Soonnight’s Chris Wan spoke to Frenchman Agoria about his influences, minimal prejudices, and the original and interesting way in which he assembled his track list for this mix.

So, you’ve got your new Balance mix coming out soon; could you tell us a little bit about why you decided to do another compilation and how it came about?

Well I made a long break not producing techno/electronic music during two years as I worked on the soundtrack of “Go Fast” and then I spent few months working on establish my own label InFiné, trying to develop it, searching new artists, helping them to reach their aim…

At the beginning of last year I asked myself if I wanted to start working on a new album or anything else. I wasn’t sure I was ready to create new materials and honestly I was wondering if there was still a relevant reason to make a new mix CD. Every website get his own quality podcast, music is everywhere, I wasn’t sure of the necessity of releasing again a mix CD. But I decided to try. I thought it was relevant to find my own personal and exclusive selection in a time when you can find any single track you look for in less than a minute. How could I excite the desire of the listener one more time with this excessive music offer? First I needed to find by myself the key to discover those tracks… but I guess we’ll speak later about this…

Your ‘At the Controls’ mix from 2007 received quite a bit of critical acclaim and was ranked as the 13th best compilation of the 00s by RA, plus the previous two Balance mixes by Joris Voorn and Will Saul were big successes. Did you feel any pressure in trying to recreate something as good or better?

When ATC went out I didn’t receive so much good critics about my mix…. people were not so much into it, I remembered lot of comments saying it was just weird! It grew step by step months after the releasing, and in the end it became a classic mix. At the releasing it wasn’t really acclaimed and the label went bankrupt, I really hope it won’t happen to Balance! When I released “La Onziéme marche ” all the feedbacks in a first time were really shitty and when “The Green Armchair ” came out lot of people were surprised not to get a minimal techno album but a bunch of luxury music of different kind of style.

I remember some magazines writing how Agoria can’t be into minimal!!! It was the trend of that time and I was saying in interviews that I didn’t enjoy so much this music, because I couldn’t find a soul in it. I love the beauty of minimalism but most of the time I don’t think minimal has any quality of minimalism… Steve Reich “Four organs” for example is a masterpiece of minimalism. Plastikman’s “Consumed” too. I might not be good releasing records at the right moment or I am really bad in communication ! That’s why I m not feeling pressure, I m much more curious and excited that stressed.

Read the rest of the interview at www.soonnight.com

Earlier today i posted how WITC was still going to be fun even without Bjork… Well it looks as though the whole thing has gone down the pan due to poor ticket sales and loss of a key financial backer. A similar scenario happened to the Wax:On Live event earlier this year where their financial backers had to drop out due to the credit crunch. So they weren’t kidding when the papers were saying that the global economic meltdown was going to effect everyone, even the most hedonistic of us.

Anyways, here is the official statement from those at RenHQ

I am really sorry to announce that this years Wild in the Country Festival has been cancelled, please see the below statement:

Wild in the Country Festival Cancelled

Stately Events Ltd is extremely disappointed to announce the cancellation of the Wild in the Country festival at Knebworth Park on Saturday 5th July.

The cancellation is due to lower than expected ticket sales and a key investor withdrawing at the last minute, leaving the event in an unsustainable position.

This is a very sad conclusion to our passionate efforts to develop an
interesting and credible addition to the UK festival market.
Unfortunately, Wild in the Country has become the latest in a series of festivals that have suffered from a unique and well-documented set of market forces this summer.

We did everything possible to make the event happen and would like to apologise to all those who have purchased tickets, and for the inconvenience this cancellation may have caused.

The Organisers will make every effort to ensure that ticket purchases will be refunded.

For those that don’t know, Mental Overdrive is Per Martinsen a Norwegian producer / DJ and live performer. From his biog it sounds like he’s done everything from releases on R&S ranging from nosebleed techno to electro ballads. Coming from Norway he does have that distinct Scandinavian sound of disco and funk combined house that we hear the likes of Prins Thomas and Lindstrom play and produce. 

