ΟΛΑ ΤΑ ΣΤΟΙΧΕΙΑ ΥΠΑΡΧΟΥΝ ΑΝΑΛΥΤΙΚΑ στο site www.ejekt.grμε εντυπωσιακό στήσιμο και τρομερό intro

Στα ολυμπιακά προπονητήρια, λαμβάνει χώρα το EjeKt και παρουσιάζει τα μεγαλύτερα ονόματα της electro/techno παγκόσμιας μουσικής σκηνής!
Οι Chemical Brothers σε ένα μοναδικό live με την παρουσίαση του καινούριου τους album «push the button», ενώ πριν το liveεμφανίζεται η Miss Kittin.Επίσης παίζουν Dave Clark και Christian Varela.
More info: www.ejekt.gr

TICKETS: presale 45, ταμείο 50

οι πόρτες ανοίγουν στις 16.00

POY EINAI???

DAVE CLARK
May 30th 2004 is a good day for Dave Clarke. At the Pink Pop Festival in Holland, the buzz of anticipation in the air before Clarkes live set is tangible; 8000 people rammed into the tent, twice as many as Starsailor pull for their show in the same slot. Clarke himself, beset with nerves and wearing, appropriately enough, a Dont Suck Corporate Cock tee-shirt, finally hits the stage to tumultuous applause. Technos man-in-black simply gets down to business with crunching versions of tracks from his latest album, Devils Advocate, alongside riveting takes on his seminal Red EPs. The crowd noise only grows throughout his performance, rising to a piercing calling sound at its peak. Afterwards, despite the presence of N.E.R.D., Lenny Kravitz and many other more traditional live acts on the bill, its Dave Clarkes performance that local radio stations vote the best of the festival.

Five singles into Devils Advocate, Dave Clarkes biggest buzz is playing live. Sure, hes the techno DJ with the hip hop cross-fader action, the man whos just as likely to play electro, booty bass or even Skinny Puppy, as straightforward four-to-the-floor, but its his live shows to over 150,000 people over the last year that are his current crowning achievement. A truly international DJ for whom a month might take in Japan, Australia, Malaysia and Singapore, as well as his most avid fan-bases in Belgium and Holland, hes now eager to deliver live across the globe. Hes done it for John Peel on BBC Radio One, hes done it for a mental 25,000 strong crowd in Brazil, and there will even be a live album out by the end of the year.

Id like to let it feedback, or set the keyboard on fire with lighter fluid, says Clarke keen to bring the same mischievous punk spirit to his live performances that he brought to Devils Advocate. "The heart and soul of that record, and the heart and soul of all the music Ive ever loved is darkness and attitude," he ventures. Hence the flinty hip hop, filthy electro and bass-heavy post-punk that is wound around techno and house throughout. "I was about nine years old when The Ruts and The Damned were about and I got the records. Theyre still references for me now. Machine Gun Etiquette by The Damned is still one of my favourite albums of all time. And I loved the way Bauhaus was gothy cool, not over-goth. I was very into that."
The gothy cool of Bauhauss Shes In Parties is the basis for a stand-out single from the album with vocal assistance from Berlins favourite daughters, Chicks On Speed. "Its a new song, written around the hook Shes In Parties," says Dave. "And we had a great time recording it." Clarke first met the Chicks seven years ago at the infamous Ultraschall club. "We had a few drunken nights out with DJ Hell and Upstart, drinking Cognac and bourbon, going to 80s soul clubs and playing chess. It sounds terribly communistic, doesnt it?"

Clarke has also pulled Chicago house lynchpin DJ Rush into the record, on the jack-track blastin opener Way Of Life. "Its a statement of intent," he says. "Id got so fucked off with people ripping of my Red stabs that I thought Id rip myself off one last time (Clarkes Red 1, 2 and 3 provide three of dance musics most recognisable anthems). Rush came over, gave me two hours of vocals which I cut and pasted into a single song." He also corralled politicised indie hip hopper Mr Lif onto the record.

"I saw him at the ICA and thought he was great. He comes from the heart." Lifs track, a screeching, slo-mo story of death and resurrection titled Blue On Blue highlights Clarkes hip hop roots and moves the record further away from the house and techno hes best known for. Theres even a reggae track, hidden away at the end, inspired by a fortuitous meeting in Londons equipment mecca, Funky Junk. "I was talking to the guy behind the counter, saying that the only reggae I could relate to was Mad Professor because its so precise but really laid-back. He was like Have you met him? Hes standing right behind you.

Devils Advocate was released on Brightons Skint Records, to which Clarke signed at Hove Dog Track in a celebratory ceremony that involved him presenting the prize at a greyhound race called The Dave Clarke Inaugural Techno Dash. It was all very light-hearted but, in reality, marked the end of a frustrating period for Clarke. He had previously been signed to Deconstruction who released his Archive One album in 1996, a tasty long-player similarly unconcerned with sticking to a pure techno agenda, but the deal ended in a legal twilight zone which put Clarkes recording career on hold. Where others would have given up or pandered to London media whims, Clarke did what he does best and knuckled down to DJing, building up the international reputation that stands him in good stead today.

In 2001, Clarke reminded all and sundry how far ahead of the game he was with the World Service compilation, featuring a still unbeaten new-school electro tracklisting - Hacker, Fischerspooner and Adult were all present and correct, some time before trendy London caught on. "There were loads of compilations that came out, six, twelve, even eighteen months later, all with a very similar tracklisting. It pissed me off. At that time, there was so much exciting music coming out and it wasnt being serviced by DJs or radio or the press." Obviously, the record-buying public agreed and they sold 70,000 copies.

Clarke is very much his own man now. He may have a reputation for cigars and cars, indeed, hes probably the only techno DJ with a humidor at home who also owns a double-glazed Mercedes S500, "for hacking up and down on motorways" as well as a brightly coloured Honda NSX. But its all rather irrelevant when you see him on stage behind his kit, enthusiasm bubbling over as one of his patent techno-laced crowd-movers shakes the building and everyone in it. Clarke has come a long way from the youngster living on £5 a day in Brighton, loving electronic music and wondering how hed ever make a living. These days hes a headlining DJ at Glastonbury and playing live at Creamfields but, much more importantly, he retains the same pure passion for music that has kept him going through the tough times and that so many have lost.

