Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on March 2010

Photo by Lisa Wassmann

In the decade since Ellen Allien started BPitch Control, the label has gone from kickstarting a minimal techno craze all over Europe to becoming a creative and cultural empire—an authority on what shops, fashions and even theaters are hot in Berlin. Allien will be touring Japan along with BPitch artists Thomas Muller and Chaim to celebrate the label’s birthday, making a stop at Unit next Friday.

The Paris-born Muller spent his teens absorbed in hip-hop and drum‘n’bass before making the transition to techno. Although he’s a relative newcomer, his thumping, idiosyncratic tracks have already won him an enthusiastic following. Metropolis caught up with him before he touched down in Tokyo.

Why did you move to Berlin, and what keeps you there? It’s techno’s Babylon. First, I left Paris. It was the right moment: no flat, no job, no girl. I chose Berlin because it’s still Europe, it’s a capital, and there are many wired, fucked-up moments here… a good choice! Why I’m staying? I love currywurst!

How do you translate D‘n’B and hip-hop influences into techno? Trying to escape from normal life is the connection between all my musical tastes. I sometimes use typical hip-hop and D‘n’B instruments, but there’s no deep meaning. Techno is dance music, and I still don’t know how to dance to hip-hop!

How did you become involved with BPitch? Of course, I knew the music: Ellen, Sasha [Funke], Modeselektor. I met them at parties, and they decided to take me on. My first release, “Ride On,” was about being in the right place at the right time. The label must be pretty well received here to do a tenth anniversary tour… It’s an honor to represent BPC in Japan. I feel really close to Japanese culture, because my older sister makes manga and anime. She bought me a Japan guidebook when she heard I’m coming here!

What direction will it go next? Probably, we will try to push techno as a challenger to pop, rock and hip-hop. Techno is still young, and there is a lot to accomplish.

A lot of your tracks are quite driving and dark. What do you think is ideal for dancefloors? I’m not a dark person, so I’d prefer to say “hypnotic” and “industrial.” Music has to catch our bodies and make us dream. The synthesizer produces the hypnosis; the bass makes the groove. Clubs are somewhere to just let go, a parallel world! I’m kidding, but it is like a David Lynch movie—a world of borderlines, alcohol, drag queens. Club therapy… it worked on me!

Unit
Happy Birthday Bpitch Control. DJs Ellen Allien, Chaim, etc. Live: Thomas Muller. From 10pm, ¥4,000. Daikanyama. Tel: 03-5459-8630. www.unit-tokyo.com