Improvisation. In house? Sure, DJs do it every night. Move D did it before with Benjamin Brunn on Songs From The Beehive, creating sketches beforehand but recording everything in more or less real time. Plenty of parallels exist between that record and Playtime but none are quite so telling as this. To be frank, I don’t know if the recording of Playtime was actually in real time or improvised, but this is a release whose unfolding seems so natural and human it seems unlikely that it’s the work of automation. Many complain about the lack of musicianship in house and techno, and Playtime serves, in part, as a solid response to such silly claims.
move d
V/A, And Suddenly It’s Morning
November 10, 2009 – 10:01 PM
“Smallville ist nicht Dial.” A De:Bug review of an early Smallville release (DJ Swap’s superb “The Walk”) made this clear, but until last year, many people still persisted in treating it as a mere sub-label of the more established Hamburg imprint. Of course, this is understandable, given Peter Kersten (Lawrence/Sten)’s involvement in both, not to mention the similar influences and palettes. Both have grown out of the Hamburg scene, share a reverence for Afro-American music, and have a sophisticated yet melancholy European air, but this past year has seen Smallville come gloriously out of Dial’s shadow. Where Dial releases music as much for the couch or even concert hall as the club, Smallville is more firmly dance floor-orientated. Still, as this CD compilation And Suddenly It’s Morning proves, their music is equally at home, well, at home.
Soulphiction & Move D, In The Limelight
August 21, 2009 – 10:01 AM
Having already crossed paths a couple times on wax, by way of splits and remixes and label connections, the team-up of collabo-keen auteurs David Moufang (Move D) and Michael Baumann (Soulphiction/ Jackmate) doesn’t come as much surprise. The first fruits of their labor (with further releases already mooted) find the duo mining a shared musical heritage for a miniature set of mild-tempered, organic house.
Motorcitysoul, Solar/Hatohay EP
November 24, 2008 – 7:19 PM
[Simple Records] (buy vinyl) (buy mp3s)
You’d be forgiven for thinking that Motorcitysoul’s name is a nod in the direction of Detroit, but in actual fact the German duo of Matthias Vogt and C-Rock cite the Opel headquarters in Rüsselsheim, Frankfurt as the inspiration for their moniker. Nevertheless, their productions owe a debt to the cultural [...]
Move D & Benjamin Brunn, New Horizon
November 2, 2008 – 7:59 PM
Photo by Carsten Peter
[Smallville Records] (buy vinyl) (buy mp3s)
Six months since the release of Move D and Benjamin Brunn’s acclaimed full length, a few more dollops have dripped from the beehive. On “New Horizon,” our duo get a bit more mileage out of the syrupy palette that characterized Songs From the Beehive, but replace the [...]
LWE 2Q Reports: Top 5 Live PAs
August 19, 2008 – 7:15 PM
“Minimalism” by Noriko Ambe
For our third report, LWE correspondent Will Lynch compiles his top five live PAs from the first half of 2008.
One of dance music’s most unique features is the elasticity of the artist’s relationship with their own material. Plenty of producers never “play live” and use DJing as their exclusive means of performance. [...]
V/A, Workshop 05
July 28, 2008 – 9:21 PM
[Workshop] (buy vinyl) (buy mp3s)
Since 2006, Workshop has released a new EP every six months or so. Sold and distributed by Hardwax, each EP consists of three untitled tracks, sometimes all by the same artist and sometimes by a varied group. The quality of these releases has been consistently solid: Kassem Mosse’s “Workshop 03″ had [...]
Move D, Drone
June 15, 2008 – 8:14 PM
[Modern Love] (buy vinyl) (buy mp3)
It’s hard not to hear Move D’s tracks as essentially calm. Consider this: “Quit Quittin’” is one of his most jacking recent songs, plush with arpeggiated trickles and acid stabs (not to mention the shrill of “oh YEAH”), but Move D stabilized the whole thing with a gentle analog suspire. [...]