Kraftwerk, Jarre, Italo Disco: The Commodore 64 Orchestra Interview
German Commodore 64 Magazine Lotek64 interviewed me/Commodore 64 Orchestra for the first time, get a behind the scenes glimpse of what goes on with the crew, reviews on games, Commodore 64 culture, art, music, EJ Midi Turntable, ScratchTV, and vintage computer media. Interview by Daniel Meyer. PDF Version is online, and available in print copy.
Nitzer Ebb Join in the Chant [Heckmann rmx] Adult. Hand to Phone X2 - House Not House (Kode Nation) Duran Duran Girls On Film Hell - Passionate (Dj Traxx Extended Remix) Green Velvet feat.Russoul "It's Time 2 Jack" - Cajual Rec Dominatrix - "The dominatrix sleeps tonight" (Black Strobe Remix) - Gigolo Records Felix Da Housecat - Clashbackk 3000 (Frankie Bones Edit) [Clashbackk - CLB 003] Cybotron - Techno City - Fantasy Benny Benassi pst. The Biz - "Able to Love" (original) - D.Vision Rec ITA Felix da Housecat "Ready 2 wear" (Benny Benassi Remix) - Emperor Norton (USA) Miss Kittin "Requiem for a buzz" - EMI Huntemann pres. Sweet Sensation "Femme fatale" Gigolos Records Depeche Mode A pain that I'm used to (J.LuCont Remix) - Mute 000000000001 - Cars Phuture - Acid Tracks Coldplay "Talk" (Thin White Duke Remix) The Model - give in to me.mp3 Mick Willis - Rhythm Machine The Advent - World Tonight (Cash Remix) The Presets "Down Down Down" (Digitalism Remix) Modular Rec. Mihai Popoviciu - sexy spenders.mp3 Chris Korda - Sex Is Good (Fresh Out Of Dog Mix) Zombie Nation "Booster" UKW Records Terence Fixmer - Electrostatic Benny Benassi Vs Pubblic Enemy "Bring the noise" (Pump-kin Mix) - Ultra Rec Fischerspooner – „Kick It (Tiefschwarz Remix) Der Zyklus - Die Dämmerung Von Nanotech (Black Edit) Traxx And Deecoy - Are You Saved Savas Pascalidis - Saigon Nightmare Mick Wills - Kill Kill DJ Naughty - All The Boys Look Superchic SIMIAN MOBILE DISCO - It's the Beat (Luke Vibert Remix) Club M.C.M. (K Alexi. Supert Hott Mixx) Dirty Criminals - LSTNDTX Richard Bartz - too hot to stop Filippo Naughty Moscatello - California (Miami Mix) Adriano Canzian - Macho Boy Huntemann - 37° New Order - Confusion (Larry Tee's Extended Hyperclash Electroclash Mix)
43 years old, 1 internationally successful record company, thousands of DJ gigs, 3 albums as an artist, 1 football coaching license, 4 renowned music awards, 1 Ford Mustang, 1 club. Can success be quantified? Probably. Can DJ Hell be quantified? No.
Even though the above mentioned figures are impressive, the Hell phenomenon isn't explicable by numbers. But you can explain it by telling his life story. Born 1962 in the village of Altenmarkt, Upper Bavaria, Germany, Hell achieved a worldwide breakthrough without compromising, without bending himself in any way. After so many years as a DJ and label boss he is still cutting edge, still lives today, is still hipper than any twentysomething. A star DJ without an interest in drugs, an ardent supporter of the FC Bayern Munich football team who collaborates with Donatella Versace, who adores his mum's pork roast, kicked off the eighties revival almost singlehandedly and rocked just about every club from New York to Tokyo. All that in a single lifetime. That is DJ Hell.
It all started with Hell spinning records. First at the legendary Libella club, out in the country, where he was so innovative, so exciting that it only was a question of time before he moved on to nearby Munich. There he went through EBM and the initial stages of techno and by that time it was already him who influenced people rather than him being influenced. And that was noticed in other cities, other clubs. That's how he got to see the world. The first releases came about in a flash: "My definition of house music" – still valid today – and "Geteert und Gefedert" ("Tarred and Feathered"), the first album. He put a meaning to the terms serious, tough and minimal and when everybody had understood he moved on immediately. That's why he founded his own label, International Deejay Gigolos, and started to release new and exciting music: Miss Kittin & The Hacker, Fischerspooner, Zombie Nation, Psychonauts, Terranova, all household names within the international electronica community by now. Meanwhile he still found some time to work on his own artist career. "Munich Machine" was a manifesto and love letter to a city he'd made his own, including the Barry Manilow cover version "Copa", a massive hit. By 2000 it was time for his own club, out in the bavarian countryside of course, the "Villa". The people look different compared to a regular techno club, it is there that you begin to understand that innovation is a question of your state of mind and not your origin. Summer 2003 sees the release of his new album "N.Y. Muscle". Fresh again, different again, re-inventing himself again. Hell collaborates with the legendary Playboy founder Hugh Hefner and with P. Diddy. All that in a single lifetime.
