- As Don't DJ, Düsseldorf artist Florian Meyer makes a percussion-centric kind of club music. The heart of this sound can be found on Diskant, the label run by Meyer, Stefan Schwander and Marc Matter. Together, they're known as The Durian Brothers, whose looping music—no matter if at 90 or 180 BPM—is idiosyncratically hypnotic. Diskant's releases work like optical illusions: what sounds like a tribal drum circle is actually sequencers and algorithmic programming made to resemble exotic music.
The sound comes through especially on Meyer's latest record, Gammellan, and the name is hardly arbitrary. The track stews on cycling gong tones, a direct extension of gamelan, the traditional ensemble music from Indonesia, unique for its entrancing percussion. Though in concept it's experimental, Meyer's music is still familiar enough for the dance music world. This is his second single for Berceuse Heroique, where long, heady rhythmic cycles occupy the A-side and get remixed on the B-side—this time by Acido/Sued duo Dresvn.
Meyer's original version is intense and solemn, looping through splayed rhythmic chime patterns, while a sort of droning sub-bass plods away underneath. This spirals on for nine minutes at the speed that a snake wraps his prey, and the whole thing becomes inescapably eerie. Dresvn's remix, on the other hand, is dancey, fast-tempoed and fluttering. The traces of gamelan are completely gone, but that contrast only adds to Gammellan's intrigue.
トラックリストA Gammellan
B Gammellan (Dresvn Remix)