The influence of American music, Detroit techno in particular, is evident across all of Baaz’s many releases including his latest What About Talk About #1, which marks the debut release from his own label, Office Recordings.
[Release page] The world is no longer bound by region. House producer Baaz knows this. The 30-year-old musician, real name Bastian Volker, from Würzburg, Germany makes a very un-German type of house music that calls to mind the likes of Theo Parrish and Carl Craig rather than Pantha Du Prince or Basic Channel.
The influence of American music, Detroit techno in particular, is evident across all of Baaz’s many releases including his latest What About Talk About #1, which marks the debut release from his own label, Office Recordings. Minimalism comes to mind when talking about German-made techno music, and there is certainly a sense of minimalist roots in Baaz’s ‘What About Talk About #1’ but hints of melodic synth lines and supplementary rhythmic layers pop up throughout the five track EP, which plants it firmly in deep house territory. This is a record made by an adventurous producer who has shown his ability to squeeze innovative sounds out of a well-worked genre. His repertoire contains the typical Rhodes-sounding synths and dense four to the flour bass kicks of American deep house but mechanical clacks and swashing sound waves pour through the record in a very traditionally minimalist way.
The atmospheric sounds of the opening seconds of the record’s first track “In My Mind” create an environment for the album to live in, half way between the living room and the dance floor with a pumping beat and jazz aesthetics. The second track, “Glim” switches up the production value with shinier hi-hats, mechanized fretting, and a deeply buried bassline before running smoothly into the record’s centerpiece “Way Out Citti.” “Way Out Citti” is a stand-out track that moves into the realm of downtempo music with a stuttered, Flying Lotus-like bass drum and chorus of cascading hand claps that descend into a world of poking synthesizer cuts and a melodic piano line. Following a key-twisting interlude, “Way Out Citti” gets a soulful remix by fellow German house producer—and Session Victim member—Matthias Reiling and partner Björn Astrup marking What About Talk About #1 as the essential Baaz release thus far.
What About Talk About #1 is available on Office. [Release page]
