Vogue Italia
April 2004 n.644
By Olivier Rohrbach
Questa nuova tendenza musicale presenta anche interpreti
piu glamorous, e I Scissor Sisters - in uscita questo mese in Italia con
il primo, omonimo album - ne sono la material- lizzazione Americana: immaginate
I Bee Gees sotto effeto di acido che registrano con Felix da Housecat
e Tiga. Un mix esplosivo come dimostra la rapida scalata del gruppo composto
da tre gay e due etero il cui nome e ispirato a una posizione dell'immaginario
sessuale lesbico: difficile inventarsi qualcosa di meglio per farsi notare.
E dopo che la tournee inglese appena terminata ha fatto registrare il
sold out, il ritorno sul palco - previsto per aprile con I Duran Duran
- e sulla bocca di tutti. Le armi invincibili dei Scissor Sisters? Affermazioni
provacatorie ("We believe in sex"), un gusto innato per un look
eccentrico. E, sopratutto, fascino musicale che cita il Bowie del periodo
"Let's dance" fino alle Hungry Wives, passando per I Pink Floyd
di cui hanno campionato un titolo da "The wall" per registrare
"Comfortably Numb", il loro mega-hit sotto forma di inno in
falsetto. "È il mio mondo naturale di cantare, ma diventa
pesante farlo tutto le sere. A volte fa male!", afferma Jake Shears,
venticinque anni, cantante e leader del gruppo. L'etichetta newyorkese
A touch of class, con cui I Scissor Sisters hanno inciso I prima dischi
dopo essere stati scoperti in un club del Greenwich Village mentre si
esbivano davanti a un pubblico di cinquanta persone, non e nuova a queste
folgoranti scomesse. Fondata da Olivier "Class" Stumm e Dominique
Domie "LeTouch" Clausen, due djs di Zurigo in trasferta a New
York, la label fa della stravaganza un must. Ma guarda anche alla qualita,
come dimostra la band The Ones (di cui ora mettono sul mercato un nuovo
lavoro molto groove), e il fatto che George Michael ne abbia chiesto la
collaborazione per il proprio album. Il fantasma dei Pink Floyd non e
apparso solo ai Scissor Sisters: a Sheffield, la band I Monster ha subito
lo stesso fascino con variante electro. L'eccellente "Neveroddoreven",
il primo album del duo psichedelico, propone un buon recycling sonoro
che va dai Boney M. alle colonne sonore cinematografiche. Il falsetto
imperversa anche in "The great blue scar", esordio di Yann Destall,
il cantante dei Modjo. Musicista esperto, Yann Destal ha realizzato in
questo primo disco un collage di suoni e atmosfere teatrali che evocano
I suoi miti (Queen, Bowie e Pink Floyd) ma senza le classiche campionature
e con una presenza scenica che non riporta in vita solo il suono di un'epoca,
ma anche il suo sex appeal: un vero tour de force.
The Ruling Class
Production team A Touch of Class finally emerges as NYC's hottest purveyor
of dance music
By Elisabeth Vincentelli
Far be it from us to begrudge the DFA's accomplishments,
but the hyped local producers don't actually seem to produce that much.
A couple of songs here, a DJ gig there-at the end of the day, the DFA's
credit list remains pretty damn short. Meanwhile, it's A Touch of Class-the
other local production team, band and label combo-that's stealthily cranking
out one infectious dance number after another, in styles ranging from
Italo disco to house and electro.
ATOC's Oliver Stumm doesn't seem to mind his semi-obscurity. "When
electroclash hit (in 2001), we'd read about all the New York underground
labels, and we weren't even mentioned," he recalls. "We'd be
like, Hmmm, do we need a publicist?" Electroclash's 15 minutes ran
out, and Stumm and his ATOC partner, Dominique Clausen (who moved to NYC
from Switzerland in 1997), are having the last laugh: Their work on the
current Scissor Sisters' Eurohit, "Comfortably Numb," has helped
turn an old Pink Floyd song into an all-out disco number. Now, the track
anchors 14 other ATOC productions and remixes on A Touch of Class Sucks!,
a new retrospective that mixes and matches dance genres with rare glee.
