101 with Ramon Tapia: being "El Carlitto"...

Ahead of his highly anticipated performance at tonight's Episode III of Technicolour at EGG club London, we caught up with one of the most loved and appreciated new talents of excellent house music. With new mixes and remixes appearing constantly on his Soundcloud page and already with a Strictly Rhythms Compilation under his belt, Ramon Tapia is on fire!

Get some sun screen then, sit tight, hit the play button and enjoy Codekontrol's 11 questions on "being El Carlitto"
Latest tracks by Ramon Tapia

[code]: Hi there Ramon, and welcome back to sunny London tonight as we roll film and music for Episode III of Technicolour: London’s Cinematographic House Music Experience! How are you and where does this interview find you?

Ramon Tapia: I'm doing great, hanging out on my sofa now after a long weekender; and also had a long long day at the airport :)

[code]: How has summer 2011 been for you and where have you spent it mostly?

Ramon Tapia: I've been touring in Mexico, Brazil and many festivals all over Europe so it has been quite amazing. Wish i'd also had some vacation :P

[code]: :) How has your release schedule been throughout the year since your landmark release for “Strictly Rhythm” last December?


Ramon Tapia: Yes, the Strictly Rhythm release was huge for me with a lot of worldwide exposure;




afterwards I wanted to keep it a bit easy on releasing so i did just a couple of originals and remixes on labels like 100 % Pure, Remote Area, Soma, Snatch and so on …Dj wise its been hectic flying from one side of the globe to the other…but yeah...I'm definitely not complaining :D

[code]: For the readers of our little journal not yet familiar with the Ramon Tapia discography, please give us five of the most seminal RT releases throughout the years. (I know this is not going to be an easy ask :)

Ramon Tapia: hahaha your right! defo' not easy :) But lets try...

1. Strictly Rhythm compilation Vol 6

2. Ramon Tapia -Combustian -100 % Pure

3. Ramon Tapia - Back To the Bush -- Monique Musique

4. Silicon Soul --Right on ( Ramon Tapia remix ) -Soma

5. Ramon Tapia ft Neka --Tanzgefuhl - Gsr

[code]: Speaking of productions, we’ve been checking your Soundcloud page quite frequently (...daily :) for the past couple of weeks and there's always great new music showing up on there! Listening to the stuff you were doing two three years ago on Herzblut or Flash Records it is also different. What is the sonic direction you find yourself getting your groove on from these days? Also tell us more about the process of Ramon Tapia the artist getting to the “today point”

Ramon Tapia: thanks for the good words guys :)
Well these days music is evolving so fast, I try to keep my sound but evolve together with the times…which is not easy… in the beginning when I started making music there was a lot of the minimal sound around which I also did. Then, on my first album on Great Stuff i tried to go wide in the spectrum, from house to minimal to techno!

And actually, today, I still stand for that…there are so many cool things to do with music that it would be simply stupid for me to get stuck in one thing. Don't get me wrong, I think if other people prefer doing so, it is their right to do so, for me, I just love making music in all of its glory!

My main influences come from everywhere and i try to work that in most of the records i do :)

[code]: We read in your biog you’ve been living in Belgium for quite a bit of time and that this is the place where Ramon Tapia the dj first made his appearance. But was actually Belgium the first place where your love for music found the right environment to blossom and to change your life for ever? Or have you always been musical, even before Belgium?

Ramon Tapia: Well...I have indeed started djing in Belgium and before that when I was still living with my parents I would be mostly playing around with my sisters' record player ( and broke it eventually :) or be and playing cassettes that my sisters were coming back with from their trips to the electronic music clubs in Belgium and Holland... .

[code]: Surely your crush on gabba and other more exotic such sounds must’ve come from that scene. Tell us more about the time and space when this happened. Do you ever feel any “heartaches” for those days? Did you ever let such sounds (unconsciously maybe) into the music you’re making now?
(errrmm..new Ramon Tapia live show?!? Don't thinks so :)

Ramon Tapia: Hmmm, well in those days it was all about that kind of music, which I followed like a sheep :)). I surely don't regret any of it, I did it as part of my exploration of new things and new sounds in every sense of the word…that it simply was my time to explore these extremes. We were all a bunch of kids going to big raves to watch the big hardcore dj's and tried to be like them …wearing expensive trainers, etc. etc. I think in that it was maybe in that time when I first got the feeling to want to be a dj. Now going to the question of if I use those sounds nowadays …I think i don't...but maybe others say i do :)

[code]: For the past couple of months, if not years even, house music and techno to some extent have slowly but surely morphed into a more organic, jazzy, (heavily) Latinised sound. Many new producers have got their lucky break by combining such grooves with the 4/4 beat.
Ramon, you are by definition a Latin spirit, do you feel that this heritage has had an important influence in shaping your sound today? How do you make the most of it as part of your sonic palette?

