Cosmic Disco

Alexis Le-Tan – Exclusive Interview and Mix

Posted on 23. Dec, 2009 by baggy in Interviews, Mixes we didn't make

After a couple of years pouring over some of the incredible selections as featured on the ‘Space Oddities‘ compilation series or picking up on a few of his amazing mixes that are floating around the web, we just had to make contact with Alexis Le-Tan, renowned record collector and part of the infamous Tigersushi Bass System DJ team for a Cosmic Disco exclusive mix and interview.

After firing across numerous emails and being sent some amazing music, here is what we found out:

CD: Hi Alexis and welcome to Cosmic Disco. Many thanks for agreeing to answer some questions for our readers. As always, lets start at the beginning: Can you tell us where you grew up as a child and one of your earliest musical memories growing up?

I grew up in Paris and spent most of my childhood there until the age of thirteen when I stopped paying attention in school and was sent to boarding school in the UK. (My mother’s English and my dad’s half french half Vietnamese.) My earliest musical memory is listening to the Jackson 5 and later on Michael Jackson’s Thriller. I remember getting my grandfather to buy me the video, which was only available in import at the time and cost an arm and a leg. Watching it and seeing the “making of” blew me away at the time. Stupidly, I was showing stuff to my four year old daughter on youtube a couple of years ago and showed it to her by mistake, since then her nights have never been the same…

A few years later, probably around 86, I discovered Run DMC and early electro sounds, which took me away from the chart music most kids my age, listen to. It was all about break dancing on cardboard mats in the playground and learning to do my first tags. That lasted till around 92, so from say 86-92 I’d spend most of my pocket money buying hip hop lp’s and getting into B-Boy culture.

CD: That’s an interesting background for sure…Can you remember was it about the B-Boy culture that you were attracted to at the time? Are there any stand out LP’s you are particularly fond of that were produced during that period?

The lp’s, which were the most standout at the time, were the first Public Enemy ones and also stuff by the Beastie Boys. I was really into both these bands as they were crossing over many different genres to make hip-hop out of it. I suppose it’s also because these were the bands that were revolutionary at the time and had strong intelligent messages in their lyrics.

After that I got into all different facets of hip-hop but I remember being more into the East Coast sound rather than West coast. From 86- 92 there were so many amazing albums coming out every week that it could take pages to list them all. The thing that attracted me about b-boy culture was definitely the style and the attitude that went with the whole thing, just as much the clothes than the graffiti and dance thing..

Although, in the long run, that’s probably what drove me away from that scene as I started finding the attitude too aggressive and the whole thing quite narrow minded, especially when I started discovering electronic music and going to my first raves.

CD: What were some of the early raves you were going to? Who were the DJ’s that were doing it for you on this scene and how was it you discovered electronic music on the back of Hip Hop?

So, as far as discovering electronic music I suppose it was mainly through friends at school. The first stuff that was turning me on was by the likes of Aphex twin, Future Sound of London and the Orb. I soon ended up at a place called the Whirly Gig which was a very psychedelic and chilled out afternoon party for teenagers. A great contrast to the moody hip-hop scene, which had me, converted quite rapidly… Soon after this, I was going to some quarry parties in Dagenham or further afield (literally) to raves in places like Bath.

These get togethers were know as Goa parties although at the time the music which was being played there (Belgium new-beat, Detroit and German techno, progressive house) didn’t bare that name yet. I guess that the sense of freedom that accompanied these events was something that really attracted me to this new scene along with this strange music and everything else that went with it leading you to this other dimension. My favourite DJ from these parties was called Mike Maguire.

When I moved back to Paris in ‘93 the rave scene was in full expansion and you could do something different every night if you were prepared to listen to different kinds of electronic music. This was when I discovered a much broader spectrum of DJ’s, I remember being blown away by the records played by Andrew Weatherall, the techniques demonstrated by Jeff Mills and the Mad Max atmosphere you’d find in free parties hosted by the Spiral Tribe (who had moved to Paris at this time). This was when I’d just finished school and for a while I seem to have been hoping from one party to the next. Over the years, I’d accumulated a large collection of hip-hop records and at this point, they seemed as if they would be no more use to me. I decided to flog the lot so I would have more money to spend on records that I was hearing at all these raves.

CD: Where were you shopping to find these electronic based records at this time? Would you have already have considered yourself to be a serious crate digger and were you DJ’ing yourself back then?