CHEMICAL BROTHERS + Intervew

CHEMICAL QUESTIONS, CHEMICAL ANSWERS, CHEMICAL TWISTS AND CHEMICAL NOW.

How is it now?

a. The new Chemical Brothers album Push The Button is, as it should be, the same as all their others, and totally different. It’s a follow up to their first album, and a follow up to their last album, and a follow up to the ones in between. One or two of their previous albums are a follow up to this one.

b. The same, because it is the Chemical Brothers, and they do what they have always done, build beats that become lead sounds and which battle with noises that pile in from how they imagine pop history to be, what they believe pop to be, a thing you dance to, a thing you get in the way of, a thing that happens abruptly, a thing that happens to itself, a thing that drives you into the future. The same, because this is what they do, grab noise, break beat all over it, invite singers in to add language and merge attitude, get real emotional about the way music can make the world go round, fast, faster, fastest, with a little bit of slow, a touch of gentle, a push of contemplation, a feast of effect.

c. Different, because the Brothers are not what they were, where they were, who they were, who we thought they were, who they thought they were. Different, because the way they compile time, rhythm, words, beats, slang, pulse, voice isn’t how they did it last time, or the time before, or the time before that, give or take the fact that they still like it loud, and they still like it heavy, and they still like to shriek, and they still like to locate a place where dream and reality meet at the slipping, sliding centre of sound.

d. It’s what they do, thinking up tracks, and songs, and instrumentals that they would like to have had available as DJ’s, sounds that sound like the sounds they would want to slip between something dead original and something that’s simply fun, between something inspiring and something that, in many ways, is just insane. It’s what they do, beginning an album with a warning, and then a threat, and then a promise, and then they get somewhere, and take it from there.

e. The way this track, or that track, with a title like Galvanize, or The Big Jump, or Shake Break Bounce builds up is supreme, perfectly done and impossible to imagine being done better.

f. The Chemical Brothers always did think for themselves.

How was it in the beginning?

a. There was history.

b. There was Public Enemy, Cabaret Voltaire, My Bloody Valentine, Renegade Soundwave, making big sounds across the universe, tearing up the neighbourhood of space, beating up the time of their lives, and there was Bob Dylan, the Smiths, the Cocteau Twins, somewhere between sound and word, coming down gently and driven on the sure side of song.

c. 2005. Push the Button is the same and different because it is braggy, brain banging and blissed in and out, the same and different because it is edited and extended by a couple of characters who have always believed in the same thing, whether they were nerd teenagers or nerd pop stars. The Brothers believe ! in the power of music to re-arrange mood at will.

d. 1988.There were two students who weren’t from Manchester but who were in Manchester, taking the same medieval history course at Manchester University. There was the music that they listened to when they were growing up, which we know for a fact included Kraftwerk, and very possibly Blue Oyster Cult.

e. Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons, who weren’t brothers but were both male, and found a love for each other somewhere inside the love they had for music. Ed, born in 1970, loved airplanes and musicals as a kid, and then loved New Order, Tom, born 1971, loved bagpipes as a kid, and then loved Heaven 17.

f. They went north to study, from South London and Kingston-Upon-Times, because of the Manchester music scene. They found themselves at their University, tripping back to the 12th Century, at a time when Manchester was the musical capital of the world – it was right in the middle of a renaissance, it was Detroit, San Francisco, Berlin, New York, Liverpool, Chicago, Nashville, Sheffield, beats and minds and history and midnights and grooves and pulses and dreams and speeds were cascading all around them.

g. Look – there’s Manchester’s Hacienda, which was a nightclub located in the Manchester that was all in the mind, a Manchester that was somewhere between the Sex Pistols at the Lesser Free Trade Hall 1976 where time started and the Chicago Warehouse where time was quadrupled, a Manchester that became the deep, rapid soul centre for all this blending and sending out of bliss and beat, of house, disco, hip hop, Italy, rare groove jazz, northern soul, hip-hop, and the alternative dance of those who’d just come through the door.

h. 2005. Push The Button is the same and different because there is still the city of Manchester clubbing the dance sounds of the past and future into life, there is still the DJ’s sense of if this happens, let’s try that next, there is still the confidence success brings that what they are doing works, because it is the same, but different, there is still a love for making music, even if people tend to expect revolution when sometimes all you want to do is programme the hell out of whatever the jams are.

i. 1989. Tom and Ed, mixed by Manchester, studying history where things happen because all sorts of things meet in the middle of where they happen to be, looked up at the DJ’s like Mike Pickering and Paul Oakenfold. They heard the DJ’s bringing music into the capital of the world from over there, out there, somewhere, bringing in music that had European energy, America energy, weird energy, and saw it transform the Mancunian atmosphere.

j. They would dance in fields at four in the morning to music that was punk, dub, African, chanty, trancy, smashed, smashing, psychotic, psychedelic all at once, in the same place, and, lo, they saw that the radical could make sense to the masses as long as it was wrapped around the beat, the beat that could be safe and comforting and warm and friendly even as the noise inside and out was ripping off the top of your head.

k. 2005. Push The Button sounds the same but different because you can hear this track, or that track, Hold Tight London, or Come Inside, coming in through the cold night air when everything is over, except the thing that happens next, and the Brothers use rhythm and sadness like they use rhythm and happiness, to make you happy, and make you sad, and blow your brains out.

l. 1990. It was that point in history when you didn’t necessarily have to be in a band to play the music you wanted to play, or be a DJ like some moron on the radio. Ed and Tom sort of formed a sort of group, a partnership interested in an intense mixture of sounds and noises that they wanted the rest of the world to hear, and this group was as influenced by the Hacienda DJ playing records as it was by Cabaret Voltaire making records.

m. 2005. Push The Button is the same but different, because after all that success, after all that invention and discovery, after all the accusations and suspicion, after the purist dismay that the group – or the fictional group disguised as something real – sold out on the straight road to crossover success, there’s still a sound, strapped to reverse sound, that makes you think of how Cabaret Voltaire, mixed with The Pop Group, juiced with Derrick May, might have ended up around 2005.

