Dutch producers Kraak & Smaak quite obviously have their eyes firmly fixed on world domination following the runaway success of their latest single “Squeeze Me“. This catchy little ditty features the mighty Ben Westbeech on vocals and quite literally had the world DJ fellowship salivating at the mouth at the prospect of a forthcoming full album from K&S. With “Plastic People“, their second full-length out now, the Kraak & Smaak boys are celebrating in style with Summer appearances at the likes of the legendary Glastonbury and Bloom Festivals. Keen to find out the secret of their success, Gavin Leversuch got together with the guys for a quick chat in today’s 5pm Interview.

Things have been exploding for you lately, hitting the #1 spot on iTunes Holland and even getting picked up by the infamous Perez Hilton blog in the States. How does it feel with everything suddenly going crazy? Did you expect it?

“This week we all had to buy big 70’s sunglasses because we can’t walk the Dutch streets unnoticed anymore. Parents offer us their daughters, we are not allowed to pay for anything in restaurants, parking tickets are torn up… It’s hell being famous! Actually we’re planning to move to LA, and move next door to Perez. We’re sure we can grow up to compete with the regular Hollywood sleaze if we get the chance.“

“André Maat has so many good ideas we stopped trying”

You have some very cool videos, particularly for new track Squeeze Me, but Money In The Bag is great too. Do you have any creative input on these, or do you just have a great team you put total trust in?

“Well we always try to, but the director of all these videos, André Maat, has so many good ideas we can never come up with anything better so we stopped trying, which is difficult as we have opinions about everything that concerns our music. But apparently he’s in touch with our music even more than we are! All we can do is to let him go on working and see what happens. We did have to cut out all the flipbooks he used for the Squeeze Me video though, it took us weeks to complete. Keeps our feet on the ground; a proper job”

Check out the flip-tastic “Squeeze Me” video below:

With Squeeze Me being so well received, what’s the next single from your new album going to be? Do you expect it to be as popular?

“We’re still thinking about that but chances are that it will be the title song off the album, ‘Plastic People’. It’s different in style, more electronic than Squeeze Me but at the same time it again has that unmistakably K&S feeling to it, tasty but with a crunch to it. It’s a co-production with Mark Brydon of Moloko fame and features Bobby Nio on vocals. At the moment we’re finishing a classically styled radio edit. You know, verse-chorus-verse-chorus-solo-chorus. Hope that works!”

“The great thing about a proper live band is the amount of communication you have with your public”

You obviously feel it’s important to take your show onto the live circuit. Do you feel this is an underused tool by dance acts, and what edge do you think it gives you?

“For lots of people a live music show is still the standard to which a band is judged and many dance acts unfortunately have not been able to translate their music into something that goes beyond one or two pale white nerds hiding themselves behind a laptop and raising an arm now and then. The great thing about a proper live band is the amount of communication you have with your public. It’s often far more direct than with DJs or ‘laptop performances’, it’s, well, you know, ‘live’ with real persons and all. Duuuhhhh”

With the new album coming out have you got any new additions planned for the live show?

“We will continue to play with the live musicians we have worked with over the last couple of years. They are great to work with and are tried and tested. However, the Plastic People album gives us a new versatility for the live set from the Boogie Angst ‘party funk’ side that we became known for. We are still brooding over the possibilities of developing it into a more balanced live show, with more space for both clubby tracks and more atmospheric stuff. We already tried that out at our recent gigs at Fabric for Breakspoll and Cargo for AIR. Either way, we have options galore as far as we are concerned!”

What’s next in the Kraak & Smaak plan for world domination?

“We’re going over to the UK for the festival season. We’re playing Glastonbury and Bloom so far and hoping for more, to see if we can acquire a live foothold in the UK too. We have always had great press on our records up until now but we also want to let the people know what we can do live. By the way, who’s the UK equivalent of Perez Hilton?!”

(Interview: Gavin Leversuch)

Kraak & Smaak’s Current Top 5:

1. Motor City Drum Ensemble - Raw cuts#2 - Faces Records
2. Midfield General - Disco Sirens (D.I.M. remix) - Skint
3. The Count of Monte Cristal - Dibby DJ (Original) - Cheap Thrills
4. Shut Up and Dance - Glory Days (Original) - Shut Up and Dance Music
5. Trentemoller - Miss You (Trentemoller remix) - Audiomatique

His music is some of the most dynamic, genre-busting material to hit dancefloors and his DJ sets live up to the hype. Now he’s gone and mixed the next of the prestigious Global Underground series, GU:34 Milan, and he’s launching it at the Ministry of Sound this weekend.

