Christoph de Babalon is a
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
electronic producer, experimental artist and DJ, best known for his work on
Alec Empire
Alec or Aleck is a Scottish form of the given name Alex. It may be a diminutive of the name Alexander or a given name in its own right. Notable people with the name include:
People
* Alec Aalto (1942–2018), Finnish diplomat
*Alec Acton (1938†...
's label
Digital Hardcore Recordings
Digital Hardcore Recordings (DHR) is a record label set up in 1994 by Alec Empire, Joel Amaretto and Pete Lawton. Most of the music is recorded in Berlin, though the label is based in London where the records are mastered and manufactured. The ...
, most notably ''
If You're Into It, I'm Out of It'' (1997). He also is the co-founder of the label Cross Fade Enter Tainment (CFET).
Biography
Christoph de Babalon was born in
Hamburg, Germany
(male), (female) en, Hamburger(s),
Hamburgian(s)
, timezone1 = Central (CET)
, utc_offset1 = +1
, timezone1_DST = Central (CEST)
, utc_offset1_DST = +2
, postal ...
and stayed there for most of his life until 1999 when he moved to
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
.
After releasing a few recordings on smaller record labels in Germany and his own Cross Fade Entertainment Imprint, and being heralded as a favorite on
John Peel
John Robert Parker Ravenscroft (30 August 1939 – 25 October 2004), known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey (DJ) and radio presenter. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly fr ...
's radio show in 1994,
de Babalon signed to
DHR in 1996,
releasing a few EPs and later releasing his only full-length album for the label, ''
If You're Into It, I'm Out of It'' in 1997.
De Babalon was signed after he befriended label operator
Alec Empire
Alec or Aleck is a Scottish form of the given name Alex. It may be a diminutive of the name Alexander or a given name in its own right. Notable people with the name include:
People
* Alec Aalto (1942–2018), Finnish diplomat
*Alec Acton (1938†...
at a rave in 1994.
[
The album was well received and gained mostly positive reviews, with ]Radiohead
Radiohead are an English rock band formed in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards); brothers Jonny Greenwood (lead guitar, keyboards, other instruments) and Colin Greenwood (bass) ...
frontman Thom Yorke
Thomas Edward Yorke (born 7 October 1968) is an English musician and the main vocalist and songwriter of the rock band Radiohead. A multi-instrumentalist, he mainly plays guitar and keyboards and is noted for his falsetto. He has been describe ...
describing it as "''the most menacing record eowns''", but in sound was different to other DHR releases, offering a new vision of electronic music that varied greatly from that of artists such as Atari Teenage Riot
Atari Teenage Riot (ATR) is a German band formed in Berlin in 1992. Highly political, they fuse left-wing, anarchist and anti-fascist views with punk vocals and a techno sound called digital hardcore, which is a term band member Alec Empire use ...
and EC8OR, who used industrial
Industrial may refer to:
Industry
* Industrial archaeology, the study of the history of the industry
* Industrial engineering, engineering dealing with the optimization of complex industrial processes or systems
* Industrial city, a city dominate ...
sounds with hardcore punk
Hardcore punk (also known as simply hardcore) is a punk rock music genre and subculture that originated in the late 1970s. It is generally faster, harder, and more aggressive than other forms of punk rock. Its roots can be traced to earlier punk ...
and gabber
Gabber (; ) is a style of electronic dance music and a subgenre of hardcore techno, as well as the surrounding subculture. The music is more commonly referred to as Hardcore, which is characterised by fast beats, distorted & heavier kickdrums, ...
influences. With the release of ''If You're Into It, I'm Out of It'', de Babalon solidified his signature sound as a combination of extreme complexity in construction and complete experimentation in form. Songs span many electronic genres including noise
Noise is unwanted sound considered unpleasant, loud or disruptive to hearing. From a physics standpoint, there is no distinction between noise and desired sound, as both are vibrations through a medium, such as air or water. The difference arise ...
, soundscape
A soundscape is the acoustic environment as perceived by humans, in context. The term was originally coined by Michael Southworth, and popularised by R. Murray Schafer. There is a varied history of the use of soundscape depending on discipline, r ...
s, dark ambient, drum and bass
Drum and bass (also written as drum & bass or drum'n'bass and commonly abbreviated as D&B, DnB, or D'n'B) is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by fast breakbeats (typically 165–185 beats per minute) with heavy bass and sub-ba ...
and breakcore
Breakcore is a style and microgenre of electronic dance music that emerged from jungle, hardcore, and drum and bass in the mid-to-late 1990s. It is characterized by very complex and intricate breakbeats and a wide palette of sampling sources ...
. Some of his tracks are also known for their length, with "Opium" lasting over 15 minutes long and "High Life (Theme)" lasting over 11.
After the release of ''If You're Into It, I'm Out of It'', de Babalon amicably left Digital Hardcore Records and made a few small releases through a variety of labels before withdrawing from the public eye to work on other projects, including composing for theater. One of his last few releases before his hiatus from production was a split 12-inch with Miguel Trost De Pedro (better known by his stage name Kid606
Miguel Trost De Pedro (born July 27, 1979), better known by his stage name Kid606, is an electronic musician who was raised in San Diego and later moved to San Francisco. He is most closely associated with the glitch, IDM, hardcore techno and b ...
