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(Excerpt from interview with David Koenig - Hardware Media and Radio)
DAVID KOENIG:
"Your show was a bit different than the standard new wave/goth/industrial one. You also played some old punk from time to time. Why do you like these genres and why this type of show?"
ECHO DANON:
"I spun a lot of minimal techno out of Cologne and Berlin and early TRAX records. I recommend you all listen to E2-E4 by Manuel Gottsching. A guy named Tom played it for me a few years ago and I was left speechless because the piece was so eccentric and perfect - such a bizarre yet harmonious blend of electronic and guitar sound. Just one example which could help explain the “mix” from electronic to punk/post punk to goth that I played on my radio show. As EVR programming developed I noticed we did not have a “Goth” show. I decided to go with that genre as a very general concept. But, we all have to admit there are quite a few horrible goth bands out there.
I mainly played music that I listened to when I was a teenager. By 14 or 15 years of age I discovered Factory Records, John Peel’s Sessions, Mute Records, Early Wax Trax, Throbbing Gristle, Fad Gadget etc. I read a book called Tape Delay full of band interviews that blew my mind. 2 other music related books that I love are Please Kill Me.. and Subculture: The Meaning Of Style. The music I was listening to at the time referenced and guided me towards art, film, and literature…Warhol, Basquiat, Francis Bacon, Jarmusch, Alex Cox, Camus, Burroughs, Miller, Marx, Genet, Wilde, Byron, Poe… and the list could go on and on.
It all started in 6th grade when I bought a cassette by The Cure: Faith. Side B is a long - an emotional and beautiful track Carnage Visors. Anyway, if you’re a goth and you claim not to like punk rock or industrial/electronic…you are lying or closed minded. All those labels are bullsh*t anyway. In my opinion “gothic music” could not have existed without the roots of punk, progressive rock or metal. And let’s not even get into the discussion regarding the obvious influence Hasil Adkins, Link Wray, Leonard Cohen, The Velvet Underground/Lou Reed, Silver Apples, David Bowie, Neu!, Brian Eno, The Doors, or Syd Barrett/Pink Floyd (to name a very few) had on most of the music I played on Dead Beat Radio. Diamond Dogs has actually been referenced as the “first gothic album” by a british music critic whose name I can’t remember right now.
To generalize, I love punk, post punk and gothic music because it can express outrage that is socially relevant or it can deliver a mental state or mood - joy, anger, courage, strength, vulnerability, sadness, paranoia, frustration, mania - in the form of pure sound or mixed with some sort of a loose pop structure. For me, interesting music is always able to convey a range of emotions and create a soundscape with a specific atmosphere. Any music that takes any kind of sonic risk captivates me.
The Dead Beat Radio show was a nostalgic experience for me. These particular genres of music have made an irreversible impression on me. I will continue to keep the dead beats alive for the inquisitive and keep on searching for new music that in someway maintains the spirit of the sound that came before it."
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