Let me introduce to you a new rising star in the endless skies of the blogosphere: Having played all over Europe and Mexico, Austrian allround artist and bon-vivant DJ Len decided to start sharing his endless passion in music with whoever is capable of using a computer. dancendancen.com is an innovative, fresh music blog focusing in all shapes of electronic dance music, ranging from dirty electro-house to crystal clear minimal techno. Impudently using the connections he has gathered in years of DJing and backstage-networking, he recently secured an exclusive preview on Eriq Johnson’s latest release titled Guy Who Is A Girl. I took this as an opportunity to unveil his blog to you all, so here’s a streaming preview of a massive rework by Avo – to actually download the track (and see what Len has to say about it), head over to dancendancen.com or become a fan on Facebook.

Eriq Johnson – Guy Who Is A Girl (Avo Remix)

I’m more than proud to announce an exclusive interview with one of my all-time favorites, an innovative and artistic pioneer in electronic music: Pascal Arbez, better known as Vitalic. His second studio album Flashmob proves beyound doubt that he’s still one of the big names guiding and influencing the whole scene by further developing his unique trademark sound. Enough talk, here’s what the maestro himself has to say about human emotions in dance music, vocoders instead of real singers and Major Lazer:

[interview after the jump]

Disco Demons: I think what makes your music stand out against the endless flood of new electronic music releases is the unique emotional touch (I’m especially thinking of tracks like Second Lives or The Past here) that most other electronic dance music tracks are lacking. How is it possible to use machines (=synthesizers) to communicate emotions?

Vitalic: Machines are designed to make whatever you want them to make. I suppose that, if electronic music may lack some emotion, it’s because the musicians behind just don’t want to make this kind of music. As far as I’m concerned, I like both cold and robotic music, as well as deeper tracks, and I make the music I need to make at the precise moment I’m working on the track.

Speaking of emotions: Compared to OK Cowboy, it seems as if you’ve been in a completely different mood during the process of making Flashmob. Obviously, you were experimenting with new sounds and techniques. What was it like creating something entirely different, while keeping your own style?

It is maybe more risky and time consuming to make the choice of not producing follow ups and focus on redesigning you sound banks and production tools. But i really wanted to change a few things, to feel like I’m evolving. I didn’t try to keep my style really, I just tried to make songs that would please me when I was doing them. It was the same after Poney EP, when I worked on OK Cowboy. I really don’t see the point of making several times the same track.

As everything in your music, even the vocals are mostly synthetic. You have a very unique way of working with vocoders, resulting in intersting and weird sounds. On the one hand you’ve been using a Mac’s default voice Brigitte, on the other hand you even included your own voice. What makes you pick a vocoder instead of a real singer?

I like the result. Making the choice of using technology instead of a real voice, I achieve something strange, between reality and synthetic. It’s kind of fragile voice and also I can make things that a real voice couldn’t do anyway.

Then again, there’s Linda Lamb singing on One Above One – why did you choose her for his certain track, and not a vocoder?

Because for that peculiar track, I wanted a real voice. It really depends on what I want to achieve instead of getting stuck in a concept, just for the concept.

Apart from your favorite singer Brigitte, what other equipment do you bring to live shows?

I bring a Virus, a Roland XT1, a mixing desk, an Aka vocoder and Ableton Live with a big sound card to have many outputs.

What I like about DJing is the ability to pick an artists best track and condense it into a single, intensive performance along with other artists’ best tracks. Is there a certain reason why you don’t like playing other people’s music?

Now, I do DJ sometimes. I started for fun and little by little got into it. I think it’s fun. I use Ableton again, cut the tracks, change them, just use the parts I like. Also, I like farting around on sites and buy new stuff before I go to take the flights. It changes a bit from the live set…

I know lots of DJs and producers who would never listen to their own records (or something similar) at home. What music do you enjoy at home, in the evening?

It depends on the mood and the time. I listen things like MGMT, Midnight Juggernauts, Empire of the Sun, old dub disco from 70s and 80s, trashy Italian disco stuff, Crookers, Major Lazer, La Roux… anything I like. And no I don’t like when someone puts my tracks when I’m at a party…

What was the last song you listened to before we talked?

It was a track on the new album of Crookers, featuring Yelle.

You once mentioned Jean-Michel Jarre as a major influence. I would even go so far as to say that electronic dance music in its current form would not exist without this pioneer of electronic music. Do you agree?

Of course. New comers use sounds and effects they think are new, but were created 30 years ago. So yes, the modern electronic scene is based on the work of the pioneers.

Projects such as Major Lazer or Buraka Som Sistema are bringing a completely new style into the electronic scene. Do you think this is just a short-life phenomenon, or maybe the future of electronic dance music?

I love them. I do think that they bring some new flavor but you can’t say it’s totally new. Its based on styles that existed before, sounds that existed before also. All the current chicken music with the pipipiiiiip comes from the 90s. The way it’s all mashed up is fresh though.

I once asked Dada Life what songs they would pick if they could only save five records from their burning house, and they told me: “Records? I’ll go for the computer to save the whole collection! We aim for the future.” What do you think about the quarrel betweeen vinyl lovers and laptop DJs?

I have seen all this blabla in the 90s about CDs and vinyl. Who talks about that old querelle now? I think people go for what’s convenient for them. I love CDs, but I’d go for the computer too. I’m too used to it now.

Fan question (by vmorbit): How can you hold that passion in your music for such a long perioud without getting dull?

It’s 13 years I’m making music. I don’t think it’s such a long period, and I don’t see the time passing by either because I changed my style, because I work with new people on new concepts. I have to keep it exciting…

Last one: See The Sea – blue or red?

Blue.

