Label profile: Oslo Records

Label profile: Oslo Records

15 July, 2008 | 7.33AM

• Written by: Ben Raven
• Filed under: Music News: federico molinari, oslo

It’s home to names like Johnny D, Guillame & The Coutu Dumonts and Nekes, and is responsible for some of this year’s tastiest underground music.

We speak to label boss Federico Molinari to find out why few labels encapsulate the deep techy sound of now quite like Mannheim’s Oslo Records.

With every sea change in musical taste there’s always a label that sums up the current sound.

Straight out of Mannheim Germany, Oslo records has proven to be one of this year’s premier new taste-making labels.

The brainchild of label bosses Federico Molinari and Nekes, it’s not only a key imprint influencing the current underground vogue for deep electronic house, but it’s also the continuation of a long tradition in dance music.

The Frankfurt area and its surrounding satellite city of Mannheim is easily one of the key breeding grounds in house and techno music’s development.

In the 1980s the Dorian Grey was one of Europe’s most influential discos helping to break the sounds of early house and new wave.

Later one of its residents—a certain Mr Sven Vath—went on to open Omen which became a breeding ground for trance as well as one of techno’s most legendary clubs.

Sven Vath talks about the early days of the Omen

Along the way both clubs generated a whole new generation of producers and DJs including key spearheads like Ricardo Villalobos, Pascal Feos, Atta, Bookashade or Alter Ego.

Now however a new Frankfurt powergoup is forming, this time taking the sounds of deep techno influenced house as its lead.

Artists like Federico, Nekes, Johnny D, Vera, Christian Burkhardt, SIS, and Nick Curly are currently some of the scene’s hottest names.

And Oslo Records is quickly proving to be the fulcrum around which the scene swings.

“It’s all happening very quickly,” says Federico.

“Every week things are changing. I can only hope that we can keep the music consistent because people are expecting much from us at the moment.”

Since its first release, last year’s wonky house biggie ‘Kreiskollaps’ by Christian Burkhardt, Oslo has rapidly become ‘one to watch’ for keen music lovers.

Johnny D’s ‘Manipulation EP’ was their biggest release to date.

All three tracks were hammered by the great and good of house and techno and the release helped to introduce the debut artist onto the scene with a bang.

Since then Johnny D’s ‘Orbitalife’ EP has continued the pace helped along by contributions from Guillame & The Coutu Dumonts, Mara Trax, Nekes and Federico. 

“The backbone of Oslo is based on friendships,” says Federico.

“The beginning of the label was the result of many years of friendship,” says Federico. “Some of us were even living together and we’ve been making music and putting on parties for a long time.”

Like the town itself the scene in Mannheim is small.

Two key parties --Time Warp and Milk Club—bind things together and Freebase records in Frankfurt, one of Germany’s top record stores, is the record shop nexus around which people exchange ideas on music and source the vinyl they need.

Federico hails from Buenos Aires, Argentina, but moved to Germany seven years ago.

The son of an artist and university lecturer, he plunged into dance music more than ten years ago in his native country.

Now he holds down residencies at Monza Ibiza and Time Warp, and makes regular appearances at Frankfurt’s current top taste-making club the Robert Johnson.

As the scene in Frankfurt bubbles on it’ll be interesting to see how far its deep house enthusiasts penetrate into dance music’s premier leagues in a year’s time.

One thing’s for certain: The extended Oslo family is putting Frankfurt back on the map. 

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