Stephan Bodzin

Bremen, Germany (1969 – present)

Stephana Bodzin (born August 4,1969 in Bremen) is a german DJ, techno-producer und owner of a Label.
Stephan Bodzin soon started getting into music, mostly influenced by his father, an artist and musician himself, whose studio contained all the magic sound-machines like ARP2600, Memorymoog, Polysix and many others. No wonder Stephan was heavily fascinated by the idea of electronic music as a little kid and soon founded his own projects as a piano- and bass-player. After finding out, that none of his band-mates (including himself) were able to play as tight as the legendary Korg M1 sequencer, Stephan more and more came to the point where he preferred to substitute all real musicians with virtual musicians in his studio. At the tender age of 17 he bought his first Atari computer and the story began.

After moving to the big city of Bremen, where Stephan steadily continued improving & building up his studio set-up, he got in touch with the experimental theatre scene and began to find his own platform to express his artistic and musical visions in compositions for several plays (including works for the established Goethe Theatre in Bremen and the infamous Ikarus Dancing-Theatre from Austria).

But Bodzin never lost his love for pure analogue & electronic music. He put together his first club tracks, which directly got road-tested by his brother Oliver, who was a house DJ back then. Around that time he got to know Humate member Oliver Huntemann and a long term friendship and work relationship took off.

Source: lastfm

Track: Liebe ist...

Album: Liebe ist...

Minilogue

Malmö, Sweden (2008 – present)

Minilogue are a Swedish Progressive House/Tech-House/Minimal Techno music project of Sebastian Mullaert and Marcus Henriksson. The name is a portmanteau of minimal (the musical style) and dialogue, which refers to music as a form of communication.

Beside their music production as Minilogue, they are both involved in the projects Son Kite and Trimatic, and Sebastian has the soloprojects Kooler, Filur and Ooze.

Sebastian Mullaert and Marcus Henriksson came from opposing backgrounds.

Sebastian was trained as a classical musician playing the organ, piano and the violin among other instruments. He even became involved in teaching them until his coming of age at 18 when he formed a band and began experimenting with the sounds in a more contemporary way.

Marcus lived on a diet of Kraftwerk and the Human League until realising his true calling in the techno parties of the 90s. Through promoting parties he moved on to become one of the bigger DJs in Southern Sweden. It was in a party where they met and decided to combine Sebastian’s musician’s perspective and knowledge with Marcus´ DJ skills and experience from the scene.

They got together in 1996 and after 10 years in the music business under successful guises such as Son Kite and Trimatic, Marcus & Sebastian are now Minilogue - an animalistic music concept without the boundaries of genres.

Source: lastfm


Track: Cow, Crickets and Clay
Album: Animals

Fiji

Fiji, the most intriguing Electropop outfit to emerge from Switzerland in recent years, is known for their energetic, upbeat and stylish live shows, for their danceable and celebratory synth pop sometimes sung in English sometimes in French which makes you move, dream and feel good.
The duo couple Simon Schüttel (synthesizers) and Simone De Lorenzi (a multilingual vamp at the front who stands half way between Iggy Pop and Amanda Lear) is joined in their live by UK-Austrian bass player Philipp Moll.
Fiji is from Bern with a sound made for the world which enabled them to perform in renowned premises as the X-Tra in Zürich, as support of Goldfrapp, Vive la fête and Ebony Bones, at the Gurtenfestival, at the Muffathalle in München, the 4cento in Milan, at the Miles Davis Hall at the Montreux Jazz Festival together with Santigold and Madness ....
.....and Fiji continues to rouse madness on every stage from which they fire their sound bombshells. Want to party' Don't miss Fiji!

