Numb Mixtape - Alkalino
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As you all know we are massive Sprechen fans here at Numb and we couldn't let their 10th milestone slip by without giving a nod to the release.
Planet Jumper are the hosts and they get things bubbling & chugging away with 'And Here My Troubles Began'…a bass heavy stomper with disco licks & kicks alongside some twanging bass guitar action & stabby Rhode chords. 'Beware The Beast In We' takes things up to Mutant Disco Factor 50, with firecracker percussion, disco ‘pow-wow-wow’ style toms and a squelchy as heck bassline sits this perfectly alongside Track #1 as straight up disco/not disco/kinda disco/more house camp.Remix action comes by way of the mighty James Rod & Alkalino who take the party in different directions from cosmic disco landscapes to 8am Berlin basements.... The man like Alkalino had a chat with us to further our Sprechen specials and kindly allowed us to post up one of his latest mixes....... NM) Many thanks for Numb Mix Lino it’s an absolute honour to have you join us at
Numb, could you tell our readers a little bit about who you are? AL) I’m a DJ and music producer from Lisbon / Portugal living in Munich now for 13 years. I’ve been DJ’ing since 1988 when I bought my first set of turntables and production wise I started in the mid-90s. NM) You’ve been making people dance since the late 80’s, what’s the thing you miss most that has maybe been lost in club culture? AL) To be honest, I’m happy how things developed in club culture, there is a place for everyone and for so many different genres of electronic music. I’m not that much of a nostalgic person, I’d rather embrace the present/future that is what drives me to look for new tracks, fresh music. To point something that was lost, there was a mystery back then where a DJ could play any track and no one would know what it was, unless he/she was a DJ himself and visit record shops and bought records. Nowadays with Shazam, everyone on the dance floor is one click away of knowing/getting that track (in 80% of the cases) I think that is also fine. Sign of the times....it’s also more democratic as I think culture should be available to anyone. NM) and how do you think club culture is better now than ‘back in the day’? AL) Well, before there was a very small amount of people that enjoyed electronic music really (late 80s, early 90s), then ecstasy came (lol) whereas nowadays, is the biggest musical revolution of the last decades. One of the good points is DJ’ing not being seen any more as a marginalised and not accepted job, like it was in the early 90s, and todays DJs fly jet set and fill stadiums, how is that for a smack on the face of people’s conservatism? True story: I went to the doctor in the late 80s or early 90s and when he asked me for my job, I said DJ. His words were: „DJ is one of this new professions like football players“. I didn’t know what to answer to something like that. NM) You have an incredible discography spanning many years under many different aliases, I’m interested to hear your thoughts on technological advances and how you make music today? AL) I started to buy equipment around 1995. Bought a sampler and a bass synth called Novation Basstation and released with them a record in 1996 on the „Question Of Time label“ called „Reflections“ under the pseudonym „Lo-Fi“. https://www.discogs.com/LO-FI-Reflections-EP/release/512712 I remember paying 3000 euros for the sampler (now its just worth 100). Should have bought a Moog instead :) Basically nowadays with a computer and some plug-ins one can do anything what sampling concerns (the sampler was an EMU and didn't had that special swing feature, like the AKAI sp 1200 which would make it worth much more these days). I use Ableton now and some plug-ins plus some hardware: Nord lead, Roland JD800, Korg Wavestation, Emu-Esi 32, Novation and bunch of Effects. NM) Talking technology and people’s ability to make music, your back catalogue of edits is also huge (which is free to download on his Soundcloud Page) Do you have an outright favourite Alkalino Edit and if so why? AL) Its hard to pick up a favourite from almost 400 I’ve done, but „Harold Melvin - Don’t leave me this way https://alkalino.bandcamp.com/track/harold-melvin-the-blue-notes-dont-leave-me-this-way-re-edit is a special one. Not only was it one of the first ones I did, as I spend a lot of time cutting it. From a 3 min segment of a 12 min track, I think I created a „new track“using just those bits (and with a lot of cut n paste). Check the original :) NM) Moving onto your remix of ‘Beware the Beast’ how did you get involved with Chris and the Sprechen Gang? AL) Chris and I never met personally till today, only spoke through Email/Facebook. I think we got involved because of him working for Paper Recordings and me releasing a track there. He later did a remix for my label, and recently he asked me to remix "Planet Jumper“ to which I gladly agreed. I took a different approach on this remix than usually do and I’m very happy how it turned out. NM) What does the future hold for Alkalino and where can we see you playing in the near future? AL) Lately, I’m focusing on original tracks and remixes, as I basically stopped doing edits. I have a bunch of tracks / projects to finish, maybe do an Album. I think the time is right. Hopefully continue to travel the world and DJ’ing for many years, like I did till here... Upcoming gigs: 23 September - Tallinn (Estonia) TBC 21 October - London 27 October - Paris (Club La Java) |