What happened then?

a. Public Enemy. The Beastie Boys. Revolutionary ways of matching nut case attack with mad fool sounds supernaturally stretched around the size of your life. A life which can sometimes be really really serious, and sometimes really really stupid, and sometimes both at the same time, with drums and knobs on.

b. An air raid siren.

c. Work it out for yourselves.

d. 1992.A chronological order that begins when the right pair of them gave themselves a name that was already taken. What were they thinking? Ed and Tom called themselves The Dust Brothers, after the production partnership that produced The Beastie Boys Paul’s Boutique. It was like calling yourself Sonic Youth or Swell Maps or Cluster, but then for a while what Ed and Tom were doing was just a hyper hobby, folded inside the mythed up mania of Manchester. They played, at a club called Naked Under Leather, as if they really had something to get off their madchest, hip hop breakdown/breakup/breakthrough, strange house, indie dance fusion, sounds from deep, dark under the ground of the obvious and the logical.

e. The new blood, dub and club brothers decided to make a record that they could play amongst all the records they were playing, a record that fitted into their party play list, that would slip by a little anonymously, succeeding because it didn’t stick out, just another strange combination of drum, space and sample kicked, clicked and tricked into the never ending night time.

f. Song To The Siren. Using a random collection of basic technology in the bedroom that became a recording studio, they built up their own sound imagining a looped place where one different thing had something in common with another different thing, which created a third different thing which had something in common etc. There was the industrial, there was the ethereal, and in the gap between the two, at the edges around where they met, there was a chemical reaction where one thing led to another.

g. Released on the Diamond label, because that was Ed’s nickname, 500 copies of the Song To The Siren record caught the attention of the right kind of people, the DJ’s who were musicians, or who had labels, who didn’t care that the tracks beats per minute – a wonderfully odd 111 – didn’t fit into the fashionable routines of the time. Prime time music connoisseur stroke music archaeologist stroke London DJ Andrew Weatherall considered it a classic, knowing that the next big thing is never going to sound like the same old thing. He signed it to his own Junior Boy’s Own label.

h. 2005. Push The Button is the same but different, because the Brothers put one thing with another thing to make another thing altogether, and then they put that thing with another thing, and they get somewhere, at some various rates of beats per minute.

i. 1993. The duo passed their exams. They did their first remixes, for Lionrock, Leftfield and Republica. They took their Manchester, and their music, with them down to London, clubbed and mixed and recorded some more, still Dust, still Brothers, still discovering ways to pack destabilising, anarchic noise over the top of locked, locking beats, still exploring areas where the strange could be deeply satisfying. A couple more ep’s, 14th Century Sky and My Mercury Mouth, where the heroic, entertaining and the romantic clashed swords and heads with the harsh, the dangerous and the uncertain.

j. 14th Century Sky contained Chemical Beats, and this is where the duo signed themselves in at the door, with a ferocious flourish, as original stylists, as their own men, where they defined a sound, that became a genre, that became a style to copy, steal, rip off, rewire, reroute, tart up, invert, divert, chop up and turn up. They found their sound: it was there in the clubs, in the fields, in the bedroom, in the record shops, in the air, in the past, in Manchester, in the future, a combination of wildness and precision, certainty and sensationalism, the old and the new. It just needed close brothers to claim it.

Is the rest history?

a. Yes.

b. It can be written up as history, as this leading to that, and that becoming this.

c. 1994. The Dust Brothers, the two industrious students from Manchester who’d drummed up Chemical Beats, became resident DJ’s at the Albany pub in London’s Great Portland Street. They were in one way just playing records they liked, but the way they displayed their love for music and their understanding of the way sound could fit together in novel, liberating ways was the equivalent of a band putting together their influences in the way they wrote and played music. Listeners, customers, musicians flocked. Rock met dance, dance met noise, noise met beat, and the illusory division between rock and dance was finally totally shattered.

d. The atmosphere was dense with haze, phase, and stunned dynamic. The Dust Brothers at this club in a pub basement during the summer and autumn of 1994, with the myth making name of Heavenly Sunday Social, has entered legend, and confirmed that it was in the world of dance where the most ground breaking and forward thinking ideas were being uncovered – by looking outside boundaries, and snobbery, and simply pursuing a thrilling musical idea as far as it would go before it spilled over the edge into obscurity and chaos.

e. Lawyers for the original Dust Brothers pointed out that this dancing town wasn’t big enough for the both of the Dust Brothers, Rowland and Simons were compelled to change their name. Chemical Beats gave them their name, although Ed’s grandmother favoured The Grit Brothers. The thing is, they were still brothers, despite the American lawyers, and word on the streets, and there was such a word, was so good, it really didn’t matter that Dust had become Chemical. People wanted the sound, not the name.

f. 2005. Push The Button is the same and different, because there’s no sense of following any of the fashions of the moment, no sense of turning to this style or that dynamic because it’s in temporary favour, there’s just a sense of following through on what has always appealed, a way of cracking together 23 Skidoo, Public Enemy and Traffic, or A Certain Ratio, Flaming Lips and Todd Rundgren, and sometimes this puts them ahead of the game, sometimes at the edge of the game, sometimes in a world of their own, which sometimes coincides with the world lots of other people inhabit.

g. 1995. The damned irresistible thing that the Chemicals had concocted, out of tradition and modernity, energy and tranquillity, volume and tension, hooks and pile driving fury, got christened – Big Beat – and an instant faithful following. The splintering, flailing, infectious music the brothers played in their Social club flipped over into the music on their debut album Exit Planet Dust. There was no loss of furious, looped energy between the dance floor and your hi-fi or the radio. World’s collided like they do in your bedroom, or in a club, and now your iPod, a musical universe where everything can happen at once. Where speaker stomping tapped hip hop distortion can run into bulldozing slabs of punk guitar and smash through high walls of funk and flash at the edge of electronic distress and fight inside dark disco and race past titanic techno might.

