Jonty Skrufff's Blog

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“Unfortunately a lot of DJs, worldwide and not only in Berlin, are not taking risks anymore. They are all playing safe not to lose their audiences.”

Chatting to Skrufff this week to promote their wildly nonconformist remix of S.C.U.M.’s single “Whitechapel”, Sam Barker and Andreas Baumecker admit they’re far from bothered about making music to appeal to risk averse, play safe DJs.

Fast (at 130bpm it’s a good 8bpm faster than many local Berlin heroes’ upper bpm limits) and refreshingly melodic, the remix is particularly notable for including large chunks of S.C.U.M. singer Thomas Cohen’s soaring heart-tugging vocal, to both producers’ evident delight.

“I personally LOVE vocals. I think they are, in many cases, the only real thing that you take home in your memory after a long night out; even if it is only a vocal stab constantly repeating itself,” Andreas Baumecker chuckles.

“Leaving the vocals out of such a beautiful track as Whitechapel can be done, of course, but we wanted to stick closer to the original and left the vocals in.”

“It’s a great vocal, why not use it!” Sam Barker agrees, “Having said that, after hearing it a million times I still have NO idea what Thomas is saying. Which is no bad thing.”

“The cool thing is this,” Andreas adds. “Even after having listened to it a million times and having it glued to our brains for almost two weeks: we still love it. That makes a good song,” he smiles.

That both love vocal techno is all the more surprising given each producer’s close association with Berghain, where Sam promotes leftfield/ experimental/ industrial party Leisure System, and where Andreas is a long standing resident (since the club opened in 2004). As their background suggests, however, both understand the essence of electronic music.

“There’s a lot of generic music around, and always was. As soon as a formula for a particular genre arises, it can be repeated almost mechanically, and so quality and ingenuity can quickly disappear, the genre along with it,” says Sam.

“But then some formulas, like house and techno, persist through the decades, after which they become a sort of folk music, a common language that people can understand the world over,” he continues.

“People can use this language to say unique and powerful things, and communicate interesting ideas through it, or they can just make copies of the masters. Being fluent on its own is not enough.”

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