Submitted By: conflict

Genre: Techno

Date of Set: Jun 18th, 2005

Filesize: 7.20 MB

Total Downloads: 10

In the music world, as in the world as we know it, the best idea’s always seem a little strange at first. Techno legend Thomas Schumacher teams up with unknown Australian bombshell Caitlin Devlin and they set out to make techno music together. Techno with soul and style and love and words and beats and grooves and – is that really techno?Here is where they disagree. Caitlin says “yes, it is Techno because it is music that we have made using technology - electronic instruments, computers and software. The only accoustic instrument we use is my voice and sometimes I play my guitar”.Thomas on the other hand would not classify ELK as Techno because “it labels our music with an image which doesn‘t belong to it.”“We are creating our version of electronic pop music. And when I say pop I mean popular music. Songs that are strong and true and stay with you after you have heard them. There is absolutely no cheese or squeeky clean, formulated production allowed in our studio” says Caitlin.The pair teamed up in the studio when Caitlin came to Germany in 2001. They worked on 2003’s Come Right on Time album (EastWest) together with Caitlin working as assistant producer and featuring as singer and writer on 6 of the albums tracks. “That was a time of great changes and evolving for me”, says Thomas. “I had mostly worked alone in the past and I had never worked with a singer in my studio before. I had no idea how to sit down and write songs with a chorus and verses and bridges and stuff like that. But I think that is one of the things that makes our music what it is. The tension. The clash and cohesion.

Thomas Schumacher started the Elektrochemie LK project back in 1995 as another avenue for him to release the hard drives full of music he was creating. In 2000 and 2001 two of the tracks from the “Gold” album, “When I Rock” and “Schall” reached the Top 20 on the German Pop charts. “Schall” received two German Dance Awards in 2001 for best video clip and most vinyl sales. Altogether more than a quarter of a million CD’s were sold. He has also been a house hold name on the DJ circuit of the world since 1996, playing for hundreds of thousands of people all over the globe.With the release of Come Right on Time, Thomas and Caitlin started a live tour which has taken them to clubs and festivals from Germany to France, Australia, Malaysia, Serbia Montenegro and Japan, just to name a few of the countries they have seen in the past year. “We both have an enduring love for clubs and doing shows in sweaty, smokey venues where the people are right there with you, even on the stage sometimes if there’s no security. There is no “us and them” separation, it’s just “us“ altogether. I love playing festivals and larger venues too, especially because the sound is usually excellent and there are so many people and they’re all there to see us and have a good time with us. But the clubs are where we started to love this music. They are always very real and raw and honest and I relate to that.”“It’s pretty special for the people,” adds Thomas, “we play new and unrealeased songs and mixes every time and of course we also include the hits and the tracks that people know. We always take a look at where we are playing and find out what we can about the venue and the vibe there, then we tailor our set to suit.”And they never tire of being on tour. “It has been a part of my life for such a long time.”says Thomas. “I took a break from Djing last year because I thought it would be great to be able to focus on writing and recording new music. But it was a disaster because I missed being on the road so much.

“I missed that inspiration you get from the raw energy of a party. I missed being able to play new tracks that I’d written and testing how they go down with the people. I missed only sleeping for 3 hours a night and then waking up, getting on a plane and flying somewhere new to do it all over again weekend after weekend!” For Caitlin, singing for a group of people, large or small, “feels like home.” And the girl can sing!So whatever you want to call their music, what they present is an uncompromising collaboration of vocals full of soul, truth and raw desire, kicking grooves and crunching percussion, keeping time with gorgeous melodys, big fat basslines and unforgetable hooks. You can call it ELK.

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