Charles Siegling, perhaps better known in the global world of techno as Technasia, has just released the critically acclaimed 'Central' album, his first artist album for five years. You can get more info on 'Central' right here

But before you do that, we heartily recommend that you check out this excellent exclusive mix he's just prepared for us and have a read of his interview below.

Hey Charles- how are you today?

Very good, thanks! I'm still quite in recovery mode from last night's heavy drinking at a festival, but all in all, perfectly fine! hic :D

Where are you right now?

I'm in Spain, in between a few gigs. Last night was Aquasella, near Oviedo, north of Spain. It's been one of the most successful electronic music festival in Spain with more than 20000 people. It's their 14th edition this year. I played together with my buddy Dosem on the main stage at 7am, which is the peak time over here hahaha. It was quite techno, like most of the time in Spain, but I must say that they've got one of the best audiences in the world in that country. It was really an excellent night. Then tonight, taking the last flight to Barcelona, and then a car for 2 hours to another mythical club, Florida 135, where I'll perform with Ken Ishii. Then on Monday straight to southern Italy for a party with Joris Voorn at Quartiere Latino. Summer time is always quite hectic for a DJs' schedule as you can imagine!

You just completed Bodytonic Mix 093- tell us a bit about your song choices?

Well, it's a bit of a mix of different styles. I've never really liked playing a single type of sound, or following currrent popular trends. I've always liked to mix different kinds of music within the same set. Electronic music is so diverse and has so much quality music in every single genre, that I always find it very limiting to just stay confined in that one single style. So in this mix, you've got some recent rootsy house tunes such as Martinez and Glimpse, you've got tracks by Aki Bergen , DJ T and Steve Lawler for the more actual tech-house sound, some dark techno bits with Jerome Sydenham and Monoloc, and of course some funky techno numbers with a new Santos track and my own remix for Benoit & Sergio on Spectral. I also always like to feature a few old classics or rare tunes, so you've got two really nice deep and elegant techno tunes, one by French-based producer John Thomas and the other one by Japan's own Fumiya Tanaka. You can also hear, of course, some of my recent productions in the set, with 'Innocuous Clouds', the single from my album, and the Dosem remix for the re-issue of 'Force'. I also included two tracks from the amazing new Mr.G album on Rekids.

'Central', is hyped to be one of the biggest techno albums of this year (although having a very diverse sounding tracklisting)- in your opinion what do you make of the state of techno today?

It's really not easy to say how it is right now, because I think we are still in a transition phase in the global music world at this point. What I can tell you is that, these last five years, a lot of people wanted this techno sound to be dead for various reasons. From one day to the other, those European capitals' intelligentsia of electronic music decided that no more 909 beats, no more noise, no more experimentation. They just wanted that really insipid and empty minimal digital and electro sound to be played everywhere, get 100% attention from the media and the scene, with that terrible holier-than-thou attitude they have associated it with. And they've been shouting out loud that whoever would produce or play anything outside of what they defined as 'the new sound' was just an old schmuck and had nothing to do in this business anymore. The general public went for that, but fortunately not for very long. You see, people like music for the emotion it can convey, and I personally think that there's no better genre in electronic music than original house and techno to give you that. The good thing about electronic music is that it's been a music that never really focused on the appearance of the artists, like in Hip-Hop, Rock or Pop, but more on the actual music the artists make. There's always been space for everybody in it, from all music horizons, all countries, and all social backgrounds, and THAT is what has always been the best thing in it and the reason why it's so diverse. So when all these arrogant guys came in with their new hair cuts, their completely formatted sound and their so-called live acts on iPads, I knew it would just take a few years for the general public to understand that it was just plain bullshit and that it would turn its back from the minimal/electro era sooner than later. So that's where we are today: all of sudden everybody is going for that true techno and rootsy house sound again, and the same ones that spat in our faces two years ago are now saying how much they always supported our sound all these years. It's very ironic, and there's a lot, maybe too much, opportunism in this electronic music world, but in any case, I'm glad that we have gone back today to a more open-minded electronic scene, where everybody can do the sound he likes without being treated like an outcast.

It's obviously not got the cache it had during the 'minimal' period- how do you see the genre progressing?

