The
weekender is a very British thing, particularly combined with that
other very British subculture: northern soul. When the first National
Soul Weekender took place in Caister in 1979, some ways of
celebrating the rare soul music scoring the scene had already been
well established: sweaty all-nighters happened all over the country,
where dedicated dancers and collectors met and kept the fire burning.
And all-dayers came into being, allowing the people to indulge in
their passion in different places, with less strict licensing
obligations. The clues were all there. British people liked the idea
to escape their urban working lives to the seaside on weekends. And
the mod culture, always strongly related to soul music, followed
suit, partying (and sometimes fighting) on coastal promenades,
beaches and clubs, as immortalized by tabloid headlines, and a
certain rock concept album plus movie. The brilliant idea in Caister,
however, was to combine all-nighters and all-dayers, and given the
unreliability of the British weather, the concept was due for
success. If it rained, you just danced in a club, and other places.
If not, you had fun at sea, and then danced, day and night, the whole
weekend.
Across
the North Sea in Germany, it seemed like only matter of time that all
this would catch on. And indeed, when the British mod revival of the
late 1970s hit continental shores, it ran through open doors, and the
soul part established itself as a subculture as stubborn and ardent.
The German weekenders followed a different path though. Starting in
1990 in Berlin and then led by annual events in Nürnberg and later
Bamberg, Dresden, Leipzig, Bremen, München, Aachen and more, the
locations were in cities. Hamburg is located very near to the UK and
accordingly anglophile, and came fully equipped with a sizeable
harbour and airport, and so what happened in the UK arguably left a
quicker and bigger mark there than elsewhere in Germany. The city
also had a long tradition of dancing to soul music to rely on, and a
vital club culture, with a long string of cherished soul nights like
the Soul Allnighter at Kir, Shelter Club, For Dancers Only and more
recently The Soul Seven, Motte Allnighter, Cole Slaw Club, Cool Cat
Club and 45 Degrees, just to name a few. But, strangely enough, it
had no soul weekender.
In
2007 this changed, when Ralf Mehnert and Jan Drews Tarazi established
the Hamburg Soul Weekender, with Tolbert taking care of the all-dayer
part. As the three of them were longtime respected DJs and
collectors, the weekender had notable line-ups right from the start,
and every year a thousand international, national and local soul
enthusiasts gather in the storied venue Gruenspan in the seminal
Reeperbahn area, to dance and party to the finest 60s and 70s
northern soul,
modern soul, funk, r&b and other related trends within the scene
that were always spotted early on, and with a keen eye. The music has
been played by over 120 top of the league DJs from all over the globe
so far, and it was always spread across a long weekend of two
all-nighters, one all-dayer, a boat cruise through the harbour and an
after party.
This schedule surely gives leeway to play a whole lot of music, and this compilation can only offer a mere glimpse of all the tunes that got the loyal crowds moving, but it is a heartfelt thank-you to all the dancers who have attended so far, however often they return. And for those who have not witnessed the magic of the Hamburg Soul Weekender yet, please consider this an invitation.
The first time I met Hunee was many years ago, in a Berlin record store where he worked at that time. Of course. He noticed the Disco stuff I chose from the crates and soon we were talking. And also soon we were playing gigs together. I was actually looking back on many years of playing out then, and I was not that determined to keep on keeping on. But you cannot act reserved around Hunee, particularly as far as music is concerned. Hunee’s enthusiasm for music is astounding. For every special record he learns about, he will find several other special records in return. It would be a waste of time for him to feed on the beauty of sounds and not share.
And then Hunee the producer emerged, to add to all the other music around him. At first, his very own music showed the restlessness he so often displayed in everyday life, plus nocturnal endeavours. There were wonderful ideas, almost too many of them. It seemed that Hunee took in so much music that his own artistic persona had to fight its way out. But it did. Yet after a few acclaimed releases, Hunee the producer disappeared again. I do not know why exactly, he never told me, and I never really asked. Apparently a debut album was ready to go, but it never saw the light. I felt that was quite a respectable and brave move, and I was very confident that he would not give up so easily. He never does. But for an avid vinyl collector like himself, it is quite difficult to achieve that all the inspirations do not divert from your own signature, yet still shine through, and the album is still a format much superior to others. And so while he continued to drop platters that matter week in way out, he went supposedly Kubrick on his own. I am most probably not exaggerating. Why? Because I’m listening to this album while I am writing these lines.
