For the first-ever IRL iteration of Record Store Recs since its launch in May 2020 to support record stores and artists during the pandemic, a few of the DJ/producers who played CRSSD Festival 2021 in September joined GRAMMY. com at the Stellar Remnant popup.
British hard techno queen Paula Temple found bangers in the techno section, associated with course, along with an album from her favorite ambient artist. Under the particular warm San Diego sun, the producer detailed her selections with GRAMMY. com, along with what she thinks makes a great dance track, her teen years sharing the gospel of Jeff Mills at the record shop where she worked, and more.
Have you been playing shows or is [CRSSD] your first show back?
I’ve only played a few shows. I did a big one in Brussels. It was huge. That was with Charlotte de Witte . And then I did a huge one last week in Paris. That will was with SNTS . We actually dressed up for that one in the black veil, and we looked like we were going to a funeral. The crowd loved it. It was very deathly techno, but it worked.
Are there any sets you’re excited to check out this weekend?
Kobosil and ANNA . I’ve never seen ANNA yet. I’ve seen Kobosil a few times. We’re on a lot of lineups together. That’s all we’ve got time for, to be honest.
Paula Temple shops the Stellar Remnant pop-up at CRSSD. Photo: Ana Monroy Yglesias
What are you usually looking for when you’re crate-digging?
I automatically go to the techno section—there are three sections I always go for: the ambient, experimental, and techno. And that’s exactly what I just did, so no wasting period. I’m not an expert within any genre really, but these are in my heart. Immediately I was so surprised, I found a whole bunch of great stuff in techno. And then I thought, okay, check out electronic, and I was like, “Wow. Classics. ”
Let’s talk about what records you got. Tell us what you obtained and why you picked it out.
Autechre, Incunabula (1993)
Well this record from Autechre I bought when I was 15, so that would’ve been about 26 years ago. This will be probably the most influential album that will seriously affects me. We love this album in order to this day. It came out on Warp Records, which is still a legendary label, but they were innovative at the time. They started off pretty much in 1990-91 with bleep techno. They actually had some hits in the U. K., and actually broke into the charts.
At this point [Warp Records did] the Artificial Intelligence series [where] they introduced some insanely impressive artists. It was called intelligent dance music, IDM.
Were they one of the first labels to put out IDM?
Yeah. That’s how I got to know IDM. These guys [Warp Records], were based in Sheffield and I actually moved to Sheffield because of this record label, because of this duo. And then they all moved to London when I relocated to Sheffield, so that was sad. I has been hoping to get into that, I don’t know, electronic music culture whilst I was living there. That was when We started making music full-time, when I moved to Sheffield.
But this album is phenomenal. Nearly every track is usually classic electronic. The most emotional [track] will be “Windwind. ” I love it.
Paula Forehead shops the Stellar Remnant pop-up at CRSSD. Photo: Ana Monroy Yglesias
Various Artists, Ivan, Come On! Unlock The Box! (2015)
This compilation is from Trip, Nina Kraviz ‘ s label. I actually think it’s more like the triple pack, but what I particularly like on this album is the K-HAND track [“The Box”]. She died just recently. This track is pure beautiful legacy, one associated with the most gorgeous tracks I’ve ever heard. This was really sad that she passed away at such a young age. All I did for a day was just listen to this nonstop.
Yet you know, all the particular other artists, like Vladimir Dubyshkin , are getting a lot of recognition through Nina’s label, and they’re just really good tracks. I really like Philipp Gorbachev [who’s on here as well]. It’s just a really good compilation.
Abul Mogard, Kimberlin (Original Soundtrack) (2019)
Abul Mogard , he’s my favorite ambient artist. I [had] believed this particular self-prophesized legend of this person where he’s the 65-year-old Serbian man retired from factory work, yet [I just learned] it may not be true , which is kind of heartbreaking. People are starting to get suspicious.
Regardless of that, the music itself speaks mountains. What I love is the hanging of the notes—it’s pure ambient music—and it unfolds very slowly. It has really beautiful delays and reverbs, but it’s the particular way the notes bend over time that gives so much emotion.
When this particular person titles [the track] “Flooding Tide, ” you feel that in the music. It’s exactly the imagery and the feeling and everything. And it’s very emotional, very sad. It’s like a statement on humanity and exactly what we’ve been doing wrong, plus we’re going off the particular rails and there’s nothing we can do about it. This is the soundtrack.