Let's be honest here, after 25 years of electronic music, it's really hard to be really innovative. Pretty much everything has been done so far in it. And I don't consider a lot of the ever-growing new plugins or music equipment to be really that innovative either. They're just a better or more automatized version of what has already been done too.To tell you the truth, I don't really see why Techno would have to progress? The industry constantly asks for new, new, new and newer, but this has to slow down or stop at some point. You can't always be the new Carl Craig, and Carl Craig cannot even always be the best in all his productions. As a music listener, I'm really happy with what electronic has to offer right now, 25 years of an enormous orgasmic back-catalog, and I'm discovering excellent old and new stuff every week. That just never ends! It's pure pleasure really. Techno is a style that can be constantly rediscovered. It's a bold genre of music, and it's diverse enough to provide satisfaction to most listeners and the clubbers. I think this applies to House music as well, and not only Techno. The only evolution you can think about is the new artists the industry will discover in the future, with their own unique talent and skills and their own music world. And that actually raises a very important question: with the drastic collapse of music sales during these last few years, it's really difficult for new artists to start making a living from the music they produce. When you start, you're not an international DJ yet, you don't tour regularly and earn money from that. Because you need money to put food in your plate and music sales don't bring you that anymore, it's really hard to start being a producer today and be able to dedicate a lot of time and practice to the actual music production, which is a necessity in order to develop your own style. That is I think where our industry will fail in the future. Most record labels don't take new talent under their wings anymore as they used to, and we'll all pay a hard price for it in the future.

You are quoted saying, "I wanted to give my music time to evolve artistically before making a new record", what happened in the last five years that resulted in the 'Central' finished LP?

Albums are a very essential piece of an artists career. They define what an artist really is, because when you make an album you are completely free to do whatever you want. Once again, since the collapse of music sales, the role of albums have been more and more disregarded by the vast majority of producers, because albums take a really long time to be made, one or two years time, and they don't bring that much money anymore, as opposed to ten or twenty years ago. But the fact is that they are really essential. This is what we'll be remembered for in 10, 20 or 30 years from now. People won't remember those little digital releases and boring remixes on Beatport. But albums, yes! That's something you'll still put in your iphone or in your car many years from now. I usually start working on album projects when I feel ready to go for it. When I think my sound has grown enough technically and emotionally to give the listener a new experience, then it's time for me to start working on it. You need quite a bit of time between two albums to be able to refill your inspiration. Three, four or even five years sometimes. You need many new music experiences, whether it's doing other projects with fellow artists, such as the album I co-produced with my friend Renato Cohen, or playing at hundreds of venues to feel the very different kind of vibes you can find in all those countries. You also need to discover new music, or rediscover some old dusty records that you put on the shelves ten years ago, meet and develop new friendships with people in the scene and so on"¦ That luggage that gets heavier and heavier throughout the years, and once it gets full, then you've got plenty of musical stories to tell the public. I've never liked albums where you get plenty of these 7-8 minutes tracks, DJ format thing, which all sound the same one another. You've got to make your album interesting to the listeners as well. I've worked a lot on that for 'Central', to make the journey as diverse as possible, with the different influences that touched me throughout the years in electronic music. I've also made all tracks have a very short, pop-like format, 3-4 minutes for each, not more. In that way, you never get bored with the flow of the album, or skip to the next track. All these little details make everything really important in the end. If you want people to spend their 10-15 bucks on your CD, you've got to give them the very very best of yourself. Nothing less.

You have been a key figure in the scene for the last 15 years or so- what advice would you pass on to the younger folk making tracks and Djing?

To be patient, work hard and be original. Patience is something that many young producers don't really understand today. They see Joris Voorn on the main stage at peak time, and they think 'I want to be that now!' But they don't even understand that he started in this business when I first signed him in 2001 on my label, and that it took him nearly 8-9 years to start reaching that superstar DJ status he has now. Becoming somebody in this music world requires a lot of personal work, and a lot of sacrifices. You can take shortcuts, like many new artists today, like putting your name on other people's productions or try to make friends with all the big guys to grab a little piece of their fame, and some do manage to get somewhere by doing so, but it never really lasts long, does? It's a music business, therefore music is the center of it all. You need talent and passion for music to be able to do something in it. And talent is indeed a very rare quality on this planet, and it requires years and years of practice to reach its full capacity.

Finally- what is the one record you can't live without?

I'll pick three: Stevie Wonder's 'Songs In The Key Of Life', Depeche Mode's 'Some Great Reward' and Carl Craig's 'More Songs About Food And Revolutionary Art'