New Dopplereffekt tracks, Drexciya Day, old stories and more

There are three new tracks up on Dopplereffekt's Bandcamp page since my last post here.

Tiga interviewed DJ Hell for his Last Party On Earth podcast and it's a real treat to hear some of the ins and outs and ups and downs of International DeeJay Gigolos. At 48min 30sec he tells a great story about going to Detroit and meeting Gerald Donald and proposing to license the first three Dopplereffekt releases as Gesamtkunswerk.

Clone Records boss Serge played an epic James Stinson tribute mix on the anniversary of his death. Available on You Tube and elsewhere online. 

There is a new long read by Christine Ochefu for Dweller about Lifestyles of the Laptop Cafe by The Other People Place. She also interviews Abu Qadim Haqq about it and more.

Until 31st October you can see Hydra Decapita by The Otolith Collective at Tate Britain (film was inspired by Drexciya).

Mixanthrope made a Drexciya Day 2021 mix here and you will find one from Edinburgh here. Search #drexciyaday2021 for what else happened. 

Rob Graff has made a really rather clever Gerald Donald timeline which covers 1995 up to today. 

Marc Teissier du Cros of Record Makers wrote this fascinating account of working with Gerald Donald. It was on the RM FB page and I've decided to archive it here as well. You can order Arpanet's two Record Maker albums here. 

 'In 1999 I started writing to Gerald Donald via email. His band Dopplereffekt had just released "Gesamtkunstwerk" the compilation of their first singles, and I got in touch in order to distribute it. Gerald was renowned for being hard to communicate with, I had no problem with that, I even enjoyed his cryptic messages a lot.

A couple of years later, I had just started Record Makers and suddenly I received a mysterious DAT tape which appeared to be from Gerald. His first solo album under the moniker Arpanet : "Wireless Internet". The music was mindblowing. I felt its addictive power instantly. My kind of record, definitely.

When you run a label, you better have a deal with the artist, otherwise you expose yourself to a lot of complexity. And before I sign a deal I like to meet in person.

Visiting Berlin, where Gerald was based back then, I proposed a date. Before we actually met, I had to follow his precise instructions, go to a special restaurant where I found the address of another cafe, where from I had to make a call to a phone booth, and so on. Wtf, is he a secret agent as well? Once in front of the man, I was impressed. He was strange, kind and passionate. We signed the deal, and the only picture that he allowed was us shaking hands.

It’s interesting that with the years "Wireless internet" has become the classic that it always was for me. You have to realize that in 2002 we had cellphones, but they were far from being as smart as they are nowadays. He had it all figured out, in Kraftwerk’s prophetic tradition.

Finally, after 20 years, the first Arpanet vinyl, "Wireless Internet", is now back in stock such as the next one, "Inertial Frame".

Find them at your local record store, or at http://arpanet.bandcamp.com

Marc'