J’aimerai aujourd’hui vous parler d’un artiste brillant et injustement méconnu malgré de nombreuses productions de qualité. Petite update du système electro sur le Drexciya français (si si il existe) : dynArec.

J’ai découvert cet artiste vers 2005 avec le maxi Legendary days, et son track éponyme, pure electro flippée, énergique, et mystique. Mais ce n’est qu’après quelques années que j’ai réellement commencé à m’intéresser à lui (ou à ce groupe, car jusque là mystère…).

Legendary days

A la différence des beatmakers de bas étages qui “rendent hommage” aux génies techno comme Basic Channel en utilisant toujours une même formule sans saveur et à mille lieues de la qualité des originaux, dynArec, qui s’est enraciné sur le son des godfathers electro (principalement) Drexciya, (mais aussi) Model 500, Aux 88, UR, s’inscrit dans la lignée originelle et reproduit des éléments “copyrightés”, mais tout en apportant sa touche perso qui le différencie des copycats sans envergure. Il impose ainsi une identité et une force bien distincte qui le place au-dessus du lot des productions electro. Un disque de dynArec dans un set, ça se repère (et s’apprécie !).

Component zero

Fluid leak

Un autre point commun avec le duo mythologique de Detroit est son incroyable discrétion. On ne trouve sur lui qu’une seule interview datant de 2004 (copiée sur un forum qui renvoie à un lien mort – voir ci dessous), pas de bio, un myspace laissé à l’abandon, et trois photos amateurs de lui sur Flickr (et quand je dis trois, ce n’est pas une façon de parler). A tel point que je me souviens avoir été vraiment surpris d’apprendre qu’il était français (seule indication biographique de sa page myspace). Un ptit gars de chez nous ! Ce qui confirme (malheureusement) une fois de plus l’adage : nul n’est prophète en son pays.

Lagomorph

Avec un background de pianiste depuis l’âge de six ans, ce n’est que bien des années plus tard, en 1994, qu’il touche ses premières machines électroniques. Il faudra attendre un dizaine d’années d’études du son et d’expérimentations diverses pour que paraisse en 2003 son premier maxi sur le déjà très respecté label Delsin. Après une signature sur Nature, la structure de Marco Passarani, il lance son label Vaporwave sur lequel il placera quatre eps jusqu’en 2007 (quasiment un par an). Très vite sa popularité monte en flêche dans le milieu très fermé de l’electro, à tel point que certains lui préfèrent ses compositions aux derniers disques (jugés plus faibles) de ses mentors Drexciya (Transllusion, l’album Grava 4…). D’autres lui reprochent sa trop grande proximité sonore avec les pionniers electro de Detroit. Quoiqu’il en soit, sa musique ne laisse pas indifférent, et tous s’accordent à dire que ses productions sont bonnes, voir excellentes.

Stellar wind

Après deux albums chez Delsin (User input en 2004) et sur Nature (Overland travelling en 2006), ainsi qu’une dizaine de maxis acclamés, entre Vaporwave et des labels plus obscures, il s’arrête brutalement en 2008, sans laisser aucune explication. Seul Dj Stingray en 2010 nous remémore son nom, en le tracklistant sur son podcast réalisé pour Resident Advisor.

Handjob

Étrange personnage qui aura traversé la galaxie électronique telle une comète avant de s’évanouir dans les ténèbres. Gardons à l’esprit les disques qu’il nous laisse, et espérons que peut-être (telle Halley qui vient nous rendre visite tous les 76 ans), nous puissions le revoir, un jour ou l’autre.

Second life chronicles

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Interview de 2004 :

Surprised and enthusiastic listening of its first two issues on vinyls, one should not have waited a long time to see appearing a first promising album. Strongly influenced by some great Detroit techno, it is a true revelation that the Dutch label Delsin makes us discover. Before next issues on Natrure rec we thus discussed with Dynarec, mixture of sincerity and mystery.

By Dim Wauters (08-2004)

We discovered you last year with ‘R Cam EP’, an astonishing and surprising first ep, mixture of electro/techno, on which we had noticed ”e-corporation”, wonderful piece of energy funk. Can you tell us about the development of this first test, and more particularly of this piece?

“Apregia” is the oldest track here. Its from 1997. It’s quite different from the other tracks because of this (I also used a different studio setup at the time).
“Phonetic responses” is from 2000 I think. I remember I spent a lot of time to get this bassline you can hear at the beggining.
“R-cam” (the track) is a “minute made” track. Those drum sounds are so great, you can just play anything you want, it still sounds good…
“E-corporation” is actually a mixture of 3 or 4 older tracks. I sometimes do this, when I’m not satisfied with a track but still like some ideas / sounds, I may use em in another one, and delete the originals (as I only keep 100% finished tracks).

You produced “apregia” in 1997, have you produced electronic tracks before ?

Sure, I started in 1994

Why so many times to hear that ?

Because I wasn’t ready, quality-wise.

The second ep ‘The Lost Souls EP’, show us another facet of your personality, with tracks like ”Lamatry” and ”Tess till 340”. Two techno tracks, much more dark and incisive than before, in particular ”Lamatry” and its crazy keyboards. How do you conceive a track of this kind?