This freewheeling approach isn't surprising, considering that Stumm and
Clausen started ATOC in reaction to the dogmatic splintering of electronic
music in the late 90's. "We were tired of these boring beat-defined
genres: progressive house, trance house, happy trance, Goa trance, etc.,"
Stumm explains. "With us, anything goes."
ATOC's break came in 1999, when Stumm and Clausen co-wrote and produced
"Flawless" for downtown trio the Ones. "Nobody here was
interested," Stumm recalls. "It finally was released in England,
where it became a (top ten) hit in 2001." ATOC's disco-pop sound
continues to be more popular in Europe than in NYC, but the duo perseveres,
writing, producing, and remixing tracks for acts both local (A.R.E. Weapons)
and International (Waldorf).
As word got around that Clausen and Stumm knew their way around the fine
points of hot dance subgenres, they also became in-demand DJ's. Yet they
shun club staples, such as velvet ropes and doormen, preferring to set
their own events in more democratic locales. "In 2000, we did a party
in a building that had gotten shut down because it was a brothel,"
Stumm says. "We asked the owner if we could rent it and he agreed-as
long as there wasn't any prostitution involved." If that's not classŠ
A Touch of Class plays the Repellent Festival at Volume Saturday 27. A Touch of Class Sucks! Is out on A Touch of Class Recordings.
I-D MAGAZINE
APRIL 2003
a touch of class
The first rule of electro: suck, don't blow
In 1999 Domie "LeTouch" Clausen and Oliver "Class" Stumm decided to do
absolutely four-to-the floor- less. The preposterously named duo had it
with nightclubs, period: 'Beat syncopated house had become elevator muzak.
No personality. Guest lists. VIP rooms. Velvet ropes. Meathead bouncers.
Genre music. Phoning ahead for invites. Dull, dull, dull, yawns Domie
from his Manhattan studio. So they threw a party in a downtown Korean
brothel ("the fixtures were still there, it was kinda neat"),
watched a clientele of their own outre chumps having booth sex and flipping
out to random electronic tunes, and kick-started the flouro freakshow
nuovo disco imprint A Touch of Class. Given their company ethos, it might
just as well have been A Touch of Crass. "As long as it's retarded,
we love it," shares Oliver, kindly. ATOC is a different kind of retarded
dance label. There is no PR , no flannel, very little in the way of mass
distribution and just one genius website (www.atouchofclassusa.com) from
which the world can download the infectious, feet friendly cartoonery
of Messieurs Touch and Class (possibly not their birth names). They're
in thrall to the aesthetic of electroclash - "all our artists are
freaks", they boast - but that's where the Larry Tee connections
close. ATOC marry their audacious outfits' visual sense to thrillingly
realised and camply theatrical musical directive, descended directly from
their heroes Partick Cowley, Bobby O., Giorgio Moroder ("obviously")
and Boney M colossus Frank Farian. All lovingly produced and mixed by
them. "We 're control freaks", says Dominique. Somewhat incongruously,
they are also both straight. "A lot of the electroclash acts forgot
that people wanted to dance. We love Casey Spooner's performances, the
whole art gallery thing" says Oliver, partially explaining why their
soon-come, thrill-a-minute 'best' of compilation was going to be titled
"Electro Sucks!" But musically, well, I think at least over
in Britian you were waiting for someone a little...more. The visual attitude
of these bands is wow, but I'm getting kinda bored of bands sending us
photos and press releases with no demos. They just want magazine covers."