We asked Felix to drop by the offices a couple of days early for a chat and a bit of an insight into his musical world in anticipation of his big London show, and a summer of hot dates across the world…

Buy tickets for Saturday night now

Excuse the technical issues on a few pages as we transfer everything over. All should be working smoothly soon.

Next up, the Ibiza section of the site will get a makeover just in time for the start of the season. And we’ve got some seriously exciting plans for bringing you the very best coverage of the island all summer long…

Now Larry’s hot new single, Licky (Work It Out) with Princess Superstar, is all set to seriously trouble dancefloors. Meanwhile his forthcoming LP, Club Badd, contains plenty more warped electro stabs and bitchin’ vocals, including glamour freak Amanda LePore on My Pussy, and the edgy I Love You, which features a 7-year old girl as vocalist.

He’s on a mission to promote a true taste of electro at a time when everybody uses the word carelessly for all forms of dance music. Make no mistake about it though, Larry’s shit is the real deal. He dropped by the Ministry of Sound this afternoon for another of our live radio interviews, and we got him in front of the MoS TV cameras for today’s 5pm Interview…

On Saturday night, Danny Howells brings his Dig Deeper club concept to Ministry of Sound for the start of a brand new residency after successfully touring the marathon-set concept around the world.

The Hastings-born music obsessive is without question one of the most loved DJs on the circuit, in equal parts due to his amazing talents to rock a party and his infectious personality.

We can’t wait to have him play for 7-hours in The Box, but while we count down the hours, Danny himself was nice enough to answer today’s 5 probing questions at 5pm…

You’ve thrown Dig Deeper parties in various cities across the world, tell us a bit about them and how do they differ in their reaction to such epic sets?

“It’s been going really well, from places like Stereo in Montreal, Womb in Tokyo, Panama in Amsterdam, Colours in Glasgow and so on. The big difference between each city is the set time mainly. Anything from 5 hours to 10 or 12. The reaction’s nearly always great, mainly because I’m very picky about where I do Dig Deeper parties. I’m getting choosy in my old age!”

What are you particularly looking forward to about bringing the party to Ministry of Sound?

“I think it’s going to be the perfect venue for Dig Deeper. I’ve always loved The Box, and I can’t wait to play on that sound system. It’s a great room and everyone I know is telling me that they think Dig Deeper will work a treat there. Plus I’m really happy with the line-up in the bar. Nail for Bent and Norman Jay are gonna rock it for sure.”

Dig Deeper obviously gives you a chance to play more than just main room house music, so can you give us a little teaser of the sort of sounds can we look forward to hearing on Saturday?

“The reason I enjoy Dig Deeper is that I can go form downtempo, even loungey music, through deep house, funky bits and right the way through to the harder stuff. And obviously some classics along the way. I’m not giving you any track names though. You need to come down and find out for yourself!”

What production work or mix albums can we expect to from you this year?

“Ive got a compilation lined up for later this year, which will hopefully be connected with the whole Dig Deeper thing. Studio wise, I’ve pulled my finger out my arse and done about 7 new tracks recently, with many more to follow. I’ll be dropping these on Saturday and will be crossing my fingers for a good reaction…”

What’s the single most exciting thing about dance music at the moment in your opinion?

“I don’t know! It’s always exciting for me. There’s always so much good music, from all genres, which is why I’m so into the whole Dig Deeper thing. It lets me be greedy and get stuck into all the tunes that are rocking my boat!”

Buy tickets for Dig Deeper on Saturday night

Check out Danny playing an NWA hip hop classic at his, erm, ‘highly eclectic’, totally brilliant 80s party ‘Pop Tarts’ in Miami last month!

According to Gigwise, who interviewed Trentemoller straight after his triumphant recent gig at London’s Forum, he told them “Bryan Ferry is going to sing on the next album, which is quite fun. I think it was his management that wrote to me that Bryan wanted me to remix an old Roxy Music track and if I did it for free he wanted to sing on my next album, so I said yeah, that’s a cool deal!”