I never met Hell. But I saw him on a lot of occassions. At Munich's Ultraschall Club, during the mid-nineties. Focussed, a part of the music, fluid. Or on TV, when they broadcast the Love Parade 2000, towering above a million people. In Munich, too, twice, rushing along the streets in a high collared coat, first you think of a businessman with good dress-sense and then you look back a second time.
Seeing, visualising, that is of enormous relevance to Hell. He managed to convey pure music as well as pure style during his twenty-five year DJ career. Quite understandable for someone who entered the stage during the era of punk and new wave. The individual look, the do-it-yourself approach, the elitism. That's how it grew. Somebody from that background doesn't get behind the decks in a muscle shirt with sunglasses and a tribal tattoo. Later on it was all about high fashion. Black suits, tailor made shirts, black and whiteT-shirts that never complied with the smilie madness of the rave generation.
Still, it never was about the indecisive shopping sprees through luxury boutiques either. It's about individuality. Today Hell Djs at all couture and pret-a-porter shows for Versace, spins for Dirk SchÔø?rger in Paris and works on a music project with the belgian fashion star Raf Simons. Hell owns a Ford Mustang, built in 1965. Hell gets filmed by leading german director Romuald Karmakar in a single shot during a club set at Berlin's WMF club, the resulting film "196 bpm" earns critical acclaim at the Berlinale film festival. A DJ who predominantly plays electronic music doesn't have a lot of space to explain himself. Hell doesn't need to explain himself. An individual style, an "everything goes" approach have got him where he is today. I am sure that if I asked him where the limit is, he simply wouldn't understand. A phenomenon.
DISCOGRAPHY
1992 DJ HELL MY DEFINITION OF HOUSE MUSIC 12" R + S RECORDS 1993 DJ HELL RED BULL FROM HELL – EP 12" VORTEX/DISKO B DJ HELL & ELECTRIC INDIGO ULTRAWORLD EP VOL.1 12" DISKO B DJ HELL SPRUNG AUS DEN WOLKEN 12" DISKO B DJ HELL FUTURESHOCK 12" DISKO B DJ HELL SPRUNG AUS DEN WOLKEN/BUTTERSÄURE 12" KICKIN RECORDS DJ HELL THREE DEGREES KELVIN / LIKE THAT! 12" MAGNETIC NORTH 1994 HELL GETEERT UND GEFEDERT 2xLP/ CD DISKO B DJ HELL HELL ÄRGERE DICH NICHT REMIXES JEFF MILLS/DAVE CLARKE 12" DISKO B DJ HELL LIKE THAT / 3° KELVIN 12" MAGNETIC NORTH 1995 DJ HELL ALBINO EP 12" DISKO B HELL & JONZON EP NO.1 12" DISKO B HELL ORIGINAL STREET TECHNO 12" DISKO B 1996 HELL TOTMACHER 12'' DISKO B HELL TOTMACHER INTERPRETATIONEN 12" DISKO B BABY FORD, UR, REGIS 12" DISKO B 1997 DJ HELL DIESE MOMENTE WERDEN NICHT VERLOREN SEIN WIE…12" SATIVAE DJ HELL & R. BARTZ TAKE A SHOT 12" KURBEL 1998 HELL SUICIDE COMMANDO 12"/CDM DISKO B/ V2 HELL SUICIDE COMMANDO REMIXED 12"/ V2 HELL MUNICH MACHINE 2X12''/ CD DISKO B / V2 CHICKS ON SPEED/ HELL WARM LEATHERETTE 7" GO RECORDS 1999 HELL COPA 12"/ CDM DISKO B/ V2 HELL COPA REMIXED 12"/ CDM DISKO B/ V HELL THIS IS FOR YOU REMIXED 12" DISKO B HELL & R. BARTZ ROCK MY BODY TO THE BEAT 12" INT. DJ GIGOLOS HELL REPASSION 12" PROMO ONLY INT. DJ GIGOLOS 2000 BANDULU / DJ HELL PRESENCE / EAT MORE HOUSE BABY 12" REWIND THE CLASSICS 2003 HELL N.Y. MUSCLE ALBUM 3X12"/ CD INT.DJGIGOLOS/ UNIVERSAL HELL FEAT. ERLEND OYE KEEP ON WAITING 12"/CDM INT.DJGIGOLOS 2004 HELL LISTEN TO THE HISS 2X12" INT.DJGIGOLOS HELL & HEIL P.D.D. JH LIMITED 02 2005 HELL PRESENTS MY DEFINITION OF HOUSE PART1 12" INT.DJGIGOLOS HELL LET NO MAN JACK 12" INT.DJGIGOLOS HELL PRESENTS MY DEFINITION OF HOUSE PART 2 12" INT.DJGIGOLOS HELL FEAT. BILLIE RAY MARTIN JE REGRETTE EVERYTHING 12"/CDM INT.DJGIGOLOS HELL GRÖßENWAHN 1992-2005 2XCD INT.DJGIGOLOS HELL FINAL COUNTDOWN 12" INT.DJGIGOLOS HELL TRAGIC PICTURE SHOW 7" INT.DJGIGOLOS HELL PRESENTS MY DEFINITION OF HOUSE PART 3 12" INT.DJGIGOLOS 2006 HELL&ANTHONY ROTHER GERMAN BODYMACHINE 12" DATAPUNK HELL FUN BOY 3 12" INT.DJGIGOLOS HELL JACK YOUR BODY / CD COCOON
