour of the day.

TF: Which aspects of sound do you examine recently? Is for you important the impression that your music produces on the audience?

AnD: We are always trying to push ourselves to find new ways of working or new machines to create a different type of sound than we have made before. Its probably we just both get bored too quickly and we will write a batch of tracks in a certain style for a week or two and then move on again to something different again.

For us its very important that when we play our music has a connection with the crowd and we can see that its physically moving people on the floor. Go Hard Or Go Home! 🙂

TF: What do you think is the role of new technology in composing music? Do you rely more on digital or analog sound?

AnD: There are so many new technologies all of the time its very easy to get lost in it all. It always comes down to personal preference when it comes to work flow and what you use to achieve this. We like to work more on analog machines and then record into the computer. We find this is the easiest way of coming up with original ideas and not just repeating ourselves, recording the take live is never perfect but also add a lot of character to the sound.

TF: What’s your favourite track to play live and why?

AnD: We don’t actually play our tracks live, we always have a live improvisation on stage. Again this allows us to be in the moment when we perform live. We don’t have any idea of what will happen so we go with flow and keep things open so each live show is unique.

TF: Can you tell us more about ”AnD005” and “? What does it bring to your work? What are the perspectives you want to explore through this?

AnD: Each AnD release always has a certain concept behind the sound for the ep. With 005 we wanted to have a big and bold rave sound that looked to the future. Not to just copy old sounds but to work out how to incorporate old sounds in new ways.

TF: What is the first synthesizer you have ever played? Do you have your favourite instruments or devices?

AnD: Our first synthesizers where the Korg MS20 and Korg Electribe EMX1 they both really good starting points. The electric was the first one with the valves and it had a good variety of distortion and saturation effects with it and with the valve on top it was a lot of fun. Also the ribbon strip was super easy to program arps and sequences on the fly. The Korg MS20 is one of the best mono synths ever, and has a wide palette of timbres. Plus the semi modular patching means its a beast you can program whatever type of sound you like, its a great synth to learn synthesis with.

TF: Our typical question … any book or movie that you would like to recommend to the public to feed your creative side?

AnD: Yes one book that was very inspiring was “The KLF Chaos, Magic and The Band Who Burned A Million Pounds” by John Higgs.

A very interesting biography and look into the world of KLF concepts on dadaism, chaos theory, synchronicity, magic, punk, rave, the alchemic symbolism of Dr Who and the special power of the number 23.

TF: To say goodbye, what can you tell us about the mix you publish with us? Any experience during the creative process?

AnD: The podcast we have made for you is a representation of what we have been playing on the dance floor at the minute. A mixture of techno, rave and hardcore sounds with the AnD bump 🙂 We hope you enjoy it!

TF: Thank you guys!

Tracklist:

Manu La Malin – Afrik 125
Noisebuilder – Danceflower
Ani & Unhuman – Five To Nine
Welt in Scherben – 1-2
Jazmine Azarian – Penance
Somatic Responses – Distasm
14anger – Mother Of The Null
Quest?Onmarc – Spiral
Aneed – The Fallen
Edge Of Motion – Soul Apart
Paula Temple – Joshua & Goliath (Ghost In The Machine Remix)
Ayarcana – Sharp Objects
{KRTM} & The Panacea – PQTmDY3xUhaSz3d
Brecc – Criple
D Carbone – Back To The Hardcore (14anger Remix)
Danilo Incovaia – We´re Not Born Free
Diazepin – Terror
Sour – 7
Exsiderurgica – Squilibrio
Mab – Brelique
Dj Balu & Begez – Extermination
SDBX – Stupid Sucker
High Speed Violence – Ultraforce

Autumns is the solo project of Christian Donaghey, From Derry, Ireland, an outlet for electronic post-punk with a lethal pulse. After a brace of rough demos without preliminary hype, the project emerged fully formed on Karl O’Connor’s (aka Regis) illustrious label Downwards back in 2014, the youngest act in a new vanguard of artists that included the likes of Tropic of Cancer, DVA DAMAS and The KVB.

Following contributions to labels such as Opal Tapes, Amok Tapes, Touch Sensitive, Veyl (Maenad Veyl) and Earwiggle (Sunil Sharpe), as well as remixes for Strange Therapy, Infidel Bodies, and Clan Destine Records. 2019 see’s Autumns’ experimentation in the studio go much deeper, with the release of his sophomore album ‘Shortly After Nothing’ on Oliver Ho’s (aka Broken English Club) illustrious ‘Death & Leisure’ label, alongside a heavy touring schedule, a collaboration with post-punk legend Eric Random, the launch of his radio show ‘Dyslexia Tracks’ on Dublin Digital Radio and more upcoming releases.

TF: What was the turning point in your life, where you have decided to fully delve into electronic music?

AU: It was probably when I got an email out of the blue from Regis. I had just uploaded the first songs I ever wrote/recorded to SoundCloud, and within four months or so I get an email from Regis telling me to remove all my tracks from SoundCloud because he wanted to release them. I had absolutely no idea who he was, but I thought whoever wanted to release my record had to be trustworthy hah. Ever since then it’s been a steady progression.

