It was on a cold Tuesday night in November 2015 that Helena Hauff last visited Wire club. The event was hosted by Leeds’ sole electro merchants, Super Hexagon, who, it seems, were way ahead of the curve with their bookings. They booked Hauff, and then DJ Stingray four months later. Fast forward to a year later, and these two DJs are in serious demand, as the underground music community has been electrified by this new school of electro.
Dimensions Soundsystem, and the festival, are surely partly responsible for this shift in taste. They book classic electro acts such as Aux 88 and Dopplereffekt, and place them alongside fresh acts such as the London Modular Alliance, who also appear on the brand new Dimensions Recordings introductory release. These are acts you don’t normally see in clubs in the UK (even though you’ll hear their music in DJ sets) so it’s a real treat for Dimensions punters to be able to witness it live.
To see Helena Hauff return to Wire this weekend as part of Dimensions Festival’s International series will be an equal privilege. We had a quick e-mail chat with her to ask for a snapshot of the music that wove the dark fabric of her trademark sound.
Your earliest musical memory?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0fJ910tvJc
“It’s definitely just a child’s song, maybe this one.”
The first record you bought?
“First proper record I bought was Talk Talk.”
“But the first CD I owned was Pump up the Jam. I got it from my grandmother. She bought it at the fleamarket.”
A record that made you pick up an instrument/play music?
“This made me wanna get an 808 and a 303!”
A tune from your teens?
“Loved this when I was a teen. Remember dancing in front of the telly to this.”
A record that changed your music taste?
“I bought the CD in a record shop. I didn’t know what it was, I didn’t know anything about electronic music, but this changed everything for me.”
A lyric that sums up your philosophy?
“You could pretty much take any Sleaford Mods song, but this ones got many of my favourite lines in it. Like: ‘I fuckin hate Northern Soul it’s like Motown’s on the dole’, or ‘Brian Eno what the fuck does he know’, or ‘crap bands, I played to a crowd of no one but I’ve got loads of online fans’. Love it.”
An unlikely influence?
“Probably not the first thing that comes to mind when you think about a Techno Dj, but I love the energy of this and how he just all of a sudden disappears into the crowd and starts smothering himself in peanut butter.”
A current influence?
“I don’t know about influence but what I really like at the minute is the Spectrum – Forever Alien album.”
A record you want played at your funeral?
I really couldn’t care less. I’ll be dead.
Hauff comes to Wire this Saturday 15th July. Click here to RSVP to the Facebook event.
