In Oktober 1980 an unidentified flying object landed on an isolated farm only surrounded by fields and mountains somewhere in the south of Europe. The UFO was on its way to the Bahamas, but had mistakenly crashed on its mission to explore something that humans call sound. Kareem, the only passenger on board, was selected for this mission by the tribe from his faraway home planet. The aliens had detected some mysterious sound waves from an abandoned radio station on the Bahamas. As they tried to find out more about something non-existent in their world, they discovered planet Earth. The extraterrestrials had studied humans for centuries. They knew everything about them. One thing they couldn’t understand was the perception of music and sound. How could some waveforms they were only able to quantify but not visualize have such a great impact on the human kind? It was Kareem’s mission to find out!

On his way to earth he taught his autopilot to follow the wave forms of the abandoned radio station which unexplainably sent out an infinite loop of music that humans called parliament funk. But as he approached orbit he lost signal. Instead he suddenly heard the voice of the Electrifying Mojo aired by a Detroit radio station. That guy Mojo had played some mixes of another guy called Atkins and interviewed him. He talked about synthesizers and said: “When I first heard synthesizers dropped on records it was great… like UFOs landing…“

Hearing that, Kareem thought this cool guy might be open- minded enough to explain the meaning of music on earth to an alien.

Unfortunately, Kareem’s autopilot was so amazed by Electrifying Mojo’s radio show, that it forgot about navigation and they crashed on the previously mentioned farm.

After his crash Kareem adapted his outward appearance to human kind and quickly came in contact with the residents of the farm. He passed himself off as a breakaway Saudi oil sheik who wanted to explore foreign countries in colder regions. He utilized the seclusion of the farm to get used to human habits and observances.

As the farmers were only into German folk music Kareem quickly realized that this wasn’t the music Atkins played at Elektrifying Mojo’s radio show. He was driven by the idea to pay the Detroit guys a visit and learn more about their futuristic ideas of music. On his way to Detroit Kareem got stuck in Frankfurt am Main were he accidently met some other aliens who also were interested in exploring something that humans call electronic music. They did some research and figured out that for supporters of the electronic music scene it is common to meet in groups. Humans call this event party. They came together to swallow some liquid they call alcohol and performed funny movements known as dancing. Kareem and his new alien friends decided to practice that freaky ritual in an abandoned subway. The practice started out with a few crazy aliens freaking out to the music Kareem had collected over the years. They tried all kind of dancing moves and created new ones. By swallowing liquids they became wasted. Some passersby observed this unusual occurrence and instantly fell in love with the music Kareem had played. They started screaming: “Oh my gosh, what’s that?“. An alien didn’t know what to say and stammered a word that sounded like Harzwerk. The passersby screamed “Oh, that’s Harzwerk” and the aliens responded: ”Yes, we are Harzwerk”.

They had a great time dancing and drinking that weird stuff and decided to do that on a regular basis. Aliens mixed up with non- aliens and the thing got bigger and bigger. What had started as a secret meeting became Frankfurt’s most famous underground movement.

After a while Kareem became board by only playing collected music and decided to compose his own creations. He remembered Atkins talking about synthesizers and bought a whole bunch of them and installed the equipment in his flying saucer. Some alien friends liked his music and started to release it on their label. Because they loved the distinctive sound of vinyl so much Kareem and his alien friends created their own label called Platte International.

He even went to see Atkins in Detroit and explained the sound of UFOs landing.

Nowadays Kareem is living in Berlin next door to germanys most famous “Berghain”. He built up his own studio, with some great pieces of analog outboard equipment, where he creats his unique sound.

He also runs a label called “platte international”…

Selected discography of Kareem:

2005 – “pentagonik label ep” (pentagonik)
2005 – “kick buddies” with ludwig coenen (pentagonik)
2006 – “mitotic apparatus ep” (pentagonik)
2007 – “dada punk ep” (pentagonik)
2009 – “Mokka” 5 years Stock5 Compilation (Stock5)
2010 – “lima soul ms elster remix” (Elster- Records)
2010 – “delete one day of your life” (platte international)
2010 – “bootyfull” with peter schumann (platte international)
2010 – “pink pills for pale people” (platte international)
2010 – “sirocco” with peter schumann (platte international)
2010 – “spontaneously combusted ep” (platte international)
2010 – “aix en prevence” platte003 (platte international)
2011 – “Tapdance Shoes” Bara Bröst Elephancycle Remixes (Bbe)
2011 – “Dusty” Bara Bröst Elephancycle Remixes (Bbe)
2011 – “Jackmosphere Ep” Jack 002 (Jack Records)