TF: Please tell us about your musical influences? Give us a chart, please

AU: On-U Sound Records, Fast Product Records, Bernadette Devlin, McAliskey, Eric Random, Flann O’brien, John Fante, Derry, Coen Brothers, Richard Pryor, No Wave, Brendan Behan, Rowland S Howard, The Fall, Anaïs Nin, Yves Klein, Lemaire, James Baldwin, Georges Bataille, Suede Cy and Twombly.

TF: Does Autumns has some rituals before start producing?

AU: No rituals are involved. I just make music when I want to, there’s nothing deep or profound about it. When people start talking about how it’s an “emotional release” I tend to knock off.

TF: Can we talk about the hardware? What is the first synthesizer you have ever played? Do you have your favourite instruments or devices?

AU: I’m not sure what was the first synth I ever played. Probably messing around on a friend’s synth or something – maybe an MS-20 Mini? However, my favourite instrument is my guitar.

TF: You have a vision of how technology will continue to influence art and music?

AU: Technology and art are constantly evolving, so it’s hard to know how things are going to have developed ten years from now. But to put it simply, I think there will be people who will always want to use an original Roland 808 and there will be people who will always want to use an 808 through their IPad. There’s no right or wrong way to do things. I think technology has always impacted on art and music, but it just depends on how much a person wants it to impact their art. I mean there are still people making folk music regardless of all the technological advancements.

TF: Could you tell us a bit more about your future projects?

AU: More releases. More radio shows and mixes. More gigs. Maybe some collaborations.

TF: To say goodbye, what can you tell us about the mix you publish with us? Any experience during the creative process?

AU: The mix is just some tunes I keep going back, to along with some music of friends and a few of my own tunes.

TF: Thank you!

Interviews

Figure Section arose from the meeting of Austrian-French musician and actress Olivia Carrère – aka Olive – and Belgian artist and producer Yannick Franck (RAUM, Orphan Swords, Mt Gemini), who first crossed paths on a theatre stage in Brussels.

Although founded on an acknowledgement of these styles, their execution is experimental, idiosyncratic and entirely modern in spirit, guided by an intent to revise their influences and an approach shaped by romanticism and a surreal, Dadaistic sense of humour. The recurrent themes of the project address friendship, love, loss, existential angst, survival, irony, degeneration, queer culture, non-conformity and ‘the expiation of tensions through modern day rituals’.

The duo’s first single ‘Teutonic Knights’ was hailed by The Brvtalist as an illustration of ”infectious wave [music] with an eerie atmosphere and frigid vocals”, a track that subsequently generated widespread acclaim. In October their debut EP was released on the cult Berlin based label run by Phillip Strobel, aufnahme + wiedergabe.

TF: What motivates you to create Figure Section?

O: My collaboration with Yannick is an intersection between a strong friendship and similar interests and tastes in music. What’s more, the collaboration between us is really complementary in the creative process and allows us to explore new musical playgrounds which neither of us would probably reach if we were working separately.

Y: There are certain musical realms I wanted to explore for a long time whilst doing very different projects (Orphan Swords, RAUM, Y.E.R.M.O.), and since we met and started to experiment together, we dreamed of having a proper duo. It took time but here we are, I am very glad the project exists and I couldn’t dream of a better companion to do it with.

TF: Tell us something about you. What’s your background? Where did you studied and who influenced you to explore musical processes?

O: My background is rather diverse, and it took me a long time to discover how intimate I was with music as a listener, but also as a composer. I come from a theatrical background. I trained as an actress, though I started my studies with a degree in communication – specifically in socio-cultural animation – knowing that I would change path after obtaining it. It’s quite funny to see how tortuous life can be before finding your way through and beyond all these experiences. When I started as an actress ten years ago, something was missing in my professional contribution. I was desperately looking for some creative language that I could develop on my own. I was already familiar with singing since my childhood, so I started learning the basics of music theory online, and quickly I realized that I wanted to compose songs, and to find the easiest way of recording them without any external help. I got my hands on a keyboard and software and started composing, singing and producing at home. It was more a secret process for a few years, until I created a solo piece in the National Theatre of Belgium, which involved performing some of my compositions. This was a fundamental step where I learned that, with the music, I could be really free in the writing and performing process.

