we are not a rock band

I feel totally and utterly blessed that I got to see Otto Von Schirach play an ‘intimate’ (i.e. small and barely attended) gig at Corsica Studios on Monday night. I love gabber,  speedcore, terrorcore, breakcore… basically anything that sounds like a  robot trying to control some sort of dystopian machine gone haywire, so the chance to catch this IDM-genius who specialises in loud squelches, sick samples and fast beats was simply too good to miss. If the name sounds familiar, you might have heard the collaboration he did with Modeselektor; on their last album ‘Happy Birthday,’ they crafted a thoughtful cover version of the Scooter classic ‘Hyper Hyper‘.

Helping him out with some live drumming was Gabe Serbian of headfuck noise merchants The Locust. His presence made the gig even better. Seriously, it’s no surprise that the drummer from Slayer, Dave Lombardo, totally hearts him, he was incredible to watch and helped make the atmosphere at the show completely electric, literally the entire audience was totally captivated by the guy in the creepy mask drumming in the corner – as well as the mentalist fucking around with a laptop and other electrical items.

I felt even more blessed that I got to hang out with them for a bit after the gig and do a bit of an impromptu ‘interview’. Question 1. Give me a fun quote.

“Straight from the Bermuda  Triangle comes [high pitched voice] Otto Von Schirach, no, it’s [deep voice] Otto Von Schirach. There you go ladies and gentlemen. Now enjoy your space travel.”

Space is a popular theme for Von Schirach at the moment. His latest album, Magic Triangle, was ‘conceived during the great space battle and shrouded in mystery other tracks on the album where created by Otto as he fought so bravely alongside the banana sloth armed with synths, swords and the magic of the triangle’. Of course, it was necessary to discover whether or not he was aware of Nibiru and the ‘theories’ that we’re all going to die/be enslaved in 2012. He had no idea. Gabe did though, and between us we explained to him the bad news that the end really kinda is nigh. “I like Earth. I want to stay on Earth,” Otto explained, earnestly. Where’s your favourite place on Earth? “Miami. As it’s part of the Bermuda Triangle, and it has a porthole to the equator, and it touches on the pineal gland, daily.”

In case you’re wondering, the pineal gland is also known as the ‘third eye’. It is reddish-gray and about the size of a grain of rice, and is located deep in our brains between the two temporal lobes. Descartes believed that it was the point of connection between the intellect and the body. No one really knows what it does or why we have one, so there are lots of occult-related and hippyish theories surrounding it.

Miami, huh. So do you like Don Johnson?  “I like him and he likes me. And I like Tubbs. He was in Streetfight, you seen Streetfight?” No… “He was good in Streetfight. It’s about the 70s in Harlem, and Tubbs’s in it.” That’s cool. Is it as good as ‘Rappin’ starring Mario Van Peebles? “No. That’s better.”

The duo were fresh from performing at Bangface. Perhaps some  comparisons  can be drawn between Miami and Camber Sands… or not, considering that the only characteristic they share is a sea. Did he enjoy himself at the marathon mess-session that turns Pontins from family camp to a techno-soundtracked Sodom and Gomorrah? “I woke up on a beach. I romanced a seagull.” Aah, that must be one of the best things about being a DJ – loadsa birds.

Get acquainted with Otto’s genius:-

Amazing

Awesome

Astounding

Otto Von Schirach and Gabe Serbian are touring the UK over the next few days.

Kara Simsek.

MORE ON OTTO VON SCHIRACH

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This entry was posted on April 28, 2010 at 12:54 pm and is filed under Interviews, We are not a rock band with tags gabber, IDM, modeselektor, Otto Von Schirach, The Locust. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.