- Salons Des Amateurs is a small club nestled in Düsseldorf's contemporary art museum. It has a reputation for being the kind of place where, musically speaking, you go weird or go home. The Salon has become a breeding ground for a new wave of Düsseldorf's art and music kids—a friend of mine recently described it as "the weirdo post-kraut scene's Haçienda"—and currently nurtures labels like Stabil Elite, Kuntskopf and Themes For Great Cities.
Themes For Great Cities, which throws occasional parties at Salons Des Amateurs, has been going for about five years now, and its latest record comes from Wolf Müller. Balztanz is Müller's second release for TFGC, following his hard-to-find 2011 debut Lagerfeuer Tanz. There's a rainforest image on the front sleeve; on the back each track is broken down with exotic sounding instrument credits. Looking at the information, which is in German, it struck me how most European labels dumb down things like this for English speakers; personally I find it way more fun to wonder what a Mehrspurmischung is, or whether I'd know a Maultrommel if I saw one.
Opening track "Dickicht," a springy and loose live jam, waddles along to the sound of gongs, bells and bass. Though it's slightly heavier, "Zauber" continues in the same vein, the two pieces forming one 13-minute suite. The Kontan Chok mix of "Pflanzentanz," which appeared in its original form on Lagerfeuer Tanz, is moved along by a pretty hook, while the record's title track opens the B-side with what can only be described as a lesson in German bongo funk. The first time I heard JTC's remix of "Dickicht," its machine-fuelled rhythms sounded out of place, almost garish, in contrast to the preceding cuts. But the acid squelches grow on you, and it's undeniably weird, so maybe it's not that out of place after all.
TracklistA1 Dickicht
A2 Zauber
A3 Pflanzentanz (Kontan Chok Mix)
B1 Balztanz
B2 Dickicht ( J.T.C. Mix)