This week sees the re-release of a benchmark album produced by house music’s most enigmatic duo, Virgo. Jamal Moss aka Hieroglyphic Being (from Chicago house music’s new school, Mathematics Records) poses a few questions to Virgo’s Eric Lewis and Merwyn Sanders.

JM: Name of Artist/Band? Include all band members names and instruments played on this album.
V: eric lewis, merwyn sanders, instruments we used was guitar, bass, keyboard (Roland Juno 2), Roland 505 drum machine

JM: Do you consistently practice your musical craft every day ?
V: Yes we practice every other day if not every day sometimes. Merwyn has studied voice with Vocal Mechanics here in Chicago and with his uncle’s company, Opera Ebony in New York, and played around Chicago on guitar doin’ singer/songwriter material. Eric is always on his bass or guitar and created new tracks in his home studio.

JM: Do you tape yourself and listen back critically?
V: Yes we do, and that’s how we realize after coming back and listening that we may not even I like it, but on the flip side somebody else may hear and like it. Quite honestly we are very critical.

JM: Do you take every opportunity to hear other musicians local and national who perform in Chicago ?
V: Between the two us, Merwyn gets out the most to check out local bands and acts, and not every opportunity, there’s just not enough time.

JM: How do you describe your music to people? This is not a short answer. Discuss it.
V: The music with Trax records is house music. We know our music is a little different, but we consider it deep, melodic, house music. Something you can dance to but at the same time sit back listen and chill to.

JM: What image do you think your music conveys? Do not avoid the image issue!
V: Positive. Notice the song titles are all introspective. What’s life about, things we were goin’ through. So the imagery should be unique to each person that listens. In terms of a pictorial image, I would expect it to be space, be it inner or outer.

JM: What are your long-term career goals & what should other artists who are inspired by Virgo should do if they wish to follow in Virgo’s legacy to further that sound?
V: Actually, we only have to come to that now, with the resurgence of the Virgo album. We always wanted to make a living with our music and become “stars” like every musicians does, but we also saw the importance of education and other career goals. With new technology and the YouTube it is more readily available for new artist to put out music. As for other artist that are inspired by our music we would say, just make music for the sake of making music and not to make money. If you stay true to yourself it will be more fulfilling even if you do not profit greatly from it.

JM: What are your songs about? (What specific themes do they cover?)
V: Most are about our experience as young men growing up in Chicago. They’re about going through life. As for theme(s) , we didn’t have specific theme in mind, but as a collection, a theme arrived inadvertently, and that is LIFE. We wanted our music to be an escape from day to day worries as it was for us making it.

JM: Who is your fan/customer base & do wish to expand that base and to what targeted audience? (Analyze this question thoroughly.)
V: We never had a particular fan base in mind and we still do not. We always wanted to make music for people to hear our emotions translated into music. We never had a”person” in mind. This stance may come from our days at clubs where all walks of life, race and ages were in attendance. Simply, we wanted everybody to listen to it.

JM: What question or questions that interviewers always forget too ask that should come up but never do . ( Present that question & be the interviewer /interviewing you by giving that answer.
V: The question that no one asks is….

How do you make the music/ work together to come up with the songs?
We feel, and we can’t be sure, that we approach/create music in a unique fashion. Most people would think that a 4:32 song would be sequenced, but we actually played each part for 4:32. If you listen carefully you will hear many mistakes. There were parts of songs that were “sequenced” but not done in the traditional fashion.

No one has asked…

How do you two get along?
We have known each other since 1977. We have never even so much as been in an argument not even on the basketball court.

Ceephax has a new album on Planet Mu. So we decided to talk to him about some stuff…

Who did the artwork for “United Acid Emirates” and describe the thinking behind it?
I did the artwork. It was inspired a bit by Arabic music cassette tape covers that are often quite garish and colourful. The background carpet and picture were photographed in amusement arcades which are one of the main places that have shaped me and my music. The TB-303 flying carpet ties in the arabic theme with the acid tunes! Basically a collage of some of my influences done in an eye-catching and appealing mess.

What is your studio set-up and what process do you normally go through to make a song?
Here’s a pic of my studio, mainly analogue synths and drum machines (pictured below). Normally I make a tune in a minute or two, have the bassline, chords and stuff ready in less than an hour, but if I want it to be a more developed and sound good then I spend a few days or sometimes a week or more fiddling about and turning it from a good idea into something that is a piece of music and not just a quick jam, whilst trying to retain the magic of those first few creative minutes which at the end remain the most important thing no matter what you add to it. Sometimes this works, and sometimes you lose the magic which is sad. This album is a mix between tracks that I put loads of work into and some spontaneous stuff that was made in minutes.

