I am always looking for good music, so what could be better than good music coming to me?

Ellie from Kentucky-based Indietronic band Fair Heron sent me some of their songs to share with you, and since their stuff is cool I am happy to feature them here.

Their sound is both melodic and progressive and reminds me a bit of Fever Ray or Ninca Leece. While I would normally say that this is more for listening than for dancing, Ellie told me that their live shows are “generally pretty dancey”. So I guess that’s one more reason for promoting them: To get them to tour internationally so that I can see them live.

Here are some songs from their “Now Carla EP” for download:

Fair Heron – Digi Quilt

Fair Heron – This Is My Mogley

Fair Heron – Empathetic As A Ghost

And by the way, if you play in a band, produce electronic music are if you are a DJ and you think your style fits to what I usually feature here, just drop me a line through the contact page.

Elodie & Thompson are doing what many DJs only dream about: Right now, they are spending their summer in Ibiza to get behind the decks of the local clubs.

I was lucky to catch them for an interview during a short visit at home in Germany. Here’s a DJ set from them – I could very well imagine enjoying that sound at the beach at night…

“Playing in Ibiza is different than playing in Germany. Of course, you also have a lot of party people in Germany, but the attitude is different. In Ibiza, you see the happiness on people’s faces, they really seem to shine. It’s rare to see that in Germany.” (Elodie)

Being fascinated with the island for quite a while, Elodie & Thompson decided to spend the summer living off of DJing for the summer and taking a hiatus from their day jobs. While this might seem risky when you’re not already a superstar DJ, the two sound quite confident about their plan.

“I speak fluent Spanish, and that helps a lot in getting along with the locals. You might think it’s all about the tourists in Ibiza, but you can’t really achieve anything here without the locals. They own all the clubs, and they have their own networks. You have to get into those networks to be successful, and the first few days, we did nothing but run around, talk to people and give away promo CDs. Few give you paid gigs right away, but at least you get some opportunities and promotion gigs and that already helps.” (Elodie)

As a couple in and outside of clubs, they are unique in a business dominated by one-man-shows. Elodie & Thompson work and live together, and this seems to have a lot of advantages:

“It’s just so much more fun to play together. I had DJed alone before, but had not played for a couple of years because I just didn’t enjoy it as much as I used to. When we play together, we can complement each other very well. For example, when one of us has a bad night, we can still deliver a good set and one can push the other.” (Thompson)

“He is more of an artist than I am, but I guess I am the better manager. I just enjoy promoting us and our music, and I am also okay with playing gigs that are not 100% my style as long as the people there have a good time. As a DJ, there’s always a thin line between being an artist and being a professional entertainer, and walking this thin line can be a lot of fun.” (Elodie)

While they draw a lot of their motivation from the fun of DJing, they do have professional goals and are working on their career:

“Right now, we still have other jobs to keep us afloat. For example, I sometimes work as a light technician, and she works part-time for an online marketing agency. However, we do want to concentrate on making music and DJing, and we are working hard to be able to do that. We are thinking about a lot of things to push our career when we are back in Germany, but I think that our Ibiza experiences will definitely help us and we are also planning other things, like organizing our own parties, producing records and more.” (Thompson)

Tracklist:

1. Clan Destino — Cortado
2. Marcin Czubala — Dont need the sun to shine
3. Marco Effe — Caryllon
4. Federico Locchi, UGLH — No Category
5. Alex Niggemann — Deep Down
6. Saeed Younan — Analock
7. Carlos Sanchez, DJ Ray — Like

The Discotizer runs a very nice blog dedicated to funky and soulful House music. Like me, he regularly posts DJ sets and writes about good music. I really like his enthusiasm about House music, and his DJ sets are really worth listening.

Here is one for you to check out what I am talking about.

Discotizer started DJing out of disappointment with the local club scene.

“It’s funny that you hear funky and soulful House music more often in boutiques than in clubs. Here in Cologne, it’s actually hard to find clubs where you can hear that sound.”

We discussed this issue for a while, but couldn’t really come up with a convincing explanation. A lot of people like funky House music, and labels like Hed Kandi are very successful with their CD compilations. However, there seems to be a mismatch between what people like to hear and what DJs play in clubs.

“I was born in Bulgaria, and I occasionally visit friends and family there. Funky and soulful House is much easier to find there than it is in Cologne. Too many DJs here just keep playing annoying Minimal and Electro sounds. I never wanted to be a DJ, but I think I can do better than many DJs that I have heard so far.”

So is this just a local thing after all? I don’t know, but I can certainly relate to Discotizers mission for more soul and deepness in current dance music.