Y: I studied painting, but it quickly became clear that music was a territory worth exploring and one that I had to invest my time and energy into. Since I was pretty disgusted by the blatant materialism and the general mindset of the art world; the galleries, and a lot of the attitudes adopted by other artists (competitiveness, individualism, tendency to follow an art world, scale version of the Star System), I found there would be more freedom making music. People attend a concert to have an experience. Anyhow I love art, all sorts of art and my friends are usually creative people. Also, there have never been any boundaries for me, you can build sonic sculptures or paint rhythms, you can conceive a concert as a performance, you can do whatever you want. I recently moderated a panel at BOZAR about the underground art scene in New York in the 80’s, in East Village in particular. I had the pleasure of interviewing Dany Johnson (she was a resident DJ at Club 57 and later at Paradise Garage), Leonard Abrams (he ran the fabulous magazine The East Village Eye) and Gil Vasquez (DJ and president of the Keith Haring Foundation) and what struck me was the fact that at that particular moment in that scene you had zero boundaries between visual art, music, dance, performance… Klaus Nomi shared the bill with Ann Magnuson and John Sex and Haring curated shows and painted almost 24/7 while listening to music. It was all about energy. It’s academicism and speculation (art as a luxury product) that kills such energies (and eventually did in that case) Two different problems, both normative and alien to any creative essence. I stumbled upon a Serge Daney quote lately: ‘Academicism is the aesthetics of nihilism.’ And I agree with that, once you “do things because that’s the way they’re done”, reproduce them in blind fidelity and separate, classify, and annihilate boundary breaking forces, you start producing numb, meaningless objects. In this case a painting has to go from a gallery to a living room or a collection where it belongs. Is it a nice base material for speculation or a good way to seem educated and exhibit your taste as a buyer, to impress others? Hell no…a painting is rather an expression of life itself, a celebration, an exhibition of the worlds revolting features, its horrors, its injustice, its sadness, qualities and themes such as these…in every case it is an essential, vital gesture. Otherwise why even take a look at it? Music should be just the same.

TF: Do you spend all your time for your musical activity or do you have another job?

O: Yes, I do now. The musical activity has taken the vast majority of my time even though I’m still performing as a theatre actress, but that part of my professional activity is becoming more and more scarce. I’ve been recently offered to create music for theatre. So, my work today is divided between Figure Section, and other emerging projects for which I compose and produce for other artists, and my work as a music composer for the theatre. Maybe one day I will come back to the stage with a performance in which I’ll be the actress as well as the musician. I do keep an eye on that prospect even though it’s not the priority for the moment.

Y: I teach sound in cinema. We analyze movies and their soundtracks most of the time. It is a very interesting way to make a living next to music making.

TF: How is your live set up going to be? Any particular equipment? What’s your favourite track to play live and why?

O: We are working on the simplest and most efficient way of touring. So, our set is based on live keyboard playing, voice mixing, and equalizing the tracks live. So, there’s no particular equipment at the moment.

Spectral Dance, is one of my favourites to play live. It’s a more nostalgic synthpop song that offers a vast sense of space for the vocals and the keyboard parts. I just love its simplicity, almost naïveté, contrasted by lyrics about pernicious ghosts from the past that try to keep us from moving forward.

Y: There is a lot of different processes and ideas colliding and merging in Figure Section. It is always quite challenging for us to write a new song and perform it on stage. I think my favourite live song is currently Disfigured Section. We both sing on that one and I love that. Lyrics and vibe wise it’s sort of a Neo Dada track, maybe a tad surrealistic too, from apparent nonsense a lot of sense can emerge from the lyrics. Also, it is nervous, rough, noisy, kind of pissed off. At the same time desperate and full of energy. A union of opposites.

TF: What new hardwares did you apply to make ‘Spectre’ LP? Do you have a particular method while working in the studio?

O: There’s no new hardware utilized, but we have a more precise choice of instruments these days as well as a particular approach in the production process. Yannick and I work just as well separately as together in the studio. It just helps us to be more efficient because of our very different schedules. We both share online a musical file filled with musical ideas, loops, drums and lyrics. We are both the composers and mixers of the songs, but Yannick is more the writer and the producer and I’m more the arranger and singer. I think that we have now reached the perfect balance in the creative process, which is almost symbiotic.

Y: Yes, it is super interesting because I never know where Olive is going to take a song to when she starts working on it with her great skills and sensibility. What I know is that great stuff will eventually happen, leading to things that will stimulate us and give us even more ideas.

TF: How do you compose this tracks? Do you treat them like musical narratives or more like sound sculptures or images?

O: It really depends on the material. Sometimes Yannick comes with a very complete composition and I add the keyboard and voice arrangements, sometimes I come with a proposition and he completes it. Our strongest asset as a duo is that we started music completely differently, Yannick as an electronic experimentalist and performer, and I as a pop songwriter and singer. So, what we do is bring these assets together in our songs. I think the first track of the Spectre release is the perfect example of that symbiosis. This is what we aim for.

Y: Yes, it is a creative adventure, we have no such thing as a clearly established routine, it’s more laboratory like. It is not “experimental music” but the way it is done is not conventional either.

TF: Any movie, documentary, album (not electronic music) that you would like to share with our readers?

O: We are big fans of horror, thrillers and sci-fi. The last movie that left me fascinated as well as horrified is Midsommar by Ari Aster. I loved that movie because its director knows how to subtly inject weird elements of comedy that make you feel uncomfortable, as well as conveying an ice-cold intrigue about ancient pagan practices and rituals. Loved it.

