Featuring The Carter Bros – Inkswel – 12″ Phildo
Apr 152011
Jun 242010
Robert Hood - Omega Album Tour
For many people speaking the name Robert Hood, could make them weak at the knees… We are extraordinarily lucky to have him play for us in such intimate surroundings. This man has made some very important releases, and most probably change countless lives with them.
I’d rather not prattle on in the normal gloating way, so I’m going to let you read some parts of a great review i read with Robert just before the release of his mix for the 39th Fabric CD…..
**words by Robert Hood**….
I started to produce a bit more and I started recording some demo tapes – I’d got a drum machine and a Roland TR505 from a pawn shop that I started making beats with. I was going to a studio where I paid $15 an hour to make a demo. I met a guy called Mike Clark through my girlfriend at the time – and he knew everybody! He knew Mike Banks, Jeff Mills, in fact all the DJs and producers in Detroit. He introduced me to Mike Banks and I let him hear a demo tape. I think it was a Public Enemy horn sound that I ripped off and made a beat, and Mike was interested. I think what caught his interest was the drum programming. So he wanted to hear some more…and they happened to be starting work on a compilation. So I came along and did two tracks on the album as an MC! Not a producer, an MC. You know, I was interested in hip house at the time – I didn’t really want to be an MC but I couldn’t find anyone else that was willing to do it. I wanted to find an MC that was sort of a cross between Chuck D and Q-Tip for some kind of political abstract MCing. But I couldn’t find anybody so I decided to go ahead and do it myself. So yeah, we wrote two tracks with me as an MC and they produced the beats and we went from there. This was happening in about 1991.
When I recorded those tracks, UR wasn’t even up and running yet. It was just an idea, something that was coming alive as a production unit between Mike Banks and Jeff Mills. I just happened to meet them just before it started. Slowly it evolved to the stage where I was a more active member of the group, especially with the live shows and the label Hardwax. They helped me start that and helped me develop as an artist.
Pretty much after we did the X102 project, Jeff and I kind of branched off and started Axis. It was more of a housey, abstract sound that was different from the experimental techno from UR, and that was different from the Detroit Metroplex and Transmat/KMS sound. It was more of a grounded sound.
M-Plant started in ’94. It kind of borrowed from the sound I was using from Axis and really expanded on that sound. I had developed this “grey area” sound – what I mean by that is that in Detroit, even when the sun is out, there’s something in the atmosphere. I don’t know if its pollution or whatever, but the sky has that grey haze over it. It’s got to be something from the industrial factories there. I’d never really heard a sound like that before and it came from a Roland Juno – it was a chord sound that really went along with my depiction of what Detroit was at that time. A lot of buildings were abandoned and there was a lot of lifelessness in the city, especially downtown. The M-Plant, in minimalism, kind of reflected that. I remember thinking of Detroit like a museum. You know, like a work of art standing still, suspended in time. There wasn’t a whole lot of activity going on.
These days I am focussed purely on minimalism and really embracing minimalism, because it’s taken on a life of its own. It’s now a music style separate from techno. I would never have imagined that it would take this direction. I didn’t see that one coming! I saw minimalism in life becoming more and more evident – in furniture, in electronics, in art, in automobiles, appliances – you know I could see that coming. But, as far as music itself being thought of now as an art form? Back then, I think people looked on at it as a trend but they didn’t realise that minimalism is an art form. I did not realise it would take on this characteristic as it has now. So, where I’m at right now is embracing minimalism and seeing how far I can push it – in my interpretation of what simplicity and the music is all about. I am really representing it as an art form and not a trend. As the future evolves, we’re going to get more and more minimal……
Apr 302010
When i first heard the productions of 27 year old Tom Trago i felt like i was listening to a bold new era in house music. His unmistakable sound is a fusion of uptempo Disco, House and Techno. He reaffirms that house music is still just as sexy, raw, deep, emotional and passionate as ever before.
Trago studied contemporary music when he entered his twenties, around this time he was also mentored his way into the Dutch club scene by a well-known local dj. Trago learned fast and his own dj career kicked off in no time. Over the past five years he has played at many clubs and parties both locally as internationally. His diverse music taste has made him appreciated in different scenes; from a block party to a rave…people get down to his sound. He is / has been resident for Kindred Spirits parties, Dekmantel parties, Parra Soundsystem and Rush Hour. He also initiated 08Bar, a project where producers get linked up to each other and jam live to an audience. In 2009 Tom started a cooperation with the Kindred Spirits Ensemble called ‘Strings of Life’, which played essential house and techno classics in orchestral arrangements. During the performance Trago and Dorian Concept joined them on keys/synths/beats for a current day representation of some very influential tracks.
