Marcel Dettmann

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crash
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Post by crash »

yeah, metzger is a completely different person. marcel also works at hardwax record store in paul-lincke-ufer, berlin.
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Evad
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Post by Evad »

Interview with Marcel Dettmann @ http://www.beatportal.com/feed/item/ber ... interview/

Possibly the most acclaimed resident DJ in the techno world right now, Marcel Dettmann’s recent mix CD for Ostgut Ton’s Berghain series has received near-universal acclaim from critics and clubbers alike.

He’s also in hot demand as a producer and remixer, as his recent release ‘MDR004’ and his remix of Deetron prove.

We caught up with Marcel in his Berlin studio before another epic Berghain weekend kicks off.

Your new mix on Ostgut Ton has dropped to widespread acclaim – was it hard to get right?

It was.

The thing with the mix was I had lots of time – a year before was when the guy from Berghain asked me for the mix, so I had a year to work on it.

So I have some exclusive tracks from friends, then I worked on it some more, little by little.

Sometimes, you have too much time – it’s not good, then you think too many times about it.

For me it’s a calling card, with many tracks that are very special for me, and for the Berghain – that’s the sound that inspired me.

Were you trying to get the sound of your DJ sets at Berghain on the CD?

Yeah, but the compressed version – I play for seven or eight hours at Berghain, and it’s really hard to take all this vibe and spirit and compress it into 70 minutes - really, really hard.

But the mix CD is not only a club mix, it’s also something you can listen to when you’re in the car, or going shopping.

It’s really important that you can listen to it all times – if you like it, of course!

So, let’s go back to your youth. How did you discover techno music?

I discovered techno music in 1992.

I used to listen to EBM, Nitzer Ebb, Front 242, The Cure, Joy Division, Depeche Mode.

Then afterwards came techno.

I listened to it because friends came to me, and we planned to go to some parties in Berlin, and it was clear to me this was what I needed.

I was listening to Underground Resistance, Jeff Mills - the music was so dark, like EBM, The Cure, Joy Divison, it was the same feeling.

The darkness - it’s night music, but not only for your body, also working for your mind - a mind trip for me.

After the wall had fallen, everyone did what they liked in Berlin. It was so fucking great.

It was so amazing for me when you went down to the Tresor. You saw the people almost dancing like Indian natives, you know?

That was so crazy, and the the music was really fast and hard and dark, it was unbelievable.

For me, I was 14 years old, and the people were taking drugs, but I didn’t know drugs before, so I didn’t think about it.

Techno in Berlin at the beginning it was so special – it still is so special.

How did you start working together with Ostgut?

I stared nine years ago at the old club, that’s my start.

I played there half a year later as a resident DJ, then afterwards it closed, and reopened as Berghain.

I got my residency the classic way - a friend of mine gave the club a mix tape, then the guys listened to it and called me afterwards and asked me to play there.

So I started playing there and there were not too many people, only 200 or something.

There was a really industrial feeling - that was my first time playing in Berlin.

Before I always played in East Germany, so it was…a new experience for me, the club, it was so…open minded.

Totally different from what I had done before, when I played on the east side of Germany.

I was inspired, and so I continued.

How can you explain Berghain to people who haven’t been there?

It’s not so easy to describe.

For me it’s the perfect club, because the people are a really good mix – gay, young, old, all kinds.

You have tourists, native Berliners, a really good mixture.

You can go around and you can meet some people from all over the world.

It’s amazing, it’s so crazy.

I played a few weeks ago in Manchester, UK, and some guys came the next day to Berghain, to listen again – it was so crazy, I like this kind of things, that happens only in this club.

It’s always different for me – it’s not always the same old people, it’s a really good mixture.

Also, the location, and the design, it looks to me like the early 20th century, or Berlin in the last century.

A big room, a bar - very industrial. You come into it and you go, “Wow” and it hits you …the soundsystem is so special too.

The whole package…for me it’s amazing.

Of course, minimal has been huge for the last couple of years. But your sound is more classic, more Detroit, more raw. Do you think this kind of sound is becoming more popular again, and if so, why?


What I think is that this kind of techno music was always there for me.

And for so many people, some young people, they aren’t growing up with this kind of music, so when they discovered this kind of classic flavoured techno, the raw stuff, they don’t know it before.

They only listened to some minimal stuff before, so they think “Oh, that’s new”. ...That’s not new!

It’s the classic way of techno for me.

For me it exists the whole time, since I first listened to techno.

Do you think it is important that people know the roots of techno?

Yeah, I think it’s good to know it, to understand it.

For me it was the same - when I listened to pop music for the first time, I listened to Depeche Mode and I used to think, “What did they do before”?

So I think it’s important to know what comes before, to understand it.

I listen to records that came out in the late ‘80s - Chicago stuff, Detroit stuff, so many fucking great records that I never listened to before - and when I find some artists that I’m really interested in, I want to hear all their stuff.

I think it’s really important to know where it comes from, the whole techno music stuff – is it Kraftwerk, is it funk, jazz stuff? … I think it’s good to know.

Who are your techno heroes?

Artists like Jeff Mills, Robert Hood, Joey Beltram – that’s pure techno stuff…in the middle of the ‘90s, there were so many great tracks – ‘Minimal Nation’ was an amazing LP, in fact for me it is the best minimal techno LP.

Jeff Mills was in a state of art, he was so futuristic, you feel like in you are in space.

The first one I heard I thought, “Wow, this is so crazy.”

There are too many others - Damon Wild, Planetary Assault System.

I love this kind of techno.

Do you think that modern techno is often overproduced?

Yeah, I think so.

I have some MP3 stuff, and the first minute is OK, then the next I think “Oh God, you don’t need this.”

Techno is so simple – it’s for the club, you don’t need much, not like a composition or something.

Some good techno with melodies I like too, I like Italo, synth pop, melodic stuff, but often people are not thinking enough about their tracks.

They are producing, then they think, “I need a melody.”

That’s not the right way.

My way of producing a track is like, I make a loop and I think about it and I listen to it.

When I think it’s ready to arrange, then let’s go.

If it’s not ready, take it to the trash.

To produce music is not work for me. I feel like a kid with some toys - I play and have fun with these toys.

I like to work with the sounds and stuff, not straight boom boom boom.

I think over and over about the track. I work for a week on one sound, the filter and stuff, and sometimes its works, sometimes not.

Some people are so professional and make so many tracks, but they don’t think about it.

That’s the reason everyone makes too much.

Think about your music -maybe that’s my message to the world!

No, but it’s important, it’s totally important….not to just think about what you can do, but to also think about what you can leave.
prussell
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Post by prussell »

thanks for the link...def one of my faves right now....
juhokusti
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Post by juhokusti »

nothing left to say. and he´ll be back in Helsinki with Ben Klock on the 24th which is great.
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Post by LaChriz »

Really love his sound!
deep bombin' music
stanley brown
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Post by stanley brown »

he is the one..not following any trend....always sounding like himself only...
my favourite artist.huge..
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Post by sraid77 »

I was wondering if anyone could help ID some of the tracks in his latest podcast, for bodytonic....

http://www.bodytonicmusic.com/podcasts/ ... -dettmann/

I am particularly feeling the tracks around 9 and 10 minute mark
“Repetition changes nothing in the object repeated, but does change something in the mind which contemplates it.”
Petar
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Post by Petar »

marcel makes great tunes
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