Where is the funk these days in techno?
Whatever happened to the sound revolution and vision of its Detroit fathers and apostles? Well, hard to say with certainity, everybody's "killing" or "saving" techno these days, sometimes in a space of less than a few days
"Techno is dead, Long live Techno!"
"But this is media" you might say, "it has to make and brake its subjects so that it keeps the ball rolling". Hear hear thy techno brother! hear hear!
Just that these days the ball feels sometimes like it may roll a bit too fast and somewhat out of control; looking around it seems like we're adjusting more and more to a Tofler's Future Shock society, where people do quite strange things when faced with extreme (and rapid) change.
Whatever Atkins and co. heard in the early days of the Detroit sound, today is just as potent, if not even more so
Well the best way to find out such sacred stuff is to go in the middle of it and start asking questions: 11 to be exact. We carefully planted our hi-end sound recorder switched on in a middle of a techno field and did our best to capture some discernible sound.
We received a loud and clear signal from our Alpha Channel. Freshly out with a new EP on Solid Tracks and prepping his funk loaded heavy minimal artillery ahead of this month’s Technicolour Episode III gig alongside CLR's very own techno rebel Alex Bau, Alpha Channel's signal is getting more and more frequencies added to the spectrum. This is what we managed to record:
Alpha Channel - Minimal Effort - minimal techno mix by Alpha-Channel
[code]: Hi Alpha, how are you these days and where does this interview find you?
Alpha Channel: Currently stuffing my face with pizza after a rare day of relaxing, I ‘m really good right now :)
[code]: How has 2011 been for Alpha Channel? From start to right now.
Alpha Channel: Tons of stuff has happened this year, thinking back to where this year began with the massive NYE event in Romania seems more like 2 years ago! Well, let’s see...Romania, Sardinia, The Egg and Brixton Jamm (right here on London shores), recently a bit of Spain;
and of course the daily grind: tunes, mixes, remixes, releases, podcasts and tracks and then work!
Seriously though I have been flat out by now and life only seems to get faster! What I can remember has been awesome; there has been too much going on to comment on everything and all. But the gigs have been nuts, from going to Romania for the very first time and smashing Zebra Club at -20 Celsius outside(!!!) to playing alongside Hobo in Sardinia to playing London constantly there hasn’t been any of it I would change. Well maybe the flight back from Sardinia.......add to that some mental house parties and basically I’m “Sheening” it up.
Also my productions have been hitting the right note on the dance floor lately, coming as a much fought for “validation”. Just hearing your tune being played on the club’s sound system and seeing people get their freak on to YOUR TUNE, makes you feel so.... aaaaagh!! It’s totally mad, i love it!
I still feel like the best is yet to come and that I’ve really just began to hit my stride with regards to my productions. I’m looking forward to making the jump across into playing more of my own music and finding new ways of playing live that are closer to the ideas flowing around in my head and truer to the sound that I’m trying to create.
[code]: In a few words, tell us what does Alpha Channel stand for?
Alpha Channel: How many words is a few? ...........basically I like the concept of there being an idea space in which all creative things exist.
Everything comes from everything else though, so you always have a base where you start from and then twisting and remodelling things, ideas; borrowing, recombine and re-channelling concepts into something new, something that wasn’t there before, in the idea space.
And then you start all over again...
[code]: Listening to your music, there is an acute sense of funk, even hip hop riding on the notes of many of your tracks. Probably the truest expression of that can be heard in your latest EP Techalot, which is freshly out on Solid Tracks. Care to elaborate on these relationships and connections?
Alpha Channel: When I first started DJing (many moons ago...:) I actually played hip hop and breaks; so I guess what you’re hearing now is the influence of those forming years coming through in the music I make today. But I really don’t think any music is just one thing.
Techno for instance can be many things and I really get my kicks out of exploring these “many things” and I’ll always try to make things different by taking new approaches and including different influences, not just the same ones over and over again. The approach changes every time with my mood and with what I’m listening to that week or whatever; like right now I’m in a bit of a Giorgio Moroder phase and going a bit disco, so, I have no idea how that will bleed into what I’m working on right now.
In the past I had tried to adhere to one sound or style or thought, but I found that it just didn’t work for me. So now I just do things, like I’ll work on a dubstep track or a nu disco tune and eventually it will mutate into something that I love or I’ll rip just one part out of it and remix that and have that be the basis for an entirely new track. This does tend to leave me with a lot of unfinished ideas...but also I find I get a lot more good ideas from working with less boundaries and less/no direction than I used to. That must also come from just working on tracks more often nowadays, I’ve gotten to a point where I am able to identify quite quick when I’m hitting upon something good.
