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Ebene X is the oldest solo alias of one humble Palatinian whose Christian name is actually Christian. He is an underground musician with a small town Punk/Hardcore band background who branched out into electronic music production back in the 90s, inspired by early Autechre, Aphex Twin, Ma:ssive Attack, Speedy J and more experimental acts, and finished his first solo album “Hoffen” in 2001, before the arrival of the term “emo” in the local scene and after several years of work.

Some of the tunes originally came into existence on an old cassete multitracker from an analog drumcomputer (Yamaha RY30) and instrumental & vocal recordings, at a time when the term “Internet” was known only to some thousands of PC nerds worldwide. In the process, Christian began to experiment with digital sequencing via a very limited DOS tracker. He eventually switched over to a more complex tool named Acid and continued to use a lot of self-recorded guitar and bass guitar riffs and samples together with one-shots and pieces from Rebirth and the likes, finding his own aesthetics on an exploratory journey through different methods of sound creation.

When the tunes were fully developed and the album was ready, Christian distributed selfmade copies among friends and in the local scene (proper hardcore). He also sent some copies to magazines and labels and scored reviews in the “Sonic Seducer” und “Black” magazines (which are long lost by now – only few traces remain online). At that time, the advent of the mp3 scene was well underway and the music market became increasingly tighter; at any rate “Hoffen” was not picked up by labels. In 2003 it received a significant touching up, which did not change the market situation either. The album remained unreleased, safe for the local copies from 2001. Ebene X did not become a rich and famous name. So he continued to create music in his free time for himself, as a hobby, until this day.

In the millenium years he made a good bunch of Techno and Drum & Bass influenced tunes, and ended up putting a bunch of them online via Last.fm. Shortly after, he made a rather unlucky experience with a commercial digital label which led to him basically abandoning his old moniker and staying offline for a while. But he eventually resurfaced, with some of his ideas put loosely into Drum & Bass forms, and started uploading music again under the new name of KoolaKooka. He also uploaded a half electronic/crossover German “Downer Rock” mini-album as Alltagskopf most recently.

Despite almost 20 years of practical experience in making music on- and offstage, and connections to other artists and people in the industry who conveyed to him the practical merits of industry standards many a time, Christian still displays little intention to follow stylistic trends and equally close to no motivation to make dancefloor compatible tunes. Although often playing with forms of dancefloor music genres, he keeps aiming at homelistening mixdowns and expressing inner states rather than trying to abide by clubtrack guidelines, as if being his own target audience. His focus remains on creating and “breaking” riffs more than on drum tracks. The result is lovely deep, playful music flowing from gaping cracks in unsuspiciously generic rhythmical background textures; esoteric in many respects.

Seemingly uninterested in public success, the Internet clearly is the perfect place for Ebene X. Enjoy these 10 lost pieces of music (in their 2003 versions) from a forgotten era when netlabels were invisible nerdfests hidden in dark corners online, making tunes required special equipment and vinyl & dubplates were the only means of getting them played in clubs! Just close your eyes and think of…