Duo Blank
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Duo Blank are a Maltese electronic music group, and the principal name under which musicians Edwin Balzan and Frank Cachia have recorded together since 1998.
History
Pre-Duo Blank years: 1990–1997
Edwin Balzan and Frank Cachia actually started collaborating together in 1990 joining up with Jotham Saliba on vocals and Pierre Farrugia on synthesizers to record their first demo tape at Wave Studios under the name Q-Factory Incorporated. Being pioneer in electronic dance oriented pop in Malta at the time, this demo recordings landed them an offer to perform a song composed by Wave Studios co-owner Dominic Galea at the Festival tal-Kanzunetta ghall-Ewropa 1992.
Balzan, Cachia and Saliba continued to record more demos throughout the period 1993 till 1995 during which their style developed more from pop to Italo Nineties Dance. In 1995, under the project name Web, the trio released their first international single entitled 'Amazing' with the Italian Record Label Discomagic featuring Doreen Galea on vocals and dj's Manuel Bella and Andrea de Benedetto. In 1996, Balzan, Bella, Cachia and Saliba continued working together on an unreleased single featuring Bella's mother Carmen Scerri on vocals - this would end up to be the last project involving the duo with Saliba and Bella, in the following year, Balzan and Cachia teamed up with DJ David Dee producing various deep house singles which were later released under the Semitic Groove Foundation pseudonym.
First album and international techno release: 1998–1999
Edwin Balzan and Frank Cachia actually established the Duo Blank name when signing the credits in composition and production of four tracks they produced together with DJ / producer Owen Bezzina better known as Owen Jay. Together with Bezzina, the duo produced the tracks Soyuz 1.01, Where's the Duck, Tokyo Underground and Metal Corrosion. Thanks to this project, Duo Blank's track Soyuz 1.01 would feature in their first international techno release thanks to one of German dj's Chris Liebing's first visits to Malta - the release enetitled 'Hydraulic Blast EP' would be released under the German Label sOk under catalogue number sOk 14.
Duo Blank would release their 1999 album Hectic Electric under their own record label Noise Alliance.
More international techno releases: 2000–2003
Duo Blank would go on to release several international ep's between 2000 and 2003, one with German DJ Toni Rios on this label Danza Electronica, another with Belgian djs/producers Marco Bailey and Redhead on Invasion Records in 2001 and their first vinyl release on their own label Noise Alliance enetitled 'Ain't No News EP' in 2003.
Touring the live circuit - releasing a live album: 1999–2003
Edwin Balzan and Frank Cachia were the most busy live act in the busy Maltese techno event scene between the period 1999 till 2003. The duo's energetic techno sets compounded with live Roland TR909 rhythms and synnthesizer sounds generated live from a theremin connected to a Doepfer A100 modular would warm up for the likes of major techno dj's and artists such as Sven Vath, Richie Hawtin, Chris Liebing, Ben Sims, Marco Bailey, Redhead, The Gadgets and many more. The duo summed up this busy live period in a live album entitled Transmission - Live at Nova released in 2002 under their own Noise Alliance label.