http://www.notwist.com

Probably the best electronic album from this decade is The Notwist's Neon Golden released by Virgin in 2002. It received rave reviews worldwide and helped the German group break into the lucrative US market. The Notwists path to their masterpiece was not a traditional one, starting out in the 90's as a grunge influenced rock band it took several years for them to develop into a more electronically minded collective. Continuing our Electronic Special we spoke to Markus Acher the bands lead singer about his music and the electronic aspects of their work.

HOLV: The bands music style has changed quite considerably over the years. Would you now describe The Notwist as an electronic band?

MA: No, not really. I think the instrumentation and the arrangements change from record to record, but the core is always the same. It's guitar and voice-based songs, even if we start them sometimes with a loop or an electronic composition. So I think, electronics are one part of the instruments used on Notwist records. We also tried on Neon Golden and even more on the new songs, to let the electronics sound like 'real' instruments and some instruments like electronics. For example, while recording Neo Golden, we were very fascinated about the sounds of the persian percussion-instrument zarb, that Saam Schlamminger played for us, because it sounded a lot like the electronics, Martin (Gretschmann) used to programm at that time.

HOLV: Neon Golden is a considerably accomplished album. With so many layers of sound involved in the songs, would you say it was difficult to put together?

MA: Yes, it was a very long process. We collected so many sounds for every song, that it was too much at some point and we had to make it minimal again. We had friends coming into the studio and playing lots of tracks for every song and then we used only tiny bits sometimes... But when we started Neon Golden, our idea was to try everything we can think of, until we find the right sounds and arrangements for every song.

HOLV: What are the hazards of playing electronic music live?

MA: We try to really play as much as possible. So Martin manipulates and processes a lot while we play a song. But there are still some tracks, samples or rhythms, that have to be there at some points. And you have to play to them, because most of them have their fixed speed. So that's the difficulty, but also the interesting part, to find your freedom within these limited and prearranged songs.

HOLV: So How do you see the band developing in the future?

MA: We're just recording new songs, but it's difficult to say, how the songs will sound in the end...

HOLV: Finally what do you consider the best electronic album ever created?

MA: Oh, that's too hard to say......it always changes with every week.....I like Ruth White Flowers of evil a lot, an electronic composition around Baudelaire's words, very 'evil' indeed. Great music and pure electronic. And from contemporary music, I like some of the dubstep like Burial or Shackleton very much....and Ben Frost's new Theory of Machines is great....and Autechre of cause....see, it's so difficult…

Interviewed By Hammond