To kick off 2010 we’re proud to offer up a DJ mix from guru of skewed dance tunes Lopazz (Stefan Eichinger) and music producer Casio Casino (Steffab Neuert). And to soothe any lingering new year’s excesses, the two chaps have thoughtfully created a chillout mix to start off the year.
Having worked together on the recent release ‘Ambient Film Themes Vol.2’ – which features avant garde film and documentary scores that blend electronics, orchestras and field recordings – the two artists have once again teamed up to put together an exclusive mix for Clash.
We caught up with them to find out more about the mix and their intriguing new album.
Clash: Tell us a little about the mix and some of your favourite tracks from it:
Casio: It’s some of my favourite tracks from the golden era of downbeat electronica plus some references to the 80s and 70s. Nowadays a lot of music is produced for specific occasions and therefore has only a short lifespan. The tracks in the mix are somehow timeless in my opinion.
Clash: How do you decide on what goes into a mix? Does it depend on your mood at the time?
LOPAZZ: That’s always different – playing peak-time, warm-up, podcasts – every time it’s different and new. Of course there are some tracks we play for years, our all-time-favourites! But it’s good to follow your mood and the crowd and somehow the customers/listeners’ choice. I mean, it doesn’t make sense to play techno on an ambient floor, right?
Casio: It depends very much on the mood. I was loosely listening to my records with the plan to do a downbeat mix with musically appealing tracks. I collected some more records that I needed for it and then in putting it together kicked out what didn’t really fit, mix-wise.
Clash: Some favourite tracks to play live?
LOPAZZ: I’ve got some all-time-favourites like Metro Area, The Other People Place, Ron Trent, Man Parrish and so on – but I also have a look on new releases and artists.
Casio: I used to do a lot of DJ sets in bars and so on, but recently I’m mostly playing house and techno.
Clash: How about the best live shows you’ve ever played?
Casio: They were all so great. Sometimes I’m having a hard time topping myself.
LOPAZZ: Ha ha, right – I think our show on Pelorinhou Plaza in Salvador was the most inspiring one! We were one of the few electronic artists ever allowed to play there!
Clash: What makes a good remix for you?
Casio: A good remix has the characteristics of the original as well as the footprint of the remixing artist sounding good together.
LOPAZZ: I like remixes that sound completely different though some of the original sounds or patterns have been used!
Clash: Tell us about your new album, ‘Lopazz & Casio Casino – Ambient Film Themes Vol.2’:
Casio: We made a lot more changes in the tracks compared to the original soundtracks than on the first volume. Because some of them were only working with the pictures, some were too short, and some needed a more acoustic, analogue feel to them.
LOPAZZ: Right, but we followed the same rules – mixing the tracks with original sounds captured at the shootings, like city sounds, animals, singing monks…. We wanted to get a fluent mix, a travel-music-album.
Clash: You took sound recordings from various parts of the globe as part of the project – how were these used in the final product? And how did you decide what sounds to record?
LOPAZZ: It’s supernatural to me! Sometimes I travel with the film crew to locations such as Mongolia, Macao, Ethiopia, South Africa and my ‘Kook Kook’ tour led me to places like Brazil, Ecuador, Lebanon and I always record sounds and moments. I started doing field-recordings as a little boy and now it’s part of my profession. LOPAZZ records always have this analogue feel (I don’t like this expression) – I use real acoustic instruments or my voice to create sounds I need for dancefloor tracks or scores.
Clash: Yours will be our first DJ mix of 2010! So – a few generic New Year’s questions: Tell us about the best New Year’s Eve you’ve had:
LOPAZZ: With Casio on a fancy LSD-Party (in the early 90s) – now we don’t do that anymore – we changed to ecstasy pills, hahaha….
Clash: Any New Year’s resolutions?
LOPAZZ: No meat, no alcohol, no drugs – at least for the first two days in 2010.
Casio: A little less of everything that’s bad for my health.
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LOPAZZ & Casio Casino Dj Mix Tracklisting
1. Ryuichi Sakamoto – Merry Christmas, Mister Lawrence
2. Beige – The great Krautrock Swindle
3. Two Lone Swordsmen – Cloned Christ on a Hover Donkey
4. Tortoise – Tin Cans (The Puerto Rican Mix)
5. Ghosts of the Civil Dead (OST) – Pop mix
6. Stephen Mallinder – Cool Down
7. Bernd Friedmann – Platin Tundra
8. Curd Duca – Touch
9. Papa Blue – Luna en la Pampa
10. Hu Vibrational – Copa Setic Interlude
11. Cinematic Orchestra – Ode to the Big Sea (Four Tet remix)
12. Atjazz – Story (lo/cal mix)
13. G-Force and Seiji – Circles and Lines
14. Eno Moebius Rodelius – The Belldog
Check out the previous episodes of our Dj Mix Series on iTunes HERE or individually below