Ramon Tapia: It really has!!!
I do love funked up beats, not neccesairly latin, but definitely FUNKY; but yet other styles influence me too. I try to bring a bit of everything into my musical spectrum, hoping that the fans follow me in these "new territories". As far as I'm aware they do!!!

[code]: Coolio, so tell us more of what’s in store for the remaining of the year from the Ramon Tapia production house

Ramon Tapia: Well, let's see...here we go:
I've just released a fresh new record with my good friend Sandy Huner on Remote Area and will do a solo record later this year on the same label …I'm releasing a record on the label i'm doing with Hermanez, Aella Music in Oktober, I'm also starting my very own record label which will feature for the first few releases mostly own productions (name to be announced soon), I'm also expected to do a release on Skint Records and... much much more!

[code]: Tonight's London colourful event which you and Alex Bau of CLR are headlining (in different rooms), TECHNICOLOUR Episode III promises a surreal house music experience of sound and cinematography.
Give us a hint on what will your chosen sound be for the event.

Ramon Tapia: From funky to techy sounds in the widest sense of the word. That is Ramon Tapia!

And finally

[code]: What is the future for gabba?

Ramon Tapia: :))
Gabba is still there ...but it fused more into hardstyle… it'ss like a mixture of hardcore beats with truancy synth leads …. But, you know... for me they simply don't make the Gabba records like they used to :P

[code]: Thanks Ramon, looking very forward to your set tonight at TECHNICOLOUR Episode III It's probably the right time for you to hit the airport. We wouldn't want you to miss your plane by any chance :D


Catch Ramon Tapia headlining the BASEMENT STAGE at tonight's
Technicolour Episode III event at EGG, London

Also, keep touch with Ramon Tapia’s very busy release and gigging schedule through:

Facebook
Beatport
Resident Advisor
Soundcloud

101 with Alex Bau. A heart to heart talk with a 100% techno legend!

There are really few artists like this guy: "techno" flowing through every vein of his body. He has actually lived through much of the growth and development process of German techno. Believe his every word, Alex Bau knows music history. Enjoy!

[code]: Hi there Alex, it is a great pleasure to have you over again in sunny London as we roll film and music for Episode III of Technicolour on 30th September at EGG. Although it is over a year since your totally blasting set at the Ready Made party, it strangely feels like it was yesterday!


Time flies it seems...but just to get things right from the start:
There hasn’t been one day we haven’t missed you! :)

How are you these days Alex and where does this interview find you?

Alex Bau: I am quite ok, just returned from a three gig weekend in Italy which was just great. Actually Thursday was Munich, but during „Oktoberfest“ there are so many Italians, it feels almost like being in Italy :) Rome and Naples were great too.

[code]: Italians are to be found everywhere where music and fun occurs :))




















Oke, give us a status update on the “Alex Bau 2011 situation”: new releases, memorable gigs, forgettable nights = the whole deal please! How has the year been for you and where have you spent it mostly?

Alex Bau: The year has been great so far, unfortunately not too many releases this year which is related to the fact that I was moving house, intense touring and also some technical issues computerwise. I also had to finish a row of remixes for many people, so I ended up with only two „own“ releases on DMOM and UK`s Sleaze Recordings, but both have been received very well and are sure shots in my sets always!
And of course I „helped“ Wayne Sidorsky on his debut 12“ „Abgesang auf Minimal“, which also was accompanied by a nice video, telling the story of the lyrics even without speaking german :-)



Gigwise the whole summer was kind of washed away by the rain, at least the Open Air`s, but luckily 9 out ot 10 gigs were just supergreat!

[code]: Nice little Wayne Sidorsky video :))
Looking at the many many places you’ve travelled around the world only this year, you must’ve seen and heard many new things about techno. What’s the health state of the techno scene around the world right now?

Alex Bau: I think that Techno hasn`t been that vital for years! The last years have been dominated by only minimal and techhouse mainly, it was hard to play solid and even good techno simply because people were afraid of using the word, but after starting in 2010 I think techno is much more accepted again by a broad audience.

[code]: That is very good news! Are there certain countries that impressed you a lot and how? Does that compare to the scene in Germany right now? Or maybe Germany in its young techno days?

Alex Bau: It`s funny that techno seems to be a kind of universal language somehow. Wherever I am booked to play, people there seem to understand 'from the go' what they can expect musicwise, and this results in a super positive vibe, the only difference is that that size of this „microcosm“ is different from country to country. Generally speaking, the acceptance for underground electronic dance music in Europe is much higher as elsewhere, but it does exist everywhere on this planet.

[code]: Speaking of Germany, recently we’ve had a chat with some good friends from the east Side of town (Ostfunk) about Berlin, funk and even Sven Vath’s eyeliner (:). Many artists are hearing the “Berlin Calling” and run to respond to it. What’s the vibe there? Is it really that good as we’re hearing?

