Words by Eddie STATS Houghton
As mentioned when we posted their Top 10 Carnival Songs, German dancefloor punishers Schlachthofbronx just dropped an EP of concentrated soca rave madness called Mudders via Mixpak records. Considering that Mixpak is the imprint of Brooklyn producer Dre Skull–the svengali behind the highly-rated new Vybz Kartel LP Kingston Story–it is tempting (OK, irresistible for me) to conclude that soca might finally be dancehall’s equal in its appeal to hipsters on all sides of the digital ocean. With that ulterior motive (and just because– Rupee and the Soca Twins notwithstanding–one doesn’t usually associate Germany with carnival culture) I also could not resist picking the Schlachthofbrains on the inspiration behind Mudders. Of course they bluntly shot down my thesis but that’s the fun of interviews–you never know what mudders finna say. Stream the whole damn EP (2 tracks, 2 remixes) below, and then read the interview after the jump. You can also hear the two original tracks in their natural Ghetto Palms habitat before copping.
Schlachthofbronx – Mudders EP by Mixpak
LargeUp: How would you describe the range of genres you’ve worked in on your previous releases—do you intentionally try to jump around (no pun intended) to keep things fresh–or is it all dance music to you?
Schlachthofbronx: Basically it’s all dance music to us. We usually come up with producing something “different” when we have the urge for something new for our live sets. And we have that urge a lot…
LU: How did the concept of doing a soca/carnival ep come about? Were there any particularly big influences that pushed you in that direction?
SHB: Not really. We love the vibe of soca parties, rags, mud…all that. So we decided to go into that direction for some tracks. But the vibe was the biggest influence on doing it.
LU: Do you feel like this is a particularly hype moment for soca, either in terms of what’s coming out of the Caribbean or in remixes or dance music taking inspiration from it?
SHB: Unfortunately not (there should be a lot more attention to it!). For us it’s more a feeling that in the clubs the times of the “BPM-dogma” are over. We enjoy playing really slow, really fast and midtempo stuff during our sets. We’re declaring it the 70, 90, 110, 150, 165, 175, 180 BPM age in the club.
LU: What’s the soca scene in Munich like and do you get involved in it and wave your flags around or do you engage this music more on a studio level?
SHB: No soca scene in Munich. There’s some soca played at the regular dancehall parties but that’s more or less it.
LU: How did you choose the remixers/collaborators you wanted to rework “Wave & Wine?”
SHB: Dre Skull came up with the idea and we’re big fans of their work (Myd, Canblaster and Toddla T) and were curious what they’d come up with. We love both remixes a lot.
LU: How did you link up with Dre and Mixpak?
SHB: We asked Dre if he would be interested in releasing the stuff and met him in Austin in the beginning of the year. He saw how the stuff went down when we play it in our sets…. that was basically it!
LU: What’s next from Schlachthofbronx?
SHB: There will be another EP coming on Man Recordings later this year. That’ll be more “bouncy” stuff and it’ll be called Carimbo. And we’re working on the new album at the moment. The stuff that is already finished works very good in the club so we’re looking very much forward to next year…
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