Manon – Unwirklich (Mas Ricardo Mix)
Lisa Panagos – Mind’s Eye (Soul Dimensions Mix)
Split – We Love You 1
Egoexpress – Weiter III
System 360 – Untitled B
Soul Capsule – Lady Science (NYC Sunrise)
Marvin Dash – Ease On By
Isolée – Music… 1
Sound Stream – Let’s Break
System 360 – Untitled A
M:I:5 – Bonus
Blumfeld – The Lord Of Song
Isolée – Meanwhile
Farben – Live At The Sahara Tahoe, 1973
DJ Matt – Die Tiefe
Glance – Time (Original Dub)
Glance – On One
C-Rock – Nyte Falls (Korsakow’s 82 Karat Mix)
Boobjazz – Free Your Soul
Margarete Neumann – Feel Your Life
Michael Mayer – Untitled B1
DJ Linus – Intosomethin’ Deep
Marvin Dash – Red Sparrow
Matthew Boone – Missing Beauty
Stella – Lower Saxony
Stella – Extralife (DJ Naughty Remix)
Isolée – Beau Mot Plage
Wolfgang Voigt – Diskoschleifen 2000
Split – We Love You 2
Popacid – Bonny
Care – World Of Today
Rok – Commodore
Rok – High Menergy
Darryl D’Bonneau – Free (Gene Douglas Mix)
Chicks On Speed – Glamour Girl
Artist Unknown – Siechen
F’N’M – Memorabilia
Whirlpool Productions – Good Time There
Isolée – Bleu
The Modernist – Orange Coloured Sky
Jeremy – Soul Kicks
The Timewriter – Belief
Kool & The Gang – Always (Timewriter Remix)
Matias Del Campo – You Never Change
Steve Bug & Acid Maria – Down With Us
Don Disco & Jeremiah – Survivors
Forever Sweet – Don’t Speak (Justus Köhncke Remix)
Peter Dildo – Tripper
Herb LF – Tuning Kit
Manhattan Project – Life’s Like Good Music
Isolée – Initiate 2
Soylent Green – After All
C-Rock – Night Falls
Whirlpool Productions – Nothing
Frankie Patella – Sunshine
Jürgen Paape – Triumph 2
Marvin Dash – Small’s Paradise
Der Marschall & Herb LF – Rizzla Tune
Hair – Blances
Random Factor – Broken Mirror (Italo)
Hair – Polykur
System 360 – Canon
Losoul – Ex.or.zis.mus One + Hans Nieswandt – Freakapella
Isolée – Raum Zwei
Hair – Brunettes
Frankie Patella – Forever Young (48 Streets Mix)
Care – Soul Suite
Arj Snoek – People Know (Just Us Mix)
Arj Snoek – Remember
DJ Linus – Funny Fear
Vincenzo – Come Together
Korsakow – Truth
Maus & Stolle – Adore
Korsakow – Deep In Space
Sensorama – Helgoland
Mellow Man – The Deep
Korsakow – Deep Love
Korsakow – Abduction
Roman IV – Green Tea
Isolée – System
System 360 – Machines
Lynx – Call…
Burger/Ink – Twelve Miles High
Sensorama – Echtzeit (Move D Rmx)
LeShaun Lenin – -iS0lATi0N-
Marden Hill – Bardot
Ajukaja & Mart Avi – Scorpio
Tapes – Summer Jam
The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart – Higher Than The Stars (Skanfrom Remix)
Max 404 – Vertigo
Black Moon – I Got Cha Opin (Instrumental)
Edwyn Collins – You’ll Never Know (My Love) (Dennis Bovell Dub)
Pizzicato Five – Tokyo Mon Amour (Discotique 96 Mix)
The Wiseguys – The Real Vibes
Epo – Koino Hito Hira (English Version)
Bellydance – 3 Days Man!
Movement 98 Feat. Carroll Thompson – Joy And Heartbreak (The Future Mix)
The Korgis – Everybody’s Got To Learn Sometime (Slow And Moody Mix)
Karen Young – Deetour (Moplen Paradise Boogie)
Neonats – Traffic Love
Apiento feat. Harriet Road – Down That Road
Snips – Love Jockey
Unknown Artist – Talking About A Revolution
Snooze – Doremifa Girl (Isolée Rmx)
PM Dawn – Paper Doll (Instrumental)
Abi Clarke – Nothing But Love (Ashley Beedle Edit)
Fun Boy Three – Faith Hope & Dub (DRUG edit)
Osymyso – Fiver To Bigwig
Elizabeth Frazer – At Last I Am Free
There were several reasons for the popularity of minimal techno and house in the late 90s and early 00s. For one, a lot of electronic club music of the preceding years was quite boisterous. Its ingredients and purpose was often not exactly subtle, satisfying clubbers and listeners that emerged from the acid house and rave days with direct signals and relentless dancefloor dynamics. And as soon as a sound becomes too dominant in the club scene, there is a reaction, and alternatives develop, and as it happened with the minimal approach they might even take over what was happening before and become dominant as well. And a freshly initiated influx of dancers and listeners had also come with different musical requirements. While the big room and big festival acts like Prodigy and the Chemical Brothers converted a rock clientele to the dance floor, a lot of people who earlier preferred less heavier independent rock music fell in love with the early Detroit minimal techno prototypes by Robert Hood , Jeff Mills, Richie Hawtin and Daniel Bell, and its more dubbed out counterparts around the Berlin conglomerate of Basic Channel and its affiliated labels, or Wolfgang Voigt with his Profan and Studio 1 imprints in Cologne, or Force Inc. and later Perlon in Frankfurt or Säkhö in Finland, or Peter Ford‘s Ifach and Trelik labels. Furthermore the club scene itself went through changes. Budget airlines stormed the market and made travelling to parties affordable, new open air venues and festivals entered the circuit but they had to make concessions to surrounding areas and embraced a sound that was efficient without significantly loud and low end sound systems. Also drugs like ketamine or GHB became popular and their users liked a sound that was more reduced, hypnotic and subtle. And soon enough minimal techno crossed over to house as well, and was out to conquer.