The ATOC roster, though burgeoning, is already mighty real. There's glacial
electro from Pop Deluxe, Rimini beach boogie from Waldorf, outlandish
rollerboot disco from The Ones, kinky couture synthetics from Sideview
(guest vocalist: Jeremy Scott) and possibly the world's first ever bootcamp
psychedelic house ensemble, Scissor Sisters. If none of the beats match
then, hey they weren't meant to. Domie and Oliver made Flawless for their
three friends to have something to dance to at Wigstock. "It pays
the rent", says Domie now, of its one-time ubiugity. Comfortably
Numb was originally thrown away as a b-side to Scissor Sister's gawdy
hymn to body dysmorphia Electrobix. And next? It's all about punk disco.
ARE Weapons thrashy, flashy dance offshoot Secret Weapons is an ATOC collaboration,
while ATOC artists' contribution to the compilation - now called A Touch
of Class Sucks - it's a witty rock pastiche, Punk Demo. And for Domie
and Oliver? We're looking for the perfect gym for our next party, so if
anyone could help usŠAnswers on the back of something day-glo, scented
with a little Liquid Gold. ATOC is that kind of a operation.
i - D Magazine April 2003 By Paul Flynn Photo by Isabel Asha Penzlien
a touch of class
The first rule of electro: suck, don't blow
In 1999 Domie "LeTouch" Clausen and Oliver "Class" Stumm decided to do
absolutely four-to-the floor- less. The preposterously named duo had it
with nightclubs, period: 'Beat syncopated house had become elevator muzak.
No personality. Guest lists. VIP rooms. Velvet ropes. Meathead bouncers.
Genre music. Phoning ahead for invites. Dull, dull, dull, yawns Domie
from his Manhattan studio. So they threw a party in a downtown Korean
brothel ("the fixtures were still there, it was kinda neat"),
watched a clientele of their own outre chumps having booth sex and flipping
out to random electronic tunes, and kick-started the flouro freakshow
nuovo disco imprint A Touch of Class. Given their company ethos, it might
just as well have been A Touch of Crass. "As long as it's retarded,
we love it," shares Oliver, kindly. ATOC is a different kind of retarded
dance label. There is no PR , no flannel, very little in the way of mass
distribution and just one genius website (www.atouchofclassusa.com) from
which the world can download the infectious, feet friendly cartoonery
of Messieurs Touch and Class (possibly not their birth names). They're
in thrall to the aesthetic of electroclash - "all our artists are
freaks", they boast - but that's where the Larry Tee connections
close. ATOC marry their audacious outfits' visual sense to thrillingly
realised and camply theatrical musical directive, descended directly from
their heroes Partick Cowley, Bobby O., Giorgio Moroder ("obviously")
and Boney M colossus Frank Farian. All lovingly produced and mixed by
them. "We 're control freaks", says Dominique. Somewhat incongruously,
they are also both straight. "A lot of the electroclash acts forgot
that people wanted to dance. We love Casey Spooner's performances, the
whole art gallery thing" says Oliver, partially explaining why their
soon-come, thrill-a-minute 'best' of compilation was going to be titled
"Electro Sucks!" But musically, well, I think at least over
in Britian you were waiting for someone a little...more. The visual attitude
of these bands is wow, but I'm getting kinda bored of bands sending us
photos and press releases with no demos. They just want magazine covers."
The ATOC roster, though burgeoning, is already mighty real. There's glacial
electro from Pop Deluxe, Rimini beach boogie from Waldorf, outlandish
rollerboot disco from The Ones, kinky couture synthetics from Sideview
(guest vocalist: Jeremy Scott) and possibly the world's first ever bootcamp
psychedelic house ensemble, Scissor Sisters. If none of the beats match
then, hey they weren't meant to. Domie and Oliver made Flawless for their
three friends to have something to dance to at Wigstock. "It pays
the rent", says Domie now, of its one-time ubiugity. Comfortably
Numb was originally thrown away as a b-side to Scissor Sister's gawdy
hymn to body dysmorphia Electrobix. And next? It's all about punk disco.
