Earth – Year 2017 – The Mover (1995)

The death of the undercover agent puts the cops into a dilemma since the murder has eliminated a chain of clues necessary to track down a syndicate that specialises in extreme terror. Charlie X is chosen by inspector Rob to take up the mission and goes undercover by posing as a “hot” gun dealer. Charlie X is introduced to Mover, the leader of the syndicate, and is put through various rigorous tests under surveillance, eventually being accepted into the gang. Attempting to break into the target workshop, MOVER and his gang are ambushed by a strong police force. Being unaware of Charlie X’s identity the police shoot him spraying his abdomen and head with a thousand bullets. In the meantime MOVER and his gang successfully blast their way out of COPTRAP filling a few brains with some hot steel. Welcome to wasteland – meet the MOVER!

AU: Is it true you are making a soundtrack for an expensive sci-fi adventure?
M: Maybe! We have to see how it comes out, I’m half way through that project now and if the production crew is happy with the end result they will use it . That’s all I can tell you.

AU: I presume it has been made in the USA?
M: Yes, but don’t haggle any more, otherwise you know too much!

AU: Do you thrive on anonymity?
M: Well you know I’m a machine, I’m wired up I don’t get good feedback of humans, and anyway, stargazing is for fuckers! I’m roaming the earth and it’s nice and doomy here. The sound of MOVER should speak for itself.

AU: Are you with darkness?
M: That is something that is quite appealing to me, but not in the superficial way. If you feel it, you take it out on sound. If you have heavy dreams or stifling atmosphere in your environment, if cops are on your case, your head feels heavy and you are in the gutter, you get a feeling out of the experience. MOVER is dark because it’s set in the phuture of mankind.I can’t possibly justify seeing a happy end to this stupid human drama. Darkness is not mystical, it’s your everyday reality.

AU: You also construct as two other identities, ALIEN CHRIST and MESCALINUM UNITED, how do you relate to those?
M: ALIEN CHRIST is more an inspirational piece of music. It goes back to discovering “Art of Stalking”, one of my favorite records, and remixing it, and my head is still on it. My first encounter with that track was very emotional and it got my adrenalin rushing big time. It had ‘phuture’ written all over it and it was something I wanted to listen to after long hours in the studio. To this date I made around 80 remixes of this track and this year we’ll release an album with some new heavy sounds.

AU: Talking about albums – MESCALINUM UNITED have one due soon, can you give us a few hints on what to expect?
M: Expect the unexpected! The picture here is getting darker. I made a set of ambient tracks, but to be precise, sick ambient, with Mescalinum sounds taking a new direction. No beats, deeper sound and very sick vibe to it. Imagine surveying earth after nuclear destruction and enjoying what you see, that’s how it feels when you listen to it. The other side is still quite menacing and brutal but I won’t sacrifice myself for style. It’s most important how I feel when I’m programming. It took me a very short time to come up with mesca sound, but it will take ages to improve on it and take it further. In that respect it’s a constant struggle, it’s the hardest project to work on.

AU: If we reflect on different styles of music being made in the past and the present, what would you say influenced you most?
M: Definitely black music, more than anything else. Rap, hip hop, early acid and Detroit style. We used to run a hip hop label in the early eighties, called DOPE ON PLASTIC, but Germany is the last place to make this stuff. You need to be black to make it work, I hate seeing rich little kids with BMW’s pretending they are homeboys. Anyway we stopped DOP, but some hip hop will be released on NO MERCY this year and we’ll see what happens!

AU: What about the European side, industrial, EBM, Kraftwerk etc.?
M: I like certain areas of European music, but I also hate most of it because you get pinned down in the cliche sooner or later. I understand a lot of people think we come from an industrial point of view, which is utter bollocks. Most of the industrial music is crap anyway, I hate it. As far as wankers like Kraftwerk or Can are concerned, I don’t think I really want to know their music. I liked early Belgian sound, MacKenzie, Boccaccio raves and I’m trying to recreate some of that feel on COLD RUSH. I tried to look inside myself to find ways for music, and I don’t find it helpful to rely on the past too much, it’s pointless.

AU: I heard you are in love with jungle at the moment?
M: HA! HA! HA! I’m hooked on it, it’s fucking great. Dark Jungle and heavy drum and bass, to me it sounds totally fresh again, and you don’t hear stuff like this made in Germany or Holland. British drum and bass is unique and is obviously growing again because of that commitment and enthusiasm around it. At the end of the day it’s the ideal party music, free form, uninhibited and very uplifting, something close to pure groove.