Right in the centre of these developments was the Frankfurt imprint Playhouse founded by Ata and Heiko M/S/O, which began as the housier end of parent label Ongaku Musik, along with its fellow sub label Klang Elektronik. It put artists like Ricardo Villalobos on the map, as well as Isolée or Roman Flügel with his Roman IV or Soylent Green aliases, and they reinterpreted house music with a lot of attention to details, abstraction, reduction and repetition. Peter Kremaier aka Losoul was arguably the most defining artist in the label‘s early stages, and his productions had a signature sound that is still unique. He probably was inspired by the layering experiments of DJ Pierre‘s wild pitch sound or the immersive deep house of Ron Trent and Chez Damier, but his own tracks soon took off into their own creative zone. Beginning with 1996‘s „Open Door“ the following 12“ releases „Mandu“, „Don Disco De Super Bleep“, and „Synchro“ were masterclasses in dancefloor mesmerism. Over beats more pumping than those of his label peers, subliminal percussion and chopped chords, he worked with deconstructed disco and funk loops and occasional vocal samples that were so perfectly captivating that he could ride them over extended tracks that gradually introduced element after element with logical patience, resulting in trips you felt should never stop. But by the end of the 90s the structure of his tracks became less strict, and he also explored different sounds on dark, bass heavy tracks like „Ex.or.zis.mus“ or „Brother In Love“, to fine effect. It seemed what was still needed was an album to round up this artistic phase of his, before he would potentially venture into something new, or different.
When said album „Belong“ was then released in 2000, it came as surprise to many of his followers. The opener „Taste Not Waste“ is deceiving, as it is a brooding punchy excursion that would not have been out of place on the preceding 12“s, but already the following track „Late Play“ is a weird off-centre sounding sketch in comparison, hinting at the fact that the artist would not give away the chance to represent more of his repertoire than his trademark club stylings. „Resisting Curare“ takes up on the quirkiness, albeit speedier, while „Overland“ is an eccentric and playful take on the ever reliable Billie Jean groove, coming across like a cross between the original groove and „Kaw-Liga“ by The Residents, with extra weirdness. Then things take another unexpected turn with „Sunbeams And The Rain“, which in my humble opinion is one of the most astonishingly beautiful and sublime tracks ever to merge deep house and techno. Only slightly erratic, this majectic masterpiece is followed by the chunky slow groover „Position“, which dubs down the proceedings before the sparsely tripping yet funky „Depth Control“, another demonstration how much you can achieve with just a few thought-out, gripping elements. Next is „You Can Do“, which contains the sunniest loop Kremeier produced up to that point, a spiralling, almost balearic melody which does not let go for most of the track, thus resulting in another track you can completely lose yourself in, although it achieves that typically intense Losoul sensation with an untypical joyful mood. The last track „Trust“ is a warped and chopped hip hop version of Bill Withers‘ „Use Me“ that would grace any tape of later L.A. beatmakers, and it makes you wonder what whole other sounds the artist might have left in the vaults.
Although Losoul has continued to drop releases of consistent quality, I think „Belong“ marks the end of a certain era, in which he acted as a true solitaire, even among likeminded and similarly talented cohorts. To me it seems that only shortly after the imaginative ideas of the minimal techno and house of those years time soon were often forsaken for a sound that was already looming, more eager to please, and less interesting to listen and dance to, however exceptions might prove the rule. But it is undeniable that here lies the foundation for many backlashes and resurgences to come.
Resident Advisor September 2019
Romanthony – Hold On
DJ Spinna – Ladbroke Groove
Metro Area – Atmosphrique
Tiny Trendies – The Sky Is Not Crying
Freaks – 2 Please U
Gemini – We Are The Future
Andrés – Reality
Armand Van Helden Feat. Roland Clark – Flowerz
Nick Holder – Summer Daze
Derrick L. Carter – Dreaming Again
Isolée – Beau Mot Plage
Dino + Terry – Moon Dub
Sound Stream – Good Soul
Norma Jean Bell – Friday Nite
Ghost – Bodyguard
Eddie “Flashin” Fowlkes – Oh Lord
Blumfeld – Status Quo Vadis
LoSoul – Brother In Love
Octave One – Burujha
Nick Holder – Fill Your Dreams
Moodymann – Shades Of Jae
Terry Callier – I Don’t Want To See Myself (Without You)
Masters At Work Feat. India – To Be In Love
Kimara Lovelace – When Can Our Love Begin
Rick Wade – Show-U-Love
Mutabaruka – Dis Poem ’99
Pépé Bradock & The Grand Brûlé’s Choir – Deep Burnt
Kerri Chandler – Digital Love Affair
Herbert Meets Them Rednail Kidz – I Think Of You
Jamico Feat. Jackie Cohen – This Luv Is Real
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