Dubspot

[Robag Wruhme - "Der Bierholer" (Monkeytown, Nov. 2010).]

Monkeytown Records was spawned as a way for Modeselektor to form a cult like Jim Jones, they joke in their usual custom. “We’re the gurus!”

But for all the fun and games, there’s a darker half to them that reveals itself in their music. “The monkey face of Modeselektor, he’s not a smiling monkey,” one of them says in what can only be truth through humor.

This side of the duo could probably be attributed to their upbringing in East Germany, which saw the Berlin Wall smashed in their early teens, bringing with it the chaos of unbridled and unexpected freedom.

“Everyone was confused. There was anarchy,” they recall. “Even the police didn’t know what was going on. No one was prepared. So when there was an empty house with 500 people raving inside, the police would be standing outside not knowing what to do. Is it forbidden or not? The house is empty, but nobody knows who owns the house. So they disturbed nobody.”

[Image: Modeselektor. Song: Moderat -- "Rusty Nails (Shackelton Remix)" (50 Weapons, July 2010).]

“Sometimes you had the feeling that you could build your own society. Everywhere was a feeling of breakup and a feeling of depression at the same time. Mixed feelings, insecurity and big hopes everywhere.”

And within that account of a historic time and place is also succinct description of their music. Their sound hungrily digests an open-minded array of styles and repurposes them for their own needs. It has become a new, passionate beast, tearing through clubs and headphones with an energetic pace, colored with the shadowy grays of the crumbling landscape of their home.

They were brought up on techno, and those roots continue to form the healthy base of their constantly evolving sound. Bronsert got his start working at the well respected Hard Wax record store. “It was like being at techno university,” he recalls. Szary was an engineer for a youth center. The two worked the local scene there, steadily building a name for themselves until they caught the eye of BPitch Control, who set them on the course for global notoriety.

With BPitch, they unleashed a steady roll of sound, beginning with melancholy thoughts that wonder from the dancefloor on In Loving Memory, their first EP from 2002. They would go on to blend breakcore, a glitchy fire, and a stern acid glare with their techy origins. Eventually the two took an interest in hip hop and then dubstep, resulting in the sound they’re now known for.

[Siriusmo "Loosie" (Monkeytown, July 2010).]

Collaborations with other musicians would become a staple of their output, and their Moderat alias – which is Modeselektor and Apparat – became a critical notch in their belt.

“Apparat played with an early powerbook, a futuristic Motormix controller and custom made software. [Bronsert] called it ‘girl-electro’,” they say about the beginning of their relationship. “Plus Modeselektor were really into the technologic side of Apparat’s set. At this time people were like ‘Wow, so much sound with just one laptop’ when they saw a laptop set! Well, we started working on our live setup, Apparat integrated some analog stuff again and Modeselektor switched to his software, which they still use now, eight years later.”

“We created this Moderat thing to go back to our own productions with a new verve. Collaborations like these also help a lot with your own stuff.”

Modeselektor’s diverse range of interests and desire to work with others was eventually passed on to Monkeytown, the label that saw its first release in 2009. While they clown around about it being the start of their new cult, it really was rooted in family and friends. They wanted to create a support network for those close to them and the artists creating a sound they wanted to support.

Siriusmo, a fellow Berliner, became the label’s initial focus. Its first two releases were his EPs. His style is bright with a strong attention to song structure. The first effort, The Uninvited Guest, was rooted in electro, but The Plasterer Of Love saw the development of a broader array of sounds while keeping with his celebratory nature.

[Thom Yorke - "Skip Divided (Modeselektor Remix)" (Xl Recordings, Aug. 2008).]

The subsequent release, however, saw a more familiar theme, one hard to categorize but using dubstep and techno as a starting point. Modeselektion Vol. 1 ranged from the blip hop of eLan to Cosmin TRG’s mutant house to the bottomless well of percussive hits by Robag Wruhme.

Monkeytown also saw the mysterious birth of an imprint. Modeselektor dropped a white label under the 50 Weapons alias incorporating 50 Cent’s vocals from “Just A Little Bit”. Eventually it became an open secret that they made it, and the duo decided to continue Weapons as a label until it reaches 50 releases, and then they will dead it. So far, they’ve released a bunch of instrumental remixes of that original tune, called “Untitled”. Recently they unveiled a compilation called 50 Weapons of Choice # 2-9, which only includes some of the the releases within the catalog, and some that weren’t a part of it.

This chaotic imprint, spawned by a legally ambiguous launch, is something of a return to that place of their youth.