MONKEY BUSINESS

By Simon Jack.

What do you get if you suppress half of Germany for nigh on half a century, then rip down a wall allowing said half a nation to live in a free democratic state with no censorship of culture? Well lots of things, all good, but in this particular blog I would say you get the magnificent two piece ‘Modeselektor’.

Gernot Bronsert and Sebastian Szary grew up on the bad side of the Berlin wall in east Germany and were coming of age when self-proclaimed communism destroyer David Hasslehoff sang at the final evening of east German oppression under the Commies, single handedly reuniting Deutschland.

(Hasslehoff does actually believe he helped bring down the communist regime, whereas actually 50 years of poor accounting destroyed Russia’s ability to support the east German dictatorship…bit of history there for you…don’t worry there won’t be anymore). So even though the first official music of the newly free country was “Looking for Freedom” mimed by the Hoff, the German people got over that pretty quickly, finding that organising free parties without harassment from the law was easy. So like the rest of the free world electronic music and in particular Acid House took over…Wooo hooo!

So back to the heroes of this tale, ModeSelektor. The duo met in 1995 in a Berlin where all western culture was a preferred alternative to anything that came before. Szary was already playing live Acid House, but not long after the two met they started their musical journey together under the name ‘Fundamental knowledge’. In 1996 the pair changed to ‘Modeselektor’ a name taken from an old Roland analogue effects unit.
They got their first big break in 1999 remixing for Berlin based VJ ‘Pfadfinderei ‘ and then in 2000 signed for Ellen Aliens ‘B pitch control’ label and have never looked back.

Their first album ‘Hello mum’ released in 2005 set the tone for the rest of their musical releases and two years later their second album ‘Happy Birthday’ proved that the modeselektor style was working and would be around for a long time to come. The pair never stick to a distinct style in any of their productions, gliding seamlessly between techno house dubstep and IDM . The only common ground between each track is how different they are from the last yet still intriguing and above all fun, which has made Modeselektor the jokers of the German techno scene.
They have since collaborated with ‘Apperat’ (Sascha Ring) under the name ‘Moderat’ and furthur musical visual projects with Pfadfinderei namely ‘Pfadselektor’ they have even lectured at the ‘Merz Akademie’ in Stuttgart reflecting on their musical journey since the wall fell and how they create their midi based live performances.

The highly respected duo are a big favorite with ‘Radiohead’s’ genius front man Thom Yorke and while not only appearing as remixer’s on his ‘Skip divided’ release but under the ‘Moderat’ collaboration have supported Radiohead at concerts across Europe.

Monkeytown the latest long player from Modeselektor is a blend of bass heavy tech house, combined with a large slice of non-formulaic dubstep and Bass, with a bit of hip hop thrown in for good measure by collaborating with their friend French rapper ‘Siriusmo’. The album includes two tracks collaborating with Thom Yorke, both of which I would say are more for the bedroom listener than the dance floor; but by far the stand out tune of the album is ‘Black block’ a banging electro / techno monster which is well and truly aimed at blowing your ears off your head.

Modeselektor are on fire at the moment and are truly a positive product of Germany’s inevitable embracing of western culture. Proving the fall of communism did produce a lot of good reactions, unlike say the failing socialist giants’ negative effects on the safety monitoring of Chernobyl, which to be quite frank is a reaction we could have all done without (sorry a bit more history…ish).

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