Y: +1 for Midsommar. I loved that the movie never seems to bring any judgment about the neo-pagan community it depicts, it is just utterly different from what we know but it seems to make sense no matter how shocking it can be. It gives us a break from the ethnocentric attitude of many North Americans and from the extreme arrogance of modern western civilizations, which seem to be absolutely convinced of their superiority to any previous or different civilizations. Also, the visual effects are amazing. Der Goldener Handschuh (The Golden Glove) was quite a great movie too. Being utterly disgusted by this ugly, messy, desperate serial killer’s gruesome murders without being able to restrain myself from laughing was for sure a wild experience. And it really triggers thoughts afterwards. Moral thoughts especially. I found it pretty strong. A non-electronic album: Lux perpetua by Ensemble Organum, which is a very particular version of the Requiem by Anthonius de Divitis. It is such a beautiful requiem and such an incredible interpretation; it even features throat singing which is very unusual in the context of European polyphonic reinterpretations. 15th century art tends to focus a lot on death and mortality. And as Regis Debray said in his 1992 book The Life and Death of Images: “Where there is death there’s hope, aesthetically speaking.”

TF: What are the forthcoming projects?

O: Wrapping up our debut LP.

Y: We are also planning tours, confirmed dates are in Israel and the US so far but more will be announced later on. It would be fabulous to come play in Mexico too!

SARIN, the A/V industrial technoid electronics project of Emad Dabiri, releases his first ever full-length album Moral Cleansing on BITE. After debuting on the label last year with his Kuleshov Effect EP followed up by a collaborative 12” with Imperial Black Unit earlier this year, Dabiri advances his sonic identity by leaps and bounds through his application of subtle pop and electro elements with a greater focus on groove and melody, syncopated basslines, FM synthesis, and his signature cut-up sampling. The album showcases SARIN’s core elements as one of the main influencers in the current EBM techno wave with his brutally minimal sequences and abrasive drum programming. He began operating as SARIN in 2013 in Toronto before moving to Berlin in 2014. Since then he has been actively touring the world with his live performances & DJ sets. A remix 12″ of select tracks from the album done by Broken English Club, Privacy, Teste, and Phase Fatale will follow in January 2020.

TF: Tell us something about you. Where did you studied and who influenced you to explore musical processes?

SA: I grew up in Toronto and received my Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Ontario College of Art & Design in a program called “Integrated Media”. Since high school I was interested in video art and through university I became attracted to more experimental live audio/video and media installations. Around this time I started to become influenced by a collective of Toronto based artists called “FameFame” that included Jubal Brown, Tasman Richardson, Josh Avery, Ellie Chestnut and others who had graduated about a decade before me from the same university. They were very intelligent cool cats that in some ways represented the modern embodiment of the Burroughs / Gysin cut-up spirit but applied to new media. Eventually I would work with several of them on special Videodrome events named and somewhat inspired by the Cronenberg film. Musically I was first exposed to the genres of E.B.M. & Industrial by chance as a kid playing a PC game called “Descent II” which featured a really dark electronic soundtrack including some tracks written and produced by members of Skinny Puppy. From there I dove deeper via the internet and exposed myself to a lot of new music that I would otherwise not know about. At that time everything in Toronto was about hip hop, pop or indie rock so it was up to me to do the research and dig deep. During this time I was experimenting with audio production mainly to compliment the video side of things and it wasn’t until after I graduated university that I was building tracks and taking it more seriously as music on its own. I was growing increasingly disillusioned by the art world (besides a small core group of friends) and was attracted more and more towards making and playing music which appeared to be a more honest & pure form of self-expression at that time.

TF: When you look back to your career with all its highs and lows, can you imagine having done things differently? Is it more fate or choice?

SA: I think a career is something you’ve been doing for at least a decade. I’ve been living off this music thing for the last 3-4 years so it still feels kind of new to me. Before that I was working at the university I graduated from along with side jobs related to video production and the personal creative A/V & music stuff was mostly for fun. One thing I would have done differently is to have left Toronto sooner and planned out my exit properly. I have fond memories of the city, made lifelong friends-collaborators and cut my teeth there but it seems culturally dead. The high cost of living and archaic laws regarding nightlife made it hard for an underground electronic music scene to thrive. I don’t think it was always like that and it doesn’t have to be. The other reason I say I should have left and pursued music sooner is because I’m 35 now and feeling old within the club context of going out to see friends play or to my own gigs. I guess everything happens for a reason! I also would change about a million other things too …

TF: Which aspects of sound do you examine recently? Is it important for you the impression that your music produces on the audience?

SA: For the album I tried to bring back more pads, layers and textures for a few tracks. I felt I was stripping down my productions a little too much in recent releases. I’m also constantly exposed to new techniques and ways of thinking thru my various collaborations with friends. I learn a great deal from them. I also learn a lot from doing remixes and working with parts from other producers. Regarding the second question; yes it’s important that I leave an impression. I’m not really interested in making senseless dance music. I want there to be some other element involved, however small, to give it more meaning to me personally. I want to inject some reality into my music in a scene that sometimes appears devoid of meaning. How effective or noticeable that is to the audience I don’t know but it maintains my interest.

