Christian Science

Despite reports that electronic music is reaching the same kind of creative peak it experienced in the late 80s and early 90s, many truths continue to be ignored. The recent drum n bass converts seem to forget that the music is nothing new and has been around for years in many different guises. The play-and-call-it-what-you-want aesthetic is increasingly echoing our first bop down at the school disco, drum-roll trance is about as original as a holiday in Goa, and the happy , uplifting house brigade will have to start coming down now to sober up in time for the new millenium.
It is against this overrated and backward looking musical scene that 24-year-old Christian Vogel has unleashed his fifth long player. Called All Music Has Come To An End, the album s title as much as its content is a reaction to the way dance music and society is heading. The title comes from the idea that originated in music in the 50s, that all music was dying, explains Christian. I combined this concept with some of Baudrillard s (the 50s French philosopher Ed) philosophy and the fact that I d been on the road for close to two-and-a-half years and I was really knackered.
With All Music, Vogel taps into some very real and imminent societal problems that will effect us all. Citing Channel 4 s eye-opening Vision Of Heavens And Hell television series from 1994, Vogel believes that the development of computer technologies will not further but in fact hinder equality and make the differences between the haves and have-nots even greater.
I don t think the future is going to be that rosy. We ve got to be realistic about the limited technological resources and who can avail of them: the bad side of the technological revolution is going to be really bad.
Vogel and his work ethic are the very antithesis of the unquestioning, uncritical and ultimately lazy dance generation. His work rate is astounding as is the quality of each release. Always questioning and doubting, the young producer feels that modern music has reached an impasse.
I would hope that people will listen to my new LP and not just go wicked , he says. I just want them to think about it. I could have done some really hard gabba, but I d rather be more subtle. Generally, though, I feel that music has lost its political stance, and dance music, especially, has become really bland. Clubbers think that everything they hear is wicked. They aren t really interested in the music and aren t really supporting it.
Sometimes when I m playing and see really caned people dancing, I feel that dance music is coming to some kind of a horrible end. I m sorry if this all sounds very nihilistic but these feelings become positive through the music I make.
Vogel s dismay at the attitudes and lack of support for anything genuinely different in dance music has led him to set up his own management company with like-minded artists Tobias Schmidt, Neil Landstrumm, Si Begg and Mat Consume. Called No Future, the venture is, according to Vogel, us taking control of our affairs so we can build a good strong infrastructure and survive longer than the flash-in-the-pans.
Vogel feels that it is necessary to band together to fight against the many wrongs of the record industry, who, he feels make it hard for underground artists ( underground meaning music on a grass roots level, a different level of consumption, and not elitism ) to continue with their work.
I find stuff like the Performing Rights Society sick. John Peel plays your record on Radio 1, who pay the PRS money to play it. The PRS send you forms which you have to fill out, and then you have to prove your case to them. Then you have to pay them #40 to get your #20 for the record that was played on the radio. Where s the sense in that?
Any DJ who plays tracks from All Music has to be lauded, because it bears no resemblence to anything else around. If we were to associate the record with a genre it would have to be techno, but all of the tracks contain elements of the Vogel sound that distance them from the obvious 4/4s-by-numbers routine. All Music possesses shuffling rhythms, abstract, metallic sounds, tracks slowed down to half their original tempo and sped up again. In short, the long player is alien funk of the highest order, reminiscent of Krautrockers Can in content and punk rock in attitude. Does Vogel have a punk past like many of his peers?
I wasn t a punk at the time, because I was too young. But I studied The Great Rock n Roll Swindle as a module for my BA! (in 20th Century Music Ed) I would like to be seen as the punk version of dance, and hope that the underground took that attitdue in. Studying music at college got me thinking about, and listening to, groundbreaking music with an open mind. It also made me realise how important music is in the whole scheme of things.
It s funny too that you mention Can because I only really got into them in the last few years, and All Music does have a live studio feel to it like much of Can s music.
Despite some musical similarities to the German legends, Vogel maintains that All Music, is a techno piece, like the 21 EPs and four LPs he has released in the last three years.
Techno is a musical language I really understand, says Vogel. It has good syntax and is a very universal musical form.
Rest assured, however, that Vogel is not content to conform to the blueprint. I really like to flex techno s structures I agree that experimental music has to be heard in context, but any music that bends the structures of a musical form usually works really well. A good example of this is Speedy J s new album. Most people know him as a techno producer, and then he comes out with a truly experimental album, which is what he probably makes in his studio most of the time anyway.
Vogel s willingness to tear up the rulebooks, and not his Teutonic-sounding name ( My parents were Chilean refugees ) meant that he was the first UK artist to sign to Germany s esteemed Tresor label, and much of his DJing career is spent playing in the same country. Germans are funny, laughs Christian. They love hearing experimental techno being played out; it probably has something to do with their musical history of Kraftwerk and Can. I usually don t mind trainspotters if they are genuinely interested and dance to the music, but the ones in Germany stand around the booth all night, and only say things like (adopts stern German accent) Vat is dat ? It ist gut! Also, I recently saw an interview I did in a German magazine where I was quoted as saying that Being underground is like being a woman . The trouble is, I think I actually said that!
Although not a regular fixture in the clubs of England, Vogel spins all over the world, but has unfortunately given up playing live. His penultimate performance was at David Holmes EPI night at the Furnace in Dublin 18 months ago. Vogel is adamant that he will not be playing live again, because of the many problems he experienced during his gigging days.
The risk of playing live is very high, he explains. If I lose my machines or if they get damaged it s a nightmare, and I don t think that promoters treat live acts with enough respect or understanding. Also, if the crowd doesn t dig a groove you can t easily change it if you re playing live. Anyway, when I play out I always take DATs with me and try and play different sounds that people wouldn t normally hear.
If all music has come to an end, we can be sure that Christian Vogel s unearthly sounds will live on.
All Music Has Come To An End is out now on Tresor.