Gavin Herlihy: Sleuthing house and techno

Gavin Herlihy: Sleuthing house and techno

30 September, 2008 | 2.07AM

• Written by: gavinherlihy
• Filed under: Music News:

Each month Berlin based DJ and producer Gavin Herlihy lets us peek inside his Beatport shopping list.

If you’re looking for fresh new house and techno, an off-the-beaten-track classic or something different, then find your inspiration here.

1. Pele ‘Viva Belize’ (Connaisseur)

A record has to be doing something right to flaunt two of my pet hates and still make it to the top of my monthly chart.

Connaisseur’s latest single from label favourite Pelé comes in at almost thirteen minutes long and uses a horn sample that would ordinarily be a little to close for comfort to another tune from earlier in this year if it wasn’t such a killer track.

‘Fleute And Clarinette’ the excellent vinyl only bootleg from one of your favourite Romanians releases a similar signature wind instrument blast.

‘Belize’ however is all about its amazing electric piano solos and sultry Latin vibe.

Unfortunately it takes a whopping five minutes to actually get to the point, a fact that’s probably made it overlooked for a lot of DJs, so I got out my Ableton Live knife to cut a shorter edit.

Lengthy records like these may sound great in a studio, but when you’re faced with a dancefloor full of people, five minutes of beats can seem like an age.

That aside, ‘Viva Belize’ is a remarkable piece of deep, percussive musical house.

2. Petar Dundov ‘Oasis’ (Music Man)

Great records all leave their mark on the dancefloor in different ways and Pelé’s creates a real moment of power in his breakdown, tweaking it endlessly so that the return of the bassline or kick drum leaves dancefloors in a state of sensory overload each time.

On first hearing this record by Croatian techno producer Petar Dundov I immediately assumed it was from the early 1990s.

The giveaway?

The production, the big room vibe and the incredible winding synths are a reminder of early ‘90s techno by artists like F.U.S.E. (Richie Hawtin’s alias behind techno classic ‘Loop’).

But alas I’m wrong.

‘Oasis’ is in fact a new release on Belgium’s esteemed techno label Musicman.

The main hook is a twisting synth line that gradually unfolds throughout the track thanks to some inspired LFO tweakage creating an unstoppable, noisy emotive vibe.

It’s the perfect weapon for near end of a DJ set to leave people feeling elevated and inspired.

3. Julien Chaptal ‘Luther’s Finest’

If you buy one techno album this month, make sure it’s Julien Chaptal’s ‘Tokens.’

I caught Julien’s liveset at the excellent Welcome To the Future festival in Holland recently.

A ferociously good Ableton Live performer, he had the crowd at his stage jacking like their lives depended on it despite a deluge of rain at the time that threatened to wipe out the decks.

His music is all based around simple funk workouts expertly put together with a modern electronic twist.

You get the feeling that wielding a guitar rather than a copy of Ableton, Julien would easily fit into James Brown’s backing band circa 1970, such is his knack for creating explosive dancefloor moments.

‘Luther’s Finest’ is a great example of this.

The hook is a choppy guitar line that gradually tightens the tension and compresses the energy to the point where it feels like the club – or your iPod headphones – are about to implode if the beats don’t drop in.

Best of all he accomplishes this not with overdoing the white noise samples or the latest effects plugs in, just plainly by the expert way he arranges his simple yet powerful elements.

4. Juergen Paape ‘Come Into My Life’ (Kompakt)

There are two great success stories being currently written on dancefloors.

One is the rise of classic sounding deep house and the other is the re-emergence of underground disco and both seem to be a reaction to minimal techno’s grip on dance music.

While the Scandinavians like Lindstrom or Todd Terje have kept disco’s flag flying for awhile, this summer London’s most discerning dancefloors have been reclaimed by disco.

Clubs like Disco Bloodbath or Horse Meets Disco are ruling the city’s forward thinking (or is that backward thinking?) underground scenes.

Unsurprisingly, disco’s influence is seeping into other areas of house music and Kompakt have been quick to move with the flow.

Kompakt’s co-founder Juergen Paape dropped this on Kompakt’s ‘Total 9’ compilation in August and it’s been quietly worming its way through dance music ever since.

I’ve always been a spectator rather than a participant when it comes to geeking out on disco so I’m not about to start proclaiming my steadfastness to the scene.

This isn’t even a track I’ve played out but it’s a worthy sign of the times of how dance music is progressing and regardless of what style of music you like it’s worthy of a place in your collection.

5. SiS ‘Holly Bolly’ (Cecille)

Clubs everywhere are going mental to ‘Trompeta’, arguably this summer’s biggest underground club hit, so there’s no need for me to say any more about that particular record.

However, it would be a shame if the success of the track overshadows another recent release from the Frankfurt producer that’s also worth checking.

