Red Bull Elektropedia Vanguard Awards 2009
15 September 2009
On September 19, the first Red Bull Elektropedia Vanguard Awards will be given out to people who have made a significant contribution to the Belgian electronic music and/or club scene – from musicians, producers and deejays to label managers, club owners, party promoters, graphic designers, photographers and journalists. On Wednesday September 9, a ten-man jury of professionals met in Brussels to decide upon the winners of this year's Red Bull Elektropedia Vanguard Awards.
Winners of the Red Bull Elektropedia Vanguard Awards 2009
After a lively debate, the 2009 jury agreed to present the first five Red Bull Elektropedia Vanguard Awards to:
• DAN LACKSMAN, MICHEL MOERS & MARC MOULIN (TELEX)
Lacksman, Moers and the late Moulin, who died exactly a year ago, played a pioneering role, bother jointly and individually, in the development and breakthrough of electronic music. Under the name Telex, they released a string of albums and songs, which not only took the international charts by storm, but were also often highly progressive.
A tune like Moscow Discow still sounds as fresh today as thirty years ago, apart from the remixes international electronic legends such as Carl Craig, Ian Pooley, Maurice Fulton, Morgan Geist, Stacey Pullen and Juan Atkins have made of it since.
Telex humour was also legendary, as was their participation in the Eurovision Song Festival in 1981. The group had hoped to finish last with the hilarious, but also brilliant, pop son Euro-Vision Ten points for Portugal put an end to that, though.
The Red Bull Elektropedia Award for Marc Moulin, who also released a number of solo records on labels such as the US jazz label Blue Note, is presented posthumously. Moulin died on 26 September 2008.
• RENAAT VANDEPAPELIERE & SABINE MAES
In the 1980s and 1990s, Ghent-based R&S Records was, without doubt, one of the most trendsetting electronic music labels in the world. The label was set up by Renaat Vandepapeliere and Sabine Maes and was responsible for the international breakthrough of electronic legends such as Aphex Twin, Juan Atkins, Ken Ishii, Jaydee, Joey Beltram, Derrick May, Biosphere, Outlander and CJ Bolland.
• PETER DECUYPERE
Peter Decuypere is indisputably one of the gods of Belgian nightlife. His first club, the 55 in Kuurne, is seen by many as the archetypical Belgian club. Together with Thierry Coppens, however, Decuypere was also the brain behind Fuse, one of the first and, fifteen years on, still most trendsetting techno clubs in mainland Europe.
Just as legendary are the parties Decuypere has unleashed on the clubbing population over the past twenty years. By far the best known are Paradise (together with Patrick Soks), Fill Collins Club (a weekly club night in Antwerp’s Red & Blue) and, naturally, I Love Techno. What began as a small party in the Vooruit, where some six hundred people turned up to hear Richie Hawtin, Jeff Mills and the yet unknown Daft Punk play, I Love Techno grew into one of the biggest electronic music events in the world.
• MO BECHA & DAVID FOUQUAERT (MO & BENOELIE)
There are few legendary clubs or parties where Mo & Benoelie haven’t played in the past twenty years. Correction: There probably aren’t any.
Pigeonholing is an unfamiliar idea for Mo Becha & David Fouquaert. Since their residence at Ghent’s 55 in the late 1980s, Mo & Benoelie have played every danceable style. That has taken them to the most diverse parties and venues in the past few couple of decades: Free the Funk, Kozzmozz, Fuse, Poplife, 10 Days Off, Eskimo, I Love Techno, Belmondo and Culture Club.
The duo were also responsible for a series of progressive mix albums for Free the Funk, Eskimo Recordings, R&S, Blue Note, Culture Club, DJ-Kicks and the British club, Fabric. Over the past few years, they have played more often internationally than in Belgium and have recently started making music under various names, such as Dirty Minds and Disko Drunkards These days, as deejays they call themselves The Glimmers.
• HERMAN GILLIS
In the 1980s Herman Gillis was part of the pioneering group Poésie Noire and the successful producers’ trio Morton Sherman Bellucci, which was responsible for a long list of New Beat numbers and an equally long list of pseudonyms – Erotic Dissidents being one of the best known.
Gillis is also the inventor of, for example, the Sherman Filterbank, a nifty piece of studio equipment that musicians such as Björk, Chemical Brothers, Underworld, Depeche Mode and The Prodigy swear by.
Until recently, Gillis’ inventions were only available as limited editions, but that is all changing with the advent of the Sherman Rodec Restyler, a joint project between Gillis and the Belgian audio giant Rodec
The 2009 Jury
Each year, a jury is compiled to decide who is to receive the five Red Bull Elektropedia Vanguard Awards. The jury consists of professions: people who have been part of or closely related to the Belgian electronic music/club scene for many years.
The 2009 jury consisted of:
- Raoul Belmans: resident deejay at the legendary Food parties, runs the internationally renowned house label Aroma and releases records under the name Swirl People.
- Jonas Boel: as a music journalist he writes for publications such as Focus Knack, deejays under the name Jonasty and is the inspiring force behind the notorious Rock ‘n’ Roll High School parties.
- Carl de Moncharline: for some time, he was artistic director of the Brussels hotspot Mirano and he founded the trendsetting club, Who’s Who’s Land.
- Bart Demey: with Tania Gallagher makes up the Nid & Sancy duo, which recently released the hit record Yeah Yeah Yes and appeared at Pukkelpop this year for the seventh time.
- Bernard Dobbeleer: taught his people to dance with a number of renowned electronic music programmes on Belgium’s Radio 21 (RTBF) and works as a deejay himself.
- Mathieu Fonsny: writes for the French music magazine Les Inrockuptibles, organises the immensely successful Forma.T parties in Liège and deejays under the name Surfing Leons.
- Kim Mathijs: programme director for the electronic music programme Switch, on Studio Brussel, and part of the deejay duo Ed & Kim.
- Geert Sermon: for many years, he has been running the record shop Dr. Vinyl, which is a household word on the Belgian electronic scene.
- Kristoff Tilkin: writes for the weekly Humo on, amongst other topics, all things electronic.
- Ben Van Alboom: presents the electronic music programme Switch on Studio Brussel, works together with photographer Wouter Van Vaerenbergh on Angels & Ghosts and is editor-in-chief of Red Bull Elektropedia.
On Saturday September 19 at 20:00, the Red Bull Elektropedia Awards will be presented to the winners, who have already confirmed their attendance. The Awards Ceremony takes place at Vooruit.
The ceremony will be followed by a big party in Vooruit: This Beat Is Elektronic. On the bill are The Glimmers, CJ Bolland, T99, Olivier Pieters, Franky Jones, Rave Our Souls, Jan Van Biesen, Ed & Kim, Raoul, Spacid, Zohra, Millennium Kru, Fred Nasen, Koenie, The Hipson Brothers, Tomaz, Steve Cop and The New Confetti’s.
