CTM 2009

Maga Bo is a producer/DJ based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. His work spans the breadth of international urban bass music from hip hop and kwaito to baile funk and jungle ragga to dub, grime and dubstep with flares of samba, rai, bhangra, cumbia, skewed electronic beats and loudspeaker jitter.

His live performances are a hybrid mix of DJ set and live PA where he mixes diverse sounds culled from pirate cassettes bought on the street in various parts of the world, MP3s from the internet, obscure vinyl found in underground shops, original beats, unreleased remixes and exclusive tracks. Divergent sources are combined and mixed live in a dubwise fashion with a DJ's feel for the dance floor and the hip hop mentality of creating by re-contextualizing. Projected video and photo images from his travels and recording sessions bring an extra visual dimension to the music.

www.magabo.com

Blectum from Blechdom is a recently resuscitated digital duo originally formed in 1998 by Kristin Erickson (Kevin Blechdom) and Bevin Kelley (Blevin Blectum). The pair began collaborating at Mills College, California. Their first EP, Snauses and Mallards (Orthlorng Musork, 2000), was followed by the full-length The Messy Jesse Fiesta, which won second prize for Digital Music at Ars Electronica in 2001. The duo disbanded soon after.

The EPs Bad Music and Buttprints (Dial, 2000) and De Snaunted Haus (Tigerbeat6, 2000) were regarded as surreal experiments. The double EP Haus de Snaus (Tigerbeat6, 2001) included both these earlier EPs. The duo broke up in May 2001, with both artists retaining their noms de plume and continuing work on solo projects. Fishin' in Front of People (Phthalo, 2002) collects early live performances. Bevin 'Blevin Blectum' Kelly, who had already released Pirate Planets (Phthalo, 1999) under the moniker D84, released Talon Slalom (Deluxe, 2002) and Look! Magic Maple (Bleakhouse, 2004), which contained chaotic collages of beats, loops, samples and sound effects. She continued performing as part of Sagan with husband J Lesser and Wobbly. An avid bird enthusiast, Kelly has studied veterinary medicine. 2008 saw the release of her fourth solo album, Gular Flutter, via the AAGOO label (New York).

Kristen 'Kevin Blechdom' Erickson played in an art-rock band, Adult Rodeo, with her brother lumberob, a.k.a. Rob Erickson, and his wife mephany stankins. They released records on Shimmy Disc and Four States Fair. Erickson relocated to Florida and then Berlin and released her first solo EPs, The Inside Story (Tigerbeat6, 2001), I Love Presets (2002), and Your Butt (Dudini, 2003). She released a well-received computer-pop album Bitches Without Britches (Chicks on Speed, 2003) that collected most of the EPs. A more serious work than her debut, Erickson released the follow-up, 19-song Eat My Heart Out (Chicks On Speed) in 2005.The album featured a 13-minute "musical movie" called Countdown to Nothing, a collaboration with Lucile Desamory. Kevin Blechdom also performs with Christopher Fleeger as the computer-country band Barnwave.

www.myspace.com/blectumfromblechdom

Trio of Stephen O'Malley of American drone duo Sunn O))), Vincent de Roguin, the keyboardist and electronics mastermind of dark and trancey Swiss post-rockers Shora, and Daniel O'Sullivan, multi-instrumentalist behind psychedelic art-rock group Guapo. Recording together since 2003, Aethenor have released three full-length albums, Deep in Ocean Sunk the Lamp of Light (2006), Betimes Black Cloudmasses (2008), and the third Faking Gold & Murder to be released early in 2009.

www.myspace.com/aethenor

Sweat.X is the duo of MC Spoek Mathambo (Nthato Mokgata) and Markus Wormstorm (Markus Smit) from South Africa, with releases on the UK's Citinite and Try Harder labels, as well as a full-length slated for Flamin Hotz. Mokgata has been writing songs since he was ten and initially made a name for himself through collaborations with MC heavy weight Watkin Tudor Jones JR (Max Normal). Since then he has established himself as an independent force on the South African hip-hop rap scene. Smit is an Afrikaner born in Pretoria, classically trained with a number of electro projects including The Real Estate Agents.

Though they began in Soweto, Sweat.X offer something radically different to the massively popular kwaito - mid-tempo, blingy house - that is usually associated with the area. Fusing Afro-electro dance with new world funk, electro-breaks and rapping, old school hippity-hop and hyper style and retro-future fashion, 'African Coochie Pop', and 'Black Sweat' are the genres they've coined for their brand of 'patois-littered electrorap'. Since their first EP Ebonyivorytron (Citinite) was released at the end of 2007, young designers from Capetown and beyond styled Sweat.X's afrofuturist vision where tailored neon and complicated robot outfits mesh with hyper-bling and X-rated electro-booty beat funk.

www.myspace.com/sweatx

Wolfgang Voigt, the Cologne-based co-founder of the Kompakt label empire, is behind Gas, his best-known project. Voigt was a prolific producer of seminal German techno in the 90s under a huge number of aliases, some very well-known including Mike Ink, Blei, Love Inc. and Grungerman, others fleeting or one-off, like Panthel, Riss and Strass. He has released music on a wide range of labels including Warp, Harvest, Raster-Noton and Force Inc. but is probably best known for his ambient project Gas, and as co-founder of the hugely influential minimal house label Kompakt along with Michael Mayer and Jurgen Paape.

www.kompakt.fm
www.clubtransmediale.de

London-based Ralph Cumbers is behind the Bass Clef moniker; an up-and-coming, unorthodox, trombone-wielding bass insurgent whose storming live sets have begun redefining dubstep not only at local clubs in Bristol, but across Europe. Bass Clef's debut long-player A Smile is a Curve that Straightens Most Things (Blank Tape, 2006) drew comparisons with AFX Twin for its electronica touches. Cumbers has also released music as RLF. Ralph Cumbers straddles the London centres that spawn heavy, sparse, bass-studies after living, playing and recording in both Bristol and East London.

http://bass-clef.blogspot.com/

The Emperor Machine is a solo project of the prolific producer Andy Meecham, better known for endeavours with partner in crime Dean Meredith: rave project Bizarre Inc, acid revivalists Chicken Lips or the darker, dubbier Big Two Hundred. For The Emperor Machine, Meecham uses vintage equipment and seventies production techniques to produce cosmic and dark funky disco. Emperor Machine has released a slew of 12"s and two acclaimed albums on the UK's DC Recordings, and performs with a band oriented set-up featuring live guitar, drums, bass and vintage synths.

www.myspace.com/emperormachine