Movement interview: Wighnomy Brothers

Movement interview: Wighnomy Brothers

15 May, 2009 | 3.37AM

• Written by: Terry Church
• Filed under: Music News: freude am tanzen recordings, movement, wighnomy brothers

The bottle of vodka was wiped out within two hours. It was destroyed by the Wighnomy Brothers, two gnome-like DJs with a penchant for drink, dance, and the joys of minimal house.

It’s the same story wherever Robag Wruhme and Sören Bodner play, but whilst their DJ booth escapades have been well captured in the past, little has been discussed about the studio technique and sound of the two revolutionaries who hail from Jena, a large university town on the river Saale.

Ahead of their highly anticipated performance at Detroit’s Movement festival later this month, Beatportal grabbed Robag Wruhme for a quick chat about their sound and took a look back at five essential Wighnomy Brothers tracks.

In the past you’ve criticised the minimal techno scene for cannablism - the fact that the minimal sound has become stale as producers keep recycling the same sounds and FX. But your productions are very much of the minimal aesthetic, yet they never sound boring. You always seem to be able to bring something new to the genre. How do you manage it?

I am not aware that we said something about cannibalism in the minimal scene, but it doesn’t matter.

We have a certain sound. That’s maybe the reason why everything sounds different from the music of other colleagues.

Basically I try to avoid sounds that suggest every frequency has its prescribed place.

Like if chraking noise is the dirty fatal suburb which would cost a upper class family their villa - clinically dead material - where the house is missing the life!

But sound is a matter of taste. Otherwise there wouldn’t be so many machines, plug ins and music magazines.

Everybody uses a different paint box for sound drawing techniques.

So how does your studio set-up lend itself to painting different sounds?

You know, my first set up was a 75 mhz PC with a 300 MB harddisk, Cubase, a Yamaha sampler and a Korg work station.

And believe it or not I still like the sound nowadays even if the sequencer does not sound very full.

When I started to make beats something had to change. But for the experimental stuff was it perfect.

Then I started to share an analog studio with other people. I didn’t use all of the equipment, but the mixer with the looping effects was terrific.

After that I started using only digital, but now I am happy to work with a symbiosis of both.

Do you think what studio gear you use is important for creating your own sound?

For sure I have changed my set up a lot over the years, but at the end of the day it doesn’t matter how much money you spend in technical stuff. More important is which musical ideas are inside your head.

Right now, I have a small set up which is digital and analog.

What productions and releases have you been working on recently?

Well, last week I did a release as Robag Wruhme on the label Vakant. Then there will be a Wighnomy Brothers release out soon on a new label called Movida.

I recently did remixes for Kadebostan, Gui Boratto, Thom Yorke and Modeselektor.

We’re also working on a new project called Wighnomy Tief - Tief means ‘deep’. This will be a bit more quiet and organic to the usual Wighnomy Brothers sound.

And finally, I recently watched Amy Grill’s ‘Speaking In Code’ documentary, and in the film you had decided to take a break from DJing and producing. It seemed like you had had enough of the scene and the music. Is that what had happened?

I am sure that a lot of my collegues have experienced a burn out. I had done so much in the past that I had totally forgotten myself. But now a lot of things have changed and I am happy that I have found the magic again, which fuels these releases of craziness that celebrate this gorgeous madness, music!

Five essential Wighnomy Brothers releases

Wighnomy Brothers, Robag Wruhme ‘I Miss You Babe’ [Freude Am Tanzen] (2002)

The first fully self-titled EP from Wighnomy Brothers hinted at the duo’s future in minimal house with ‘Bopp’, but ‘I Miss You Babe’ showed both the pair’s love for deep house and clever sound manipulation, a production process that became intrinsic in their later releases.

Robag Wruhme ‘Back 02’ [Musik Krause] (2002)

The vocal trickery in ‘Back 02’ was an effect that became synonymous with later Wighnomy Brothers releases, particularly on their 2005 underground hit ‘Worktabular’, which included a remix by Luciano, a reworking that helped to introduce the Chilean techno player to European audiences.

DJ Gabor ‘Summertime’ (Wighnomy’s Eine Laue Sommernacht Remix) [Freude Am Tanzen] (2000)

The deep techno and house soundclash on the Brothers’ Eine Laue Sommernacht Remix of ‘Summertime’ was inspiring in 2000, but it was the old skool male vocal house vibe that laid the groundwork for some of the Wighnomy Brothers’ most spectacular remixes. In 2004, their stunning rework of Slam’s ‘This World’ conquered clubland, and they did it again in 2006 with a monumental remix of Whirlpool Productions ‘From Disco To Disco’ (see below).

Wighnomy Brothers, Robag Wruhme ‘Pele Boss’ [Freude Am Tanzen] (2004)

One of the Brothers’ most underrated productions, ‘Pele Boss’ pushed instrumental techno in new directions in 2004, with squiggly acid lines, radioactive bass, glitchy minimal beats, and a beautiful, trance-like melody, juxtaposed against brief snippets of male rap vocals. This is one of my all time favourite techno records.

Whirlpool Productions ‘From Disco To Disco’ (Wighnomys Mittmikks Remikks) [Great Stuff]

I once had an argument with a friend of mine about the Wighnomy’s version of Whirlpool Productions’ ‘From Disco To Disco’ at an afterparty. One of their live DJ sets was playing on a crappy soundsystem and he sweared that an MC was rapping live over the top of the Brothers’ set. I believed him, as the vocals were out of time and out of tune and the mastering sounded quite horrendous. But it turned out that it was just the Wighnomy’s sense of humour that led to them building the track around the impromptu, rough vocal and scratchy, raw drum loops.

They left the mistakes in, and proved that in the era of super compression and squeaky clean audio, there’s much joy to be found in a not quite perfect world. Their remix is strangely sad, and the effect of hearing it live in a club is quite remarkable.

The Wighnomy Brothers play the Beatport Stage on Sunday, May 24th

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