BACKROOM ENTERTAINMENT

Âme interview on Faith Fanzine

Oscar Garcia — Wed, 16 May 2012 16:00:03 +0000

In the history of German electronic music there are certain places the dance floor invading masses will cite as the “cities where it all happened.” These are the temples of prayer for the raver inside you, the cityscapes for stories of lost hotel room keys, coat room tickets, inhibitions and minds. As in America, where Chicago, New York or Detroit are held aloft as the three towers of dance music history. Or London and Manchester as central party pilgrimages in England.

In Germany it has always been about Cologne, Munich, Frankfurt and, of course, the dance behemoth that is Berlin.

Karlsruhe and Mannheim in southwestern Germany are hardly the places you imagine dreams are made of in the dance music industry. They do not leap out as cities of artistic exuberance. But the Story of Âme is the story of how in Karlsruhe the Jazz Trumpet and Piano reined, in Mannheim Boston grunge pioneers The Pixies and later underground raves held sway. Of course it is nothing new to read stories of small town boys dreaming of the bright lights but Âme have some damn big lights, play in the biggest clubs in the biggest cities and have the biggest tunes to boot.

Frank Wiedermann and Kristian Beyer are in many ways the archetypal production duo. The jazz boffin and the raver, the mad scientist that presses the buttons in the studio and the man that presses the buttons on the dance floor – his family were actually scientists. They split their performance duties with Frank performing all their live shows and Kristian manning the turntables. They are stalwarts at Innervisions, a label so cool it is practically Patagonia while they have also released on the seminal Sonar Kollektiv label.

They formed the first ever techno boy band and redefined the way – if there ever actually was a way – improvised, group-based techno should work with their performances alongside Henrik Schwarz and Dixon as A Critical Mass. As ‘Rej’ they wrote one of the biggest tracks of the last decade, a perfect morphing of techno and house. Gaining them the most mileage of DJ play and a seat at the top table of dance music’s modern messiahs.

Their latest project is a live album, put together over the last couple of years and performed live by Frank with Kristian’s input. We met up with two of Germany’s house and techno glitterati to talk deep house in Frankfurt, Carnival in Brazil, raves in Mannheim, “commercial music in a commercial club” and freakish meetings with a German kraut rock pioneer.

Did you have a musical upbringing in any way?

Frank: So my father played trumpet, he didn’t play professionally but as I would say he was a very good amateur. So there was always some sort of music on in our house, I also learned to play the piano when I was eight, or I at least started learning piano when I was eight, so I guess since that moment I have made a lot of music, I was in bands you know, so yeah I started young.

Kristian: Not for me at all! I think everybody in my family had been scientist until me.

What was the first music you can remember really loving?

K: For me it was definitely The Pixies. They were the first and the biggest band in my youth.

F: I shouldn’t really tell this to you.. and to be honest it has appeared in quite a few articles already so I’m not so sure that we should print this again as Kristian will hate me. Ok, so it was Jazz (laughs) of course it was because my father played jazz trumpet. (laughs)

Where did you grow up?
F: I grew up Karlsruhe; it’s a very nice, humble city in southwest Germany.

K: And I grew up in Mannheim, which is a small city near Frankfurt.

F: We both live in Berlin now but we are both originally from the southwest of Germany and we met each other there as well.

What sort of scenes did Karlsruhe and Mannheim have?
F: I cannot say that Karlsruhe had a scene to be honest. It was at that time there was a big Drum and Bass scene going on in Manheim, which is where Kristian came from originally. So that is where all the big parties were going on. In my town it was pretty mixed up really, a little bit of drum and bass and jungle stuff too but also some big beat crews and not so much house and techno. There wasn’t really any scenes, it was all just really mixed.

How were you involved in dance music before you began working together?
F: I only had one release with a friend of mine that came out on Compost records; it was on one of those Future Sound of Jazz compilations. Before that I only played in bands, I made like easy listening (laughs) and jazz-rock music.

