Five acts that are bending the rules of Berlin’s music

We are currently in the boom of the electronic era, in the past 10 years boundaries have been broken between different genres with artists destroying the genre label.

The technological advances in the world have made the tools available and people are coming from different scenes and playing with different influences in their productions.

A common influence when looking into some of the artists doing this well has been Berlin and how the experiences within the city have inspired them to translate it in their music.

Abby

A band of four artists living in Berlin, that together embody the perfect distinction between studio production and a live band.

By successfully avoiding having to choose sides between performance and production, they have destroyed the limitations that any genre brings.

A video the artists done as a trailer for their album highlights the impact the experiences of Berlin has had on their music, developing their experimental sound and some interesting points on their road to the acclaimed Island Records LP, Hexagon.

Abby combine heartwarming indie pop with a euphoric dance floor techno touch, making it suitable for both the club and the concert hall. They are live performers coming from a traditional band approach, so their shows are slightly improvised, keeping the authenticity of the experience but transforming the sounds into four-to-the-floor jams.

The album is a showcase of the innovation and advances in pop, from indie, electronic and classical music perspectives with features from Pan Pot and Brandt Brauer Frick on the full length.

Pillowtalk

PillowTalk is three artists based out of the famous Lower Haight District in San Francisco, their sound fuses classic R&B, boogie and disco with underground house and techno. They have releases on Visionquest, Life & Death and Wolf+Lamb and have maintained the balance between being DJ’s and being a live band.

They come from different backgrounds and have experiences with so many genres, which is evident in their inspiring original sound.

When asked about how to pin down their sound in interviews they refer to their motto ‘D.A.G’ (destroy all genres) which is forward thinking and a current concept that makes a strong statement.

In 2014 they released their debut album Je Ne Sais Quoi. The nine-track LP features collaborations from Thugfucker, DJ Tennis and four artists on the track Walls, including Jaw, Navid Izadi, Aquarius Heaven, Dina Moursi.

The/Das

The/Das is the reinvention of Bodi Bill. The journey began with Fabian Fenk and Anton Feist who in their history of making music have had a focus to experiment with and explore different styles to expand their musical borders.

Their music throughout the aliases has embodied a balance between club culture and folk aesthetics, describing themselves as techno tenderness.

Italy’s cutting edge dance-label Life And Death snapped them up, releasing their first two EPs as The/Das. With techno tracks alongside them, they are a part of the machine at the label that in itself pushes to break boundaries in emotive techno. Other labels they are involved with are Sinnbus and their own label Krakatau.

Tale Of Us, also on Life And Death have featured with them, Fenk singing his distinctive vocals in some collaborated originals, as well as remixes of their own tracks.

The band has smoothly brought folk-esque songwriting into sweaty electro clubs. Last year they released their first LP as The/Das – Freezer. It is said to embody all the detours and different approaches coming together as an ode to the urge to discover, the distance, the curiousity and the confusion.

Howling

Howling consists of two artists, one being the newly re-invented Ry X – previously known as Ry Cumins – and the other Frank Wiedemann, one of the masterminds behind Âme.

Over the years Frank has made a huge impact on the scene in Berlin, running the Innervisions label alongside Dixon and the other half to Âme, Kristian Beyer.

Ry X ventured to Berlin in the winter of 2012 which has had a huge impact on his own music and the styles are evident with Howling, his band The Acid and his solo project, so much so that he named an EP of his after the city.

This collaboration with Frank, and their track Howling – as well as an Âme reconstruction for the dancefloor – took the world by storm, unearthing a different perspective on deep emotive techno.

In the Summer of this year they released their first long player Sacred Ground on Monkeytown including songs from Ry that have been reworked into Howling originals.

The album as a whole is a statement of a more emotive side to house and techno, with a deeper, more intelligent connection. After the album it got some considerably diverse remixes from names like Rødhåd, Alex Banks, Midland and Radio Slave.

Moderat

Last but not least is Moderat, the brainchild of Modeselektor and Apparat who could both be mentioned separately for having an outstanding and undefinable sound.

‘Boundary breaking’ is a phrase that defines these artists as their sounds span genres. With their collaborations they set out to create a popular album and dislocating cultural borders is in their identity. From broken beats and electronica, to a grimy techno and bass, topped off with Apparat’s unique voice.

Apparats solo career has developed with experimentation since the 90’s, first coming from a darker perspective in production which is evident in his early releases.

Modeselektor have had a similar career with their dense, textured and rich sounds that are completely unique, drawn from a production ethos of ‘create, distort, recycle’. Their sound comes from an appreciation for the absurd and a different perspective on techno, refreshing in a world where ‘serious techno’ can be cliche.

When these brains first clashed they had creative disagreements and different opinions. Seven year’s after their first output as Moderat in 2002 they released their self titled debut album. Hitting full marks in reviews with its extremely beautiful and catchy sounds the act got Resident Advisors #1 Live Act of the Year in 2009.

Since then the artists have been performing together and brought out a second album in 2013 titled II.

The release got a similar response to the first, as a pop album with integrity. It seems to have grown organically and retained its gritty sound of techno and bass music that underpins their approach.