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here's a short interview with Carola I came across the other day... I didn't realize that he is the man behind ELP! 
My interview with another techno legend, Joel Mull will be on edmm.ca tomorrow for my next Pulse column.. stay tuned!
When techno heads get together and start to talk about who's who, it doesn't take long for Marco Carola's name to be mentioned. Marco has done all that can be done within the realm of dance music. Name influential producers, and Carola has recorded with them or remixed them: Adam Beyer, The Advent, Gadgets, Slam, Sasse, Sven Vaeth, and Chris Liebing. Illypses.com's resident techno reviewer, Yerik Kaslow, hooked up with Marco at Nye's for a good Minneapolis neighborhood experience.
Carola's two primary labels, Question and Zenit, have become seminal labels in the techno community. His first label, the now defunct Design imprint, is highly sought after by record collectors everywhere. His new label, Domino, has already received high praise, and in the wake of Prime Distribution's collapse, his distribution company, ELP (Electronic Label Pool) is fast becoming the largest distributor of techno 12's in the world. His unique, 3-deck style of DJing made him instantly famous and a highly demanded performer.
Hailing from Naples, Italy, Marco is part of a close group of friends, including Gaetano Parisio, Rino Cerrone, and Danilo Vigorito. This small group of friends has made an enormous impact on techno music in the last 6 years, turning the world onto the minimal funky Naples style of techno. It is almost as if the Naples group came immediately after the Swedish group (Beyer, Lekebusch, Leiner, Mull, etc) made their impact in the mid to later nineties. He got his first drum kit at age 13, and was immediately hooked on rhythm.
"I could have gotten a guitar," he told me, "but I didn't want one. I liked the drums more, guitars weren't nearly as cool."
A childhood friends' father owned the largest disco in Naples however, and it wasn't long before he made the crossover into electronic music.
"I went out to the disco when I was 13," he said. "Italy has always been into dance music, disco never died here, we had Italo-Disco, and Italy is'�t a big rock country."
That same year, he got his first sampler. "I was on holiday, and as soon as I heard it had come in the mail, I cut my holiday short and went straight home!�"
Carola put out in first record, on his own label, 1000, in 1996. 1000 went on for another 10 releases before he finally called it quits in 1998. From that point on he was playing all over Europe and beyond, being asked to remix the largest DJs in techno at that time, and moving onto his labels Zenit and Question. He moved to London in 2001, eventually returning to Naples once again, to concentrate on his newest project, Domestic Minimal Noise, or Domino, and run his distribution company ELP. After taking him to Nye�s for a good Minneapolis neighborhood experience, he was happy to open up and share his wisdom.
You have been into electronic music for a long time. Who was the first person that really stood out in your mind?
Marco: Nobody really. I was just into the music. I didn't care who made the record; if the record was good it was good. There were'tt as many genres back then, if you had a good record, you had one; it was all just dance music.
Your first record, "The Carola EP" on 1000, what did you use to make that?
Marco: I used a lot of different machines when I made that record, at that time I was spending all my spare money on equipment, all the money I was making as a DJ. My collection had grown by then.
What do you use to produce with now?
Marco: I use all the gear I have been collecting over the years. I have been using my computer a lot lately, I just got a new G4 and I love it. But I use a lot of analog gear too. There is a big difference between analog and digital gear, it depends on what kind of sound you want. Digital gear has infinite variation, I can do anything with my computer, and it is all in one, which is nice. But I think analog has a superior sound quality, and it has a certain warmth to it that digital tones don't have. I use them both; I think that you must combine analog and digital machines when you make music; that is what sounds best.
So you use it all. What is you favorite piece of gear ever?
Marco: That is a tough question! I would have to say the Waldorf Pulse. No matter how much I use that thing, I can always get something cool and new to come out.
Who is putting out really good music right now? Who's on top in Marco's bag?
Marco: Luciano (Chilean producer Lucien Nicolet) is putting out some great material right now. Very minimal stuff, he has done some records with Villalobos. That guy is putting out some excellent funky minimal records right now.
What does the future hold for techno and electronic music?
Marco: The Internet. The future will be mp3's and downloading music. People are going to resist, but it has already started. Even Dave Clarke has moved into CDJs! If people resist it too much, they will be swept away in the wake of the new group that will be moving in soon.
Is that going to harm record sales or eliminate them altogether?
Marco:It is like the Cinema when VHS was first released. When VHS first hit, nobody wanted to go out to the Cinema, but after time people came back. I hope that will happen again, but as things like Final Scratch become bigger, and more and more people are only using their computers to make music, I don�t know. But I think it will. People like vinyl. I brought my Final Scratch, but I also brought 150 records with me.
And quite a set he played. For the first time in what seemed like forever, a true master of the game treated Minneapolis' vigilant techno lovers to minimal funk served up Carola-style on three turntables. Yum
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