Tell us the most surreal / crazy gig you have had?
I think one of the strangest gigs was in Bern in Switzerland where I was on tour with 3 of my mate musicians. It was in a sort of tiny underground library squat (?) with books lining the walls and a balcony that ran all around and the stage underneath, so that most of the audience were looking down on you. Anyway we managed to get so drunk on gin and whatever else that we were flailing and falling about the stage and tiny dancefloor and playing absolutely terribly whilst the rather serious crowd looked down on us from the balcony as if we were some kind of curious new exhibit at a victorian zoo freshly imported from the Congo…well that’s what it felt like at the time. It was great fun though, possibly at the audience and organizer’s expense !

What is the best video game ever and why?
Asteroids is probably the best arcade game for me, as it’s non completable and random in such a nice way..It looks amazing too because of the Vector graphics that you can’t recreate on a cathode or LCD screen. I don’t agree with lurking though. Best home computer game..Turrican on the c64. So massive at the time, so deep, I consider it a work of art as incredible as any famous symphony or painting.

What’s next for Ceephax?
At the moment I’m concentrating on videos for my music as film/video has been something I have wanted to get into for years. It completes the Ceephax experience…

You have been known for your diverse style of sounds that you create – what external influences do you think has helped shape your wide sound pallette?

Well, I try to let other music influence me. I can’t always keep up, but when I get into a rut, it usually helps to hear what other people are doing. Sound wise, I’m mostly sample based, so I try to collect sounds that might be unusually interesting and try to make them musical. I guess that helps keep my sound diverse.

A Certain Distance has a much more pop sound… What do you think made you lean this way and was it a conscious decision?

Sure, I guess I just got sick of dealing with the same sorts of structures, so I wanted to experiment a little more with verse/chorus and vocals and see if I could make it work, while still keeping my sound.

How do you go about constructing a song? What musical set-up / equipment do you use?

It’s a combination of hardware and software. I might start with a particular instrument that I haven’t used in a while and just jam until I come up with an idea. I don’t have any set rules on how to construct a song really, but it usually involves building patterns individually and doing variations on those patterns.

As you do both, what do you find easier – scoring a movie or making an album?

Neither, they both come with different sets of challenges. Scoring a movie is basically trying to collaborate with the director, but finding your voice within a set of parameters that works with the movie. Writing an album can be just as hard because you have to come up with something on your own, without any guidelines. Both ways can be inspiring and frustrating at the same time.

You have had many different guises to your music, is there a reason why you have differentiated these personas and their relation to the music of Tadd Mullinix / Dabrye / James Cotton / SK-1? Do you have a different work set-up / structure for these different personas?

I sorted my aliases according to genre for several reasons. In order to try to remove myself from the music I create a persona that will encompass the things I like about a certain style. I also think that it is important to prepare the listener for a certain kind of experience. Context plays a big role in how people take in art. And context is important when making art too. Some techniques are more interesting in a certain musical context. I think that few people would be interested in a music that is a hodge-podge of many styles that I find interesting.

How do you go about constructing a song? What musical set-up / equipment do you use?

Usually, I begin with a very basic idea and I work on it with instruments until I’ve got something that I think is interesting. Sometimes I experiment until I get something that sounds good and then I elaborate on the main ingredient. I use Technic 1200 turntables, a personal computer, a Roland tr-808, tr-909. tb-303, sh-101, mc-202, tr-606, sp-404, tr-505, tr-707, Alpha Juno 2, Boss DR-660, Yamaha CS-15, DX-7, Ensoniq ESQ-1, Realistic/Moog Concertmate, Casio RZ-1, SK-1, and whatever FX I can get my hands on.

Who are your favourite producers and why?

My Favorite producers are Aphex Twin (because he was my stepping stone into the electronic music world and is usually doing something very interesting with sound design, melody and rhythm) and the late J Dilla (because his music is superior on all fronts. He never made an OK beat. They are all sick!).

What projects is coming up and when can we expect to see it?

2AM/FM will be releasing a 12″ on Creme Organization and a few tracks on M>O>S early next year. And perhaps Dabrye will be doing a remix for a certain (really GOOD) well known dirty south group for a certain late night cartoon program (for ADULTS). And James T. Cotton will be releasing another diverse EP on Spectral Sound soon.

Remote Location was established in 2007 as a creative technology & communication studio by Adam Rodgers and Neil Morton. Both are from Glasgow, UK originally and worked together on a few projects, including stuff for Warp and Numbers, before starting Remote Location. They are now based in Spitalfield, in the east of London.