And this album is rather special. Even the opening title is special. It does not show off some unjustified pretension, it sets a perfect mood, a misty Eastern mood, full of drips, whirls and sweet ambience. Ending in one of the catchiest melodies I heard since I first fell in love with Japanese Synthpop. Not the easiest task to transcend this blissful mystery to something you can dance to, but Crossroads does exactly that, adding a cinematic aura that feels like elements unknown are tearing the roof off the to display a panoramic view of something you have never seen before. Influx, let me touch it. It feels acidic, and it has the glory. You will consider devouring it. Desire takes up the trip, and throws it around. A mean little groover, if I may say so. Burning Flowers in all its fury may be Fitzcarraldo’s ship sliding all the way back down, with the fat lady still singing. And if they pull that ship back up, this track will send it down again, instantly. Error Of The Average follows suit adequately, like a Sci-Fi orchestra whipping a round dance of lost souls into oblivion, all swirling drama and voodoo frenzy. I’m still trying to unlock myself from it. Movement takes its time, with string melancholia unfolding into a precious downbeat stroll. And is the exotic setting in Gabun Mind really crashing into that several minute psychedelia breakdown that then finally explodes into those revolving basslines and HEAVY beats? They may plant flowers and gardens through the deep and chaotic furrows this has left behind, but the idyll will never be the same again. And it keeps going more places. The jazz-fuelled interlude that is Amo reprises the Eastern atmosphere from earlier on, but in a puzzling way. We are talking suspense. Bruisesis just baffling. Do not even try to tell me you have ever heard one of the most famous vocal samples of the Paradise Garage legacy accompanied by a heart-wrenching string quartet. No, you did not. And you will probably not hear anything like this again. And then… the End of The World, which I indeed did not know yet. If this is the afterworld, I am not afraid. It feels a bit feverish to me, even a bit uncertain. But I can hear a light at the end of the tunnel. Exaggerating? Me? No. I was just listening to this album while I was writing these lines.
Though being a Disco and a Post Punk enthusiast since a tender young age, Indoor Life admittedly passed me by for quite some time. In pre-internet days, all the media resources I had access to (which actually were as many music magazines I could afford to read and as many radio shows within reach I could listen to) proved their unreliability by not offering me any information about them. There was no good friend who discovered their releases in a record shop, and they escaped my digging fingers as well.
When I finally stumbled upon Indoor Life years later, while researching potential gaps in my extensive Patrick Cowley collection in the web, even the few low research details and low quality vinyl rips I could gather made it more implausible how this outfit could fly so below all radars, and more importantly, for so long. How could I unearth the entire catalogue of a phenomenal band like Philadelphia’s The Stickmen while still being a teenager, who had less information circulating, less releases and probably never toured outside the US, and totally overlook this one, which connected even more of my interests? A band from the golden days of San Francisco Disco and Post Punk, produced by the legendary Hi-NRG originator Cowley himself? Post Punk AND Patrick Cowley! It was puzzling to say the least, and it sounded too good to be true.
Only it wasn’t. The CD-R copy a friend in the UK had sent me (I may have had internet access by then, but file sharing was still way ahead) sounded even better. There was a notable absence of guitars, but not to be missed, as the bass played with as much heavy funk as anything featuring Bill Laswell, but with a different edge, in perfect unison with ultra-precise and similarly heavy funky drums, both often deviating to rhythm and groove of an almost feverish quality. The synthesizer sequences and sounds indeed were similar to what Cowley did on his famed productions in the Disco area, but here they were a whole lot more experimental and dark and added a congenial atmospheric edge to the proceedings. A plethora of weird effects and particularly this absolutely stunning and unique use of the trombone added even more. And on top of it, this charismatic voice, sounding like nobody else’s, singing words of strangely tainted romanticism and that kind of futuristic alienation that would not age awkwardly. Listening to it all I was floored, and instinctive attempts to compare it to other seminal protagonists of that time soon failed into nowhere. And as that meant seeking parallels to other music created in an incredible productive and innovative era, this of course was quite something. Indoor Life were an impressively smart archetype, ahead of their time in many ways. Like in hindsight, so many were not.
