Album of the Week: Terence Fixmer’s Comedy of Menace

Album of the Week: Terence Fixmer’s Comedy of Menace

24 September, 2010 | 2.22AM

• Written by: Beatportal
• Filed under: Music News: album of the week, electric deluxe, terence fixmer

Terence Fixmer‘s flair for dark drama is all but unparalleled. Across numerous records for International Deejay Gigolo, Citizen Records, From Jupiter, and others—including his many collaborations with Nitzer Ebb’s Douglas McCarthy—the French artist dissolves the boundaries between classic techno and EBM into throbbing analog sequences that spill over with sensual dread.

Comedy of Menace, released on Jochem Paap’s Electric Deluxe label, actually marks a return to techno of a more purist stripe, with fewer pop chord progressions and less overtly industrial influence. All the energy is in the sounds and the sequences, as Fixmer builds powerfully immersive cuts designed to shake basements to their foundations.

We interviewed Fixmer to talk about his industrial past, his favorite production techniques, and which of his tracks are best complemented by leather trousers.

How did you hook up with Jochem and Electric Deluxe for this release?

In fact, it started via SoundCloud: Jochem was working on a kind of mix made by EFX, loops and sounds made by other artists, so I sent him some loops and a track I did called ”Machine." He played “Machine” in different gigs and the track had a great impact in clubs, and Jochem asked me if I would be interested to release it on his brand new label. That was the starting point of my first release for Electric Deluxe. Afterwards, I did another 12” called “Electric City” and now the album. Electric Deluxe is a great new family to be in.

There’s less of the pop sensibility that’s sometimes been in your music—it’s a darker, more pure techno sound. What motivated the shift in focus?

My music has been many times described as dark techno mixed with some EBM ingredients. In 1999, when I did the track “Electrostatic” and then the Muscle Machine album in 2000, I didn’t know that I would spearhead a new techno direction called techno /EBM… To me, it was just techno.

Of course, bands like Front 242, Nitzer Ebb, and DAF belong to my first electronic education, so at that time my music was mainly fixed on creating some energy with heavy synth sequences, adding dark atmopshere either with special sounds or with vocals.

I even got deeper in that style when I started the project Fixmermcarthy with the singer Douglas McCarthy, from Nitzer Ebb. Then I had Douglas singing on my music, so it was a kind of modern Nitzer Ebb revival. For sure, with that project, I was totally techno/EBM.

I just realized after doing two Fixmermcarthy albums that I was focusing mainly on this project without really thinking of my solo production. So when Douglas worked again on a new Nitzer ebb album and a reunion tour last year, it was the perfect time for me to produce for myself and that was the starting point of the work on Comedy of Menace.

Of course I don’t want to repeat myself, so I keep EBM elements for Fixmermcarthy, and, as a solo project, I explore new soundscapes and try to do techno with character.

Was the process of recording this album different from previous records?

Not really, but I was really motivated to go into new directions in sound design, and I got even more motivated when I heard some new cool real techno releases coming out again. To me, there was lots of music in the last two years that was just going in circles—so many tracks were using the same effects and the same ways of sequencing, it was just like a recipe, and I could tell you exactly which machines or effects or plug-ins were used on so many tracks. It wasn’t interesting to me. But out of this I started hearing something new emerging, nice, deep techno with strong vibes—and that spoke more to me.

Can you walk us through the creation of a typical track on the record? What’s the first thing you do when you’re making music? Is it a process of trial & error, then recording and editing, or do you generally know what you want to do in advance?

No, I don’t think I ever know what I’m going to do. I know what sound I want or what kind of atmosphere I would like to create, but many times I have a sound in my head and I work on my machines to try to find it, but I accidentally end up with a different atmosphere that I prefer, so I keep that and work on it.

Usually I like to compose in the morning, when my ears have had a good night’s sleep and are totally fresh. Then I switch on the machines and explore without thinking. I try, I play; I adjust, search, add effects, test things, and suddenly a nice sound or sequence is coming straight into my ears. At this moment, I know that I have found the core of my next track.

Then the process of finishing it can go fast, all the elements come together like puzzle pieces. The point I don’t personally like working on is the arrangement. You have all the elements, it all sounds good, but doing the construction can take so long… Many DJs just play with loops or tools and rearrange the tracks according to their own tastes; more and more labels are offering tools along with the tracks, and some DJs are using only single loops from a track. So maybe doing the arrangement won’t be necessary one day.

What were the crucial machines and/or software instruments on the record?

As for machines, the Tetra and the Evolver from Dave Smith Instruments, the Machinedrum UWMK2 from Elektron, Future Retro XS, Korg MS20,MS-404 from Doepfer, and Spectral Audio Protone. Then in software, I work with Cubase as an editor, Reaktor, and some Arturia plug-ins and different effects.

Is there anything you wanted to do with this album that you weren’t able to?

Yes, dark reggae. Laughs

I heard that you changed the artwork for the new album. What was the cover originally supposed to look like?

Aha… who told you this? Give me a name please…

In fact the title of the album came straight in my head after reading about the English playwright Harold Pinter, he created a style described as a “comedy Of menace,” like a mixture of threatening situations with weird, comic moments at the same time. I like the strange associations of the phrase, and to me, the album has some dark tracks, but it was fun to produce.

Anyway, it wasn’t easy to find a cover to illustrate that title. I had the (bad) idea to show my face on the cover, made up to look like a mad clown with a devilish smile—but in the end, I totally looked like the Joker from Batman, but in a cheaper way—a much cheaper way. So it was a good idea not to keep it!

Finally… Would you mind giving us a track-by-track breakdown of the album, explaining a little something about each track? Anything you care to share!

“Darkline”

I think that track is a cool opener to the album. It immediately shows the direction of it, so there’s tension, raw sounds, and progressive elements are coming in slowly, with some reverb giving space between sounds.

“Things Are Over”

To me, the power of this track is the groovy infra bass beneath; it sounds really warm, even if the track sounds cold and dark at first.

“Impakt”

When I did this, originally I was thinking of doing a track based only on synth sequences, with no rhythm track. In the end, it’s quite a driving track in the club, but still keeping its hypnotic vibe.

“Drastik”

“Drastik” is a track that gives a break from the tension made by the other tracks on the album—warmer, and with a deeper orientation.

“Phantoms”

This one is the sister to “Drastik"—it’s a relaxing track, a nice way to start a DJ set at the beginning of the night.

“Breathless”

This track is vicious. The hypnotic sequences go deeper and deeper all the time, progressively injecting darker elements. Even at the end, when you think you’ve heard all the sounds, new ones keep coming. This track could be dangerous when combined with illicit substances, I think!

“My Experimentations”

The title explains everything. It’s just me and my Korg MS20, flirting together for straight analog sounds.

“Alert”

I think that anyone who wears leather trousers will like this track!

“Dance Like Paranoid”

This track is fun because the loop is going crazy—there are so many little changes in it all the time, reversing, etc.  It’s like I wanted to do a brainwashing track, a track to close your eyes and shake your head on the dancefloor, stopping all communication.

“Last Heroes”

One of my favorite tracks, because everything, all my personal favorite elements, is in it. Thus it’s my album’s conclusion.

Terence Fixmer, Comedy of Menace [Electric Deluxe]

Terence Fixmer’s Beatport Top 10

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