January 2010

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Head To Head With Ben Klock & Steffi

Posted in Interviews Recommended Reading on Friday 29th January, 2010 by Willalobos

Much has been written about the emergence of Berlin’s Berghain/Panorama Bar mecca and the parallels with our own home from home in EC1, not to mention the artists that have spawned from the success of the now legendary club.

The Berlin hotspot has acted as a perfectly formed catalyst and showcase for its elite residential squad. Two in particular, Ben Klock and Steffi, bring their unique Berlinesque flavour to Room Two tomorrow; we caught with the pair to dig deeper than the hype and discover more about two of the most influential stars from one of the most influential venues in the house and techno scene.

Berghain and Panorama Bar seems to have acted as the perfect catalyst to boost your reputations within the techno scene, yet Ben, you have been playing in Berlin since the mid-90s right? And Steffi, you conquered the Amsterdam music scene before re-locating to Berlin? Tell us a bit about what you were up to pre-Berghain/PB…

Steffi: I was living in Amsterdam before I moved to Berlin. I used to have my own club night there in Mazzo (rip), had several residencies and organized loats of parties. Always wanted to bring the people quality and stay underground. One of the highlights was Boem Tsjak festival I did with Marsel from Delsin Records. We organized this during Amsterdam Dance Event because they were not focusing enough on the Dutch labels and their talents in our opinion.

Ben Klock: I used to play in clubs like Cookies, Tresor and WMF in Berlin. Although it was a great time and I had a few residencies here and there, I never really felt home anywhere before Berghain. That's where it all really changed and where I felt that the right people and the right place came together at the right moment to give me the inspiration that I needed.

You each run your own labels, Klockworks and Klakson respectively - what made you decide to set up your own imprint and do they represent you as musicians/DJs?

Steffi: Klakson started really naive, more like a fun thing to do. Dexter's first release hit the market quite well, it turned out to be. We always kept Klakson as a low profile label and only released stuff we really liked. It was never created to become a huge label with many releases, but more to work with people we liked and music we really wanted to be out there. This is how it will continue in the future. I just started a new label called Dolly! This will be an exclusive label that features people I am working with at the moment. I am very excited and the first release by Jacob Korn just came out a few weeks ago!

Ben Klock: When I started the label in 2006/07, most of the music around was very clean, a bit overproduced and well arranged. I wanted to have my platform for a bit more raw approach. I always liked first sketches, in graphic design or art as well. That is also shown by the artwork of the label. Tracks for Klockworks will always have that kind of raw feeling which is one side of me as an artist and DJ.

Steffi, you are known for throwing parties in Amsterdam. Do you cast a critical eye over each place you play, or is it nice to relinquish the responsibility of filling a club?

Steffi: No that’s not in the back of my mind. I do know the feeling of doing a club night and have to deal with the nerves on the night itself :) So it makes me understand promotors better and makes me support smaller parties who try to give people a chance to listen to quality music because we need this!

Ben, I read that you were a graphic designer before switching to music; do you find one helps the other in terms of generating inspiration or being creative?

Ben Klock: For quite a while I was doing this parallel. So I didn't really switch. I stopped working as a graphic designer when I was working on my album. I realized that I couldn't do both anymore timing-wise. There are similarities in the process of finding ideas and then developing, finalizing them. But I really have to say that I'm glad that I am able to concentrate on one thing now. Music is really on first place for me!

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Ame On Techno Literature - Lost And Sound: Berlin, Techno And The Easyjetset

Posted in Interviews News Literature Recommended Reading on Thursday 28th January, 2010 by Danna Takako

The finest purveyors of deep house have decided to expand their repertoire and cut their cloth from an alternative material to wax. Berlin’s Innervisions empire, led by fabric 42’s Âme and Room One regular Dixon, have turned to paper to unleash one of the most hyped pieces of Techno literature ever to be released. Tobias Rapp’s book ‘Lost and Sound: Berlin, Techno and the Easyjetset’ investigates the city’s love affair with electronic music and seeks to answer why the world is flocking to the German capital to get a piece of the action. Innervisions have taken the innovative step of releasing a limited number of copies exclusively via their website in English, as originally it was only available in German. You can check it out here.

