|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CD
|
|
KOMP 058CD
|
Please Please Please is the third and last episode in a trilogy of DJ mix CDs by Cologne's Tobias Thomas for Kompakt. It started with Für Dich in 1999, the first DJ mix on Kompakt ever, which defined a very special and genuine way of compiling and arranging DJ sets as whole albums. Instead of putting together ten or fifteen banging club hits taken out of recent releases, the idea was to follow a more personal approach, focusing on a more timeless choice of music that has a certain meaning to the DJ. Something like a mix tape for a friend or a lover, combined with the way Thomas and his close fellow Michael Mayer used to deejay: like writing or telling a story, with a beginning and an end, with ups and downs, surprising breaks, as well as long and atmospheric moments in which nothing happens. In 2003, Thomas released the critically acclaimed (and still in-demand) Smallville, another epic journey through deep and emotional tracks -- many of which never hit the top of club charts but showcase all their strength and power combined with each other, together in the mix. More-so than its prequels, Please Please Please tries to slow things down as a modest reaction to a changing world of club culture and dance music in which technology tackles music's humanity and the permanent hunger for new kicks and simple signals leads to more and more strange musical results. Apart from some very minor post-production, this mix is as real, direct and human as it would be on a regular night somewhere in the clubs of the world at which Thomas is found on every given weekend. Above and beyond, they mark some points in the history of deep house, ambient, acid and techno, and are timeless representations of electronic music and its evolution. The tracklisting involves some great personalities in the world of electronic music's past and present: Fred Gianelli, Ricardo Villalobos, Johannes Heil and Reinhard Voigt, to name a few. Listen closely and you'll also find covers of legendary hits by Johnny Marr and Stevie Nicks. Other artists include: Pantha Du Prince, Adolf Noise, Krause Duo, Vulva String Quartett, The Kooky Scientist, Thomas/Burger, Pachulke Und Sohn, Brant (feat. Mr. Roper), International Pony and Stella.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
CD
|
|
KOMP 024CD
|
"Smallville is Tobias Thomas' second mix CD on Kompakt after the 1999 album Für Dich. Smallville is a musical try to compare the structures of living in small communities with the restrictions and possibilities of the dance community. It was mixed on two analogue record players in the empty Studio 672, Kompakt's homebase club, in Cologne. This is not so much a dance CD, this is a CD with story about the feeling of listening and dancing to music in a club. So Smallville starts rather quiet and romantic, grows and reaches a small climax and ends with a hymn." Artists include: Dntel, Kaito, Glowing Glisses, Anders Ilar, Sten, Jan Jelinek, Sami Koivikko, Aril Brikha, Feadz, Le Dust Sucker, Tonetraeger, and Forever Sweet.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
CD
|
|
KOMP 004CD
|
"Friday night? The party? In this case it can only mean total confusion at Cologne's Studio 672, where for 2 years Tobias Thomas and his back-in-the-days friend Michael Mayer are hosting Cologne's most kicking club night. But the musical happenings here are quite the opposite of unwinding: in a long decade behind the turntables Thomas and Mayer have specialised in winding up the floor with precise techno. And what would otherwise take 6 or 7 hours is compressed into 70 minutes on Tobias Thomas' mix CD. After a short opener from Jochen Distelmeyer's second album with Blumfeld, the first healing chords of Lali Puma warm up the ceremony. Contemplatively sleepwalking between his own Cologne biotype (Boris Kauer, Dettinger, Wolfgang Voigt), Berliners and Leipzigers (Paul DB, Gamat 3000), and various others (Baby Ford, Vladislav Delay, Nick Holder, Fumiya Tanaka), no track here seems to be without a personal relation. And this seems to be a central theme running through the work of Thomas. Every track in this set is also a private memory of a mood that ruled in its moment or context, or even got generated through it. Great DJs, it's said, possess the ability of turning other people's records into theirs -- to project their own emotions on someone else's music. And that's an idea that builds to a perfect line communication for a DJ and head like Tobias Thomas, especially on a Friday night. The epilogue of his trip through the width and depth of his record case naturally leads to Tobias' own productions (like the ones with his group Forever Sweet). And here we have Stereolove, produced with Michael Mayer. Finally things are allowed to unwind a little. For DJ Tobias, it's all a question of the build-up: and so when he plays the sound is not only architectional, it also sounds spiritual."
|
|
|
|