A visit at the robot’s place: Alexander Dorn aka Credit 00 lives at the edge of Dresden’s nightlife district Neustadt door to door with two other DJs from the freshly revived Idealfun-collective. His recent tracks for the Uncanny Valley label are just the tip of the iceberg of his musical work. The master class student at Dresden’s art college HFBK is also a great and versatile DJ who is just doing his thing, as you can hear in the mix he did for us. Besides that, Alex was one of the heads of the infamous but now gone Robodance, a club night in Dresden which was dedicated to true Electro in both style and music.
As we enter the workroom-turned-studio in his flat, our first glimpse falls on the immense amount of gear towered up next to his desk. The bright sun that shines through the window on that day reveals some dust on the synthesizers and drum machines. But that doesn’t mean they’re not in use and to underline that fact he quickly gives us a taste of some sounds of his music machines. After listening to some fresh tracks we sit down for a tea, some hand-rolled cigarettes and a little chat.
You are pretty much associated with music that came out before the digital era. Can you explain your fascination for those old synthesizers and drum machines?
For me it was always something like an archaeological impulse. Even back then in my hometown Plauen I was fascinated by those sounds, even though I was heavily into Hip Hop at this time. I just wanted to know how those guys made that music. I thought, “wow this has to be mega complicated technology”. And when I got my hands on some machines in the first place I realized that they have been using presets already twenty-five years ago. When I first listened to the sounds of the Yamaha DX7, I immediately thought of five Italo tracks where this machine apparently has been used. It seems that everybody was using the same synths like the DX7 or the Jupiter-8! Not only the whole Italo guys, but also people like Madonna. So by finding out how my favourite records were created I somehow stumbled into production… On top of that I just love how those machines look and how they feel. That’s maybe also why I paint them and build wooden models of some of my favorites.
Do you have a certain approach when it comes to making music?
I certainly don’t have a master plan. Sometimes I just wake up, sit down at the machines, make some beats just for fun and suddenly something like a track appears. I used to record everything live in one take and left it like that. Just recently I started to record individual stems to be able to overdub some parts.
Do you plan to prepare a live set?
Yeah, I have something on my mind. Of course it will take some more time to realize it.
Would it be the first time you play live?
No, I’ve already played a live set before with a friend of mine in 2003 or 2004. But it was more like Electro-Bass style with a classic setup: a MPC, Clavia Nord Modular, a Juno-106 and vocals. I remember one great party in a squat in Dresden. We actually thought it was shit, but the people seemed to really liked it. In the end it was a great mess. [laughs]
Last autumn, I played a live set together with Traxx at Dresden’s Cynetart which is a festival for computer-based art. Initially, Traxx wanted to play with Veronica Vasicka (head of the Minimal Wave label; editor’s note) but that didn’t materialize for some reason. So one day before the show he asked me if I wanted to join and I thought of it as a pretty good idea. So we met at my place and made some tracks including a new version of DAF’s “Der Räuber und der Prinz” with new vocals by my good friend Mase. And despite the fact that in the end Mase was to shy to actually appear on stage it was big fun. We had a decent setup: an Alesis sequencer, a 101, a 606, an old Boss-drum-computer, Juno 6 and a DX7. In retrospect it was quite a strange situation. If you consider that we set up our old and dusty gear at a festival for computer-based art. All those guys behind their laptops. And then our buzzing equipment. [laughs]
Idealfun.de has been revived recently. What was the story behind it in the first place and what can we expect for the future?
We started it in 2001. I met some of the guys for the first time when I tried to get a PA for my birthday party at an off-location. They came up with those really heavy old tube amplifiers that we had to carry in a group of four. We tapped the wire from a friend’s kitchen. And in the end we had an enormous loud PA, so loud that I feared to get the cops’ attention. But that didn’t happen and it turned out to be a great party and a lot people came up afterwards telling me it was something the have been missing since the mid-nineties.
Yeah, and then everything started. We organised more parties and started to look for a name. A friend of ours had a t-shirt label called Ideal and so we named it Idealfun, like a sub-label for Ideal. And then we started the website and gathered pretty much every decent Techno-, House- and Electro-artist in Dresden under the label. It has never been supposed to be a label to release records, it was more like a platform for all those artists. For some time it has been neglected though it was still online. And recently I started to update it, because I still like the idea of having your content on a website and not just scattered around on social networks.
Let’s talk about the mix. What’s the idea behind it?
Oh, I don’t know. I guess, it’s just music I’ve been loving for ages. The mix came about when I recently discovered a lot of good four-to-the-floor-Techno records, which doesn’t happen often too me, and then tried to mix it with some of my all time favourites.
I must have been listening to almost all kinds of electronic music until my mid-twenties. It all started with Hip-Hop, but also Reggae and Drum’n’Bass. Through the Electro-inspired Hip-Hop-artist like Afrika Bambaataa or Ice-T I discovered Electro. Then Techno and IDM came along.
And when I started DJing, I was playing a lot of Ghetto Bass. I’ve always played different stuff. But all the ass’n’titties-stuff is what most people remember. It seems that nowadays I get pigeonholed as an Italo-DJ but I think the mixes I’ve done so far show a far wider spectrum.
Uncanny Valley 002: B2 – Credit 00 – Wave Memory (128 kbps Preview) by Uncanny Valley Dresden
As a DJ it seems you are especially interested in music that pays tribute to the old days in some way or another. Are you still interested in new music?
I’m certainly interested in new music! But for my own tracks I do not claim to make revolutionary new music, in an evolutional kind of way.
Of course, I’m influenced by a lot of stuff, e.g. Heinrich Müller. But in the end it has to be a cool tune and not just another copy of a more or less known blueprint. It’s all about that little nuances which make your sound special. Of course the instruments you use play an important role. If you are using a lot of old synthesizers, your tracks will sound more similar to the ‘old music’.
I found it pretty funny when Dubstep came up. Everybody said it was something new, but for me it was more like a 2-Step or UK-Garage-remake.
Also I don’t pay attention to buying or playing ‘danceable’ tracks. I mean, I personally could dance to every track I like.
Tracklist:
Houz’ Mon – Deep #2
Big Strick – Black Talk
Morphosis – Running Out
Appointment – 1
Urban Tribe – Program 8
Marcellus Pittman – Dirty
Philus – pH
Tevo Howard – 60660
Orgue Electronique – Stairway To The Ocean (JTC Remix)
Lil’ Nick Crew, The & Parris Mitchell – Nick Old School Groove
Hieroglyphic Being – Letters From The Edge
Rhythim Is Rhythim – Kaos (Juice Bar Mix)
Urban tribe – Untitled
Transllusion – Jogging On The Moon
Human League – The Dignity Of Labour Pt. 4
Great interview + excellent mix! Well done!