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Gerhard Potuznik (also known as GD Luxxe) is an electronic musician of Vienna, Austria. He has been creating music since the early 1980s. His recording career began in 1988 with a release on Gig Records (home of Falco). Later he joined forces with Patrick Pulsinger to release a string of popular 12-inches on the influential Cheap Records label. His reputation outside Vienna grew quickly and he began collaborating with like-minded artists. By the mid-1990s he'd become a producer and a member of arty techno-punks Chicks on Speed.
Vienna is the federal capital and largest city of Austria, and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primate city, with a population of about 1.9 million, and its cultural, economic, and political centre. It is the 7th-largest city by population within city limits in the European Union. Until the beginning of the 20th century, it was the largest German-speaking city in the world, and before the splitting of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in World War I, the city had 2 million inhabitants. Today, it has the second largest number of German speakers after Berlin. Vienna is host to many major international organizations, including the United Nations and OPEC. The city is located in the eastern part of Austria and is close to the borders of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary. These regions work together in a European Centrope border region. Along with nearby Bratislava, Vienna forms a metropolitan region with 3 million inhabitants. In 2001, the city centre was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In July 2017 it was moved to the list of World Heritage in Danger.
Austria, officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in Central Europe comprising 9 federated states. Its capital, largest city and one of nine states is Vienna. Austria has an area of 83,879 km2 (32,386 sq mi), a population of nearly 9 million people and a nominal GDP of $477 billion. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Hungary and Slovakia to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west. The terrain is highly mountainous, lying within the Alps; only 32% of the country is below 500 m (1,640 ft), and its highest point is 3,798 m (12,461 ft). The majority of the population speaks local Bavarian dialects as their native language, and German in its standard form is the country's official language. Other regional languages are Hungarian, Burgenland Croatian, and Slovene.
Johann "Hans" Hölzel, better known by his stage name Falco, was an Austrian singer and songwriter.
In 1998 Potuznik founded the Angelika Koehlermann label (which has gone on to release over twenty albums of low-fi pop and wild-style electronic music). Potuznik collaborated with Electronicat, one of the label's first signings, and released a remix album featuring ADULT, The Hacker, Kid606, Dat politics, and Original Hamster.
Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form in the United States and United Kingdom during the mid-1950s. The terms "popular music" and "pop music" are often used interchangeably, although the former describes all music that is popular and includes many diverse styles. "Pop" and "rock" were roughly synonymous terms until the late 1960s, when they became increasingly differentiated from each other.
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments and circuitry-based music technology. In general, a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means, and that produced using electronics only. Electromechanical instruments include mechanical elements, such as strings, hammers, and so on, and electric elements, such as magnetic pickups, power amplifiers and loudspeakers. Examples of electromechanical sound producing devices include the telharmonium, Hammond organ, and the electric guitar, which are typically made loud enough for performers and audiences to hear with an instrument amplifier and speaker cabinet. Pure electronic instruments do not have vibrating strings, hammers, or other sound-producing mechanisms. Devices such as the theremin, synthesizer, and computer can produce electronic sounds.
Electronicat is the alter ego of French musician and performer Fred Bigot, whose work is characterized by its constant switch between experimental noise and pop music.
1999 saw the release of album Submission on DMX Krew's Breakin' Records and Potuznik's artist alias GD Luxxe was born. Widely acclaimed releases followed on renowned indie electronic labels such as Suction, Interdimensional Transmissions, Mego and Detroit's Ersatz Audio. The album Make for Tigerbeat6 was released in 2006 (rereleased in 2007 on Monkey Music).
DMX Krew is the recording name of the musician Edward Upton. Upton's other aliases include 101 Force, Asylum Seekers, Bass Potato, Chester Louis III, Computor Rockers, David Michael Cross, Ed DMX, EDMX, House of Brakes, Michael Knight, and Viet Cong. He has released six full albums on Aphex Twin's label Rephlex Records and numerous singles/EPs for both Rephlex and his own Breakin' Records. DMX Krew's sound spans several electronic music genres, but had mostly been rooted in early electro-pop/breakbeat type music. The release of The Collapse of the Wave Function EPs are geared toward a different more experimental direction. Despite the similarity of their names, DMX Krew has no connection to hip hop artists DMX or Davy DMX, but refers to the vintage Oberheim DMX drum computer.