The son of two Canadian-born citizens, Larry Tee grew up in Seattle, WA and in Marietta, GA. Larry moved to Atlanta in the early eighties, where he teamed with such drag personalities as RuPaul, Lady Bunny, Amanda Lepore, and Lahoma at the Celebrity Club in Atlanta. Music groups like 10,000 Maniacs, Butthole Surfers, and The Black Crowes all played at the infamous Celebrity Club, which has been described by Tee as "a disco-punk club set in a pizza parlour on a sleazy strip in Atlanta".
In Atlanta, Tee's DJ style was always progressive, even back in the early 1980s when "you'd play Depeche Mode for these queens and they thought it was wild," he says. "But Atlanta was fabulous. We had a great time there. In our crew we had RuPaul and the Lady Bunny, who at the time were both just learning theft tricks. I really feel Atlanta was the birthplace of contemporary drag culture. We had some mean, nasty drag shows there."
Tee then travelled to New York City in the late eighties with RuPaul, Lady Bunny and Lahoma in a roadtrip that inspired the movie To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything! Julie Newmar.
In the nineties, Tee's career soared as he was a key component of the internationally-popular New York Club Kids scene, making appearances on Geraldo, The Joan Rivers Show, and Inside Edition, which brang the Club Kid world--with it's alternative views on gender, sexuality, music and fun—to the national forefront. Tee helped make the parties Lova Machine and the racous Disco 2000 with the infamous clubkid Michael Alig. One of his biggest successes at this time, however, was co-writing the RuPaul hit, "Supermodel (You Better Work)", which has since reached double-platinum on Billboard charts.
It was during this time that Tee became a drug addict. He got clean in 1997. Following that, Tee began to get his life together, launching a new phase of his career, the Electroclash years.
Tee coined the word "Electroclash" after self-styling an ambitous new project called the Electroclash Festical and it's successful compilation. He coordinated and managed the 2001 Electroclash Festival, which helped the launch careers of Scissor Sisters, Fischerspooner, Ladytron and Peaches, who all participated in the festival. He also created and manged the nouvea-music electro girl group, W.I.T. Electroclash described a style of fashion, music, art and politics that fused new-wave, punk and electronic dance music with a campy and cryptic detachment. Since then, Electroclash has faced it's critics, often by many of the artist's whose careers it helped launch.
In 2005, Tee launched the party Distortion Disko, with nightlife legends Kenny Kenny, Sophia Lamar, Amanda Lepore and nightlife host and promoter, Josh Wood. The party just recently celebrated it's one-year anniversary as a smashing success, with the village Voice's Michael Musto listing it in his Must Go column.
In 2006, Tee collaborated again with promoter Josh Wood to produce Bank (at the nightclub, Element). The party opened with regular nightlife hosts, such as Amanda Lepore and Sophia Lamar. Since then, it's been a regular venue for gay scenesters, who want to experience the best of both mainstream gay and alternative hipster clubs.