Focusing on fresh design, concept & production, they collaborate with their network of creative and technical specialists when approaching projects and realising ideas.

Recent stuff they’ve produced includes the Hudson Mo Butterstar Galactica game for Warp (collab with Thomas Traum and Mike Tucker), record art for Darkstar on Hyperdub and Neil Landstrumm on Planet Mu (Vice’s worst cover of the month), and an identity & website for blackmaps.

Forthcoming creations include a site and sleeves for their sister company Numbers, sleeve art for the new Fabric comp, new identity & online home for Rubadub, a site design for Samurai FM, working with Craig Armstrong, and of course further developments of Warp.net.

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Art direction + design for the latest Neil Landstrumm LP on Planet μ Records. Head-dress & breakfast vibes. Photography by Sam Robinson

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Butter Star Galactica. Produced in collaboration with Thomas Traum & Mike Tucker for the Hudson Mohawke LP ‘Butter’ on Warp Records.

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Marks for Rubadub Records & blackmaps

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New website for Warp’s Music, Films and Records companies. Created in collaboration with Universal Everything.

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Screen-printed & Lazer-etched graphics for various Rustie EPs on Stuffrecords & Wireblock. Bad Science EP designed in collaboration w/ Konx-Om-Pax.

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Numbers. Identity for Glasgow based events company / record label.

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Graphics for Darkstar’s EP on Hyperdub – inspired by the Monolith from the film 2001: A Space Odyssey.

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Destroy! Arcade style game to promote Flying Lotus and his LP ‘Los Angeles’.

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Some sketches

Tell us a little about why you started Italians Do It Better, an offshoot of your noise/rock label, Troubleman Unlimited?

It was started because we felt glass candy wasnt getting enough props because TMU was being pigeonholed as a rock label. it worked!

From your roots in hardcore and punk, can you tell us when your interest in disco started and why?

It started back in the late 80s when i was working at nightclubs in NYC. searching out hip hop and funk samples before the internet wasnt easy. i found a lot of samples were from disco, and i noticed how much house was borrowing from disco… this was 1988 or so.

Can you give us five of your favourite hardcore tracks?

-FAITH / VOID lp
-DRI Dealing With It lp
-NEGATIVE FX lp
-KRAKDOWN 1988 demo
-GORILLA BISCUITS start today lp

We’ve read that you were fortunate enough to have experienced such legendary clubs as CBGBs and The Loft. Can you share some of your favourite experiences in those exciting clubs of NYC?

i used to go to CBGB every sunday afternoon for the hardcore matinees from 1987-1990. then i went to ABCNORIO shows because CBGB started getting a little too violent. that was some of the best times in my opinion. it was so great. i went out at night to MARS (where i worked as a promoter). my job entailed handing out fliers at other clubs. i was only 17 so i couldnt get real jobs at the clubs.. but i went to all the clubs from the heyday of the NY club scene… it was such a good time. the late 80s was the end of the grit in NYc

Can you tell us a little about how you ended up recording for Italians Do It Better?

It was one of the simplest and most straight-forward thing ever. I sent No Static to them via myspace and they immediately said they wanted to release it.

Most of your records have a distinct ‘horror’ theme. Can you tell us a little about this obsession? Does film influence you as much as music?

I can only tell you my personal experience, which could maybe be share manyd by other Italian producers born in the mid/late 1970s. All through the 80’s and 90’s small private tv channels in Italy were showing B movies at night, very many sci-fi and horror flicks. I guess those local stations didn’t have the money to purchase big films. All the Italian and American horror masters of the 70s and 80s got massive airtime in those years! So I think that music music got under my skin somehow.

While working on the Horror Disco album I researched many Italian movies, giallos, slasher movies, cheap sci-fi flicks that I thought I would need to watch. Often I released that I had seen them already on tv when I was a kid!

We’re sure compatriots such Fabio Frizzi, Claudio Simonetti and Goblin are influences, but are there any others that have helped inspire the Bottin sound?

Amongst Italians, Celso Valli e Mauro Malavasi’s productions are a big influence. But my favorite band is actually the all-american Steely Dan.

Can you tell us what your five favourite giallo/horror films are?

The Testament of Dr. Mabuse by Fritz Lang
Non Si Sevizia Un Paperino (Don’t Torture a Duckling) by Lucio Fulci
Prince Of Darkness by John Carpenter
Buio Omega (Beyond The Darkness) by Joe D’Amato
Operazione Paura (Kill baby kill) by Mario Bava

To celebrate BPitch’s 10th Birthday and our special feature, we decided to catch up with the head-honcho herself….

