Over the course of the past ten years, Berlin Based DJ and producer Johannes Paluka, otherwise known as Iron Curtis or Achterbahn D’amour, has been pushing his signature style of deep and atmospheric house and techno music with the world via such labels as Retreat, 4 Lux, Hudd Traxx and Acid Test to name a few.
With an excellent new six-track EP about to drop on Office Recordings, Paluka kindly provided us with a superb hour long recording for the 63rd edition of our Mix Series. Check it below.
Check out the previous mixes in the series here:
Hey Johannes, how’s it going?
Very well, thank you! Just changed the second shirt today – it’s super hot and humid here in Berlin.
First of all, can you tell us a bit about the mix? Were there any particular thoughts or themes behind it?
Any time I’m supposed to record a new mix I’d ask myself the same old question: What the heck should I actually do? But I got sent so much new and great music recently which made this one pretty easy to put together. e.g. music from Lerosa who will have a new album out on Acid Test soon, fresh stuff from Malin Genie, a new release from my all-time favourite JTC and so forth. Since the mix comes out around the release of my new Office record, it also represents what I’m currently into and what I would play out.
Who are your favourite up and coming producers at the moment – are there any newcomers we need to keep an eye out for?
I wouldn’t necessarily call all of them newcomers but recently I really got into 9th House, this kid Ardstepz whom I met on Soundcloud, Innere Türen on Kann, Schake, Afrodeutsche, Russell E.L. Butler to only name a few.
What’s your preferred method for finding new music – do you still enjoy digging around in dusty crates or do you prefer to buy online?
I buy a lot of music online. Bandcamp became THE source of new music for me. However, due to the ever great FOMO I’m usually grinding through all the big record and online music stores for new stuff. I’m also in a very fortunate position that people and agencies send me new music all the time. Add this to my tri-weekly tours to Hardwax and OYE here in Berlin and you will end up with the mess that is my new music pile.
Could you share with us a couple of your all-time favourite record labels?
Oh… How much time do we have? Well, these ones actually brought utter joy into my life – in no particular order though: Nu Groove, Laws of Motion, ~scape, Brainfeeder, ECM, Playhouse, Reinforced, Factory, Bedroom Community, Sound Signature, UR, Stones Throw, Archive/Neroli, Delsin, Indigo Area, Bunker, Ilian Tape, Needs, Versatile, Shelter, Still Music, Source Direct.
Some people may know you from your Achterbahn D’Amour, Moon or SMPL aliases – can you tell us how each of these differ?
With Achterbahn D’Amour we looked into the left-field side of acid, EBM and electro, while with Moon, Johannes Albert and I tried to incorporate a good portion of pop while we tried to keep things stripped down and simple. And SMPL is what Leaves and I do when we want to make proper dance tracks. I hope that makes sense?!
What does the rest of 2019 have in store for you?
The rest of 2019 is looking pretty good: Besides the forthcoming record on Office, a couple of other releases and remixes are scheduled. There’ll be a series of new music videos by the great Cindy Soap to be released for tunes from my Upstream Color album. Also, I’ll be back to South Africa soon for a handful of gigs, hope to be back in the studio to record new Moon material and work on another IC album.
Thanks, Johannes!