But I was DJing already too but I was much more into this sort of broken beat and downbeat stuff, I wasn’t so much into house music or techno. I was playing what I thought was hip at that time.

Read the full interview here.

Dirt Crew May Charts via Traxsource

Oscar Garcia — Wed, 16 May 2012 13:30:53 +0000

James Favour and Break 3000, heads of Dirt Crew Recordings, share with us via Traxsource their Spring weapons. Check them out and take them home, if you like, by clicking here.

Dirt Crew May Top Ten

01. Dirt Crew Recordings: Detroit Swindle – Nothing Else Matters EP
Nothing Else Matters

02. Robsoul: Joss Moog- That Old Feeling
That Old Feeling

03. Moodmusic: Various Artists – James Flavour & Sasse pres. Station
Tossing (Original Mix)

04. Innervisions: Âme – Âme Live
Insomnia (Ame Live Version)

05. Prime Numbers: Trus’me – PN12
Sweetmother (Marcel Dettmann Remix)

06. Tigersushi: Joakim – Nothing Gold EP
Nothing Gold (Todd Terje Remix)

07. Yoruba: Afefe Iku – The Blues
The Blues

08. My Favourite Pet Records: Nuodeo – I Heard you Met Someone
I Heard You Met Someone (Original mix)

09. RushHour: Boo Williams – Moving Rivers
Moving Rivers

10. Easy Street: Cultural Vibe – Ma Foom Bey
Ma Foom Bey (Love Chant Version)

Martin Brodin – Agogo (including Bottin remixes)

Oscar Garcia — Wed, 16 May 2012 11:13:13 +0000

Getting inspiration from his extensive 70s & 80s record collection, the Malmö-based Martin Brodin delivers yet another crafty disco-orientated tune, “Agogo”, which is meant to shake the walls of today’s scene. “Agogo” will be digitally released May 18th via the Swede imprint MB Disco and includes also a couple of remix treatments by the Venecian disco maestro William Bottin. Preview Bottin’s main take on Martin Brodin’s “Agogo” on the player provided below.

Martin Brodin – Agogo (Bottin Mix) by BOTTIN

Soon pretty soon available at:

Genius of Time Speaks to Louche Music.com

alex — Tue, 15 May 2012 13:20:08 +0000

Few producers have caught our eye over the last year as much as Swedish duo Genius Of Time. Their Louchecast was superb, as was their performance at our Fabric debut this March. Now they are less than a week away from playing their first gig at Mint Club, alongside Dyed Soundorom this Saturday night. Josh caught up with the boys…

So lets start with Fabric guys where we first met. It was our first time playing there as it was yours. Were you as impressed and humbled by the performance as we were?

Fabric was great. It was also our first performance in the UK. We have been DJing in London before but this was our live debut. We knew about fabric from earlier, I mean it’s just one of these famous clubs that most people know about without having been there. That of course comes with some expectations but Room 3 had a perfect size and an intimate vibe that we really liked. Couldn’t ask for a better London debut. Thanks for having us!

The name Genius Of Time; what does it mean? I could be wrong but is it a tribute to the old school..

The name came out of an interest in time, you know the progress of existence, past present future etc. It’s a subject that has been a lot on our minds but it’s pretty hard to wrap your head around. The more theories you read the stranger things get… Nonetheless most fascinating and mind bending. I kind of imagine the Genius of Time as this mystical being or entity who figured all these things out. Seeing the future, controlling the course of events etc. Playing music allows you to do this in a way, within the realm of the song. Music has duration, it happens over time. It’s different to some other forms of art in that sense. Rhythm, tempo, arrangement… They can’t exist as snapshots/specific moments in time.

Tell us please a little bit about living in Sweden and the scene there…

Sweden is a nice country to live in, although very dark and cold in the winter. We have a strong music scene here especially when it comes to rock music, but not necessarily with electronic dance music. There are great producers and djs from Sweden but there’s not really a lot of good venues to support the scene. Basically we are doing our own parties from scratch at various locations whenever we do Aniara nights in Gothenburg. They are run like semi-private events to allow us to keep open for how long as we want without the authorities giving us trouble. It has been working well so far

Have you ever considered a move somewhere else? Sure Berlin must have crossed your mind at some point no?