/ϟ/HUREN/ϟ/ VS. SARIN – VIDEODROME 2012, TORONTO
PHOTO BY: HAMILTON REYNOLDS

TF: What do you think is the role of new technology in composing music? Do you rely more on digital or analog sound?

SA: Both! I believe affordable soft synths can be as valuable as a super expensive analog synth sometimes. It depends how you use it. Personally I find that the idea can be more valuable than the tool being used to execute it. Soft synths have become so advanced that you don’t need a huge budget to start making cool music – just interesting ideas. I follow the HUREN credo of $cumtronic$ ™® ©.

TF: Can you tell us more about ”Moral Cleansing”? What does it bring to your work? Which are the perspectives you want to explore through this?

SA: I’m not sure what it brings to my work. To me it’s just a continuation of what I’ve always been doing & the same conceptual approach generally as in my experimental audio/video roots in Canada. I’m obsessed with history, politics & documentaries so I channel that inspiration into my music – whether through lifted & fragmented samples, aesthetics or the video cuts I make to compliment my tracks. I’m a sponge that absorbs a variety of mass media and selectively injects some ideas into the music. Regarding this album I took inspiration from napalm, foreign intervention, vigilantism, CIA torture/mind-control and end of world scenarios.

SA: When I about 8 or 9 my Mom brought home an old portable electric organ for me that she found at a garage sale. When you turned it on it had this loud fan that would whirl up before it would play anything. I didn’t know what I was doing but it was fun. The first synth I bought was a bright yellow Dave Smith MoPho keys – it was the first real serious step I took towards music because now I had financed my first piece of gear on my credit card. I went to the store with a friend (SINS) to advise me and tried a few things out and settled on that. It could hit that mean growling bass sound I really wanted and was obsessed with for years.

TF: Our typical question … any book or movie that you would like to recommend to the public to feed your creative side?

SA: I’m reading “On the Road” by Jack Kerouac, who inspired Hunter S. Thompson a lot. It’s fun. I just watched “Deliverance” which is a 70s thriller featuring a young Burt Reynolds and Jon Voight. I recommend both. “Squeal like a piggy!!!!!”

TF: Thank you Emad!

Years of Denial is the alter-face of French musician,DJ and producer Jerome Tcherneyan and Czech performance artist and DJ, Barkosina Hanusova. With the use of hardware combined with vocals and a plethora of dub devices, YOD are re-visiting the dark corner of post punk, Industrial music movement and rave culture.

Both influenced by Isolationism, they also perform improvised cinematic Ambient sets with the use of modular synths and processed vocals. They draw upon the darker and profound stimulus of experimental music, creating an immersive and dramatic imaginative space.

TF: Tell us something about you. What’s your background? Where did you studied and who influenced you to explore musical processes?

Barkosina: My background is in Drama & Theatre Arts with main focus on Performance/Live Art. Music was always there in many ways since an early age. At first in a form of jams on the mic with djs at raves and then number of collaborations and other random bands, adding bass and mainly vocals. I also had a regular radio show for about three years once a week and haven’t missed one session, I absolutely fell in love with sound and explored so many different genres and eclectic selections. This naturally followed by mixing and djing. With YOD I am learning a lots of new stuff in terms of production and I am very excited about the process and the future. In terms of music influences for me is the one and only Einsturzenden Neubauten, industrial sounds and Blixa’s vocals just really got me and Lydia Lunch’s furious language and performance, essential. The main influence comes from the Czech underground scene where I grew up, the scene was dominated with music, performances, paintings and literature, it was all there and it stayed with me till now. Art in general has no limitation for me and I love to interconnect and apply all possible forms together.

Jerome: I started playing drums in 89 jamming in my bedroom alongside cassettes of The Cure and Public Enemy, Skip a few years and I was studying Jazz and Brazilian percussion, during that time i was also introduced to electronic music via Occult 69, we use to meet and share our music taste jumping from Sun Ra to Basic Channel or Spacemen 3 to Panasonic. My interest in production and thirst for sounds started in the mid nineties, Wordsound Records from New York were taking Dubmixology to a new level while Pete Kemper was heavily processing guitars and abusing analog gear with E.A.R. Techno Animal ‘Re-Entry’ is still a wild beast, Scorn ‘Gyral’ will haunt me forever. I managed to get my hands on a sampler and Space echo and started to experiment recording to cassette as it was the medium of the time. Isolationsm became a life style not a music genre anymore.

TF: You live in London. How does this place influence you as an artist?

YOD: London has always something to offer, it’s very colorful in terms of arts, culture and people. It has been great journey here and the city is an inspiration itself. Also the struggle and the survival comes with it and becomes the material to create. There is a sense of unpredictability and freedom yet it can become tight and limited somehow. All that becomes a subject for creation.

TF: How is your live set up going to be? Any particular equipment? Do you have a particular method while working in the studio?