Currently, Tee is about release his Badd Inc. Volume 2, with songs by Princess Superstar, Vince Clark, Glamour to Kill, Christopher Just, Sophia Lamar, Tobell von Cartier, Princess Julia and Dead Sexy. He is also currently writing songs for sexy girl groups and famous female solo artists.
Andy Warhol's Interview magazine says about him: "Before Larry Tee became the emperor of electroclash, the 44-year-old Brooklyn-based DJ, musician, club promoter, and Mogul Electro record label owner was reinventing international nightlife. The Atlanta native moved to New York in 1989 with friend RuPaul for whom Tee wrote the curio hit song "Supermodel (You Better Work)" and founded several of the city's legendarily bacchanalian club nights, which became hubs of creativity. Since then, the frenetic nightlife force helmed the Electroclash and Outsider Electronic Music festivals, discovering and promoting talent like the Scissor Sisters, art-rock impresarios Fischerspooner, and nouveau wave girls W.I.T. His current crop of collaborators includes manic performance artist Phiiliip, New York pop DJ Jon Jon Battles, and Conrad Ventur, a musician, performer, and photographer who documented the early 2000s downtown scene in the book ElectroDiscoPunks, due out next year. That Tee's influence extends from New York to London, Berlin, Tokyo, and beyond is de rigueur: He's long known that the New York club scene operates on a global scale. What he didn't know was how many artists, musicians, photographers, and personalities he would launch along the way."
"It all started back in '95, with the "House Frau" tv shows on Viva Tv...Mate Galic and Sabine Christ had a very big influence on my future activities. I hadn't missed any show...I even used to watch the replays, too..."My black notebook can prove it..." Workin' in education as an art-teacher for extraschool programs, I was always amazed by the audio-visual relation and the creative process itself. I was encouraged early on in my career by Tobi Ettle of Stuttgart's Philpot Records. Growing up at tv, with all kinds of artists, labels, promoters, clubs...Gigolo is one of the Hell experience...this unique act of human sense in music, inspired me to create Gigolo 194 and other tracks like "hyper" for Elektro.Casnice (The Model's label). In Romania I have done soundtrack performances in art galleries for the annual electronic festival here and also played at the Gigolo Night with Dj Hell, Mick Wills and The Model."
Mihai Popoviciu is considered as being one of the best electro producers from Romania and Eastern Europe. Born in 1981, Mihai found himself attracted to the rave scene of the mid 90s and at the age of 15 he discovered house music and detroit techno through Berlin House, a TV show from the german music channel Viva TV. His passion for the electronic sound grew very fast and after 4 years of being obsessed with techno, by the time he was 19, he started producing his own music. Meanwhile, he met The Model, Masstyk and a few other guys who were also producing electronic music, so they decided to start a record label of their own (Elektro.casnice), but the lack of money and experience postponed this for several years.
The best word to describe Mihais musical work is "eclectic". His productions vary from melodious and melancholic electropop tunes to electro house, from italo to ebm, or from disco to punk. Mihai joined the Gigolo family in the summer of 2004 when he sent a demo to Hell, who decided he should be on International Deejay Gigolos Compilation 8 with the track "Sexy Spenders". A few months later, his first 12, "Tales From The Moon EP" was released on the same record label – Gigolo. The EP got good reviews from top djs like Laurent Garnier, Mick Wills or DJ Chloe. Being a very productive musician, Mihai can also be found on various romanian CD compilations or on netlabels like Arhiva7, FOEM, Sweet Smelling Surfaces or Exposed Audio.
As a dj, Mihai Popoviciu is appreciated for his ability to genuinely combine various electronic music styles like electro, techno, italo, ebm or acid. He took up djing in 2004 and he has already played in almost all major cities from Romania, and abroad in Poland and Germany next to big names like DJ Hell, John Selway, Kiko, Crossover, Dirty Princess, Le Chic, Jor-el, The Model.
Future vinyl releases:
Punx Soundcheck – In The Dark (Mihai Popoviciu remix) Label: Pale Music International Release date: january 2007
Homm & Popoviciu – Raumschiff EP Label: Size Doesn't Matter Release date: february 2007
Sharp EP Label: Level Non Zero Records Release date: february 2007
Televised Society EP Label: Vokuhila Records Release date: april 2007
Metropolis – Electronic Bea(s)ts VA Label: Elektro.casnice Release date: mai 2007
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