In Flagranti email: info@codek.com

In Flagranti booking info: laetitia@decked-out.co.uk

In Flagranti booking for The Americas & Canada: adam@bondmusicgroup.com

In Flagranti videos: youtube/brockenstube or vimeo/in flagranti

Dan Avery has a quick drink with In Flagranti

Stopmakingme meets one half of the London/Switzerland based duo to chat tailoring, punk attitude and their new album ‘Worse For Wear’.

Text: Dan Avery

I’m always banging on about club records which stand out in a set. Those tracks that make you go “what the hell is this??” with a massive smile on your face. When I first started going out and would ask the DJ about those records, I became pretty used to receiving the answer “oh it’s the new In Flagranti single/remix/edit.” And so the duo of Sasa Crnobrnja and Alex Gloor quickly became my favourite producers. They clearly have record collections to make others sick with jealousy and it is through this mining of past sounds, dragged into modern clubbing culture, that has made In Flagranti such a unique proposition for more than a decade. Although, would never accept such gushing praise. There is no bravado to what they do, they just want to get stuff out there and their Codek record label has proved the perfect outlet for this: an amazing marriage of video imagery and music which adds another string to their already well populated bow (did I mention they’re also excellent DJs?). Their new album, ‘Worse For Wear’ is released this month and seems to explore even further corners of their overwhelming music libraries. I met Sasa in the suitable surroundings of Dalston Superstore, shouting to be heard over Green Velvet records.

Your new album has a slightly different feel to your previous work: a bit deeper, more late night. Did something inspire this? Is it ever to do with your surroundings?

There’s no particular reason. I thought about it myself when we were putting it together actually, I could tell it had a different feel. I can just assume it has something to do with the environment. The previous two reflected the time period between 2003 and 2006, my lifestyle, the places I was going to, the music that was around. A certain era has ended for me personally and I think for a lot of people. You can tell already the music has changed in the last two years. The whole ‘electro’ /punk funk thing has definitely gone. Even ‘disco’. it was a nice revival, I appreciated how it became popular again, but as soon as you have this term ‘nu disco’, like it was ‘nu-jazz’, I kinda lost interest as there’s suddenly a definition for it and everything has to sound a certain way. And that means there is no more room to explore and I definitely want to explore different things.

It’s funny isn’t it, how much hype was surrounding that supposed ‘disco explosion.’ Obviously there were some great parties in London but you’d travel to somewhere like Sheffield and mention it to promoters and they’d respond “what you talking about?”

Well yeah, it is still popular around the world but in small pockets of people. No one managed to produce a new hit record…

Exactly. There was no new I Feel Love?

But then you can’t do it…

Right!

…because how do you top any of those classics? So, all you can do is take influence from them and try to produce a different sound. I remember when I was growing up and these Teddy Boy bands were trying to recreate a sound from thirty years previous (in the same way as people are doing with disco now.) I mean, you couldn’t bring out a new Elvis thirty years after it happened because it’ll never be the same. You ended up with Shaking Stevens in England and it’s embarrassing. I feel it’s the same with disco. You can’t just recreate Donna Summer or Sylvester, you can probably get close but what’s the point? It was cool for me and Alex [the other half of In Flagranti] because we could go back to all this stuff we already had and reinterpret it our own way.

One of the things I really love about your music is how there seems to be such a disregard for standard dance music conventions. There are so many ideas thrown into every track, some people would even say that things don’t fit, or at least, they shouldn’t. Vocal breaks, an alien sample thrown in, tempo changes… but the energy is always there. Do you think about that when making tracks or is it just something that happens?

It happened when we started to exchange edits around early 2000. The idea was always to use tracks that are not known, that was one of the rules we set ourselves. We’d loved finding those unknown records or even something that was a bad tune but it had breaks which were cool. It was like editing a tape, we didn’t use multitrack, that was another rule. We didn’t add anything like extra kicks, we just used the track as is and tried to make something new. Then eventually we started pasting in bits from other tracks but since we weren’t using multitracks, we were just cutting and pasting into the existing versions. There were no fade in and outs. Alex is not really a musician so he brought something else to it. Sometimes his tracks didn’t even beatmatch but there were a great statement in it. Then I would just fix things a bit… or not. Sometimes I would just leave them because they worked.

This is a cheesy way of putting it but you could say that your attitude to making club music is pretty ‘punk.’ In other words, it seems that you have very few restrictions when making music.

I wouldn’t say it was a conscious decision to be like that. I remember someone describing our early stuff that we did in the 90s in that same way. I guess the way we did everything was like that. I didn’t have the equipment in the first place but I realised it gave us a certain sound and a certain attitude.

Attitude is the right way of putting it.

