Stil Vor Talent Electronic & Dance 18 Items

2024 Repress!

The Berlin-based techno and house producer and DJ Oliver Koletzki has fully committed himself to his roots for this album. They can be traced back to pop music of the 80ies and 90ies, while his productions still manage to transport the fresh energy of today's electronic music productions. "Großstadtmärchen" is a perfect example for a producer's album: Oliver Koletzki has created a musically compact long player while working together with many different singers. Both established artists like Mieze Katz from the German electro-pop outfit MIA., the hot German pop-rock-singer Axel Bosse, critically acclaimed indie band Kate Mosh as well as newcomers such as Fran, Pyur and Juli Holz have contributed to the album. The result are ten songs that easily fluctuate between catchy pop tracks, modern house grooves and 80ies synthesizer pop yet still maintaining a very own Koletzkieske sound dynamic.

"Großstadtmärchen", which translates as "The tale of the big city" starts off with "THIS IS LEISURE". Famous pop singer Mieze Katz has put down her sexy voice on a guitar-based song pattern that functions as an ideal introduction into the craziness of the big city tales. After hearing this, the listener is directly fully drawn into this world when hearing Juli Holz's softly whispering voice singing about the dilemmas of love in the big city on "ZUCKERWATTE" (Single release date: 7.9.09). This is a very fine electro-pop tune. Coming up next Oliver Koletzki and Axel Bosse board an underground train that takes them around the Berlin U-Bahn system and back. Axel Bosse, who has had a massive success with his song "3 Millionen" adds his melancholic voice to this groovy pop anthem and sings about the poetic magic of public transport, while we hear the sounds of the trains on top. Of course, Oliver Koletzki has added some purely instrumental tracks on his album, too: "KUSSKOMPATIBEL" and "WARSCHAUER STRASSE" are a journey back to Oliver's first years in Berlin and his love for house music. "KLEINES ZWISCHENSPIEL" also celebrates the energetic sound of electronic music. Then there is another great shine of bright light with the pop track "HYPNOTIZED" that is already making airwaves on German radio. It features the newcomer singer Fran that turns this track into a wonderful electronic love story. In her beautiful crystal clear voice Fran tells the story of those moments during the night that decide where it's going to end: a song about love, passion and the energy between male and female, a catchy pop anthem about the first dance, the first kiss and that special moment when the night turns into day. Oliver has equipped this song with a wonderful piano melody and a very smooth and poppy electronic beat. Actually it sounds like Fran and Oliver have never been doing anything else than produce wonderfully fresh pop songs together.

The tale of the city carries on with a very appealing mixture of indie rock and electronic music. "HEADSHAPED BOX" encapsulates what Indietronic sounds like in the year 2009: symphonic, melodic and simply unique. On "THESE HABITS" the just seventeen-year-old singer Pyur makes her debut. This down-beat triphop-groove is a wonderful hit for the late summer. Last up is a bonus track: Oliver Koletzki remixes "NIMM MICH MIT" by the electronic boy-band Die Raketen.

"Großstadtmärchen": This title is chosen for a reason. The story behind Oliver Koletzki is also a magical tale of believing in yourself. Since he is 12 years old, Oliver makes music, by himself or in bands: it is the love for the energy of soundwaves that makes him work hard on himself. In 2005 Oliver Koletzki celebrates the big breakthrough by releasing his hit "Mückenschwarm" on the label of techno grand daddy Sven Väth Cocoon Records. It becomes not only the biggest tune of the year, but also the best selling single on Cocoon Records ever. With this success in mind, Oliver directly realises his dream of starting his own label to promote newcomers. Stil vor Talent also becomes the platform for the release of his first album "Get Wasted" in 2007. One year later, Oliver proves his intuition for pop music when he signs the track "3 Tage Wach" by Lützenkirchen. He makes a low-budget-video for the track that gets an astronomically large half a million views on YouTube within the first three weeks. At least from here it is obvious: Oliver Koletzki is not your average techno producer. His productions and his sense for orginal music also have a deep rooting within pop culture. Thus "Großstadtmärchen" is the logical consequence from two decades of intense musical production: here comes a mature, yet still playful pop album that manages to combine many different influences into one harmonious oeuvre. It shows just how close the dancefloor and pop music really always were, and still are.

Preceded by the successive releases of lead singles "Sandcastles" and "My Mind", here comes the versatile debut full-length offering from Tel-Aviv-based producer Kadosh on Stil vor Talent, "Unanimously". Bridging the club universe with that of deeper, further immersive off-floor narratives, Kadosh entices us down a compelling path of rhythmic enlightenment and all-embracing togetherness. Casting mutable strains of EBM, house, pop and exotica entangled in one dizzying polyphony throughout the album, the Israeli vibist has us surfing our way across his musical headspace effortlessly.