ARE Weapons thrashy, flashy dance offshoot Secret Weapons is an ATOC collaboration,
while ATOC artists' contribution to the compilation - now called A Touch
of Class Sucks - it's a witty rock pastiche, Punk Demo. And for Domie
and Oliver? We're looking for the perfect gym for our next party, so if
anyone could help usŠAnswers on the back of something day-glo, scented
with a little Liquid Gold. ATOC is that kind of a operation.
i - D Magazine April 2003 By Paul Flynn Photo by Isabel Asha Penzlien
POWER HOUSE
ALL THE LABELS YOU NEED TO KNOW
BY MICHEL GAUBERT
V Magazine April 2003
Photography Conrad Ventur
Hair and make up Rob Talty (Luxe)
Back row from left Andrea (ATOC Recordings), Disgohst (Waldorf) Middle row from left Clark Steiner (Waldorf), Oliver Ces't Class (cofounder, ATOC Recordings, A Touch of Class), Domie LeTouch (cofounder, ATOC Recordings, A Touch of Class), Paul (The Ones) Jo Jo ( The Ones), Nashom (The Ones), Babydaddy (Scissor Sisters), Jake (Scissor Sisters) Front row from left Elfa (Waldorf) Ana Matronic (Scissor Sisters), Derek G (Scissor Sisters) Kid-Italy (Waldorf), Elfe (Waldorf)
Record labels---and that's labels as opposed to brands- are sprouting up rapidly all over the world. They are the new mini majors, although none of them is about to give up its state of independence. The 90s have seen the evolution of Gigolo, MoWax, Source, Thrill Jockey, Disko B, Roulé, Warp, One Little Indian, and now DFA, A Touch of Class, Gomma, Output, Gooom, Kitty-Yo, Flesh, and Bpitchcontrol. Taking advantage of all the formats that our media-frenzied world has to offer, they not only produce great music, they also have finely tuned visual identities to match. Their founders started out in life as graphic designers, party promoters, art-school dropouts, zine editors, and more often than not DJs. They operate like families, some more functional than others, producing only the music they like, made by people they like to hang out with, which in some cases means their own music. They handle everything in house: artwork, graphics, websites- even distribution. Legendary labels like Factory, Mute, Warp Ze, and 99 Records stand as a point of reference for most of them, pioneers of phenomenon that can best be described as music design. Despite their obvious differences in taste, all agree that the connection between the image and the music is essential to getting the message across. The message being, of course, the music.
ATOC RECORDINGS
FOUNDERS Domie "LeTouch" Clausen and Oliver "Class"
Stumm, 1999
BASE New York City
ARTISTS A Touch of Class, The Ones, Waldorf, Pop Deluxe, Manuel Mind &
Valentino Tomasi, Scissor Sisters
Who is hiding behind the pseudonyms Domie Le Touch and Oliver C'est Class?
Dominique Clausen, alias Domie Le Touch grew up in Zurich, Switzerland,
where he went to art school to get a masters degree in visual design.
He played drums as a teenager, before he got his fingers on one of those
drum machines. He then started deejaying at illegal parties in basements.
Oliver C'est Class (Oliver Stumm) is half American, half Swiss. Having
both passports lets him switch identities any time, which has come in
handy at immigration offices and police headquarters. He has a master
degree in mathematics and computer science and enjoyed a classical-music
education. While his music teachers couldn't explain why he like the pubescent,
primitive popmusic, he moved on to beome known as sort of a DJ Legend
and pioneer in Switzerland‹popular for his rather eccentric and provocative
behaviour and attitude. He was a member of the New York-underground house
label Liquid Groove and producer of acts such as H2O ("Take me higher",
"Nobody's Business") and Massflow.
What were you doing before you founded
ATOC ? We were tired of the whole anonymous "beats" movement. Every style
was defined by a specific beat with a hundred subgenres‹really boring.
Everything was politically correct and had no attitude. So we made the
"Rock EP" with Michael Jackson, which was our first illegal ATOC
release in 1999.
