Humantronic

What is Humantronic ? Just something simple that sounds like his music, and, needless to say, something that sounds just like him… Fréderic Alvernhe (better known as Fred Flower) has made a career that is part and parcel of his personality. Today, this composer-producer-jock comes up with the very personal project that people had been waiting for, on a label set up with a few European friends. Their debut EP features James Taylor (Swayzak) and Cabanne… Some highly specialized material indeed, but miles away from a passing fad. Far ahead. But what happened before?

Before, it’s a long story of rhythmics. Starting in high school where he played the rhythmic guitar in his first rock band until, awe-struck, he discovered rave parties in the green English countryside, Fred would not rest until he finally took the plunge, round about 1997, when he started playing under the hippy name he is known for… Yet, it would be wrong to reduce the character to a mere peaceful image, even though there are logical affinities with trance and psychedelic culture in general. He is, in fact, more than anything else, a true child of that 90s legacy: the musical crossover. If you want proof, take a look into his flight-case, or check out his open-minded techno : his route is that of a true musician. At the end of the century, this completely self-taught artist had several tasks in hand: he accompanied on the bass guitar his friend DJ Steph d’Elisium, composed alone with his computer and created a play (Au Pays des Hommes , Théâtre Toursky) in which, for the first time, he carried out a fusion using both computers & instruments… That was the start, and there's no stopping him now, as you can see in Two Heads On, an electro-jazz side-project he shares with jack-of-all-trades drummer Antoine Germain. Besides, it’s the very same desire for openness that has led him all through these years to scour music exhibitions and seize opportunities, from Berlin to Barcelona, via, of course, Marseilles (his hometown) on a purer electro register. Consequently, there is a striking paradox: though he does not belong to any “family” on the local electronic scene, he is a part of each of them, as illustrates his latest collaboration with Copyshop or Naommon. From then on, it was only a matter of time before it triggered something off here or…somewhere else.

Two years ago, Fred met Swiss pair Pop-3. They shared with him the same artistic ambition, had their own recording studio but … no record label. That is where Neopren Records - launched in March 2006 with the support of German-native Apoll (Tongut Records) and key-player distributor Intergroove - started off. What are these gentlemen up to? They are not looking for short-lived club performances, but want to establish long-lasting reference-artists. Starting with Humantronic whose blistering EP Kiss of the Flower Man is out now…With unassuming yet unwavering efficiency, the producer reveals his own vision of techno: mesmerizing, massive and groovy tunes inspired by the great forebears as much as by new-school electro whiz-kids. A techno in his own image: sincere and unusual, part of the current climate only to breathe in some fresh oxygen. For all that, Humantronic is a project deeply rooted in its own era, the child of a new tech. buff. He handles with equal ease both Final Scratch and Ableton Live, the fine software he uses on stage to present his repertoire… Yet this does not go unmotivated. He simply uses these tools among many others to serve an instinctive musical approach and his peculiar universe. Something in the style of Ritchie Hawtin, a role model for Fred, in his approach to the dancefloor, as well as in the way he considered the technological vehicle, as an integral part of his music. And, when Fred plays behind the decks or with his machines, he really plays: there is real work here on textures, and atmospheres as well as on the development of his sets searching out his own way no matter whether it should shut him off or lead to the fast track of success. And nothing will stop this mutant with a beating heart who vanishes behind what he does best: Humantronic.