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DUTCH DEEP HOUSE VIA DETROIT SOUL
Any mention of Detroit in the realm of electronic music is often instantly assumed to be referring to the groundbreaking rise and continued influence of the Detroit techno sound that was born out of the late 1980s, characterized in many ways by the backdrop of a post-industrialist city in a tumultuous period of transition and reinvention. A few decades prior to this musical heyday, however, is Detroit’s worldwide reputation as home of Hitsville, USA and Motown soul music, and it is this era that Dutch duo Detroit Swindle seem to be channelling in their increasingly prolific production of soulful deep house. Since their official debut last year, the pair (comprised of Maarten Smeets and Lars Dales) have released critically-acclaimed original material through Saints & Sonnets, Murmur, Freerange Records and most prominently with Berlin based house label Dirt Crew Recordings. Their most recent release through Dirt Crew Recordings, the Guess What EP, is a perfect example of Detroit Swindle’s ability to use a soulful vocal sample to its full effect, looping it around smooth chord stabs, bouncing bass and energetic hi-hats to create a take on the deep house sound that remains their own. Maarten was able to talk to BeatRoute recently about how the two began to make music together and find their sound.
“[Lars] started DJing before I did, and we both come from a background of funk, hip hop and disco. I was organizing parties when electro was booming and Lars was doing hip hop parties, and at some point our paths crossed and we met, and it wasn’t really a love at first sight thing… we didn’t really discuss music because we were both doing programming for the same club – he was doing the commercial night and I was doing the electronic night so we weren’t really aware of the same ideas that we had. When I started producing and DJing more we met again, and that’s when we found out we had the same idea on what kind of music we really liked, what was cool to play but wasn’t played a lot at that time.” The transition from discovering similar influences to producing music and now embarking on their first major overseas tour was a fast one, yet it seems that the speed of progress and being able to follow it are both born out of the same intuition and honesty that creates the Detroit Swindle sound in the first place. “The feeling came first, and the explanation came second, so it was kind of a natural thing for us. I’m not sure if it’s about the upbringing – I’m sure it plays a role, that we both heard loads of Motown, disco and whatnot,” states Maarten. “But it wasn’t a, let’s say, business decision to jump in that niche; it was just something we really wanted to make, and when we started we didn’t have any email address of a big producer or whatever, we weren’t thinking about releasing. Our goal was to make cool stuff and if it were to get released one day, then we would be happy. That was how we started, and things got off to a bit of a quick start!”
As the quick start developed into glowing reviews of the Detroit Swindle sound and live shows at legendary venues such as Berlin’s Panorama Bar, it would be easy for the duo to stick to the successful deep house sound they have created. However, with an invite into the Red Bull Music Academy in New York as a centrepiece for their first major international tour, it seems as though they are constantly exploring the possibility of new influences and collaborations. “We’re big big fans of vocalists, and there’s a few people that we’re planning to work with in the coming year,” Maarten says. “I can’t drop any names, but we’re talking to quite a few cool artists from Germany and England to do vocal stuff with, and not all from the house genre; with some funk people and jazz people as well. Most of our stuff is around 120bpm. We did a small sidestep with “Jick Rames” which is a bit slower, but I think we always play it at 120, so it’s all been house . . . we’re developing our sound to see in what way it would work if it’s in a hip hop tempo or a bit faster. We’re working on an album, so it’s a good time for us to see how we can expand the horizon a bit. It’s really exciting because it’s new for both of us, but we love the challenge and we love to see if we can create a whole story with more tracks than just a single.”
Detroit Swindle will be at the Electric Owl in Vancouver on May 18th.
By Andy Soloman