Tracklist:

1. Manyus and Dario Guida – Fever
2. Trouble Men – Do It
3. Glaubitz & Roc – Sunshine Day 2002 (Sgt. Slick 2002 Mix)
4. Soul Avengerz – Dancing In My Sleep
5. Full Intention pres. Deep Down – Give Me Your Love
6. Stone & Heller – San Francisco ’99 (Milk & Sugar Extended Mix)
7. Bran Van 3000 – Astounded (Eric Kupper Extended Mix)
8. Thomas Bangalter & Bob Sinclar – Gym Tonic
9. Armand Sarkowski – I Love It
10. Richard Grey – Is A Friend Of Mine
11. DJ EQ – Got Feelin’ (Original Mix)
12. Voodoo Chilli – Get On Down (Original Mix)
13. Voodoo Chilli – Check Out Our Groove (Herve Club Edit)
14. Black & White Brothers – Put Your Hands Up (DJ Disciple Vanguard Dub)
15. Conga Squad – Learn To Phonk
16. Czr and Ito – Bringing The Funk
17. Basement Jaxx – Do Your Thing (Jaxx Club Remix)
18. Michelle Weeks – Don’t Give Up (Baffled’s Midnight Mix)
19. Da Hoodfellas – Peep The Technique (Hustle & Flow Chi-Town Peepin Remix)
20. Stacy Kidd – Street Jazz (Original Mix)
21. Fabio Bacchini – Funk Is The Message
22. Cassius – Cassius ’99 (Fabio Bacchini 2009 Re-Tweaked Mix)
23. Cricco Castelli – Life Is Changing (Original)
24. One-T – Music Is The One-T Odc (Denis The Menace Club Mix)

I recently visited Chris Summer in his studio in a small town near Cologne. We spent a fun evening together over a few beers and pizza, and of course we talked about and listened to a lot of good music.

I didn’t really do a formal interview, but over the course of that evening I learned a lot about Chris Summer, and I think this is worth sharing.

Talking about sharing: Here is a bangin’ DJ set that he gave me to share with you.

Tracklist:

1. Monster Hospital (MSTRKRFT Remix) – Metric
2. Poison Lips – Vitalic
3. Don’t go – Puzique
4. Cheap and Cheerfull (SebastiAn mix) – The Kills
5. Look what you have done to me – Voodoo Chilli
6. En direct de la côte (Alavi Rerox) – TEPR
7. Almost Cut my Hair – Cassius
8. Easy Love – MSTRKRFT
9. Allthegirls ( Yuksek Remix) – Siriusmo
10. Gimme what you got (Pull the Trigger)[Alex Metric Mix] – Black Daniel
11. Nil By Mouth (Knightlive Remix) – Bag Raiders
12. Boys & Girls (Les Petits Pilous Remix) [feat. Dragonette] – Martin Solveig
13. Caller – Alex Metric
14. Escape – The Toxic Avenger
15. Sunburnt – Das Glow
16. Won’t You Listen To What The DJ’s Spinning! – Deee-Lite

Chris Summer is a really relaxed and friendly guy, and it is hard to imagine that the first party he organized ended in disaster:

“I was still at school, and I had organized a party for my schoolmates and some alumni. It seemed to go really well at first: A lot of people showed up, a band played, and everybody was in a good mood. I started my set at around 10pm, and I hadn’t even played my second record when a few idiots started a fight and I had to stop the party.”

This disaster didn’t remain the last in Chris’s DJ career: Fire extinguisher abuse, broken arms and retarded drugheads are just a few of the obstacles he encountered at parties. However, his love for music kept driving him and with more than 10 years experience in DJing and producing, Chris Summer certainly knows what he is doing.

“I got hooked to electronic music in the early 90s, but I have tried out lots of different styles since then. For example, I was the DJ and beat producer for a HipHop project for quite a while. I really liked turntablism, but my beats were always a little too electronic for the MCs, and their vocals were a little too much gangster-style for me. I even produced the music for a cinema ad once that  ran nationwide, but I always kept coming back to electronic music.”

Apart from a few commercial releases and remixes, Chris Summer is an active member of the Creative Commons (CC) community. The idea behind Creative Commons is to release music under a license that makes it legal to share and build upon those releases.

“I stumbled over the CC community when I was looking for some nice vocal samples. I was surprised how much great material you can find, and I think that CC releases are a great way to connect and promote yourself. For example, I had very positive feedback on my CC releases from all over the world, and it really blew me away to know that people from Australia or the USA liked my stuff and even played in their radio shows. However, I still release some of my music under commercial licenses. Being a multimedia producer, I just have to live off of something, and if I put in a lot of effort into producing a track and do commercial mastering and all that, I just can’t give it away for free.”

Even though Chris clearly enjoys DJing, he wants to focus on producing music in the near future.

Apart from an upcoming release on Puuhh Records, his network and experience seems to start paying off.

