Tech/H

Recording of Blawan b2b JASSS at Draaimolen Festival 2022.

TASCAM SD-20M

Blawan b2b JASSS at Draaimolen Festival 2022

What about AGA2L?

AGA2L the co-founder of the BRVTAL series, DJ and producer is known by his strict ’vinyl only’ rule. Rezystor, Niki Istrefi and Draugr are familiar faces at his label.
He started his activity in the scene as a DJ for a while now and he became an unavoidable figure of it in the last few years. Maybe not too many people knew, but he started making music almost the same time as he's playing vinyls, but until the beginning of 2020, he didn't share anything. 

Q&A with the master

1.Funniest experience at Aether club:
-The first time when I played in Aether club, I struggled all the way through my set because of the location of the monitor speakers. The next time I told Mankind about it, he just said and pointed "look, it's adjustable!" haha! Since then I have not had a word, everything is perfect!

2. Who are you? What do you do?
-On the weekends I'm AGA2L, techno DJ and vinyl collector music fanatic. I rarely make my own tracks as time allows, but I wouldn't call myself a producer yet. I've been working on a label/podcast/event series for 6 year, but only with Maxi now. It's called Brvtal. We have vinyl and digital releases that I'm very proud of, as we've been able to line up names like Niki Istrefi, Draugr, Ryuji Takeuchi, Öspiel and many more. Looking ahead to the future, we will be working with many exciting names. And on weekdays I'm Gyula or Gyuszi. I work as a revenue manager for a book wholesaler. I record incoming goods in our system and upload them to our webshop. In fact, wherever and whatever I do, my mind is always on music-related things, whether it's a new release or an idea.

3. Your podcast in one word?
-Boring, hahahaha. I don't know, let everyone decide for themselves.

4. Define the job of a dj:
-Entertainment. I tend to over-mystify a lot and theorise, but you don't have to. We are for the dancers and audience and we give them a piece of ourselves.

5. Funniest compliment you ever got?
-I'd rather tell a story. About 8 years ago, I went to the Bonus Festival to hear Vril. A man found me and thought I'm Gábor Kraft and let's take a photo together. After 5-10 minutes of persuasion I realized that I couldn't explain to him that I'm not him. I found it easier to stand for the power of a photo and move on.

6. What's your biggest inspiration?
-My biggest inspiration is my Berlin tours. I love it when I get to the lobby of a club and hear the first kicks, the smoke and the pulse. The atmosphere and the environment gets me goosebumps. These experiences can fill you up.

8. Favorite BPM?
-It's constantly changing. Now I feel at home around 143-144 bpm.

9.Best advice for newcomers?
-I think that persistent work will pay off after a while and that you don't have to ride the trend, it will pass. Try to create something lasting or timeless. Do sincerely what comes from the heart and don't settle for what you have, keep improving.

10. What would you change in the industry?
-This would be a long dissection, so I won't. At the moment techno has become mainstream. For me, I really miss the intimate environment which basically characterized this scene.

11. B2B of your dream?
-When Hector Oaks first came to Hungary for the Pursuit of Acid event at LÄRM, his plane left a few hours after the party ended, so he came up to our place with Tirza and Ákos for a little bit. The idea of playing together came up, but I was still relatively rookie DJ around that time and I didn't dare to join him while he played. Last year it turned out that I will play after him at Flashback. At the end of my set, I noticed that he was packing up his stuff to play together. In the end, I didn't run away, and it was a experience of a lifetime.

12. If you would be a sound which would it be?
-What kind of voice I would be, I don't know. About 6 years ago we were sitting on the couch after some BRVTAL gig and we were talking about if you were a track, what would you be. I got Lost from Wata Igarashi.

Tech/H

Gábor Zsidek