Because of my full-time commitments that take up most of the day, I am looking to get some help in order to have this blog updated more regularly. If you are interested in writing a colum, review, posting a mix, designing a wallpaper, anything along those lines, send me an e-mail to zoran_dakovic@hotmail.com. I could have your profile featured in ‘About Me’ section. E-mail to discuss further. Cheers!
Zoran
I guess we caught M-Nus fever over here at ‘Feeling Minimal’! After Barem interview, I decided to grace you with a wallpaper by none other than Richie Hawtin himself. I was listening to his ‘Ibiza Voice Podcast’ mix while working away, so the idea and concept was portrayed through his music onto my canvas. I wanted to create something simple, yet complex. Simple in a sense that I did not use any effects besides blur and blending in, meanwhile complexity came with the picture arrangment and background textures. I blended in a photo I took of ‘GM’ building which you see as soon as you cross the Windsor/Detroit tunnel. Didn’t want too much colors in this one, really happy with the way it turned out. The focal collage of photos symbolizes him looking into the future. Enjoy!
(photos used are courtesy of Marie-Lyne Baril)
The road to stardom is often unknown until you actually step your foot on it and see the direction which you’re heading to. Many aren’t blessed with the opportunity to be in the right place at the right time, and searching for one’s destiny often takes limitless amounts of time. Such is not the case for the name that is synonymous with minimal fever that spread in his home country of Argentina. Mauricio Barembuem is one of the few who believed and never gave up on his dreams. Here is your chance to get to know him…
FM: Hello Barem, welcome to Feeling Mnml! Glad to have you. 
MB: thank you
FM: You’ve had an opportunity to play at some amazing venues with your M-nus tour recently, which location stuck out the most? What is the most memorable moment so far?
MB: This year has been amazing! There were at least five parties that blew my mind completely, but if i have to pick a venue, I’d say Womb, Tokyo at the end of May. It was my first time in Japan and that club is just incredible!
There were also many memorable moments… The bus tour across USA and Canada was full of them, also Japan and Europe as always, but i think the most memorable moment was the end of the minus party at the beach in Barcelona during sonar. I think that was the most magical party this year.
FM: Are there any places you haven’t visited yet, but would like to?
MB: Australia and New Zealand are always in the plans but it’s hard to do. It’s far and for some reason we always leave it for later. But I’ll go there soon for sure. I’d like to visit other cities in Japan, and maybe China. Also some other countries in Eastern Europe. Parties are getting really good there.
FM: Since you started working with Richie Hawtin and the M-nus crew, what are some of the key things that you learned about music and how this business works?
MB: I think by the time I fully got on minus, I already had a good idea of how the business worked. On my first label Foundsound I had Sean O’Neal (Someone Else) who was a great teacher for me. He helped me understand the business since the beginning and made sure that I didn’t make mistakes that new comers usually make. I also learnt a lot with my first booking agent Bine, from Spineakle Agency in Germany. That whole world was very new to me and being around people who’d been in this scene for many years and who were also up for spending time on teaching and explaining things to me was very important.
Minus of course as a bigger platform was a different kind of experience, where I also learnt and keep learning a lot of things.
There are thousands of things you have to learn in order to be a good professional, but I think the 3 main ones are:
- Always be true to yourself and what you feel.
- Always respect everybody.
- Always try to keep a good balance in between responsibility and fun.
FM: What are some of your future goals in terms of deejaying and producing? Where do you see your musical direction going in the future?
MB: This year I’ve been a bit slow with my production. I traveled a lot and that always makes it complicated. But I think I’ll work on something new very after the summer is over. I’m very happy with my deejaying at the moment and keep getting ideas on things to add, etc.
I don’t want to say anything before I finish testing, but I’m sure there will be some new tools soon.
About the musical direction, it’s a bit hard to know… I always try to play techno, house, minimal, deep house. Kind of a bit of everything always but also to adapt my sound to the situation. For example if it’s a big festival, I usually play more techno or if it’s an outdoors sunny event I play more house/deep house…
So I guess I’m gonna keep playing in between those styles, but always trying to discover new colors or sounds and also bringing back old tunes that fit in my current dj sound.
FM: Being so well established thanks to all the success you’ve experienced, have you considered starting your own record label sooner or later?
MB: I thought about it many times, but to be honest, I’m very happy not having one. First of all ’cause I’m very comfortable at the labels I make music and remixes for. Second because I’m not sure how much time I could dedicate to it and third ’cause things are changing very fast now. The way music is getting distributed, listened, advertised, bought, stolen, etc is changing and I’m not sure if another label out there would be of any help to me. I think I’d rather wait and see where things go and then maybe when I’m a bit more experienced / older I’ll do something about it.
FM: After everything you’ve been through and knowing how hard the success may come, especially if you’re from a country where techno isn’t as big of a genre, what advice would you give to a new producer with dreams of making it big?
MB: Well, first of all, if you come from a country where making a certain style of music is tough, you can either move to somewhere where it is, but I wouldn’t recommend that until you already have at least a small name.
The way on which it worked for me was spending a lot of time in Argentina making music until I thought I was ready to send my first demo. I guess now it’s easier to just make a track and email it through myspace or soundcloud to a lot of people, but that’s not necessarily good. Some time to experiment and fool around just for yourself is good at the beginning. It’s also vital to do it for you and because you love it instead of doing it for becoming big or famous.
So then when you’ve already finished some stuff that sounds good and you feel it could get released:
1) start sending demos to labels you got inspired by. Maybe in small groups. It’ll take time, but believe me… Labels hate kids who send their demo to 100 other labels.
2) Keep your emails short. Busy deejays and label managers don’t want to deal with somebody explaining them the whole process of their tracks or all their 2000 doubts about the bassline and the percussion. They just wanna listen to the track and they don’t need any extra details.
