FEBRUARY 2008/INTERVIEW/MICHEL BAUMANN FROM MANMADE SCIENCE
You’ve been producing under various guises including Jackmate and SoulPhiction for the best part of 12 years, what first lead you into production? Who inspired you within the world of music at the time?
I was playing around with instruments, turntables and tape-decks since a very early age, but my initial decision to actually finish a track and send it to a label was in 1996 when C-Rock of the Stir 15 label heard some tracks in my studio and asked me for a demo; that led to my first two 12"s as Jackmate back in 1996/97. My influence to make house tracks was, and still is, the early Chicago and Detroit sound. Artists like Lil Louis, Larry Heard, Derrick May, Ron Hardy and Electrifying Mojo tapes from our American friends had a great influence, as well as Hip-Hop and also EBM, which was heavy in the 80s here in Stuttgart.
After working as a type of solo producer for all these years what made you want to work in collaboration with Benjamin and Nik under the Manmade Science banner? Is it easier to produce as a collective ensemble?
We have all been friends for years and all have our certain ways of DJing and producing, so to begin with we just started to jam... I’m not really a band person, so I was kind of surprised at how smoothly it went and so we continued from there. After quite a short time and our first releases on Philpot we got our first gig at the Stuttgart Jazz Open 2005; that was the moment when we started to become serious about it.
As you’ll no doubt be aware your output in many of your guises including the Manmade Science album is compared to that of Kenny Dixon Jnr. – whilst this is obviously a compliment do you ever find it frustrating to have the sum of your efforts diluted in such a way?
I see it as a compliment as well as a burden, ‘cause really the most we’ve got in common is that we both make House Music! It shouldn’t bother me, that people don´t really seem to know about the culture of House Music, its history, the roots, whatever… Kenny Dixon as well as Theo Parrish or us are just continuing in that tradition....there´s not so many people doing that, so if that means we must be compared to each other so it be...I don´t care, I love ‘em both! It should be noted though that House Music isn´t slowed down "Minimal" with strings!
How necessary are the often bandied about terms such as "click" and "minimal" within dance music to describe something that is essentially techno in your opinion?
Nowadays the term "minimal" describes, for me at least, the total absence of soul or sexiness...so I better know that before I listen to the record! I guess those terms are necessary for marketing people, but it is all techno...if it´s not really different, name it different, so maybe people will recognize it. Minimal for me (originally) was Rob Hood, DBX, that kinda stuff. For me it’s more interesting nowadays to examine the use of the term ‘House Music’ (see above!).
Having experienced the music industry from many angles including a period working in a record shop, producing your own music, DJing and being a fan and a buyer of records have the changes brought about by the digitalization of music made you feel more or less positive about the future of the industry?
We (as Philpot-Records) don’t care so much about the industry! Really to think today that you can make big money from vinyl is absurd... vinyl will always be there, as long as there are pressing plants, but it isn’t a real part of the industry anymore. What I really dislike about the digi-formats is that people don’t really care about real quality! Some people play recorded 96 Kbps MP3s from MySpace at a club! Others share my album on soulseek at 128 Kbps… I don´t care about the sharing all that much, as long it’s not for commercial use or in a forum, but I hate to produce on proper equipment to get a proper sound and then have people lame it down to 10% of what it was... just respect the art !! Personally I use digital and analog equally in the studio, but I use vinyl to play in the clubs.
Do you consume music in the same way as you used to? Do you still buy physical product?
For sure!!!! I’ll support vinyl to my or its death and beyond, it’s the media of my lifetime! (But I also buy CDs sometimes).
Arguably your work and that of a handful of other European producers such as Simbad and Red Nose Distrikt attempts to bridge the distance between Detroit hip hop and Detroit techno, yet in the US the scenes and sounds are still often quite disparate, why do you think that is?
As SoulPhiction I try to merge all my influences from hip-hop and dub to electronic music to jazz....Detroit is just a part of that...but I feel the music has got the same roots, and basically I like drums and bass ...! I don’t know if the two scenes are always disparate, I mean Amp Fiddler introduced Jay Dee to using an MPC...and he also worked with Kenny Dixon and others. Hip Hop is also using a lot of synthetic sounds today, so sometimes a, for example, Dilla track can also have a kinda Rave quality.
Do you think the semi-imagined, almost romantic otherness that Europeans feel about Detroit and Americans feel about Europe creates part of the musical myth?
Detroit ain´t no romantic myth for me and I guess that changes for everyone who´s ever traveled there, but I do feel Europeans relate to Detroit-artists with a kinda imagined ghetto-style, so the artist and the music seems more authentic to them… inner-city Detroit is partly horrible though, for sure, but to my knowledge, there´s not so many Detroit-artists actually living in downtown Detroit today. Anyway, maybe because of all this I love white labels, because I just want to care for the music, and not where an artist comes from.
The album ‘One’ works as a story from beginning to end yet has disparate pieces that appeal to the dancefloor; was this simultaneous appeal deliberate? How did you go about creating it?
The reason for the variety of styles is that we mostly jam with each other, and each of us has got his own prior styles...while Nik is mostly into the more acoustic and vocal stuff, Phlegmatic and I love the early House era... and we all share a heavy addiction to quality Disco and danceable R&B, so the mixture of that made it onto the album, while the 12"s are more club-related.
Which is your favourite cut from the album?
Definitely "Chicago Sidewalks", ‘cause it’s got that sonic tension and atmosphere that is very sexy to me and the sax from John Thrower perfectly blends with the track.
Who do you tip to break through in 2008?
