CYRK is a live show and studio project by Sammy Goossens and Pascal Hetzel. They mix up a love of Italo, Detroit-influenced techno, acid and electro on cult labels like Running Back, Polari and Lone Romantic. This one sees them link with Hard Ton, aka Wawashi Deejay and heavy metal singer Max. They have been leading the way in Italo disco and Chicago fusions since 2008, often with anthemic vocal tracks that come with a proudly oversized queer persona. As their collaborative ‘Take Me To The Top’ EP with Hard Ton lands on Folklor Nation, DMCWorld goes Back To Mine With CYRK.
The Other People Place – Lifestyles of the Laptop Cafe
This album was released on Warp in 2001 and is a masterpiece of minimal electro. It was never clear at the time who was behind the project but it appeared it was James Stinston of Drexciya (RIP). I (Sam) bought the CD at Sirius Masstricht the week of release and fell in love directly. It was re-released by Clone a few years ago and is available on double 12” (we bought 2 copies).
Plaid Double – Figure
We’ve been obsessed with Plaid since the first album, their music is so soulful, intricate, musical, the sound design is perfect, each track brings you into a journey, always different but with a signature. It was difficult to pick one album as we love all of them the same. We were lucky enough to get a remix from them for our second release on Science Cult. The label asked us who was our ultimate remixer wish and they made it happen. Thanks guys for that gift and thanks Andy and Ed for the fantastic remix.
Massive Attack – Mezzanine
I (Sam) saw Massive Attack live 5 times by now (obsession?). We are both very inspired by that band, visually, musically. Mezzanine is the darkest album of their discography, it has so many iconic songs with a very complex sound design. We listen to that album over and over, it sits right next to our turntable in the living room.
I.M.S. – International Music System
Possibly my (Pascal) favourite Italo Disco album. It was released in 1983, 5 years before I was born. It merges Italo Disco with electro, it has a rather dark feeling which is really part of my DNA 😉 So many classics on one record, almost every track was produced with a 808 drum machine which is very atypical for that kind of music (and I love that drum machine). Part two was released the following year and is also an essential.
Depeche Mode – 101
Summer 1989, I (Sam) went to spend a month at my father’s in Tunisia. I was a teenager and I was bored to death most of the time as he was working a lot, I was listening to that album all the time on my discman. I figured that they were using EMAX samplers on stage and it brought me to get my Mother to buy me a second hand EMAX SE when I came back to Belgium as I wanted to learn piano and it was cheaper than a real piano and I could use headphones ( I was good at convincing Mum at the time). It was my first sampler, that’s what drove me to make techno.
Drexciya – The Quest.
It was released on Submerge in 1997, it came in 3 parts (each double 12”) and gathers all their previous work on UR. It is the blueprint of electro (with Cybotron). I (Pascal) listened to that album over and over in my car close to 15 years ago when I was still living in the south of Germany. I had other ads in my car but they didn’t matter as much, LOL. I (Sam) was told by Mike Banks ages ago that Drexciya were bringing him tapes with super long takes of jams and he had to edit them into final tracks which was a lot of work but so exciting as their music was futuristic and new.
Warp Blech
This Warp compilation has everything. It is the perfect deejay mix with music by Plaid, Aphex Twin, Nightmares on Wax, Autechre… it was mixed by DJ PC (a computer?) and has this great Japanese influenced artwork by Designers Republic. I think I (Sam) know that mix by heart, It never left my Discman, iPod and now Galaxy since release day.
Cypress Hill – Black Sunday
When I (Pascal) was a teenager who had nothing better to do than getting stoned all day I listened to this album a lot. I always loved the aesthetic of sample based beats especially when it comes to hiphop. The album has a very dark and menacing feel to it, paired with an ultra funky groove and the grainy 12-Bit texture of the SP1200.
Santigold Santogold
We love every track on this album, her voice is fantastic, the music was so innovative when it came out. The perfect pop music for us. Still in our playlist when we travel.
Innerzone Orchestra – Programmed
In 90% of the cases when electronic musicians flirt with jazz it is a disaster of cheese and clichés, unless God himself (aka Carl Craig) decides to have a shot at the exercise. This is for us the ultimate album of jazz/techno fusion, the reference album everyone needs to have.
Hard Ton, CYRK ‘Take Me To The Top’ EP is out now on Folklor Nation.
