Funkstörung

Interviewed winter 1997 at Paard in Den Haag

"The German public doesn't dance to our music!" Michael Fakesh, the talkative half of the German duo Funkstörung sounds almost desperate. Michael: "Since the rise of acid-house and gabber they only dance and listen to one thing, open hihats and a strict bassdrum. In our music you'll find nothing of those elements and so they always stand around and look like we're from another planet."

The name Funkstörung probably doesn't ring a bell. But it could have, because this pair, a business economics student (Michael) and a record salesman (Chris de Luca) from near Munich have been making music for the past six or seven years. Michael: "Over the last years we've been trying very hard to get our stuff released. Like on Rephlex, they told us many times they were very interested but in the end they didn't contact us. And Bunker (a very small, but renowned dutch techno label) has released after a two year wait sixtyfive tracks in one go, on six records, only one hundred copies." They had enough of the waiting so now they've started their own label: Musik Aus Strom . The first two releases. EP 1.08 and 2.09 can be found in most trendsetting techno recordshops. Michael: "With our label we can release a record as soon as we're satisfied. But sadly we have now taken the problem to another level, the distributor Neutone refuses to promote the records because they say they can only sell the 'standard' German techno."

The fundament for Funkstörung was laid when Michael and Chris started to organize housepartys. Michael: "In the open air in the village where we were born near the Alpes. I was so frustrated that no DJs would ever come our way, so I started organising my own partys. Later we did some bigger ones in Munich and even had one party where we invited, and don't laugh now, Paul Elstak and the Euromasters (Dutch top-40 gabber acts). They were really nice people and back then we really liked that kind of music. But in the end it all got a bit boring, things stayed the same. By that time we sold our 303 and bought a lot of other electronic instruments from the money we got for that and that's is when we seriously started with making music."

Funkstörung make a variant of techno that doesn't sell at all in Germany, a cross between the music Aphex Twin, Sähkö and Autechre. Agressive, loud, distorted sounds and unusual rythms with sometimes a surprising melody or a minimalistic structure. They like to compare themselves to Autechre. Michael: "We are going to do something special with Skam, the label of Autechre/Gescom. Sean and Rob of Autechre called us to tell us we were the gods, and we denied: 'NO, you are the gods!'. And now we are going to release a Funkstörung record on Skam, while we at the same time release a record with Skam artists on Music Aus Strom, and we mix the tracks of them on the Music Aus Strom release and they mix our tracks on the Skam release. Complicated ain't it? We are so glad they are making music at a same level as us." What kind of level is that? Micheal: "Trying to do something new ofcourse! For the past five years nothing new happend in Germany. We are trying to do something different all the time."

Live also, Funkstörung don't use any preprogrammed computers or sequencers. Michael: "Usually we take a certain sound and that we use as a basis for the track, we add some distortion, build a few rhythms and just go on from there. As long as it isn't what you would normally expect to happen." That night they played in Paard in Den Haag on a unusual friday night a gigantic 'song' of thirty minutes long, which they started with the sound of a computer datatape and extended to a complex noise composition which was highly dancable.

Michael: "Our best concert was in Italy, we had a great weekend lying around in the sun and having a holiday, we received enough money and in the end we only have played for ten minutes. The clubowner thought we made too much noise and pulled the plug." During the concert in Paard a hundred people danced like crazy. Michael's reaction afterwards: "Forget that concert in Italy! This was the best we have every experienced. They danced! This would never have happened in Germany." Funkstörung are on their way to restate the German reputation in the field of electronic music. These heirs of Krautrock and Kraftwerk could be the highlight to any festival this summer.