Kylie Minogue, Radiohead, Jeff Mills – how does the Modeselektor duo react to our blind date tracks? We check.
Actually, they just wanted to rummage through their own archive and sort through – but suddenly Modeselektor shows up at the door with a new album. The state title: CLASSICS VOL. 1.
We played a few songs to the productive and, despite all their stability, always unpredictable DJ and producer duo.
KYLIE MINOGUE – Slow
SEBASTIAN SZARY: Great track.
GERNOT BRONSERT: It’s called “Slow,” isn’t it?
Exactly. I included it because I listened to the source material for your new album yesterday. The number “Tetrispack” is similar to it.
BRONSERT: Was that the same year?
“Slow” came two years before that.
BRONSERT: That was a moment in Kylie Minogue’s career where she made it to the Panorama Bar. All the house DJs played this record. I’ve never heard such a cool beat in pop again.
SZARY: It’s simple and sequential, it goes like that – fascinatingly simple.
BASIC CHANNEL – Quadrant Dub I
SZARY: I would say we’re in the basic channel range, something like “Quadrant”?
Correct! What role did the music from the hard wax environment play for you?
BRONSERT: I had my first contact with techno before I heard Basic Channel. The Basic Channel records showed me how cool techno can be. This was a sound that was more than just production skill, but also perfectly suited to the muddy weather in Berlin. A soundtrack that accompanied the dirtyness of this city well.
SZARY: This is absolute music, detached from rave. There is no peak, no bang. This transports without lifting you up.
BRONSERT: I’ll hear this music when I’m 80, just like I first heard it 25 years ago. That’s what techno should be about: a timeless dimension.
OFF – Electrica Salsa
As far as electronic music in Germany is concerned, a counterpoint now follows.
[Lachen, als die Synths einsetzen]
BRONSERT: Sure, Sven Väth. Wasn’t that OFF? This is “Electrica Salsa”. Frankfurt, right?
That’s what I wanted to get out of.
BRONSERT: The people of Berlin, the people of Munich, the people of Hamburg and the people of Cologne have always gotten along well. And then there were the Frankfurters.
Was that so?
BRONSERT: No, fun! When the number came out I was in second grade. This has nothing to do with techno. This is pure eighties pop music.
SZARY: That’s New Beat – the consequence of all the Belgian influence. A child of his time. Many people don’t know that Sven Väth is behind it.
BRONSERT: I find it impressive how energetic this guy is! Before he became a DJ, he did stuff like that. The desire to become famous and the desire to be in the limelight were already very noticeable.
SZARY: We take to heart what Sven Väth and OFF achieved back then.
BRONSERT: He’s a really cool guy. However, Sven Väth, who came later, was more important than “Electrica Salsa”. He doesn’t let it out – maybe it makes him a little uncomfortable, I don’t know. [lacht]
TAKTLOSS – Curtain Up (feat. MC Basstard, Gynecologist, King Orgasm One & MC Bogy)
Sorry, I didn’t realize it was so explicit.
BRONSERT: Tactless, big fan! Is that something old?
Yes, from 2000 or so.
BRONSERT: That’s not old, boy. Although – that was the West Berlin masculine and Royal Bunker wedding, right?
SZARY: Taktloss, European master of syncopated rap. Maybe a questionable comparison, but I once heard that he’s a big fan of Sensational – it’s the original. Whentaktloss comes in, it’s just awesome.
BRONSERT: He showed his art thing early on. By the way, his graffiti name was Level; He was pretty much the tagger with the most fame there was in Berlin. You probably weren’t in Berlin back then – or are you from Berlin?
Bavarian.
BRONSERT: It’s not that bad. We grew up with level tags. Tactless is an important pillar of Berlin culture, albeit completely below the belt.
JEFF MILLS – The Bells (Blue Potential Version)
BRONSERT: Is that what I suspect? The classic version with the master on the 909?
Quite right.
BRONSERT: I never got into it because I was always afraid of it. But I recognized it. [lacht]
SZARY: I suspected that too and now I don’t know: Am I flashed or…
BRONSERT: …embarrassed. I had a moment like that with Laurent Garnier, who did something similar. I find it difficult when you move so virtuosically by just making a 909 louder and quieter – regardless of Jeff Mills. But big respect: he is the master.
Jeff Mills has turned himself into a museum – you are currently creating new ones from your old tracks.
BRONSERT: We are not conceptual artists. He wanted to go to the museum from the start. But it is a logical consequence that youth culture becomes art. You can’t compare it with us.
RADIOHEAD – Idioteque
SZARY: We know him, yes. [Gelächter]
I thought so. I have to admit: I didn’t know it until last night – my roommate showed it to me when I told him I was interviewing you. Explain Radiohead to me!
BRONSERT: Radiohead had incredible success in the ’90s. In 2001 they played in Berlin on September 11th – we were there. With this piece, your roommate has populistically taken KID A’s most electronic piece. This is what it sounds like when someone from the guitar music world wants to make an electronic piece, but doesn’t want to be embarrassing at all – and has a lot of style and feeling. We got to know them: They are total techno fans. They would have recognized Basic Channel too.
Did you go to the concerts in December?
SZARY: Problematic stage, a bit of cacophony, but otherwise great.
MODERAT – Bad Kingdom (DJ Koze Remix)
You will know him because he is from you.
BRONSERT: 118 BPM and almost eight minutes. Stefan Kozalla didn’t even want stems for it – he took the MP3.
SZARY: White vinyl – that was a successful 12-inch.
I went to Melt for the first time in 2014! The track played in every set.
BRONSERT: You don’t ask Koze for a remix – he asks you. He came around the corner with it. I remember when we were at the Innervisions party at OFF Sónar. We went on stage with the Moderat entourage as they were just hanging up. At that moment, Dixon happened to be playing this track. I will never forget the way he looked at us.
About Modeselektor
Gernot Bronsert and Sebastian Szary came together as early as 1996 under the project name Modeselektor. They have also been releasing albums since 2005; At the end of the noughties they also founded their own label, Monkeytown Records. The sound of the two Berliners ranges between techno, hip hop and electro. Together with the musician Sascha Ring (Apparat) they are also part of the band Moderat. Currently published with CLASSICS VOL. 1 the latest Modeselektor album.