YOD: Our live set up varies from performances according to the event and venue. We play immersive Ambient sets and club nights so we choose different tools each time. The core of the live set up is built around Ableton live, a modular synth processing mainly the voice, TR 707 or TR 606, Moog minitaur, handmade instruments and Fx. In the studio we usually jam with the EMU SP 1200 and Sequential circuits PRO ONE and develop vocals and lyrics around it.

TF: Which aspects of sound do you examine recently? Is for you important the impression that your music produces on the audience?

YOD: While being in the process of creating, we don’t think of the outcome and the impression that it might have. When we play live, the catharsis of the experience is important, it’s physical and emotional and it depends on the energy we exchange with our audience.

TF: What are some artists, whose work really excites you?

YOD: At the moment, December and Morah are killing it and Ancient Methods is always a treat.

TF: Recently, have you seen any movie or documentary, or heard an album that has influenced the way you make music? What other art forms or music inspire you as a person?

YOD: Nothing influences the music we make except of our process. It’s very essential to be internal, almost isolated from other sources in order to create purely from an unknown place … In terms of inspiration of other art forms, Barkosina’s inspiration comes from performance art and literature and Jerome’s inspiration comes from Barkosina …

TF: Can you tell us more about your next release? Do you have in mind other projects?

YOD: We just released a track on VEYL, a full EP is coming out on Pinkman Broken Dreams and a tape of some live recordings on Death & Leisure. We have also contributed to V/As for Public System Recordings and She lost Kontrol.

TF: Thank you for all Barkosina and Jerome!

Welcome to an electrifying journey into the musical realm of Curses, the Berlin-based maestro known for weaving a unique tapestry of sound that transcends genres. With roots deeply entrenched in Rock & Roll, Curses masterfully melds the gritty allure of his origins with the enigmatic allure of Disco and Electro’s shadowy depths. His sonic endeavors, whether on the DJ decks or in the electrifying ambiance of his live performances, are a testament to his musical prowess.

Curses, a name that resonates with a certain mystique, weaves his ethereal vocals and guitar riffs into a sonic landscape that shimmers with glimpses of EBM, New Wave, Post-Punk, and the mind-bending vibrations of Psychedelic synth. This musical alchemist has cast spells on audiences worldwide, leaving them entranced by his sonic incantations.

In the underground music scene, Curses is a luminary, selectively releasing his creations on esteemed labels such as Bordello A Parigi, Throne of Blood, Ombra INTL, and Relish. Beyond his own musical journey, he nurtures a community of like-minded artists through his Rinse France monthly radio residency, a platform that celebrates those who share his passion for the art of blending wave and weird disco.

The culmination of Curses’ creative endeavors came to fruition in 2018 when he unleashed his long-awaited debut full-length album on Dischi Autunno, further solidifying his status as a trailblazer in the musical landscape. Join us as we delve deep into the enigmatic world of Curses, where musical boundaries blur, and sonic landscapes come alive with raw energy and transcendental vibes.

TF: Tell us something about you. What’s your background? Where did you studied and who influenced you to explore musical processes?

CU: Born and raised in NYC, now living in berlin for almost a decade, I’m an Italo-Americano new wave raver goth acid punk. I went to University upstate NY, majored in Integrated Arts, BA in Music and Video.

TF: When you look back to your career with all its highs and lows, can you imagine having done things differently? Is it more fate or choice?

CU: I have had many different careers, none I regret. Every path taken in the past leads you to the present and future of now. Life is what you make it, I don’t believe in fate.

TF: What do you think is the role of new technology in composing music? Do you rely more on digital or analog sound?

CU: Finding the right balance between analog and digital is crucial. This is why I always incorporate organic elements like vocals or guitar, keeping room for happy accidents in the human error, life within a sea of machines.

Photos by Alicia Devaux.

TF: What new hardwares did you apply to make ‘Incarnadine’ LP? Do you have a particular method while working in the studio?

CU: I actually stripped back the hardware on this album, and put more focus in writing ‘songs’ instead of club tracks. My bandmate for the Curses live, Dame Bonnet also collaborated on the bass and writing process of singles like, ‘Miriam,’ and ‘Coma’ which took the album to a more goth pop new wave direction than previous albums.

TF: Which aspects of sound have you been examining recently? Is the impression that your music produces on the audience important for you?

CU: I don’t think about the audience for the album songs so much, because they are very personal works. Writing lyrics and vocals are a very transcendental process: Losing one’s self and finding the meaning in your subconscious to make sense. Its a completely different approach when it comes to my Remix production and club tracks, though. I fully imagine a sweaty dungeon rave or open air strobe and laser forest festival.. how the crowd will react how to impact and build the tension etc.

TF: Any book or movie that you would like to recommend to the public to feed your creative side?

CU: Keeping in theme with ‘Incarnadine’, I suggest everyone watches the romantic vampire tragedy, The Hunger from the 80s starring Catherine Deneuve and Bowie.

TF: What are you working on now? What ideas or plans do you have for your future work?

CU: I have a new club-focused collaboration with Theus Mago that is coming out on Optimo Music as well as a collaboration with Chinaski that is proper new wave italo vibes. Me and Dame also have a new album under the name, Lolo Paradiso ready to drop next year, which is more goth-pop vibes.