h. The two brothers were a group without a lead singer, they were lead singers in a group that didn’t have a lead singer. As much as anyone they developed the formula for using a variety of singers on an album – if only to ensure they weren’t making purely instrumental music, and also because they got the chance to represent the vocal variety of some of the music they played as DJ’s.

i. Edge said the album was his favourite of the year, Norman Cook was inspired to become a sort of dark, jolly cousin to the brothers, his well dusted Fatboy fantasy eating up piled up plates of sweetened, saucy Big Beat. The Chemical’s dirty, lusty party starting debut album was a careering collage of heart hitting beats, funny, freaky samples, diabolical detours and sensational short cuts through the musical decades, which came shooting at you in deranged order. It was the kind of big time big success big change debut that meant that everything the Chemical Brothers now did would carry the expectancy of significance.

j. The years passed, and Ed and Tom would appear in photographs representing the Chemical Brothers, but really what you wanted was a photograph of the sound. The years passed, and they rode on top of the years, as they passed, into the cool, from bedroom to club to festival to stadium, into the heat, it was roller coaster, 1995, 1996, 1997, the years passed, and then the Chemical Brothers were million selling, Grammy winning, chart busting, pop star remixing, catch phrasing, thumping, soaring mainstream heroes.

k. However you defined the holy trinity of British rock-dance icons, The Chemical Brothers were an unshakeable part of it – New Order, Primal Scream, Chemical Brothers, or Underworld, Prodigy, Chemical Brothers, or The Orb, 808State and The Chemical Brothers. Exit Planet Dust would be named in top tens of the most important electronic albums of all time, alongside the follow up Dig Your Own Hole, alongside Eno, Kraftwerk, DJ Shadow, Massive Attack and Bjork.

l. When The Chemical Brothers are on top of their game, it is hard for anyone in their genre to touch them.

m. The Chemical Brothers would crash together Chemical Beats with the Beatles Tomorrow Never Knows as an encore during their live shows. Tomorrow Never was an example of the studio Beatles feeding on the conceptual thrust of electronic pioneer Stockhausen and the art movement Fluxus, distorting time and stretching sound to represent their state of mind and their surreal position at the centre of the universe. This Beatles, who came alive in the studio, which became for a while their refuge from the pop religion madness, fed directly into the brains of the brothers, and it became Setting Sun, 1996, with Noel Gallagher, not a sample of Tomorrow Never Knows but a sort of psycho-jazz, ghost modern repositioning, an infusion of tribute, update, rewrite, remix.

n. Gallagher played the role all guests tend to play on a Chemical Brothers track – cameos by Beth Orton, Tim Burgess, Richard Ashcroft, Mercury Rev’s Jonathan Donahue, Bobby Gillespie, Bernard Sumner and Gallagher bring to the Brothers important news from other worlds. The Brothers use rock, pop, folk and cult singers, and the personal words and melodies that they bring with them, to give their fantastic, randomly enriched collages important, grounding elements of the song.

o. Push the Button is the same but different, because there’s Tim Burgess, just where the Chemical Brothers like and want him, reminding us of something, but suggesting something else, and now here’s Q-tip bagging a posse, showing off his figure, and here’s Anwar Superstar wagging a finger, counting out the ways. The guest vocalists are honorary Chemical Brothers, even when they are sisters. The beats that are used are honorary brothers, or sisters, and occasionally, honorary Chemical Animals.

p. Setting Sun became one of the strangest, most deranged, and yet mesmerising number one pop hits of all time. The greatest pop hit of the year. From this particular biographers perch, the greatest thing Noel ever did, an imagined Beatles as subversive sonic tricksters replayed in the post-everything world, not simply a rewearing of the clothes, an adoption of the poses, a smirking of the riffs.

q. 1997. Block Rockin’ Beats, as if they were now the Block Rockin’ Brothers, at block rockin’ number one again, identifying the enemy as the dull and the sentimental, organising themselves as an attack force on the obvious and the sanitised. One number one might have been a fluke: two was sheer strategy. The arch samplers found themselves, a little on the anonymous side, sampling pop fame.

r. The second album Dig Your Own Hole was, boom boom boom, a dance album, full of fun, fury and all those beats, laid out as a landscape of joy, and layered with layers of repetition and variation, slanted towards the definitely physical, but it was also an ingenious electronic album that used the studio, machines, programmes, plug ins, and accumulating experience to create a time shifting, space rocking, sense splitting surroundsound that ecstatically explored musical history. Hip hop could exist in the 60s, psychedelia was invented after De La Soul, computers had the blues, glam was from Mars, and punk only happened after Nine Inch Nails. You could move to it, like your dreams were on fire, and it was quite terrifically moving.

s. Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top, of all fabulous people, said: “Chemical Brothers – man, I’m tellin’ you, track five and track nine on Dig Your Own Hole. Those things are slayin’ me. Plus there’s just enough room for a greasy blues guitar – I think I know who could supply it.” Yee-hah !

t. 1999. The third album Surrender was all their own work again, and this included handling all the celebrity guests, which tested the patience of some people, but not Blue Peter, who placed a copy of the CD inside their third time capsule, buried in January 2000, revealing themselves as unlikely supporters of hedonism and hybrid pop with a hard on. They must have thought it was a loveable record, and indeed underrated, and in many ways it was, the newer influence in the Brothers box being how they had absorbed the new indie music that was being made that was itself influenced by electronic music. (Some might suggest that Blue Peter actually buried their Millenium time capsule in 1998, and the cd inside was The Spice Girls, but what do they know.)

u. Push The Button is the same but different because it is influenced by many of the things the Chemicals music has itself influenced.

v. 2002. Their fourth album Come With Us. Beth’s back, and Ashcroft. Fatboy mixes the Chemicals. The world keeps turning, and sounds as good as ever. The beat might not be as big, as braggy, but it’s no less a mind turning occasion.

w. 2003. The Chemical Brothers are, more or less, ten years old. A collection of singles and so on is released, and displays the group – are they a group, or just a behind the scenes way of being in full view – as exactly the kind of operation – are they an operation, or simply timekeepers – that would remix both Mercury Rev and Kylie Minogue. A group – or a piece of mind – whose battles were electronic, whose intentions were spatial, whose dimensions were distinct, whose actions were bold.

x. 2005. Just when you thought they must be running out of energy . . .

