Roman Flügel is one of Germany’s top producers. If you were anywhere near a club in 2004, your head would have involuntarily banged to his tracks ‘Geht’s Noch’ and ‘Rocker’, the latter of which he made as half of Alter Ego. He's also no slouch as a remixer, he releases house as Solyent Green to great acclaim and he's co-founder of the Ongaku/Klang/Playhouse stable of labels run out of Offenbach.

As a DJ, Roman spins deep and bleepy techno with a dose of house and the noisy stuff thrown in for good measure. Alter Ego are also renowned for their short but storming live sets: our RA correspondent in Tokyo tells us they stole the show at last month’s Wire Festival.

We held up Roman for ten releases, but he stumbled at nine. Normally this would be good enough reason to pop a cap at him, but he did list the new Villalobos 12”, which luckily for him is double-sided.

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Ichundu – Hey [Souvenir Music]

Roman: “This is a new label by the Tiefschwarz guys. It’s one of my favourite records at the moment, the Tiefschwarz retouch especially. It’s very melodic but at the same time it’s melancholic, and it still works in the club, which I think is a very interesting combination. It also opens a new chapter for them because it’s their first own label. They’re not just sticking to the formula anymore.” [listen]

Andre Krom & Tigerskin – Notaufnahme [Liebe Detail]

Roman: “This is another one that I’m playing constantly this year. Ande Krom is from Dusseldorf I think. What I like about the record is that is has a lot of bleep. And I’m back into bleeps again for some reason. It’s very groovy and I really like the bleeps and the way he works with the delay effects on the bleeps. It has a brilliant breakdown and it works great out in the club.”[listen]

Stephan Bodzin – Pendulum [Spiel-Zeug Schallplatten]
Stephan Bodzin – Kerosene [Herzblut]

Roman: “Bodzin works with Oliver Huntemann as a producer and he’s also working for Thomas Schumacher. I play at least two or three of his records at the moment. He’s found his own sound. He’s very genuine in the way he does the production. Very powerful. Somehow it’s both techno and it’s trance (but the better side of trance) at the same time. It’s not cheesy. I think he knows what he’s doing very well. He reaches the heart of the people on the dancefloor but at the same time he produces with a clear mind. Yeah, he’s very clear in his head. He knows exactly what he’s doing.” [listen]

The Knife - We Share Our Mothers' Health (Radio Slave's Secret Base Remix) [Brille]
REKID - Next Stop Chicago [REKID]

Roman: “I play a couple of Radio Slave tracks. The one on Rekid somehow reminds me of ‘This is Sick’ by Solid Groove, but at the same time it’s more fucked up I think. And the other one, The Knife remix, is very noisy. There’s a huge white noise break and it builds up constantly for eight minutes or so. It’s something that you can pull out when it comes time to play the noisy stuff in the club. I remixed his ‘My Bleep’. For some reason it turned out to be pretty trancey, quite unusual for my kind of production. Matt does a lot of remixes. Sometimes I don’t think people ask him to do it, he just does it and spreads the remix by sending out an mp3. Then suddenly, if it works, record companies ask him to do it officially. I think that’s how it works somehow.”

Ricardo Villalobos - Fizheuer Zieheuer [Playhouse]

Roman: “This is from our own label, the new Ricardo Villalobos. I think it might be the longest techno track in history! The original version is about forty-five minutes long. We’re putting out a 12” that is cut in the middle, so if you turn over the record you will have the second half of it. You have about forty-five minutes on the vinyl and we have a CD with two versions that is about sixty-five minutes long. It’s only one track. Ricardo plays it in a very unique way – he plays it for forty-five minutes underneath a couple of different tracks. It goes on for ten minutes or so and suddenly this huge brass that he sampled from Gypsy records comes in. It is a totally different world that comes as a big surprise for people in the club. The reactions are incredible. Two different things are coming together on the track – it’s super-long and still very interesting because he plays around with his Eventide effects section, which is a very expensive effects processor from the eighties I think. He plays around with the parameters of the snare drum and some other sounds. If you listen carefully, you will see that it’s not only about the length of the record, it’s also about the things he’s doing inside the track.”

2000 & One – Freak That [Intacto]
Microfunk – The White Room [Remote Area]

Roman: “I play two records by 2000 & One at the moment. The first is ‘The White Room’, which is very minimal but very funky music. And the other one is ‘Freak That’. 2000 & One used to be very much Detroit but now I think it’s more hi-tech than the classics. But the basic feeling of it, the groove, is still very Detroit influenced.” [listen: Microfunk] [listen: 2000 & One]

Alter Ego are currently working on a remix of Ewan Pearson’s ‘Truermusik’ out on Pearson’s new label.