It’s like people who just want to play an instrument. You take a guitar, eventhough you can’t play it, but you express yourself the best way you can. From that perspective I guess it’s totally punk. They did it with three chords and we did by cutting and pasting with scissors. The emphasis was not on making the best produced, biggest sounding record because I knew I couldn’t do that as I didn’t have that sort of studio so why try? I asked, how can I make something punchy and have the right attitude?

Is it fair to say that you work quickly? Personally, I like to get ideas down and finished as soon as possible. I don’t like working over them for too long. I love the sense of urgency in your tracks, especially your remixes.

Yeah, I have that from when I did a tailoring apprenticeship. The tailor always told me “the longer you have something in your hands, the uglier it gets.” Sometimes something just can’t better even if you keep working on it. In music, if it takes me too long, I just move onto something else. There’s lots of preparation work, though. I have a huge library. I may spend a whole day just going through what I have. So sometimes you work on a track for an afternoon and it’s just done.

So, are you constantly listening and looking out for bits of records that could work?

Yeah totally. I can’t listen to music other than like that. When I hear music I have to analyse it immediately. It’s rare that I just ‘listen’ to music. That’s why I don’t like listening to music with other people as I’m always asking “oh how did they do that?” or “how does that groove work?” It’s like a disease [laughs]

I feel like there is room for a few more nights to emerge where you could just go and hear interesting stuff on a good soundsystem. A place to try out some new stuff I’ve found or early demos by some of my producer friends.

Yeah I agree. It’d be nice to play something and I had no idea how it would go down but it’d be great to hear it in a certain atmosphere, played loud because I know it’s a great record.

I was talking to a DJ friend of mine recently and he was saying similar things: “where has this idea of having to crowd please ALL the the time come from?” He even said that you’re not a DJ unless you clear the floor on a fairly regular basis. [both laugh] I sort of see his point, though…

Totally. But what would be even cooler is to have a place where it doesn’t even matter about the floor. It’s just about playing great music to people and not even thinking about making people dance.

Artwork, visuals and the whole idea of the 12” single are obviously still very important to In Flagranti and Codek. How do you see the current state of vinyl? It’s a small market now but it seems to me that those who still buy it have a healthy appetite for it at the moment.

Well, sales have decreased, everyone knows that but I think vinyl has become a hobby in itself. It’s not even solely a DJ thing anymore. You collect stamps not because you want to send out mail. It’s kinda the same with vinyl now. Collectors research the history of the music. It’s almost like buying a piece of art. It’s not about buying a house tune and then, three months later, you don’t even want it anymore. As long as we can keep selling vinyl, then we will keep doing it.

In Flagranti’s third studio album ‘Worse For Wear’ is out on Codek on May 3rd. The title single will precede it on April 18th with remixes from Mixhell and Punks Jump Up.

http://www.dummymag.com/features/2011/04/13/in-flagranti-interview/

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Trash essentialist’s In Flagranti encapsulates all
aspects of throw away culture from the 70s

Trash essentialist’s In Flagranti encapsulates all aspects of throw away culture from the 70s with both the music and visuals that made it a must if you were lucky enough to be from the baby boomer generation much like them. Both Sasha Crnobrnja and Alex Gloor are the nucleus of In Flagranti and working with such a formula that was both unique and new in 2002 when they formed. They were never in the same room or the same location, but as long as there was a computer terminal near by, Alex would sent sample rips from records he found during shopping trips to Sasha in New York in which Sasha piece together what could be best described as a Sonic collage of twisted sounds from an era that no-one should ever forget, with a mild hint of disco and punk.

As a matter of fact I discovered In Flagranti on a mixtape with Towa Tei and Atom™ when they performed at Sonar in 2005 in which “Paroli” was one of the tracks featured in the mix. Yeah you can’t forget that Roland Space echo in that track, I can tell you that now!

Today as it stands, their name is now synonymous in the Djing circles with many of their tunes being played out by the likes of Towa Tei, James Murphy, Erol Alkan and 2manyDjs all the while keeping the focus off them, but maintaining a cult following and mystique that even this blog can’t describe. And yes they still live in different time zones with Alex still in Switzerland and Sasha just recently relocated to London.

We got to talk to In Flagranti about the madness, the fever which is……them!

(NB: And yes neither of them was not in the same room when we conducted this interview)

Hey Guys thanks for taking time to talk to us exclusively for Nerdy Frames. I guess the first question is how was In Flagranti established as a duo with Alex Gloor and Sasha Crnobrnja? Did both of you come from musical backgrounds or former bands?

ALEX: I’m a dj, not a musician, I have no clue about playing anything besides records. Sasha is the one with the musician background.

SASHA: I came across a dat tape with disco tracks that Alex had recorded, so I sampled a bunch of stuff that I turned in to a couple of tracks. i think it was ‘just gazing’ and ‘nonchalant’.

