Rave Curious Podcast

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Ep. 32 - Louie Vega Feb 17, 2017

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The house legend lost the Grammy, but he's still won our hearts. //

DJ, producer and bandleader Louie Vega knows something about partnerships. His collaboration with fellow NYC producer Kenny "Dope" Gonzalez is one of near mythical status. That pairing has produced tireless dance floor bangers like "Deep Inside" and "The Ha Dance" (as Masters At Work) and "The Bounce" (as Kenlou), as well as the timeless musicality of their Nuyorican Soul project, which featured legends like Tito Puente, Roy Ayers and DJ Jazzy Jeff.

The pairing has seen Vega and Gonzalez rock four decks at clubs around the world. But Vega's also had plenty of experience as a solo DJ and frequent participant in various B2B sets at his weekly Wednesday night Roots NYC party that is still going after a jaw-dropping 12 years. "Man, I love playing with Moodymann," the New York hero enthuses about the annual appearance of the Detroit enigma, although he usually prefers the spontaneous B2Bs that happen when the time is right. "The B2Bs that are planned—you don't see that guy until that day—it's less natural."

Even Vega's stunning solo career is full of amazing musical alliances. His Grammy-nominated 2016 album, Louie Vega Starring...XXVIII, featured special guests on all 28 tracks, including Funkadelic, Soul Clap, Adeva and, most inspired, the combining of gospel groups 3 Winans Brothers and The Clark Sisters for the first time.

Meanwhile, Vega's defining sample, the Barbara Tucker belted "Deep inside!" gets lifted by Kanye West on "Fade." That track, with it's Larry Heard music bed is basically Yeezy trying to pull a Daft Punk "Stronger" with late-80s New York and Chicago house heads instead of 90s French robots. "Kanye has roots with house music, he's from Chicago," Vega says diplomatically.

All of which is to prove that, beyond a stellar musical talent, Louie Vega is a terrific communicator—something he readily displays on this episode of the Rave Curious Podcast.

Ep. 31 - Boom Bip Feb 03, 2017

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The LA producer rips formulaic DJ sets and talks about hanging at Björk's house. //

Much love to the Windy City, but Bryan Hollon (aka Boom Bip) and Rave Curious host Joshua Glazer are two Midwest boys who can't help hold a bit of distaste for a town that, by their estimation, spawned the condescending hipster archetype.

Hollon also has some unkind words for EDM, a world he was almost drawn into, despite a catalog that consist mainly of rich and beguiling downtempo tunes. "I don't want to have a bass drop every 45 second and pump my hands in the air and all that," Hollon insists on this episode of the Rave Curious Podcast. "So as that new of DJing started happening, I just lost interest. As soon as I started to feel that pressure from William Morris to do that, I was like, 'Fuck this.'"

Hollon is someone comfortable with contradictions. He's been releasing music on Warp Records hip-hop offshoot Lex for 15 years, yet has only featured two or three MCs on any tracks. His Neon Neon project with Gruff Rhys of Super Furry Animals has produced two "pop" albums that can't quite play the pop music game. "It's hard for me to just give in when something feels uncomfortable and cheesy."

But it's not all bitching and moaning. There's plenty of positives, including Hollon's moody new soundtrack to the film Sun Choked, to talk about. Or the time he got to party at Björk's house after his first UK gig with Aphex Twin. Or the time he DJed for a dating Justin and Britney in Hollywood with Steve Aoki. It all gets covered on this week's podcast.

Ep. 30 - DJ Three Jan 23, 2017

Show notes

The Robot Heart On the Rise of Playa Tech. //

DJ Three is a name that's been on a lot of lips lately, thanks largely to several successive years of extremely popular podcasts recorded live at Burning Man. But this Robot Heart regular, who dismisses, "playa tech is the new dubstep," discovered dance music about as far from the Black Rock Desert as you can get, in the Central Florida rave scene of the early 90s. It was a era that left an indelible mark on the America rave consciousness, spawning local heroes like Rabbit in the Moon and Kimball Collins, but also acting as an early port of call for European DJs such as Sasha and Digweed, and Paul Van Dyk, for whom cities like Tampa, Orlando and Gainesville were early ports of entry on their way to the top of the American club scene.

Though he's called New York home for over a decade (with residencies at Twilo and Output to prove his bona fides), Three's eclectic brand of trippy four-four music (he once ran a label called Hallucination, now cleverly updated to Hallucienda) has made him one of those beloved DJs DJ types, with supporters like Laurent Garnier, Doc Martin and Damian Lazarus. He's able to speak intelligently about all shades of techno and house, regardless of their place of origin, which made him the ideal guest for Episode 30 of Rave Curious.

Ep. 29 - GusGus Jan 05, 2017

Show notes

Get to Know Iceland's Other Timeless Musical Export //

Averaging one album every other year for the past two decades has made GusGus one of the most consistent units in electronic music—despite the fact that the group has had anywhere from two to ten members over it's 20-year run. Currently a duo made up my constant producer Birgir Þórarinsson (Biggi) and regular vocalist Daniel Haraldsson, the Icelandic pair continue to craft melodic electronic songs and perform them live on the same basic stage set-up they've been using since the late-90s to adoring audiences worldwide. They've also found a home on Germany's Kompakt, a record label as reliable as the band itself, after stints at legendary imprints 4AD and Underwater.

"I'm not a sales person, and I don't want to be a salesperson. I'm a musician," say Biggi, explaining why he has no interest in the DIY opportunities of online music sales. And if record labels, laptop-free performances, and electronica albums sound a bit "retro" in 2016, you might want to change that last word to "timeless," which is what good musicians should always strive for. And what GusGus, more often than not, has achieved.

