At Home With Âme: DJ Mag hits Innervisions HQ to meet the enigmatic German duo
Kristian Beyer and Frank Wiedemann, better known as Âme (that's pronounced 'arm', for the record, not 'ahh-may') often refer to their relationship as being like that of "an old couple". More accurately prehaps, they're like an old couple in an open marriage. While that's an unsavoury image, the description does bear scrutiny. They affectionately bicker with each other in the way that old, slightly adversarial friends, or spouses, do.
ART HUB
BERLIN BEGINNINGS
TRUST
“Peter Kruder, a friend of mine, knew him, and said he was a super lovely dude. I mean, what do you expect from an 83-year-old guy coming to your studio, and he’s one of your musical heroes? I didn’t quite know what to expect. He could be a diva or dropping names all the time, but there was none of that. He came in and there was not one moment that was not great. It was heart-warming. He’s just a really lovely guy who feels the need to make music every day.”
Simian Mobile Disco pick 10 tracks that influenced ‘Murmurations’
James Ford and Jas Shaw, the brainboxes behind Simian Mobile Disco, are no strangers to being... well, strange. Always ones to push the envelope production-wise, in the past they’ve even limited themselves to just one synth and one sequencer each for a whole project (2014 album ‘Whorl’). Elsewhere, their Delicacies label originally put out releases named after exotic foods, and their albums often feature mind-bending artwork.
02. Steve Bicknell ‘The Moment I Stopped’
“This might seem like a slightly obtuse reference given how fierce it is but one of the things that we love about the choir is how they break up a chord or phrase and split it out to different groups, creating a kind of arpeggiation effect. This is something that we do with synths, and to see it done with people was strange but also familiar.”
03. Yaleesa Hall & Malin ‘Artin (Zenker Brothers Remix)’
04. Lee Gamble ‘A Tergo Real’
“This comes off as a cross between early Autechre and Vangelis, but with the fidgety oddness that Lee Gamble brings to things. It’s pretty and also noticeably menacing, and while I don’t think that we have injected anything like the same amount of menace into ‘Murmurations’, we were constantly looking for subtle ways to subvert the beauty of the choral recordings.”
05. Acronym ‘The Trains Kept Rolling’
“Dreamy, chilly, spacey; at one point when we couldn’t nd a way to make drums feel natural with the choir stuff, we did go down the road of making the whole record beatless.”
06. DJ Python ‘Las Palmas’
“I love how the drums seem like they ought to be super- frantic as they are a choppy break, but somehow the whole thing just drifts along in a daze.”
07. Grand River ‘All Playing In Jannah’
“A huge part of the recording process with the choir got assigned to doing non-song-based stuff like drones or swoops. The texture of a group of singers who are used to singing together just holding a chord is so complex and
so interesting that it seems like a waste of time to muck about changing notes — that’s not what you are locked into anyway. Similarly, this is just a chord but it ripples and mutates in a way that means that you never tire of it.”
08. I-iii ‘Bun So Nude’
“Everyone has had that queasy sensation when they see congas or bongos set up in a club, it’s always going to end in tears. Certainly this is predicated on a conga pattern but it’s just that, a pattern, it rolls around and drills into your mind like a techno track and never does an annoying syncopated fill to show off. It gave us confidence that, if you can cut the human out of the equation, acoustic drums can be ok.”
09. Easter ‘Champagne (Luke Abbott Remix)’
“Probably the most obviously related track in the list, there’s vocals and wayward drums and washed out synths. I love how the vocals sit in this strange space between singing and chanting. The whole thing has a really dissociated sway to it that I keep coming back to.”
10. Von Haze ‘Hara’
“Dense and involving and slowly changing but not actually changing. These were definitely things that we were going for and while we wanted to avoid making a record of just drones, we do love a good drone, and this is unquestionably a good drone.”
Funk & soul legend Sadar Bahar picks his 10 ultimate dancefloor heaters
Sadar Bahar recently played a set for our DJ Mag HQ live stream and it was a journey into rare feel-good funk and disco 7- and 12-inches that you’ll love and most likely never have heard before. That, in fact, was only a small glimpse into an extensive collection that the legendary Chicago native has been building up for a lifetime.
02. Leon Lee ‘He Was A Man’
“I fell in love with this record some years back; me and my friend Lee Collins did an edit of this on our Soul In The Hole label for ‘Chicken Wing Edits’. A lot of people like it, a lot of people bought it, I still hear it a lot at parties. Definitely another one of my favourites.”
03. Grotto II ‘Wait... No Hurry’
“This is a more recent favourite. I picked this up when I was in Canada, just listening to records and searching around. I ended up hearing this and liked the sound, how they mixed the old school ‘70s and Afro-beat together, but in a funkier style. I’ve tried it on other people and they seem to really like it and enjoy it. I’ve been running this a lot in my sets lately.”
04. Was (Not Was) ‘Wheel Me Out’
05. The Police ‘Too Much Information’
“It’s one of the less familiar ones to a lot of people from The Police. It’s a bit different, but I like playing it out.”