Its 2010 and Happy New Year to you, how did you spent the last moments of 2009? Were you like the rest of us and went to parties or did you have a quite one at home?

ALEX: I had some quiet time at home, watching one of my favorite movies by Robert Altman, “Brewster McCloud”.

SASHA: I was djing at a pub in London.

Now Sasha Crnobrnja, you’re the one that is based in New York right? How would you describe your other half of In Flagranti in regards to what he puts into the project?

SASHA: We both were based in NY when we started out. Alex moved back to Switzerland in 2002 and I just moved to London in 2009.

What’s the interaction like communicating with Sasha even though the both of you live in different parts of world and you rarely see each other?

ALEX: We never see each other, we just hook up for dinner before a gig and have fun doing shows, everything else is done via internet. Producing music, graphic design, videos/visuals, everything!!

What would be the best word (or sentence) to describe and associate In Flagranti as a whole?

ALEX: Independence

Is there an irony behind the naming of some of your tunes? I mean you got tracks called ‘Brash & Vulgar’, ‘A Piece Of False Morality’, ‘Pick A Trick’, ‘Sexx Piss Tool’, ‘Teaching Children How To Swear’ and ‘Eight Consecutive Life Terms’. They sound very suggestive.

ALEX: I like suggestive track titles, “show me love” is not gonna do it for me, I prefer things like “striking ejaculation”.

How did the genesis of In Flagranti’s sound come into fruition? It sounds like missing reels of good disco music, spliced with punk that time forgot and this generation is now fortunate enough to discover and dancing their asses off.

ALEX: We started to send sound-files via the internet to each other after I moved back to Europe in 2002. It was the only way we could work together, we had a 6 hour time difference so by the time Sasha would get up I was going to dinner, but it turned out to be a blessing, we both worked independently on In Flagranti at different times with different inputs, creating something unique and unpredictable.

Is it predominantly sampled based music with a disco twist?

ALEX: We use it all, and I mean anything, from records to TV to youtube to old VHS videos to whatever inspires us to make tracks, no holds barred.

IN FLAGRANTI LIVE AT LUX – LISBOA from Sérgio Santos on Vimeo.

Describe the studio setup of In Flagranti to us? I read that Alex (or Sasha) uses Ableton Live to piece together some of the samples and most of the re-edits found on mixtapes you’ve done.

SASHA: Till just recently I have been working with various programs like Reason, Logic, Peak, Ableton etc… but now since I also use Ableton to play out I stopped using all the other programs except peak, which we both use for recording samples and making edits. The only hardware is a micro Korg and a reel to reel recorder and some little gadgets. Oh and of course a turntable and a Shure 57 mic.

Now I’ve heard that there will be more of a live aspect of In Flagranti in the near future, will that still happen and what will it consist of?

SASHA: Don’t know, it’s all a question of economics.

Is there an underline hidden influence within the music of In Flagranti? Because I read from previous interviews that liquid liquid, Mark Kamins and Daniele Baldelli are some of those influences.

ALEX: We’re influenced by a lot of things including some djs, but most of all we just started to love music at an early age, we experienced a lot of great music first hand when it was released in the 70s, things were fresh and new back then like The Sweet “ballroom blitz”, that was a real kick in the pants when it was released in 1973, we loved it!

Besides those influences mentioned previously, are there any other influences in or outside of music that you have grown up with that would shape you as a person or In Flagranti?

ALEX: Growing up in the 70s, I got to enjoy 70′s culture first hand from tv, radio and magazines, that’s where I get my inspiration today.

What albums or bands did you grow up listening to when you were young?

ALEX: The 70′s had it all, Led Zeppelin, Les Humphries Singers, Suzi Quatro, Sweet, Queen, Abba, Sex Pistols, Donna Summer, Buggles, toooo many to list here.

Here a link to the Swiss number-one hits from 1973:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_number-one_hits_of_1973_%28Switzerland%29

Now what can you tell us about the nightlife in Switzerland? Is it something to brag about?

ALEX: I have no idea, I only go out when I’m on tour. I used to go to great clubs in New York, like Paradise Garage or the loft to see great djs like Jellybean, Mancuso, Larry Levan, Walter Gibbons or Afrika Baambaata, so today…….djs are sometimes a bit dull to me.

Now you’re a graphic designer and the creative half of the duo. How does your love for graphic design come into play with In Flagranti?

ALEX: It’s an overall concept of doing collage work with anything at hand, like music, movies and magazines, I cut it up and rearrange them into something new, a simple idea, like djing, you can mix Kraftwerk with whale sounds or Ravel’s bolero with Moroccan drummers… the possibilities are endless, your imagination is the limit.

