Potuznik

Austrian producer Gerhard Potuznik is one of the most accomplished and prolific producers associated with Vienna's Cheap, Morbid, and Sabotage family. An on-again/off-again member of electro/techno/experimental pop groups Private Lightning Six and Mause, he's spent much of his career releasing music as Potuznik and Gerhard Deluxxe. His first EP, "Up North They Are Free," appeared on Cheap in 1996, and contained mostly weird techno and breakbeat fusions accentuated by bits of disco, funk, and acid. Starting with the "Deluxe" EP in 1997, however, Potuznik's weirdness factor got a big boost. Combining odd instrumental and acousmatic samples in a framework of mid-tempo electro and '80s revivalist techno-pop, "Deluxe" was leaps and bounds beyond both his previous material and much of the dirgy downtempo that Vienna was becoming known for at the time of its release. "Spiral Architect" appeared on Sabotage sublabel Craft in 1998, and mined

jungle's fashionable rhythms, though with decidedly experimental aplomb. His debut LP under his own name, Amore Motore (Autobahn), appeared on Mego that same year. A stripped-down vamp on one of Kraftwerk's most famous songs, the album was a largely negligible collection of simple drumbox rhythms with pop overtones. Following a handful of compilation tracks, Potuznik's finest work to date, Concorde, appeared on Cheap in early 1999. An expanded edition of Concorde earned American distribution by the end of the year.