AU: Who are the producers /labels that you rate at the moment?
M: Italian music is quite fine, LORY D. is a step forward, Dutch music can be exciting, I like Neophyte and DJ Rob but these days it seems harder and harder to find quality euro hardcore. Most of the dutch music is taking a different direction, happy and midtempo style and a lot of it is very poor, you know it’s maybe better to say commercial. Dutch government is clamping down on big parties at the moment, and it’s not helping one inch, I also picked up on some British stuff, like Reload and Beaumont Hannant, Aphex and just recently I heard some unreleased material from Jason VFM, which we’ll hopefully release on PCP.

AU: What are your three all time favorite pieces of vinyl?
M: X-101 by Underground Resistance, Suburban Knight’s Art of Stalking, and Analogue Bubblebath by Aphex. All three of them are definitive, original, deep and looking forward. I would slot Final Sickness trilogy somewhere in that group. People involved were all looking for their own expression, their own sound and that is a serious contribution to music. If you play those tracks now, they still stand head and shoulders above most of the contemporary rubbish.

AU: Let’s get back to your own music. What are you working on at the moment and when can we expect a new Mover album?
M: PCP are going through a transitional period at the moment, with a lot of new ideas and individuals coming into play, so I have to respect that. We are also starting a couple of new labels, Powerplant, Temple Tunes and Floorfiller are definitely worth a mention, and you can expect a lot more deep dark music from us. New Mover album is almost finished and is looking like a double right now. I’m trying to add finishing touches to it because production and mixing have to be 100% otherwise I don’t put it out. MOVER has got to be the best.

AU: Do you find it difficult to follow up the SICKNESS concept?
M: Ideally not, it was the way I felt at the time, and it concerns certain period of working out what MOVER should sound like. Most of the SICKNESS stuff came in one big rush. For a comparison Waves of Life took considerably longer to complete. You have to take care of your feelings and moods at the time; sometimes I wake up and feel MOVER and work on it for hours on end. And that occurs not so often. New material is more controlled, light in some parts but still darker in pressure areas. It rolls on well from FINAL SICKNESS concept, because it opens a new door for me. I don’t want people to have any preconceptions about it either because it spoils the feeling. In the past two years I made over 100 Mover tracks and only 8 are making it on this album, so judge for yourself.

AU: Can you say confidently, you are on the way to another Mover classic?
M: At this point, yes. It will sound more contemporary than my previous outings and I think that will make it more accessible for a wider audience. So far we’ve had a problem communicating certain ideas and pointing them in the right direction and that left us wondering in rage. Germany itself was hostile to the MOVER concept whilst we got brilliant response from Britain, the States and Italy.

AU: How do you explain that?
M: Britain is cool because the priorities are considered heavily. People are quite seriously into it, regardless of their social status. You get music and dope in a right kind of way. Everybody is into their records and decks and sits down and spends time with it, it’s more of a lifestyle. You are hungry but that record is still spinning. Germany is more of a consumer society supermarket style. CD’s are winning over vinyl and if it’s not on MTV you don’t bother. Music is a fuckin’ commodity, and I don’t see it that way. Music demands involvement and reaction be it in a club or at home. There is no point in going and raving to Gabba if the next thing you do in the morning is stick Kylie Minogue in your new flash CD player. Fuck that!

AU: Do you find the make up of post war German society distressing?
M: Totally! Germans are still quite a way from understanding the soul in music. Forget about techno, there’s plenty of it around. What we need is some heart and soul.

AU: Can you tell me more about the PROGRAM 1 comeback?
M: The guys have just arrived from Colombia with a big suitcase and more news from Lil Pepe and T-Bone who is seriously ill in hospital in Bogota. Tomorrow we go and finish off our next 12″ and make it 15″ and hopefully we’re down to some serious business. Just wait for those Program 1 basslines and you won’t be disappointed. This time we’ve used bigger bullets.

AU: Is T-Bone on his death bed?
M: Not as yet! I heard it’s a milder case of some strange South American venereal disease. The problem with T-Bone is he goes poking around his thing too much and he gets punished for it. You can’t make records like that!

AU: Where do you see Planet Core in the year 2000?
M: Bigger, better, bolder, faster and smarter! I want to move to a different location, I’m not happy with living in a city. Frankfurt is OK but quite frankly I wouldn’t mind moving my studio to Barbados or Majorca. At the moment we are going to stay hardcore, make some more dark stuff and get more people involved with our new record labels. ZEKT have a few releases lined up on Powerplant. Ilsa Gold on Cold Rush, we’re doing some stuff with guys from Rotterdam, and hopefully we’ll make a PA appearance at one of the VFM parties in London.

AU: OK, then > see you there!
M: SEE YA!

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