Photo: Press (Emmanuel Top)
The 90s are over, but they’ve come back to haunt us. More and more Techno producers pay hommage to the ravey side of the genre, the Acid revival never seems to stop and even breakbeats aren’t taboo anymore. All we have to do now is to embrace the joy of glow sticks and show some respect for those who’ve earned it the first time around. Emmanuel Top has produced some of the most slamming Acid Techno anthems of the 90s and it seems like a whole generation is now re-discovering the French producer and DJ, which of course is made a lot easier due to his recent return to the dancefloors after taking a break from touring for a few years. Listen to his two-hour long set recorded on tour after our brief interview with Emmanuel Top. If you are in Berlin next weekend, we highly recommend going to his debut gig at Griessmühle on April 30th.
You haven’t been very active in the past few years and didn’t even release new music after 2013. Why did you take a break?
I had some problems with my health in the past. I needed time to regulate the situation.
Obviously though, people haven’t forgotten about you. You played some rather high-profile gigs in the past few months. How does it feel to be back on track?
I feel better now. It’s very good to exchange energy with the audience. It’s a new experience for me.
Nowadays, there’ll be plenty of people on the dancefloor who weren’t even born when you started out. However, some people criticise the younger generations of not having a proper knowledge of the roots of club culture. Would you subscribe to that criticism?
That is true. The younger generation sometimes lacks musical culture. You can not really blame them. The music consumption has changed tremendously over the past 20 years. We now consume music at high speed without ever really knowing the artist’s history. It’s very strange for me to play a title like “Acid Phase” substantially as a new track.
Your sets are in no way nostalgic and rather include fresh cuts from upcoming producers. How do you keep up with new music? Which new producers are in your eyes worth checking out?
I think you have to live with the times. It’s good to sometimes play a classic piece when it makes sense, but not for a whole evening. There are currently too many good things happening in Techno. I appreciate artists like Sebastian Mullaert, Rrose, Len Faki, Abdulla Rashim, Mike Parker, for example.
Your mix is a 2 hour long recording of a club set. Why did you prefer that of a mix recorded at home?
I thought about recording a special DJ set for Groove but then I found it more interesting to give you a DJ set recorded in club before an audience which reflects the energy of the moment.
Your recent releases came out digitally and it seems like you also prefer to DJ digitally. Have you lost interest in vinyl and if so, why?
I love vinyl. I will also release new productions on vinyl through Fokalm, my new label. Digital is convenient, it allows me to travel very easily with 20,000 titles and adjust a set very quickly to mood. Every generation has its dissemination. I find the war between MP3 and vinyl ridiculous. All is well. The most important thing is to make a good set with a good selection for your audience.
Now that you have started touring again, what more can we expect from you in the future?
DJing in clubs and festivals in Europe, my new label Fokalm for the month of June, with a project on Soma with Slam for October and a few other surprises…
Download (MP3, 320 kBit/s, 121:11 Min., 277 MB)
01. Emmanuel Top – Infra Supra
02. Emmanuel Top – Acid Phase (Fred Hush & Dimitri Andreas remix)
03. Emmanuel Top – Bipolaire
04. Alex Bau – On Synth
05. Sebastian Mullaert – In The Blurry Mist Of Yourself
06. Sian – Farewell Mermaid
07. Kris Wadsworth – 333a
08. Teste – The Wipe (Rrose Version)
09. Emmanuel Top – Turkish Bazar
10. Post Scriptum – Human Timescales
11. Emmanuel Top – Sine & Saw
12. Matt Nordstram & Orlando Villegas – Spanglish (Len Faki Edit)
13. Max_M – Architectural Lie
14. Emmanuel Top – Métalurgie
15. Operator – Elastic Mind
16. Sterac – Rotary
17. Phil Kieran – Wasps Under A Toy Boat (Planetary Assault Systems Remix)
18. Johannes Volk – The Second Resistance
19. Sunil Sharpe – Healing Hatred
20. Jeroen Search – The Future Is Ours
21. Emmanuel Top – Novocaine
22. Pfirter – Fractals
23. Setaoc Mass – Nicmos (Jonas Kopp Remix)
24. Xhin – Fixing The Error
25. Josh Wink – Are You There (Ben Klock Remix)
26. Bleaching Agent – 22ml
