
Release Notes: It’s all about hooking up our music to the emotional world of electronic music
at the beginning of the Nineties, however, without falling for nostalgic
references. We don’t want to do cowardly Zeitgeist Techno, we want to have the
heart to dare big sounds and more melodies. Sunrise scenarios, energy,
revolution and kaput-ness, all these are parts ofthe Extrawelt. However, don’t
panic: even if the aesthetics of the debut album of the two Hamburgborn artists
Arne Schaffhausen und Wayan Raabe is affected by the attentive observation of
electronic dance music over the last fifteen years, the “Schone Neue Extrawelt”
is above all this: Premium Techno 2008! The Hamburg-based producerteam has been
unmistakably imprinting the last three years’ club sound with widely noticed
releases on Border Community (”SooperTrack”), Traum Schallplatten (”Doch Doch”)
and Cocoon Recordings (”Titelheld”) as well as with remixes for Gregor Tresher,
Minilogue or Alexander Kowalski - last but not least due to an excellent live
presence, that resulted in the second rank in the Groove Live Act Charts, even
still without the accompanying long player. The work on “Schone Neue Extrawelt”
started more than two years ago for Schaffhausen and Raabe. “The initial idea
was to present an album covering all styles of electronic music between Ambient,
Breakbeats and Techno. When we had 25 tracks for the album ready, we had to
realize that this approach did not work for us. Insofar, we finally decided to
use the 4/4 bass drum in all tracks except in the little intermezzo “Kurt
Curtain”. We have tested all tracks live over the last three months and
constantly re-interpreted them. So, the ‘dance ability’ is clearly in our focus,
but the sound spectrum and the dramaturgy of the titles should not be solely
functioning in the club. Our intention was definitely not to deliver an album
full of superficial peak time hits.” Those twelve tracks on “Schone Neue
Extrawelt”, all unreleased, are there for primarily representing a pleasurable
‘in-between’, the organic development of hypnotically compressed dance music
that is more than “just” Minimal Techno, reduced Trance or electronic listening
sounds of the Warp era - even all those elements have left their marks. From the
richly decorated musical-clock-intro “One Tree Hill” via the stereo singingbowl
of “Trummerfeld” to the asian-sounding creaking of “Daten Raten”, Extrawelt
celebrate a vision of futuristic melancholy with organic detail richness, which
is permanently in motion but is nevertheless seeming to be well-balanced.
However, in the Extrawelt universe, one gets a long quite well with antagonisms.
“We have always been polarizing, not only in the Techno scene, also in the
Trance scene. Because in the end, “Schone Neue Extrawelt” - freely adapted from
Aldous Huxley - is now not only a big neon-coloured future, but is likewise
positioned in the often disillusioning grey of the here and now.” Perfectly
matching to this is the cover artwork of photographer Christopher Griffith from
New York. The abstract detail photos of torn-up car tyres turn rubbish into
artistically ornamented still lifes. “Due to the fact that we often build our
sounds around small parts, sound snippets or unexpected mistakes, we couldn’t
imagine a better visualisation of our music”, say Schaffhausen and Raabe.
Genre: Electronic Quality: Vbr NFO Download: part1 part2
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