It was certainly predictable that I would purchase everything they did, even if it would take years. But I would as certainly never have predicted that I would ever be involved with what the person behind the voice had done with Patrick Cowley before Indoor Life, or that I would even get to know him, and find him to be one of the finest and most interesting persons I have ever met, and a good friend. But that’s another story. In the meantime, consider yourself very lucky that you have much quicker access to the genius of Indoor Life than I had. “Archeology”, indeed…
Can you still remember the first time you ever heard Kraftwerk?
Yes. I think the first time I heard them I was 17 years old, in England, recording an album for Island Records with the band I was in at the time, Milk n Cookies. I heard the song “Autobahn” on the radio there and remember thinking how different and cool it sounded than anything else out there. I bought a copy of the 7″ while I was there.
What made you decide for “Computer World” out of the many legendary albums? Do you agree with many critics and fans that they were at there creative peak with this?
Although I love all their albums, “Computer World” for me was just the best. Perfect in every way. I totally agree that this was their “masterpiece”.
In discussion with Todd Burns on “Celebration Of The Lizard” by The Doors (1968).
This song has quite a special status in the Doors back catalogue, could you elaborate on why you choose this over other of their songs?
“Celebration Of The Lizard” does have a special status in the Doors back catalogue, largely because it was never released. The group ended their first two albums with very long, epic songs—“The End” and “When The Music’s Over”—and, as I understand it, this was supposed to be the song that concluded their third full-length. Unfortunately, for one reason or another, the group couldn’t get a take that they were happy with and had to substitute a few other tunes instead to fill out the record. As someone who is rather fascinated by the history of music, I’ve always been fascinated by failures and coulda-beens. “Death Of A Ladies Man” is my favorite Cohen album, I collected bootlegs of The Beach Boys’ “Smile” sessions but never listened to the one that Brian Wilson eventually released a few years ago. This song from The Doors is in that same vein.
There is plenty to choose from as far as rock history’s classic groups are concerned. What makes The Doors appealing to you?
I have a dark poetic past. And Jim Morrison’s poetry always appealed to a teenager that was prone to such flights of fancy. People often laugh at Morrison’s writing today, but I’d argue that he’s a much more interesting figure than what we have nowadays in popular rock music. Then again, I have my doubts that a group like The Doors would be on a label much bigger than something like Sub Pop in 2009. Also appealing to me was the music. It’s hard to overstate how strange and wonderful some of The Doors music sounded when placed alongside their contemporaries. Organ player, flamenco guitarist and jazz drummer and American Poet over top of all of it? And they even wrote some pop songs along the way? Yes, please.
2007 was the year D*ruffalo was born. It was a semi-anonymous collective and a webzine established to feature aspects of club and pop culture we loved and to terrorize anybody responsible for aspects of club and pop culture we did not love at all. It started on MySpace, of all places, and later we published on our own webspace druffmix.com, which ran on the server of the Innervisions label, until we made too much fun of them as well and they pulled the plug. So D*ruffalo is defunct, but you can still find traces via Wayback Machine or Instagram. Here are the people responsible for all the madness:
From left to right: Editor 5 (Sebastian Gaiser aka Icasol), Editor 6 (Holger Klein aka DJ Groover Klein), Editor 1 (me), Editor 2 (Michael Kummermehr aka King Kummi), Editor 4 (Marc Schaller aka Schalli) and lying down (Sebastian Dresel aka DJ Seebase)
Here is the inaugural manifesto:
“the high life versus the lowlives! hello this is the editorial executive team of DRUFFALO, the pravda which is born to lead not to read. Some say we are cut-and-paste-punks with no html skills, others say we are a group of directional dressers running black ops from the shadows of glamour, the most clued up, edgiest, strongest and smartest lame ass crusties in town…towns in fact. we love ibiza raves, 80s synthie pop, salsoul, punk and rockabilly. we love northern soul dos and reggae soundclashs, hip hop backrooms and rock’n’roll bars.we are acid house and football. we love beer and champagne, apc and stone island. ok people say we are gay nuyorican amateur football casuals riding scooters in dior homme suits and red wayfarers (optional bjorn borg tops and adidas rom) who love to listen to new wave and dance to disco – so what? actually we are a secret cabal of ueberhipsters with a serious attention deficiency syndrome who during daytime disguise as nerds. as a very smart man from across the river danube has wisely put it: Un ballo nuovo porta ritmo nei fiancho della cittá Ci vendiamo, trovimo, chiediamo che cosa si fa Ma non cercate die volori, e magari sensation La notte e’nostra fin al mattino abbiamo illusion no E’la fine del viaggino, ce’ sempre un domani e Ci sono dimensioni, con illusioni e sensazioni. Give me more … Young romans – there is a night before each day and that price is still to pay Never stop this old erosion phantastic voyage……. and if you have something to say (or believe so) please send your snippets and artifacts to us. if you want to be a member of the shadow society ™, do not contact us, we will contact you. watch this space for more-”
As soon as we started annoying people left and right we also founded a DJ team which was no less notorious. It was call the D*ruffalo Hit Squad, later described as:
“The D*RUFFALO HIT SQUAD is the official political arm of D*ruffalo – The Daily Excess Magazine (R.I.P.) that still goes public from time to time to wreck havoc on international dance floors.
