- At Düsseldorf's Salon Des Amateurs in 2013, I watched The Durian Brothers manipulate Technics turntables to create loops with rubber bands, sticky tape and little Post-It Notes. Sometimes the bands broke, but each time someone would reach into a box of spares and do a quick changeover. It looked as if everything was on the verge of falling apart, which made the performance engrossing.
Emotional Response's Stuart Leath has done more than most to get the music of The Durian Brothers (AKA Florian Meyer, Stefan Schwander and Marc Matter) and their various side-projects—Schwander is Harmonious Thelonious, Meyer is Don't DJ—to the world. A few years ago Leath spotted the first 12-inch on Diskant, the label operated by the trio, in the Honest Jon's record shop on Portobello Road. It was his introduction to a bustling community of Düsseldorf musicians. Since then he's released records from many of the artists that orbit the Salon Des Amateurs, including Harmonious Thelonious, Don't DJ, Musiccargo and Wolf Müller.
Diskanted pulls together music that was released on Diskant between 2009 and 2014, with a focus on Meyer, Schwander and Matter. One thing that ties their solo and collaborative projects together is the use of vivid polyrhythms, inspired by various strands of African and Asian music. At times these rhythms hang in stasis, as on Durian Brothers track "Hamigogakiko." Sometimes the feeling is ritualistic ("Giri Giri") and sometimes there's a brilliant sense of propulsive movement, like on "Makeshift" by Harmonious Thelonious. Schwander's other solo effort, the chiming "Verwobene Muziek," is the EP's most thrilling track, while "Swifts," one of two Don't DJ selections, bounces excitedly around the stereo field in the manner of Steve Reich. For anyone who's intrigued by this particular corner of Düsseldorf's music scene, consider this record an ideal primer.
TracklistA1 The Durian Brothers - Hamigogakiko
A2 Harmonious Thelonious - Makeshift
B1 The Durian Brothers - Overexposed Scream Contest
B2 Harmonious Thelonious - Verwobene Muziek
C1 The Durian Brothers - Giri Giri
C2 Don't DJ - Drob
D1 Don't DJ - Swifts
D2 The Durian Brothers - Rauschthalt