Strictly Tiefschwarz

Strictly Tiefschwarz

29 August, 2007 | 4.27AM

• Written by: gregsawyer
• Filed under: Music News : influences, strictly rhythm

Equally suited to DJing as they are to producing and to performing live, Tiefschwarz have a well-deserved reputation as one of the most talented and diverse outfits on the scene.

Alexander and Sebastian Schwarz (known as Ali and Basti to their friends) are brothers and music lovers from Stuttgart, Germany. They are famed for their innovative productions and the ability to bring cutting edge electronic music to the mainstream without compromising their integrity. Here they treat us to a carefully crafted mix of the rarest and best Strictly Rhythm tracks that have inspired them since they first fell in love with electronic music.

Tiefschwarz (meaning deep black) are well known for having a gritty, electronic, stripped down sound, which deviates from minimal to electro but always maintains a very definite House undercurrent. They come from a long and impressive line of German electronic music talent, which includes Boris Dlugosch, Mousse T., Knee Deep, Jazzanova, Ame and Dixon to name but a few. When asked to explain their sound they state; “Basically it’s all about house. Whether you’re coming from a minimalist perspective, a techno perspective or a deep house perspective, the base to our sound is always House”.

While the album includes elements of the techier side of Tiefschwarz, they also venture into a retrospective of deep and soulful house and pick out a number of hidden gems from the illustrious history of the label.

The former club promoters first fell in love with Strictly Rhythm in the early 90s where they would invite all the great DJs of the time to play at their parties, including Strictly stalwarts Masters at Work (Kenny Dope and Louie Vega), a massive inspiration to them.

“In the 90s you could have really called us big fans. We started going to the Miami Music Conference in ‘95 through to about 2000, and we were always at the front row of every MAW gig, and we would follow them to New York. We were really passionate about them, and up until about that time I had every possible record of theirs in my collection. They even came to play in our little club back in Stuttgart, which was the biggest honour”.

Nowadays, these guys are well known to Kenny and Louie; they went on to remix one of MAW’s seminal classics ‘To Be in Love’ , as well as other massive artists including Madonna’s ‘Get Together’, Missy Elliott’s ‘Teary Eyed’ and Depeche Mode’s ‘John the Revelator’.  Now well-known to everyone else at the top of the international DJ / producer scene, Tiefschwarz enjoy residencies across the world at Robert Johnson in Frankfurt, Weekend Club in Berlin and Fabric in London. They also have their own record label Souvenir, their own artists albums and countless remixes.
They were honoured to be approached to produce the album. “Strictly left such an imprint on us. It was such a big worldwide statement for dance music at the beginning of the 90s”.

So what have they done with this mix and how did they put it together from all the 650 choices that they had on the label?

“We sat down and thought ‘what do we really like about Strictly?’ and we discovered that it was more of the early days. We wanted to focus more on the stuff that was not so obvious, and perhaps a little more bizarre, so we more-or-less focused on the period of 1990 to ‘93”.

So they dug deep into their record collections and pulled out the tracks that inspired them so much in the early days. Their addiction to the deep House that fuelled their selections is apparent in the opening track; the driving, sinister sounding DV8/Egotrip ‘This Beat is Over” while the mix goes on to highlight the retrospective records that still have a contemporary sound, like The Untouchables ‘Dance to the Rhythm’ and ‘Trippin’, which take you right back to the days of Acid House and The Criminal Justice Bill. They also include one of their all-time favourites; Phuture’s ‘Rise from your Grave’ which they still feel very passionately about. “I remember I saw DJ Pierre playing in 1990 in a club and I was almost paralysed. I was just like “what the fuck is this?” So that’s actually the track we chose to remix”.

Inevitably, it’s not only the less obvious tracks on the mix; also included are Hardrive’s ‘Deep Inside’, featuring the vocal talents of legendary House songstress Barbara Tucker as well house aficionados’ firm favourite; Aly-Us’ ‘Follow Me’ – a track that still give the boys goose bumps every time they play it today.

Ultimately this is an essential album both for music lovers reminiscing over their early clubbing experiences or as a comprehensive insight for those looking into the roots of the contemporary DJ sound.

Click to listen to the tracks

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