The Roland TB 303, that small silver box which delivers devastatingly dark and evil acid sounds, has much to answer for. Fans of A*S*Y*S will be familiar with the distinctive 303 screeches. In fact, Frank Ellrich, the guru behind the A*S*Y*S tag, has made his career from combining powerful acid elements with trance and driving techno. Mega anthems like ‘Acid Headcracker’, ‘No More F**king Rock n Roll’ and ‘Theme From Pharmacy’ (with Derb) cemented Ellrich as a favourite player in the acid sub-genre. This NYE, Ellrich brings his brand of tough love to the dance floors of Australia, and ITM catch up to see what this acid maestro has in store.
For those of you who are wondering, A*S*Y*S stands for Acid Saves Your Soul. The meaning, so Ellrich explains, was to convey to the masses that “Acid is saving our productions, but if you listen it will also save your soul!” The Roland 303 was certainly something of a god-send for Ellrich. It features predominately in his production work and, perhaps for this reason, Ellrich struggles to choose his favourite tune. Pointing to ‘Acid Nightmare’, Ellrich explains the appeal of the 303. The track, he points out, “still sounds not dated cause of its’ strange FX…and the distorted bassline has also still not lost its evil and weird character”. One would not disagree with Ellrich when he says that “NMFRR just rocks”. ‘Chewing Drum’ also holds special appeal for Ellrich as it is “different to the usual A*S*Y*S stuff”. The last tune Ellrich makes mention of is ‘Acid Flash’, for which Yoji Biomehanika has produced a remix. Keen fans will be interested to know that Ellrich indicates that this remix may hint at the future sound of A*S*Y*S. Whilst Ellrich admits there are no immediate plans to follow up his 2005 artist album, Acid Saves Your Soul, there will be a new single released early in 2006.
It might surprise you to know that Ellrich enjoys electro and tech-house. He confides “I wouldn’t have any problem to play a two hours electro house set if you would ask for me to do so”. Fuzzy, take note! This is rather a curious genre for Ellrich to express interest in, especially given that his earliest influence would be Sven Vath, resident of the infamous ‘The Omen’ club and well-known for his awesome 10 hour sets! Ellrich also lists Japanese DJ hero Yoji Biomehanika and Australia’s own DJ Hellraiser as personal favourites. Whilst he may prefer to produce acid, Ellrich is sensitive to the popularity of other sub-genres. Tech-house is, interestingly, one of the genres Ellrich believes will be big in 2006. He also points to the rising popularity of “groovy or hard techno beat elements” integrated into trance. Ellrich also prophesizes the gradual decline of hardstyle as many people turn back to hardcore.
Any DJ worth his weight in records has at least one amusing clubbing story. Ellrich has two, in fact, and both occurred in Australia. He reveals “one happened in Brisbane I think three years ago. I was just starting my DJ set alone at a huge stage, searching for the next record in my bag and standing with the back to the mixer and the crowd, when the promoter came up to me and asked me for a drink. I ordered a beer and he went quickly behind me to go for it. Unfortunately he slipped with his feet into my headphone cable which was hanging slightly above the ground and of course was connected with the main mixer. I still remember the big bang and the music was completely off…......Turning around I saw the whole mixer hanging in the air on few cables and the record and one record player were lying dead on the floor. A slight shockwave reached me before some mechanics jumped on the stage to fix the problem. I dunno why, but I automatically went up to the front of the stage to the crowd to push them up. Firstly they were looking quite irritated at me before they started to cry and yell. After furthermore uncountable seconds I could continue with the set and the crowd went totally off at that point. The other very strange story happened in Sydney at the club Plastic where I had my first gig in Australia. During my last record a guy came up to me at the DJ desk and wanted me to make a signing at his arm. Yeah, but not with a pen, he wanted me to use a blistering cigarette. LOL – Strange people some Aussies”.
New Years will see Australians treated to A*S*Y*S’ unique sound. Ellrich explains that “my sets at the moment are tougher edged tech trance combined with a few classics, and a few of the really outstanding hard trance and hardstyle tunes of the moment”. He also intimates that we might be the test bunnies for some new A*S*Y*S tracks!
So if you like your hard acid, don’t miss A*S*Y*S’ head-caving sets at Utopia NYE (Sydney) and Sunshine People (Melbourne) on NYD.