According to a previous interview, you’re a fond collector of nostalgic things from Thrift Stores. What do you normal find or collect on these trips to Thrift Stores and does this aid with In Flagranti’s look and sound?

ALEX: Anything I can dissect and reassemble. Like books, magazines, videos or records, I’m not interested in collecting things as such, I always got stuff so I could work with it, rip it apart, cut it out, glue it together. I also don’t keep my collection in a neat order, I look at it like a deck of cards, I can shuffle my material at anytime and make new combination’s, like a basic randomizer.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cut_up

Let’s talk about the artwork of In Flagranti because when I think about In Flagranti’s visual aesthetics, it tends to be interwoven with softcore imagery. What prompted you to use softcore images on the majority of the album covers and is there a hidden meaning behind it?

ALEX: Most of the IN FLAGRANTI covers are done the same way, I use tear-sheets from magazines and books, I think of them like a movie set to tell a story.

I have an actor on a location and I can manipulate the mood of the scene, a can exchange characters on backgrounds till i find one I like.

That sounds easy but its quite complex to get the effect I’m looking for. since I’m using only original tear-sheets, the light, the perspective, the size, mood everything has to be perfect to get the desired effect that I want, I have no way of adjusting them, I work analog, I don’t work on a computer, things fit or they don’t, I like that limitation.

You also have done a slue of short videos that are now on Youtube. Where did you obtain most of the footage? Is it from a personal Archive of yours?

ALEX: A few years ago all the local video shops closed and trashed their old VHS tapes, a got myself hundreds of obscure 70′s moves for nothing, fantastic stuff like the footage for “Paroli” track, it was a promo video for tourists to travel to the US and see all the great sites like San Francisco, Yellowstone park or Disneyland. but the best part was of New York, shot in the mid 70′s, the World Trade Center towers are featured extensively, prefect for what i was looking for.

Do the videos also serve as a visual narrative to the music? For example, the shorts for ‘Brash n Vulgar’, ‘Paroli’ and SEXX PISS TOOL go hand n hand with the music.

ALEX: Yes to me they do, like the “Paroli” track with the WTC footage, it’s always surprising to see different elements work together just perfectly like that.

What is the process involved in making an In Flagranti track? Does it start off with an idea, a visual cue, a sample from a record you like…..etc?

ALEX: I make sound-file from records or any-other source. For example I record a drum sound or a synth-swoosh, a vocal snippet, a click, a thumb, whatever and send it via internet to Sasha who selects & arranges them into a ruff track just to hear what it could sound like. Then if we like it we fine tune it till we have a track we like and test in a club before we release it.

Tell about the vocalists that In Flagranti has work with in the past, especially the ones with the weird names like Amypop, Natalie Smash and G.Rizo?

SASHA: They really are weird… and I love to work with them.

Codek Records is a label that both of you run. Is In Flagranti the only project that’s gonna come out of Codek, or will there be more artists or other side projects coming out also?

SASHA: Anything is possible, but at the moment it’s in flagranti

Now Brash and Vulgar was the last full length release that In Flagranti did, will there be more full length releases coming up or will it be relegated to just EPs and Singles for now?

SASHA: Yes there will be lot’s more… singles, eps, lps .. everything!!!!!

In Flagranti has made their mark with remixing with the likes of Crystal Fighters “I love London” to Riton & Primary 1’s “who’s there”. With the exception of Sex Schon who did a remix for “Nonplusultra” will there be anymore artists or producers who are going to remix some of In Flagranti’s tracks and are you open to the idea?

SASHA: We are just going to release a new single called ‘ex ex ex’ featuring Natalie Smash on vocals. included are 6 remixes by riton, Headman, Dj wool, Golden Bug, botting, Hercules/Andrew Butler, you can see the promo clip on youtube.

BTW I love the mixtapes you did for FACT, Discobelle, The Big Chill Festival and BlahBlahBlah. Any chance of having more mixtapes from you guys?

ALEX: I’ll see what i can find for you.

Now In Flagranti has toured Australia, any chance that we could see you guys here in New Zealand sometime soon?

SASHA: Yes someone needs to organize that, I would love to come!

So what are your thoughts with the resurgences of interest in regards to the resurrection of disco? Do you think that its here to stay, or is it a passing fad?

ALEX: Things come and go, tomorrow something else will be popular.

Lastly……is it wrong to have an In Flagranti Fever when listening to your music?

ALEX: I prefer that to a Bon Jovi fever!

And with that…..we thank you In Flagranti

If you ain’t got your fix of In Flagranti….. then what the fuck are you doing? Head off to the following links to get yours

http://www.codek.com/

Juno search
Youtube Channel

interview by nerdy-frames.org go to: http://www.nerdy-frames.org/2010/01/in-flagranti-interview.html