Ep. 28 - Moby Dec 15, 2016

Show notes

Moby on Aphex Twin Calling Him a "Buffoon."

This week's guest on Rave Curious is one of the most iconic yet misunderstood musical minds to come out of the electronic music scene. To many, Moby will always be the face of electronic music, an avatar for all things techno. This is, of course, despite the fact that only a portion of his sizable musical catalog could be considered dance music. Even his most famous work, 1999's double platinum-selling Play, is more of a pop album than anything meant for a dark nightclub.

Yet when the backlash against electronic music came in the early '00s (see the Eminem bullying incident), Moby was already a veteran of the fickle nature of fame. He tells Rave Curious that as early as 1994, he had already experienced harsh criticism from his so-called peers, like Aphex Twin, who he says once called him a "buffoon" in the press while they were on tour together. "It's hard to continue to like someone's music when you know they hold you in contempt," he tells us of the IDM icon.

His latest album, These Systems Are Failing, just dropped on Mute Records, and as the title suggest, it focuses on the many challenges facing our current society—as does much of our conversation. And it's not just Trump that's the problem.

In addition to that wide-ranging conversation, we also learn what it takes to reassemble a sound system that once lived in one of Detroit's most storied dance music venues, Club Heaven, from Dr. Carleton Gholz of the Detroit Sound Conservancy.

Ep. 27 - Neil Landstrumm Nov 29, 2016

Show notes

Neil Landstrumm Wants to Save Us From Fossil Fuels On this episode of Rave Curious, the techno stalwart considers how we can help the world beyond the club.

Neil Landstrumm has been releasing confounding techno floor-fillers since the mid-90s, with releases on Tresor, Planet Mu, and his own Scandinavia imprint. The Scottish producer has no obvious connection to the Northern European peninsula, despite the name of his label, but was closely affiliated with the wonky techno scene of UK producers like Christian Vogel and Si Begg in the late 90s. It's a sound that recently reemerged in conversation, in part because of a confounding absence of producers like Landstrumm in the recent Tresor 25th anniversary celebrations.

"What bothered us was that not one of us was included. It's not me, personally," he says of the "brouhaha," but sagely states that labels come and go, "like booking agents. Ha!"

Not that Landstrumm is sitting at home sulking. He continues to release music at the same pace he has maintained throughout his two decade-long career. He's also preparing for an existence after techno. Next step? Solving the fossil fuel crisis facing humanity.

Ep. 26 - Arthur Baker Nov 17, 2016

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Ep. 25 Heidi Nov 01, 2016

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Heidi's Love for Prince Knows No Bounds The Jackathon founder talks strip clubs, shoegazer and keeping it underground on the BBC on the latest episode of Rave Curious.

Before she became a house music hero on the BBC, the bold DJ who goes by just Heidi was a punky kid from Canada in love with single-name stars like Prince and Iggy. After sharing a laugh over the strange circumstances of our first meeting while she was working behind the bar at a Windsor strip club in the early '00s, Heidi uses her episode of Rave Curious to explain her obsession with vintage photos of her musical heroes, enthuse about her weekly Jackathon residency in London, and even reveal how she went on a couple dates with a "Canadian millionaire" DJ.

"I was like 18-years-old! I picked him up in my ghetto-ass, shitty car!" roars the rare DJ who delivers the same energy talking on the mic as she does in the DJ booth. That energy makes this one of the most upbeat and entertaining episodes in recent memory.

Ep. 24 - Drumcell Oct 19, 2016

Show notes

How Drumcell Helped Turn Los Angeles Into A Global Techno Capital How the Droid Behavior co-founder built a scene from scratch.

For all its reputation as a rave and EDM capital, Los Angeles never had much resembling an international techno scene until Drumcell and his Droid Behavior posse started throwing event in the early 2000s. For 16 years, the LA-born producer Moe Espinosa and his partners Vidal and Vangelis Vargas (who produce techno as Raíz) made bringing techno to Tinsel Town their life's mission. And it worked, with LA now hosting multiple techno events every weekend, while the Droid Behavior crew tour their brand of decidedly non-West Coast sounding techno around the world.

Espinosa sat down with Rave Curious at the Vice studios by the beach in Venice, over an hour's drive from his end of East Los Angeles, to talk about what it took to build a scene from scratch, about this inspiration he took from Detroit and Chicago, and about the endless flights back and forth to Europe while keeping what he built at home alive.

Ep. 23 - Eric Cloutier Sep 15, 2016

Show notes

Eric Cloutier Opens Up About His Past Life as an Internet Troll The Detroit-Berlin techno traveler now makes musical waves.

Like many DJs of his generation, Eric Cloutier came out of the 90s Detroit rave scene and migrated east. He first went to New York, where he became a resident at influential club night The Bunker, and then made the pilgrimage to Berlin, and currently uses that city as a home base for a growing calendar of international DJ gigs. The German city also acts as inspiration towards his fledgling production career, which culminates this month in his first full EP, Heuristic, on his own Palinioa label. The record encapsulates Cloutier's DJ sound that's made him a fan favorite in places across the world: heady psychedelics secured by a locked-in techno groove.

Cloutier recently sat down with Rave Curious at his flat in Berlin on a late Sunday night/early Monday morning to talk about his current life as a traveling DJ, as well as his past in the Detroit techno scene, where in addition spinning music he spent years as a moderator on the legendary Detroitluv message board, where the policy was "If you wanna start that drama, you made that bed."

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