Roland is Appel of Germany's eye
Revellers at Spektrum
THE idea that Germany is the leading country for electronic music at the moment is an understatement.
It's no coincidence that the cream of the worlds producers have set up camp in, much-maligned capital, Berlin.
The once walled city has particularly positive lifestyle pluses like currywurst (a sausage with curry sauce in a little paper bowl), a zoo with a baby bear called Knut, a communist TV tower that looks like's god's own pickled onion on a cocktail stick, nightclubs on the 13th floor of office blocks and the equally important factor of the cheapest rent for a capital in western Europe.
Our own wonder kids have crossed over - think Ewan Pearson, Radioslave and Jesse Rose - but also American nu-disco diva Daniel Wang and Canuck minimal supremo Richie Hawtin are also enjoying life in whichever Spree-side district is cool at the moment.
Look closer though and it's apparent that some of the top output from Germany is coming from the provinces.
Frankfurt, named after the famous pork treat, continues to be a techno mecca, Cologne is the home of Kompakt - oft touted as the finest electronic imprint on the go today, while deep house oozes from Karlsruhe in the deep south, home of Ame.
The city that is really making a go of stealing Berlin's crown is Munich.
Not overtly different from our own Manchester, the Black Forest metropolis is probably more famous for football than funk.
The biggest difference is the culture of pushing fantastic music, not afraid of the big music centre down south (or up north in their case), Munich has produced some of the lushest, achingly beautiful yet excessively danceable music from both labels and artists alike.
One such spawn of Bavarian brilliance is Roland Appel, emerging from the shadows of his previous, and critically acclaimed, leftfield funk project, Trüby Trio.
Focus
"Munich is very relaxed and a good city to work," he says. "You have a good situation to focus on what ever you do because the city life is not too stressful.
"The club scene is super-good, every DJ from all over the world finds a place to play and we have labels like Compost, Gomma, Gigolo, Permanent Vacation and Disco B, just to name a few.”
It was with Trüby Trio, along with Rainer Trüby and Christian Prommer, that Appel first mastered his sleek studio skills.
The three-piece segued bossa nova, Latin grooves and broken beat to form a highly popular, chillled, sophisticated sound peaking with a DJ Kicks comp and, 2003 LP, Elevator Music.
Released on Jazzanova's Sonar Kollektiv label from Berlin - a city Appel still admits is a habitational option for him in the future - both the producer and the high quality imprint moved towards the emerging deep house sound in the mid-noughties, and it's there that the 30-year-old felt comfortable releasing solo material; "Sonar Kollektiv are old friends of mine," admits Appel.
Open minded
"Because of my old projects we worked, or played, very often together over the last 10 years, it suits me because they are very open minded and have a good structure."
It was on the aforementioned label that Appel released his first solo album - Talk to your Angel - earlier in the year.
The album became the melting pot in which Appel could blend his influences of techno, house, disco and soul into a pure and personal product – with those influences now spilling through into his acclaimed DJ sets.
Spektrum – where he plays this weekend – will then move to a rich and varied level of deepness, a peak time wave of audial cotton wool where strings fight 303s like cubs on the Savannah .
"I'm playing a lot of stuff like Solomun, Carl Craig, Radioslave, Martin Buttrich and Innervisions stuff" he beams, "from house to techno: all the soulful stuff."
In his spare time, his passion is collecting designer furniture from the 1940's to the 1980's.
So, in brief, you could say, Roland Appel is a dab hand at turning broad influences into beautiful floor fillers.
Roland Appel will be at Spektrum on Friday, November 7. 10.30pm - 5am. £8.
Published: Tue, 04 November, 2008
Comment on this article
You need to be logged in to comment. Login | Register