I was dj’ing here and there but by the time I really got started, all the genres had their own parties- the house music was in the clubs, the harder techno was in the warehouses and the trance was in these strange venues in the countryside. Most of my gigs were at the trance ones and the problem was that I wasn’t really playing the same records as everyone else. Instead of playing most of the goa stuff that was coming out at the time, I was playing a mixture of weird techno from Europe and the US which still had a trancey feel for it but wasn’t as banging as the other stuff people were playing.

This would’ve been in the second half of the nineties and I can’t really say that I was digging all sorts of different styles back then. I was mainly going to Rough Trade in Paris (where a moody Ivan Smagghe was working behind the counter) and London and most of the other electronic music suppliers in those towns. Soon enough though I started getting interested in the roots of dance music and this is when my quest in crate digging began.

CD: Collecting and digging for vinyl is to many enthusiasts an addiction. During this new digital age, especially where many new music consumers wont ever experience vinyl, can you explain what it is about collecting/searching for records you find so appealing?

First of all, I think that collecting is something that is handed down genetically. My father is an art collector and since I can remember has always been hunting for strange artifacts. I guess that’s probably one of the things that gave me a certain knack for chasing after old obscure records. One of the most important aspects of this addiction isn’t even owning the actual records and filing them alongside each other, but actually going out and looking for them.

There’s nothing more rewarding than going on the hunt, on your own or with some friends and finding that one piece of wax that’s been on your want list for years, or even better finding something that neither you or anyone else knows and getting back home to discover an amazing piece of music. As far as digital goes, nothing compares to a real piece of vinyl and it’s artwork. The history that it encompasses along with it’s fading artwork and smell of damp paper will always give a far superior high than any file stored away in a soon to be outdated hard-drive.

CD: Moving on, can you tell us how you became involved in the Tigersushi Bass System?

I hooked up with the guys from Tigersushi pretty much as the label started. Their first releases, along with the in-depth dance music history lessons on the website were in perfect sync to my aspirations at the time. Having many things in common with Joakim and his partner/co-founder Charles Hagelsteen we quickly became friends and planned many projects together. The pair had already started the Tigersushi Bass System as a means of getting their mates together behind the decks and entertaining the dance floor.

The musical agenda was similar to that of the label, blending eclectic sounds from the past with those of the future, always keeping that leftfield edge which made the label famous in the first place. My first introduction to the T.B.S. was when Charles was asked to do a radio show for Radio Campus in Paris. He also invited our friend Vidal Benjamin along and a strong friendship between us grew from there. It went pretty well and Joakim getting a good wind of it suggested we also join in for the next Tigersushi party and hasn’t looked back since. Soon after, Charles sadly left the label and Joakim’s brother Mattias has taken over and joined the team. Together we have now played in many great venues around the world and I’d like to thank my dear friends at the label greatly for that!

CD: Can you tell us of any particularly stand out gigs/performances/venues you have played whilst part of the Tigersushi DJ team?

One of the most memorable gigs I played thanks to Tigersushi was in Montevideo in Uruguay, but it was just me on my own. Joakim had been asked to play there by The Alliance Française but he was already booked somewhere else so he sent me instead. The actual venue was the foyer of the football stadium, it was pretty massive…I guess a couple thousand people turned up and when the sun was coming up on the pitches you could enjoy the show from the terraces. Most of the people there had never heard the weird blend of disco music I was playing as they were more used to straightforward techno, but it still went down very well.

I took my girlfriend along and we stayed for an extra ten days to explore that part of the world. Other than that, I have to say that every time we go abroad with the Tigersushi team, bands included, it’s always a lot of fun even if the parties themselves aren’t always as good as you’d expect. At the end of the day the best part of it, is going away with a bunch of mates and having a night out somewhere completely unknown where everyone is a stranger.

CD: When was it you started to get into production/editing and when were your first releases and with what label/s? How did the progression into music production come about?

I guess my first venture into production was around ‘96-’97 when I was getting into the more techno side of Trance. Me and my music partner at the time Adrien, had been lent a load of synths, drum machines and samplers by this mate of ours Jovan who had some just sitting at home. We started fiddling around with these machines, just for fun and managed to pull together a few tracks. After this we then went on to collaborate with a few more experienced people like Section X and Marcus from X-Dream and started getting a bit better at our craft.