Rrose x Bob Ostertag, Motormouth Variations (2011)
Rrose is really a friend of mine. I love this person’s work to bits. It’s so very important. This is a very vital album that they do with Bob Ostertag and a very important brand as well, Sandwell District. So, it’s very nice to see this within the collection.
Stenny, Upsurge (2019)
I found out regarding this [album] from a club in Munich called BLITZ. I actually played there the final Christmas day before the pandemic. And then afterwards, we sat within the back room talking about music. This was playing and I said, “Pauly, you obtained to listen to this, this is Stenny’s album! ”
I couldn’t describe it. It’s delicious due to the fact of the textures that are in the songs. It’s quite laid back, but it’s just beautifully textured, very interesting, and different, very artistic. Not the usual techno obvious stuff— it really gets you listening. It’s upon Ilian Tape, which is definitely a very, very good tag. Thank you, Munich BLITZ.
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Are presently there any other upcoming releases that you have your own eye on picking up?
Oh, yes. GEGEN DECADE . Maybe I’m a bit biased about this because We have a track on [part two of] this particular -part album. It’s can be by a label plus a club in Berlin called GEGEN to celebrate their 10 years, so they’re calling it DECADE . It’s a sex-positive queer nightclub. And, they brought together all the queer artists that they love and put out this fabulous album. It’s so good. So, I’ll be playing a few paths from it at the [CRSSD] afterparty as well. [Part two of] the album is coming out at the beginning of October.
Exactly what do you think makes a great dance track?
It depends for what purpose. At a festival, I actually like to have surprise and emotion. Festivals love breakdowns—that’s fine, but to do it in an unusual way, I really like down tracks like that. And, they give you something, but these people give you something more upon top of that you didn’t expect. So such as, okay, this is the particular obvious thing that happened. After which, “Ooh, that simply happened out of the blue. ”
And, with regard to maybe a club—I tend to play more underground clubs—but it’s the intensity. Layers and layers of intensity.
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And when did first get into techno and dancing music more generally?
A very young age, whenever I was about nine. It was the Pet Shop Boys , so absolutely nothing very underground. [ Laughs .] It was bands like the Pet Shop Boys. Then I was about 11 or 12 when the rave scene started in order to happen in the U. K., and am was still too young to go to raves. So, that was performers like 808 State and [U.K.’s] LFO .
Then I got into grunge, but then there’s this crossover with Nine Inch Nails ‘ 1st album [ Pretty Hate Machine ], which was an electronic beat, but also kind of EBM-influenced. And then from that will, it was Jeff Mills. He was actually the turning point for me—Jeff Mills’ Waveforms Volume 1 that came out in Tresor, plus I was about 15 at the time.
It was therefore fresh, so extreme, something I’d never heard associated with before. I just started working at a record shop at 15, and I was getting everyone to buy the Jeff Mills album. “You’ve got to listen to this! ”
And then when did you start DJing and producing yourself?
16.
Wow.
Yeah. Straight away. There was this unusual—it had been more like a bar, pretty illegal, actually. It had no license, plus wasn’t meant to exist. So, at 16 I got my first decks and they asked me to play, probably since I was doing it regarding free. I’m like, “Yes, please. ” I didn’t know how to DJ. But you know, I went straight in and played the heaviest, fastest techno and trance, scared everybody sh*tless. But at that age, you just really like that energy. I haven’t changed.
What’s inspiring you to make songs right now?
Actually, Moog. I just obtained this triple synth sound studio from them. It can got the DFAM, which is a drum machine, the Mother-32, which is certainly a monosynth, and then the particular Subharmonicon, which you can do chords with. It is polyrhythmic and the combination is—I haven’t wanted to make music for a long time, or I haven’t felt like I could bring some thing original. Now, all of a sudden, I’m using hardware which I have not really done [before]. I had the odd synth, but not a full center where I can make everything with hardware.
I’m actually making music along with my wife now intended for the first time. Because we feel like we’re on the same level, we’re learning this semi-modular system together. She’s more techno than me. She never heard of techno before I met her. She’s from Detroit and the girl lived in Chicago to get a long time. She didn’t know anything about Chicago house music. But here we are now in 2021. We’re making music together and the lady made this really sick, hard, industrial-like rhythm. All of us ended up making a track out of that will. So insane. We want to keep making more tracks together.
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