What's with the name A Touch of Class? We are tired of easily assembled
lifestyles and industry compromises so we decided t make a label that
was not about a specific beat or style a label that was bold and all about
the attitude. A label that allowed some irony. We got the name A Touch
of Class off of a garbage truck, you know, the chrome emblem with the
naked girl. The name a Touch of Class signifies suburban Laundromats,
limousine and escort services. Every music style is allowed on our label
as long the attitude is right. We also believe in total independence and
control. From sound programming and mixing to artwork and design of our
website, we do everything ourselves without outside help, thus making
meetings unnecessary.
What is the swiss music scene like ? After the club and liquor laws opened
up and the illegal spots vanished it got really boring. But those formative
years brought forward some successful new artists like Waldorf, Golden
Boy, Miss Kittin, The Genva posse (Iggy Cock, Melistar, etc. )
Where you involved in that scene at any point? We were the creators, until
we moved away.
Why did you move to New York to do your label? We believed that although
Switzerland is a comfortable place to live, New York is an inspiring,
fertile ground for new music Also, there is an immense amount talent here.
New York is in a transition right now and reminds us very much of the
early 80s with its everything goes mentality.
The most famous swiss musical exports before you were Dieter and Boris
from Yello and they also had ties with New York. Do you know them? And
do you relate to them at all? Yes We had to drive up to their Villa every
now and then to play them the newest records, since they were too lazy
and scared to come to our illegal events. We still have a lot of respect
for what they did even though they never gave us an opportunity or supported
us. They had the Fairlight (the first real sampler) back then. Thats why
they were the kings.
You obviously control the graphics of the label. How important is this?
It's as important as the music. We not only control it; we actually do
most of it ourselves (that's why the programming on the website is so
shitty) We don't see the label as just an outlet for music. It should
be a world of its own.
How did you meet the artists that you have signed to your label? By coincidence
and through friends. We don't listen to demos.
Do you produce them all ? We produce most of the artists. We don't really
consider ATOC a real label. It's more a platform for our work and other
people's stuff we really like. Sometimes we'll put something out as is.
We collaborate with the bands and help them develop and define themselves
from a musical, as well as a visual, point of view.
You are releasing a single by Jeremy Scott "Wanna Be", Do you plan on
launching other fashion designers into singing careers? I know a few who
can sing "Comfortably Numb". If you ever want to make remixes, let me
know I could help. Maybe Nicolas Ghesquiere could do something. Since
he's such a perfectionist, it'd probably turn out great. He must be really
busy, though.
I think that "The Fashionist" by Waldorf is quite witty. I especially
like the choir at the end, and with names like Scissor Sisters and Pop
Deluxe the artists on your label, don't you agree, are quite fashion-friendly
and like to be seen? It's great to see unfabricated bands and artists
from a visual perspective again. They are more or less aware of whats
going on in fashion and reference certain elements of it. Waldorf, for
example, is beyond fashion--"The Fashionist" is actually a critical approach
to describe the current state of fashion‹and since they are a performance-oriented
band, you actually have to see them to understand their concept.
Any fashion victims among them? We all are to some extent. While the Scissor
Sisters might not be the most stylish band in the world, The Ones definitely
strive for that title. You wouldn't want to be their suitcase valet on
tour. .
What is the biggest hit your label has had so far? The Ones "Flawless"
pretty much cleaned the plate. And we did that tune in 1999!
Who- past- or present- would you like to produce or to have produced?
Lene Lovich, Gina Kikoine (Gina X), Lizzy Mercier, or anything recorded
at Compasspoint Studios Bahamas, with the team of Steven Stanley, Wally
Badarou, Sly and Robbie. Der Plan, Roxo, Azoto or maybe Bobby O. should
produce us.
I hear you are planning to release an album called "Electro Sucks." Does
it suck that bad? We are already reconsidering to calling it "A Touch
of Class Sucks!" The album will contain the body of our work of the last
two years, including remixes, demos, etc., as well as our catalog of ATOC
releases.