Andy Rantzen, 25 years of 'Black Smoke'

If trends are cyclical, where does a reissue fit into that?

While the sounds of big commercially successful warehouse parties have found themselves retreading the steps of hard house, there are many more homages to share across other parts of dance music’s sonic spectrum.

Andy Rantzen’s ‘Black Smoke’ reissued this past week by Andy Garvey’s Pure Space, is such an homage, now finding new life across modern dancefloors and sound systems.

Originally released in 2001 via the Creative Vibes compilation ‘The Blue Hour Vol. 3: Deep Blue’, ‘Black Smoke’ is one of the deepest cuts from a producer whose work helped to define the sounds of Australia’s blossoming dance and free party scenes. Rantzen, known for his work across Itch-E & Scratch-E and Pelican Daughters, has influenced Australia’s electronic music throughout its various periods.

‘Black Smoke’ is no different. A heaving mix of techno, trance, and breakbeat, nearly 25 years on, it’s laden with all manner of sound design and intricacy that still makes it feel fresh. On this reissue, it’s also been coupled with three alternative mixes, reportedly buried deep within Andy’s DAT (Digital Audio Tape) archive.

With the reissue fresh behind him and set to find new life and fans across Australia’s modern dance landscape, we caught up with Andy to see how it felt to have the release (once again) out into the world.

AR: Any year I live to see is a big year!

The 'Itch-E Kitch-E Koo' rerelease was a special moment, and it was nice to meet Kim, who runs the label Here to Hell, and is half of The Presets. He’s a delightful person. And it was great to finally meet Andy Garvey, who I have been reading about and listening to for a while now.

Read: 30 years of 'Sweetness & Light': An Itch-E & Scratch-E story

AR: It feels good! I like that the music gets a second life twenty-five years later.

One thing I enjoy about rereleases of my earlier material is that I meet a lot of interesting new people. It feels like a special window into other people's lives and enthusiasms, and I get to see a glimpse of where music is going next.

AR: Andy Garvey got in touch with me – I think it was via Soundcloud, which is usually the way things happen. I’m glad she found that track; it probably deserved a rerelease and fits in with the sonic aesthetic of Pure Space, and I believe she had been playing it in her sets.

She's currently working on a remix of the track, which I had the pleasure of hearing this morning. It's exactly what I'd hoped she would do!

AR: Pure Space occupies a very interesting musical location. It’s evolved some way from what we used to call psytrance in the 90s, but it has some of that precise, energised, driving, psychedelic flavour.

It’s darker and more minimal. More techno, perhaps, more industrial, and much more dystopian, as befits our time.

It’s true machine music, but it also has a certain amount of natural wildness – wilderness, even.

AR: That track comes from ‘The Blue Hour Vol 3’, my second release on Creative Vibes. They were so cool, two people who just lived for the music. Itch-E and Scratch-E met Creative Vibes in the context of one of our album releases (‘It Is What It Isn’t’), and then they said to me, ‘hey, how about a solo album?’

It did no business at the time, but some of the tracks have been rereleased on various labels since then. Creative Vibes is sadly gone now, but they released many, many CDs by Australian electronic and jazz artists. They were eclectic. I remember their offices were piled high with CDs.

AR: I used to DJ my own music a lot, but I think this track was probably too fast for the times, and I don’t recall ever playing it in my sets.

It was recorded above a shop on Enmore Road in Newtown, Sydney. I was probably blasted in coffee, judging by the speed of it. It reflects the sounds around me - cars, noise, nature peering through the cracks in the pavement.

AR: 'Rainbow Visions of the Apocalypse' is a vinyl compilation of tracks I did for a series of releases on Sydney label 4-4-2 Music over the period 2010-2020. It represents the more extreme side of my sound.

Whether I’m writing something accessible or not, my process is always a straightforward reflection of life around me in all its bizarre and unfathomable glory. When I go into the studio, I never know what I'm going to do. It's always a surprise.

AR: It’s a bit faster than I would usually write now, but in almost every other way, I still get it.

Perhaps these days I would be lighter on the crash cymbals – the crashes definitely mark it as a track influenced by early 90s rave and techno, which at the time was still visible in the rearview mirror.

AR: I loaded some ancient digital audio (DAT) tapes into my antique DAT machine and prayed it would play. Then I recorded them into my equally antique CD-R burner, tiptoeing around the living room so the CD didn’t skip.

Finally, I uploaded them to my laptop. Miraculously, nothing went wrong.

AR: For me that was always the best mix, so it had to be the lead track.

I also have a soft spot for the slower groove of the final mix ('Alternative mix 3') - it's slinky and snaky.

AR: I've never quite closed the door on that sound. In 2022 I did an album with Mind Dance which is mostly in-your-face techno, especially the track 'Interplay 8'. Right now I'm doing a lot of mid-tempo, stompy electro numbers with quite complex lyrics and screen reader vocals.

Also, I'm writing a new album with Pelican Daughters, my long-running project with Justin Brandis. We've been going on and off since 1984 and recently did an album of new material for Melbourne label Se Dessaisir called 'It's Time, My Friend', our first ever vinyl release.

That's the really out there weird shit. I have no idea what comes next.

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‘Black Smoke (2025 Remaster)’ is out now via Pure Space’s Bandcamp.

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