Kansas City Techno, Techno Justice League
Andrew has been DJing since 1999 and is a founding member of kansascitytechno.com. He has also been a member of the Techno Justice League, Hypersonic, Vertical Hold, Mooncraft, and Syde-sho crews. He has held weekly residencies in Manhattan KS, Lawrence KS, and Kansas City MO, hosted a techno radio show on 91.9 KSDB-FM for two years, and has played at numerous one-off parties and various guest appearances at clubs around the Midwest. He likes quirky tech-house, the crackle of dusty records, loopy analog beats, banging hard techno, crisp hand claps, thick and sneaky sub-bass waves, schranz, music for deep space probes, deep thinking 6AM dub house, evil acid, the occasional crunchy electro break, organic machine music, micro-house, and the zoned-out dance floor feel of selected sexy minimal tracks. He currently lives in Portland, Oregon.
Name:
Andrew Boie
DJ Alias:
Andrew Boie
Years behind the decks:
Since 1999, so 12 years.
What was the first record you purchased:
The first year (1999) I was learning how to mix using a computer and a piece of software called VisioSonic Digital 1200SL. It had an interface like the old Denon CD players, if your computer had 2 sound cards you could wire it into a real mixer and perform with it. I was playing whatever bits of ‘electronica’ my friends and I could find at the time. Around 2000 I realized that the kinds of sounds I was looking for were usually only available on vinyl and that’s when I started buying records in earnest. The first batch of records I got was a large one, it had Adam Beyer “Lost & Found EP” (still one of the best drummy techno records ever) and Novy Vs. Eniac “Pumpin” (blush, I got over that one quick). It took a while to get focused on what I wanted to do. I finally got my own turntables in January 2001.
What type of platform do you prefer to perform on (ie. Decks, CDs, Serato, Traktor):
Although it imposes a lot of constraints on what you can and cannot do, I really love just using turntables and a box of vinyl. Having a parametric lo/hi pass filter is really nice too. I’ve owned various digital DJ systems for much of the entire time I have been mixing, from Digital 1200SL before I got my turntables, to the original Final Scratch (which you had to reboot your computer into Linux to use!!) to Traktor Scratch Pro which I have now. Traktor is very powerful, with the X1 controllers you can do a lot of things and the control vinyls are not really necessary, and the best users of it really deconstruct their tracks to fashion their own sound. But it almost feels like there ought to be a different word for it than ‘DJing’. This is why I still play vinyl sets and still buy lots of records, even with all the new technology carrying on the old tradition is important to me.
What drew you to the type of dance music that you play:
When I started out I was immediately drawn to the drum-heavy, Purpose Maker-ish loopy hard techno that was coming out at the turn of the century from a lot of artists in Sweden, Germany, Italy, and the USA. Before I got into techno I was a big fan of Skinny Puppy, Front 242, Wumpscut, Haujobb, and other EBM/Industrial artists, so the abrasiveness and intensity of the techno at the time really appealed to me, especially compared to the progressive trance which was also popular at the time and sounded too fluffy to me. It was fun to mix too, much of it was really loopy and it was feasible to play sets of this stuff on 3 turntables without things getting too congested.
Around then I was also getting into a lot of slower deep techno house, Detroit house, and dub techno sounds in contrast to all the filthy stuff I was buying. Labels like Immigrant, Intrinsic Design, Forcetracks, i220, Chain Reaction (looooove Basic Channel), Klang. The raver kids where I generally played at hated the stuff but I’m glad I kept collecting it as much of it is relevant in the revived deep house/techno scene today. I also got into the ‘microhouse’ scene pioneered by artists/labels like Akufen, Cabanne, Matthew Dear, Ricardo Villalobos, Perlon, Playhouse, Ghostly/Spectral, Kompakt, etc. I was very bored with hard techno by 2003 and was really focused on this stuff for a while, although when “Minimal” got big it became progressively harder to sift through all the crappy ping-pong tracks and find the good ish.
The techno I like coming out today has the best elements of dub techno and the hard intense stuff. So the sounds coming out of CLR and Berghain are really holding my attention at the moment. There’s also a lot a great deep house coming out lately, although I’ve been falling behind on keeping up with it. Right now is a really good time to be listening to techno and buying records, in the mid-2000s I started losing my enthusiasm but I feel like we’re in a renaissance nowadays.
Favorite record label:
There are so many good labels out there it’s hard to pin down just one. I’m really feeling stuff on Ostgut Ton, CLR, Mote Evolver, Perc Trax, Electric Deluxe, Stroboscopic Artefacts lately to name some. There are also many classic labels like Warp, Spectral, Classic, Perlon, Sound Signature that I like to follow. You gotta know the labels, I think people who only buy digitally lose out on that.
Best place to find new music:
Hard Wax, Discogs, Juno, podcasts (at least the ones that tracklist!), various Facebook and Internet blogs, word of mouth, Beatport. It’s important to cast a wide net and not rely on any particular source too much. For instance I know a lot of up and coming DJs who get all their music on Beatport, and they are missing out on many vinyl exclusives or limited distribution digital tracks that they could be enjoying.
Favorite Live Act / DJ to see perform:
A dream evening would be to go to Berghain in Germany and see Marcel Dettmann, Ben Klock, and Cassy perform, and then go to some after party with Seth Troxler and Daniel Bell. Maybe a second room with Monolake and Surgeon in there.
Do you produce, if so, where can your original productions be heard:
Nope, I just like to play records. Maybe someday…
Besides music, what else do you collect, if anything:
My vinyl habit brooks no room for other collections.
When is the best time to listen to dance music:
There is no best time except any time, even if you can’t move, let your brain dance!
What do you order at the bar:
Dark frothy stout beer the consistency of motor oil, white russians, bloody marys, Jaeger shots, or maybe a nice wheat or a Blue Moon if it’s hot out.
