BASIC FACTS

* Bodycode is one of two alias' for electronic music producer / South African Futurist Alan Abrahams the other is Portable.

* Alan was raised in an improvised South African township in Cape Town called Bonteheuwel (Bounty Valley) which was also tagged "Beverly Hills" by the locals.

* He was initially inspired by the local sounds of Brenda Fassie, Yvonne Chaka Chaka, and Miriam Mikeba and the scene at local illegal bars (shebeens) where he heard the life-changing influence of 12" singles that were "rented" by DJ friends - little nuggets of wonder from the early Chicago house scene like Master C+J's "Dub Love", the Housemaster Boys' "Housenation" and Adonis' "No Way Back."

* Some of his early music was influenced by the intricate tribal polyrhythms rhythms "The San," the collective term for a group of tribes found in the south of Africa - who are being driven from their homeland after 20,000 years due to diamond prospecting. This polyrhythmic sensibility can still be found in his work.

* Wanting to expand the reach for his music, he moved to London in 1997. In the mid '00s he relocated from London to Lisbon in Portugal. He relocated to Berlin in 2008 and what followed was a big year for him sharing billings with the likes of Omar S, Move D, Lawrence and many others.

THE NEW ALBUM IN HIS OWN WORDS

* My music is equally shaped by science fiction and life in the natural
world, for science fiction it's often novels. One of the most influential novels concerning my composition of immune must certainly be Andrew Crumey's "Mobius Dick." The central theme of the novel is time dilation which is an element I tried to install within the framework of the album.

* For nature, I was living in Lisbon, which is surrounded by abundant natural elements of the sea and forests. Many times I would spend overnight
camping with my laptop and portable controller and gather ideas from the
surrounding reflections of the light and sound off the rocks and sea in general. One track in particular is "subspace radio." I sat for hours crafting and sculpting the pad sound to emulate the reflective sounds of ocean and rock. I always felt it necessary for my music to contain a certain element of the magic which is in nature. Sampled drum or acoustic instruments are molded and merged within a technological framework. All our technologies are an emulation of what has existed in the natural world in one form or another. I feel this can also pertain to music, specifically electronic music.

* The stylistic elements I am referring to is not 4/ 4 rythms as the album is in fact not a basic 4/4 framework, but polyrhythm's intertwined but with the addition of the more melodious elements of house. Things like pads and organs and the like as this is the general mood of the society at large. Three years ago we had Bush, war, and a general arrogance. Now, there's Obama, steps to tackle the mess the world is in and recession, which is not really all bad, less money often spells more creativity. And I just feel it a good time for warm nurturing esthetic we need it right now.

* I had my laptop stolen twice during this period with minimal back up, so I had to re-create some of the tracks in particularly the title track "immune." This was in a strange way ironic and the vocals mentions nothing is immune from change and yet I had to re-create the track, twice to get the final version that appears on the album.

* I'd like to think that my music appeals directly to the mind. So much thought and time goes into the construction of the sound and ethos that it simply cannot translate as your bog standard house. It goes back to the days when our ancestors used to dance around a fire as a form of communion and release of the daily and weekly troubles or successes. This is directly related to us coming together as a whole on the club dancefloor to commune and release, it's the evolution of our tribal fire dances. My music initially is based on rhythm, to make you dance, the layers transposed onto this are for the psyche to tap into, as a form of meditation and release. I would like to feel that with every listen to any track on immune that the listener would come away as someone other, different to the listener who stepped through the door before.

* Asked why the album has so many vocals Alan responded - I wanted the album to come across as a more personal album than the one before , so figured the addition of my own vocals and Lerato's might make this possible.

RECORDING HISTORY

* Late last year his Portable single "The Emerald Life" on Musik Krause received major praise in Europe ending up as a contender for single of the year from many.

* In late 2007 he released the warmest received Portable album to date (his 4th) "Powers of Ten" on his own Süd Electronic. The album saw him also taking on vocal duties and expanding his sound palette further into song territory.

* In 2007 the Bodycode track "Exciting Ride" was included on the Spectral Sound EP "Death is Nothing To Fear." Later that year he explored South African history deeper and pushed the polyrhythmic element of the Bodycode project even further with the 12" "A Document of an African Past" on Yore.

* He released the album "The Conservation of Electric Charge" from his more dance floor orientated alias Bodycode album on Spectral Sound in 2006 and toured the US playing live in support. * The inspiration for "The Conservation of Electric Charge" album came from Alan's belief "that the psyche can be unlocked via the body." Tracks like "I, Data" where influenced by the Sci-Fi of authors like Stephen Baxtor, Philip K. Dick and Greg Egan. Whilst making "The Conservation of Electric Charge" Alan was listening to Brian Eno and Glenn Gould, serious music that still has an influence on his sound. * At the time critics said that "The Conservation of Electric Charge" was " gorgeous 21st-century Afro-house" that displayed " a fierce single-mindedness without being a one-trick pony." whilst melding "snippets of his homeland's traditional beat patterns with the hybridized emulations of the Chicago house and Detroit techno scenes to craft music that exudes an effortless groove" with one critic going on to add "I stack it alongside Louderbach’s ‘Enemy Love’ and Ricardo Villalobos’ ‘Achso’ as a work of depth and integrity."

* He started his own (still going) label Süd Electronic with a close friend London in 2002.

* In 1994 Alan completed and signed his first Portable album to a South African label called Teal Trutone awho released the debut "Dance For Freedom" in time to coincide directly with the first democratic elections in South Africa. As Portable he's recorded four albums and a multitude of singles for a wide range of labels including Perlon, ~scape, Musik Krause and more. He's also performed live as Portable around the world at clubs big and small from Yellow in Japan to The Austin Museum of Digital Art.