Eddie Zarook and Casio Casino (aka Steffen Neuert) have been quietly plying their particular brand of minimal house, deep techno, tech house, electronica, acid and electronic trickery at the UV club in Heidelberg for a good, few years now. What struck me on my first visit earlier this year, apart from the unique location, was the extraordinary vibe running through the diverse, expectant crowd -- it's been a long time since i've seen people actually dancing into a club. If you've already heard their debut release on LoFi, then you know what the fuss is about. Haluzengenic and The Gap are two tracks that achieve the difficult task of inducing dancefloor mayhem while remaining credible pieces of sonic exploration. It's a successful fusion that will continue to bare fruit in the future and is no doubt the result of their previous musical incarnations. Steffen's involvement with electronic production didn't start until he arrived in Heidelberg 12 years ago. At the time he was immersed in the indie scene, being far from impressed with the state of German techno. However Dirk Mantei, the owner of his local record store slowly turned him on to the ‚good side' of electronic dance music and the purchase of studio equipment including a (now sadly defunkt) Roland R8 also helped shape a new musical perspective. Since then, collaborations with fellow Heidelberger Lopazz have been a constant feature of his career along with the ground-breaking project Bergheim 34, through which Steffen successfully managed to meld his love of Krautrock and Detroit minimal techno, presenting electronic music in a live band context, long before the more recent, cliched attempts of today's electro clashers. Around the same time, Eddie was starting out on his own musical journey that initially embraced those ‚gods of rock' Led Zep and Hendrix. After relocating to Germany from Iran in 1989, he studied guitar, eventually graduating with flying colours from music school in Cologne. He settled in Heidelberg in 1998 and a year later his growing fascination with electronic music prompted him to start Djing. Typically, the pair first met in the Vinyl Only record store in 1999 where their shared love of techno classics, especially the minimal sound, led to the idea to start producing together. Their energy was such that, almost immediately, the UV club was born and it's a tribute to their belief and enthusiasm that the club is still rocking packed crowds six years later. Steffen (aka Casio Casino) was already playing around the world with his project Bergheim 34 in the U.S.A, with Sad Rockets all over Europe. Eddie Zarook has been rocking clubs from New York to St. Petersburg. But still both of them are playing in Heidelberg: You got to rock the block before you rock the land!!! (written by Neville Attree 2006)
Tags: Heidelberg Minimal Techno Club Eddie Zarook Casio Casino 212fahrenheit Neville Attree treiblicht Karlstorbahnh