How do the Chemical Brothers make you feel?

a. Like a big bad motherfucker with a gun in your hands.

b. Like you now fully understand how drums, the sound of, the sampling of, the recording of, the fucking with, made all the difference to how the 20th century sounded.

c. You love them like brothers.

d. That music is energy in the air.

e. Wondering what there is in a minor chord that makes us weep.

f. Like tearing the stars from their orbits.

g. We look out upon the world through a refracting, twisting, distorting medium, so that nothing is what it seems, and were it not for mathematical relations, we should be in a universe of dissolving dreams. But they are everlastingly true. They are the rock-ribbed realities which hold together the shifting, vanishing phenomena of existence. Change your point of view as you may, they are undisturbed.

h. Everyone loves music!

i. Good cyberpunk soundtrack music can combine elements of traditional rebellious rock or punk, rap-style singing and electronic sound effects and sampling which seem to have penetrated every genre of music recently.

j. They like New Order, and Push The Button finishes with Surface to Air, which makes you consider just how great a group New Order were, and just how great The Chemical Brothers are for knowing this, and being able to do something about it musically.

k. That your five favourite Chemical Brothers tracks were 1. The Private Psychadelic Reel 2. Block Rockin’ Beats 3 Out of Control 4. Leave Home 5. Hey Girl Hey Boy, and how that is going to change because of this track or another on Push the Button.

l. Brutal and beautiful.

m. 2005, where a lot of music sounds like the Chemical Brothers, because the Chemical brothers sound like the Chemical Brothers.

MISS KITTIN

CHILDHOOD
Born in 1973 in Grenoble, a medium town in the Alps, south east of France. Due to my young parents, music was everywhere at home, from Genesis, Supertramp, Miles Davis, Philadelphia Sound, Maria Callas, Pink Floyd and of course, The Beatles. I remember my Mum doing the housekeeping on Vivaldi’s 4 seasons... Around 6, I was often playing piano for fun at my grand-parents’, reproducing melodies from the radio. They decided to pay me lessons but I gave up after 2 years. I also practiced ballet from 5 years old to 22.

STUDIES
After a high school degree in economy in 90, I studied art, first in Marseille in 91, then in the Beaux-Arts of Grenoble specialized in contemporary art in 93-94. I finished my cycle in graphic design in Amiens in 95, north of France before starting my full time DJ job.

RAVE REVELATION
I first got in touch with electronic music in a new-wave club in Grenoble, where I met The Hacker. For New Years Eve 90, came a DJ team from Valencia, playing *Bacalao*, this Spanish commercial techno-dance. The club became quickly a dance club, where the DJ played U96, 2 Unlimited, Usura or Transformer 2. I needed money and offered a go-go dancer attraction to the boss, never topless, just entertainers like in Ibiza. The 1st guest-DJs I’ve seen were Jack De Marseille, Anthony and Jeff Valle. One week later, my friends and I went to our 1st rave party: a revelation. KLF, LFO, Aphex Twin, Autechre and the 1st Warp big releases became our home soundtracks. The French Alps became one of the most exciting party scene in the country.
1993 was the rave madness, driving around the country with Belgian club tapes and DJ sets loud, living for weekends, searching for outstanding DJs to dance on. We had our best party memories like Borealis #1 in Montpellier and the Spiral Tribe wild night near Orly airport in Paris, freshly escaped from the Criminal Justice Bill in UK. Shortly after, the tribe stayed in our hometown, setting up memorable illegal parties in the woods. Liza N/Eliaz or Electric Indigo became local heroes. Nostalgia, craziness and freedom describe perfectly this happy wild time we all miss.

1ST STEPS
In 94, I did my 1st mix at my boyfriend’s, actually due to a funny arguement about his technique. He missed a mix, I explained my point of view, he took it bad and told me to do it myself. I succeeded in my 1st try. Thinking it was easy, so naive I was, I bought my 1st records: Richie Hawtin’s Fuse, Robert Hood *Protein Valve* on M plant, Pizzaman...
Still at school, we founded with a bunch of students "Swift Tuttle", a collective offering rave decorations, so we could party for free and earn pocket money. We organized our 1st illegal party in an old military fort in the mountains. I played records for the 1st time in the chill out room on the unique no-pitch turntable. It/s also the 1st time the name "Miss Kittin" appeared on a flyer.
3 months later, I officially played in my 1st party with Eric Rug, Bertrand and Miloch, I had no turntables at home but a plastic box with 20 records. I was missing school to train at a friend’s before a gig. After a 3 months job as a cashier in a big supermarket, I bought my 2nd hand pair of Technics from a radio station. I still use them today. I entered Tekmics booking agency created by my friend Miloch.
In 95 and 96, I started to play a lot in the country, 1st in the famous Dragon Bal illegal raves of south of France, but also in Chicago for Mike Dearborn and in Moscow. After conflicts at school, I decided to stop my studies, as DJing was already my half-time job. During summertime I met DJ Hell in Marseille, he just started his label "International Dj Gigolo", I played him a tape with 808 loops I did for fun at some friends/in Geneva, he asked for more.
Back to Grenoble, I called the Hacker, we recorded Frank Sinatra at Kiko/s studio above his record store. We sent it out to DJ Hell, without any other track on a tape. Few weeks later, he was already playing a dub plate of it. He invited me in Munich to play at the legendary Ultraschall club. It was my very 1st visit to Germany.

