- Veteran music journalist John-Paul Shiver writes about how the old-school spirit of Cinthie's impeccable house DJing brings him back to his '90s heyday.
- Cinthie Christl, the Berlin-based producer, DJ, record store owner and head honcho of 803 Crystal Grooves, has clocked over 25 strong years in the dance music industry. Digging into the root ethos of deep house—churchy piano runs, spiritual vocal hooks and jacking drums—got her started mixing as a teenager in the '90s. Those blueprints of contemporary electronic music still elevate the both up-and-coming Spotify streaming club kids of today and the old-head vinyl freaks—I'm one of them—who connect via art from the sacred record sleeves and production credits.
Christl was only eight or nine when the Berlin Wall fell. As told in Beatportal, Saarbrücken, a small German city close to the French border, is where Christl’s parents introduced her to the sounds of Steve "Silk" Hurley. Six or seven years later, she learned how to spin (and sell) vinyl while hawking records at Humpty Records as a teen. Christl calls her new DJ-Kicks mix a "bucket list moment" in a career that dates back decades.
Her already successful career allows for a mix with a kind of indestructible conviction—one sometimes lacking in the DJ world these days—that feels almost redemptive. Christl links cheery and hopeful moods from some of the ultimate house music gods, by way of the Midwest, to the upcoming women and non-binary talent who enrich the dance floor ecosystem nowadays. Mixed digitally—more by bleeding than blending—her DJ-Kicks elevates with a lofty, ravey feel, while still getting into a dank Berlin vibe.
Christl kicks off the mix with gospel house don Terrence Parker, and his invitation to sweaty dance floor connectivity, "I Love The Way You Hold Me," is a perfectly back-to-basics house staple. When I hear those chords at the very beginning of Parker’s sermon (and Christl's mix), it brings back blurry recollections to attending all kinds of warehouse parties that you could only locate by calling a phone number at just the right time to acquire only sketchy coordinates. Or memories of Bay Area veteran DJ Mike Bee holding down a 6 AM slot at the end of a farm, down a cliff, to a random isolated beach, as some good-hearted farmers would turn a blind eye and permit some random ravers from the city to dance in the sand on Half Moon Bay.
There's a wailing singer testifying over those awe-inspiring chord progressions and noodling bassline, and the organ strain is palpable. For the opening thirty minutes of Christl's mix, Shinichiro Yokota, Christl’s own "Organ" and HDSN's head-turning "I House You But Love'' maintain that classic vibe—perky horn samples, looped divas at full tilt, breezy synths and redemptive piano chords that aren't playing behind a reverend at a Sunday morning church. Christl slithers through sub-genres on the remainder of the mix with panache, pushing into Dance Mania styles, disco strains and a stunning touch of breakbeat darkness with Logic1000's "I Won't Forget," before Anna Wall's invitation to techno, "The Storm Ends," close our tab before the lights come on.
The top edicts of house music are almost universal, still concerning the classic sentiments of freedom and expression. While the subject matter may mean one thing in the disenfranchised American neighborhoods of New York, New Jersey, Chicago and most definitely Detroit, I can only imagine a young woman who personally witnessed a different type of freedom erupt on her home turf, gravitating to those same records. Not for an identical reason, but a commonality of feeling. Christl's 70-minute mix of prismatic house music might have come out in 2022, but the mix carries a feeling of optimism for better things on the horizon that will never perish.
Just for context, this is the same woman who took the infamous Frankie Knuckles' "The Whistle Song" and updated it with such verve, that at certain points you forget Christl had to win over fans the Godfather Of House with a worthy new take that many would blindly deem blasphemous. Tuning up anthems requires fearlessness. Making a mix of retro, '90s-sounding records and rebooting old hope into new hope again? That's just gangster.
Tracklist01. Terrence Parker - I Love The Way You Hold Me (TP’s Bangin’ House Re-Edit)
02. Niles Cooper - Oldtown Dub
03. Shinichiro Yokota - Time Lapse
04. Sandilé - Jammin and Slammin
05. Cinthie – Organ
06. HDSN - I House You But Love
07. Amir Alexander - Blessed Are The Meek
08. UC Beatz - Crash Nerd
09. Lis Sarroca – Maravella
10. Ruff Stuff - Trim On (Dirty V)
11. Camion Bazar – YLB
12. Anil Aras - Flat Pack
13. Adryiano - Non Stop
14. Paul Johnson - Y All Stole Them Dances
15. Ben Hauke - Ain’t Bad
16. Logic 1000 - I Won’t Forget
17. Boo Williams - Emergency Tech
18. St. David - I See U' Movin
19. BMW - Jump Around
20. Gloved Hands - Given Up
21. Amy Dabbs – Flexin
22. Chevals - Please Don't
23. Anna Wall - The Storm Ends