New Technocrats

Forget cars. Germany's big new export product is tech-house duos. We've had MANDY, then Booka Shade and now Hamburg's Kaiserdisco – formed by DJs Patrick Buck and Frederic Berger. Alas, only Buck is touring Australia this month, Berger off to play Sónar in Spain. “When we started a couple of years ago, we were touring together, but right now there are so many booking requests that we have to split off mostly,” Buck explains. It'll be his first visit down under and he's “excited”. “I really like to party! I'll play the best music that I've got in the bag and I'll definitely do my best to make each party as good as possible.”

Both Kaiserdisco members originally pursued conventional careers, despite DJing as teenagers. Berger trained for the hotel business. After school, Buck completed a year of civil service prior to commencing a law degree at the University of Hamburg. He didn't enjoy it. Luckily, around this time he began to successfully produce music. “Before Kaiserdisco, I was a member of a project called Kaiser Souzai and a house project called Big World. I was also producing a couple of other artists in the dance and club scene and working as a producer for some pop acts. But I never felt right – and so it came to the point that I met Frederic... I've quit everything else and now Kaiserdisco is the only thing I want to do.” Berger was involved in Nudisco. The handle Kaiserdisco was created in 2008 by mashing up old project names, Buck unselfconsciously yet endearingly describing it as their “baby”. They issued the EP Traction on Micro.fon, then forged a fruitful partnership with the Cologne label My Best Friend, airing Pipe!. But Kaiserdisco generated more heat with the later tunes Espandrillo and Amalfino (this supported by everyone from Richie Hawtin to Laurent Garnier to Dubfire). Putting aside the 'disco' in Kaiserdisco, the combo straddle techno and house but, says Buck, they even go as far as making (and DJing) deep house.

Kaiserdisco presented the album In No One's Shadow two years back. “We are still proud of it and, of course, it was a good decision to release the first album at that time. We could reach many people out there and it helped us a lot to build up a bigger fanbase. The good thing that I can tell you right now is that last week we started on the first track for our second album, which is planned for approximately May next year.” In 2010 Kaiserdisco also remixed Robyn's Hang With Me – a pop coup. “We got a request from her to do a remix for that song and we didn't have to think about it for a long time. We like what she is doing and, of course, we said 'yes'.”

At the end of 2011 Kaiserdisco felt they'd established themselves sufficiently to launch their own label, KD Music, proffering the EP La Familia. Kaiserdisco are maintaining their productivity. “There are a couple of things on the way. We just did a remix for Nicole Moudaber that is out right now on Kling Klong. After that one, at the end of June, there will be a release from Anil Chawla out on KD Music and we did a remix for that one. Our next EP will be in stores in July and we'll release it on our own label as well. For the rest of the year there will probably be releases on [German DJ Marc Romboy's] Systematic, [Swede Adam Beyer's] Drumcode, and another one on KD Music for the one year anniversary.”

As a German, Buck's tax is hopefully going to save Greece, and Europe, if the current political deadlock can be broken. How would the canny Kaiserdisco solve the Euro crisis? “I think if I had an answer to that question I wouldn't be a DJ,” Buck jokes, “I would be a politician and probably the next German Chancellor!”