I’m proud to present an exclusive interview with French musician Alexis Latrobe, better known as Alex Gopher.  After having released two studio albums, Gopher recently stepped back into the spotlight with a remix album titled My New Remixes - which I used as an opportunity to ask him a few questions about his musical past, late singers and Yves Saint-Laurent.

[interview after the jump]

Disco Demons: Hey Alex, let me jump right into it: Your musical career started by playing bass in rock a band called Orange with friends from school – including Jean-Benoit Dunckel and Nicolas Godin, now better known as Air. As rock music with English lyrics was quite unpopular in France back then, you exchanged your bass for synthesizers and sequencers. In retrospect, are you glad that these language barriers made you switch to electronic music?
Alex Gopher: Of course yes ! That’s true that going in electronic music was at the beginning an opportunity to forget this language barrier. But at the same time the most important thing was the opportunity to be a pioneer in a new kind of music. Being innovative in rock music was a real challenge, but with a computer and a sampler it became much more easy. I made the right choice !

D.D. After the band split up, you’ve been collaborating with Air from time to time. What was it like working with former band collegues? As you spent lots of time making music with them in Orange – do they still influence you and your music?
A.G. It’s always a great pleasure to work again together. We have a lot of musical tastes in common so it makes things much easier. Of course I’m always a loyal fan of their music but they are doing their own thing, and I always tried to stay different. When we split up, it was because our goals were different, but now that we’ve down our own things it’s possible to collaborate again.

D.D. When you’re working together with Etienne de Crecy, what’s the process of making music like? Does one of you just come up with an idea and you’re then building a track upon it together?
A.G. When we work together for a track, we start from nothing, we do everything together. It was not the case for the Superdiscount 1, I did two tracks that Etienne “tweaked” to his own sauce.
But for the new tracks or remixes, we worked like a band.

D.D. Your first album was a huge success, partly thanks to the track The Child, featuring a Billie Holiday sample – decades after Billie Holiday’s death. If you could travel back in time to have one singer record vocals for a track, who would it be?
A.G. Marvin Gaye would be my choice for this impossible dream.

D.D. Back in 2001, Yves Saint-Laurent requested three tracks for his fashion shows from you, an honour that puts you in one line with names like Daft Punk (or later Justice). What was it like producing music for fashion shows? Did he give you a free hand in creating this tracks, or were there any restrictions?
A.G. It was a real collaboration between Hedi Sliman, the designer and myself. I was working on the music, and each days he gave me some indications, asked me for some modifications. It was at the same time really free but like fashion, really precise and calculated. A perfect melt of Art and Handcraft.

D.D. Your latest release is a remix album, featuring remixes for the likes of Kraftwerk, Fischerspooner, Shinichi Osawa and Dada Life – instead of creating an album consisting of your own tracks, you are re-interpreting other people’s music. How does it feel to have an entire album full of other artists’ songs and voices, but with your own sound and style?
A.G. When I do a remix, I really re-appropriate the music. So its true that this album is really close to an album I could have done if I was producing my own club album.
That’s why I wanted to compile these remixes, it was important to do produce a conclusion with this compilation, to say “here is what I did musically these last two years”, because in many ways doing all these remixes is the same timing as an album.

D.D. I know lots of DJs and procuers who would never listen to their own tracks (or anything similar) at home. What music do you enjoy at home, in the evening?
A.G. You are right, I almost never listen electronic music at home in the evening !
After a day in the studio, I need some quiet, some cool music. Nick Drake for example is one of my favorites. Serge Gainsbourg also.

D.D. What was the last song you listened to before we talked?
A.G. A new track from autoKratz, ‘Skin Machine’. Good, I will play it on Saturday night ! [note: this track can be downloaded in 320kbps quality for free on Disco Demons]

D.D. I once asked Olle from Dada Life what songs he would pick if he could only save five records from his burning house, and he told me: “Records? I’ll go for the computer to save the whole collection! We aim for the future.” What do you think about the quarrel betweeen vinyl lovers and laptop DJs?
A.G. Technique is just a detail for me in the process of DJing. The most important thing is to give and so to take pleasure. I’m an old school DJ, so even if I don’t mix anymore on vinyls, I use CDs like I used Vinyls : one track on one record. That’s not very safe for the environment, but that’s far more funny than being in front of a computer like doing emails or accounting !

D.D. Out of personal interest: How did your track “Aurora” get its name?
A.G. With this track, I wanted to start something new, to be musically born again. Aurora is the beginning…

One of my all-time favorite electronic live acts is about to release a new EP: Spring 2010 is going to see the release of Kick EP by London-based duo autoKratz on Kitsuné. As there’s also an album coming in autumn 2010, autoKratz have reasons enough to celebrate – I guess that’s why they sent me the EP’s B-Side track to give away for free. Skin Machine is a heavy synth-driven instrumental track, showcasing their production skills. (Are they sampling Warp at 2:15?)

By the way, the band also announced they have recruited a drummer who will join them on their 2010 tour, so don’t miss their show if they’re anywhere near you.

autoKratz – Skin Machine

Having remixed La Roux, Chromeo and Amanda Blank in 2009, German disco wizzards GRVRBBRS now celebrate their glorious return by putting their unique remix fingerprints all over Little Boots’ amazing Tune Into My Heart. Featuring Little Boots’ incredibly beautiful voice, backed by solid disco beats and Daft Punk-esque filtered lead synths, this remix is a real disco gem. Keep an eye on these guys, they might be one of 2010’s big discoveries.

Little Boots – Tune Into My Heart (GRVRBBRS Remix)

“Volta Cab comes from Mother Russia and brings us into the neon future. Into the times where space rockets are the most widespread type of transport. Into the times where teachers at your childs’ school are martians and chief-cooks of your favourite restaraunt are from Mercury. Into the times when the war is over and everyone in the universe loves each other.”