“I got to know some really great musicians, and I am planning remixes and productions with them right now. For example, I got to know a really great singer from a Cologne-based Rock band. She is used to a totally different style of singing than what you hear on most electronic music releases and I think this could become a very interesting collaboration.”

I got to know Madame Summit through an online forum that we both are members of. She was looking for like-minded DJs, and it turned out that we did share quite a few views on how good music is supposed to sound like.

Asking her to do a feature for Sweet Headache was pretty much a no-brainer, and I am happy to present an exclusive DJ set by Madame Summit:

Tracklist:

1. T.Raumschmiere – 111 kg DNA
2. Zoot Woman – Lonley by Your Side
3. Datarock – Robots in Disquise
4. Punks jump up – Dance to Our Disco (headman club mix)
5. Le Tigre – After Dark (Morel’s pink noise dup mix)
6. Zombie Nation – Worth it Part 1
7. The virgin – Rich Girl (le castle vania’s rmx)
8. Reverend & the Makers – Silencee is talking (Alex Metric rmx)
9. Bloc Party – One More Time (Alex Metric rmx)
10. Miike – Animal (Fake Blood rmx)
11. Gossip – Heavy Cross (Yuksek rmx)
12. Malente – Music Forever
13. Justice vs. Simian – We Are Your Friends
14. Fakebeat – Jellyfish
15. Plastique de Reve – Lost in the City

“I started as an Indie Rock DJ in 2007. I had organizied a party back then, and the DJ I had booked for the event didn’t show up. I didn’t want to cancel the event, so I just took over, and people really liked it. That got me interested in DJing, and I started applying for other parties and clubs after that.”

While Indie Rock was her first love, it didn’t stay her last. Madame Summit is still well-known for great guitar-tunes, but also got a taste for electronic music, especially Indietronic or rough distorted electronic sounds.

“I had this vision of really mixing songs into each other, but that doesn’t work too well with most Rock songs. However, I found most typical Techno tracks too boring, so I am glad to have found a kind of music that’s in between Rock and electronic music. I just like to have different styles in a set. Most Indie DJs just stick to a certain style, but that would be too boring for me.”

Having found her very own style, she also likes to combine different genres in a unique way. While most Rock DJs do not mix songs at all on the one hand and most electronic DJs try to blend tracks as seamlessly as possible, Madame Summit has found her own way of combining different genres.

“I do know how to mix songs seamlessly, but I sometimes find clearly audible breaks between songs interesting. I also like using samples to fill the gap between two radically different songs, like alarm sounds or dog bark. I love it when people stop for a second, listen and then continue dancing. Confusing people can be a lot of fun – both for me and for my audience.”

It’s no coincidence that she names The Prodigy, The Whip, MSTRKRFT and Boysnoize as her favorites. These artists also influence her beginning activities as a producer.

“I want to play music that makes people want to tear their clothes off. I am just starting to produce my own music, but this is definitely something that I want to pursue further.”

Madame Summit is a resident DJ at Blue Shell (Cologne) and Emergency (Münster).

I recently got to know CJ Masou at a release party for his label Puuhh Records. After talking to him for a few minutes, I knew that this guy has a unique point of view on electronic music, so I asked him if he’d be willing to do a feature for Sweet Headache.

Improvisation in electronic music, the overused term “Lounge” and old Jazz records were just some of the topics we discussed a few weeks later over a couple of beers. However, to give you an understanding of what CJ Masou sounds like, let’s start with an exclusive set that he gave me to share with you.

“My best tracks are excerpts of live sessions. The way I love to work is to create some beats and loops in Ableton Live and give a Jazz musician a basis for improvisation.”

To understand why a sentence like that is somewhat unique, one has to consider how electronic music is usually made: Many electronic musicians build their tracks in the same way as you would build a house: Starting with the basement (i.e., the beats), layer by layer is added until the track is considered complete at some point. This often involves a large amount preparation, tweaking, planning and post-production.

While CJ Masou also prepares his tracks, the actual music creation happens in a way that is much more similar to a Jazz session: Everyone agrees on a certain set of rules, and the rest just happens in interaction between the musicians.

“I often let the track itself inspire me. When I record something, this just means capturing a certain volatile moment in time. Of course, when I listen to an old recording, I sometimes think about what I could have done differently, but that’s ok to me. I can only capture whatever was there at that moment and release that as a track.”

The experience of playing live is very important for him, and even though his approach might sound a little unusual for an electronic musician, it has also brought him quite a bit of success.

