Frank Ellrich’s love affair with dance music began when he sanguinely packed his bags to leave his hometown of Marburg in order to pursue a career in Germany’s home of trance, Frankfurt. A music career it was not and little did Ellrich know that his new home would eventually capture his heart, leading to the discovery of the underground dance sounds, culture and experiences Frankfurt had to offer. It was during this time that the notorious super clubs were in full reign, infamous and world-renowned clubs such as, The Omen and Dorian Grey were at the forefront of dance music. Spending his weekends religiously partying at these clubs Ellrich felt compelled and inspired to become more than just a committed partygoer.
“From that time on I was really a purist of techno, a techno purist and I wanted the wish to come true that I would become much more a part of the whole scene, not just as a punter, not just as a raver, so with my first savings of my money I decided to become a producer,” stated Ellrich.
The transformation had begun, inspired by the likes of Sven Vath, Ellrich was in awe and felt compelled, enthused and determined to express his concern and interests in dance music through his destined forms of creativity. In order to pursue his dream Ellrich bought a small Atari computer and a keyboard, teaching him-self how to use the apparatus by trial and error. It was not long before the steadfast techno purist found success when befriended by Kai Traced, founder of the reputed hard trance label Tracid Traxxx.
“I found many people here in Frankfurt who had the same interest and I bought all these ideas together and every year I met more people with the same interests and this was my first step as a producer and one guy on this wave was Kai Tracid. I met him first in 1995 or 94 and we were neighbours in the studio and he would always listen to my sound and one time he came to my studio, told me he liked my music and asked if I wanted to do a track together.”
This was an offer Ellrich could not refuse, an offer that lead to the investiture and formation of A*S*Y*S. A couple of years passed and during this time Tracid Traxxx had established its’ own style, a style that A*S*Y*S coincided with perfectly, it was only now that Ellrich’s wish had finally come true when Kai Tracid offered a life changing composition.
“It was a great honour for me, I was lucky, and in this business if you are up and coming you have to have luck. I knew Kai Tracid had had a lot of success with his own project, Kai Tracid, in the mid nineties. He had started his own label and one time he gave me a call and he said to me, hey Frank what do you think if we continue A*S*Y*S if we reopened our project that we made in the middle of the nineties and release it on my own label, and of course I said yes. It was also at this point that Tracid Traxxx had received world wide respect with much success.”
With numerous releases on Tracid Traxxx the man behind A*S*Y*S has produced and released a magnitude of tracks under various monikers including, Riddler & Head Crusher, X-Frame, Plasmatics, Cyberstorm and Lag’e Synthetique. Establishing a trademark sound solidly allied with the distinct driving grooves and bouncy bass lines produced by the almighty TB-303, anthems such as Acid Headcracker, Acid nightmare and Acid Squid all coincide with the features and trademark sounds frequently described as Acid Trance.
“A*S*Y*S means acid save your soul because Kai and I are fans of the sound of the Roland 303, a small synthesizer that creates really specific sounds. The sound is typically for acid sound and we are both obsessed with this sound so we called our project acid save your soul.”
While Ellrich is no stranger to Australian shores, venturing upon our land for the second time in a year, whilst playing a selection of DJ sets through out the country in conjunction with the release of the latest edition from the Pharmacy album series in which he features alongside Melbourne’s own Antichrist DJ, Hellraiser. Representing the best in hard, dark and dirty acid trance the compilation is titled as, Pharmacy- Harder, Darker, Dirtier vol. 1. So how did these two masters of the dark collate from contrasting sides of the planet and end up featuring side by side on the one compilation?
“Last year I had a gig in Melbourne at the Pharmacy party and Hellraiser played before me and I had to say he had quite a similar feeling in sound and music and I liked his set. He is also a DJ from Brett, my exclusive promoter in Australia, he had the idea of making a Pharmacy compilation and he told me that Hellraiser was making one CD and asked me if I would like to make the second CD. I was really happy with that because I felt that our style, sound and way of thinking and looking at techno styles is similar and I think we made a really good compilation together it’s both our sounds matched in together.”
It is obvious that the two certainly do compliment each other on the compilation with the second CD featuring a selection of tracks from the likes of Kai Tracid, Joy Kitinoki and OGP with the selection conforming to the aesthetically prescribed sounds Pharmacy and ASYS are renowned for. It is evident that Ellrich is influenced by an array or techno styles, the compilation also proving that he is not just a master in the studio but furthermore a master at mixing.
“I’m influenced by different styles of the techno scene and it is here in Germany how at one side you have all the progressive techno fans and purists and then there’s the other side, the competitors, the scene with hard trance and they don’t like each other very much because they both think the sound is rubbish from the other so that’s not the way of thinking for mine. I start with an Italian track, a cheesy female vocal tells you about techno and techno progressive and that it is not just a word but it is about music and that’s the message from me. I find the vocals cheesy but in a sense the vocals are really clever and that’s the way I feel and I make hard trance and techno, for example, Blood Angels on my list is a track made by John Starlight and Kitbuilders.
“But I have a few techno tracks in the middle of my CD and start with a little bit of hard trance and finish off with hard style so if you listen to the CD you can see how it is mixed together, it is the same vibe, the same dark, hard and dirty style and maybe a little bit of a different sound.”
Being fond of what our nation has to offer, Ellrich doesn’t think Australia is fishing for compliments rather he denotes our love, liberalism and interests in dance music as being the basis for our existing and thriving sub-culture.
“Well I came back to Australia, I liked it very much, I was really positively surprised by the interests and open mindedness of the people. I have the feeling that some people know much more about me than myself and about all these productions that I made. I had some promotional work at the record store and many, many people came with records of mine for signing and I was really overwhelmed of that. Also the response and the feedback I got from my sets and the enthusiasm of people was really positive.
“At the moment its very different because in Germany the whole dance scene is becoming very commercial, sounds like Scooter and all these commercial guys, and the other side is that it has gone back to the smaller clubs. In Australia much more people are interested in the music and do not to go out to see a girl or boy, or to drink, here the people in Australia are much more into the music.”
Describing himself as extremely industrious and a perfectionist Ellrich is keen to resume working on his album when he returns home for the summer.
“I will have a new A*S*Y*S track after our summer break in June or July this is when you can’t sell many records because everybody is on holiday so we have to release it in September. I have been working with Kai for one and a half years on this album it is a never ending story, we have finished seven tracks on the new album and we need to finish about ten or twelve tracks for the whole album. We are not finished yet and this year we will have it ready by summer because Kai will do a summer brake, in June and July where he will make no DJ bookings and hopefully we will find more time together to produce our album, that is one of my main goals this year.”
While being nothing short from success, Ellrich ascribes his achievements to being fortunate in knowing the right people and the determination in which he persisted in making a unique blend of hard acid trance. So, did acid save his soul?
“A*S*Y*S has saved my soul. I spent half of my life, if I can say half my life, I’m being a little bit dramatic, but I studied economics and worked six years in an advertising agency and I consider this to be my first life, before I switched my life totally and decided to become a producer and a DJ. While doing this I said that I would have to put in 100 per cent to be successful and here, I finished my first life and started my second in a much better way. So acid has saved my soul really.”
Pharmacy: Harder Darker Dirtier Vol. 1, mixed by A*S*Y*S & Hellraiser is out now through Stomp, to read ITM’s review click HERE.
Catch A*SY*S @ Dex Nightclub Friday 30th May in Melbourne and earlier on in the day at an instore appearance at Upfront records.
Queens Birthday Saturday June 7 @ The Reanimator 7 Zone 3 venue Mega-party / Arena, Valley Bar & 4 To The Floor combined venues.