“We drink. You dance!”
We also published the Druffmixes. A lot of them were done by me, and I will feature those here, with the original artworks by the D*ruffalo Graphic Squad (King Kummi) and liner notes.
The The – Flesh And Bones David Van Tieghem – Night Of The Cold Noses Steve Winwood – While You See A Chance Sun Yama – Subterranean Homesick Blues Dee D. Jackson – Galaxy Police Connie – Experience Paul Haig – Time The Colourfield – Take Ian Dury – Wake Up And Make Love With Me Antena – Be Pop Blue Rondo – Samba No Pé 400 Blows – Movin’ Michael McDonald – Sweet Freedom Bryan Ferry – Kiss And Tell Robert Palmer – The Silver Gun Visage – Move Up A Certain Ratio – Wild Party The Associates – Love Hangover Bette Midler – My Knight In Black Leather Duncan Brown – The Wild Places Squeeze – Last Time Forever
A mix I contributed to the great website deeprhythms, run by Tomi Rotonen since 2001. That is quite the achievement and I hope it will go on for many years to come. Cheers Tomi!
Here are the liner notes:
And we’re back with another fine guest mix – this time by Finn Johannsen, familiar to those who frequently visit discogs and it’s board. I asked Finn for a mix and what a treat he provided us with! It’s not house – just great, great music, perfect for the summer, brings back a lot of memories. In his own words: “What led me to record ‘After Season’ was actually the old-fashioned desire to give something personal to my loved one on a lazy weekend when we both again forgot about the day we came together. We both didn’t really mind forgetting about it, as it had happened more often than not for some reason, but still we were getting a bit sentimental over the time we spent together and all we could share. I guess we all made tapes for our loved ones at some point for lack of better words and I felt this was a perfect occasion to revive that. Other than that I was getting a bit irritated by the recent flood of ‘balearic’ sets, many of which seemed more intent of displaying obscure beautiful mellow music than what was really played there from the late 80’s on. Being involved with club music back then meant you were automatically exposed to this style even if I was never really intentionally looking out for downtempo records. Still, I had some personal favourites then which I regularly revisited, so I wanted to assemble some classics of the deeper variety that always moved me, ranging from melancholia to bliss, with an admittedly large does of strings. Some of these, like Chris Rea and Electribe 101, are confirmed balearic classics, others like Marshall Jefferson’s mix of Dusty Springfield or Plaid’s take on Deee-Lite may not be so obvious and again others like the remix of Salt ‘n’ Pepa are just included because I have this opinion that the production talents of Blacksmith should never ever vanish from sight. You may, however, just take it for what I hope it would turn out to be, a pleasant set of fine tunes.”
Dusty Springfield – Nothing Has Been Proved (Instrumental) Massive Attack – Safe From Harm (Instrumental) The Beauty Room – Don’t You Know Deee-Lite – Try Me On (Plaid Remix) Reborn – Right To Be (Rocker HiFi Remix) Innocence – Senza Voce The Family Stand – Ghetto Heaven (The Remix) Soul Family Sensation – I Don’t Even Know If I Should Call You Baby (Symphony) Quartz – It’s Too Late (Overnight Mix) Electribe 101 – Talking With Myself (Next Big Thing Mix) Swing Out Sister – Notgonnachange (Mix Of Drama) Chris Rea – Josephine (La Version Francaise) Salt ‘N’ Pepa – Expression (Brixton Dub Mix) The Wiseguys – The Real Vibes Dream Warriors & Gang Starr – I Lost My Ignorance (Tim Bran Remix) Shanice – I Love Your Smile (Driza Bone Dub Remix)
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