With 2012 probably being the world’s last year, it’s time for breathing new life into this blog: Let me introduce to you the Disco Demons Guest Mixes – a new series of exclusive mixtapes, handcrafted by artists that I’ve blogged about a lot, artists that have influenced me as a DJ, artists whose music I simply love. And as people who make good music usually have interesting stories to tell, each mix will be accompanied by a short interview.
I’m more than proud to announce that the first mix comes from no one less than Attaque, an incredibly talented producer from Essex, UK, who within just a few months has managed to draw the world’s (and Bad Life Records’) attention towards his amazing tracks, receiving love and early support from names such as Tiga, Erol Alkan, Fake Blood and Brodinski. Enough praise, let the music speak for itself:
Disco Demons: Your name is often to be heard in connection with a new movement in electronic dance music commonly referred to as “future techno” – and while everybody agrees that it’s all about crisp and clear techno-influenced productions, everybody seems to have their own ideas of this expression. What does future techno mean for you?
Attaque: I guess there isn’t a distinct sound which sums up Future Techno which is why it’s exciting for me. It’s all about the mood and production of a track, I guess it’s having a techno aesthetic and then putting your own twist on it. If you look at the top 10 Electro House tracks on Beatport they all have certain sounds and rules they follow, whereas if you listen to Gesaffelstein or NT89 they completely have their own style. It’s an exciting time as producers are coming out with their own signature sounds rather than following the masses and making tracks that sound like everything else.
Check out the rest of the interview + tracklist after the jump!
I’m more than proud to announce an exclusive interview with one of my all-time favorites, an innovative and artistic pioneer in electronic music: Pascal Arbez, better known as Vitalic. His second studio album Flashmob proves beyound doubt that he’s still one of the big names guiding and influencing the whole scene by further developing his unique trademark sound. Enough talk, here’s what the maestro himself has to say about human emotions in dance music, vocoders instead of real singers and Major Lazer:
Disco Demons: I think what makes your music stand out against the endless flood of new electronic music releases is the unique emotional touch (I’m especially thinking of tracks like Second Lives or The Past here) that most other electronic dance music tracks are lacking. How is it possible to use machines (=synthesizers) to communicate emotions?
Vitalic: Machines are designed to make whatever you want them to make. I suppose that, if electronic music may lack some emotion, it’s because the musicians behind just don’t want to make this kind of music. As far as I’m concerned, I like both cold and robotic music, as well as deeper tracks, and I make the music I need to make at the precise moment I’m working on the track.
I’m proud to present an exclusive interview with French musician Alexis Latrobe, better known as Alex Gopher. After having released two studio albums, Gopher recently stepped back into the spotlight with a remix album titled My New Remixes - which I used as an opportunity to ask him a few questions about his musical past, late singers and Yves Saint-Laurent.
Disco Demons: Hey Alex, let me jump right into it: Your musical career started by playing bass in rock a band called Orange with friends from school – including Jean-Benoit Dunckel and Nicolas Godin, now better known as Air. As rock music with English lyrics was quite unpopular in France back then, you exchanged your bass for synthesizers and sequencers. In retrospect, are you glad that these language barriers made you switch to electronic music?
Alex Gopher: Of course yes ! That’s true that going in electronic music was at the beginning an opportunity to forget this language barrier. But at the same time the most important thing was the opportunity to be a pioneer in a new kind of music. Being innovative in rock music was a real challenge, but with a computer and a sampler it became much more easy. I made the right choice !
As promised, here’s my interview with Olle from Dada Life, talking about Sweden, Mando Diao and of course electronic dance music…
Disco Demons: I guess you hear that question a lot, but since you’ve been around the scene for quite a while, you’ll have to answer it once more: What were your early beginnings, what musical background do you both come from and why did you start producing electronic dance music?
Dada Life: Both Stefan and I have been into music for years, but it wasn’t until 2006 when we met in our studio that we started to work together as Dada Life. Stefan is more from the trance-background while I have been doing everything from playing in punk-bands to doing sound installations in Brazil. Read more…
No need to introduce the Disco Villains, with one of their tracks having been dropped by Justice on BBC Radio 1 recently and shows with the likes of Crookers, The Rapture and Treasure Fingers. Due to lucky circumstances I’ve had the chance of getting to ask them a few questions, talking about their career, Kanye West and of course electronic dance music:
DD: As far as I know, Louie started playing guitar at an early age, dreaming of a rockstar career. What musical background do you both come from in general?
Louie: My love for music started at a young age when i first listened to Pink Floyd’s “The Wall”. I remember knowing the lyrics of almost all of their songs. Then my cousin started a band and he was my musical mentor for many years to come. He introduced me to bands such as Metallica, R.A.T.M., Smashing Pumpkins, Deftones, etc. He was so good with the guitar. So I started to mess with my dad’s acoustic guitar. I bought an amp and a guitar, played with a few bands, etc. One day my dad came home with a bunch of cds for me. He bought me Dr. Dre’s “2001″, 2pac’s “All Eyes On Me”, and a couple of Beastie Boys cds. I guess he got sick of listening to me jamming all day to “Bulls On Parade”.
Tony: Louie played guitar and i played Guitar Hero hahahahahahaha just kidding, (P.S. i just got school at the hero last week by louie and Assilem not cool)…. i used to play drums at a church when i was a little kid and i also played saxophone in the school band real jazzy shit. But i’ve always been really into music all kinds of music, i got that from my dad he always made me listen to all kinds of music. He installed in me that variety is key in life, he would make me listen to Banda which is a mexican folk music that borrows heavily on german polk music. then he would make me listen to Creedance, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones i used to hate it but now i appreciate the fact that i have such a diverse taste in music. But then i really got into Hip Hop started listening to Dr. Dre and Tupac and from there i was always just really into hip hop and Latin Rock music, but hip hop was always the mainstay i remember crunk music thinking damn this makes me wanna party. What ever happened to Lil Jon? Read more…
If you'd like to send me promos, want to advertise here or have a request to remove tracks, feel free to contact me at discodemons@gmail.com.
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