Alex Bau: I can not say too much about it as I did not see the movie and I am not really into the latest productions of Paul Kalkbrenner. I loved his very old tracks, back then on Bpitch Control, which were real, proper techno. It appeared to me as he was the only real technoartist in Bpitch at the time. Well, he has changed an developped, and if this is what he feels right now it`s all good, but not my cup of tea.

[code]: In your opinion, what is the new sound of German techno and whose productions capture that feeling best right now?

Alex Bau: When it comes to german techno everybody speaks about the guys from Berlin and Berghain who have a big influence on the technocircuit of course. And indeed they do; a lot of groundbreaking stuff, but they are only one part of the thing I call „Techno“ and I think that they are part of a cycle as very much from their sound is based on the the vibe that Basic Channel created back in the beginning of the 90ies. Generally I don`t think in national categories, I am fine with every good track, no matter if it comes from Germany, UK or The Fidji Islands. As long as there is enough bass and a present kick, I am starting to get interested.

[code]: Techno from Fidji...hmmm, interesting :)
Without being too indiscreet Alex, could you give us your top five heaviest tunes right now?
The ones that you know when you’ll play the whole place will simply explode!







Alex Bau: That`s a hard question, because it changes every night! Sometimes it`s one track, sometimes another...Luckily I find my own productions leaving the crowd really going wild and happy, especially the new stuff which is not out yet like one remix for the label „Cabaret Groove“ or another tune I did by including some samples from a big 80ies hit and my track „Bullet in the heart“ from 2007.

[code]: Speaking of productions, you’ve been flying the techno flag high and mighty for some time now. You are greatly regarded as a global techno ambassador and innovator. What is the sonic direction you find yourself taking these days? Also tell us more about the process of you getting to the “today point”.

Alex Bau: As many people call my sound „dark and powerful as well as full of bass“ I think there is maybe a connection to my musical education which includes also New Wave and Electronic Pop back from the 80ies and 90ies. I loved and still love the sound of acts like Depeche Mode, Anne Clarke, Front 242, Tears for Fears, Joy Division or also the Cure and many more of this age. This, combined with my affection for the sound of Basic Channel, which I just mentioned, but at the same time, the quite melodic Eye Q and more club orientated Harthouse label from Sven Vath in the early 90ies are probably my main influences.

These days I find myself experiencing more and more, trying to bring back some „colour“ into my productions, which means I'm also using synths and sounds again more intensively compared to the past years time in which I focussed a lot on treating samples and noises or drum and grooveelements.

[code]: Do you still feel there is a place for the minimal sound of techno? Or that has simply been killed for now?

Alex Bau: Of course there is, as long as it is good! I think people simply got sick of 100 copies of „Minus“ or „Richie Hawtin“ or another „Ricardo“.
I mean, they are the forefront, heads of their very own style, and many artists forgot to try to think about what they really want to say with their music. They choosed the easy way and just did what was hip.
Now many turn to techno again, and I think it`s ok, because the crowd, the audience are not so stupid as some artists think. They exactly realize if the Dj they're listen to is authentic or not. But minimal is only one attribute of Techno in general. Remember tracks like „Quo Vadis“ from G-Man or music from Daniel Bell back in the early 90ies. Minimal was not new this time around...just badly copied without some very few exceptions. I would even call some of my productions „minimal“, for example one my most well known tracks on CLR „Summer in Moncton“ has less than 10 elements and was done within 3 hours! 1 bassdrum, 1 kickdrum, 1 clap, 1, snare, some hihats, as bassline and the bleep, that`s IT! Isn`t this minimal too?
Yes, it is, but does it sound minimal? No!

[code]: Tell us more of what’s in store for the remaining of the year from the Alex Bau production house

Alex Bau: As I already mentioned there will be some remixes coming out until end of the year which I promised and which I have to finish before starting new own tracks.
I am in talks with a well known techno label for a new release, but probably only by next year, we are in September already... however, what`s for sure, in November the „Wasabi Tunes – live in Buenos Aires“ DVD will be released which is not a normal boring livecut of a set I played; but more something like a documentation about my trip there. Very authentic as I filmed a lot on my own, but very interesting at the same time as it shows what`s all related to the job and the 90% of the time you're on travel and you don`t spend on making music.
Check it out, it's quite entertaining :D

And finally

[code]: Can techno music ever go mainstream?

Alex Bau: If it`s mainstream, it has nothing to do with real techno :-)

Thanks Alex. It's been great having you on the interview chair for our 11 bullets! Looking forward to your set at TECHNICOLOUR EPISODE III
Keep touch with Alex Bau’s very busy release and gigging schedule through:

Facebook
Beatport
Resident Advisor
CLR page



















Alex’s latest release is out now on Sleaze Recordings exclusivelly through Beatport http://www.beatport.com/release/sibling-rivalry-ep/674165