Michael Fakesch

Munich resident Michael Fakesch gains wider recognition for his productions under the Funkstorung alias he shares with partner Chris De Luca. In only three years the duo issued nearly a dozen albums, first on the little-known Acid Planet label and later on their own Musik Aus Strom imprint. Funkstorung’s output generally favors a dark, abrasive, and hard-edged electro sound that echoes Autechre’s approach without matching its meticulous detail. Fakesch’s own recordings keep the same raw studio edge yet shift toward a darker and more inward mood, emphasizing melody over rhythm while favoring slower, heavier beats. Like many of his peers, he moved from late-’80s hip-hop by Public Enemy and Paris plus classic electro by Grandmaster Flash and Man Parrish—having once worked as a semi-professional breakdancer—into the techno wave that swept Germany in the early ’90s. His solo catalog so far contains the two-part Demon EP from 1997 and the full-length Marion issued in 1999.