The new album Spell on me was released on the 21st of April 2012. Excerpt from the presstex of Lukas Vogelsang:

"...The music evokes the imagery and glamour of the 80ies and seamlessly continues where Generation X would have left off, rather than seeking to portray a mere retrospective of the decade: the concept is minimal, intelligent and soft with shades of sustained reverie and undeniable sexiness at its core. De Lorenzi’s seductive voice sends regular shivers down the listener’s spine. The stripped back yet buzzing arrangements avoid the use of any Pop clichés: the song Perfect Summer Night draws upon the sex appeal of an early Grace Jones and the jittery arpeggiations in Clouds Don’t Care wash over you like a warm morning shower. The powerful track Spell On Me stands out as a potentially timeless Electropop hymn, firmly restoring Fiji’s former stature as Swiss Electropop’s main protagonists. During further listening, the album’s subdued beats and overall dreaminess bring to mind artists such as Goldfrapp and Les Rita Mitsouko. This is music for the night, to be enjoyed most when dancing in a sleepy city, reminiscent of the movie La Bohème. All in all, Spell On Me is a warmly persuasive and glorious affair rather than an aggressive one and we can’t but hope that during their upcoming live shows Fiji will raise to meet the high expectations generated by this latest release. This is not to be missed!..."

Source: fijiband

Song: Spell On Me

Album: Spell On Me [Explicit]

Black Asteroid

Hailing from Minneapolis, Bryan Black began his career as a sound designer for Prince, forging his production scope and capabilities at the renowned Paisley Park Studios. In 2001 Black relocated to London to form Motor—a live fusion of techno and electro that saw the duo quickly signed to Novamute. The duo have since amassed a string of releases, including four albums ‘Klunk’, ‘Unhuman’, ‘Metal Machine’, and the most recent ‘Man Made Machine’. They have also shared stages with the likes of Daft Punk and Kraftwerk, and supported Depeche Mode in their 2009 worldwide tour.

Realising the duo had strayed far from its techno origins, in early 2011 Black set to work on a new project. The result—Black Asteroid—caught the attention of Chris Liebing, who proceeded to put out his debut effort ‘The Engine EP’ shortly after, to critical acclaim. In Black’s own words ‘The Engine EP’ “was all sweat and adrenaline”, which was followed up by an even higher octane rework of “Engine 1” by Dave Clarke and Mr. Jones. BLACKASTEROID is the next phase in the project. 

Taking cues from artists such as Panasonic, Aphex Twin and Speedy J, as well as the more experimental, ambient and avant-garde nodes of techno, BLACKASTEROID is a multi-referential project that will continue to evolve and redefine itself. ‘Black Acid’ is the forthcoming EP on Electric Deluxe, which will introduce another faucet to the BLACKASTEROID sound.

Source: facebook

Track: Black Acid

Album: Black Acid Remix EP

Deichkind

Hamburg, Germany (1999 – present) 

Deichkind is a German band from Hamburg, which was founded in 1999 and originally consisted of MC Malte, Philipp, Buddy and the producer Sebi who died in february 2009. DJ Phono supports the band at their live shows. Their lyrics are often humourous.

The band first burst onto the German music scene in 2000 with their hip hop album “Bitte Ziehen Sie Durch”.

“Noch Fünf Minuten, Mutti” followed in 2002.

In 2005, Deichkind represented the German state Mecklenburg-West Pomerania in the Bundesvision Song Contest, a Eurovision Song Contest rip-off for German bands. They finished 14th from 15 entries. 

MC Malte left the band in the summer of 2005, whereafter the group focused more on a style of music which they describe themselves as techrap (techno/rap).

In 2006 the album “aufstand in schlaraffenland” was released and Deichkind made a row of legendary performances at open air festivals in costumes fashioned out of duct tape, foil, flashing lights and inflatable toys. The song “remmidemmi (yippie! yippie! yeah!)” describes a house party that gets out of control and has become an urban hymn among German party-goers.

One of their most scandalous performances was at the Melt! festival in 2006 where the band spontaneously invited fans to join them on stage. Over 400 people jumped at the chance to party with the band to the song “Remmidemmi” (->youtube).

As of april 2008, Buddy has left the band to embark on a solo career and has been replaced by Ferris Hilton, perhaps better known as Ferris MC.

Source: lastfm

Song: Remmidemmi

Album: Aufstand Im Schlaraffenland