With the initial success of his 2006 release “Live with the BBQ”, Tom moved on to have 11 more releases in the years proceeding, including, in 2009 a remix of Phillipe Zdar on Cassius Records which gained world wide attention. Some might say just in time for the launch of his first album “Voyage Direct”. This album was a step away from the hiphop flavored “beat dimensions” tracks, and came through as a instant classic House/techno album, giving the listener a great cross section from 90′s feel club house to deep Detroit techno, but always keeping in tune with the Dutch way of doing things, raw, fresh, and made for the club.
So with that all being said… I think this should be the party of the year 
A Recent Dj set can be found below for you listening pleasure
TOM TRAGO DJ SET – DOWN & OUT MIX by tomtrago
If you would like to check out the Voyage Direct album head over to http://www.rushhour.nl/tomtrago/ where you can stream the entire album free!
This could be the closest Adelaide gets to feeling what the Techno scene in Berlin is like. These guys (and girl) pump out an extraordinary amount of Minimal Techno. Dapayk has not one but 3! labels running now, Mo’s Ferry, Rrygular and Fenou with 91 vinyl releases between them.
Mo’s Ferry was the original concept, it was Dapayk and colleague Jan Langhammer that began the journey, the sound is uncomfortable, dodgy, angular, groany (not my description but i found it to be very accurate) The Mo’s Ferry sound is very distinguishable and unique, it really doesn’t sound anything like other labels. Starting out in 2000 their first release’s pushed the boundaries of the ‘minimal sound’ glitchy and static, but funky and punchy, they had their own way of doing things and didn’t mind being different. A great early Dapayk & Padberg track with a cheeky little Losoul rmx on the flip called “Big city club” can be heard here:
Dapayk&Padberg – Big City Club (Losoul Remix)
In 2005 they had the “Red Velvet Lines EP” by Troy Pierce, before he was cool 
teeheehee
This ones on the “Big city club” vibe, bit more of a live drum feel, but similar sexy vocal and catchy basslines. It’s a very short edit of the original but you can get the gist…
This little ditty is a great club track, its very “Guido,” funky, percussive, tribal..
Slowing it down a bit, the great Dave Aju makes an appearance in 2009 with his remix of Olene Kadar’s Yipyipyipyip (or something like that). Great Aju groove…
yipyippyip (dave aju rmx) by mosferry
The next track is a very smooth, melodic remix by Noze from the Dapayk & Padberg album Black Beauty. Quite a different mood to most of the others, well worth a listen!
I haven’t said a word about Marcel yet! In 2000 he opened a record store in Nordhausen with Perlon producer Matt John. Soon after Marcel started working with the label and producing tracks with Dapayk. Marcel has quite a reputation for eclectic Dj sets, ranging from Dub, house, broken beat, experimental techno, and minimal, when teamed up with Dapayk they put together an amazing night of music.
This Marcel track is a great slow burner, progressive melodies, crisp… nice
Just briefly touching on the other labels, Rrygular is one of the ‘sub labels’ focusing more on straight up minimal, less gritty, more stripped back, clean and driving. They have made it a focus of the label to bring together artists from around the globe, and have done quite a good job of it, ‘Lump’ resides in the cold north Finland, ‘Butane’ is from the Midwest US, The ‘Suffragettes’ are from Nagoya (Tokyo, Japan), Christian Dittmann from Santiago Chile, Staffan Linzatti is a 20-year old swede, they have even had a release by an Adelaide Duo that might have a lot to do with this very website
Dapayk is obviously a regular releaser on Rrygular, but goes under another alias ‘Marek Bois’. The 35 release was Apples & Oranges, a looped out, trance inducing techno track that just has to be played LOUD! Like so….
Marek Bois “apples & oranges” (RRY34) by RRYGULAR
The last label Fenou is much more experimental than the others, dubby, cute, minimal electronica. Each release is limited to 500-1000 copies, pressed on 10″ vinyl and serial numbered (very la de da 
). It seems that this is the arty division of the Mo’s ferry organization, each release has beautiful, almost water paint looking cover art, and has included tracks by Frivolous, Soulphiction, and Sebastian Russell (if your aware of these producers then I’m sure the Fenou ideals will be familiar to you) 
