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The third release on ‘Weisse Elster’ fits seamlessly into the annual late summer transition from festival time to club season. It’s motto: less heavy, more elegant. Without sacrificing any drive or dynamics, Wice offers DJs plenty of options: The EP’s five tracks unleash their potential during a sun-drenched midday dance, whilst also delivering some serious heat to a sparsely lit nightclub.
Decoder’s heady and distinctly unique remix of Wice’s ‘Rift’ skillfully complements this concept. Linking two pairs of Wice originals, it embodies those shades of grey that make techno music what it is: the brightest light and the bleakest dark – and above all, whatever each person makes of it.
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The second installment on Leipzig based Weisse Elster is devoted to the more abstract spheres of electronic dance music, exploring a rather dark terrain. The EP thus contains a total of five driving, club-focused tracks that actively invite the audience to join in on a fully untethered journey through space and time. Not until the last frequencies have faded away do they return to this-worldly realms. The first four numbers of the release are Wice originals, encompassing a wide spectrum of techno music. Whilst differing in rhythm and tempo, the individual tracks are united by an unmistakable signature and an underlying mystical aura. A trippy and incredibly energetic remix by Peryl, who took Wice’s NOLADE and transformed it into a real dancefloor bomb, perfectly rounds off the overall concept.
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Music, heard at the right moment, in some way resembles a river weaving its own path, inexorably sweeping everything and everyone along with it, exercising a primordial force difficult to escape. The Weisse Elster, the river that makes its way through the big city of Leipzig, embodies a counterpart to the small Steinlach, which flows quietly and calmly through the little student town of Tübingen (the birthplace of the label of the same name), giving this community its unique charm. After Wice moved to Leipzig, the obvious route to take was to create a Steinlach sublabel that would capture the flair of the big city, yet at the same time remain true to the nature of the flowing water – whilst taking into account crucial parameters that define a big city and that render it so lovable in its very own way.
The first release on the freshly founded Label Weisse Elster features five techno tracks that do justice to PAs and dance floors of a subcultural and diverse city. Purpose-built as they are, they skillfully elude the common sense as well as any trend by adding a fresh, inspired touch. Inevitably and with great focus the music overcomes the distance between the speaker and the dancer. This accomplishment is made possible by Wice’s timeless and inescapable groove patterns that in different ways underpin every track on the EP. The five tracks incorporate varied aspects of a club night and can be seamlessly woven into the flows of any DJ.
The goal here is to be ’expectedly-unexpected’ or ‘unexpectedly-expected’, to captivate the dancers, to gradually and naturally challenge their ears as well as their understanding of groove in a charming way, but without appearing pretentious. Long story short: Take a listen, Don’t skip, and Enjoy.
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With its fourth catalogue number, Steinlach returns to the vinyl format with a remix EP. On board are international friends of the label, who layed hands on Wice’s originals with outstanding re-interpretations. While the A-side contains two groovy and club-oriented remixes of ‚Just kiddin‘‘, the trippy flipside focuses on the second outcome of the label and refers to the two pieces ‚Absent‘ and ‚Hertz‘.
The record opens with a fast-paced and jacking ‚Just Kiddin‘‘ version by Deep’a and Biri. The two guys from Tel Aviv re-interprate the clubby aspect of the piece, furnish it with a portion of percussions and accompany it with a volatile beat. Discharging the track in a big bang, they‘re leaving the listener with no chance but to move energetically to the groove patterns while cherishing the original lead melody.
Just like Deep’a and Biri, Jon Hester bets on the energy and the recognition value of the original synth line. As typical for Jon, he gives a more Chicago-style housy and bouncy touch to the composition. The lead is getting chopped, re-interpreted and re-arranged into a new groove and melody pattern, sure to inspire the floor to shake and to catapult everyone around into a frisky dancing mood. Suddenly, the well-known arpeggio of the original comes in and makes for the climax of this brilliant remix.
