Still in the Mode

Gernot Bronsert and Sebastian Szary are tired. After arriving in Glasgow four hours ago, they've done a video interview and a soundcheck, and managed to nip to Rub-a-Dub for some hasty record shopping.

Outside The Arches, the surrounding bars are full of bassline-hungry techno heads, shiny legging-clad scenesters and a smattering of shirted-up Inside-Outers. 

In the dressing room, with just the whump of the bass softly vibrating the walls, the “boy group from Berlin”, as Gernot quips, are attempting to relax. He moves a huge American football shoulder pad aside to sit down. “For the monkey costume later on,” he says.

It's possibly the only sign of the performance which is to come.  Many people thought last month's gig at the Arches was their first Glasgow performance since 2007. But their secret guest appearance at Club69 for Numbers’ fifth birthday in July 2008 saw around 80 fans heading to a tiny club hidden below an Indian restaurant in Paisley and tearing down the walls. Six months before that, the duo had drenched the Art School with expensive champagne and a shook it to the core with a crowd-pleasing, dancefloor-storming set. Monkeys aside, who knows what to expect from a Modeselektor show?

As part of the Glasgow Film Festival, the visuals for tonight's gig are part of a collaborative project which started more than ten years ago – before Modeselektor, before the hype. They are, as expected, fairly monkey-heavy. I attempt, and fail, to pronounce the name of their collaborator. They seem used to this.

“Pfadfinderai. A German guy, who always does the visuals. We've collaborated with him for a long time now, right from the start, before even the illegal parties. This was in a club called Labland in Berlin about ten years ago. It was tiny at first, then it just started getting bigger and bigger.”

Pfadselektor is the merging of the two acts, and Pfadfinderai's “favourite collaboration”. The result is an hour-long live show of “visual music”, pieced together from a tour around France, released on a DVD also called Labland.

Beginning as a print design agency for a small electronic label in Berlin, Pfadfinderai claims to be part of the “second generation” of visual artists formed in the mid-90s, in a city still adjusting to the fall of the Berlin Wall. Houses on the east side of the city were turned into off-scene clubs, and the huge interiors demanded visual decoration. This next generation was the first to involve laptops, new technology and computer graphics, but threw just as many free parties and one-off, innovative club nights in empty basements. It's no surprise the acts have continued to work together.

“We are all east side", says Gernot. "All the creative guys come from the east side. It’s true! It was all east side. The west side was full of guys with a lot of money. When the wall came down there was nothing there [in East Berlin], not even any police.

He takes a minute to reminisce. “Some of the West Germans would come over, because we'd organise raves. This was in ‘91, ‘92. Sometimes more than a thousand people showed up. It was crazy. Back in the day, it was an adventure...”

Modeselektor, who have played “maybe a thousand shows together in the last five years”, are on the look out for something new. It's not just a physical fatigue tonight but, I suspect, a musical one, the type which stems from being overly-creative and enviously on the ball. They are an act famed for their collaborations, from Thom Yorke to Otto Von Schirach or Maximo Park, but when asked about remixes and future guests, they are fairly non-committal. 

“The thing with Thom Yorke is an unfinished thing, so I cannot talk about it. But, we like each other and we hope that we will make something in the future. There's a few guys I would like to work with.”

Ask them, however, about their latest album as Moderat, a collaboration between Modeselektor and German experimentalist Apparat, and they brighten up.

“It's different, it's not Modeselektor music. We've got Sacha [Ring, aka Apparat] singing on some of the songs.  Turns out he has a good voice so we got him singing. He did one song with Autechre and one with Busdriver, this speed rapper from LA. He talks so fast. We also featured a singer from Harry’s Big Band in Germany.”

The album, released on 20 April, is definitely more experimental than their previous collaborations – more layers, fewer need-to-dance basslines – but elements of the relentless Modeselektor rhythms and respect for melody, which honour their hip-hop sensibilities, still remain.  Similarly, it seems their taste for showcasing other artists is still rampant. 

I am immediately corrected. “Features are not important on this record. It’s the first collaboration we did with Apparat, and that was the really interesting experience. We met up around almost ten years ago at these parties and we started other parties, this was the time we mentioned. We'd done one record with him in 2002 with more tracks, but after that we never made any music.

“He's been making records on his own, but hasn't had any reason to tour. When he came to us, the time was just right. This is our last show as Modeselektor this year, because we want to focus on the new record. I’m also really tired of remixes. Artists like Kid 606 got famous with them but that’s old, already ten years ago. Tonight I'm going to play Justin Timberlake. It’s called RU Technology, I think.”

The break certainly seems well timed. “We've toured the world, but now we have little children at home, and touring is getting more and more...” He trails off. Does the industrial, fiercely European sound the act have translate in other countries?

“Yes, we've played everywhere. There was a Numbers night in Tokyo which was great fun. But nowadays, when we go touring the United States, we'll go for two weeks and play over seven days in a row, so we're not away for too long. But it means you get back on the plane needing a wheelchair, you know?”

Six weeks ago, they played in New York. The photos from the gig show a man holding a pig's head, just seconds after he had decapitated the animal. “We met these crazy guys called The Fantastic Nobodies. They are art collectors, the craziest New York guys you can imagine. So, that was our first time in New York.”

Perhaps the last time, at least for a while? “I'm not a big America fan”, Szary says. “We're from Berlin and we're anti-everything.”

Everyone wants to say it about their city, but the boys genuinely do have an affinity for Glasgow. They play exclusively for the Numbers crew, one of the city's most exciting collectives, so it's no surprise that they feel their musical sensibilities are always on the same track. “They were the first ones to approach us and we liked each other. We were on the same level. I know exactly when I like a special thing, any music, I make sure that I let these guys know. I see them about twice a year.”