After three records, we're starting to get a sense of who Das Glow is. Originally a jeweller, Damien Granier turned to music when he discovered the French Touch, Bpitch Control and German minimalism. His introductory salvo, Weiss Gaz, was one of the most unique-sounding electro record to date, and it attracted the most diverse and enlightened following, from Simian Mobile Disco to Boys Noize to Miss Kittin to MSTRKRFT.
After much touring and remixing, Das Glow came back with Sunburnt, a new attempt at building funk machines from tangled drum patterns, dismantled mech parts and faulty systems. When I Want To Wake Up With You appeared on Alan Braxe's famed Vulture imprint, the dance world discovered that in Das Glow's avant-garde chest beat a heart capable of turning a Boris Gardiner sample into a gorgeous homage to the original French Touch, complete with emoting filters.
Then came his remix for American synth-wavers The Faint, which went at the track so hard and mighty that it became an Erol Alkan and Boys Noize staple and launched tons of requests for the "Das Glow sound".
In Das Glow's imminent future lies Phase IV, an amazing new record which will once again redefine what we know about the man. For now, here is Lite Brite Remixes.
What's with the trend of self-revisionism at Institubes these days? Bobmo rewrites his own "Rock The" in his forthcoming EP, and here, right before revealing his new record, Das Glow whips out a new version of "Lite Brite", off his Sunburnt single.
The original was, as I said at the time, sweet, delicate and quirky, the sound of a perfect melodious morning being swallowed by a perfect bass storm and spit out as a perfect evening. "A Lighter Shade of Bright" is the dusky counterpart to this initial ray of light: a slow-moving, arpeggiated meditation, a viscous, mollassed funk piece.
Strip Steve is that French kid signed to Boys Noize Records and it's the third time he's shared a record with Das Glow, after their split Arcade Mode 7" and a Shadow Dancer single. He delivers a cut-up, swaggered-out reinvention of the classic Bangalter sound that manages to sound at once arrogant and laid-back, like some street urchin casually looking for trouble.
French newcomer Qebrvs offers a remix that sounds like a petulant child, jumping from bonus level to hidden lair before morphing into a hyperactive version of Sebastian.
And here's another treat: Das Glow's dj set from last week end in Antwerp, including many rarties and exclusive, among them --who knows?--- maybe of the new tracks from the fearsome Phase IV ep...
Tracks from Buenos Aires french expat Douster have been around on everybody's hard disks and playlists for ever, but thanks to Sound Pellegrino and Dan Haaksman's Man Recordings it is now Douster's time. He is finally getting actual official releases. With “For Weirdos Only” and “Freak Mode”, Douster moves one step away from his early banging fidget works to venture into pure house territory, and the result is a wonky banjo joyride backed with a jacking burst of pure energic groove. Warm and cold, perfect for the early summer days when you can hang out in a tee shirt all day but still have to wear a jacket at night.
We asked Das Glow from Institubes (Sound Pellegrino's proud "big brother label") to remix “For Weirdos Only” and in typical Das Glow fashion he named the first draft "Doustin Hoffman" and the second one "Doustin Timberlake". With his final file, he attached a picture of Mr. Potato Head dressed up as a Halloween ghost.
On the virtual flip, Momma's Boy (Trouble and Bass alumni Mikix The Cat's housier alias) provides a slow-boiling party-starting version of "for weirdos" ideal for hula hoop training sessions that also works as an introduction to Momma's Boy's forthcoming EP on Sound Pellegrino.
Douster's offering is available now as a digital only release.
Not that we're particularly good as preserving traditions, but celebrating Institubes birthdays was always a French--if not Parisian--affair. But this year it's so cold in Paris that we're moving it to Miami. Pretty much everyone from the label will be there, plus some special guests.
If by any chance, you're spending some time at this thing they call WMC, especially this Wednesday, come and celebrate with us.
No more than once or twice a year, something makes you realize how much you love this job.
My last five were: Para One getting a shot at remixing Daft Punk (and BOY what a remix), taking the train all the way to Belgium with half of the Institubes family to see Daft Punk play live two years ago (no names, but some of us were literally crying by the end of the show), Thomas Bangalter playing at Institubes & Ed Banger’s 2006 Xmas party (although his set was somehow ruined by us acting crazy stupid / drunked out of our minds / operating no less that 4 bullhorns - you get the picture, if not check it on YouTube), Surkin’s set at his own release party (playing at least 4 songs simultaneously at every point of it, with ALL our french comrades shaking the booth like it was some kind of car-sized maraca), and finally Cuizinier & Orgasmic opening for Clipse in Paris this summer.
You can tell things are pretty busy schedule-wise when you reach the point where you’re promoting songs you haven’t heard in their entirety.
So: last Tuesday I’m uploading Das Glow’s new single on Institubes.com and halfway thru “LITE BRITE”it’s getting obvious that not only this version of the track is totally new to my ears, but it’s one of THESE moments, a new entry in the pattern that only reveals itself once a year. All planets aligned, the office reaches perfect temperature, the sound of birds and traffic in the streets fades out, caffeine+taurine abuse and sleep deprivation hug each other in harmony. The bass line enters and everything since the apparition of the very first microbe on Earth to this very second has an evident purpose, the entire History of Evolution plays before your eyes as a Ghibli-animated short, Charles Darwin ressucitates so he gets a chance to bitchslap Sarah Palin for a minute of two, and your imagination draws a picture of an immense crowd made of all your friends and co-workers standing ready for war like one of these cool posters with every Marvel Comics hero and villain on it.
The other track on this single is “SUNBURNT”. It’s been around for a while, most notably on Boys Noize’s “Bugged Out” mixed compilation. This one is a club thing, with its own Das Glow touches (some of them involving the engineer of the first mastering session throbbing every knob with disbelief for 15 minutes until he realized it was entirely produced and mixed in mono).
“LITE BRITE” is definitely not a dance cut, and even Das Glow doesn’t know how to label it. So let’s file this one under SENSE-MAKING if you will.
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