Discover 10 Deep Cuts From The Crates Of Hamburg Techno Duo Extrawelt
In October, Hamburg-bred duo Extrawelt released the final installment of their trilogy for Cocoon Recordings. Fear Of An Extra Planet became the occasion for the pair’s latest tour, which continues this weekend with a date at Budapest’s Akvárium club hosted by our friends at NVC. To gear up for the party, we tapped Arne Schaffhausen and Wayan Raabe to select 10 of their all-time favorite tracks, which you can peruse below.
The Hypnotist, Pioneers Of The Warped Groove (Rising High 1991)
By loading the video, you agree to YouTube's privacy policy.
Learn more
“Listening to this for the first time was a revelation. Actually, it was among the first batch of techno records I bought in Hamburg. When I got back home, we just couldn’t stop playing it again and again while totally freaking out. It’s unbelievable that this came out 27 (!) years ago and everything in it still tickles my spine. Rest in peace, Caspar Pound.”
Leftfield, Phat Planet (Hard Hands 1999)
By loading the video, you agree to YouTube's privacy policy.
Learn more
“Distorted drums are like a fetish: either you love them or you don’t. The whole Rhythm & Stealth album was our production reference for years, and the distorted drums on ‘Phat Planet’ are definitely among the most ass-kicking ones we’ve ever heard.”
Emmanuel Top, “Turkish Bazar” (Attack 1994)
By loading the video, you agree to YouTube's privacy policy.
Learn more
“‘The music was…’ and we lost it. The voice of Jim Morrison paired with that barking TB303 always got us to freak out on the dance floor. If music is a drug, ‘Turkish Bazar’ is pure acid!”
Nico, “The Wire” (Missile 1995)
By loading the video, you agree to YouTube's privacy policy.
Learn more
“Sometimes it just needs to be pure. A pounding kick, a driving bassline and then some. And it goes on and on and on…and we surely hope it never ends!”
X-Dream, “Psychomachine” (Blue Room Released 1998)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lt3uWh_m5M
“We took our first baby steps as producers with the help of Marcus [Maichel] and Jan [Müller of X-Dream]. While friendship may blur the lines between liking the art and liking the people who made it, we truly admire their music. ‘Psychomachine’ is arguably their masterpiece. Someone once compared it to Smetana’s ‘Die Moldau’, which seems a bit weird but is actually pretty accurate. It starts as a small creek and becomes a majestic river. The dark soundscapes and the semitone harmonies were unusual for an otherwise typical trance track. They refuse to create that ‘put your hands up in the air and lets party’ feeling that most DJs and producers are desperately going for. This track is fueled with emotion, and in the end that’s what we’re looking for in music—or any kind of art, for that matter.”
Wassermann, “W.I.R (Sven Väth Remix)” (Profan 1999)
By loading the video, you agree to YouTube's privacy policy.
Learn more
“The original is already great, but for us this track was always about Sven’s Remix. It’s nicely demolished but leaves the tenderness of the original intact and even emphasizes it by creating a contrast with the chord and emotive vocal. ‘Es kommt von Herzen..‘”
Biosphere, “Baby Interphase (Remix)” (Apollo 1993)
By loading the video, you agree to YouTube's privacy policy.
Learn more
“There are so many incredible Biosphere records, and we could have chosen tracks like ‘The Shield’, ‘Novelty Waves’ or many others. But this classic is the pick. Can’t get enough of those icy-yet-touching strings. I love his stuff even today; my latest buy was the lovely ‘Black Mesa’ track from last year.”
Andrea Parker, “Ballbreaker” (Mo Wax 1998)
By loading the video, you agree to YouTube's privacy policy.
Learn more
“Some say it takes darkness to see the light. Well, this is pretty much as dark as it gets. This track is over 10 minutes long—and it’s still too short! We got lost in ‘Ballbreakers’ and its deep sound design for hours. The reverb, the delay, the distortion, the distortion, the distortion…Damn it, we want that distortion!”
I-F, “I Do Because I Couldn’t Care Less” (Viewlexx 1995)
By loading the video, you agree to YouTube's privacy policy.
Learn more
“Raw and pure as gold! The whole electro department has always had a big influence on us too. We regularly make electro tracks ourselves, but often we just don’t find a proper place for them on our releases. I-F, Carl A. Finlow, Drexciya, Freddy Fresh, Aux88, Anthony Rother and Two Lone Swordsmen were probably the first wave of electro producers that we admired, but the beat has never stopped. A lot of electro still finds its way into my crates.”
Visit Venus, “Space Nazis Must Die” (Yo Mama’s 1998)
By loading the video, you agree to YouTube's privacy policy.
Learn more
“In addition to loving the track title, we think this track is the perfect example of how to create an arrangement. Everything fits: the mix, the choice of sounds, intro, outro, the melody combined with those massive drums…While everything by itself is arguably simple and minimalistic, it really doesn’t need a lot of to create emotion. And there’s plenty of emotion in this. Great track!”
Find tickets and more information about Extrawelt’s show in Budapest, Hungary this Saturday, January 20 here.
Published January 19, 2018.