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Absolut cool >> Whatever floats Jesper Dahlback's boat
by KRISTA
Take, for instance, Svek Recordings. Since its inception back in 1995, Svek has been slowly but surely turning people on to its minimal tech-funk sound. The label's popularity is owed largely to two people: its founder and owner, Cari Lekebusch, and a slightly lesser-known talent named Jesper Dahlback. Out of some 40 Svek releases, Dahlback has had his creative hand in the making of at least 20. His introduction to making tracks was his friend Adam Beyer, the mind behind the heavy techno-flavoured Drumcode label, who he met through a happy twist of fate. "I never even thought about doing this before I finished school. I never imagined myself with this as a career," explains the 24-year-old Dahlback. "I met Adam on the train to Love Parade (the massive summer electronic music festival in Berlin) in 1993. We both were into the same thing, and he was starting to make tracks, so I joined him in the studio." In '94 the two opened Globe Studios, "so named because it looks like a big globe," laughs Jesper (maybe it's funnier in Swedish). Dahlback's career took off after meeting Stephan G, who produces on the Svek label. Stephan was looking for some help in the studio and asked Dahlback to give him a hand. Dahlback co-produced "Stay With the Machine," and then started releasing his own tracks. Most recently, he has started his own label called Blank, on which he put out several releases in a Jeff Mills vein. He has also started a label called DK, which he co-owns with Thomas Krome, and which spawned the extremely successful 10-inch "Real Jazz." The filtered, pumping drum loops of the "Real Jazz" release have been subject to a great deal of sampling and reworking by other labels and artists, like our very own DJ Laflèche. All this hype has convinced Dahlback and Krome to put out a double 10" of the track featuring remixes from the likes of Lekebusch and Beyer. "So many people have put out tracks using those drum loops that we figured we should just really kill it and put it out again. The only problem is that I think Ben Simms (of the Killabite label) put out a track with the 'Real Jazz' loop that sounds a lot like what Beyer would do. Now we wonder what Adam will make of it! Who knows, maybe it will inspire him to do something really different." So other than drink vodka, make nice furniture and good music, what do Swedes do for fun? "I have a boat in the Archipelago that I ride around in during summer," says Dahlback. "It's really beautiful and very relaxing there." "A racing boat or just a regular sailboat?" I ask him. "Oh no, it's just a crappy little boat, but it floats."
At Sona this Friday, June 4, midnight, to celebrate the release of the Stockholm Mix Sessions CD out now on Turbo Recordings. With Scotland's Slam live and DJs Tiga and Yaz, $20 |
Ah, Sweden. Land of fjörds and lingonberries, birthplace of Ingmar Bergman, and home of many a great hockey player. The unassuming capital of cool. Instead of remaining isolated in their near-Arctic domain, the Swedes have emerged as ultra-humans. They can speak many languages, have provided the rest of the world with functional furniture and great vodka and have an uncanny knack for making slamming electronic music.