With side B, the club aspect of the record might not be left behind, but moved into more stripped and trippy terrains. The B1 track is fashioned as a ruthless ‚Absent‘ version, unmistakingly having Refracted’s writing all over it. Smallest variations of the synth line, drones, and pads, without resorting to typical drum rack aspects, find their way deep inside the listener’s head, and draw them into their subtle rhythm. The unapolegetic roughness of the interpretation is striking and makes it a brilliant peaktime weapon.
Rounding up the whole EP, the last remix of the record is a wonderful re-interpretation by the talented Australian that is Mosam Howieson. He ministered to Wice‘s personal favourite piece and crafted a loving and deep version of ‚Hertz‘, which translates the magic of the original into own words and emotions, adds a subtle groove to it, then invites to listen more carefully. One quickly dives into a hopeful world in which a certain magic seems to be present, and where everything seems to be alright. Be it as a perfect last piece after a long fullfilling evening, or as the outstanding means to make the sun rise in the morning—Mosam’s interpretation sure hits the spot.
Special thanks go out to our close friends Simon Sandleitner who is always in charge of the great artworks and Roger Reuter (Roger23) for having always an open ear, his helpful advises and his thought-out criticism.
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With its 138 bpm, its progressive basslines and the energetic synthline in G minor, “Yes, No. Never Appropriate” transfers the listener to bygone days. The nostalgic-like track is covered in a modern and individual dress worthwhile to contemplate thanks to Wice’s modern interpretation of that time (which he himself was never allowed to witness). Regardless of being played at original speed, or located in slower or faster pitch-realms, one thing that is noticed immediately is that this track, which Wice himself considers a little homage to past and timeless Basic Channel publications, belongs on the dancefloor to let its dynamics shine in all its glory. So play it loud. Again and again!
Subsequently, “Anticipate Home” van be found, which the artist wrote during his tedious and energy-sapping time abroad (India). Precisely this process of waiting and the associated thrill of anticipation to come back home are reflected in this second track within dynamically fractured rhythms. They are accentuated by tiny and delicate sounds and melodies, which serve to fill groove gaps and put the listeners hypnotically in Wice’s emotional world at that time. You are also forced to persevere a little, just as the artist himself, before you are finally released after the break by the above mentioned harmonically drifting triads – you are finally, dancing with joy, returning back home and let yourself drift by the experiences made in reduced but nevertheless complex afterglow.
Following this “Untitled Sleepless” can be discovered. As it can be concluded from the title, the track rays out a certain exhaustion which is characterized by superficial and just tiptoeing kickdrums as well as the dreamy and melancholic carpet of synth and noise. The harmonic interaction of lead, whitenoises and bassline makes the listener descend in a sort of trance – a world between sleep and waking, actual perception and dream. This condition will temporarily come to an abrupt end. Semi-straight kickdrums and an organic snare tear out the listener of this imaginary world of shifted sense perceptions and briefly stimulate harmonic movements of the body to then finally be able to find peace.
The last piece on the first digital Steinlach-release is difficult to locate genre-specifically. With its more than 150 bpm, its halfbeat-clocked kickdrums, the rimshots reminding of Drum and Bass, the basslines offsetting one another and the entire polyrhythm of the track a dreamy and dynamic piece of music emerges, which casts a spell over its recipients and lets the float through time and space in a mythical manner. The warm pads extend this trip even further and are hard to locate in the here and now. The track is supposed to prompt one’s own imagination and to find oneself now on a snow-covered mountain and then on a wonderful dive underneath the surface of the water. Just drift and embark on your own journey!
Concerning this a little acknowledgement of the artist: “Thank you Samu, for your presence during the whole process of production of B2. The sense of calm and tranquility that you radiate and your whole character as a good friend have significantly contributed to the emergence and inspiration of this track. To many more years of friendship and flourishing and inspiring musical collaboration.”