I did initially think that this would lead to a very disparate and random sound to my productions and that if I were to try and mix them together that they wouldn’t fit at all. But having recently finished a podcast with only my own tracks and remixes I was very pleased to find that I had a sound, distinctive and identifiable even though I had given myself total freedom in terms of the sounds and samples that I used.
[code]: Production wise: old school or new school, analog or digital, loops or recording your own. Give us the whole Alpha Channel creation masterplan!
Alpha Channel: If I had the cash: ALL ANALOGUE. But I don’t so...I’m digital right now. But I am saving up for my First Moog, I want the Minimoog Voyager!
I have wet dreams about it...:)
[code]: Also heard that Alpha Channel is “scratching that itch”. Should we expect some DMC trickery when we see you play live next?
Alpha Channel: No those days are basically gone! I don’t practice anymore, but I used to be into turntablism quite a bit.
[code]: Last time we saw you play a couple of weeks back when you were playing on the same bill with Yoda at Jamm in Brixton! Must’ve been quite an interesting experience. Tell us more about how the whole gig came about and how it went. The whole experience!
Alpha Channel: Yeah it was cool, I played that gig as a part of Designer Thugs which is a side project I have with my mate Christian we just Dj and have fun and play whatever we feel like playing and really b
ounce well off each other, I enjoy doing that as sometimes when I play in a club I can tend to take it all a bit too serious. So doing Designer Thugs breaks the spell and reminds me to have fun with it.
[code]: This week-end just gone it was Jamm again; opening for Phil Hartnoll (Orbital). Now that September is here it’s straight on to Episode III of Technicolour with CLR’s techno rebel Alex Bau in the main room. What are you prepping for the occasions? (sound, performance, hairdo )
Alpha Channel: Again, Jamm was good fun and a way to not think about the complete madness that occurred that week in London with the riots and the looting and general crazy shit. Then as you say Technicolour III with Alex Bau is next. I’m trying to get a couple of new tracks finished up and I’m proper looking forward to rinsing this night out! It’s been a little while since I played The Egg and I remember the sound system is sick. Funktion One if my memory serves me well :D. If I have enough time I’m going to make the switch to a live set up which will be wicked and also a good way of seeing how strong my nerves are, I might bottle out though, as I have fallen back in love with Traktor and just spinning tunes in a more traditional style.
[code]: Until now, who did you feel was the best fit for you playing live? Also who would be your “dream team” on a line-up where your name is written
Alpha Channel: Best by far was warming up for Alex Under (also happened at The Egg last year). Alex is one of my all time favourite producers. I remember seeing him about 4 years ago at Fabric and it’s still in my memory as one of the best nights out I’ve ever had so to warm up for him was very special; it was also my Birthday that weekend: all planets had aligned just right!
Playing with Hobo out in Sardinia was really awesome too. We had an amazing steak for dinner then hung out together all night, he’s a really sound dude and I had an ace time chatting all night and all the next day as everyone else spoke Italian and not much English. We were pretty much stuck with each other. There are tons of people I would love to play with in the future. Some of the names that instantly spring to mind are Minilouge, John Tejada, Gaiser and Mathew Jonson…………but the list could go on and on.
[code]: Who do you consider to be your mentors? Guiding you and inspiring you when you need most. Do you believe in such a concept?
Alpha Channel: I work by myself so I’m not sure I have any mentors really. That may be a good thing or a bad thing but I have too many time constraints to work properly with anyone else over a long period of time.
I basically make tracks and then play them to my brother and my mates and everyone I can and listen to what they have to say and watch their faces when they’re listening to it to see if they smile. Then once I’m happy with the faces, playing tracks out at gigs is the best test of all.
And finally
[code]: What’s your reply to chicks coming on to you and asking you if you’re in any way related to Richie Hawtin? There is some resemblance...
No one’s asked me yet, I guess I would take it as a complement (?) But they’d have to be taking the piss. Either way I’d still laugh my ass off (Laughing hard and blushing)
You can check out Alpha Channel 's latest EP Techalot Out Now on Solid Tracks exclusively through Beatport
http://www.beatport.com/label/solid-tracks-records/13278
Alpha is also playing live on 30th of September at Egg Club London at
TECHNICOLOUR: The Cinematographic House Music Experience
EPISODE III
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