21 SAUCES OF INSPIRATION – Den Haan
Den Haan, the camp-disco overlords with a fascination for all things robotic and electronic, will release their debut album next month. The culmination of a number of ludicrously overblown (in the best possible way) 12 inches with titles such as Russian Boat Commander and Release the Beast, Gods From Outer Space is a journey in to sweaty, grinding man-funk that fuses pulsating disco rhythms, italo and electro influences with a massive wink and a nudge.
Read on to find out all about what the duo – made up of Andy Gardiner and Matt Aldworth – have selected as their 21 Sauces of Inspiration.
1. What gets you going in the morning?
Gardi: The bloody cats jumping on my head, then a roll up.
Matt: Intergalactic FM
2.What five records would you take to a desert island?
Gardi:
The Make Up – Pow to the People
Some Bizarre – Don’t be Afraid
Sylvester – Happiness
G’Race – On Fire
Axodry – The Time is Right.
Matt:
Goblin – Their Hits, Rare Tracks & Outtakes Collection 1975-1989
Queen – Live Killers
IF – Mixed up in the Hague vol. 01 & 02 (Self-made compilation album)
Stockhausen – Spiral I & II
Bernard Herrmann – Citizen Kane – The Essential Bernard Herrmann Film Music Collection
3. What inspires you to create?
Gardi: Well it can be anything from a chance meeting to something I’ve read or even a sudden piece of nonsense that escapes from my mouth, anything really.
Matt: Analogue synthesizers & a nice Rioja.
4. What book or piece of literature are you reading at the moment?
Gardi: Swimming to Cambodia – The Collected Works of Spalding Gray
Matt: John Barry – A Sixties Theme.
5. Favourite piece of literature and why?
Gardi: You Shall Know Our Velocity – Dave Eggers, just an incredibly fun and touching piece of fiction, the kind of book I didn’t want to finish, as with all of Eggers work.
Matt: The Secret at the Heart of Science – because it encapsulates the entire history of the scientific method and explores the future of how man perceives the Universe through the eyes of the most prominent physicists, mathematicians, cosmologists and my father.
6. Favourite club?
Gardi: Wrong Island with Teamy & Dirty Larry at Nice ‘N’ Sleazy’s.
Matt: Luftfunk – a club just starting up by Den Haan – I’m really excited to build up it’s reputation over the coming years and feel confident that it’s going to be a sonic ball hummer
7. Which historical figure inspires you or would you like to meet?
Gardi: Easy, Conner MacLeod of the Clan MacLeod.
Matt: Raymond Scott – Incredibly innovative and invaluable to electronic music – I’m sure anyone would benefit from being in his company.
8. List five movies that you couldn’t live without?
Gardi: Big Trouble in Little China, Just Before Dawn, Jesus Christ Superstar, Zatochi & The Thing.
Matt: The Courier of Death, The Shining, Evil Dead, Blade Runner and Spinal Tap
9. Favourite director or actor?
Gardi: Actor, it has to be Kurt Russell and my director would be Takashi Miike.
Matt: Tom Shaw (B-movie film guru, writer/director from Portland/Oregon) & Kurt Russell.
10. Favourite piece of architecture or building?
Gardi: John Lautner’s houses … most of them still look as if they have come from a future not yet known.
Matt: Anything by Frank Lloyd Wright.
11. Favourite combination of food or recipe?
Gardi: That would probably have to be Kangong Sambal with crispy pork!
Matt: A classic I will always love: Babootee, with Sadza or boiled rice and coconut, banana and mango. (A dish from Zimbabwe where I grew up as a child)
12. Favourite musical genre in the last 100 years and what would you mix it with if you could?
Gardi: Reggae – Italo
Matt: Disco – Speed Metal
13. Favourite Internet site?
Gardi: For all your Robot needs, www.robotsforrobots.net
Matt: www.tcod.co.uk – It’s my labels new website so I’m incredibly excited about it at the moment!
14. Who has had the biggest influence on you in your life?
Gardi: Musically it has to be JG Thirlwell, one man with many faces, who has made such an indelible mark on my tastes from a very early age.
Matt: Steely Dan – I naturally inherited a perfectionist attitude towards song writing/musicianship through my parents but Steely Dan and their no compromise attitude took that to a new level during my childhood and my early teens – Now I am a complete nightmare to work with.
15. What is one record you should never be seen dancing to in a club?
Gardi: Never Ending Story – Limahl, doesn’t seem to work in a club setting!
Matt: Chumbawumba – I Get Knocked Down ….. or something like that.
16. Favourite 5 music artists currently listening to?
Together: Spacelexx, Prince Fingers, Chain & The Gang, Cristina & Amanda Lear
17. Favourite piece of art or artist and why?
Gardi: The Child Enthroned by Thomas Cooper Gotch. I’m not usually a big fan of the Pre-Raphaelites, but I came across this in a private house and must have stood in front of it for at least 40 minutes.
Matt: Francis Bacon because he wasn’t afraid to make a mess and always came up with something intense and provocative.
18. Artist you’d most like to collaborate with?
Gardi: Ian Svenonius
Matt: Prince – the greatest living songwriter/musician/performer on the planet.
19. One obscure band / artist you think should be more popular?
Gardi: Ian Svenonius from The Nation of Ulysses, The Make Up, Weird War, Chain & The Gang, Author, interviewer, the list goes on…
Matt: Anvil, Crème de Menthe
20. What’s your ringtone?
Gardi: It’s on Silent.
Matt: I prefer to vibrate.
21. Do you have a favourite sauce?
Gardi: That would have to be Green Pepper Tabasco (it usually means one thing… oysters!)
Matt: I absolutely love sauces in general but anything extra hot is always a safe bet with me.
Published February 25, 2011.