One
development I didn't have room to include in my interview with Team
Shadetek in this month's Dazed is the German music scene taking an
unexpected turn: towards grime, dubstep, dub and dancehall. Matt from
Team Shadetek may be an American abroad, but native acts like
Modeselektor, Jahcoozi, Ellen Allien, Apparat, Muallem, and Tolcha are
all trying to make you do the dutty wine. 'There's definitely a little
scene going on,' Matt told me, 'although it's quite close-knit -
there's probably around ten people who are doing stuff, including
promoters and producers and DJs. There's a lot of energy around it.'
So
Berlin - minimal capital of the world, robot fiefdom, home of Perlon
and Tresor - is waking up to the bumpy, weed-hazed sounds of Jamaica
and south London. Wow. (Of course, producers like Basic Channel have
been bringing a heavy dub influence to techno for ages, but without any
of that hedonism.) And these Germans are applying their intimidating
production powers to genres which, with the exception of dubstep, are
frequently a little bit shoddy on the technical side. That means loads
more bass weight and spannered beats. Fantastic. My favourite tracks so
far showcasing this sound are Modeselektor's 'Silikon', a collaboration
with Jahcoozi singer Sasha Perera from their Hello Mum! LP, and Ellen
Allien/Apparat's 'Metric' from their Orchestra of Bubbles LP. And a
good MP3 blog for this kind of
thing is Ready Rock Moe Rex out of San Francisco.
