DJ Taucher
“Every time I check the internet I’m quite surprised how many people produce new tracks and how many great artists are among them, with releases week after week, one being more stunning than the other, more intensive and deeper felt than ever before. If, for example, I listen to a production of Moshic from Israel or Josel & Pedro – my mind just blows away. This kind of music can no longer be compared with the sort of club trance of the pioneering days. Sure, it was fine back then, 5 sound tracks and a melody, that was all it took to make you feel good. But today I’d rather slash my wrists than return to the old days with my expectations, ambitions and knowledge of today.”
“I wanted to break free.”
Flashback: Before the turn of the century, Taucher, the eccentric artist and trance allstar from Germany’s Rhine-Main-area, caused quite a buzz by celebrating his dj gigs as unforgettable and often breathtaking performances such as mixing his pads and melodies hanging upside down from a pole. When the new century was still fresh, the South-German dj named Ralph Armand Beck felt his mind and heart change and morphed into a progressive head. With multi-layered arrangements he went on even deeper journeys and gradually threw classic club trance tunes overboard. It didn’t take long until his progressive dj style also surfaced in his productions with partner Torsten Stenzel. His defiance against the dull hit machinery most strikingly materialized in the polarizing “Millenium Bitch” (2002). Taucher left commerce for art and cut loose from Polydor, his record company until then.
“I realised I had grown up with the change in my music.”
In those days, when in Germany trance music was in danger of being reduced to monotonous formulas, a well-stacked record store opened the door to the big wide world of progressive trance. This terra incognita soon turned into his favourite playground and artists like Luke Chable, Chab and Madoka shed light into the thick undergrowth of international producers who execelled with outstandings discographies.
For the unique progressive sound Taucher propelled as both dj and producer, he found the characteristic name “Adult Music”. Far from sounding presumptious, he simply tried to express his crucial artistic and personal development. Whenever you come across the claim “Adult Music”, you can be sure good old Taucher is involved. In no time, the new name not only turned programmatic but also magnetic, and not only for adults.
“Ich kenne alles – bis auf Punkt und Strich. Ich kenne nur einen nicht, und der bin ich!” (excerpt from TBS “Ich kenne …”, taken from the 2005 album “Progression Vol. 1″; the German text translates as: “I know it all, from point to line. There is one head that I don’t know and this is mine.”)
In all his productions, Ralph Armand Beck aka Taucher searched for the sound he had long before found as a dj. After Taucher and Stenzel had made a decisive step towards the sinister, mystical, progressive direction (with “Five” on Taucher’s label Scuba Records), Taucher soon once more impressed as part of Tantau on Great Stuff. During his musical self discovery journey he came across many sound wizards from the progressive underground, some of them from the Goa and psytrance genre. Eventually Taucher’s characteristic adult-progressive touch marked a whole series of vinyl releases in 2005, on labels such as On A Mission, Earregular, Slope and Avalanche. While the iron-hard grooves of Vita, a team project with Marc Vision and Trancefeld claimed no. 2 of the US Balance Promote Charts (initiated by Chris Fortier), Taucher at the side of Patrick Zigon expressed his rebellious attitude with his track “Cuba Libre”. The autobiographically inspired track “Ich kenne …” originated in a threesome combination of Taucher, Beathoven and SBK aka Sebastian Kruger, featuring Taucher’s secret favourite speaker, German actor Klaus Kinski.
Taucher’s 2005 release series found its crowning highlight in the shape of longplayer “Progression Vol.1″ on Avalanche. Facing the big chunk of already existing material, Taucher set up the “Progression” work as multi-volume release. “Progression Vol.1″ documents his personal and musical development of the last years. Taucher seemed to have found a new homebase on Sebastian Kruger’s Avalanche label. Then he had to suffer another setback. The distribution company of Avalance went broke, and the scheduled release of “Progression Vol. 2″ couldn’t be realised. But in the global village of progressive trance, Taucher had already caused such a stir that soon afterwards the Israel label Echoes Records gave him a hearty welcome and signed the next issue. The upcoming “Progression Vol. 2″ release will shine with tracks he produced with artists like Peter Jurgens (Peter Gun), Trancefeld, Tob-E, Jaybee Trax, SBK, Cristian Paduraru and Patrick Zigon.
“Never before djing was such great fun. By way of buying brand-new tracks via download sites or promotion pools (such as the release-promo-pool) as mp3-files and present them as digital “Traktor 3 mixes” to my audience, a whole new creative playground has opened its doors to me.”
The times when this outstanding vinyl wizard had salvaged black gold from his treasure chest for more than 15 years, with hands flying over his Technics, are long gone. Today he rather toys and fiddles with his laptop, where he amalgamates his digital delicacies with the help of professional dj software Traktor 3 into unique listening experiences. While Traktor 3 allows him to fool around at four virtual desks, he also includes additional hardware components to change the sounds he creates. When he cuts certain elements from simultaneously running tracks and loops them or changes low or high frequencies and pastes them into the next track or delays vocals or voxes, then the listener can no longer decide whether he presently listens to one, two or three tracks. More Taucher behind the mixer has never been there before.
Apart from the artistic impact and effects, his turn towards MP3 has another big advantage. While before some tracks could have been hard or almost impossible to get on the German market, you can now easily get them with just one mouse click. By taking to communicative exchange on the newest tracks, some incidents or encounters have come full circle. Not only had he come across some of the best renowned progressive producers before, during his tours in Australia, Japan, America or Brasil. When years after his world tours and his changing sides to the progressive camp he contacts some of the big names via myspace or other sites, Taucher today gets much positive feedback by heroes of the progressive universe, such as Luke Chable, Mike Hiratzka or Nick Warren. Many of the stars of today have closely followed his career from day one and keep some of his treasures in their record cases. By making use of his myspace site, Taucher finds himself closely connected to an international community of producers who suggest exciting ideas for collaborations. Just take his latest project which Taucher and Romanian artist Cristian Paduraru Rumänien produced one common track for. They kept on sending file after file over the internet, and finally contributed one remix each.
Digital Freestyle
Apart from all his production activities, Taucher also set up his new label Adult Music Digital based at Release-Records-Portal. The first release “Atmosfear/ Insect” was celebrated as record of the month by Germany’s leading dance magazine “Raveline”.
At his farmhouse, Taucher has built in a studio in the old wash house. Equipped with all the latest software technology, he is about to make up for what has been burning under his nails for years: independent realization of his ideas, whenever he feels like it. Independence is also key when it comes to distribute his productions. He is about to dive into the free channels of the digital world to make his adult philosophy heard.
Bischhofsheim, Germany
http://www.djtaucher.de
http://www.myspace.com/djtaucherofficial
http://djtaucher.ensonic.fm
