A few questions fired at Kr!z, head of the fantastic Token Records..


Even just from your facebook posts, it's obvious you have an eclectic taste in music. What are your roots and how did you end up where you are now?


Well I grew up in a small village, far away from any good musical influence. So I listened to some shitty dance music before me and some friends decided to do something crazy and go to I Love Techno in Gent.

I had never heard of Jeff Mills, but when I was an hour into his set, I just knew this was what I wanted to do. I was totally blown away by it. The same year, I think it was 97-98, I saw Steve Rachmad perform at a small 'electronic' tent at a rock festival. Same kind of experience, I didn't take any drugs, but I felt like tripping, in hypnosis. I still remember both those moments pretty vividly.

As far as the more eclectic taste goes: we had a pretty big library in our village. At age 13-14 I started digging in the music section upstairs. They had a wide selection, but I knew shit at the time and I thought everything that had 'dj' in it, was dance music. So I came across dj krush & dj shadow and took it home with me. I was disappointed at first and I didn't understand the music first, but it grew heavily on me and I started searching more. I also started using the internet and started exploring labels, similar artists. I developed a big interest in hip hop, funk, soul, ambient, electronica.. and it still goes on today. I recently discovered some really good old Brazilian music and I'm starting to learn more about that now and catching up with the past. Exploring music is what I do 24/7 and I'll probably will never quit doing it. There's so much good music in the past and there will be even more in the future.


Once you'd had these special moments with Mills and Rachmad and you moved toward techno, did you immediately take up DJing and/or producing or had that already happened /was that still to come?


I started dj'ing a few years before that. Small parties, all kinds of music. But when I saw Mills I immediately decided to concentrate on techno. Production only started a few years ago and is still something I'm working on a lot at the moment.


Belgium: Apart from the obvious ILT parties, what's the actual techno scene itself like over there?


To be honest, there hardly is a techno scene in Belgium at the moment. When I started going to I Love Techno, it was still 5 rooms of full on techno. A united crowd over 5 rooms. It was hard to decide where to go, every big name played there.. Nowadays, they have like 2 electro house rooms, 1 'minimal' techno room, 1 hard techno/schranz room and if you're lucky a decent room with some actual techno. It's become a big commercial event and it's just become a 'dance event'. Lots of different people, different genres, more like a festival feel.

The Belgian scene in its whole is kinda the same. Electro is very popular & the 'cooler' parties are on the minimal tip. There's very few techno parties. We only have Kozzmozz, in Gent, where I'm resident dj. They're standing strong for 15 years now and are still able to sell out a venue of 1200 people with good techno.

What was the inspiration/motive behind Token Records?


I started it because I just felt a lot of labels were sleeping, or switching genres. I had a hard time finding good new techno records every week and missed output from some of my favourite artists. I just contacted a bunch of artists whose music I like with the idea of starting a label. Inigo was the first one who replied and sent me some music. The first release was a real blessing. It's still one of my favourite releases on the label. It's so strong, and happily it got recognised worldwide, so from the first release on we already had some kind of following. Ashley (phase) was also one of the first people who reacted. I loved the stuff he put out on Inceptive & Cosmic but then Inceptive stopped cause of the death of Richard Polson so I figured Ashley had some music he wanted to release but didn't have a label for. That was the case, and here we are now, he just put out his 5th release on Token. It's not necessary, but it's nice if you can connect with people through music and become friends. That's what happened with Ashley & Inigo. It's a family thing now.


Token is a label that we keep a close eye on, with some of Ashley's stuff being particular favourites. What can we expect from the label in the coming months? A label album would be a good idea surely...


Well off course you can expect more of the same: new records by Inigo & Ashley. Also working on some other projects on which I don't want to talk about at this stage. I don't want to spoil the surprise. I've been receiving a lot of good new stuff and I'm still working out how to fit it all in. An album is one of those things, this will be something for 2010. I also have plans of releasing a Kr!z-record on Token next year, but it's still work in progress.


A question we've put to others...the techno scene now, in Europe especially, is dominated by countless 'minimal' nights, labels and digital labels. What are your thoughts on this?


Ah well, in a way I'm glad techno isn't as successful anymore as 10 years ago. Theres not much money to be made now in this scene, if you're not an established artist already. So I feel the 'minimal' wave washed out some of the 'bad' people, who follow trends & money. There's still lots of shit techno records coming out, but the percentage of good techno music has gone up I think. Plus there are some new interesting artists, labels too. The scene is small at the moment but it's pretty healthy I feel.

I don't really bother about the whole minimal thing that's going on right now. As long as I find good records to play out, I'm happy. Same with the electro/rave thing happening now: I don't like it, but I'm not irritated or frustrated that it's there. There will always be good techno music around, at the moment you just have to search a bit harder.


Where do you see techno moving to now, or where do you hope it moves?


I guess it will keep moving in cycles, like electronic music always does. Each action has a reaction and I'm sure lots of people working on that reaction right now. For me it's very interesting to follow where it's going. I don't really hope on anything, only that I can keep on playing music I like to other people. If they stop releasing that kind of music, I'll release it myself.


Final question... You're putting on a night, and can have any 3 acts or DJs to play that you want. Who would you go for?


Herbie Hancock, Flying Lotus & Jeff Mills, in that order. 3 masters.




Thanks to Kr!z, Token Records.....Fragmenta by Phase is out now...