Trentemoller’s live shows have been bridging the indie / electro divide of late, gaining him fans across the board.
His debut LP, The Last Resort, was a masterpiece of minimal tech sounds, so it will be interesting to see how Bryan’s atmospheric vocals work with the new material…

More Radio news for you in the shape of the fabulous DJ/producer Onionz, who is dropping by the studios tomorrow direct from Queens, New York.

He’ll be the special guest on Tania von Pear’s Pear Music Live show from 18:00 - 20:00 in the UK (that’s GMT +1) so expect some hot new cuts and a good chinwag with one of the USA’s most proliffic and respected underground artists.

As always, Tania scores the big guests for a Thursday night!

Tune in: Ministry of Sound Radio

Techno stalwarts Christian Smith and John Selway are holders of the increasingly rare accolade of scoring a genuine ‘Tune of Miami’ with their forthcoming release Total Departure (check it out in John’s ‘lift off’ YouTube video for the tune below).

We spoke to Christian about the long-running production duo’s knack for making accessible techno, and exciting plans for a party in Chrstian’s adoptive city of Barcelona for the Sonar festival…

Total Departure is a monster of a tune that was huge in Miami and seems to push dancefloors ever upwards into mass hysteria, tell us how the tune came about?

“After discovering a plug effect that makes you believe that a sound just goes up and up, we immediately said we have to devote a track to this effect. So we basically built a jacking groove around the rising sound and carefully arranged the track. We put allot of time into make a very powerful break, and yes, I think we succeeded. Everybody from John Digweed to Richie Hawtin is hammering this tune every set.”

Both this tune and Transit Time before it have managed to appeal to a wide range of DJs from the trance boys to the techno purists – why do you think that is?

“We have never been purists and always made music with proper arrangements. I think this is something that sets our music apart from many other techno producers. We always try to make smooth and gradual arrangements so that the track never gets boring. About 10 years ago we made a tune on Intec, Carl Cox’s label, called Move! This was the start of our crossover sound. Not only did Sasha license it for his legendary Ibiza Global Underground compilation, but everybody else from Danny Tenaglia to Deep Dish and also some real techno purists like Jeff Mills and Surgeon rocked this track all the time. And now it seems we have another one of those tunes with Total Departure. These days I’m very happy that Techno is slower and that House and Techno DJs play allot of similar tracks. At the end of the day it’s about good music. I really don’t care much about people that only play one style of music. I think a proper DJ can rock various crowds.”

How do you think Techno stands today in the ever moving world of dance music?

“At the present time the word Techno and Minimal are really hyped by the UK press. Also the fact that the bpm’s are the same as house now makes it much more accessible than it was before. One good thing about Techno is that it always evolves and changes. Anyways, right now it’s in a really good state, but so is House etc. The amount of good music out there at the moment is incredible.”

You’ve been working with John Selway for 15 years now, how has the relationship developed and where is it going?

“We have a very good personal and honest professional relationship. I think what also helps alot is that we do our own things as well and work on different projects. In that way we don’t get tired of each other and the creative flow maintains very healthy. For example we have been making tracks for 15 years and this year, 2008, we are releasing more music and remixes than any year before. We are not getting tired. Quite the opposite! Expect to see some slamming releases and remixes out this and next year…”

What’s coming up next for you? We hear there’s a big party at Sonar for starters?

“Oh yeah baby! We do one at Sonar every year as a matter of fact. I am one of the partners in the Club4 night which is every Thursday at Cityhall in Barcelona. It’s a great small club for about 500 people and we’ve had everyone from Richie Hawtin to Josh Wink to Carl Cox play for us. This Sonar we have secured: Audion live, Marco Carola, Paco Osuna downstairs, and upstairs, Adam Beyer, myself, and Par Grindvik live. If you are going to Sonar make sure to stop our party on Thursday night.”

