Aucan

Aucan met during their university studies and found kinship in their ideas on the relationship between music, art and contemporary philosophy. Both this interdisciplinary sensibility and the concept of permanent crisis became the band’s foundation and would encompass not only their music but as well their design work and lyrical content.Shortly after releasing their self-titled debut album they began touring Europe, building their reputation and following within the underground noise rock scene.

Aucan met during their university studies and found kinship in their ideas on the relationship between music, art and contemporary philosophy. Both this interdisciplinary sensibility and the concept of permanent crisis became the band’s foundation and would encompass not only their music but as well their design work and lyrical content.Shortly after releasing their self-titled debut album they began touring Europe, building their reputation and following within the underground noise rock scene. But while their initial material could more easily be classified within specific genres, they continued to evolve beyond particular categories. Aucan began incorporating vocals into their sound as well as dubstep influenced sub-bass lines and the vibe of their music darkened.

The results of this experimentation would become their 2010 DNA EP release. Manic audience reactions to their single Crisis signaled that something fundamental had shifted. Their musical and conceptual aesthetics were solidifying into something greater than the sum of their parts. Sensing this, Aucan’s diligence intensified. Their live shows had escalated with ferocity, gaining enough recognition to open for Placebo, Tim Hecker, Antipop Consortium and Steve Aoki. By easing up on their musical density and developing an open, sonically aggressive production style, they plunged into uncharted waters with their second full length record, Black Rainbow.

From spacey to searing, their harmonized synth lines, throttling bass and crisp yet crushing beats poured through the digital pipelines into the homes around the world (over 100,000 downloads in the US, for the month of October alone). The media received the album with an overwhelmingly positive reception making the cover of New Noise Magazine. Les Inrocks describes Black Rainbow as having “an intensity and audacity of which dubstep is not capable.” Immediately they began a near constant touring schedule in support of their new album, sharing the stage with Tricky, Matmos, Dinosaur Jr, Fuck Buttons, Dj Food and dEUS among many others, totaling over 150 concerts. It was during this steady life on the road that they befriended numerous international artists spanning a wide range of musical styles, with whom they were inspired to collaborate with.

This sparked the plan to divide and distribute Black Rainbow amongst their contemporaries, who rerendered each piece with their own signature stylings. The assembled reinterpretations have become their 2012 release Black Rainbow Remixes, featuring eleven artists including MC Dälek, Scorn (Mick Harris of Napalm Death), Shigeto , Niveau Zero (Ad NoiseAM) and Robot Koch. Always pushing things further, Aucan have even remixed themselves in the form of a vinyl based DJ/VJ duo and have started their own label, #Aucanize, through which they will distribute their remixes and material from like minded artists. Olivia Oyama, Berlin, April 2012. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License and may also be available under the GNU FDL..