From the stealth, neo-noir-like opening sequence of "Interstellar" feat. Marc Piñol to the epic Luso-Italo vibrations of "Sandcastles" feat. vocal hoodooist Abra~o, via the exquisite Afro-informed piano house and all-round atmospheric luxuriance of "My Mind" feat. Floyd Lavine and Erika Krall's supremely smooth yet characterful timbre, Kadosh swings the pendulum with constant surprise and bravura. Aside from his compositions' obvious hooking nature, there's also great lots of textural back funk to dive in at every corner. Hauntingly transporting, "From Jaffa to Frederichshain" feat. Upon You's Marco Resmann works a more jagged programming, flush with big-room reverbs and muted drums, while the slo-evolving "Pronto" feat. Emanuel Satie morphs from a low-key DJ tool into a full-fledged, melancholy-charged peak-time burner.

Bearing both Kadosh and David Mayer's signature, "1999" lets the 80s-inherited arsenal of iridescent Casio synths and lashing percussions talk in unhindered fashion, whereas "Volantage" feat. Murat Uncuoglu goes all in on the trampling kicks, sooty claps and prismatic keyboard stabs. Sensual to the fullest, "Moran" in collaboration with Rodriguez Jr. is certainly one of the album's highlights with its impeccably laid-down melange of bassy thunder and shapely Latin rhythmic backbone ushering us down an irresistibly poignant and hypnotic tunnel of sound. A joint effort with Locked Groove, "Far Too Close" is a further loopy discoid affair reminiscent of the French filtered-house scene's heyday, while the album's closer "Think it Over" feat. Stereo MC's is that perfect pop-indebted electro chugger that'll rev up any tired engine with reinvigorated, ecstasy-inducing horsepower.

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German techno and house composer Tim Engelhardt takes you on a deep dive into his peculiar-yet-relatable world of musical meanderings with ‘Idiosynkrasia’. True to the nature of idiosyncrasy, the album is more than the sum of its parts. ‘Idiosynkrasia’ is an ode to the inspiration Tim finds in all kinds of spaces and places: each cut woven from the same cloth of meticulously formed melodic structures and expertly crafted harmonies, gently amplified and unfettered by genre. From the opening track it’s clear that Tim has a profound awareness of rhythm and sound, his background as a pianist lending an easy fluidity to the album as it expands and contracts to tell a story which is gentle, humble and reflective. Using granular processed recordings of piano, floating strings and other instruments to transmute emotions like love, nostalgia, vulnerability and longing, the album shifts through meditative, flow-state inducing tracks, morphing into cuts designed for dancing it all out. Take it straight, mix it up or down: ‘Idiosynkrasia’ is cinematic in form and orchestral in structure, each track is marked with Tim’s unique sonic signature and careful attention to instrumentation. Inhale the spirited and lively flow; exhale and surrender into epiphanic moments: this is an album which will catalyse deep breaths, reflection and a different way of thinking.

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After showcasing his knack for emotive productions via various EPs throughout his career, including chart-topping singles on Hot Since 82's Knee Deep in Sound and Dave Seaman's Selador, the Swiss artist Several Definitions now reveals his first full-length album. It should come as no surprise that the artist found familiarity in what he calls the "Berlin style" of electronic music and notably, that of Oliver Koletzki's Stil vor Talent. Reborn After The Road is an intense and emotional affair, consisting of 14 tracks crafted using field and live recordings, switching between analogue and digital to mould a sonic atmosphere that emblazons the artist's core ethos. Although the personal experience that sparked the inspiration for the LP is far from pleasant, Several Definitions' style is audibly resolute. Reborn After The Road, the album's eponymous track, creates a fitting intro for the healing process that is to follow. Its airy pads and majestic strings sonically stand at the epicenter of the expressive album. Several Definitions continues to explore these sounds on vaporous slices like Pontce?ard 32 or the more acidical Last Breath. The mellifluous, feminine vocals of LaMeduza on Learn To Feel and Her, as well as Spanish singer Goldsun's crooner talents on the introspective Trust, on the other hand, showcase Several Definitions' ability to work the human voice into his musical explorations. Taking introspection one step further towards darker realms, Senelity then feels like a rite of passage into the deeper and more intense segment at the album's core. Over You briefly signals a turning point, with its alarm-like synths and grave leads, which is then followed by the glitchy resistance on Modular Spaces.

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