Electric Independence

Above: The world’s first photo of New York’s Galaxy Toobin’ Gang. Photo by Jaume Santaeularia. Top right: A Legowelt poster in Bergen. Photo by Theydon Bois. Right: Hercules in New York.

For the second month in a row we’re over in New York, in a manner of speaking, talking to a couple of guys who’ve made an incredible record that perhaps a few hundred people might think about buying. We’re talking about the Galaxy Toobin’ Gang, of course! Slightly different story to last month’s column where we settled for a quick chat with Andy Butler of little-known disco troupe Hercules & Love Affair. Next thing we know the guy’s smeared across every magazine and Sunday supplement like it’s already over and we look as if we can’t even think for ourselves. I blame the press officer, who lied brilliantly and said there wouldn’t be many stories on Hercules out at that time, knowing full well that there would be, and that Vice would be one of the first. Best to avoid dealing with publicists where possible. Incidentally, we should point out that this is not the first time Hercules has been found in New York for entertainment purposes. Back in 1970, a film called Hercules in New York was released to almost universal derision. Starring musclebound newcomer Arnold Schwarzenegger (his weird foreign name hacked down to “Arnold Strong” in the credits), the film has few merits (YouTube is your friend: youtube.com/watch?v=D5FpADrNcNI). Arnie, or Hercules, has a thick Austrian accent which is dubbed into English, and he befriends a scrawny local called Pretzie, who affectionately calls him “Hoic”. Their relationship is not entirely dissimilar to the one Joe Buck strikes up with Razzo Rizzo in Midnight Cowboy. In the end—and forgive us for spoiling it—Hercules is rescued by a short-haired Samson, the, er, biblical character. Okay, back to Galaxy Toobin’ Gang. Toobin’, or tubing, is the fun activity of riding a big inner tube on water or snow or through the air. There’s also an Atari videogame called Toobin’ that was first playable as an arcade game in 1988. Doesn’t look so much fun, this one. The thought of gently cruising through space while cushioned in the rubbery cradle of the inner tube of a tractor tyre is one that most of us will have touched upon when very stoned. Now Galaxy Toobin’ Gang have composed the perfect soundtrack for this infinite journey. Tuneful reminders of early Autechre and Jean Michel Jarre are to the fore, while swirls of Tangerine Dream keep everything ticking over. It’s great stuff, and will be out shortly on Crème Organization. The sleeve was designed by Lee Douglas, the producer responsible for last year’s masterpiece, “New York Story”, on Rong. The name came to William Burnett, 31, when he was in his studio with his music-making accomplice, Eliot Lipp. Neither was remotely high, however. “I just remember sitting in my little room and Eliot was just joking around saying that we were floating through the galaxy and I said, ‘What if we were in inner tubes?’ Then it was like, yeah, we are totally toobin’… galaxy toobin’,” says Burnett. “I think the same night we made the ‘Toobin’ Theme’. The ‘Gang’ prefix came later. That was my idea. It’s just a little reference to all of the old Italo ‘gangs’.” As a DJ and host of the “Short Bus Radio” shows, Burnett goes by the name of Speculator, since friends say he’s always speculating about stuff, mainly records and synthesizers. He also records as Grackle for Danny “Legowelt” Wolfers’ Strange Life label, and together that pair teamed up as Smackulator for a 12-inch on Bunker, remember? For money, he works as a manager and swimming instructor at a busy pool in Manhattan. “It is a pretty sweet job,” he says. “If everyone shows up and there are no classes I just sit and read the internet.” Eliot Lipp you might know as a cooler version of Prefuse 73 or Dabrye, who’s released albums on Mush and Hefty that fell into the bottomless cracks between electronica and hip-hop. Burnett met Lipp in LA on a Smackulator tour, and they bonded over synths. Vice: How would you describe your working relationship? William Burnett: Eliot comes up with the dope melodies and I come up with the mood and kind of take the structure out of the verse-chorus-verse style that Eliot normally works in. Who do you think is going to be into your tracks? I have no idea. Hopefully everyone, but prolly just people who like Tangerine Dream, Selected Ambient Works, Jarre and stuff like that. And prolly the blog kids because we have been on some famous blogs already. But of course they ain’t gonna buy the record. How healthy would you say the scene is for this kind of music? I really don’t know what scene it is. It has all of the elements of dance music, but it isn’t dance. But I think people will like it—it is different. To me, it seems timeless and I think that is a good thing. You can’t really tell if it is modern or from the 70s, so it has that going for it. So far everyone has been really positive, so hopefully they aren’t lying. What’s toobin’ to you? Toobin’ is floating down a river in the inside of a car tyre on a warm day and usually you have a spare tube with a cooler full of supplies. One person parks their car way down river and everyone piles in and drives up and hops in and floats on down. This is a big thing in Texas in the summer. Mention of Legowelt earlier brings to mind the fine new CD release on Strange Life by Franz Falckenhaus, The Europa Judgement. A renegade Cold War agent-turned-grizzled journalist stumbling from one foggy mystery to the next, Falckenhaus is one of Wolfers’ more inspired aliases. Evocative of Vienna in February, The Europa Judgement plunges the listener into a misty world of Suspiria-esque tension and the squidgiest smacky disco, themes first addressed by Wolfers on 2002’s supreme Night of the Illuminati, his LP as Squadra Blanco. Wolfers must work constantly, his mind bubbling with ideas. In January, he sent over two other synth-only Strange Life CDs, Smackos’ Pacific Northwest Sasquatch Research and The Cambridge Murders by Phalangius, both of which he composed. Also by him, two new Salamandos 12-inches are imminent on Bunker, one of which features the track “Jack For Jesus.” In the Norwegian city of Bergen recently, posters announcing an upcoming show by Legowelt were plastered all over the town centre. Everywhere we turned we’d see Danny Wolfers staring back at us, like some kind of benevolent disco entity. It was strangely reassuring. PIERS MARTIN