Maurizio

Maurizio is the operating name of <a href="spotify:artist:33GGoMV3iYpV5tlsh32N7q">Moritz Von Oswald</a>, the Berlin-based musician and entrepreneur who owns a half-share in Basic Channel Records and co-produced the label's various releases, a wildly influential series of fuzzy EPs with purposefully low production values recorded under the aliases Cyrus, <a href="spotify:artist:23LyorVLSfwEdKuQjAEp9w">Quadrant</a>, Phylyps, and Radiance. <a href="spotify:artist:33GGoMV3iYpV5tlsh32N7q">Von Oswald</a> reserved his solo work for the Basic Channel sublabel M, which issued a half-dozen Maurizio EPs during the mid-'90s. Understandably, the Maurizio sound is quite similar to Basic Channel's, though <a href="spotify:artist:33GGoMV3iYpV5tlsh32N7q">Von Oswald</a> is often more taken with pounding dub basslines and a somewhat cleaner production style, which gives his EPs a better chance on dancefloors.

<a href="spotify:artist:33GGoMV3iYpV5tlsh32N7q">Von Oswald</a> was originally a Berlin-area percussionist who worked on LPs by <a href="spotify:artist:7GsdZ6T45uXudJ8Wsko9sB">the Associates</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:4yr28XHlxD78C3diMbOsTs">Holger Hiller</a> during the late '80s, and also played in one of the last incarnations of <a href="spotify:artist:29VcQUPD3y6atruSOiNEbL">Palais Schaumburg</a>. By the end of the decade he'd made the leap from drummer to producer, working with fellow <a href="spotify:artist:29VcQUPD3y6atruSOiNEbL">Palais Schaumburg</a> member <a href="spotify:artist:71GWL6ijlpTh7oGqYlMMpM">Thomas Fehlmann</a> as <a href="spotify:artist:2fWEYkCATvHOJNNt7zcUbl">3MB</a>, the in-house production team at Berlin's Tresor Records. While involved with Tresor, he recorded with Detroit techno pioneer <a href="spotify:artist:208EQzx7RmoE2Ng9gF2edh">Juan Atkins</a> and remodeled one of <a href="spotify:artist:2fWEYkCATvHOJNNt7zcUbl">Atkins</a>' <a href="spotify:artist:1sck8r81nA03Ch4xAW1G3w">Infiniti</a> tracks, "Think Quick" into one of the most sublime techno productions ever released. It was an intriguing Berlin-Detroit collaboration which signalled the continuing close link between the two cities. (In 1995, <a href="spotify:artist:33GGoMV3iYpV5tlsh32N7q">Von Oswald</a> again worked with <a href="spotify:artist:2fWEYkCATvHOJNNt7zcUbl">Atkins</a> for the debut <a href="spotify:artist:2Djz8cbEv5rtrYrJYdzQ20">Model 500</a> album, Sonic Sunset.)

While still working at Tresor in 1993, <a href="spotify:artist:33GGoMV3iYpV5tlsh32N7q">Von Oswald</a> had formed Basic Channel Records with partner <a href="spotify:artist:4PJXLZh1FKCCiNlGy8vrel">Mark Ernestus</a>. The immediately recognizable BC sound, a ruddy take on Detroit techno with minimal changes and maximum echo-chamber droning capacity, asserted itself with nine vinyl-only EPs during the next few years, recorded as various aliases including Cyrus, <a href="spotify:artist:23LyorVLSfwEdKuQjAEp9w">Quadrant</a>, Phylyps, and Radiance, though all were presumably <a href="spotify:artist:33GGoMV3iYpV5tlsh32N7q">Von Oswald</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:4PJXLZh1FKCCiNlGy8vrel">Ernestus</a>. In the meantime, the Maurizio project had begun recording in 1993, with the first release on M Records, the Ploy EP. After being remixed by <a href="spotify:artist:5HAtRoEPUvGSA7ziTGB1cF">the Orb</a>, it was reissued by the British WAU!/Mr. Modo and even appeared on the second Excursions in Ambience compilation. M Records next released an EP by <a href="spotify:artist:3X6ixxUtf9bJr1aZbhFuia">Vainqueur</a>, then concentrated on Maurizio yet again with five EPs during the next three years.

Besides M and Basic Channel, <a href="spotify:artist:33GGoMV3iYpV5tlsh32N7q">Von Oswald</a> had also founded sublabels Rhythm & Sound, Burial Mix, and Imbalance, though he later turned over management of the latter to <a href="spotify:artist:5cSssfrNDzZdX1c5qVe30y">Robert Henke</a> (of the duo <a href="spotify:artist:4XvKzACpcdk5iiZbWNvfbq">Monolake</a>). Except for Maurizio's "Ploy," none of the Basic Channel/Maurizio material had appeared on cassette or CD, thanks to the duo's polemical stance about vinyl. Finally in 1995, a Basic Channel sampler was released, though most of the tracks were viciously edited to fit more than three or four tracks onto a 70-minute CD. Maurizio released a similar compilation by 1997, followed by Basic Channel compatriots <a href="spotify:artist:47yoe54A38qmHti0GlTPXR">Porter Ricks</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:3X6ixxUtf9bJr1aZbhFuia">Vainqueur</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:4XvKzACpcdk5iiZbWNvfbq">Monolake</a>. ~ John Bush, Rovi