This album combines the influences of disco, funk, house and electro with various results. Elephantastic kicks the album off with a quirky electronic number where a squelching riff runs over disco beats as big horns attenuate the end of each bar. The result can only be described as a spacey cartoon with charm. Run to the Hills is an interesting take on Iron Maiden’s original, using an synth for the guitar screeching riff and heavily vocodered vocals in place of Bruce Dickinson’s 80s power vocals. Unfortunately the different take does the track justice and sounds a little tacky. Spooks seems the most dancefloor friendly as it fires disco beats through a trickle of electro synths to get the sluggish of people pogoing.

There are two stand out tracks on this album, the first has to be Original Material. It goes straight for the jugular with its simple disco funk loop, distorted synths and some old skool filter action, creating a peak time frenzy set which could fit in amongst the darkest of techno or the lightest of house. The other stand out track is Mysterio. It’s dark and slow electronic melodies with stripped back percussion sets it out from the other tracks instantly.

Unfortunately this album is a mixed bag. Whilst some tracks are good, there are others which takes the disco influence a bit too far, causing tracks to sound tackier than a stick of blackpool rock. 5/10

You Are Being Manipulated is out now. Buy it from Amazon.

1. Intro
2. Elephantastic
3. Europa
4. R.I.P.R.A.W.
5. Run to the hills
6. Spooks
7. Original Material
8. Molina’s Theme
9. Mysterio
10. The Rage
11. End

Firstly, our friends at Sonar have decided to add more. If the Richie Hawtin/M-Nus 10th Birthday showcase wasn’t enough, they’ve only gone and added everyone’s favourite Chilean Ricardo Villalobos, deep disher Dubfire and Efdemin! Also Soulwax have been added as part of their “Weekend Never Dies”/”Most of the Remixes” tour. Probably my favourite addition is version 3 of the DJ Yoda audio visual extravaganza, yep the man will be presenting his Magic Cinema Show this year. Can’t wait, every time i’ve seen him do his video thing it has been nothing short of spectacular.

NEW CONFIRMED ARTISTS FOR SÓNAR 2008
Soulwax (live/BE)
Dubfire (DJ set/US)
Ricardo Villalobos (DJ set/CL)
DJ Yoda’s Magic Cinema Show (DJ set/UK)
The Black Dog (live/uk)
Quiet Village (live/UK)
Oscar Mulero (DJ set/ES)
Two PIAS DJs (DJ set/ES)

SHOWCASES
Dial Records presents:
Pantha Du Prince (live/DE)
Efdemin (DJ set/DE)

More info and tickets from www.sonar.es

A bit closer to home Renaissance are pulling out all the stops on their third attempt on UK festival Wild in the Country. They’ve got a M-Nus arena with Hawtin, they’ve got Sasha, they’ve got Tenaglia and 2ManyDjs. All the big guns are there, plus some big names in small letters such as Carl Craig, MANDY, Ame and Dixon. And to top it there are a load of bands which have ‘The’ at the start of their names which are probably massive on the nu-rave skins house party circuit. This year’s live headliner comes in a tiny little Icelandic package called Bjork whos been getting rave reviews currently, take a look for yourself. So if you’re gonna go to a UK festival Wild in the Country is my recommendation. Apart from the rain last year the festival was spot on. The 3 arenas were decked out immaculately and gave that element of intimacy if you could ever imagine large festival tents doing so. The lineup so far is:

For your chance to win tickets to Cocoon at The Warehouse Project on the 3^rd May, send your answer to the following questions along with your name to sublevelsessions@googlemail.com. The competition closes 22^nd April 2008 and is open to UK residents only.

What country is Ricardo Villalobos from?

a) Germany

b) Chile

c) Uzbekistan

Tie breaker question: Josh Wink released the track Superfreak. What makes you a super freak?

Saturday 3rd May /// Cocoon
Ricardo Villalobos
Josh Wink
Raresh

£17.50 advance ///
9:30 pm – 5am

Buy Tickets Here

Samim – The Lick
Samim divided opinion last year with his summer gypsy house hit heater with unexpected plays from claude von stroke right through to jo wiley. Some loved its quirky fun sampling which caused them to do hybrid folk/square/gypsy dances. Others hated the track also for the quirky accordion sample which made people do silly hybrid folk/square/gypsy dances. Either way it brought Samim to everyone’s attention. His follow up or more so the next track he’s releasing is also another quirky one. It takes on a wobbly breakbeat with some Justin Timberlake style lyrics. In fact this track could pass for some kind of Justin Timberlake/Missy Elliot collaboration. As it shifts from its starting breakbeat rhythm to a house friendly 4/4, elements of bollywood percussion and strings filter through. It’s a strange combination, but it seems to work. I can’t imagine the Berlin elite playing this, but I can see the likes of Mehdi et al dropping its quirky rhythms.

