Interview: Oscar Mulero
By Morgan Short, Feb 20th, 2009 | In Nightlife
This Saturday at The Shelter, local techno junta VOID hosts Oscar Mulero, one of the biggest names in Spanish techno. After getting into music in the early '80s with new wave, goth, and post punk (The Cure, Joy Division, Sisters of Mercy, Front 242), Mulero really began to develop his sound in the early '90s, modeling what he was doing on IDM and Detroit techno. Mulero broke in a big way in Europe in the late '90s, appearing at various electronic festivals in Spain (Sonar in Barcelona) and around the world. This Saturday he brings his "driving, atmospheric and complex percussive tracks" to The Shelter.
Check out his latest set for download here (right click, "Save As..."), and have a look at his forthcoming album here.
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How would you describe your DJing style?
Oscar: Deep dark industrial techno.
Mention "Spanish electronic music" to people and many will think of Ibiza. Are you connected with the Ibiza scene in any way? What is your opinion of it?
Oscar: I'm not really connected with Ibiza apart of having played there several times at Space and a couple of times at Privilege.
It's not one of my favorite places to play, as most of the clubs there focus on more commercial stuff. I don't know why Ibiza is so well-known in China, but for me it's more a place to have fun with friends and spend vacations than a place to go to be surprised by the music they play in the most of the clubs.
You've played at some of the biggest electronic music festivals in the world, but this is your first time in China, how do you feel about that?
Oscar:I'm very excited about it, and hope the people can enjoy my music and the way I play. It's always exciting and a surprise when you go for to perform for the first time in a new country, especially if you go to Asia...
What have you heard about China, in terms of being a place to DJ in, and its electronic music scene?
Oscar: Honestly, not much. I know about Japan because I went there in Dec 2008, but unfortunately I don¡¯t have a reference point for China.
In the last two years you have released records on Tresor, one of the oldest techno labels in the world, and Token, one of the newest. Did you plan to release your music on these two very different labels? Did you write your tracks in a different style to suit each label?
Oscar: I didn't plan to record in those labels for any particular reason. They just asked me to record for them and I liked the idea as I play records from both labels. Tresor releases almost all kind of techno but Token was different as they wanted some more specific tracks from me...
What do you think of the "minimal" techno fad which is popular right now and starting to enjoy mainstream popularity in China?
Oscar: I always liked minimal music when it came out in the '90s for the first time. I mean stuff like Chain Reaction, Basic Channel, DBX,etc... But I'm not into the new minimal thing that is well-known right now as it doesn't say too much to me. Of course there are some exceptions like Sleep Archive, but not many more apart from him...
A lot of former techno DJs are "minimalizing" their style to be more in sync with the popularity of minimalism. What do you think of that?
Oscar: I can respect that and I think is good for them as far they believe in and really feel what they play. It's fine by me if they're happy with this new direction in their music.
Will you change your style also?
Oscar: No. I still believing in the techno I play and if I changed I would probably let the people who support and follow my sound over these years down.
What kind of DJ set and performance can the Void crowd expect from you this Saturday?
Oscar: I play stuff like Surgeon, Regis, Go Hiyama, Christian W¨¹nsch and my own records too... I just hope people have a good time and enjoy the selection of music and the way I play the records.
What kind of crowd are you expecting in Shanghai?
Oscar: People that are into hard techno and also people that are not afraid to listen to stuff that isn't well-known to them.
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More Oscar at his homepage here. Void pres. Oscar Mulero this Saturday at The Shelter. The black and white photo and the top of this article is from www.colectivoanguila.com
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Maximo, Feb 25th, 2009
Oscar, ibiza its not well known in china as you say.Im from ibiza, and ibiza is known like another place.
Thats all
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