3) Whenever you get a reply, don’t reply right away… Unless it’s urgent, keep the emails one or two days before you write back. Think about your answer and try to be wise and cool. Writing back and putting it in ”drafts” instead of sending it instantly can be very helpful sometimes.
4) Once you have a release out, try to learn from the people you work with. Ask a lot, and always try think about new things that you see in order to understand them better.
5) If you have a very fast way up, don’t ever think you’re better than anybody. In my short career I’ve already seen some wonder-kids going up really fast and disappearing in a year because of being arrogant. At the end of the day you’re just making some tunes and you shouldn’t feel more special than anybody for that, no matter how good your tunes are.
That in my opinion is a good start. Once you’re there you’ll find your way, you’ll make mistakes and hopefully learn from them, you’ll meet helpful people and also people who will give you very bad advices, but you should always be able to learn from everybody.
FM: Give us one rare fact that fans may not know about you.
MB: I’m afraid of flying. Getting a lot better, but the fear is still there.
FM: If you weren’t a DJ/Producer today, where would you be?
MB: Probably unemployed at the moment.
FM: And lastly, take us through one average day of ‘Barem’ (when you wake up, things you do, how much time you spend with music and on your personal enjoyments, so on).
MB: It really depends on where i am… One of the greatest and also worst things about traveling, depending on how you look at it, is that you have no routine.
I can’t really describe you an average day, ’cause there are days where I do nothing at all, days where I don’t stop even to eat from the moment I wake up, days I’m flying all day and killing time at airports, days where I can’t think because of how tired I am, days where I can’t do anything because of how hungover I feel, hehe, etc.
But, there is for example one day a week where i listen to all the promos, buy music and organize it all, if that helps
Thanks to Barem for being a good sport and contributing to Feeling Mnml, it’s been a pleasure! Good luck in your future endevaours.
Calling him a diamond in the rough would be an understatement. Christopher Rusu, also known as Chris Rusu, is on the verge of becoming one of the household names for any deejay with a sense for great hidden act worth supporting. Chris Rusu is just that. Hailing from Madison, Wisconsin and with plenty of producing experience under his belt, he is determined to blow up in a matter of time. His latest release ‘Minimal Machine’ can be previewed below, and it is simply amazing, every-single-track. Great reviews from everyone, including the mnml master himself Richie Hawtin. Keep an eye on this guy, and as always, make sure to show your support if you enjoy the material.
The boys are back with their yearly edition of ‘Summer Sessions’ to close-out the summer on a proper fucking note. If you’ve followed this blog, you know what they’re all about, and this mix ranks up there with one of my favorites by the two. From start to finish, like the opening says ‘we gon’ dance’, this should be listened on a high volume and simply following the groove! No resting or slowing down for one second, this goes hard all the way through.
Are you ready for 5 straight hours of techno that will blow your fucking head off? Fans have long asked for it, and Mauro Picotto, Marco Carola and Polder deliver one of the baddest sets Meganite at Privilege (Ibiza) have seen! The beauty of it is that if you know all three artists and what their individual style is all about, you can exactly tell when each of them contribute their share of madness. 
Carl Cox is back on ‘Feeling Mnml’ with this fresh Global Episode mix recorded live at Space, Ibiza and Epic Club located in Minneapolis, USA! You know the man, you know the sound, I don’t think there is any special introduction needed. Guest deejay for the broadcast is Yousef. I can’t wait to hear Mr. Cox tear up the Boom Boom Room nightclub here in Windsor, November couldn’t come any quicker… download below and let your ears enjoy!
The Turkish wonder, Ahmet Sendil released his newest promo for the month of September, featuring some of the nicest tech house cuts you’ll hear as the summer comes to an end! The tracklist is as follows:
01 – Gery Back – Tijuana – Original Mix
02 – Subfractal – The Bitch Of Spades – Original Mix
03 – SQL – Distorted Reality – Original Mix
04 – Citizen Kain & Phuture Traxx – Camelon – Spartaque Remix
05 – Mini Mode – Process – Manuel De La Mare & Luigi Rocca (Marshall) Remix
06 – Wehbba & Propulse – Wrong Side Business – Original Mix
07 – Dyno – Graffio – Original Mix
08 – Spartaque – Mind Worm – Original Mix
09 – Ahmet Sendil & Ricky Stone – Worst Case Scenario – Ahmet Sendil Mix
10 – Eric Entrena – Dirty Games – Ahmet Sendil Remix
11 – Umek – Dementia – Alex Di Stefano & Amp & Dyno Remix
Ahmet Sendil – September Promo Mix
Also to give you guys heads up, I have plenty of new things planned for Feeling Mnml, including an interview with one of the M-Nus artists, some exclusive new mixes that are BEYOND what words can describe, new section where I will write about different artists who are under the radar but deserve a spotlight… Stay tuned!
A pan-pot is a simple, workday knob, given to side-to-side flip-flopping and not much else. Pan-Pot, on the other hand, are a brilliant multi-dimensional Berlin duo currently twisting house and techno fans into rapturous fits. In just a few short years, Pan-Pot—comprised of Tassilo Ippenberger and Thomas Benedix—have developed a dominate presence amongst the top tier of electronic dance music, with an ascension paralleling the rise of their native label, mobilee records.
The two fellas have been rocking the scene for quite some time now, and I surprised myself to realize this is the first time I featured Italoboyz! Their sound so distinctive, with out of the box approach to their brilliant live performances, and result so refreshing, you will have this set on loop for days; guaranteed. This was recorded live at ‘Das Grosse Closing Bar 25′ with Angelo Onorato (Pianist) in Berlin on August 27th, 2009 so it’s brand new and ready for you to enjoy! Download below.
