Various Artists / Hamburg Elektronisch - Von House Zu House

The people of Hamburg are associated with traits such as modesty and coolness. The same can be said about the music scene of Germany‘s second largest city: While there is a lot of buzz in the media about creatives being envious to the capital, the music scene, especially in the electronic fields, has been thriving here in the last few years. Hafendisko, the Hamburg based sub label by hfn music, reknowned for their releases by Trentemøller and Kasper Bjørke, now puts an end to Hanseatic understatement: “hamburg elektronisch” is a compilation series of awesome electronic beats from the river Elbe, the first installment focuses solely on House music. The 20 tracks of this download-only compilation, among which are three exclusives, not only feature old masters like DJ Koze and Lawrence, promising newcomers like Smallpeople und Wareika, but also showcase the most important melting pots of the Hamburg scene.

The new drive of the city is mostly accumulated in two spots: Smallville Records, the first of them, proves that the classic record store still can be of relevance, no matter how much discourse about releases and producers is now going on in digital networks. The store is small, but run with knowledge and passion. The people there not only curate their own Smallville parties all around the city, but also run an offspring store in Paris and several great labels: “Smallville” (featured here with tracks by Lawrence and Smallpeople), the vinyl-only imprint „Laid“ and, of course, „Dial Records“,the most-famous electronic label in Hamburg, because of its unique melancholic approach to techno music (check out Isolée on this compilation). On top of that, people who help there at the counter also run their labels like RvdS (whose “it’s”-platform is represented here with „A Walk On The Moon“) or book great parties like the “Dear” nights at the “Ego” club - the second epicentre in Hamburg at the moment.

With the “Ego” in the outskirts of the world famous Reeperbahn the city finally has a great techno club again, in addition to the „Baalsaal“ and „Neidklub“. Its owner Solomun also runs the booking agency and label “Diynamic” in the same building. The label already released nearly 50 records in quite a short time and thus is featured heavily here. Apart from Solomun check out Stimming, DJ Phono and H.O.S.H. The latter is also responsible for the ever-growing “Grünanlagen” Open Air parties who usually have an awesome line-up, although they are free.

Apart from other important concert venues like the „Uebel & Gefährlich“ and all the nice bars of St. Pauli between the Reeperbahn and the Schanze quarter, at the end of the night the Hamburg scene still meets at the Golden Pudel Club at the harbour. Despite some difficulties it is still going strong and uncommercial after more then twenty years. Not only most of the artists mentioned before run parties here, but lots of the other labels in this collection as well like Liebe*Detail (Wareika, Lovebirds), Dérive (Christopher Rau) or Mirau (Tensnake). At the Pudel so many different people and music scenes engage in creative friction. This multitude of styles will be covered in future parts of this “Hamburg elektronisch” series that will also be released on CD. Cause hanseatic understatement is over.