THE RISING YEARS
End of 96 I moved to Paris, sharing a very special house with Sex Toy, Rachid Taha, and owners of the now famous gay club Le Pulp. The Hacker and me recorded "Frank Sinatra" for DJ Hell’s label. I started to hang around half of the time in Geneva with my friends from Mental Groove records/shop.
Summer 97, I left Paris for Geneva. I worked for a few months at the Mental Groove record shop.
The Hacker and me finally released our 1st EP "Champagne!" on Gigolo, with a total of 8 tracks composed while I passed by Grenoble. I immediately started to play more in Germany, as a new member of Gigolo-Disko B booking agency.
In 98, the track "1982" from "Champagne! EP" had an unexpected success, 1st because of promo copies spread over Berlin to underground DJs. That/s where we performed our 2nd live ever, at Suicide club. Few months later, Westbam closed the Love Parade with this track in front of 1 million people. And we began to tour non-stop all around Europe.
In 99, we performed live at the famous mega rave Mayday in Dortmund, Germany: 30,000 people. We released our 2nd EP "Intimites" on Gigolo. I had propositions to collaborate with several musicians for my lyrics.
In 2000, we had our most important gig in Barcelona for Sonar, the advanced music festival. It changed my way of performing, creating an interraction between the audience and us. I had my 2nd visit at Mayday as a DJ. I met Felix Da Housecat in a Swiss festival, next day we were composing "Silver Screen Shower Scene" and "Madame Hollywood" in a small friend/s studio in Geneva.

2001: THE CELEBRATION
Miss Kittin and The Hacker finally release their 1st album on Gigolo. My voice appears on a song with Steve Bug, an album with Felix Da Housecat, an album with my Zurich friend Goldenboy. I am suddenly welcome in France after 5 years of abscence. I took my 1st holidays in 3 years. After shooting the video of "Je t/aime moi non plus" Serge Gainsbourg cover with Sven Vath, I decided to move to Berlin.

2002: BUSINESS IS RUNNING
I started an A and R consultant job at Mute Records Germany since September 2002, and a non-regular show for Laurent Garnier’s web radio PBB on www.laurentgarnier.com also since Sept.2002
I recorded a song with Tricky in L.A, and got back to rock’n’roll.
I experienced lives and DJ sets on festival’s big stages, mainly with The Hacker, before we decided to do a break after the feeling being on tour since the last 5 years! Benicassim festival in Spain was definately the absolute pick time of the year.
It was time to focus on my solo project, stop any kind of live performances, big interview features, DJing only once a week mostly in my 3 residencies in Geneva, Zurich, and Barcelona.
For Christmas, I got a nice present: www.misskittin.com was born!

2003: BERLIN
I found my home, got closer to the scene and supporting it.
I started to work on my album, helped by two sound engineers: Tobi Neumann and Thies Mynther aka "Glove", who previously worked with the Chicks On Speed. That/s actually how I met them, after composing the "Cheek shaving" song for the girls, and recording lyrics for Steve Bug. I also collaborated on "The game is not over" for Berlin/s Shitkatapult label boss T.Raumschmiere.
I discovered two amazing countries, 1st Brasil, then Australia for a very special live tour with The Hacker as we/ve never played there before.
I created my own label "Nobody/s bizzness" to release my finished album and keep the maximum freedom with my music. I started to make music on my own, mostly on the road on my computer. Ellen Allien/s "Alles Sehen" remix was my 1st track totally done by myself ever released.
As a DJ, I achieved anything I could dream of, playing among my heroes in the best parties and places ever.
I accepted a new residency in Sven Vath/s Cocoon club in Frankfurt opening in spring 2004!

ABOUT MY STYLE
DJ is my main activity, working every weekend in clubs or festivals since 1994. I started with hard techno-acid sounds: Drop Bass Network, Analog, Interr-Ferrence, Force Inc, SP23, to Detroit and experimental techno. I figured out it expressed my late teenage aggressivity. With experience, I got musically softer and more open-minded.
Actually I play everything that entertains me: minimal, deep, to kicking techno, mixed with funny our leftfield tunes, classics, electro, no matter what it is. That’s why I hardly can describe my style. A 2h monotone set really bores me. If I don’t have fun myself, I’m not able to please people.
DJing must be, in a way, something selfish. I shout it loud: I don’t do it for the people. I never pretended to educate the audience, I just share a big part of me, taking it as serious as I love it. Michael Mayer (Kompakt records, Cologne) said: "Taking it serious about having fun." Because 1st it’s a job, and we should never forget being paid to give pleasure to people is a great privilege. If the risks I take in my sets are my trademark, my priority is still to make dance the ones who make my living. Question of respect.
I think I have a sharp technique, pitch-control born in my acid times, I consider my best weapon to focus on musical choices.
I love playing records, it’s probably the best thing I know to do in life. I do it because it’s big fun and it makes me free, it even turns into a meditation kind of thing. With records, nothing is planned, every record is important. I often compares a DJ set to a tennis game where each ball counts. But people know me more for my voice even if I never took singing lessons.

AS A WOMAN
We can’t help the DJ starification. If I’m against it, because we are basically "record pushers", people always needed icons. As a woman, I’m proud to be in the minority. I can’t say I was a direct macho-victim but it’s true, we mostly earn less than men, and I saddly think you rarely succeed if you are fat and uggly. It’s a common fact. When we DJ,1st people will pay attention to our appearance, figure, clothes, make up. If "male DJs" are sexually more successfull when famous, it’s undirectly not the case for us. As we can consider the "groupie effect" as a girl thing, men may fantasm on us, they mostly are too scared to approach us, and it’s really fine for me!!!

BENT
Nail Tolliday and Simon Mills, aka Bent have had to do some growing up recently. It’s all thanks to the life-altering experiences that Nail endured over the last year. Not only was he really ill, forcing him not to set foot in a studio for three months, his daughter was born and to cap it all he got married. Well they do say things come in three’s.

"It definitely had some kind of effect," a now thankfully recovered Nail admits. "I think it’s affected the music on an emotional level and it’s made me grow up: I’ve stopped arseing about. Most importantly my illness and everything else that was happening around me restored my faith in people. In the past we had taken certain things for granted, but you can only take two things for granted in this life: death and taxes. It gave us a drive we probably didn’t have."

Changes have been evident in their music too, most obviously in their approach to recording and performing. Their latest album, "Ariels" was recorded in the sleepy environs of Lincolnshire ("It’s as flat as a fucking pancake," reveals Nail helpfully) and the refuge of a recording studio in an old chapel. It was there that Nail and Simon began their distinctly fresh approach.

