Too often dance music is guilty of being too darn serious. I do like the mean and moody side of electronica and my music collection is clear evidence of this but every now and then it's nice to hear a tune that puts a smile on your face. There's plenty of DJs doing that: Claude Von Stroke, Calvin Harris, Fatboy Slim are 3 off the top of my head but the DJs that do try and add humour tend to be towards the electro, breakbeat or disco end of the spectrum. It's difficult when your tastes tend towards the minimal because the preferred medium doesn't lend itself so well as a cheesy disco beat, a funk inspired riff or most commonly in the vocals. The double whammy comes with the weight of audience expectation that almost demands that minimal techno is too cool for smiles.
One DJ who stands out for me as making minimal techno fun..even, God forbid, popular is Daniel Steinberg. He's been around for a few years now, based in Berlin and he tends to keep a low profile letting his music do the talking. I first came across his 'Too Much Love' track as I was scouring Youtube for remixes of 'Your Love' by Frankie Knuckles. The sample is there in Steinberg's song but it's very much his own, the way he's stripped off his sample and modelled his tune around it. It was followed up by 'I Like to Be' which was an infuriatingly catchy track and really showed his talent for incorporating voice samples into his work. 'Pay For Me' was also a monster hit at the time.
He's been busy the last couple of years DJing mainly in Germany but in that time has released around a dozen tunes and I can say hand on hear there isn't a duff one amongst them. He's finally releasing an album, Shut Up, on Front Room Recordings this week. It's available in digital from Beatport here or in vinyl from wherever people get vinyl from.
I'm really looking forward to hearing it in full. I'll let you know what it sounds like when I've had a good listen. It's a shame it's not in CD form too as I would definitely buy a copy for my 8 year old who also loves Daniel Steinberg's output. I'd urge you to go and check out his back catalogue. I guarantee you won't be disappointed. In the meantime here's a real mixture of old and new:
There are also 2 minute samplers of a few more tracks from the album here
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