“Laubner is on a ‘quest for sound.’ It’s a journey that reminds me of the Dutch painter Piet Mondrian. Over and over again, you see the same sort of painting. Blues, reds, yellows, blacks, whites. Each arrangement, though, is different. And if you look at them long enough, you find yourself drawn to certain paintings over others. Yes, they all ‘look alike,’ but if you engage with them, lose yourself within them, you’ll see that each has a unique character. Perhaps I’ve loved Mondrian for too long. But when I recently encountered a link to an experiment where a computer produced a facsimile of Mondrian’s ‘Composition With Lines,’ I was immediately able to tell the difference. The thing that people perhaps don’t immediately see with Mondrian’s work—especially when viewing it on a computer—is that there are rough edges. Despite his reputation, Mondrian was rarely interested in filling those famous large blocks of color cleanly. Look closely at a Mondrian painting the next time you’re in an art gallery. You’ll see his paintbrush everywhere. The same goes for Laubner, whose dance floor-orientated music seems to do the same thing—with minute variations—over and over again…[Listen closely, though, and] you can hear his touch, his paintbrush, everywhere.” [link]
“That thing in the mid- to late-’90s for Ruskin and Polson was raw techno. [Oliver] Ho’s sound was “spikier, more dry” and Ruskin and Polson’s releases as Outline were more “rounded-off,” claims Ruskin, but there was a clear throughline. It was a sensibility, but it was also a function of the machines that were used as well. The label began at an opportune moment for budding producers: The first wave of electronic music producers were getting rid of their machines, trading them in for newer gear. This meant that, if you looked hard enough, there were pieces of equipment starting to find their way into secondhand shops across the country. “We had… an Akai S950, a very cheap effects unit and an old drum machine. That was literally it.” [link]
by Roger 23, celebrating HD800, 1998
“When I first started to see a little bit of what was happening in Europe in the early ’90s via TV or compilations, I really wanted to bring that home to Montreal. I had always wanted to do the same when I returned from India. I could never understand when I’d come home for the summer that kids would be dressed as preps, wanting to be Billy Idol. There was a disconnect. When techno came along, I felt like, ‘here’s my chance to build something here.’ The basic thing in India or the early ’90s here, anywhere really, is that there’s a basic entrepreneurship, a basic do-it-yourself effect, not to sit around and wait for someone else to do it.” [link]
“Karaoke is a delicate thing. But the most important thing to remember about karaoke is that you should only pick songs that your audience knows. Or can pick up easily. I forgot the most important rule of karaoke a number of years ago. I was so shocked to see the first single from Natalie Imbruglia’s second album in the book of songs that I impulsively hit the code to call up ‘Wrong Impression’ by the Australian singer/songwriter/actress/model. When it finally came up, we had to stop the song halfway through. There may have been alcohol involved.” [link]
“Working with [DJ] T., he experienced the same. People were posting things like, ‘This is Thomas Schumacher’s production and this is his handwriting, and he should not be so outspoken about it, he should give Thomas more credit.’ To me, it depends on what the feel is with the person you’re working with. T. always forwarded to me the interviews he did when he promoted the album, and there’s not a moment when he didn’t say clearly the way it was. I wouldn’t be able to stand behind something if I thought it was wrong, if he didn’t give me the respect for it. The most important component of any collaboration is mutual respect. If two people respect each other and treat each other accordingly, the issue of “who is better than who” does not come up. As for the those who have strong opinions about who they think is better than who, I’m reminded of this quote from a book by Francois Lelord’s called Hector and the Search for Happiness: ‘Lesson no 1: Making comparisons can spoil your happiness.’” [link]
