Sun Spin: Kruder & Dorfmeister

11TH ANNIVERSARY OF ELECTRONICA MILESTONE

Released in 1998, The K&D Sessions was both a concise snapshot of the emergent electronic music scene unfolding in the late ’90s and a career defining calling card for Kruder & Dorfmeister. The Austrian duo were at the vanguard of producers creating their own musical identity as remixers, finding their own sound by rearranging and manipulating the music of others. While DJ culture was already well on its way to a global phenomenon in ’98, it was still unusual for producers/remixers to put their names on the front of the album. More than the myriad artists reworked inside this double CD set, the personality that emerges over the course of a couple hours is clearly that of Richard Dorfmeister and Peter Kruder.

A bong-tastic vibe pervades this mostly downtempo assortment, which befits two guys who named their studio and record label G-Stone. Kruder & Dorfmeister, both individually and as a pair, conjure something akin to a chilled-out, sophisticated descendent of the on-the-fly dial twisting and tape splicing of Lee “Scratch” Perry‘s famous/infamous Black Ark Studio. Close your eyes during Dorfmeister’s “resmoked” take on Mama Oliver’s “Eastwest” or their splendidly hazy restructuring of Bone Thugs ‘N’ Harmony’s “1st of the Month” and you can practically trace the smoke trails in the air. However, while deliciously baked, their mixes and manipulations are rarely sleepy or lazy, moving forward steadily and tossing out well-picked snippets of vocals, succulent analog keys or shimmering cymbal crashes at all the right junctures. The K&D Sessions tests one’s patience for slow builds and subtlety but never unconsciously – the Austrians are just seeing how far they can stretch a moment, a riff, a simple idea before they need to sweeten things.

For many Americans, this release brought the cream of Europe’s rising electronic music scene into our living rooms, introducing us to Count Bass D, Bomb The Bass, Roni Size, Rockers Hi-Fi and many others. Often, as one sourced the original material, they found it lacked the same undulating character or seamless highs, which only strengthened the case for the “producer as artist” aesthetic implicit here. While Kruder & Dorfmeister have continued to work, it’s tended to be in dribs and drabs, an EP here, a remix there, a live DJ set in Berlin, etc. but nothing as grandly packaged or forthrightly adventurous as The K&D Sessions. But, to their credit, few peers have forged such a distinctive identity primarily through their interaction and re-imagining of other’s creative endeavors. One lives in hope that we’re still to see a K&D Sessions Vol. 2, where the pair introduce us to this century’s freshest talent and expand on their already impressive CV.

Track Listing:

CD One
Roni Size – “Heroes (Kruder’s Long Loose Bossa remixed by Peter Kruder)”
Alex Reece – “Jazz Master (K&D Session)”
Count Basic – “Speechless (Drum ‘n’ Bass remixed by Peter Kruder)”
Rockers Hi-Fi – “Going Under (K&D Session)”
Bomb The Bass – “Bug Powder Dust (K&D Session)”
Aphrodelics – “Rollin’ On Chrome (Wild Motherfucker Dub remixed by Richard Dorfmeister)”
Depeche Mode – “Useless (K&D Session)”
Count Basic – “Gotta Jazz (remixed by Richard Dorfmeister)”
Rainer Trüby Trio – “Donaueschingen (Peter Kruder’s Donaudampfschifffahrtsgesellschaftskapitänskajütenremix)”
Lamb – “Trans Fatty Acid (K&D Session)” – 8:33

CD Two
David Holmes – “Gone (K&D Session)”
Sofa Surfers – “Sofa Rockers (Richard Dorfmeister Remix)”
Mama Oliver – “Eastwest (Stoned Together resmoked by Richard Dorfmeister)”
Bomb The Bass – “Bug Powder Dust (Dub remixed by Kruder & Dorfmeister)”
Kruder & Dorfmeister – “Boogie Woogie”
Sin – “Where Shall I Turn (K&D Session Vol.2)”
Bone Thugs-n-Harmony – “1st Of Tha Month (K&D Session)”
Kruder & Dorfmeister – “Lexicon”
Knowtoryous – “Bomberclaad Joint (K&D Session)”
Rockers Hi-Fi – “Going Under (Evil Love and Insanity Dub remixed by Kruder & Dorfmeister)”
Strange Cargo – “Million Town (K&D Session)”

Here’s The Doors‘ keyboardist on Kruder & Dorfmeister.