Rocking The Dance Floor

The sound of the summer often comes from the most unexpected places. In recent years, the big track was the techno-electro stomp of ‘Zombie Nation’ while, more recently, unknown artists like Benny Benassi and Akufen have become festival and Ibiza favourites.

This year, it looks like Alter Ego’s ‘Rocker’ is ready to take the crown of undisputed crowd-pleasing big tune, fending off competition from Cursor Miner’s electro anthem, ‘Sport Of Kings’.
Taken from the duo’s new album, Transphormer, ‘Rocker’ boasts a fusion of live guitars and cowbells, stop-start, skipping electronic beats and a blissfully tripped-out, euphoria-inducing riff – and has already been championed by everyone from Soulwax to Tiefschwarz and Andrew Weatherall to Sven Vath.
Once you hear this record over a big sound system, it’s impossible not to find yourself grinning and grooving along to its insidious melody.
German duo Roman Flugel and Joern Wuttke are behind the record and have been releasing a steady flow of techno, house and experimental music as Alter Ego, Acid Jesus and Sensorama for the past eleven years.
The duo, who also own Frankfurt club Robert Johnson and run the Playhouse and Klang labels, became one of the first German dance acts to gain international acclaim, thanks to classic dancefloor tracks like ‘Evil Needle’, ‘Betty Ford’ and ‘Move My Body’.
Alter Ego have also remixed The Human League, Chicks On Speed, Primal Scream, Octave One and Sven Vath, but they still insist that ‘Rocker’ is a departure for them.
“Before we recorded it, we had just finished remixing Primal Scream, so we were in that frame of mind,” explains Joern. “Apart from the usual programming packages, we used a bass guitar, cowbells and a distortion unit and really searched for a new sound. At the time, we were listening to old 60s psychedelic punk bands like The Seeds and 13th Floor Elevators as well as 70s industrial. We were looking for a strong, hard edge and I think we found it.”
Like many great records, it sounds unlike anything else; not surprisingly Joern says that when people first heard it, they couldn’t get their heads around it.
“When we started playing it, people didn’t know what to make of it, but as soon as Westbam, Hell and Sven Vath picked up on it, everyone in Germany was into it,” he says. “Tiefschwarz and Black Strobe started playing it then and that’s when DJs all over Europe got into it. Now, whenever we perform live, we do a longer version of the track and the crowds go crazy, pogoing along to it!”
It’s such a deviation from the norm that some people have already called it ‘Techno Rock’.
“It’s just a silly name, but every sound needs a sticker for people to hang onto to,” Joern observes. “We want to keep the energy of punk, but we still love techno and that will never change. Having said that, we were bored of hearing DJs play hard loopy techno for three or four hours at a club or at the other end of the spectrum, the arty, minimal DJs who would play experimental sets but who were no use at playing party music,”
Alter Ego’s new LP, Transphormer also features the kind of raw melodies and grungy rhythms that make ‘Rocker’ unique. Recorded after September 11, Joern says that the terrorist attacks had an impact on the album.
“It’s not a protest record, but it was overshadowed by the attacks,” he insists. “We don’t go to clubs to completely avoid reality, it’s good to stay informed about what’s happening in the world. These are dirtier times, it’s no longer the nice colourful techno world.”

‘Rocker’ and Transphormer are both out now on Klang.