TF: Can you tell us about the mix made for The Forgotten?

CU: The mix starts in the late 80’s: Proto-ebm, obscure new beat energy into a lot of unreleased edits and present power-wave ballads. This mix is perfect for getting ready before going out and having a mega weekend. Dressed 2 kill.

Listen the 298th episode.

Tracklist:

1. Signal Aout 42 – Pleasure And Crime (Instrumental)
2. MCL – Power Plant (Razormaid mix)
3. Inconscio Viola – Rabbit On Tuesday
4. Local Suicide. & Curses – Secret friends
5. Flood – Romeo (Alpha Sect Dark Remix)
6. Adrian Marth – Experiment Man
7. Chinaski & Curses – Forever (Chinaski Für Immer Mix)
8. KOMMUNIK8 CURSES Edit
9. Sonic System – Operation Desert Storm (Bombing-Attack-Mix)
10. Babes of Enola Grey – Freiheit_Sicherheit (Disco_Morato Remix)
11. Venom Vampires – Red Warning
12. Uranio Empobrecido – Heating_Electrons (Facets_remix)
13. Man2.0 – OumuaMua (Original_Mix)
14. B1980 – Hooded Figure
15. Randolph & Mortimer vs ROÜGE – Sermon Three (David Carretta Remix)
16. EYE – BM – 2 (Original_Mix)
17. Red Deviil – Pink Powder
18. Megabeat – Mathausen
19. Termination 800 – Spec Ops.
20. NOISE UNIT – Deceit
21. SIAN – You Know Its Right (Curses Remix)
22. Alvee – Perdido(Curses REMIX)

In the 301st episode The Forgotten, we present a special mix by London-based artist Rommek. A respected figure in the techno and experimental music scene, Rommek’s signature sound is characterized by dense atmospheres, intricate sound design, and heavy broken rhythms. He’s released notable works on Blueprint Records and his collaborative project, Torn Relics, has garnered attention. With support from BBC Radio 1 and features in leading music publications, Rommek’s mix in this episode offers an immersive journey into industrial and techno sounds that’s not to be missed. Enjoy the sonic adventure!

Introducing our special guest on the 300th episode of “The Forgotten” podcast: Nghtly, the talented Italian producer and DJ hailing from Sessa Aurunca, Italy. With a rich discography that includes releases on renowned labels like X-IMG, Clan Destine, Rubber Mind, and Detriti Records, Nghtly brings his unique blend of industrial, electronic body music, and techno sounds to our listeners in an exclusive mix.

Get ready to immerse yourself in a sonic journey like no other – enjoy!

Prepare to delve into the electrifying world of Imperial Black Unit, a dynamic EBM/Industrial techno duo that emerged on the scene in 2017, composed of the talented individuals Lapse of Reason and Templer. Their sonic signature is a mesmerizing amalgamation of vintage EBM and Industrial influences seamlessly interwoven with contemporary sensibilities.

With a fervent anti-establishment ethos and an unapologetically militaristic aesthetic, Imperial Black Unit is known for crafting a musical landscape defined by unrelenting rhythms, piercing screams, and razor-sharp synthesizers. Their sonic tapestry is a relentless fusion of bygone eras and the cutting-edge present, promising an immersive experience that transcends time.

TF: First of all, can you introduce yourself a bit ? What speech is behind the name? How did you end up making electronic music ?

Templer: We are Thomas & Pablo, both from Toulouse South of France but we actually live in Berlin. We have both a single project (Templer & Lapse of Reason) and decided to build a band one year ago. I started with music 9 years ago and with producing 5 years ago. I learned everything by myself and I didn’t have no knowledge at all in music theory or producing. I started producing with Ableton then I quickly start to interest into hardware tools. I feel more creative and the workflow is more intuitive with real instruments in my opinion.

Lapse of Reason: I started to make music when I was quite young, in the Conservatory of Toulouse but after growing up I was bored by the classical and closed way of learning in the Conservatory, so I quit and I ended up in Electronic music where I found many more opportunities to express myself. Regarding the name, we were in a Bar searching for a name for our band and we saw a beer called « Imperial Black Stout » , and we were like hmmm sound sick and then after a little modification its ended up with Imperial Black Unit.

‘Templer: Yeah exactly, the thing is that we wanted a name that is a minimum engaged in a way and when we saw the world ‘Imperial’. It definitely makes us think about Imperialism, which is a political doctrine that we hate and want to denounce. I find ‘fun’ to use this word while standing against it. It can be a little bit controversial in a way which is something that I like. Regarding the world ‘unit’ it directly makes a link to the militaristic esthetic that we give to the project.”

TF: Why do you think artist migrate to Berlin? What is happening now in the city?

IBU: Berlin is definitely a multicultural and artistic city, the whole environment of the city makes us really feel into our artistic projects, meeting different artists from different landscapes and form of art is something really important to us. Thanks to the very active artistic scene it is also really easier to have opportunities and work with other people that has the same vision. Moreover, Berlin is definitely cheaper than life in France and it makes it really easier for artists to live with their art.

