Focus on Denmark: Martinez

Focus on Denmark: Martinez

10 January, 2011 | 5.55AM

• Written by: Beatportal
• Filed under: Music News: denmark, focus on, martinez, moon harbour, out of orbit

This month, we shift our focus from Argentina to Denmark. Our first featured artist, oddly enough, sounds more South American than Scandinavian, at least from his artist alias: Martinez.

Born Martin Swanstein, our man Martinez grew up in southern Sweden before moving to Copenhagen, where he discovered electronic dance music in the late ‘90s. By 2001, he was recording his own take on deep house and broken beats for Chicago’s legendary Guidance label, and within a few years his music took a major step forward as he began refining his fusion of tech house, electro and deeper, jazzier elements for Copenhagen’s Out Of Orbit Recordings. In recent years, he’s become affiliated with Moon Harbour Recordings, which released his album The Paradigm Shift last year.

In the first of our Focus on Denmark features, Martinez shares his perspective on the Copenhagen scene, complete with a culinary map that will have foodies salivating.

To begin with, could you tell us a little about the history of the Danish club scene? Which local clubs, DJs and record labels were most important to you when you were first getting into dance music?

The most important clubs back in the late ‘90s when I was starting to go to clubs in Copenhagen were Mantra Club in Tivoli’s Jazzhouse, Vega (especially the Vegatronic night), Rust’s Basement, and Stereo Bar. These were some of the places I visited most frequently to check out local DJs like Ole Loud, Nima Gorji, Thomas Madvig, Kong, DJ Daniel, and Tania.

There was a strong local techno and house scene in Copenhagen back then. A solid crew of people supported the music, DJing themselves or just being crazy party-people. To be honest, I don’t see the same vibe in Copenhagen anymore. Back then records stores like Loud Music and Baden Baden were connecting people and Thomas Madvig and Krede’s radio show D’store Mix was very important to spreading the word about this music and keeping people educated about new producers, DJs, and events.

Mantra was a fantastic club, every Friday there was a house night, which was dedicated to real proper US house music, both deep stuff but also vocals. It was called Climaxx and was mainly a gay night. On Saturday it was the proper techno night there, with residents Kong, DJ Daniel, and Tania. Many amazing DJs played there over the years and it was a true inspiration for me to come there. You also had great deep house nights at Rust’s basement, and Stereo Bar was a great spot for hangin’ out and having a drink while listening to everything from hip-hop and soul-jazz to broken beats or deep house. Unfortunately both record stores and most of the clubs are closed these days; only Vega and Rust are left, but not at all promoting underground music any more.

What’s your own history with electronic music—how did you discover it, and how did you come to start making it?

I discovered electronic music through my friends in the 8th grade at school. I was not more than 13 or 14 years old when a friend played me some music from his Walkman and told me, “Yo dig this, it’s trance music. Crazy, huh?” I really liked those soundscapes, and it was fresh and new. He copied that mix tape for me and through this I discovered Eye Q records and Harthouse, the old Frankfurt sound of trance and Sven Vath as well. I ventured more into Goa trance and the UK sound for a while before I heard Detroit techno and Chicago house, which was more my thing, slower and more funky! Me and my buddies started practice DJing/mixing at our school’s café after class, as they had an old DJ booth there for when they did “disco parties” on the weekends. I saved up some cash and eventually brought my own set of turntables, plus a lot of records.

After listing and mixing electronic music for a few years, I started getting interested in how it was made. As I’ve always played instruments and been quite musical, I felt I could try and make some of these beats and saved up during the summer and got me an old EMU e64 sampler. Connected that with a MIDI interface, an old Atari with Cubase, and a little shitty mixer, and I started producing very, very basic house rhythms and grooves. Eventually I got better!


Is there an underground/warehouse/after-hours scene in Denmark, or are parties mostly limited to nightclubs?

Not really, maybe in the trance or drum ‘n bass scene, but I don’t know too much about this scene unfortunately. Mainly it’s limited to clubs and bars. We do have one place called Dunkel, which on Saturdays goes on until mid-day; its known as the after-hours bar. It usually gets super busy after 4am, as every other club closes around that time and most people head on down to Dunkel. There are some one-off parties every now and then, but mostly in the summer and around the Distortion Festival, and I wouldn’t call these parties underground.

