Tonight in LA: Berlin techno from Apparat, performed with live band

Berlin-based techno artist Sascha Ring, who records under the pseudonym Apparat, has recorded some of the most beguiling and adventuresome electronic music of the 00s. His music, both solo and with fellow Berliner Ellen Allien, contains the hearty four-on-the-floor thump of most techno, but Apparat, like Allien, diverges from the usual Autobahn-like focus on distance and linear similitude to focus on interesting structure, one with noticeable hooks, insanely exciting bridges and enough push-pull drama to draw even the most rigid of minimalists onto the dance floor.

It's a rich sound, one that's finely illustrated on Apparat's new double-disc collection of remixes, called Things to Be Frickled: Parts & Remixes. Released on Ring's own Shitkatapult label, the set includes one disc of Apparat remixes (Francesco Tristano, Swayzak, Lusine, Boys Noize and others), the other of artists remixing him (Thomas Fehlmann, Modeselektor and Monolake).

Here's Telefone Tel Aviv remixing Apparat.

It'll be interesting to see how Apparat pulls it off tonight; he's touring with a live band, and the LA date is the first of a five show tour. The full schedule:

May 19, 2008 - US - Los Angeles - Knitting Factory (live band)
May 22, 2008 - US - Portland - Holocene (live band)
May 23, 2008 - US - Seattle - Decibel presents at Neumos (live band)
May 24, 2008 - US - Chicago - Meiotic presents / tbc (live band)
May 25, 2008 - US - New York - Knitting Factory (live band)

And, finally, here's a video for Apparat's "You Don't Know Me."