+ Berlin is obviously very close to your heart. What it makes it one of the most the unique cities in the world and how has it changed in the twenty years since the collapse of the wall?

The wall separated us. At that time the city was occupied by the military and hence everything was neatly arranged to keep things “in good order”. When the wall came down, the DDR was already at its end and democracy was established.

For me as a “Wessi” (that is how we used to call people grown up in the Western sectors of Berlin) it was just great, since I finally had the chance to discover the East: I used to take my bicycle and have endless rides into the East. Within a few months I had a new circle of friends, it was just gorgeous Lots of underground bars, clubs and spaces came up in a very short time. Everything was just so new and exciting. The art scene moved towards the East, here there was enough free space for creative development. However, after the Wall collapsed the East had to fight against poverty and many lost not only their jobs but also their identity.

+ When you first started out in the early nineties how did the rhythms of Detroit and Chicago inform your DJ’ing, your music making?

The independent record store Hardwax situated in Berlin (Kreuzberg) since the early Nineties, has significantly coined my musical taste. During that time I was resident at Tresor/Globus club and its label was actually the one that built and established the axis between German/Berlin and American Techno. At Tresor I had the chance to listen to most of the important DJ’s from the US such as Blake Baxter, Jeff Mills and Robert Hood. During the nineties I was into English Electronica and US- House, minimal Techno. Before that I was crazy about Kraftwerk and the Neue Deutsche Welle as well as Steve Reich and Bach.

+ You have played out all over the world, how do you see the current condition of DJ technology, crowds, clubbing and raves?

It is amazing…I am totally addicted to music; playing the tracks I love and sharing the gorgeous feeling music can give with the dancers in the club, that is what really kicks me. I love to travel and of course sometimes things get boring since the mechanisms are always the same and situations repeat themselves over and over again. But it is like that and at the end it is all about good and hot music, which is the sole thing that pushes me to go on….

+ Punctuating your finest work is a commitment to pop arrangement and melody, are their any artists outside the underground who have influenced you/continue to inform?

Under the pop artists that have mostly influenced my music I would count Björk, Kraftwerk, David Bowie….I love these artists as they never stopped shining. Of course all the sounds I perceive, the sound of the sea, of doors, of the tube…all of them influence my sound. In some way hearing is “the champagne of my day”.

+ Throughout its history the techno landscape has very much been male dominated, have you been motivated by this and why do you think their has been so few female voices?

I think nightlife is something that females don’t like that much as males do. The madness, the drinks and the cigarettes and sex in the toilets…hehehe. Generally the deliriousness of clubbing is closer to men than to women.

In Germany many women lead booking agencies, and it is generally pretty common that women work in the background. However Germany is packed with female DJ’s, over here it is rather a normal thing.

Through the fall of the Wall the whole music/creative-scenario changed: the old communities couldn’t keep the positions they had up till then. Many new and very active groups of every kind came up and in this context there was enough space for both women and men.

Thanks to the growth in tourism all these new ideas and movements found their implementation. Especially a big number of ravers who come all the way to Berlin in order to live the endless party this city offers….here you are allowed to do that.

What great luck!

+ Tell us about your experiences in the early nineties when you organised parties in Lichtenberg Youth clubs how did that come about?

I was 15 years old and Paul Kalkbrenner and me, we organized our first parties in the East Berlin ghettos where we grew up. In the beginning we had to play with pop chart DJ’s and hip hop DJ´s during the same night, but after some months our sound became more and more successful and we began to run the whole night, actually “evening”, cause these youth clubs opened every Friday and Saturday from 8 pm till midnight. We didn’t have enough records to play so sometimes we played one track 3 times! After these parties we went to the “real” clubs like bunker Walfisch or e-werk to see and dance to our dj-idols.

+ You are quite the prolific remixer, how do you go about tackling a project from when you first get approached to the final mix-down?

I always try to find the mood of the original track and reproduce this mood. For me it’s not the point to use melodies the same way, it’s more interesting to play with the feeling of the original. I general I prefer doing a remix for not too clubby tracks. It’s more interesting to play with the instruments or vocals and set it up in my personal club version, instead of having just one minimal hook and percussions.

+ Although you are very closely connected to the German techno network which other labels and artists have informed your music from the rest of Europe and beyond?

There are many more but off the top of my head Dial, Kompakt, Freude am Tanzen and Dynamic.