Christian’s Current Top 5 Downloads

1. Mark Broom - Trumpet - Rotary Cocktail
2. Patch Park & Ozgur Can - Swell (Dubfunk Remix) - Audio Therapy
3. Sian - The Dogs Of Thessaloniki (Axel Bartsch Remix) - Octopus Digi Pack
4. Madoc & Dopamine - Distorted Mind - Hell Yeah Recordings
5. Paolo Mojo - Nightlaw - Oosh

www.djchristiansmith.com

Shonky upped sticks from his native France to move to Berlin, the epicentre for the sort of stripped back electronic music he makes so well. But still, as his debut LP drops, influences from his homeland are vital to his sound. He’s previously worked closely in the studio with other French dance stars like Jennifer Cardini and still plays regularly in France’s coolest parties, when he’s not on a hectic schedule of global dates.

We were supposed to catch up with him at the Freak n Chic label party in Miami, but by the time we got there the police had paid them a visit. Luckily we grabbed him by email for today’s big 5 questions…

What was the best thing, and the worst thing about Miami?

“I enjoyed Miami so much. It was the time to see all the people I cannot see during the year. To see all my mates from Freak n Chic because now I’m living in Berlin and this is more complicated. I also saw producers whose work I really appreciate. The freak n chic rooftop party was really good. So many good people – friends, all the people that I met during my US tour were at this party but the party was stopped by the police unfortunately. Still one of the best memories of this conference.
The worse thing was that it was too short for me. I was supposed to play in China so I had to move to early, unfortunately.”

Tell us about the experience of making your debut artist LP, and how was it different to making singles?

“I was working on the album a bit less than one year. For me, I saw the album like a project in which each track will bring something interesting. It’s hard to have an exact vision and it’s always interesting to improvise but I knew in which direction I wanted to drive the album.
For me, it was important to build it in the same mood as the EPs I did before. To try to be hypnotic, deep and groovy. I didn’t want to do another EP so it was more interesting to go deeper into my musical roots and all the music I had listened in the past 4 years.

Many tracks have been done in the Freak n Chic studio. It was nice for me to work in a professional way – better than in my living room. I had finished most of them before I moved to Berlin but for me it was important to stay in the mood. I didn’t want to be influenced by something new at this time, which I was sure would happen in Berlin. The only work that I did there was to retouch the edit.”

Which is your personal favourite track on the album and why?

To be honest, I really appreciated all of them but if I have to choose one I will say Nebula or Magma because they remind me so much of what I was playing when I started to be a DJ in 1998. All this music from San Francisco and Chicago, I used these roots, plus a bit of Kraftwerk and a bit of myself. I play them in many of my DJ sets.”

Where is the best place in the world to enjoy the kind of music you make?

“I think the best place is the Berlin nightlife, even if Paris was really cool. The good thing with Berlin is that you always have good parties with good DJs and an amazing sound system. The crowd is nice and really pay attention to the music. You meet a lot of producers you like everywhere and anywhere and the best thing is that you really feel free and secure at the same time.”

What inspires you?

“A lot of things, from the roots of my musical background like the fun, soul, punk to what I listen everyday in everything. But most important I have been inspired by my gigs all around Europe and abroad, afterhours too…

There are so many artists I love; Villalobos, Hawtin, Baby Ford, Gemini… but to choose one is impossible. For example I really like Mathias Kaden that’s why I asked him to make a remix for my single, Time Zero, the title track of the new album.”

Shonky Top 5 Chart

1. Various Artists - Milshake - Minibar Music
2. Dyed Soundorom - Son Capulet - Freak n’Chic
3. Rose & Ulysse - Myosotis - Edit - Select
4. DOP - Lighthouse - Orac
5. Seth Troxler - Aphrika

We’re very please to have an exciting brand new show to tell you about, airing weekly on Ministry of Sound Radio.

The Saturday Sessions Warm Up, A 60 Minute Party, is hosted by the duo of Mark from We’re Not Cool! and Nikolas Esselle. Both are members of the Ministry of Sound club’s successful promotional team and well respected DJs about town in their own right.

Each week these likely lads will be keeping you updated with what’s going on right here at the world’s best club. The latest news on the night ahead including the DJs not to miss, regular competitions with a chance to blag the guestlist and exclusive scoops on just who we’ve got coming up in the months ahead, announced on the show before anywhere else.

Expect to hear a mix of the most upfront, forward-thinking electronic music around and some rare gems from the back of their record bags. Guest DJs will also play a part of the show, with regular mixes coming from some of the club’s forthcoming guests, resident DJs and friends.