Voiteck

Mention the name Voiteck in Australian techno circles these days and most people will know exactly who you're talking about. One of Melbourne's most prolific purveyors of the electronic soundscape, Voiteck Andersen is also taking on the mantle of the most successful as his records are unleashed by labels like Primate in the UK, Harthouse in Germany, Undefined in Adelaide and Truck Musik right here in his own city. Throughout his ascent he's remained true to his own unhidden agenda - to explore the fringes of underground techno sounds and to produce music that's revolutionary in its own right.

Voiteck also works extensively with other people in Melbourne. On the production side of things he's made music with Steve Law (aka Zen Paradox) under the alias of The Sonic Voyagers, and with David Haberfeld (Honeysmack/Pura) as PIN. He's played one-on-one at various stages with Arthur Arkin, Soulenoid and Ransom, and his music has popped up on local labels Seraphic, If- Records, Blue Sector and Smelly. Not only that, but he runs his own club called Bedroom Research alongside friend and collaborator DJ Boogs. It's obvious that this man is very busy, and his recent string of inroads both overseas and within his own country have been well earned plaudits along the way.

After hooking up with Germany's Harthouse imprint and releasing a record through them late last year, Voiteck swiftly followed up with an EP on the UK-based Primate. It's a relationship that's continuing as Voiteck explains: "I've spoken with them in the last week and I should be sending them through some stuff to be released on Primate very shortly. Primate is the label side of Prime - the distributor - and they're in fact looking after the distribution now of my own label Truck Musik as well."

It's a relationship based upon a simple phone call. "Yeah, I just rang them up and I was lucky - they'd heard of me, so that was a good step forward. The people over there are really nice to deal with and it's all working out well."

Overseas success is something that's becoming a bit of a ground-swell for the Voiteck steamroller. "I've got another twelve inch and an album to come from Harthouse, and there's a TD5 track on the upcoming compilation through San Francisco's Plug Research as well as a record which should be #011 on the label."

Then there's his own label here in Melbourne. "Truck right now is my main focus. I just sent off release #006 and I've been doing at least a release a month." He shrugs. "It's been going really well - when I spoke to the guys at Prime the other day he said he was very pleased. The truth is that it's hard to get a label up and running in Europe at the moment; new labels aren't really selling that well, but I'm doing alright so far. The plans are to release up to #013 by the end of this year, and I will be taking on board new artists as we go." There's an necessary requirement for these new artists: "They will have to be unique and definitely tasteful to my ear!" Voiteck laughs. "I'm looking for more innovative artists who push the boundaries."

Voiteck himself has been pushing the boundaries with his own music for four years now. "It's been pretty full on! . . . and now that I'm running the label by myself as well, I've got to do live gigs all over the joint, manage the label, promote the label and myself, DJ quite a bit, and I'm running the Sadies night every third Friday. We're getting into bringing some internationals out. There's hardly the time to actually make music! But it's been very smooth and always on the up-and-up."

The live experience is something Voiteck is renowned for, and it's a part of his repertoire that he's constantly developing and honing to suit his ambitions. "I'm working on refining the live gigs - I want to blow people away even more; I want to perform really tight sets."

As 1997 whittles away, how would the man himself describe his own music and the way it's developing-

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