Hello,
This time around our 'House Music Special' might well be called a 'Krauthouse Special'. Germany's house music producers and labels have seemingly overtaken their US-based colleagues, at least regarding productivity and sheer quantity of output.
If this is also true in terms of quality remains yours to judge, but recent releases like Sascha Dive's album debut or the consistent output of labels like Desolat are certainly up there with the best. For comparison, we've included a few works of house music legends like Ron Trent and Mr. K' Alexi as well.
Fans of Teutonic house sounds should also check our latest podcast by Rampa and David Mayer, two of the people behind hot Berlin label Keinemusik, which is featured below with a new release by &Me. |
FEATURED RELEASE
For the past couple of years Sascha Dive has been carefully negotiating between the house music underground and Ibiza club floors, between the sound's raw and authentic US roots and the polished production style of his peers.
Few people have managed to pull this off as convincingly as Sascha Dive, whose music feels as little out of place on strictly underground labels such as Workshop as it does big-shot imprints as Cocoon. Dive's home base is of course his own Deep Vibes label, which has racked up an impressive catalogue of well over a dozen releases in only three years.
Given Sascha Dive's productivity it is almost a surprise that we haven't been treated to a proper full-length album any time sooner, but 'Restless Nights' certainly makes up for this with its 10 deep and moody house cuts. Deep percussive grooves and spoken word narratives run through the album as a common thread, with the energetic 'The Jam' and the tribal jazz of 'African Monster' standing out as polar opposites on the intensity scale.
'Restless Nights' is an impressive effort for its versatility and sophistication, and our favourite, the reduced dub house track 'Drums Of The Jungle', is just the icing on the cake of what is a finely nuanced house music album.
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MORE HOUSE MUSIC ESSENTIALS
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Axel Boman steps in for the fourth release of DJ Koze's Pampa label. Three pretty varied tracks ranging from dreamier house affairs to the deep burner 'Purple Drank' with its irresistibly catchy hook-line 'I woke up with your name on my lips'. One to check!
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Nathan Boddy a.k.a. Office Gossip joins Milton Jackson and Shur-i-kan's Dark Energy label, delivering 'Imperfect Variations', despite their title a highly sophisticated collection of floor-ready house cuts. Each of the four tracks will work those late night floors and comes highly recommended.
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Maxi-Single released 13-08-2010 on Cécille
Frankfurt's house prodigy Johnny D drops another sure-fire hit with 'Love or leave me', a signature tune of bumping, up-tempo house grooves, pastiche vocals and a bold use of noise throughout. It's backed by the no less energetic 'Triva Mango', which brings D's characteristic percussions to the fore. Hit.
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Dexter kicks off a special series dedicated to feel good club music, which is curated by no other than Tom Trago and presented by the mighty Rushhour camp. Easily his best outing since 'I Don't Care' on Klakson it features his signature vocoder use and fat bass-lines. Check!
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Munich's Jichael Mackson returns to Musique Risquée with two impressive cuts: 'Locus Pocus' is the type of shuffling minimal techno that we're usually a bit sceptical about, but this track is one tight and bassy beast! 'Sugar Hill Mountain' in turn is a spacey, almost cosmic affair. Great!
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Maxi-Single released 03-09-2010 on Oslo
Prolific Rumanian duo NoiDoi are steadily on the rise, serving their raw and functional house grooves this time via Frankfurt's Oslo label. Four minimalistic DJ tools beg to be mixed and arranged to your hearts content, and the break-beat allusions of 'Aprilie 6' make this one our favourite of the bunch.
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Marc Romboy and Blake Baxter team up for 'Muzik', a routined effort which should prove highly efficient on any dance-floor with its combination of Romboy's chord-stabs and Baxter's vocals. The remix is supplied by Bulgarian hot-shot Kink, delivering more punch by the ounce. Solid.
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The latest release on up and coming imprint Keinemusik comes from &Me, whose 'F.I.R.' was probably the biggest hit for the label so far. 'One Day' falls nothing short in hit potential, and Tiefschwarz add a distinct percussive edge to their edit.
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Maxi-Single released 13-08-2010 on La Pena
The La Peña collective delivers the 7th edition of its anonymous mini-compilations, this time with four distinctly different tunes, from the rude Chicago bounce of 'My Pussy' to the James-Bown-sampling 'Think' and the pop house of 'Other Busch'. Nice collection.
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The Mole is on a roll at the moment and delivers the first release for the newly found Fur Trade label. Reflecting on his move from Villeneuve in Canada to Damerow in Berlin we get all the stuff we love so much abut our fury friend on this wonderful EP.
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We won't pretend this didn't come as a surprise to us: Oliver Koletzki, previously known for his ravey minimal tunes on Cocoon and his Stil Vor Talent label, delivers an impressive album of Moloko-style pop house, together with The Koletzkis' singer Fran. What love can do...
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Maxi-Single released 03-09-2010 on 8BIT
8bit seems on a winning streak of late after Oxia & Eric Borgo's 'Plastic Bed' proving a big hit, and Nick Curly delivering three highly functional house cuts with his 'Ancient People EP'. 'Tigua' is probably the one to favour, with its simple bass hook and old-school stabs, which should work wonders on the floor.
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Fat release on the newly rebooted Baalsaal label by Chris Lattner, whose 'Golden Palace' gets treated to a fine laid back remix by Sven Tasnadi, and a reduced percussive dub edit by the man himself. Definitely one of the summer's big house music tunes.
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UK-born and Berlin-based, Ed Davenport combines the best of British and German house sounds: Dense chords and wild-pitch moods make 'Curtain Call' and 'Overdub In Am' two sure-fire hits for the dance-floor. Overdoing it a little on the break-downs perhaps, but otherwise impeccable tracks!
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Mr. Aju puts together The Sol Percussion Ensemble and readies a great two tracker while we still have to wait for his next album. 'Vibra' makes a nod to the sunny grooves of Bob James while 'Flexa' is a futuristic bass house groover. Big EP!
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Sascha Funke gets all biblical for his latest collaboration with Russian house queen Nina Kraviz: 'Moses' is a slamming piece of techno-inspired deep house, and with a jacking bonus mix, a Stimming rework and the even deeper 'Headphones' thrown in, this is our favourite BPitch release in a while!
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Benjamin Brunn warms up his analogue synth park for the latest instalment on Ada's International Records Recordings label. Two fine cuts of funk infected house which go down as easy pie and are rounded off by a classy remix of Ada herself. One to check!
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New tracks by Âme! Both 'Rrose Sélavy' and 'Junggesellenmaschine' have a grungier feel to them than the duo's previous hits, almost as if they were assembled from live-played acoustic instrument samples. First class hypnotic deep house, with a nod to electro-acoustics. Excellent.
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Mobilee celebrates its fifth anniversary with a massive 16 track compilation, representing all the label's artists and the development of its musical spectrum, from minimal techno by Pan-Pot and Exercise One to classic house by Dan Curtin, Sebo K and Daniel Stefanik. Congratulations!
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