The Mole

Colin De La Plante, aka The Mole, is a universal soldier of the Canadian club scene. A client of Kompakt, Philpot and Wagon Repair labels, friend and ally of Matthew Johnson. The Canadian knows no stylistic boundaries, mixing disco with techno and freely roaming from laid-back downtempo rhythms to dynamic and elastic tech-house. Such openness works in the Canadian's favor – his tracks fit perfectly into the sets of such different DJs as Sven Vath, Prins Thomas and Savas Pascalidis. The North American prodigy became the talk of the town back in the nineties, when Mole was just beginning to spin records in clubs in Vancouver and Victoria. But the young Canadian's ambitions extended far beyond that – he dreamed of composing his own tracks. For this purpose, he moved to Montreal, where on dark winter evenings he studied the intricacies of musical science. Colin sought inspiration in old disco and soul records, and would spend hours digging through local record shops in search of them. The path to the 'big world' for The Mole lay through the Montreal festival Mutek. His performance at Mutek-2004 made the top ten best concerts of the year according to the authoritative New York newspaper The Village Voice, and Urb magazine included the Canadian in the hundred most promising newcomers. That same year, The Mole released a whole series of records. Colin created his own sound concept, based on unhurried house rhythms, saturated with live percussion and groove-laden synthetic bass. Over this skeleton, the Canadian would layer either light minor electronics, or atonal minimalist loops, or sultry samples from soul records of the seventies. With this 'mutant disco' format, De La Plante seemed not to fit into the prevailing tech-house format on dance labels, but this did not stop either the owners of the German Philpot, or the owners of the Canadian Musique Risquee (among whose founders, by the way, was the well-known Akufen). Matthew Johnson, his long-time friend and bandmate in Modern Deep Left Quartet, played no small role in The Mole's development. Matthew, who by that time had already joined the M_nus label roster, released a split album Moss Rocks with Colin, which brought The Mole many new fans. A year later, the next release of this duo was released by the famous Cologne label Kompakt. The subsequent history of the Canadian resembled a Hollywood film - achievements poured out like from a horn of plenty. A contract with Wagon Repair label (again under the wing of Matthew Johnson), an album on Mutek Records, rave reviews in the press and enthusiastic feedback from star DJs. Sven Vath included the track In My Song in his mix Sound of the Seventh Season, and the king of Nordic disco Prince Thomas not only released the composition Arcadian on the compilation Cosmo Galactic Prism, but also offered the Canadian to release an album on his label Full Papp. The Mole comes to Moscow as part of a major world tour, which he embarked on following the release of his first full-length album on the Wagon Repair label.