The stream of top tunes from Berlin keeps coming with the release of Pan-O-Rama, the debut album from German duo Pan-Pot
Anja Schneider must be pretty pleased with how things are going over at Mobilee. The label’s been running for a mere two and a half years, but already it’s being spoken about with the same sort of reverence as some if its German peers. That’s not really surprising though when you consider the quality of talent that’s signed up to Pan-Pot – Sebo K, Exercise One, Marc Antona, Jennifer Cardini and Anja herself have all put out tracks on the label. And then there’s Tassilo Ippenberger and Thomas Benedix, otherwise known as Pan-Pot. The duo have just released their and Mobilee’s debut artist album, and are currently in the middle of touring it all over the world. And while the schedule might be gruelling, it’s what the clubbers want, as more and more people get into the Pan-Pot sound. So with the boys on a bit of a role, we caught up with Tas to talk Pan-O-Rama…
Your reputation has really taken off in the last couple of years, hasn’t it?
Yeah, over the last two and a half years it’s been growing and growing constantly, and with the album, it’s getting more and more settled.
You should appeal to a lot of people though, because your sound seems to combine a lot of different elements.
It’s everything from techno to house. That was the aim with the album – we didn’t want to do a usual artist album, where there are two tracks for the dancefloor and the rest are experimental. We wanted to make a dancefloor album that took in several styles, from techno, to really minimal stuff, to some breaks and house. We really wanted to mix it up as much as possible.
Are you both into those sounds anyway, or did you have to broaden your horizons for the album?
No, no. Those are the sounds we’re into. When it comes to dance music, we’re really open-minded. We’re not just listening to crazy, experimental techno stuff, we like everything. We like old Chicago house, Detroit techno, all these styles from the past.
Was it hard to bring all those elements together in the album?
No, it was a pleasure to do. We would have become totally bored if we were just doing the same styles with different effects for more than three tracks. We really enjoyed changing the styles.
Mobilee seems to be the perfect label for an album like this.
We never thought about that. The label is like a family though, and we’ve got our studio in the same building as their offices, so we were working with Anja and Ralf almost every day. So I really can’t say if another label would have released the album – for us, Mobilee was just the best platform to put it out.
It’s the label’s first artist album isn’t it?
Yeah, that was a big honour. From our first release with the label we were talking about doing an album with them, but we wanted to wait a little while to build up a reputation and settle the Pan-Pot name. So for the past two years we’ve been working on it and it’s been an honour to do it with Mobilee. A lot of people have been asking us when the first album would be coming out. But we’re really pleased with the end result.
Pan-O-Rama is out now on Mobilee. Visit www.myspace.com/panpot and www.mobilee-records.de