If quirky hip house vocals aint you’re thing, then Derrick Carter is here to save the day. He pumps the track up full of chi-town boompty, placing itself somewhere between the Chicago jacking and the fidget sound that Switch pounds out. Derrick cuts and chops the samples up and rearranges them in a haphazard order which creates a bum shaking groove. For those that don’t like the full on hip house vocals, there is a dub which dials down on the words. So everyone can be pleased. Well apart from the deep house and minimal fans. But the Carter mix is full of so much energy you can’t help but love it. 7.5/10

Buy The Lick from Beatport

King unique – Hinode

This is the first I’ve heard from King Unique since their days on the old Junior label. These days the
boys have been putting their tracks out on their own label Curfew with Hinode being the 8^th release.
Hinode is a mix of epic synth sweeps combined with your typical crunchy electro minimal sound. The only description that comes to mind about this track is a poor mans Holden remix of The Sky Was Pink. It is nearly identical in its elements, yet King Unique fail to execute correctly. The beat structure just seems run of the mill, whilst the sweeping synths build to a quite corny faithless trance high. Fergie has a fair attempt at salvaging the package with his techno roller which has plenty of groove and fidget to make any dancefloor move. However this track lacks identity with its typical fidgety minimal techno shuffle. It will rock the floors but will most likely be swept away in the wash of all the other “minimal” tracks out there. 5/10

Subb-an – corridors ep

You’d have thought Subb-an and his Corridors EP would be hailing from on the pulse Berlin, but in fact the young whippersnapper is hailing all the way from Birmingham of all places. How is this possible you might ask? Birmingham is full of trendy mullets, a penchant for the funkiest of funky house and was once the epicentre of all things hard house. Well for the best part you’d be right, but away from the vomit lined gutters of Broad Street lies a party known as Below. Its here where the young Subb-an has been cutting his teeth at Birmingham’s answer to Circo Loco at DC-10.

Corridors is made up of four tracks poking in at the house genre from all sides. Moscow Fighting is a winding moody house track laced with random stabs of a piercing piano. The track slowly progresses with the winding siren synths becoming more and more intense, coupled with the piercing piano through the breaks of the synth makes this track a haunting deep house monster.

Quadroon follows a similar formula to Moscow fighting but flips it round using bright warm synths which shift and phase in over the course of the track leading up to a singular crescendo at the back end. I can really imagine this track slotting nicely into the Below warm up regime during their infamous Birmingham day time BBQs.

The EP is finished off with Poloma another deep house affair which takes a moody approach with its dubby bassline. Unfortunately I find this track quite forgettable out of the lot, yet I can imagine the bassline could really pulsate through a crowd on a larger sound system. It is this bassline that the Ralph Swilinski mix has picked up on, beefing it up and making it angry. The growling bassline dances around a shifting pattern of percussion samples keeping the track simple but strangely infectious with its groove. A great slice of dub tech house if such a genre exists, making this track the standout on the EP. 7/10

Itmar Sagi – Black Gold

Itmar Sagi drops a ballsy Detroit-esque techno track which bubbles synths over a growling bassline. Funk D’Void used this track to kick of his Sci Fi Hi Fi 4 mix and quite rightly so. The track starts ballsy but slowly elevates through a wispy cloudy foreground created by the string synths.

Sammuel L Sessions transforms the track into a techno roller, looping the strings to hypnotise the listener. The loops work creating a dark Fabric room 2 sound which ticks over nicely, but doesn’t provide enough progression to keep it interesting. On the other hand Chymera’s mix is quirky and off beat. Drip feeding you samples of the strings over a dub style break beat before spitting you out the other end in a wash of breathy sweeps.

All three tracks are different with their own take on techno but all three sound fresh; definitely worth a purchase to bring a breath of fresh air to your sets. 8/10