I would love to see more “rave-ish” underground warehouse parties in our city. But it’s hard as I feel people here in general are very skeptical to anything new and they only want to go to parties they are sure will be full, packed, and good. You don’t see many promoters here taking risks with their parties. There are very good club nights here indeed, and I don’t mean to sound as if there is nothing good going on, it’s just more club- and bar-oriented.


Is there a “Danish sound”? Anything that typically distinguishes Danish electronic music from music elsewhere?

Hmm, no, not really. I think in these modern times of globalization and all, music is less and less affected by the surroundings around people. We travel a lot more, in general, these days, and send ideas from one side of the earth to another in one click on the web. It was different back in the days when cities were more isolated and people traded ideas or gathered inspiration from the people nearby, and a sound or culture grew from that. There are certain groups that have a sound, but I think its more that they share a similar view on music than that it has to do with anything Danish.

Which artists and labels from your country should people be looking out for, and why?

Good question. To be honest, I don’t know that many producers/artists/labels from Denmark anymore. Lomidhigh was a brilliant label, but he has not released anything in a long time, I think, and to be fair most of the stuff he released was by people from other places in the world. Trentemoller is an obvious Danish talent, he’s always amazing with great productions and strong material. His live show is stunning! Also there is a great dub/pop duo called Lulu Rouge which consists of Buda and T.o.M, they make some amazing music too. Echocord Records by Kenneth Christiansen (also the owner of Culture Box, the club here) is a great label—they have huge success in Germany and around the globe, especially under their artist name Pattern Repeat.”

Are there any Danish festivals that visitors from other countries should be coming to check out?

I would say to check out the Distortion Festival. It takes place every summer in the first week of June. Lots of great parties in various locations all over the city. In the daytime they do parties on the streets, with DJs playing in old camping cars, and you bring your own drinks. Then at night they have big parties in clubs. Usually they do, for example, the north part of the city on Thursday, then move on to the south for Friday and so on, which is kinda cool. Also there is the Strøm Festival, which takes place during mid August here. It’s also really great over a few days, with open air stages during the day and nightclub parties in the evening. Also of course Roskilde Festival is very big and famous here, but it’s mostly rock oriented, though they have an electronic stage and in the camping area something called “Promille Service” which goes pretty wild with good local DJs. 

Enough about music: what food should visitors to Denmark seek out?

Hehe, I was waiting for this question. There are tons of great restaurants here in Copenhagen; we have a very good gastronomic scene here. Oh well, I will choose just a few of my favorite spots for different kinds of food—otherwise this article will be going on for pages and pages!

So, of course you might know we have this great restaurant here called Noma, which was crowned the best restaurant in the world of 2010, which is big. It’s a two-Michelin-star place that focuses on Nordic and Scandinavian food at a very high gastronomic level. Of course you’d have to be on the waiting list for over six months and expect to pay about 1000€ per person, unless you have connections, but I thought it was worth mentioning. For Thai food there are two great places. One is called Kiin Kiin, which is amazing and is located in the northern part of the city center. It’s highly recommend if you want a food experience a little out of the ordinary when it comes to Asian cuisine. Also very good is Khun Juk in Boltens Gaard, which is little less pricey, but still a high level of cooking and proper Thai food. For sushi I’d definitely visit the small sushi bar called Koi in Nørrebro, which basically holds not more than 10 people, I think, but the chef Casper is one of the absolutely best sushi chefs I’ve met and dined at in Scandinavia. He prepares a soft-shell crab maki that is unbelievable! For the fuller Japanese experience I recommend Ebisu at Custom House in Nyhavn. Great place, and it captures that feeling of being in Tokyo at an authentic Japanese restaurant, with an amazing sake selection too.

For a good traditional Danish meal, go to Restaurationen, located right in the heart of the city. They also have a great wine bar next door that if perfect for the summer, and on Wednesdays you can get fresh oysters with you white wine or champagne. For breakfast/lunch I have to tell you about this amazing little café on Christianshavn called Sweet Treat. It’s very basic, but they serve amazing Danish dark rye bread sandwiches, boiled eggs, yogurt and the most amazing home made apple, strawberry, ginger, vanilla marmalade. All organic and great coffee or tea on the side. For a proper lunch go to Atlas Bar which is also a fantastic restaurant. The service is down to earth and the food is just amazing, plus big portions. So there you go, a few ideas where to eat in Copenhagen. Can you tell that I love food?

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