Surviving the Digital Assault: The Analogue Cops Talk Defending Vinyl And Deliver Exclusive Mix

With a philosophy that prioritises pure analogue techno over download disposability, Lucretio (Domenico Cipriani) and Marieu (Alberto Marini) make music together as The Analogue Cops, standing true as defenders of the vinyl culture and hands on methods in the midst of the grip of the global binary assault. Focusing on solely using analogue hardware gear in their production, the duo aim to foster a new sense of order in electronic music the world over by feeding dancefloors a feast of machine fuelled raw and funked up techno through their renowned Restoration imprint. So in promotion for all their upcoming appearance where the duo will team up with Hypercolour in Room Three this Saturday, the duo have kindly delivered an exclusive mix and offered up a few minutes of their time for a quick chat…. Download: The Analogue Cops fabric Promo Mix Hey guys, hope you’re well. I guess we should talk about your mix first - Can you walk us through it? Everything in the mix is what we like to hear when we dance and party. We think it represents our music and what we like the most: techno, house, the music of Detroit, the music of Chicago and the sound of Berlin from the end of the 90’s. Just music that makes you smile and feel good. You’re defined in your biography as “true defenders of vinyl and the worst enemies of digital downloads;” can you explain a little more about why the concept of pure analogue techno is so important to you both? We have always loved and played vinyl. They are just the best portable support for music, every sound engineer will agree with that, especially when we talk about dance music. It is not only for the sound quality though, it’s also because it’s a physical thing – something you can touch, feel, and smell something that holds memories, not just a bunch of 0s and 1s. We have been pushing vinyl since 2007, when we started our label Restoration. It was a moment in time where a lot of people were abandoning vinyl because of the ‘digital revolution’. A lot of people thought that vinyl would have died but it hasn’t. So this vinyl defence is not a trend of fashion for us but just something we truly believe in. Last year you played live as Third Side with Steffi – what can we expect from your set when you join the Hypercolour gang in Room Three this month? Our set as The Analogue Cops is a little bit rougher and more improvised in comparison with the Third Side live, which instead is very clean and detailed. We have prepared a live show with a mixture of garage and techno. The set is very different; we’ve never played the same live set for more than two times. As for Third Side, there will only be machines on stage – no laptops! We recently spoke with Hypercolour about your ‘In Plain Clothes’ EP. How’s that all going? Yeah, it's great to be on the Hypercolour boat! We are very happy of the tracks they choose (these tracks are really really rough, with no sonic compromise at all!) and we are very happy that the record was mastered by Frank at The Carvery as we suggested. They are really nice guys, we are sure that this will be the first of many – we are currently preparing some crunchy new tunes for them. And what about 2014 for you? Do you have any releases in the pipeline? Right now you can buy the Bratha002 (a side project that we run with our friend NoMadRonin) and Restoration018, an extract of the Xenogears’ album with remixes by Third Side, Madteo and Vinalog. We have revived our techno project Xenogears (our first studio project) with an album titled Lost Artemis that will be released on Restoration at the end of April which features collaborations with Objekt and, again, NoMadRonin. Then we will celebrate the 10th release of our label Appointment, with a special release where all the members of the project have done a remix: so there is a John Swing remix, an Emg remix, a Marieu remix and a Lucretio remix...with no original, because there is no original. Finally, can you think of any track or release that you wished you had produced instead? Marieu: Jeff Mills – If Lucretio: Infiniti feat. Juan Atkins - Never Tempt Me