Five Minutes With Human Movement

I don't exactly remember where I first heard of Human Movement (whether it was there gritty, tech-showcasing NEST HQ mixtape or their single Stranger), but what I do remember is how I was instantly taken in by their growling, dark techno sound - a sound they've gone on to make their own and used to spearhead Australia's growing scene. After almost a year of building and refining their sound through originals and remixes, two months ago saw the release of Dancing Room, their debut EP. From it's opening title track right through to the final bar of the heaving, Beats 1-premiered closer 5AM, the Dancing Room EP showcased Australian techno music like no-one else has done before. It's dark, it's dirty and it's deep - the way techno arguably should be, and it set off a rippling domino effect of praise and love leading to the duo's latest announcement - their signing to Falcona and their official EP tour. Ahead of the tour (dates at the bottom), we caught up with the duo for a quick chat on all things techno, including their new label imprint and what to expect from their upcoming dates.

Hey dudes! First of all, just wanted to say congratulations on the release of the Dancing Room EP! Such a rad release. Personally, I’m pretty new to the techno genre as a whole, and it’s taken me a good while to start to get into it and enjoy it. How did you guys get into listening to, and then making, these real gritty and dark techno sounds?

We've always had a passion for dance music but we've been passionate about techno for the last 3 or so years. Before that we were listening to a lot of music coming from France. Artists that were pioneering in the distorted electro sound like Surkin, Justice and Sebastian. As time went by we started to branch out and listen to more techno orientated artists, like Oliver Huntemann, Materik and Pan Pot. In a way, we took a lot of influences from these artists which has crafted our sound today.

There’s not much of a techno scene at all in Australia, is there? Especially on the west-side over here, there’s really not much of it compared to what’s coming from overseas. Are there any Australian techno acts aside from yourself that you’re into at the moment?

When you compare our scene to cities like Berlin, London or Ibiza - yes, our scene is way smaller but at the same time we do have acts that are making amazing music. Trinity just released her EP Orchard, which we can't wait to get our hands on and listen to. There's also acts like Sweetland who has been putting out song after song always impressing us. I guess since you're not exposed to it as much in Australia you just have to look a little harder.

Also, when talking to a lot of producers about their music influences, a lot of them name off Australian acts, home-grown heroes of sorts (like trappier-acts and Flume, for example). With a real lack of techno coming out of Australia where (or who) do you guys look for inspiration?