Basically, I just hit the “randomize” key, and when I have a good starting point, I tweak it a bit to have a good bassline / sequence. Sometimes I don’t even need to tweak :-) From the beggining, I always did hard techno tracks, so that’s nothing special to me, even if you hear the soft side more often. Conversely, ”The lost soul” is an electro track with melodies and full of emotions. That’s the soft side.

How do u describe your soft side. More cheerful or melancolic phase ?

I would say more melancolic, I guess. But it’s not related to a particular mood when I compose. I just let things come & go, and I can make a soft & melancolic tune, and 5 min later, work on a very hard track…

Your music conveys many different emotions, and sometimes within the same piece. One from the tension to the joy. It can pass very quickly ?

Fact is that usually, I don’t like (too much) repetitive music, except if it really requires it. I mean, for hardtechno with only drums and things, it makes sense, but as soon as you introduce melodies, I usually feel the need to have changes / breaks etc. I like much your takings risk, your changes of directions.

Do you finalize tracks before recording or do you leave to the improvisation, with the feelings expressed at the time of creation and which create sometimes very interesting accidents ?

Tracks are usually 100% finalized when I record, everything is automated. So theres no improvisation at all. To me, it’s very frustrating to hear something great (like fx or knob tweaking), and know I would’nt be able to reproduce it…

We were very surprised to hear your music on the Dutch label Delsin, which represents for us a reference and a pledge of quality as regards deep and soulful techno. Especially with an ep like ‘the lost souls’. This does not say surprising afterwards, due to the quality of this one. What led you to sign with Delsin Records ?

Some friends had Delsin records, I listened and liked. The fact is that I was out of the business for a while, I did’nt know anything about the new labels, etc… I almost only knew the main Detroit labels, and the main english and german ones… Whats fun is that I sended them Detroit minded tracks first, but there were probably some electro tracks on the demo cd…I sended more later on. I guess the techno tracks sucked :-) But maybe you’ll hear them in the future, anyway…

Inevitably, when your music is listened to, one thinks of Drexciya, Dopplereffekt or Elecktroïds. Did you compared to these artists. I suppose that those one strongly influenced you?
Who ?

Ok, of course I love them. And I can’t deny they influenced me a lot. I’m a very “influenced” guy, I’m afraid. But I don’t care.

With ‘User Input’, your first album left spring spent, offers for me new possibilities. I find that one has a complete album here, with dancing tracks like ”Sickle” (immediate effect on the dancefloor) or ”Primary color” and, of the chill out adventures with the eponym track or ‘Pentagon deflector’ . Is that new material we hear or also collection of oldest tracks ? Can you tell more about this album ?

I hope you’ll see even more possibilities in the future ;-) Mainly new material. Dont have much more to say.

The CD album has more tracks than the vinyl, can you explain us what is the difference ?

A few added downtempo tracks (but still electro, more or less). Also, “Station Deployment” is on both, but it’s not the same version…

On this same album, there is a track called ”Need the teacher”. Reference to Kraftwerk or error of my share?

No reference intended here (I dont know the track you’re talking about). Its just that on the original version, there were spelling mistakes (vocoded voice), hance the name.

One can say that your references are between the electro pop of Kraftwerk,and the electro/techno developped by the artists of Detroit at the end of 80’s, beginning of 90’s ?

I think thats up to you to say that. Those artists are a part of what I listended to,of course. But I never listened to a lot of electronic-only music (except in the “Intelligent techno” area). I would say I’m more of a 80’s pop, or (electric) jazz fan

Since how many times are you into music ?

I started playing piano when I was 6, and that was a long time ago, I’m affraid.

You talk about jazz. Are you also involved in some jazz projects, more electro-accoustic way ?

No, I just sometimes inject jazzy stuffs in any kind of music I make. I dont have the skill to really play jazz.

Wich jazz period and artists do you like more ?

Fusion. Late M.Davis, Weather Report, Hancock (of course) etc. But I’m really not a jazz expert. I’m barely listen to any music now, but I used to listen to everything, from Vivaldi to Massive attack, the Pet Shop Boys, Surgeon…
So I’m not an expert in anything actually, but I do understand and love (eventually) every music “genre”. (though,to me, there are only 2 genres : “good music” and “bad music”).

Your music is also very inspired by funk and soul, you don’t hesitate to use keyboards.

Funk and soul… I don’t know…. But I play piano, and depending on the tracks, I may use keyboards a lot, yes. I’m currently working on a project that has a lot of keyboard / jazzy stuff in it.

We know nothing about you. Where are you come from, did you had other projects before Dynarec? Do you eat in the morning ?

No project before Dynarec, but many after, I hope. I’m into a lot of music genres, and I hope I’ll have the opportunity to release more things. I eat 12 sausages each morning.

I read on the Nature Records web site, the label of Marco Passarani, that you signed for two ep and an album. It meets passed rather well as we can see? Can you speak already about your next issue or top secret yet ?

You see well. The Nature project is 100% electro, with lots of melodies and stuffs. I mean, not “minimal” electro (so, lots of keyboards). There are also some older tracks on it.

You are sent for one year space travel. You can only chose two videogames, two books and two machines or programs, which you would take with you ?

FI robot – Atari (1984)
Grand Prix Legends – Papyrus (1998) (can i take the steering wheel with ?)
I dont need books, once I’ve read them, I can throw ’em out of the ship, so I’d take the steering wheel instead.
A Rhode piano and a fx delay for it.