TF: Your EP in aufnahme + wiedergabe was one of our favourites in 2018. Tell us about the sound and the process of this EP.

Lapse of Reason: First thank you very much ! This first EP came really naturally to us, I was not yet living in Berlin when we did it, so I was still in France and at one point I felt that it was the time to something, so I wrote to Thomas and I told him « Dude, we need to do some tracks right now « and then few days later I came to Berlin with some synths for one week

-.

Templer: After 4 tracks and a few glasses of whiskey we decided to send the EP to aufnahme + wiedergabe. Without any real hope. It was too impossible to release on our favorite label for us. Without whiskey we would probably never have never send this EP to the label. But one day, we had the positive answer from Philipp. 
With this EP we wanted to point out the political situation in France and many other countries, it has been produce last year during the french election and the rise of the right wing political movements in many countries. And of course, we stand against this. That is why we called the EP ‘State of Pressure’. It is a relation between what happened in the past and what could sadly happen again in the future with the raise of this kind of ideas.

TF: Talking about aufnahme + wiedergabe, what makes it different from the others?

IBU: A+W for us has been and is still nowadays one of the most inspiring label in the scene. Since its creation we are following each release and each time is a good surprise. What we like is the crossover the label makes between different genres and we cannot say how much we discovered thanks to aufnahme. Clearly, we would have never go into EBM music without aufnahme + wiedergabe. We are both coming from the techno scene, this label clearly made us discover everything we listen nowadays. And this is super important for us I think.

TF: What is your studio practice like? Can you describe the process of making your work?

Templer: Our studio practice is a bit different now compared to how it was for the first EP. For the first EP we just recorded some jam sessions directly from the master of the mixer. Without post-production work. But now we meet at Pablo’s place and we jam, that’s it. When we feel that the jam has a good vibe we record it and arrange some elements. Pablo manages the post-production part as he studied sound engineering in France.

Lapse of Reason: Now that I live in Berlin I have a bigger mixer that allow us to record all our machines separately, so we kept the same way of producing through jam sessions because we really found that it’s the way with came the most naturally for us but then. Now after that the jam sessions are recorded separately, I’m taking care of the post production works with include mix-downs, eq, stereo placement etc.

TF: Which aspects of sound have you been examining recently? Is the impression that your music produces on the audience important for you?

Templer: In our sound we really work on making a fusion between the sound of the past and the sound of nowadays. We are both born after the big real Industrial and EBM era as we are born in 1994 and 1995. 
Of course the impression that our music makes to the audience is important for us but personally I think that at first we want to do something that we love and represent our vision of music. We want to show the music that we like not to adapt the sound for the audience.

Lapse of Reason: I think when we produce music we don’t care about the audience or something like that. We just do what we love to do and that’s it. Then when we play live of course that it’s grateful to see that when the audience is enjoying it but I don’t think that it’s our first preoccupation.

TF: Our typical question … any book or movie that you would like to recommend to the public to feed your creative side?

Templer: I really like Independent cinema but also Russian and/or soviet movies. I am a big fan of all Andreï Tarkovski work. But a movie that I really like is Philosophy of a Knife by the Russian Independent movie director Andreï Iskanov. It is a crazy movie/ documentary showing horrible scenes of human experiments that happened in Unit 731 in Japan during WWII. But I love the way that it clearly shows a reality and point out the worst side of the history. It’s all about the shock strategy. But I don’t think that I would recommend this movie to everybody. You really need to be ready to watch it and we aware of the disgusting scene you are going to watch. Regarding books what I read the most is clearly sociology and political books, I am really interested in what happened in the past and what is happening nowadays. I mostly read anarchist or leftist literature (Paul Valéry, Albert Camus, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Léon Tolstoï, Karl Marx, Voline, Engels or Orwell).

Lapse of Reason: for movies I would say that for me all the John Carpenter’s movies where a big source of inspiration so of course I recommend them, but I’m also a big fan of realisator like Jim Jarmusch or even Quentin Tarantino, all their movies where also a big source of inspiration since a long time. As to books I found a lot of inspiration with writers like Elmore Leonard, Dennis Lehane, Fredric Brown and George Orwell
.

TF: What are you working on now? What ideas or plans do you have for your future work?

IBU: We finished a second EP called ‘Murder under Establishment’ that we be released on aufnahme + wiedergabe in the following months. This one is less dance floor oriented tracks but more screams and EBM vibes. We also have some remixes of The Soft Moon, Harsh Mentor, Fatal Morgana and Blind Delon and they all should be out this year. Our plan for the future is to organise our first European Tour and playing outside Europe if we have the opportunity. We love travelling and playing in new countries is always something special for us.

TF: Can you tell us about the mix made for The Forgotten?

IBU: For this first podcast we decided to play like how we play in club, so we mostly chose Techno-EBM bangers, dance floor oriented tracks. Mostly recent ones with some old school EBM and unreleased stuff that should be out on Area Z soon …