Suction is the force that a partial vacuum exerts upon a solid, liquid, or a gas. Removing air from a space results in a lowered pressure, which can cause fluids to enter the space or produce adhesion.
Detroit is the largest and most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan, the largest United States city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of Wayne County. The municipality of Detroit had a 2017 estimated population of 673,104, making it the 23rd-most populous city in the United States. The metropolitan area, known as Metro Detroit, is home to 4.3 million people, making it the second-largest in the Midwest after the Chicago metropolitan area. Regarded as a major cultural center, Detroit is known for its contributions to music and as a repository for art, architecture and design.
KEY FIGURE Besides Pulsinger & Tunakan or Kruder & Dorfmeister, Gerhard Potuznik is one of Austria’s key figures, when it comes to the electro and alternative scenes. Active since the late 80ies, when Acid House changed his life as much as Postpunk did before, Potuznik does it all and works as a musician, remixer, DJ and head of his own label. To this day, he has released eight solo records as well as countless maxis on legendary labels like Cheap and Mego, Disko 8, Ersatz Audio, Relish orTigerbeat 6. Besides that, Potuznik is also producing acts like Chicks On Speed, Mediengruppe Telekommander, Minisex, Janosch Moldau, Black Palms Orchester or The Magic Ray. And, of course, not to forget, his band project MÄUSE, with Tex Rubinowitz, with whom he has released four records so far.
GD LUXXE In the center of all this remains Gerhard Potuznik’s musical alter ego. As GD LUXXE, he began working on cool electronic tracks in the mid-nineties. Ed DMX, aka DMX Krew, brought GD LUXXE’s music to London-based label Breakin’ Records, while Interdimensional Transmissions and Ersatz Audio from Detroit released records as much as Canadian record label Suction Records. In the midst of the noughties’ electroclash hype, Gerhard re-discovered his guitar, which was the foundation of „Between Zero and Eternity“, the record that was released in 2004 on US cult label Ersatz Audio. Its successor „Make“ (2006) was released by Tigerbeat 6 in the US, continues the path. Minimalistic guitars are the starting pointers, that mutate into unrecognizable sounds on the computer, until templates like „Rock’n’Roll“, „Retro“ or „Electro“ don’t quite work anymore. In the end of 2008, the eight solo record called „Crave“ was released. It showed a more accessible side of Gerhard Potuznik and the song „Believe“ made it to the second place of Austria’s FM4 Charts.
THE HAPPY SUN aka Gerhard Potuznik After „Crave“, things started to get hectic in Gerhard’s studio. More and more bands and musicians knocked on his doors, looking for a spot to be produced or mixed by him. This led to the establishment of „Phlox“, a dubtechno label on which Gerhard started releasing tracks with Martin „Dibek“ Sovinz. Besides that he also recorded classic indie rock songs, in the beginning without much of a plan, more to just have a compensation to the ever-growing work load with Mäuse, Minisex, Janosch Moldau, Christian Fuchs (Black Palms Orchester) and Christina „Chra“ Nemec. In late 2018, a dozen songs were left from the recorded material, songs that stood for the new style and didn’t have much in common with the electric sounds of the past.
„The Happy Sun“ was born and Gerhard returned to his roots. Music he once recorded on with two cassette decks, cheap electric guitars and even cheaper drum computers – a wild mix of The Cure, Wire, Hüsker Du, Joy Division/New Order and similar bands. A few of these recordings were re-recorded for THE HAPPY SUN, but the majority of the part is made up of completely new songs. Co-producer Bernd Heinrauch describes the music as „psychedelic-shoegaze-seventies-rock“, which is anything but far from the truth. Through Hans Platzgumer, with whom Gerhard already released music on Disko B, came the connection to Noise Appeal Records and it was decided to work together. The chosen songs were mixed and co-produced by „mixing guru“ Bernd Heinrauch, while Philipp Pluhar provided the drums and Christina Nemec the backing vocals. Playing live, Potuznik is supported by Christoph Baumgartner (bass), Clemens Haipl (guitar) and Josef Zorn (drums).