Recording with a band has had obvious benefits for live performance. In the past playing live was something of a necessity rather than a stated aim. A rapturous reception at this year’s Big Chill event in Prague confirmed that the new direction works; it should also do wonders for their recognition - despite being the soundtrack for numerous adverts (Carlsberg, Vodaphone, Nissan, Inland Revenue, Absolut Vodka and Volkswagen Beetle) and TV shows (as disparate as ’Six Feet Under’ and BBC gardening programmes) this hasn’t translated into the success they so obviously deserve. Strapping on the six-string and indulging those cock rocker fantasies should soon remedy that.

And yet talking of fantasies made flesh, their music has reached corners of the globe most could only dream about: when your music touches the glamour-sodden Hollywood A-list cognoscenti you know you’re doing something right.

"Yeah," laughs Nail incredulously, "apparently Nicole Kidman is a big fan. Last year she was going to make an album and the word was that she wanted us to produce it. Unfortunately with her commitments it hasn’t happened yet, but I don’t think either of us would say no to being stuck in a room with her for two months."

It’s reassuring to know then, that as much as Bent’s world is changing all around them, they’ll always remain a little, you know, bent.

CRISTIAN VARELA
Cristian was born into a family of artists where he developed the skills he needed to become the great Spanish Producer-Dj he is today. His father was a drama theater 1st actor (Dramatic National Theatre); his mother and grandmother, ballet teachers (Lycee Français De Madrid); his grandfather,a radio station director (Radio Madrid), etc. Living in such a creative environment, he was inspired to learn how to play piano when he was only nine years old.
Two years later, in 1986, he wrote his first classical compositions which impressed important theater directors. Some of the works were finally included in theater plays as "El Retablo de la Avaricia","La Lujuria","La Muerte de Valle Inclán" in the popular theater company Calderón de la Barca. This started Cristian Varela´s fruitful career as both Composer and Pianist.

It is in 1990 when Cristian started listening to Kraftwerk, Moroder, Front 242, Split Second, Nitzerebb, Depeche Mode, Vangelis and much more. Feeling a strong attraction to these groups and artists, he began to create his first electronic productions.

In 1991 he wrote his first electronic piece called "Intruders" which was composed for the Classical Dance Festival(LFM). Resulting in a big success, Cristian continued composing pieces for the future festivals.

1992 marked his first club residency as a DJ in a Villalba club called Porche Club where he introduced sounds such as E.B.M. and Elektro which were not really well known in those days in Spain. He also won the Radio Vinilo- “Carlos Eisman”- best DJ prize all over Madrid. Months later he began his residency in Attica, a very popular and first underground music club in Madrid where he played Ambient, Elektro, House, Techno and E.B.M. Cristian sessions were considered outstanding overall and he soon became one of the underground culture pioneers in Spain.

In 1994 Cristian launched his first maxi "El Cigarrito" with an independent company (DID.S.A.) and remixed a dance track for a Heineken spot. Later the same year, he became both resident and director together with his brother and current manager Luis Varela at the full glamoured afterhours Zarabanda. At the same time, Cristian created the legendary Epsilon sessions in Aire club-Madrid. Two months later he won "Spain Attica Awards 1994" for the best Spanish Techno DJ. As his fame as a DJ strengthened, he began travelling throughout Spain and to foreign countries such as Belgium and France.
Also in 1994, together with his brother, he set up Phrenetic Society, a pioneer company in massive music festivals, music shops, imported clothing, DJ´s school and national/ international artist´s agency. With this, they promoted new artists and styles such as Techno andHard Techno which nowadays are still under appreciated in our country.

In 1995 Cristian was contracted by Sony Music Entertainment Spain through which his fame flourished in discography ("Two Spirits in one" 1995, "I.L.T.E.C.S" 1996, etc.). At this time he started making compilations with big artists like Jean Michelle Jarre, Culture Beat, Appolo 13 and more.

Then in 1996 Cristian remixed music from Chris Liberator, one of the biggest deejays of the british Techno scene at that moment, creating the track “Madrid Acid RMX”- Stay Up Forever Rec. With this, Cristian was on the charts and on the biggest radio stations in London.

Some months later, Cristian received an offer with one of the most important Techno labels: Primate Recordings-UK. Following this, Cristian was propositioned by important labels such as Planet Vision from Germany, Primevil from UK, Elephanthaus from USA, Equator from Germany, Session in Belgium, etc. and remixed tracks from Speedy J, Ben Sims, Gayle San, Pascal F.E.O.S, Tim Baker, Marco Bailey...

There is no doubt that in addition to being considered an international Deejay and Productor, Cristian Varela serves as an open door making the Spanish scene well known all over the world. Cristian then began touring Brazil, Tokyo, USA, Colombia, Canada and beyond as an incredibly respected Deejay in the best worlwide night clubs and fstivals.

In 1998 Cristian developed his own live act together with his three inseparable percussionists. Not once did they let down the awaiting crowd in festivals such as "I love Techno" in Belgium, "Awakenings" in Holland, "Nature one" and "Liberty one" in Germany; playing in unison with some of the best like Carl Cox, Sven Vath, Richie Hawtin, Dave Clarke or Green Velvet. Today Cristian´s name can be seen throughout the media in sources such as MTV, VIVA, Tele5, Antena3, Telemadrid, TVE, Groove Mag, Mixmag, Deejay, El Mundo, El País, La Voz de Galicia, La Nueva España, Future Music, etc.

In 2000, together with his good friend and artist, Marco Bailey, Cristian created the popular record label "Pornographic Recordings" which stands among the best Techno labels worlwide. The label also provides opportunities to new talents all over the world.

It is also in year 2000 when Cristian wrote the music for the popular Pasarela Cibeles , fashion catwalk in Madrid and was so successful that he was put in charge of providing music for the future ones to come. He also composed his first album "New Electronic Audio/ Architectures" where Cristian´s maturity is appreciated in creating different styles of music.

Once more, Cristian won "Best Techno DJ Prize" in Bachatta Club Awards, also "Best Techno Producer" in Deejaymags Spain Awards 2000 and also received "Best Techno DJ Prize" in DJ Onners Spain Awards 2000. He was ranked seventh among the first hundred worlwide producers by "Satellite”, the famous American distributor thanks to his maxi called "Groovie Wavedrums E.P" in Primate Recordings UK. Both his brother and manager received the best national DJ´s agency prize.

