Let’s Get Physical

Sometimes, it isnt necessary to put a face or a personality to a particular sound, even if its undeniably groundbreaking, or truly of the moment.

Such is the success story of German tech-house label Get Physical, which isnt based around personalities and faces, or even scenes, fads, trends or fame.

Run by Philipp Jung and Patrick Bodmer (who record as M.A.N.D.Y.), Walter Merziger and Arno Kammermeier (Booka Shade), Thomas Koch (DJ T) and Peter Hayo, music on Get Physical is serious club music made by faceless electronic producers in dark rooms for those who like to dance in dark rooms.

Since setting up in Frankfurt in 2002 and then moving to Berlin, Get Physical has been a key label in a major resurgence in the quality and popularity of dance and electronic music. Get Physical — and labels such as Frances Ed Banger and Kitsune, New Yorks DFA, Germanys Gomma and even Australias Modular — has provided a new spark to club music in recent years.

Get Physical not only fuses the divergent sounds of futuristic electro, disco, minimal techno and classic Chicago house with the atmosphere, intensity and moodiness of film and classical music, but it has also unearthed exciting new artists like eccentric New York rock singer and painter Chelonis R. Jones and multi-instrumentalist film composer Lopazz.

"I really think that it (the success of Get Physical) was a case of the right time at the right place and the right people together," says Jung modestly. "We needed a new sound to work with, and a new structure as well. We were bored by the sounds we were hearing, so we began doing something that we thought was good, but just trying to fill the gap. We filled it, and it seemed to give us and a couple of labels new drive, a new effect to people, and house music got to a strong point again, which is great, because maybe it got stuck a bit for a while."

M.A.N.D.Y., who will perform together in Melbourne for the first time tonight, named themselves after a woman they heard requesting a song on the radio. Their tactic of remaining faceless producers backfired, though, when club owners who booked them early in their career after a surprise European hit single (a remix of French electro-pop duo Galleon) were confronted with two German men, not the expected supermodel female DJ.

Since then, M.A.N.D.Y. have issued only a handful of singles on Get Physical. Instead, it has been other moments, such as their classic club track Body Language, remixes of Tiefschwarz, Roxy Music, Sugarbabes, the Knife and Royksopp, famed 10-hour DJ sets at Frankfurts Monza Club and their acclaimed At the Controls mix CD that have made their name.

When they can get away from running the busy label, most likely early next year, Jung and Bodmer plan to move to a forest in Scandinavia to cut their debut album, which Jung says has been a long time coming.

"This is the first time that we will really sit down and take three or four weeks off and really concentrate on it," he says. "We need to go away somewhere and do no gigs and no nothing and just concentrate on doing an album."

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