“I started DJing in small clubs and bars in the area. I think this was a great experience, because you are very close to the audience in small locations. However, I got the chance to play live in the VIP lounge of a big trade fair for a couple of days together my friend Christian Schatka who plays woodwinds. When the trade fair ended, a guy approached us, gave us his card and said that he’d like to book us. Since then, we got booked for quite a few events, some of which were in big cities like London or Sevilla. However, I usually like to stay in the background and give the musicians I am playing with a greater visibility. To me, they are the true musicians. I am just the producer.“

With a style that combines electronic music and Jazz, CJ Masou often finds his music labelled as “Lounge Music”. For him, this term is somewhat misleading:“I prefer to call it laid-back music. Certainly, a lot of what I release and play has a relaxed mood, but Lounge Music is often used to describe music with slow beats and rather simple melodies. That’s not what my music is about. For example, if you listen to old Jazz records like Miles Davis, you also have a quite relaxed atmosphere, but there is still so much happening in that music! I just don’t feel comfortable with my music being compared to boring Lounge music, that’s why I don’t like this term.”

CJ Masou is also the founder and owner of Puuhh Records, an independent record label that releases a mix of Jazz and electronic music. “Right now, there are mostly releases of my own tracks, but I got to know some really great musicians that I signed up for releases in the next few months.”

CJ Masou’s latest release on Puuh Records is called “Kolay”. Get it on iTunes!

I recently heard DJ Sven Mergener at one of his Resolution Lounge events, and his melodic Techno sound clearly stood out from what you usually hear in bars and clubs around here. I asked him if he’d be willing to do a feature for Sweet Headache, and he said yes!

First of all, he gave me a DJ set to share with you:

Tracklist:

1. Paul Kalkbrenner -  Steinbeisser (Wighnomy Brothers Remix)
2. Coma – Brown – Dogtown
3. Sarah Goldfarb – 200 (Breaking down remix)
4. Chordian – The End is Night
5. Bukaddor & Fishbeck – Riffpunk
6. Chordian – Closed Eyes – Soniculture
7. Paul Kalkbrenner – Torted
8. m2 – 01.01-00.07.30h
9. Gui Boratto & Martin Eyrer – The Island
10. Gui Boratto – No Turning Back
11. Robert Babicz – Astor
12. Rodriguez jr. – Lila
13. white label
14. Matt K. & boy toy – Kultur

I also asked him to do a real interview, so a few weeks later, we meet at his studio in an old industrial building.

“The purpose of this studio is to kick my own ass.” Sven explains.
“I am serious about music, and I have my goals, so I rented this studio. I just needed a place for my music.”

What struck me about Sven’s sound was that it is very melodic, but still has a strong beat. He tells me that what matters most in a track is “Deepness” by which he means “a sound that comes from below and slowly builds up. Melodies are very important, too. Just rhythm isn’t enough.”

Being a trained event technician by education, Sven certainly knows a thing or two about sound. A great soundsystem is something he describes as necessary to “become one with the music” and to truly enjoy a party.This is also one of the things he misses at most parties:

“Many event organizers just don’t try hard enough when it comes to sound. For my Resolution parties, I definitely want to raise the bar here. I just know how a good sound system is supposed to sound like. For example, the system in Berlin’s Berghain club is fantastic!”

After mentioning the Berlin club scene, it is not surprising that he names Paul Kalkbrenner as one of his favorite artists right now. Paul Kalkbrenner has been getting a lot of attention lately by being the lead actor in the movie “Berlin Calling” where he plays a DJ struggling with his drug problem and a series of other issues. However, Sven Mergener does not attribute the current hype around the movie for naming Paul Kalkbrenner:“He is just a very good musician, and I have known and loved his music years before the movie came out. It’s kinda strange that he gets so much attention lately, but in a way, this is also a good thing since it promotes some very good music.”

For the near future, Sven has two main goals: Apart from establishing his Resolution parties as regular events, he is also eager to be a producing artist, not just a DJ. “I definitely want to have my first release out in the next year. What I absolutely want to use is lots of analogue synthesizers. Digital technology is fine for recording and controlling purposes, but there is something about the warm sound of analogue synthesizers that digital technology just can’t reproduce. Analogue sound is not that polished, and that’s just what I like.”

It’s not only the synthesizers where he scoffs at digital technology. When it comes to DJing, he is strongly convinced of vinyl records being supreme to digital DJ tools. “DJ software just makes it too easy. You don’t need to know how to mix, and many DJs actually don’t really know how to mix any more. For me, this would take the whole fun out of DJing.”

If you would like to hear Sven Mergener live, there will be a chance next Saturday.
His Resolution party will be at Feb.27, 9 pm at the Kolbhalle in Cologne:

Lineup:

• Tandem
• Dirk Middeldorf
• Sven Mergener
• O’Jansen
• Thomas Lachmann
• Sersch&Sanei
• Solanace
• Plus an “Anarcho-Burlesque Show by the Pepperellas“

Sven also hosts regular Resolution Lounge events in the Stadt Venlo.

Fotos by Birgit Schiffer // www.pfirsichfarben.de