Wild Beasts Interview - Patrick Lewis

MUSIC
Techno has long been perceived as a male domain,
but Germany’s Ellen Allien is leading the fourth
wave: a generation of plucky female auteurs, their
music transcending the gender-divide. It’s not as
if women haven’t been active in techno, a music
that, emanating from black Detroit, advocated resistance, progress and utopianism.
Detroit’s Kelli Hand began producing ‘machine
soul’ in the ‘80s but, disinclined to engage with the
media, she never defined her part in techno’s powerful mythology. Like the archetypal 19th Century
female novelist, she adopted an androgynous handle - K Hand. Significantly, Hand rejected an offer
from Jeff Mills to amalgamate her Acacia Records
with Axis, determined to retain autonomy.
Today DJ/producer Allien, pushing what she’s
dubbed ‘electech’, belongs to the same eclectic
milieu as Miss Kittin, Mira Calix and Barbara
Morgenstern. Allien has consistently denied the
existence of overt sexism in contemporary electronica. She’s bringing a new femininity to techno,
rather than sublimating it.
If nothing else, Ellen is a high achiever. Already
this decade she’s aired a succession of solid ‘artist’
albums, the latest, SooL, just out. And she presides
over a techno empire, BPitch Control, home to
Modeselektor.
ALLIEN
ENCOUNTERS
3D’S CYCLONE EXPERIENCES A CLOSE ENCOUNTER WITH BERLIN’S ‘ELECTECH’
GODDESS ELLEN ALLIEN, WHOSE PROLIFIC OUTPUT CONTINUES WITH HER
LATEST ALBUM SOOL.
As such, Ellen juggles multiple roles - DJ, producer,
label boss - yet little fazes her. “First, I have no different roles, because all the things I’m doing, I’m
doing because I like to do them - it’s my passion,”
she says in broken English on a balmy day in Berlin.
It’s not really a problem for me, because I like to do
that. It’s my passion, as I said.”
Before Ellen Fraatz morphed into Ms Allien, a monicker perhaps referencing her childhood idol David
Bowie, she spent a year in London. It was there in
the ‘80s where Ellen was exposed to acid house
at The Wag Club. She returned to Berlin, throwing
herself into the nascent techno movement.
Dimitri Hegemann, later of Tresor fame, touted
Ellen a DJ gig at his bar Fischlabor, where she was
employed part-time. Allien was soon DJing in all
Berlin’s ‘it’ clubs, including E-Werk. That’s not all;
she landed a gig in a record store. She hosted a radio
program on Berlin’s Kiss FM. She promoted parties.
And Allien launched her first label, Braincandy.
Alas, Braincandy lost money when techno fell out
of vogue in the late ‘90s, and so Ellen dissolved it,
starting afresh with the bolder BPitch Control.
Allien’s fourth solo LP, SooL, represents a dramatic
departure as she delves into minimalism. SooL is
a parallel universe of glitchy sonic textures and
ghostly atmospherics. It might be the soundtrack
to a spooky installation. There are conspicuously
less vocals. But, for all her love of the abstract,
Ellen isn’t without sentiment. The song Frieda is
for her Granny. Indeed, Allien is the product of a
single parent family and, with mum working, Frieda
helped raise her. Ellen’s music is emotional as well
as cerebral. She describes it as “spiritual”, too.
Certainly Allien has been prolific of late. Last
year she put her name to a Fabric compilation
and remixed Beck’s Cellphone’s Dead and Thom
Yorke’s The Eraser. (Thom, Ellen reveals, is an
old BPitch supporter.) In addition to SooL, she’s
currently plugging another mix CD, this one in
BPitch Control’s Boogy Bytes series.
Australia will finally experience Allien’s electech
DJing in June. She was reluctant to tour in the
past. Ellen was informed that the Australian scene
was all about trance (!) and so she figured that her
music wouldn’t click. Felicitously, Allien has since
heard otherwise.
“For years people tried to book me and in the end
I never came because it’s very far away,” she says.
“But now I’m so curious to go. I have to come really.”
WHO:
WHAT:
MORE:
Ellen Allien
SooL and Boogy Bytes Vol. 4 out now
through Stomp/BPitch Control
myspace.com/ellenallienbpc
its time in acknowledging the slew of brilliant
(and imminent) releases that these guys have and
will provide for the listeners’ pleasure. Oh and
an amazing EP they did for Soul:r. Every Perez
12 Inch oozes soul and after the gig he played
last year where he went from jazz to tek (and a
disco dodo rewind of course) all with a seamless
and calculated execution, you know that he can
bring the goods. As for Lynx, it’s his first time
to our shores but with an album set for release
on Soul:r, you know he’s going to have dubz for
days and the flavas that I know will have Sydney
junglists stepping to the A.M.
