Tosca

When you think Vienna, you think sophistication and Sigmund Freud. And maybe cream cakes. Mash all that together and you’re heading in the right direction for our inaugural MTFT mixtape, a sensual swirl created exclusively for us by Viennese duo Tosca. One half of Tosca is Richard Dorfmeister, who is also half of the world-conquering dubtronica team Kruder & Dorfmeister. But Dorfmeister has been working with Tosca’s Rupert Huber just as long, crafting rich, textured, pulsing chillout that’s miles more interesting than by-the-numbers trip-hop. Tosca’s new LP, No Hassle, will be released April 28 on K7 Records (learn more about it here).

We also caught up with Tosca’s Richard Dorfmeister and Rupert Huber to talk about the new album.

PLAYBOY: No Hassle is an enveloping experience—it almost gives you the effect of being underwater or something. Is there an ideal listening experience for it in your minds?
DORFMEISTER: No, we want it to work however people listen to it. It’s nice in the bedroom, in the bathtub, it might even be best appreciated driving around. First and foremost we wanted it to work on any kind of speaker, whether that was a set of iPod headphones, a car stereo or a home system.
HUBER: Speakers are instruments, really, and you have to deal with their unique qualities. We want to create a similar impression on the listener whether they hear the music in a club or through tinny headphones.

PLAYBOY: What’s that impression?
DORFMEISTER: Happiness. The music can work like a drug—a slow, soft, happy drug.

PLAYBOY: What’s the starting point when you compose music with that mission?
DORFMEISTER: Our initial ideas come from a feeling rather than from a beat or a sample. For us the most important thing is creating the right atmosphere to work in. We have to be in the right mood. It’s not about the latest drum computer or software, it’s something at a human level. If that foundation is there, then we can jam and start to groove.
HUBER: There are loads of musical partnerships that work because of tension. In our case it’s just not there—and when it is there, it works against what we are doing. It might sound kind of hippy-ish, but for this project we’re happy without tension.

PLAYBOY: Okay, we’ll buy that. But despite being blissed-out, your music never gets bogged down in chillout clichés. How do you keep it interesting?
HUBER: Over the years we’ve always gravitated toward unpredictable sounds—we choose things other producers might never use. I’ll give you an example: We had a girl in to sing for the track “Mrs Bongo”—she was a good-looking blonde girl—and she did a whole program, blues, funk, jazz stylings. But in the end, after she left, we used the outtakes from when she was just talking and warming up.

PLAYBOY: Do you find inspiration in things you are listening to?
DORFMEISTER: Actually, when you are in a production process, you hate everything else. You don’t want to listen to anything. You are so into your own world that you think everything else is crap. When I’m burned out on all other music, I listen to reggae—or Henry Rollins.