VKMP3

The Electrifying Mojo was a Detroit disc jockey whose on-air journey of musical and social development shaped a generation of music-lovers in Detroit and throughout southeastern Michigan and Canada and was of importance to the development of Detroit Techno.

He’s recognized for having introduced many artists into the Detroit radio market, including Prince, The B-52′s, and Kraftwerk, and was occasionally thanked on-air by the artists for his support of their work. Prince granted Mojo a telephone interview following a sold out birthday concert at Cobo Arena on June 7, 1985, during an era when Prince rarely if ever granted interviews. Most recently, Mojo is serving as Program Director for a handful of Detroit radio stations. Read more

There’s been a lot of changes lately in basic.ch programs & our weekly VKMP3 shows are now scheduled on sundays from 20:00 to 22:00 (CET time). In addition we’re launching a second show: berlin channel every second week from 22:00 to 00:00 (CET time).

For more information, check our section on basic.ch. Listening to the shows is easy, just follow this link and the stream should open in itunes & winamp. Read more

After a decade hidden away, B12 have returned.

B12 Records was founded in 1990 by Mike Golding and Steve Rutter as a vehicle for themselves and other like minded individuals to release electronic music for listening and dancing. Many thought the duo hailed from Detroit, as their sound fused many of the elements of techno coming from the Motor City, alongside labels such as Transmat and Plus 8. Every record was hand-engraved in the run out grooves, with cryptic clues and messages, recurring themes of futurism and science fiction.

Releasing under a series of monikers, such as Redcell, Cmetric, and Musicology, their connections with Kirk DeGeorgio’s A.R.T. Records are well documented, each artist featuring on the others label, and even a pair of split 12”s with a label taking each side of the vinyl. The pair were also snapped up by Warp Records, featuring on the seminal Artificial Intelligence series and releasing two albums and an EP on Warp under the umbrella name ‘B12’

Then in 1996, with test pressings of B1215 in their hands, they disappeared without warning or reason. B1215 never made it to release. Read more

It’s been a year now since Autobahn.FM servers are down. It all happened after the burgling in my Berlin studio & while I was relocating from Paris to Berlin. After half of the studio equipment disappeared I had no choice but turn it off. I was so pissed & lost any motivation for months, didn’t buy any 12′ for weeks.

At this point I decided to stop commuting between Paris & Berlin, to leave Paris and the pink studio and to start over here in Berlin. It took a few month to set it up here properly, rebuilt the studio and an ergonomic dj booth, to sort out records (a never ending story). Then VKMP3 started, new shows here and there on the web and a weekly residency on basic webradio. I keep saying I’m busy all the time, this is true, this is hard, this is stressfull, but this is also thee way I live. Life here in Berlin is a little bit easier than it was in Paris, there’s much more space, I have much more space. & a decent environment for creativity, ideas, projects ..

Eventually it was the right decision to move over here.

Now that doesn’t mean I do not regret some of the funny days and nights in Paris, shopping records at DaGroove back in the days, then later on at 12 inch and other great stores, dancing near the dj booth at Rex Club (it had a great soundsystem at that time), spinning records all night on Autobahn.FM & getting stone in the pink studio (the room was 4 sqare meters large, full of records & machines). Things were cool when we were young!  RIP Autobahn.FM

rave against the machine is the last mix recorded in Paris @ the pink studio

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Back in the days we lived in NYC I used to go out on sunday afternoons, best parties were Body&Soul downtown in Vinyl. I remember the special atmosphere out there since then and I kind of missed it over the years: getting up fit on sunday, have sweat petit déjeuner, a walk outside and then dance! beautiful day, dance like a machine! Not that I haven’t look for it here and there, but so far I never really found it & it’s never really been the same.

Since we arrived in Berlin we’ve been going out much, especially in the beginning. Night life is amazing here. Places are nice, music is good, sound systems loud! .. this of course drives a lot of party freaks to the city each week & the cool places are full:( hopefully some venues likes berghain always creates new parties besides the main nights: on wednesdays and fridays in kantine, on sunday afternoon in panorama bar. It isn’t body&soul, definataly, but there a similar feeling .. a bit more acid this time as we are in Berlin.

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Some might have noticed a new page on VKMP3 >> Discogs!

Discogs is a website and database of information about music recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. It is one of the largest online databases of electronic music releases and is believed to be the largest online database of releases on vinyl media. Across all genres and formats, over 1 million releases are catalogued. It features listings for over 1 million artists and over 100,000 labels. The global market place features over 3,000,000 items. The site has around 200,000 visitors a day. I’ve been using it a lot lately to list and sort my collections as well as to sell records I no longer listen to, second copies & rarities. This is also a great place to learn about music, beware when you start you’ll get addicted :-)

Joining the site and the community is free, selling fees are very reasonable and the database is huge: a real dream for vinyls freaks. Check out the records we sell, as well as those from our friends @ audio-in Read more