‘Holly Bolly’ is his latest track on the ever excellent Cecille and is another peaktime club tool to add to SiS’ impressive run of hits lately.

Like Julien Chaptal’s ‘Luther’s Finest’ it’s based around a simple guitar sample that runs the length of the track building and building the pressure as it goes.

On first listen it sounds like there’s not much more to it than a loop.

There isn’t in fact much more to it than a loop, but when you unleash it in a club it becomes a five minute slice of peak time energy.

6. Tatto ‘Neeito’ (Isgud)

I’m a little late on this naggingly hooky track on new Spanish label Isgud that was released in July.

Thankfully Tania Vulcano included it on her excellent mix for Circoloco’s excessively packed 6 CD tenth anniversary compilation.

The simple hook made from Detroit style chord stabs is full of character and tension and is helped along by a tense layering of classic techno hats and percussion that make it perfect for playing with harder techno or minimal house.

Discovering Tatto led to checking out some of their other, more recent tracks.

If you like ‘Neeito’s simple, powerful vibe I recommend you also check ‘Menudos’
and ‘Yonocomprepan.’

7. Kerri Chandler ‘Fortran (Argy’s 6’23 mix)

Kerri Chandler’s Kerri Chandler’s ‘Computer Games’ album has already delivered some solid club hits earlier this year.

‘Kong,’ ‘Pong’ and ‘Space Invaders’ are all timeless house bombs that could as easily have been made ten years ago as much as they are recent offerings from the studio of a master producer such as Kerri.

The remixes are proving just as useful on the dancefloor.

Berghain favourite Ben Klock takes the stylish melodies of ‘Pong’ and simplifies them without ever sacrificing the emotion to create a classic slice of Berlin techno minimalism.

Argy’s 6’23 remix is my favourite however.

Yes, its stabs owe a lot to classic Basic Channel/Maurizio style techno but it’s a dependable slab of big room, club rocking house nonetheless.

And when the single string riff breaks the tension in the latter part of the track it’s hard not to wave a hand in air, although pray for your own sake that you’re on a dancefloor not a train when that happens!

8. Matt Nordstrom ‘Lucky Drawls (Mark Broom’s No Rave Stab remix)’ (Saved)

I immediately filed this in my ‘Get Out of Jail’ folder in Traktor Scratch.

It mixes with everything and drops a funk fuelled breakdown set against the piercing Ron Carroll style stabs that wig out the breakdowns.

Mark Broom is easily one of the UK’s most “on form” techno producers as well as being a stalwart of the scene.

Last year’s ‘Taken’ and ‘You & Me’ both featured heavily in my DJ sets and also obviously won favour with Nic Fanciulli who commissioned him for a remix for his deep house label Saved.

Although much of Mark’s music tends to lean towards the more dancefloor side of Detroit techno, this is a little housier although still displaying that unique Broom stamp.

9. Chez Damier ‘Can U Feel It (MK Dub)’ (KMS)

As I mentioned above, this summer seems to have been all about retro movements in dance music.

Mid-1990s deep house greatly informs the sound of now.

In one way it’s great as it means a return to a time when house music married musicality and funk like never before, something that maybe got a little forgotten a couple of years ago.

But in another, it’s sad if a form of music that’s always been about futurism and striving for the next step in music goes back on its heels to repeat past glories.

Either way, if you’re just discovering this age of deep dance music then be sure to get a copy of this.

Chez Damier and MK (a producer on the original as well as the remixer behind this version) are both legends of the early stage of this musical movement.

‘Can You Feel It’ is Chez’s defining debut track.

It’s a sign of the times that for a lot of young DJs getting one up on their geek mates is more about discovering an old gem than it is about finding a hot new track no one else has.

Mining the back catalogues of both producers is as rewarding an exercise in house music homework as you can get.

MK’s long list remixes especially is the path to a treasure trove of excellent house music from this time.

Get hunting!

10. Various artists ‘Secret Love 5’ (Sonar Kollektiv)

Compiled by Berlin’s high priests of discerning electronica, Jazzanova, ‘Secret Love 5’ is the latest installment in Sonar Kollektiv’s excellent downtempo compilation series.

Its ten tracks perfectly mark the spot where soul, jazz and electronic music effortlessly collide.

My favourites include ‘Broken Promises,’ a track from Matt Radioslave’s Quiet Village project, the Quarion remix of the Clara Hills Folkwaves’ ‘Once I Knew’, ‘Choir of Young Believers’ and ‘Things I Stole.’

It can be easy to get lost in house and techno sometimes, so collections like these are personally vital for me in keeping up to speed in what’s going on in the world outside house music.

Is that me being a little superficial or obsessive?

Probably a bit of both, but there are only so many hours of sleuthing one can do in a week.

Staying on top of house and techno is a full time job in itself without bringing other musical genres into the equation, so it’s great when compilations like this can do some of the digging for you.

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