| Talla 2XLC | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Andreas Tomalla |
| Also known as | Talla, 20, 2XLC, Richard Cube, T2, Digital Tension |
| Origin | Germany |
| Genres | Trance |
| Years active | 1984–present |
| Website | http://www.talla.de/ |
Talla 2XLC, real name Andreas Tomalla, is an electronic music producer and DJ whose work has spanned from industrial music to trance music.[1][2]
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In 1979, Talla 2XLC began DJing[3] with the sounds of Kraftwerk, YMO, and Depeche Mode.
In 1984, Talla 2XLC started a small nightclub event called Technoclub,[4] the first such club in Frankfurt to focus on electronic dance music. Initially, Technoclub was a Friday-night[3] event held in the smaller, 350-person capacity room[3] of the Dorian Gray discothèque inside the Frankfurt International Airport. In 1986, Technoclub moved to the 600-capacity Roxannes, where it remained through 1988.[3] In 1989, it briefly moved to the 800- or 900-capacity Omen venue,[3][5] then in September 1989 to the Dorian Gray's 2000-capacity main room,[3][5] where it remained until the Dorian Gray closed in 2000. Technoclub may have been the world’s first major "super-club".[6]
In the mid-1980s, he was involved with a band called Moskwa TV. In 1987 he co-founded the group Robotiko Rejekto and was associated with the fledgling record label Techno Drome International, an imprint of ZYX Records. Robotiko Rejekto's track "Rejekto" was one of the label's first releases. In 1988, he started a new project called Bigod 20, which would go on to be one of Europe’s most successful EBM acts of the early 1990s.
In 1987 and 1988, Talla 2XLC produced fanzines.[3]
In 1989, to distribute the music of Bigod 20 and other industrial acts in Europe, Talla 2XLC co-founded, with Franz Morgenbesser, the New Beat-oriented New Zone label,[3] and the conglomerate Music Research and its primary subsidiary, Zoth Ommog Records, an important label in the underground electronic music scene for many years thereafter (though his management of the business lasted only the first several years after its inception). All the while, he kept a high profile as a remixer to many big-name artists in the world electronic dance scene.
In 1990, Talla's DJ sets were described as "what we in the UK would term techno, together with the more rock-orientated hardcore industrial sounds of North American acts such as Skinny Puppy, Revolting Cocks, and My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult (no holds barred stuff as you've probably guessed). These bands would probably prove too harsh for most UK dancefloors (let's face it, MC 900 Ft. Jesus is hard work), but the step across to techno, via bands like Cabaret Voltaire and German pioneers Einstürzende Neubauten, is a relatively short one."[3]
Talla also ran a label called Dynamo, on behalf of German (then-) major label Teldec.[3]
Since the dissolution of Bigod 20 in 1994, Talla 2XLC has focused less on industrial music and more on trance and its subgenres, particularly epic trance. With Sony Records in 1997, he started the @Technoclub compilation series, which introduced many underground dance hits to mainstream European audiences.
Talla 2XLC's productions, remixes, and DJ mix releases number well into the hundreds.[2] Notable productions include “Can You Feel the Silence,” which reached #14 on the German Top 100 Sales Charts, and his 2007 co-production with Ace Da Brain, “No In Between,” which was played by popular European trance DJs Paul Van Dyk, Armin Van Buuren, Ferry Corsten, Above and Beyond, et al.[7]
Talla still continues to travel the world, championing music featuring "soaring" vocals and mixing elements of cutting edge electronic music with novel breakdowns and euphoric melodies. He tours throughout every country in Europe, The Americas, Australia and Asia, and has been featured at some of the world’s major festivals and clubs, including ID & T’s Trance Energy, the Love parade, Space Ibiza.
His weekly Technoclub radio show is played on German national radio station Sunshine Live.
In January 2008 he also re-launched the once well-known label, Tetsuo.[8]