By this time I had many friends with labels and they were all interested in releasing slightly different music than the usual, nosebleed trance. We managed to sign a few tracks which came out quite a while later. Funnily enough, I just received an email from my homie Lovefingers who was curious to know if all the releases on discogs going by my name were related to me! There was also another musical project I was working on in parallel to all this with another friend called Nils. This one was much more open and probably had a lot more potential but we never actually got round to releasing any of the stuff. He lives in L.A. now and hangs out with Harvey! I eventually fell out with Adrien and decided to pack all of that in, putting the hedonistic music making lifestyle aside and trying to move on with life in a more serious way.

Since then, I haven’t really ventured into production as I find it takes up far too much time which I don’t really have at the moment but who knows, i might go back there one day? As far as editing is concerned, I guess that’s just a natural extension to the digging and DJ’ing thing. I’d been cutting and pasting some tracks for a while, just for fun and in a very unprofessional manner, when Gilb’R from Versatile records called me up and told me he was setting up an edit label which would be called les edits du Golem. He’d been told I had some good ones up my sleeve and wanted to check them out. I eventually went round there, played him some and the rest is history…

CD: What are your thoughts on the sheer amount of edits around at the moment? Are edits the saving grace of vinyl sales or are they watering down the original music? Are there people out there who are just out to make a quick buck? Do you see a future for vinyl?

In the same way as with original music, a good edit will always be a good one and the same rule applies for the shit ones, which like original music, there are far too many of. The good thing about them when done properly is that they show good unearthed music to a whole different audience. As for vinyl sales, I think that anything that is of quality will always have a potential market. At the end of the day, if there was plenty of good original music being made I guess many people would be less interested in looking back at what was being done before and moaning about how it was so much better back then. Every period and genres has its diamonds, it’s just a matter of putting the time, effort and mostly patience into finding them. Obviously that rule also applies to all the stuff coming out today.

With the amount of sales generated by selling 500 or so edit 12″, which is more or less the figures one can expect to reach nowadays, you’re hardly going to make a quick buck, unless you have a few releases coming out every month which is hard work…I guess that vinyl will always have a future within a small circle of like minded people who are into owning a nice 12″ object with interesting artwork, liner notes, etc. Something to wrap your hand around which you can look at, feel, listen to and read. If you’re talking about a commercially viable future, unfortunately that doesn’t really look likely…

CD: What artists/acts/bands would you consider to be the ‘Diamonds’ of recent times and do you have any recommendations for which we should be keeping an eye on in the not so distant future?

I guess there’s quite a few so let’s go for the big list then: Any projects involving Thomas Bullock and Eric Duncan, Nacho Patrol, Zomby, Mordant Music, Spectral Empire, Phoreski, Cage and Aviary, Gatto Fritto, TBD, Ronny and Renzo, Premier Rang, Quiet Village, Joakim and the Disco, Matias Aguayo, Unit 4, Cos/Mes, Discossesions, Shakleton…And keep an eye out for Sombrero Galaxy, The Stallions, Bon Voyage, Nenad Markovic, Chok Rock,  Joel Martin and Gerry Rooney’s project, the new RVNG side label and the E.S.P. Institute label. I’m sure I’ve missed loads and I’ll be thinking for the next week or so ah I should of thought of that one and that one…

CD: What about the current French/Parisian underground music scene? In the past France has been at the forefront for beats/hip hop (1980’s) and of course French (disco) house (1990’s). What DJ’s/Clubs/Producers are making waves right now?

Production wise, there’s this young chap who released a 12″ not long ago on Mathematics by the name of Les Aéroplanes. He’s now changed that to Bon Voyage due to the other Belgian act of the same name. The guy is only 21 and he has the quickest left hand in the business. Seeing him play on stage is a truly mind blowing experience and the music he makes is like a weird mixture of space disco and easy listening library stuff. Other than that, I guess Pilooski’s Discodeine project is quite interesting, I’m also really into Turzi, Zombie Zombie and all the stuff released on Tigersushi is always worth more than a listen. Dj wise, besides my man Vidal Benjamin there’s also veteran Romain BNO who rocks my boat.

