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Mark Broom has earned his stripes all right. He's been doing the techno thing longer than some of his fans have been alive and producing tough, underground cuts since the early 90s, most notably on his own long running label, Pure Plastic. Since then, Mr Broom has globetrotted his way through pretty much every club in the world that he'd want to play, as well having releases on labels such as Soma, 20:20 Vision and Bpitch Control. He also has one of the most profilic remix discographies of any artist in the scene today, including reworkings of tracks by producers ranging from Dubfire to Deepgroove to Wally Lopez.

We caught up briefly to discuss Mark's latest release in his recent factory-like production schedule, this time however, it was a return to a full length artist album after a rather long break.

Hi mark, i want to talk straight away about your artist album Acid  House, your first since 1996. Why did it make sense to make the album now?
I felt it was the right time to bring another album out; the last two years I've been doing a lot of 12"'s for various labels so decided that an album project would make sense, I'd been gathering many tracks over the last year and when i started to go through them all it began to mould into a long player. 

How would you explain how you've changed musically since 1996?
My music has gone through a few different changes over the years; back in 1996 the style I was producing was more melodic purer techno then a few years later started to become a more faster harder tribal techno style and the last two years it became a mixture of disco/techno hybrid; I'm also focusing on the true techno sound again. Like the Ep i made with James Ruskin on Blueprint the remixes and tracks on Edit Select and on my own label BeardMan.

How did the link up with Nic Fanciulli and Saved come about?
Nic got in touch after i made my first 12" on 2020 Vision; he asked me to do a remix on Saved, which went down really well then asked me for a release which became the Meltin Pot EP; since then I've done 2-3 releases for the label and now the album. 
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Why did you call it 'acid house'? It's very tough now as everyone and his dog are making and selling music online, so for me as an artist I'm always making sure what I release is 100% so that it does cut through what is already there...
It was named Acid house because this genre of music has had a massive influence on me since 1988. I remember the good old days back in 1988/89 my mates and me would get the train up to London and go walking through the streets listening out for music and would come across someone putting on an illegal rave party spinning strictly acid house music; so for this album i wanted to pay my respects to this music that has had a big effect on my musical upbringing :) 

Can you tell us briefly about your experiences of the acid house era in the UK, did you go to Shoom or Spectrum or do orbital raves or anything like that?
I did go to Acid house parties but I never went to Shoom or Spectrum, although I did go the Land of Oz/Mud club/Limelight and places like that, plus I also went to many of the orbital rave events; one that comes to mind was the Energy party -  it had an amazing vibe and never forget hearing Adamski doing one of his first live sets; top night !! 

A couple of years ago we were organising a night called 'Nyte Biscuit' at On The Rocks in East London we were trying to give people a taste of an all night acid rave; we had great fun doing these nights and had the pleasure of getting some amazing acid sets from people like Squarepusher, Rob Hall, Baby Ford, Steve Bicknell, Ben Sims & Kruton.

You released a lot of music in the last couple of years, a common criticism across the scene is that with the ease of release through digital, etc, there is far too much music being released and quality control has gone out of the window a bit. How would you respond if someone made this accusation against you?
They already have i think :)

It's very tough now as everyone and his dog are making and selling music online, so for me as an artist I'm always making sure what I release is 100% so that it does cut through what is already there; I'm also a big fan of vinyl and I'm finding some great release coming out on this format and it's also great to see coloured vinyl making a comeback as this only makes what you have in your hands that extra bit special:)

As a definite old technoist, if I can call you that, how do you assess the popularity of techno nowadays, to the point where it  seems like anything and anyone is making and playing techno, or  least saying they are.

Techno is slowly coming back into the spotlight again and if you want proof of this just go out and buy any of the lastest Robert Hood releases; he is showing the world what this music is all about; you also have Sandwell District putting out some amazing releases as are Blueprint/Skudge.

Tell us about some interesting gigs or places you've been to recently.
I just played at the Blueprint Records relaunch night at Cable in London and it was an amazing night of old/new techno. Also the two M-Plant parties but for me the best party i have played so far this year was in Malmo Sweden it was in a kind of illegal style warehouse space and the promoter had an amazing sound system and minimal lighting and the crowd were so into the music; every thing I gave them, they loved and the whole night brought a smile to my face!!. 

What's your set up when you play out?
Vinyl and cd's. I did try laptop dj'ing but it was not for me.

Do you ever have difficulties having your technical rider fulfilled at gigs, i.e. you turn up and they don't have turntables or something?
Usually when you turn up they have the turntables ok, but as soon as you put a record on you get massive feedback or the decks skip, stuff like that, but this only happens at a handful of places and after some finger pointing it gets sorted:)

Ok time to plug me about whatever you want..........
The next things coming up are two new releases on my label BeardMan numbers 7 and 8. Also remixes for Gary Beck, Alan Fitzpatrick and Johannes Heil.

Dates:
August 27 - Rex Club - Paris, Paris, FRANCE
September 03 - The Womb - Tokyo, JAPAN
September 18 - Sala Metropolis - Cordoba, SPAIN
September 25 - Calysto Club - NANTES, FRANCE
October 01 - Fever - Bilbao, SPAIN
www.myspace.com/markbroom | www.savedrecords.com