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 night of the brain interview
 to access audio and video on collective you need real player.Serial killer. Is there anything Cristian Vogel can’t do? From enthusing about techno debauchery and William Burroughs one minute to delivering the most concise explanation of serialism you could hope to hear the next, the pioneering techno producer and ex-partner of Jamie Liddell in Super_Collider, positioned at the bleeding edge of electronic music for 15 years, has now created one of 2007’s most engaging rock records. “The change in direction may seem sudden but it’s been a gradual process,” Vogel explains from his adopted city of Barcelona. “I’ve been on the road as a DJ for almost 14 years, and it got to the stage where the only thing I could do while travelling was write. After a couple of years I looked through these notebooks and thought maybe they could be songs.” Enlisting bassist Matt Hermann, a techno producer and veteran of the 80s Berlin hardcore scene (think Bad Brains, not Slipmatt), jazz-trained drummer Cristobal Massis and Merche Blasco on synths, Night Of The Brain was born.  Coming from somewhere between Jim O’Rourke, Marc Ribot and old soul, and underpinned by the sort of low-end theory that makes you wish all rock producers knew their techno, Night Of The Brain’s songs tread a compelling line between romance and paranoia, their scuzzy but delicate chord progressions stemming from the serialist techniques Vogel studied at university. “We applied basic serial techniques to create the songs,” Vogel says. “But very simple ones. We didn’t want it to become prog hell.” It’s fitting then, with all this crossbreeding of styles going on, that while the band’s name is drawn from a Spanish 70s pulp fiction novel, the album title, Wear This World Out, comes from a Shakespeare sonnet. “Yeah, I sampled it,” smiles Vogel. But while the difference between sampling and riffing clearly suits him (“We rehearse twice a week and it’s enriching. Techno’s not like that, you sit on your own and hit drum machines”), techno fans can be relieved that Vogel hasn’t renounced his sequencer yet, with a Tresor release slated for the end of the year. Those hoping for a Super_Collider reunion, however, should stop reading now. “I was with Jamie the other weekend but he’s in some other universe now, working in LA with top musicians and doing what he wanted to do. I’m doing my band and that’s where I want to put my energy, so I can’t see it happening, no.” But really, when Vogel is producing work of this quality, who cares?
Chris Power
Night Of The Brain – Wear This World Out, released 04 June 07 on Station 55.
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