06. Universal Togetherness Band ‘Ain’t Gonna Cry’
“This record wasn’t really released on a 7-inch to start. Their first album was only released on cassette but then later on they nally put it on vinyl. I was kinda shocked because they’re from Chicago — they’re from my city and I had never heard of them. A lot of people are only just getting familiar with them now. I was real impressed to hear them.”
07. Eddie Harris ‘Is It In’
“Nice record, it gets a nice reaction out of people. It’s good dance music with lots of good instruments going on, really entertaining.”
08. Stephen Encinas ‘Disco Illusion’
“This record was on my list for a long time. I was looking everywhere but could never find it, kept seeing bootlegs, bootlegs and bootlegs. Then I nally went to Japan and went record shopping with a friend, I found one. Of course it cost an arm and a leg but I had to have it. If you see that record, that’s a good one to pick up.”
09. Joe Bataan ‘Latin Strut’
“Another record I used to run in the clubs in the golden days, but I still like it today. It still goes down well with crowds.”
10. Kimiko Kasai ‘I Thought It Was You’
“This has always been one of my favourites. Found this one when I was in Japan, it was something I didn’t really know but when I picked it up I was amazed. I love Japan, I’ll be spending a month touring there at the end of the year, might have to pull this one out of the bag.”
Drew Morisey x Point Blank’s DJ Ravine: Three Essential Social Media Tips for Artists
In today’s world, social media is absolutely vital to the career of any artist in any discipline. With music it is especially so because, let’s face it, most young people want to be musicians, creating even more of a challenge to stand out. To do this you need to be making music that is fresh and interesting, but that alone isn’t enough – chances are when you’re starting out you don’t have a marketing team behind you, so you need to get yourself out there.
Nine new acts you need to hear this month
MODERNA
Growing up in a small Utah town with “a side of conservative Mormonism”, the now Berlin-based Moderna soon discovered music was a way out. After playing in a noise band using proper analogue gear, she naturally progressed to experimental electronic sounds and now produces her own raw fusions of acid, techno and electro.
SEAN OD
KLEIN
UNGLUED
BECCA JANE GREY
LOU KARSH
ROZA TERENZI
Roza Terenzi is the latest Australian artist to be building a name here in Europe. She hails from the beautiful beaches of Western Australia and as long as she can remember was hanging out in her dad’s home studio. These days she’s a self-confessed raver who spends as much time as possible on the dance oor, and that comes over in her productions. “I’ll either set out to make something more euphoric and uplifting, or something darker and more twisted,” she says.
DECEMBER
DARWIN
Elrow Ibiza shares line-up for debut Ushuaïa party
Elrow will be making its Ushuaïa Ibiza debut on 18th July and today the party brand has unveiled the full line-up — and it’s looking big.
Joining the likes of Eats Everything, Andrea Oliva and Kölsch will be Swiss don Andrea Oliva, elrow favourite De La Swing and Spanish legend Marc Maya.
For this one-off show at Ushuaïa, elrow will be adorning their Sambodromo de Brasil theme and be bringing a wild Brazilian street party to the open-air venue.
Game Changer: Black Box 'Ride On Time'
IT’S often said that behind every hit, there’s a lawsuit. Black Box’s ‘Ride On Time’ is no exception. Loleatta Holoway slammed it for ripping off her vocal and was understandably outraged when her voice was then mimed on the video by Katrin Quinol: a non-singing French model.
A large commercial venue, it restricted what he played most nights, apart from at a weekly student club event. “On Thursdays I could play my own thing. The students would go mad, because it was they only place they could hear what they wanted.” Gradually his sound began to take over. “By 1988 every night became 80 percent house. It was more than a new sound, it was a culture. People were carrying whistles or whatever they could to make some noise on the dance oor.” Daniele began honing his sets to work the new scene.
Point Blank at IMS Ibiza: Andrea Oliva DJ Masterclass
Point Blank’s coverage of the International Music Summit in Ibiza last month culminates with the DJ Masterclass they hosted with Andrea Oliva, after videos on the Point Blank x Pioneer DJ Accelerator Programme winner Ambian playing at the Hard Rock in support of Flashmob and Seth Troxler, and DJ Ravine reporting from some of the parties at the event.
Paul Kalkbrenner: Techno's reluctant superstar
Berlin is a city that’s always maintained an uneasy relationship with celebrity culture. It was here that David Bowie went to get away from the glare of the British press, a move that would have a profound creative effect both on his music and his personality. Its oft-brutalist architecture, dingy clubs, damp studios and derelict warehouse spaces might boast their own appeal, but they’re a far cry from the Hollywood Hills. While Berlin is a city that’s embraced techno like nowhere else on earth, it’s also not the sort of place that fosters hometown superstars.
Martin Garrix reveals who'll be joining him for his weekly Ushuaïa residency
Two times Top 100 DJs winner Martin Garrix has announced who will be joining him for his annual Ushuaïa Ibiza residency this summer.
Joining the Dutch prodigy poolside every Thursday from 5th July to 30th August includes both fan favourites and raw, up-and-coming talent.
Set to join the Dutch star will be A-Trak, Julian Jordan, Loopers, Lost Frequencies, and Tchami to STMPD RCRDSsuperstars Blinders, Brooks, CMC$, Dyro, Goja, Matisse & Sadko, Justin Mylo, Todd Helder and TV Noise.