), with whom he became friends and would later release music through Miguel's label TigerBeat6. In 2001, before his hiatus, de Babalon opened for Radiohead during their ''Amnesiac
Amnesia is a deficit in memory caused by brain damage or disease,Gazzaniga, M., Ivry, R., & Mangun, G. (2009) Cognitive Neuroscience: The biology of the mind. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. but it can also be caused temporarily by the use o ...
'' tour.[ For a short period of time during the mid-2000s, he produced music with fellow producer Christian Haudej under the name Ãœbergang. They released a CDEP and a 12-inch before playing their final announced show in 2007. Christoph would not return to releasing music under his own name again until 2008 with ''Scylla & Charybdis'', a limited edition conceptual 12-inch about ]Greek mythology
A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the Cosmogony, origin and Cosmology#Metaphysical co ...
. He revived his Cross Fade Enter Tainment imprint, which had been defunct since 2003, to release it.[
Since 2008, de Babalon has been releasing music more often, even reissuing rare unreleased tracks as a compilation via his own ]bandcamp
Bandcamp is an American online audio distribution platform founded in 2007 by Oddpost co-founder Ethan Diamond and programmers Shawn Grunberger, Joe Holt and Neal Tucker, with headquarters in Oakland, California, US. On March 2, 2022, Bandcamp ...
page titled ''The Haunting Past of Christoph de Babalon, Vol. 1'' in 2014. He issued his long awaited follow up studio album to ''If You're Into It, I'm Out of It'', titled ''A Bond With Sorrow'', digitally through Kid606's TigerBeat6 imprint in 2012. His fourth full-length album, ''Short Eternities'', was issued in 2015 through Love Love Records.
Discography
Studio albums
*''File Already Exists. Continue (Y/N)?'' (1995, CFET)
*'' If You're Into It, I'm Out of It'' (1997, Digital Hardcore Recordings
Digital Hardcore Recordings (DHR) is a record label set up in 1994 by Alec Empire, Joel Amaretto and Pete Lawton. Most of the music is recorded in Berlin, though the label is based in London where the records are mastered and manufactured. The ...
)
*''A Bond With Sorrow'' (2012, TigerBeat6)
*''Short Eternities'' (2015, Love Love Records)
*''Exquisite Angst'' (2018, A Colourful Storm)
*''Recurring Horrors'' (2020, A Colourful Storm)
*''Leaving Time'' (2023, Super Hexagon Records)
Singles and EPs
*''Love Under Will'' 12-inch (1994, Fischkopf Hamburg)
*''Destroy Berlin!'' 12-inch (1996, Digital Hardcore Recordings)
*''Seven Up'' 12-inch/CDep (1997, Digital Hardcore Recordings)
*''In A Bad Mood'' 12-inch (1998, Ghetto Safari)
*''Rise Above This'' 7-inch (2000, Zhark International)
*''Dark Background'' (2000, Falsch)
*''Scylla & Charybdis'' 12-inch (2008, CFET)
*''A World of My Own'' 12-inch (2010, Restroom Records)
*''Traumspiel'' (2012, TigerBeat6)
*''Grim Zenith'' 12-inch (2017, VIS)
*''Hectic Shakes'' 12-inch (2019, ALTER)
Split and collaborative releases
*''We Declare War!'' split 12-inch with Paul Snowden (1995, CFET)
*Tocotronic/Christoph de Babalon split 7-inch (1997, L'Age D'Or)
*''FatCat Split Series #10'' split 12-inch with Kid606
Miguel Trost De Pedro (born July 27, 1979), better known by his stage name Kid606, is an electronic musician who was raised in San Diego and later moved to San Francisco. He is most closely associated with the glitch, IDM, hardcore techno and b ...
(2000, FatCat Records)
*''Mean Grey Value'' 3.5" floppy disc with M. Dinig (2002, 89 mm)
*''Invocation of the Demon Twin Vol. 1'' split 12-inch with Triames (2015, Giallo Disco)
*''VISC 01'' split cassette with Nina Nina may refer to:
* Nina (name), a feminine given name and surname
Acronyms
*National Iraqi News Agency, a news service in Iraq
* Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, on the campus of Norwegian University of Science and Technology
*No income, ...
(2016, VIS)
*Cera Khin/Christoph de Babalon split cassette (2018, LazyTapes)
*''Teyas'' with WIDT (2018, Bocian Records)
Live albums
*''Live at Dance Affliction'' (2017, Dance Affliction)
Compilation albums
*''The Haunting Past of Christoph de Babalon, Vol. I'' (2014, CFET)
*''The Haunting Past of Christoph de Babalon, Vol. II'' (2017, CFET)
*''The Haunting Past of Christoph de Babalon, Vol. III'' (2017, CFET)
References
External links
Christoph de Babalon on Myspace
Discogs Page
DHR Page
Bandcamp Page
Ãœbergang website
Soundcloud Page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Babalon, Christoph de
Living people
German electronic musicians
German experimental musicians
Year of birth missing (living people)