+ This year marks ten years for Bpitch, having worked alongside Bpitch for a while now where do you see the label developing for the next ten years?

I still see us as a very eclectic label. We express electronic music in so many different ways, especially on albums. We always tried to set the focus on more than just 12″ club tunes. For every one of us it would be too boring to do that. I listen to so many other different music styles. I am sure we shall continue this way.

+ What plans do you have for future releases, collaborations, and a follow up to 2008’s Mango?

I finished a track for our 10th anniversary and a new single is almost done, a few remixes as well. And I will definitely start with a new album soon.

+ You were born and raised in Paris, what would you say are the most fascinating differences in clubbing and electronic music between the French capital and Berlin, where you now reside?

The first main difference are the parties are almost endless in Berlin , In Paris after 4:AM , people have to go back home.
Most of the club scene in Berlin goes deeper conceptually, for example Berghain , there are no mirrors, pictures are forbidden, forget what you look like…A Serious Concept , A Serious Team …

There is not really after parties in Paris. People are younger in the clubs in Paris.
More privacy, More freedom in Berlin . Techno Culture is different . Culture in itself is different.
I invite everyone to visit Berlin , however I wouldn’t say that one is better than the other.
For example , I played the 22th august at a Social club for Get the Curse a very talented promoter , It was really nice , I had lot of fun , I found a fresh energy in this club, in this party, something I couldn’t find or maybe I would not be looking for in Berlin .

Same for Rex Club , when I played there a few months ago with Ellen Allien and Okain . Big Party!
But no damn after party… I remember also the Scream party in Elysee, Montmartre it ahs been over 4 years since something like that, Weird, crazy and totally original.

+ The Dimuschi Parties you set up with Paul Ritch in Paris sound amazing, tell us a little more about them…

Dimuschi is a concept from Laurent Baylet and Patrick Bamberger, We met each other by a communal friend, Sandra. They did the last one 3 weeks ago and I guess they are working on something new. They look for a different place for each party.

I played the one under the Alexander III bridge (next to Champs Elysee) , with my friends Paul Ritch and Okain . The after party was on their friends boat right opposite, on the Seine. 50 people joined the after party, the last veterans. No police this day, I remember there was a football match on television or something …

The night was really special, something that doesn’t happen so often in Paris .

+ What attracted you to sign for BPitch Control?

Bpitch Control is a big label. I was looking for a label with whom I could build a close relation with, to work and stay with for a while. I met Kiki first and Ellen and Sascha Funke and we became closer.

Bpitch control is really a part of Berlin , when I arrived here in Berlin, 18th may 2007, right from Paris, I was really seduced by the city, excited to deeper understand the culture, and to work with real Berliners . It was hard to know where to go as a young artist. Finally we decided to work together, they accepted me, and now they support me to go on this way.

One thing really strong with BPC is this multi music style; it gives me freedom for my future project. Thinking about the concept of my first album, bpitch give me many inspirations, like Berlin !

+ When constructing a track for the floor, where does your primary sensibility lie? in the making of rhythm or melody?

About this question, I would like to answer short. The beat make the people moving their ass, the melodies make them dream.

+ What do the words minimal techno mean to Thomas Muller in 2009 and beyond?

2009, the year of the crisis ? In contrast, globally this years minimal brought to techno more air , more breath . I remember the sets of Jeff Mills, Carl Cox, Dave Clark, and many more 5 years ago it was super fast, short transition, cut on the X-fader , cut bass , boum bim boum bim boum, reverse scratch on the vinyl , bass on , arms up !

These days minimal techno uses big sub sounds for feel, you can ear the groove of the bassline under the rest of the drum. The FX processing has more time to push the people, it’s a kind of progressive music much more than the techno.

I think the minimal concept brought to every style of electronic music one new aesthetic ; It’s the reaction against the synthesizer from the nineties .

What this word means to me, it just seems to be the music I produce; I’m not a hard activist of minimal techno. First, because it’s just an evolution and second, because, these days everything moves so fast. We can easily get confused.

Whatever, I strongly believe in electronic music, I like to create music without any solid musical instrument , just direct from my mind , virtual to virtual , my mind to there mind by sound waves . I LOVE IT. I like to create the music from beginning to the end, to understand what happens at every step in the process of building a track. DJ Koze and Riccardo Villalobos for example have a particular aesthetic that remembers Cubism . Their sounds are not always balanced; sometimes it’s purposefully too bright. It doesn’t follow the classic mixing rule that I once learned in my sound engineering school. Electronic music is still young, I’m happy to be an actor of this movement !