Sure, Berlin is an amazing city to be in if you’re into this music. We spend a lot of time there but it’s also important to us to contribute to the local scene in Sweden. Luckily it’s possible to do both!

Are you big football guys? England have Sweden again in the European Cup this summer- do you fancy you guys’ chances!?

No we’re not really big football guys. I guess the Swedish team on a good day might have a chance. Through-balls to Zlatan…

Your label Aniara appears to go from strength to strength, how is it running your own imprint? Have you got some juicy releases in the pipeline?

Aniara is run by us and Fabian Bruhn. We’ve been more involved on the musical side while Fabian has been more of the captain of the label ship. It’s been great and loads of fun being able to do these releases. We’ve got a couple of records getting finished at the moment so we’re hoping to speed up the pace a bit release-wise. The next one is by a japanese artist called Auji. It’s the first time for us to release anything from an external artist which is exciting. It’s a very deep, beautiful, spacey house record. It’s been mixed in our studio so it has got the Aniara sound treatment. After that it’s going to be a new release from Genius Of Time.

Read the full interview via Louche Music.com.

Stefan Goldmann’s Brand new Soundcloud profile

alex — Tue, 15 May 2012 13:19:28 +0000

Macro head Stefan Goldmann joins the Soundcloud community. Dive into his freshly created profile by clicking here to find a preview of one the cuts featured on his new “Adem EP”, “Rigid Chain (Dub Mix)”.

Some bits and bobs about Goldmann’s “Adem EP” via Textura:

“Macro’s brainiac techno is always welcome in these parts, and its latest, a three-tracker by Stefan Goldmann is no exception. He brings the same kind of audacious sensibility to the EP’s material as he did to his 2009 take on Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du printemps, which was stitched together from 146 sections lifted from over a dozen recordings. But let’s be clear: Adem has little connection to Western classical music. It’s techno, if techno of the wacky Macro kind”.

STEFAN GOLDMANN rigid chain (dub mix) // MACRO M28 by Stefan Goldmann

Ernesto – Reelin’ (Including Jori Hulkkonen remix)

alex — Tue, 15 May 2012 08:50:14 +0000

“Reelin’” is the single and a featured track on Ernesto’s fourth studio album “Suffice Suffice”, to be released this Spring. The single package includes a deep house-orientated remix by no other than the Finnish tech-house superstar Jori Hulkkonen. Give it a check it on the player provided below.

Release Date 2012-04-20
Label Rakkaus Records
Catalog# RAKKAUS17

Ernesto – Reelin’ (Jori Hulkkonen Remix) by Rakkaus Records

Available now at:

BIS Records 003 – Paradis “Hémisphère”

alex — Mon, 14 May 2012 15:26:34 +0000

Returning to Beats in Space after their debut 12″ (and the label’s debut release) in the fall of 2011, Paradis offers “Hémisphère” and “Je m’ennuie”, another pair of sophisticatedly crafted, noir-pop songs from the young Parisian duo.

On the two tracks of their second 12″, Paradis self-reflect to find an escape hatch away from themselves. The A-Side, “Hémisphère”, a macabre story of a lonely guest of life determined to leave everything behind, defies the narrative’s convention and captivates with pop melodies and up beats abound.

On the B-Side, “Je M’ennuie”, lovers settle into late-night melancholic routines soundtracked by a brooding bass line, an achingly affective synth lead, and vocals that grin behind the disaffected front. Ultimately, hope prevails as both tracks beg the listener to leave their headphones behind for the global village’s dance floor. From Paris to Cologne, from Buenos Aires to New York, in the words of Michel Polnareff, “On ira tous au Paradis.”