Catching up with Âme ahead of their Innervisions Room One invasion next Saturday, we found out why they though we should be swotting up on techno.

It’s not often that a record label diverts from releasing music to releasing literature. Tell us why you felt it essential to translate this book into English and publish it?
Tobias Rapp, the author, is a good friend of us so the connection was already there before. When we all read the book, we felt that it would be definitely a very interesting project for the international market. We asked Tobias straight away and he said that we would a great partner for this project so this is why it happened.

For people that might not know about the book, what is it all about?
The book describes the situation and energy in the Berlin techno scene at the beginning of this century. Tobias was very inspired by his club experiences around these years so he wrote a book about it. He writes about the big and famous clubs and afterhour locations, some key players from the Berlin scene and the Easyjet ravetourism in a very eloquent way.

The original version of the book had a huge impact across Germany, thrusting techno back into the German media. What do you think sparked the swell of homeland interest in the book?
At the end of the nineties, the whole techno thing went back to the undergound so in Berlin around and after these years, something new grew up without media support or any other hype stuff. At the end, of course, a wider audience took notice of that and the success of the book is pretty much a result of this attention.

How does the book particularly resonate with you? Obviously that played at part in your decision to publish it through Innervisions?
As I said, Tobias is a good friend of us and Innervisions had a small part in his book. We are publishing music, why shouldn’t we publish a book about the music scene from our town?

No doubt the hype surrounding this book will further fuel techno tourism to the German capital...as Berliners yourselves, are you conscious of the influx of people seeking the magic of Berlin? Do you think it’s had a positive or negative influence on the city’s music scene?
I think Berlin clubs already showed that they can handle the ravetourism as they are pretty good in selecting voyeurism from passionated hedonism.

How do you feel Berlin and its music have developed over the last decade?

Berlin is probably the only bigger city in the world where the government recognised that there is also an economical power in their own music scene. So they even support the clubs with all the help they can give them. So there is less a danger of sellout and commercialisation then anywhere else.

Continue reading "Ame On Techno Literature - Lost and Sound: Berlin, Techno and the Easyjetset" »

Eyeballin': TODDLA TV Jammer In The Booth

Posted in Videos on Thursday 28th January, 2010 by Danna Takako

Double up on your Toddla TV dose today.

Eyeballin': TODDLA TV On A Thailand Flex

Posted in Music Videos on Thursday 28th January, 2010 by Smash Gordon

Feed Your Stereo: CLEMENT MEYER

Posted in Downloads Music on Thursday 28th January, 2010 by Bruno Smith



Since 2007, six French virtuosos have been providing lovers of the 'seriously twisted, mind-warping 4x4 house and techno’ variety with a solid axel of musical richness and diversity in the form of their blog, Getthecurse. On February the 6th we are lucky enough to welcome Clement Meyer (Co-Founder and passionate blogger) to the decks of Room 2.

The rapid success of the blog has since allowed Meyer to promptly shoot up the ranks and into exposure, receiving a string of residencies at The Social Club in his home-town, Paris, along with T Bar’s infamous Thursday night session ‘Baise Main’. 2009 saw his first release, aptly entitled ‘Slow, Deep and Hard’ (on Seinan Music), receive praise from the discerning ears of Solomun, Laurent Garnier and Jamie Jones among many others . With the launch of his own label, Get The Curse Records, right around the corner, 2010 promises to be nothing but a successful era for the young Parisian and what better a way to continue theyear than with a visit to EC1? Expect plenty of fast paced chunky bass and sleazy synth rattling the very walls!

Until then, Clement has very kindly recorded us this exclusive promo mix as a taster as a warm up to his set, which includes a track off his forthcoming ‘Midnight Madness EP’. Enjoy!

Download: Clemet Meyer - fabric Promo Mix



1. Mikael Stavostrand - Breaka Breaka
2. Remote - Fahkt
3. Konrad Black - Busting Down the Door With a Shotgun
4. Rebolledo - Venganza y Seducion
5. Clement Meyer - Midnight Madness (Olibusta Remix)
6. Segeke - Deeper Side (Elon Remix)
7. Andrea Esu - Bati Bati Gol
8. Click Click – Re-edit
9. The Barking Dogs -It's What (Philipp Lauer Remix)

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