In 2001 Cristian was motivated by his own album and created a new music label called "Donkeyhead Recordings" where he played different styles such as EleKtro, Ambient, House, and of sometimes Techno, where he utilized the pseudonym of Carlos Duran. With this name we found Cristian playing the most smart sessions in places like Chicago, New York, Madrid, and many more.

Also in year 2001, Cristian won five more prizes, three of them are awarded by DJ Onners Spain Awards 2001 to the best mixed CD -together with Tony Verdi, also to the best electronic music album and to the best recordings label "Pornographic Recordings". The other two prizes are given by "Deejaymags Spain Awards 2001" to the best Techno DJ and also best DJ of the year!

In 2002 Cristian created the unique Thursday Techno sessions in Madrid: EMOTION TECH CLUB, where the most prestigious deejays all over the world play. Emotion represents the best Spanish choice for Thursday night.

Cristian was appointed Official DJ of Final Scratch (Stanton) in Spain and is taking part in the soundtrack in a new Columbia Pictures film (The Mix) about the lives of DJs, together with his friend John Acquaviva.

More than eighteen years as Composer and Pianist and more than twelve years as Producer and Deejay have proved why Cristian Varela is today considered one of the most important figures within the electronic music world and the biggest and greatest representative inside and outside our borders.

- Best Dj in Madrid - “Radio Vinilo- Carlos Eisman 1992”
-Best Techno Dj- “Attica Spain Awards 1994”
-Best Electronic Music Dj- “Bachatta Awards 2000”
-Best Productor- “DeejayMags Spain Awards 2000”
-Best Techno Dj- “Dj Onners Spain Awards 2000”
-Best Dj of the Year- “DeejayMags Spain awards 2001”
-Best Techno Dj- “DeejayMags Spain Awards 2001”
-Best Mix Cd Session “Dj Onners Spain Awards 2001”
-Best Album (New Electronic A/Architectures- Primate UK)- “Dj Onners Spain Awards 2001”
-Best Techno Label (Pornographic Rec.)- “Dj Onners spain Awards 2001”
-Best Rmx (Speedy J- Electric de Luxe)- “DeejayMags Spain Awards 2001”
-Best Techno Dj- “DeejayMags Spain Awards 2001”
-Best Techno Dj- “DeejayMags Spain Awards 2002”
-Best Productor “Dj one awards 2002”
-Best Techno Dj “Dj one awards 2002”
-Best Techno Track “DeejayMags Spain Awards 2002”
-Best Techno Track “DeejayMags Spain Awards 2003”
-Best Techno Dj “DeejayMags Spain Awards 2003”

EXPERT MEDICINE
Οι Expert Medicine δημιουργήθηκαν το 1997 από τον Αλέξη Ζαμπάρα (κιθάρες) και τον Μπάμπη Κουρτάρα (μπάσο). Το συγκρότημα πραγματοποίησε κάποιες live εμφανίσεις, ενώ συμμετείχε και στη συλλογή Electric Youth Experiment-Volume 11. Το 2001 βρήκε τους Expert Medicine με αρκετές αλλαγές τόσο στον ήχο όσο και στη σύνθεσή τους. Στο group προσχώρησε ο Ανδρέας Σιουρούνης στα τύμπανα, για να τον ακολουθήσει τον επόμενο χρόνο η Τζένη Καπάδαη στη φωνή και 2 χρόνια αργότερα ο DJ Everlast, των FFC, στα decks. Ο στίχος των Expert Medicine είναι Αγγλικός ενώ το ύφος τους χαρακτηρίζεται από στοιχεία funk, pop, acid-jazz και electronica. Το πάντρεμα των φυσικών οργάνων με samplers και decks όπως και η χρήση loops από κινηματογραφικά soundtracks και κομμάτια της δεκαετίας του 60 και του 70, είναι χαρακτηριστικά που διαφοροποιούν τον ήχο τους, κατατάσσοντάς τους σε μια ιδιόμορφη μουσική κατηγορία. Θα μπορούσε να πει κανείς ότι οι Expert Medicine «δανείζονται» το feeling της trip hop σκηνής του Bristol, διατηρώντας όμως μια σαφώς πιο έντονη dance αντίληψη.

Από το 2001 έως σήμερα, το συγκρότημα έχει εμφανιστεί σε διάφορους συναυλιακούς χώρους της Αθήνας, όπως και σε πολλά φεστιβάλ. Κάποιες από τις σημαντικότερες εμφανίσεις τους μπορούν να χαρακτηριστούν το support τους στον Arto Lindsay το 2004 στο House of Art, η κοινή εμφάνιση με τους Herbaliser στο Club22, μετά από πρόσκληση του συγκροτήματος, η συμμετοχή τους στο Festival Comics της Βαβέλ το 2004 όπως και αυτή στην Ημέρα της Μουσικής, το καλοκαίρι του 2004 στην πλατεία Κοτζιά.

Οι Expert Medicine αυτοπροσδιορίζονται ως μια δημιουργική κολεκτίβα η οποία αντιμετωπίζει τον ήχο και την εικόνα σαν ένα ενιαίο εκφραστικό σύνολο. Στον τομέα της εικόνας και των visuals υπεύθυνος είναι ο Σπύρος Παπαδουλάκης ενώ τον τομέα του art and design διαχειρίζονται τα μέλη του group μαζί με τον εικαστικό Γιάννη Πετρή. Τέλος, υπεύθυνοι για τον ήχο είναι ο Ακης Πασχαλάκης και ο Γιάννης Σκανδάμης.

Το group βρίσκεται αυτό τον καιρό στο studio ηχογραφώντας το πρώτο του προσωπικό L.P., το οποίο αναμένεται να κυκλοφορήσει το Σεπτέμβρη από τη D.N.A. Lab Records.

Alexis Zabaras_guitar, programming
Babis Kourtaras_bass, programming
Andreas Siourounis_drums, digital percussions
Jennie Kapadai_voice, synthesizer
DJ Everlast_decks, samplers

Δελτίο Τύπου