Black Strobe: Paris Acid City (Our Time Is Now)
Author: Benedetta Skrufff
Tuesday, April 6, 2004
The CD's he's just finished is Bugged Out's upcoming mix Suck My Deck, though as French DJ Ivan Smagghe (one half of Black Strobe) is the first to admit, he's more than just a little bit busy on other projects. Specifically today, he's promoting his other current mix CD, Death Disco, for Eskimo Records, a slower housier mix than his upcoming Bugged Out selection.
Mix CDs matters aside, though, he's also delightfully opinionated and unusually outspoken, happily dismissing Paris elites, including the rich ('the fashion crowd are really uptight and don't party hard') and the poor ('Just because your parties take place in squats, doesn't mean they're any more about freedom than any others'). Mostly, though, he's happiest concentrating on music.
'I don't really care if people or the press respect me, I do what I'm driven to do', he says.
Skrufff (Benedetta Skrufff): Your latest mix CD Death Disco doesn't have the mixing trickery that regular house and trance mix CDs display; how important is mixing to you-
Ivan Smagghe: "It is important, but it's not particularly for this one and even for the Eskimo CDs that I did in the past, mixing was not extremely relevant. The emphasis was on the tracks primarily, the goal being to keep the CD as eclectic and different as possible. If you want to experiment with different moods and atmospheres, you can't possibly have seamless mixing, even if you were to use the best trickery in the world you couldn't do it, you'd have to change the tracks' tempo. So even for this one, no-one should expect Sasha-type mixing."
Skrufff: Your biog refers to your music as 'leftfield electronica' and 'quality eclectism'; what do you call it- Are you comfortable with labels like electroclash-
Ivan Smagghe: "It's true I've been associated with the label 'electro' something or other in the past but for me it's not a fashion thing, I've always done what I've done. Being fashionable is good, though, for as long as it lasts and being labelled leftfield is also definitely good. I've never gone for the obvious choice, I try as much as I can to branch out, while at the same time not losing perspective."
Skrufff: How much do you see yourself as part of a new musical post-house wave- Do you still identify yourself with house or club culture-
Ivan Smagghe: "I'm not sure what you mean, if I didn't identify myself with club culture I'd be a bit stupid, since this is what I do . . . But then again I don't associate clubbing with that notion 'clubbing is so great', because if did I'd also feel a bit stupid. . . I love the nightlife, that's all."
Skrufff: Going into your background: you released Paris Acid City for Source in 1997, what was that track about-
Ivan Smagghe: "Oh, that was just a single. It was kind of a joke because at the time everybody in France liked that dark acid sound, while we were not into it at all. At the time, we were actually into what we're doing now, electronic music that re-echoes the '80s. Back then The Liberators did their track 'London Acid City' and ours was an answer to that, a joke as I said, since we were not into that scene at all. Just because your parties take place in squats, doesn't mean they're any more about freedom than any others, in fact they still have groups and groups are often associated with intolerance."
Skrufff: Why did Black Strobe stop producing music at one point-
Ivan Smagghe: "It's not that we stopped, we always did a few things, it's just that at the time I was also involved with a radio show and doing that on a daily basis took all of my time and energy. When I got bored with the radio I went straight back into producing. More time is always what I'm after, in order to do all the things I have in mind."
Skrufff: Tags