Each 12″ from Beats in Space features original artwork in considerate & serial form. The first 12″ features artwork by Denise Kupferschmidt, a Brooklyn-based artist finding inner / outer space in the movement of line and assemblage of color. The 12″ packaging constructed by Will Work For Good features a vinyl BIS logo cling.

The 12″ will be available on May 22nd, 2012 from fine retailers worldwide. The digital version will be available May 29th, 2012 from the drab internet universe.

Released by: Beats In Space Records
Release/catalogue number: BIS003
Release date: May 22, 2012

Paradis “Hémisphère” – BIS Records 003 by timsweeney

Pre-order your copy now here.

A sneak preview into Sasse’s forthcoming LP on Moodmusic

alex — Mon, 14 May 2012 14:30:07 +0000

Moodmusic label head Klas Sasse Lindblad is to deliver his 3rd album on Moodmusic Records during the summer of 2012. “Third Encounter LP” will be out on double vinyl and CD on June 18th and digitally on July 9th. While we all await for the release, give a listen to “Der Groove” a trippy analogue deep house tune, included on Sasse’s forthcoming album. More information to follow soon…

Metro Area 5 & 6 reissued digitally and now available at Juno

alex — Mon, 14 May 2012 11:28:01 +0000

A new digital release is as good an excuse as any for a reappraisal of the glorious sound of Metro Area. With the first four EPs taking a lot of the limelight for comprising the MA album, 5 and 6 in the 12″ series are well-deserving of a second outing. As with all their output, Morgan Geist and Jesrani craft immaculate, warm and heartfelt disco-house nuggets devoid of any of the negative association that genre tag might imply. “Nerves” is a masterclass in uplifting but sorrowful strings, while “Proton Candy” is all quirky Italo flavour. “Honey Circuit” meanwhile sports a punchier electro strut, and “Things Fall” shows the modern contingent how to really do analogue deep house.

Available now at:

In other news, the next Storm Queen release, Let’s Make Mistakes (ENV037), is now complete and awaiting a mid-July release to take the summer by Storm… Queen…

Âme live CD reviewed on Resident Advisor

alex — Fri, 11 May 2012 16:00:39 +0000

Unlike rock bands, dance acts tend to go for the remix collection over the live album when they want to wring out their back catalogue. And, despite the name, Ame’s Live is much more in the former mould. Although comprised of live recordings from the past two years, Live is very much a studio creation, with reworked versions of their own “greatest hits” and remixes for the likes of UNKLE and Underworld compressed into one continuous set. It’s also ostensibly a celebration of Frank Wiedemann and Kristian Beyer’s first decade together, but while the form might be fresh, you suspect the motives behind putting it out might be more stale. After all, while their touring schedule is hardly slothful, it has been eight years since their eponymous debut on Sonar Kollektiv and their own productions and remixes have been more a trickle than a stream recently.

If Live serves the purpose of bridging a gap in the release schedule, it also follows the traditional structure of a rock set: building right up to the big tune for its climax. The darting bleeps of “Rej” are the equivalent of Deep Purple’s “Smoke On The Water” riff, the trademark moment that everyone’s there to hear. The opening remix of Roy Ayers’ “Tarzan” introduces many of Ame’s signature sounds; the stabbing orchestral strings, the supple tech house beats, the melodic fragments at once warm, poignant and minatory. It’s a style distinctive but never restrictive, allowing them to descend from the peaktime heights of tribal techno chant “Ku Kanjani” to the lower dub pace of “Nia” and the deep vocal house of their remix of Osunlade’s “Envision” with real grace. Ame transform the portentous dirge of UNKLE’s “Hold My Hand” or the stadium techno of Underworld’s “Crocodile” into something much more subtle, while a new remix of Gui Boratto’s “This Is Not The End” blends Luciana Villanova’s vocal into sensual ambience. It’s all skilfully woven together, yet experienced outside the clubs where it was recorded isn’t quite enough to breathe new life into this collection of well-worn favourites.

Review via RA.