3D’S PATRICK LEWIS SPEAKS WITH
LEEDS’ BASED BAND, WILD BEASTS,
ABOUT THEIR NEW ALBUM, LIMBO,
PANTO.
A melodic and tempestuous composition, Limbo,
Panto is the new album by Wild Beasts, an emerging British pop band offering disarming new age
lyrics centred on the joys and pitfalls of what
they believe to be contrived western masculinity
and delivered through the larger than life falsetto
vocals of lead singer Hayden Thorpe – all of which
points to the conclusion that this band and what
they stand for out is neither wild nor beastly.
036 | MUSIC | WWW.THREEDWORLD.COM.AU
“The name comes from the art I studied in High
School,” Thorpe says. “I loved the French movement inspired by Matisse called Fauvism. ‘Les
Fauves’ is French for ‘the Wild Beasts’ and we
thought that was quite a cool way of being creative.”
Wild Beasts are decidedly unconventional, due
to two factors that make them unique to other
acts in mainstream and independent music; the
high-pitched vocals of Thorpe and the subject
those lyrics are inspired by. Thorpe sees no equal
in contemporary music and even regards his own
music as counter revolutionary. He is critical of
the music world around him.
“Rap music is disappointing,” he says. “It’s disappointing how swamped we are with rap culture.
A lot of it isn’t real.”
Thorpe and the band members went to School
with each other and grew up together. “I’ve
always been around males and masculinity is
something that fascinates me,” he explains
offering insight into the driving force behind
the album. “How men work towards women and
how they work towards each other occupies my
thoughts a great deal. There is a contradiction
with masculinity. Men are spending time in front
of the mirror to look good but leave the house
acting tough so they’re unapproachable. Men can
be just as sensitive as women but can be quite
hurtful and harmful to each other. We’re tough
but there is a vulnerability.
“I grew up in a constant male environment with
football teams and male gangs. Male behaviour,
which I’m not being critical of, is great, it’s fun,
but it’s something I want to take the mick out
of.”
Describing his own voice as “passionate and
expressive” all Thorpe wants to do is “excite”
his audience. The same motive famously stated
by another UK band that were at the top of their
field 20 years ago. Hiding behind his national
health service glasses and shy demeanour asking
‘will nature make a man of me yet?’ Morrissey
confronted and revisited the concept of masculinity throughout his career. The Smiths have many
parallels to Wild Beasts. Not only the distinct pop
sound they embody, but also because of all the
voice comparisons – Morrissey’s high pitched climatic wailings in What Difference Does it Make?
is Thorpe’s normal and constant singing voice.
“Morrisey is superb. I’m a big fan,” he says. “I
gave up listening to them because The Smiths are
too good. Morrissey is overwhelming.”
WHO:
WHAT:
WHEN:
MORE:
Wild Beasts
Limbo, Panto through Domino/EMI
Out now
dominorecordco.com
with
RITUAL
Well I’ve finally had a chance to really go through
the Calibre album and damn, I think it may be his
best effort to date. More variety of flava but still
holding on to the ‘Calibre’ sound, I’m just blown
away by the enormity of pretty much every tune
on this long playa. I mean he’s even flexed his
own vocals to brilliant effect. Can this human (?)
really do no wrong? That’s all I’m gonna say but
please, if you love great, no, amazing music, then
get your ears to experience this album.
I guess music is still (and probably always will
be) about checking what’s hot or what’s next and
luckily for us we are able to experience not one
but two ‘next big things of drum n bass’ in Alix
Perez and Lynx gracing the one’s and two’s for
a very special event at Hermanns on Friday 13
June. Although these guys have both done many
long studio sessions / gigs and in Perez’s case
radio shows (I mean if you don’t have any of his
shows from the last year boomin’ in ya ears then
hurry up and get some) drum n bass has taken
Head honcho from Void, Victim has decided to
make sure that June shows the roots as well as
the nu skool and brings back the jungle on the
twentieth with ‘Dusted’ at Hermanns. Probably
the biggest score of the night is hardcore hero
and giant of the jungle Mark N coming through
to smash the place apart. He is easily one of the
best purveyors of the classic sound and will be an
absolute must see / hear / experience. Also the
night will see a return from Vaughan who used
to host Montage at 2SER before Mikey V-Tek
took over the reigns. Void will also be unleashing Japanese dubstep maestro Goth-Trad at the
Phoenix on 6 June so don’t worry dubstep heads,
you’re not being forsaken for the jungle.
Soul Jazz has just released 2 EPs of dubstep anthems that are absolute killaz and have
definitely been running out the door here at the
Record Store. Something for the CD headz too!
There’s actually been so many amazing new
dubstep releases I’ve been digging but I’ve been
going back to the Kode 9 remix of The Bug’s epic
Skeng that has the Mackies making me feel like
I was at a Shaka dance. Everything on Hyperdub
is naturally amazing but this riddim in particular
is simply out of control!
Please send love or hate mail to
[email protected]