It’s got to be one of our Philpot Artists! His name is Tim Toh and that youngster is a miracle to me, so raw, so tense… I also hope Patrice Scott and Reggie Dokes Records will find their way into every DJ’s bag!
I was playing around with instruments, turntables and tape-decks since a very early age, but my initial decision to actually finish a track and send it to a label was in 1996 when C-Rock of the Stir 15 label heard some tracks in my studio and asked me for a demo; that led to my first two 12"s as Jackmate back in 1996/97. My influence to make house tracks was, and still is, the early Chicago and Detroit sound. Artists like Lil Louis, Larry Heard, Derrick May, Ron Hardy and Electrifying Mojo tapes from our American friends had a great influence, as well as Hip-Hop and also EBM, which was heavy in the 80s here in Stuttgart.
After working as a type of solo producer for all these years what made you want to work in collaboration with Benjamin and Nik under the Manmade Science banner? Is it easier to produce as a collective ensemble?
We have all been friends for years and all have our certain ways of DJing and producing, so to begin with we just started to jam... I’m not really a band person, so I was kind of surprised at how smoothly it went and so we continued from there. After quite a short time and our first releases on Philpot we got our first gig at the Stuttgart Jazz Open 2005; that was the moment when we started to become serious about it.
As you’ll no doubt be aware your output in many of your guises including the Manmade Science album is compared to that of Kenny Dixon Jnr. – whilst this is obviously a compliment do you ever find it frustrating to have the sum of your efforts diluted in such a way?
I see it as a compliment as well as a burden, ‘cause really the most we’ve got in common is that we both make House Music! It shouldn’t bother me, that people don´t really seem to know about the culture of House Music, its history, the roots, whatever… Kenny Dixon as well as Theo Parrish or us are just continuing in that tradition....there´s not so many people doing that, so if that means we must be compared to each other so it be...I don´t care, I love ‘em both! It should be noted though that House Music isn´t slowed down "Minimal" with strings!
How necessary are the often bandied about terms such as "click" and "minimal" within dance music to describe something that is essentially techno in your opinion?
Nowadays the term "minimal" describes, for me at least, the total absence of soul or sexiness...so I better know that before I listen to the record! I guess those terms are necessary for marketing people, but it is all techno...if it´s not really different, name it different, so maybe people will recognize it. Minimal for me (originally) was Rob Hood, DBX, that kinda stuff. For me it’s more interesting nowadays to examine the use of the term ‘House Music’ (see above!).
Having experienced the music industry from many angles including a period working in a record shop, producing your own music, DJing and being a fan and a buyer of records have the changes brought about by the digitalization of music made you feel more or less positive about the future of the industry?
We (as Philpot-Records) don’t care so much about the industry! Really to think today that you can make big money from vinyl is absurd... vinyl will always be there, as long as there are pressing plants, but it isn’t a real part of the industry anymore. What I really dislike about the digi-formats is that people don’t really care about real quality! Some people play recorded 96 Kbps MP3s from MySpace at a club! Others share my album on soulseek at 128 Kbps… I don´t care about the sharing all that much, as long it’s not for commercial use or in a forum, but I hate to produce on proper equipment to get a proper sound and then have people lame it down to 10% of what it was... just respect the art !! Personally I use digital and analog equally in the studio, but I use vinyl to play in the clubs.
Do you consume music in the same way as you used to? Do you still buy physical product?
For sure!!!! I’ll support vinyl to my or its death and beyond, it’s the media of my lifetime! (But I also buy CDs sometimes).
Arguably your work and that of a handful of other European producers such as Simbad and Red Nose Distrikt attempts to bridge the distance between Detroit hip hop and Detroit techno, yet in the US the scenes and sounds are still often quite disparate, why do you think that is?
As SoulPhiction I try to merge all my influences from hip-hop and dub to electronic music to jazz....Detroit is just a part of that...but I feel the music has got the same roots, and basically I like drums and bass ...! I don’t know if the two scenes are always disparate, I mean Amp Fiddler introduced Jay Dee to using an MPC...and he also worked with Kenny Dixon and others. Hip Hop is also using a lot of synthetic sounds today, so sometimes a, for example, Dilla track can also have a kinda Rave quality.
Do you think the semi-imagined, almost romantic otherness that Europeans feel about Detroit and Americans feel about Europe creates part of the musical myth?
Detroit ain´t no romantic myth for me and I guess that changes for everyone who´s ever traveled there, but I do feel Europeans relate to Detroit-artists with a kinda imagined ghetto-style, so the artist and the music seems more authentic to them… inner-city Detroit is partly horrible though, for sure, but to my knowledge, there´s not so many Detroit-artists actually living in downtown Detroit today. Anyway, maybe because of all this I love white labels, because I just want to care for the music, and not where an artist comes from.
The album ‘One’ works as a story from beginning to end yet has disparate pieces that appeal to the dancefloor; was this simultaneous appeal deliberate? How did you go about creating it?
The reason for the variety of styles is that we mostly jam with each other, and each of us has got his own prior styles...while Nik is mostly into the more acoustic and vocal stuff, Phlegmatic and I love the early House era... and we all share a heavy addiction to quality Disco and danceable R&B, so the mixture of that made it onto the album, while the 12"s are more club-related.
Which is your favourite cut from the album?
Definitely "Chicago Sidewalks", ‘cause it’s got that sonic tension and atmosphere that is very sexy to me and the sax from John Thrower perfectly blends with the track.
Who do you tip to break through in 2008?
It’s got to be one of our Philpot Artists! His name is Tim Toh and that youngster is a miracle to me, so raw, so tense… I also hope Patrice Scott and Reggie Dokes Records will find their way into every DJ’s bag!
posted by blackathena at 3:54 pm
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