a cosmic mind trip beyond the dancefloor…

Berlin native Estimulo digs deep into his record collection to deliver a mix brimming with ambient, electronic and leftfield cuts perfectly tailored for a mind trip beyond the club.

You have been producing radios shows for a long time, since you were 15! What do you love about the format?
Different aspects of live radio have always fascinated me. In the past there was the limited availability and fleetingness of certain stations or shows, for example on FM pirate radio. So you had to be in a certain place and time to pick it up and then it would be gone forever if you didn’t tape it (which I also did extensively in the ‘90s). I was also fascinated by the technology of transmitters and antennas. I started to build my own gear because none of that would be available to buy ready and assembled. I loved to drive around and try to pick up my station, or just any station, from remote places. Again, I think its limited availability is what made it attractive. It was a magic time for me. Last but not least, I would say that I had a certain sense of a mission in regards of the music that amazed me. I found it to be heavily under-represented, if not totally ignored, by the normal FM stations here. This pushed me to do something on my own.

How did the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 change the city from a music perspective? What are your memories of this time?
I remember it to be a time of an ‘anything goes’ mindset, much more so than now.
The electronic and rave scene was just starting, so it was mostly illegal clubs and many many one-off parties in really remote locations. The music policy was really open too, from most of the gatherings I can remember. You’d hear an acid tune, then a break-beaty thing with vocals, different tempos, different moods. I would say that this had a big Impact on me. Competition between DJs or parties was more about the quality, novelty or sometimes plain weirdness of the music than just a certain narrowed-down style of music - something you would find to be more prevalent later on.

I was still underage in 1989 so I can't really talk first hand about how clubs were before, but I think Berlin always had a scene which fell between upfront or alternative dance music (for example the newest electronic disco, new wave and funk of the 80s) and the avant garde of electronic music of that time. It already had a fertile ground for what would happen after the fall of the wall, when this mixture of music would meet an environment of freedom and anarchy and create the acid house scene and everything that followed it.

How did you decide to approach your Lazydaze mix? Was there a concept behind it?
I wanted to do something that was way off the beaten path of the current house and techno music vibe. As much as I love to play for a dance floor, there is a bottomless pit of music that I love and would never be able to play during a gig. Fortunately there is the podcast format that holds the possibilities to feature these oddballs. I would call it electronic or ambient music that is tailored for a mind trip beyond the dance floor. Or just to chill and enjoy on your couch. I am always trying to select less obvious cuts for the digging folks.

Are there any particularly special tracks or moments in there for you?
I think the second ambient track in the mix, ‘Hypnopedia’ by Spectral, is really one of the standouts for me. It’s from a record from the early ‘90s that I recently rediscovered in my collection. I initially bought it for the dance floor tracks on the flip. but it’s the ambient side that really does it for me now. When I entered the name into Discogs, I saw that it was just recently reissued as well - a cosmic coincidence!

What is one of your most favourite DJ gigs from your career and why?
That’s a tough one, there are so many gigs when I thought, damn, this is the best gig ever. I’ve been very lucky in that regard. Maybe it’s also because I don’t play vast amounts of gigs and am selective about where and for who I play for. But OK, off the top of my head, let me point out two recent ones that really pushed all the buttons for me: Le Mamies at La ferme du bonheur in Paris, and the Transient Jazz party at the Lord Gladstone in Sydney.
Both were totally different in parameters like size and sound but it’s really the audience that makes a gig great. If you can feel the vibe with the crowd that is the best thing - a constant rush of dance in which egos completely blur and everything becomes one. As much as I think mixing is secondary to selection, playing live gigs also usually works best when you have a dedicated crowd who are lost in the music and you will give everything to not lose them by bad or non-harmonic transitions.

What’s your all-time favourite album for chilling out?
This is a no-brainer because just recently I have been banging on about how influential DJ Kicks by Rockers Hi-Fi was to me to a various people. So yeah, that’s it! And a really early one that left me speechless, literally, would be KLF’s Chill Out album. That’s just the tip of the iceberg though - I need to do a Top 100 one day.

What’s coming up for you in the future? Anything you’d like to share?
I definitely want to come out with more of my own music in the near future. I am working on some stuff which I have been dropping incognito into mixes in the past which had some decent feedback, so I will hopefully have the possibility to put this out on wax some time. Other than that I am always working on edits and remixes of old tunes. And as far as gigs go, the next two events that I play that are all in Berlin, but maybe someone from Berlin will read this and feel tempted to join me. That would be ace!

10.6. Cabinet Records Night @ Club der Visionaere
21.6. Paloma Bar w/ DJ Luv You and more