I’m going to rear-vision you a decade back, to Melbourne’s (Australia’s) tech-house heyday, when that city was up in the Top 5 international cities for the style, and every international DJ/producer of tech-house worth made his way down most weekends.
On one particular date – it was September 5th, 1998 – we had the Swedish triumvirate of Cari Lekebusch, Adam Beyer and Christian Smith all lined up together to headline at Hardware 13, in the massive Shed 14 down at Victoria Docks in Melbourne.
I was lucky enough to also be playing on that bill, and in the midst of banging out some banging tech stuff of my own making, one of the crowd, a Clark Kent-looking guy with a grin, sidled up to the DJ booth, raved about the tunes and about Cari Lekebusch’s upcoming set, handed me a CD-R with a nice note inscribed on it, and then he disappeared.
On the CD-R I found on the way home that morning was the name ‘Son Of Zev’, and when we stuck it in the CD player, we found the perfect accompaniment to Lekebusch’s set – produced by a local electronic music boffin I’d never even heard of.
I called up Allan Klinbail that same weekend, and unceremoniously included him in the line-up for our next party, to play live alongside Voiteck. We weren’t disappointed. He’s remained on the bill of us of our parties in Melbourne since, and has also popped up, often unbilled, to play live at iconic Melbourne clubs like Filter, Centriphugal, More Bass, and Honkytonks, as well as at the renowned Every Picture Tells A Story rave parties and the Off Shore Festival.
Along the way, Allan’s performed live on the same stages as Squarepusher, Luke Vibert, Spearhead, Scanner, and Tim ‘Love’ Lee. Literally the son of Zev – his father – Klinbail has shaped up to be one of Melbourne’s more enduring tech/electro live acts over the past decade.
The ‘Submerged’ EP has been a work-in-progress for Allan for several years, something that the perfectionist in his artistic psyche has been honing and fine-tuning in the studio for a very long time. That professional cellaring and – let’s face it – absolute patience does show in the final result. It’s an assured, fantastic body of work.
Words: Andrez Bergen, 2008
