- After two releases in collaboration with Area! on Trenton and one on Bodytalk, northern Germany’s up-and-coming producer Till von Sein has branched out on his own for his latest 12”. Without having the most extensive back catalogue to compare to, ‘Gestern’ still comes across as a little more sensual and deeper than some of his past tracks, particularly ‘Deeds’, while still retaining a deep house groove. There’s definitely a lot more dub flavouring to be found, but the hip hop roots which extend back even further than his work with Area! seem less apparent.
Kicking off with a text book reverbed two note piano chord and a sweet vocal sample, von Sein progressively adds light layers of percussion as if gently building up a jenga tower. The edges of some of the samples stick out a bit and drop in a little abruptly at the beginning, but once all there, the pieces gel nicely to form a flickering, eyes-closed, dreamy number. Von Sein manages to create a good sense of aural space, particularly in the middle section where an electric keyboard solo innocently escapes the rhythm in twisted turns and leaps. The vibrant percussive effects throughout are also impressive.
Efdemin has a hard task to produce something equal on the second side, but as you would expect, he is up to it. Dispensing almost completely with the two vocal samples, he instead concentrates on the intricate percussive patterns and the dub textures, weighing the latter down for an overall fuller sound that he lets ride just that little bit longer. One of the voice samples penetrates from the depths at times and there is more an edge of funk - if the original is dreamy, this is alert.
Efdemin may have the edge in experience and production sleight of hand, but Till von Sein is certainly no slouch here. If he can deliver more like this, he'll be one to watch closely.
TracklistA Gestern
B Gestern (Efdemin remix)