Balance Selections 249: Madben

Considered by Trax Mag to be techno’s last hope, Madben has set fire to the top dance floors throughout France and Europe, including Berghain (DE), Awakenings (NL), Kilometre25 (FR), Berns (SWE), and Printworks (UK) to name but a few…

From his youth in the North of France, Madben kept a fondness for DIY culture and a nickname that still smells the warehouse! The Lille native experienced techno from its beginnings. In the 90s, he followed this new scene via the flyers he collected in record shops. With his buddies, he spent nights and nights in Belgium, in Brussels’ Fuse, at Gand’s Kozzmozz parties or in abandoned factories in Courtrai, a perfect and free territory to hear the best sound of that era. Obvioulsy, this lifestyle pushed him and other activists to run their own parties, in Lille and surrounding areas.

With each year Madben takes one more step towards technical purity, but always the same desire: to be moved, to escape, with the feet continuing to type in rhythm. Whether we’re talking about albums or DJ-sets, it’s the same school, that of a techno that always has at heart to tell a story while making dance the clubs. The result is called “Troisième sens”, like a third way away from binary choices, like of this music that does not sacrifice its sense of storytelling on the altar of efficiency dancefloor. There are surprises in the arrangements, little gifts that can be discovered over the plays, but when it’s the first, the slap is obvious, primal. That’s it Madben’s techno: taking up the codes to take them elsewhere, declaring your love for clubbing without falling into its clichés, tracing a sacred production intelligence on the immediacy of this party carrying him since adolescence.

A little Mad, a lot of Ben.

Balance Selections 249: Madben

Tracklisting

01. Maceo Plex – The Tesseract
02. Steve mac & E raze – Summer of Love
03. Lupe – Come Through
04. Madben – Trance me (Unreleased)
05. Laurent Garnier – Boom (Traumer African remix)
06. Maceo Plex – Lonely Tribe
07. Kosme & Madben (Unreleased)
08. SU01 – Usp005
09. Madben – Circuit Breaker
10. Fedele – Spike Express (The Hacker remix)
11. Madben – Night Sequence
12. YouANDme – PPPPP (Ian Pooley remix)
13. Trunkline – Work Dat Ass (Unreleased)
14. Nouveau Monica – Amnesia Dance

Balance Selections Q+A

Name: Benjamin Leclercq
Location: South of Nantes (France)
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Alias/Producer name: Madben / Trunkline
Labels affiliated with: Ellum, Bedrock, Astropolis

My last 3 releases:

Madben – 1AM at the Rave

Madben & ZPKF – Hit and run

Madben – Lost in a Parallel Universe

What music did you listen to as a child?

I remember listening to different kinds of music at home when I was a child. My parents were in love with hi-fi gear, and they loved to put loud music on in the house. My very first musical souvenirs were from classic rock tracks, soul music, psychedelic rock, and also a few classic French/Belgian singers like Serge Gainsbourg, Alain Bashung, and Arno. Music was still played on physical formats, and my parents usually bought vinyl and CDs.

When was the first time that you realised that you liked electronic music?

It started when I was 14/15 years old. I perfectly remember I kept spending time outside with my friends and their big brothers. They were already able to go to the Belgian clubs, and they loved to help us discover tracks they heard during those parties. Then I started to listen to some Belgian and Northern French radio stations that were broadcasting those parties live from the clubs. I was immediately curious about this atmosphere, about those crowds, I was able to listen to screaming on the music that was played by the DJs. I was like, “WTF is happening there” Hahaha…

When was the first time you saw a DJ in a club?

My main first techno club experiences were in Belgium: I think at Fuse in Bruxelles, where I came as soon as I was 18 years old, but also the H2o, La Bush, Kozzmozz parties etc. It was in the late ’90s. I was lucky to listen to some crazy artists there, like Jeff Mills, Laurent Garnier, Speedy J, DJ Hell, DJ Rush, Monika Kruse, and Ellen Alien. I fell in love at first sight with the techno music and those crazy club atmospheres. The crowd was free to enjoy, to trip into the music with no judgements from anyone!

Which producers/artists/acts inspire you?

Inspirations as a DJ:

Jeff Mills, Dave Clarke, Laurent Garnier, and Adam Beyer were the first artists to inspire me when I was listening to them on a dancefloor. I perfectly remember after a Jeff Mills show, I came back home with my mind on another planet and I was like, “OK now I need to learn how to mix two vinyls together”. A few months and a few summer jobs later (I was studying at the same time), I was able to buy my very first Technics mk2 turntables. I was loving so much spending time in the music shops to dig up that special track I heard the previous weekend during the parties!

Inspirations as a producer:

I came later to the production side. I think I started trying to make my own tracks almost 10 years after starting to learn how to be a DJ! There were numerous artists who influenced me when I was making my own music at the beginning. I was digesting 10 years of techno and electronic music evolution. But the melodic side and the spirit of Detroit techno always had a special place in my mind when I was doing my first tracks. Then the stuff evolved with so many influences: from the strong German techno to a more dark and groovy UK side. But also the French side and everything that was able to bounce my head and my legs when I was listening to it!

What was the last album that you downloaded/bought?

I’ve just checked on my hard drive just to be sure and few days ago I downloaded two albums. The first one is the Steve Mac album ‘Bless this Acid Music‘, which is brilliant. A fun fact is that I’ve put one track from this album on the podcast I’ve recorded for you. The second one is the Octave One ‘Never on a Sunday‘ album, with those ‘Lifelike‘ and ‘Tiers (Level A)‘ tracks I recommend you to listen to as soon as you can.

What is your current production and DJ set up like?

I could speak for hours about my studio’ setup. But to be simple and efficient, I love to play on hardware stuff and software (80/20). I have spent a big part of my DJ fees on that studio set-up. I love to use Waldorf synths like the Blofeld or the Iridium. I love the drum machines from Roland and Elektron. I love some modular stuff like Intellijel, Erica synth, Killpatrick audio, Xaoc device etc. There are too many things to talk about to be honest haha…

About my DJ setup, I still love to play on vinyl when I feel it’s the right club or place to do it, but now in 99% of my gigs, I tend to play on the Pioneer CDJ’s, with a Xone 96 or a V10 mixer… alongside an RMX 1000 to add something more personal in my sets.

What releases do you have on the horizon?

I plan to release ‘Addicted‘ with an excellent remix from Alinka next month on the first remix EP of my latest album on Ellum (June 2nd), I’ve also got a track to come in July called ‘The Drone Dance‘ which will be released on an Ellum V/A release. Last but not least, I’m going to release ‘That Ending Track‘ after the summer on the Bedrock label. Those are the ones I can talk about. I’ve made so much music recently in my new studio, and I am talking with a few labels for some new EP’s to come around the end of the year.

Tell us more about the podcast you made for Balance?

I’ve recorded this one-hour podcast with my two CDJ 2000 NXS2, a Zone 92 and a RMX 1000. I’ve played a lot of unreleased tracks I’ve made solo, by four hands with my buddy Kosme or again with my side project Trunkline. There’s also a track from my new album ‘Troisième sens‘ called ‘Circuit Breaker‘, alongside tracks from Maceo Plex, Lupe, The Hacker, Laurent Garnier, Nouveau Monica, and many more. It’s a ride between dark, housey, groovy, mental and techno tunes I’ve recorded spontaneously today when I was in my studio.

My Recommendations

The top track in my DJ wallet currently is:

Trunkline – Work Dat Ass

If I could recommend only one of my tracks for you to listen to it would be:

Madben – Blooming