As usual there’s probably loads I’ve forgotten to name check… Party wise, I find the scene quite sterile in Paris. Unless you’re into that heavily compressed big room French sound, the parties don’t really go off. Unlike the UK there isn’t really a little scene of like-minded people that like going out and listening to quality music. I keep on hoping it will one day exist, but that day has yet to come…

CD: You have been involved in a few of our favourite releases over the last couple of years – The incredibly educational ‘Space Oddities’ series on Permanent Vacation and what has to be one of the contenders for ‘Mix of The Year’ with your ‘Audible Visions‘ mix CD. Firstly, can you shed any light on how the concept for the ‘Space Oddities’ series came about and what was the process involved in getting this series off the ground?

The Space oddities project came about whilst having dinner with my friends from the Gomma label Mathias and Jonas. I was telling them how much I loved their Anti N.Y. comp and how it turned me onto loads of great music and they suggested I did a similar exercise for their label. As I had been picking up loads of library records in the last few years and that the genre hadn’t really been rinsed yet, I thought it would make a nice package, even more so by choosing a specific angle for the comp. As my friend jess had given me quite a bunch of these records after coming across a big collection, I thought I would give him the opportunity to jump on board and do the project with me. Going through all these obscure records we came across loads of things which we recognized from old cosmic tapes, the kind of tracks no one is ever able to id, and some other nice space disco things, so that was the theme for he first one found! Once we had a demo ready I sent them over to Gomma who were really into it but didn’t want to put it out as a physical release, only digital. Jess and myself weren’t into that idea as it was important for us to have a nice package, vinyl, artwork sleeve notes, etc.

Mathias and Jonas immediately understood this and offered to introduce us to Compost or permanent vacation that they knew would be interested in the project. Perm Vac was the most enthusiastic so we signed a deal and the rest is history. The hard work began after that, as part of the deal was that Jess and I did all the clearing. It was a hard task finding and obtaining all the licenses but we managed to pull it off and meet a big bunch of old freaks I the process and now that we know all the right people we have enough material for a few others…

Regarding Audible Visions, this was another collaborative project with a collective of designers called Ill-Studio who I represent in my illustrator agency (www.monsieurlagent.com). The plan was to put together a weirdo mix tape where they would chose the music with me before going on to designing the packaging together. We then made a teaser video for it and we’ve also just received a batch of t-shirts we produced to finish the project off nicely! I hope we’ll do more of these in the future, as it was also a very exiting and fulfilling project.

CD: What are your plans for the coming new year? DJ dates, parties, any releases we can expect to hear in the not so distant future?

I very much enjoyed my first gig at Salon Des Amateurs in Dusseldorf back on the 28th of November. For those of you who don’t know this place it’s meant to be the most forward thinking club in Europe with regards to leftfield music, a small intimate very classy looking venue which is held by a real music lover, a great sound system and an open-minded crowd ready to dance to anything you play. Other than that, I’m also looking forwards to the next Tigersushi related gigs, especially one in March, which will take place in an ice-skating ring.

As far as releases go, I have a couple of compilations up my sleeve which I’m not quite sure what to do with as of yet and I should get working on Audible Visions 2 soonish. Lots of edits floating around my hardrive too and my friend Jonny Nash has asked me to contribute a release to one of his forthcoming projects, which you’ll find out about in the not so distant future.

CD: Outside of music, what do you like to get up to?

Unfortunately, I have to say that music takes up a very small amount of time in my schedule although I have to say that I almost prefer it that way. If I could make a living out of digging for records then I might have a different opinion, but then again there’s so much more to life than just records (he scratches his head and says to himself “is there?”).

My main occupation and source of income comes from my agency that I set up a couple of years ago:
Monsieur Lagent, where I represent a handful of illustrators/graphic designers. This is basically a platform for me to find work for some of my close friends and negotiate better contracts than they would without me. Besides that I’m also a part time journalist for the French music magazine Trax. I guess that covers quite a lot of my schedule, I just have to add that I’m very fond on food be it making it or consuming it and the rest of my time is spent with my soon to be five year old daughter Dizzie and her mother Sandra.

CD: Finally, what’s your idea of perfect happiness?

Spending a lot of time with my family and being able to provide them with everything they need.

Many, many thanks to Alexis for his in-depth insight and time answering our questions. Go check out his compilations, productions, re-edits and of course check him out if he is anywhere in your vicinity playing records.

Alexis Le-Tan – Mixed Behaviour

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Tags: alexis le tan, audiable visions, permanent vacation, tigersushi, tigersushi bass system