This Weekend I’ll mostly be listening to… Brandt Brauer Frick

Here’s something a little bit different to end one year and start another. A German outfit who’ve gone back to basics – literally – by using piano, double bass, organ and drum kits to create minimal music which has the timbre of more traditional musical forms while retaining the functional elements of dance, and perhaps more particularly house.

It doesn’t quite end there. They are happy to use atypical means of making sounds to fill in the gaps. This is perhaps not a huge surprise given that Frick has a classical background and Brandt and Brauer have one rooted in jazz and also worth noting that all three members of BBF have had previous careers in house working both together and individually – Frick releasing material under his own name and Brandt and Brauer releasing material as the minimalist house and jazz tinged Scott who released a series of well received 12″ in the last three or four years.

Now this would all be so-so if it weren’t for the fact the music really works. Listen to B-side, Paino Shakur which builds and builds insistently across 6 minutes 27 seconds but in a muted way. What’s particularly interesting is to hear the only very slightly treated sounds that are used to create familiar yet subtly altered patterns as with the insistent looping melody on Bop (and nor are they afraid to take the piss as evidenced by the video for that track) or the keyboard part that emerges around 3.50 on Mi Corazon which is pure early 1990s.Their first album, ‘You Make Me Real’ was released earlier this month.

In a way they slightly remind me of The Field in intent. It’s not jazz (or, perish the thought, classical), not exactly, and it’s not dance either, or not exactly. But the mix works – although they’ll probably fall between the two stools of being not sufficiently one for some, or insufficiently the other for yet more. And while clearly in attempting to work with jazz, classical and house they are meddling with forces beyond their comprehension, there’s more than enough here to enjoy.

Bop

Mi Corazon

‪Paino Shakur‬

Button

And here’s them in a slightly more traditional setting playing parts of R.W. Johns amongst others.

The Brandt Brauer Frick Ensemble

And from an earlier period

Paul Frick – Got the Blues

And a track or two from Scott

Swingwhaat

As Long As I Got You

Meanwhile…

Memory Core – remixed by… yeah, Paul Frick