Over the last ten years Connaisseur Recordings founder Alex Flitsch has sculpted the sounds of electronic underground a key tastermaker. The label joined us this week to celebrate their decade in the game while also sharing his selection of ten tracks, which made a lasting impression on the imprint.
Alex: In the past 10 years we have developed quite a big catalogue: including our digital samplers and sub labels our repertoire has grown to almost 500 tracks. With amounts like these it has of course happened more than once, that some track in between didn’t quite receive the attention it deserved. Every time, I was devastated to see these tracks slip by, undiscovered. Because of this, it is a matter of heart for me to prepare a list featuring 10 tracks out of our repetoire I consider totally underrated, in the the hope for a delayed appreciation.
Estroe – Late Night Thinking (Melon’s Winter Depression Remix)
With this topic in mind, this is the first track I came up with. “Late night thinking“ was one of the highlights of Estroe’s 2009 album “Elemental Assets“, the first album we ever released. Melon, one of the Dutch’s finest, although his output has become a bit rare lately, delivered this 9min long, super deep and timeless early morning pearl with a strong balearic approach. What a perfect build-up and incredible track to mix. A genuine track to change the atmosphere of a long DJ-set in the morning, a dancefloor resetter!
Daso & Orfin – Time For Decisions (Aera’s Final Decision)
“Time For Decisions“ was a one-off collab between Daso and the Israeli-born project Ofrin from 2010. Ofrin’s hypnotic vocals caught me straight from the beginning. For the single, we requested remixes by the amazing Goldwill and Aera, who is also one half of Goldwill and who just released his first EP on Innervisions. Aera’s interpretation is a wonderful little track: sort of a rough pop tune with sloppy beats and a properly funky bassline. A little gem in our catalogue and definitely worth being discovered.
ZoeXenia – Into Deep
Zoe’s voice is pure bliss, no doubt and in “Into Deep“ it really gets under your skin. Every time I listen to it, I get proper goosebumps. It is of course not really a track to be played out loud, but an amazing track to listen to at home. Livingroom Techno is what we like to call this kind of music.
https://youtu.be/vdTcg3fSoro
Wareika – Impulse
Wareika’s “Impulse“ is a crazy piece of music and the more often you listen to it, the more of its craziness you discover. For example, this tune has a 3/4 time instead of 4/4, which means the snare never fits while mixing. Really something for experts. It is a mixture of something between afro-beat, jazz and the techno soul of detroit and a lot of musical knowledge. All Wareika members are excellent musicians, capable of playing many different instruments, what you can hear perfectly in this track.
Mark August – The Wasps From Tunisia and The Silver Piggy
Baikal only just recently revealed that he is Mark August. Listening to his old tracks with this knowledge, you notice the connection, especially in the love for details. “The Wasps From Tunisia and The Silver Piggy“ is an amazing piece of music which can create quite some mayham on the dancefloor if played at the right moment. When the totally unexpected massive drum and bass bassline comes in after the break, the crowd is yours!
Estroe – Le Flaneur (Christian Rottler & Deer’s Stummer Apotheker Rmx)
Another remix for Estroe’s album, this time by two lesser known artists, mostly as they are more active in other corners of the world of music. Well, maybe Deer might be familiar for some of you as he is quite closely connected to the Giegling collective. Their remix, well, how can it be described, maybe like when two singer/songwriters try do a little club track. This often fails, but here it develops such a charm you can’t resist.
Distortion – Dreaming
Distortion is one of the artists on Connaisseur I feel most sorry for as his music never got discovered by the masses, as his timeless style hits my personal taste on point. I could pick every track of him we released but “Dreaming“ probably is my favorite. This fellow, located close to Chicago, driving in the summer a truck and in the winter a plow machine, has such a fine feeling for a certain range of timeless styles, often with a 303 or proper Dub chords, you have to check out his music, it is really worth it!
Marco Effe feat.Francesco Carone -Canto D’Amore
It is really a shame. This piece of music is so incredibly beautiful, a perfect second last track of a night, but it never made it to a wider audience. Francesco Carone, a studied and highly talented piano player is responsible for the alluring piano play while Marco Effe builds the simply and rough, but highly effective rack under it. Maybe one of the most beautiful tracks we have had ever released on Connaisseur.
Holtoug – Noisy Nights (Holtoug’s Dizzy Days Version)
The highly talented Holtoug from Copenhagen released several tracks on Connaisseur, mostly stuff on the border between indie-electronica and house. His original of “Noisy Nights“ was released on the little danish Indie Fake Diamond. This more club suitable Dizzy Days version by him found it’s way on one of our summer various artists but never made the impace we thought it would. I hope you will give it a second chance now.
Patrick Chardronnet – Reset
“Reset” is a little electronica pearl by Patrick Chardronnet, which you could also imagine in a very deep dj set for example of the Arpiar crew. He is doing stuff like this between his other productions, let’s say to relax and his hard drives are full with music like this. “Reset“ really goes under my skin. I love the little and simple details, Patrick’s speciality.