House Master

Throughout 1999, one record destroyed the existing deep house design and tore the template apart that inextricably linked house music to its disco legacy. Consisting of a spooky, swirling minimal electronic groove underpinned by Latino percussion and spacey Euro synths rather than the standard, predictable filter arrangement, Beau Mot Plage was a breath of fresh air, a record that really deserved the often bandied but rarely earned innovative label. Supported by a truly diverse spectrum of DJs that included everyone from Andrew Weatherall to progressive stalwarts like Digweed, Beau Mot Plage also succeeded in topping most of these spinners end of year polls.

The perpetrator of this sideways step was Isolee, otherwise known as Rajko Muller, a Frankfurt-based trainee school teacher. So, when Muller isn t busy learning the rules of the classroom, he s busy burning house music s textbooks, as his debut album, Rest on Playhouse demonstrates. However, if you re looking for a succession of Beau Mot Plage imitations, then you ll be disappointed. Sure, Rest takes its cues from roughly the same set of sonic values as Plage, namely intricate, off beat electronic music, but manages to twist and tease its way from dance floor oriented rhythms into more reflective compositions, held together by Muller s fascination for detuned melodies. So how does a musical visionary like Muller end up training to teach spotty teenagers?
I m studying to be a teacher, but I m not sure if I ll finish my studies, comes his reply in near flawless English. Actually, my music might make me take a permanent break from it all! Ironically, I started making music when I was in school myself, with my friends when I was fifteen, he continues, explaining that his earlier, more furtive explorations were like when anyone starts producing, not very good!
I was in guitar bands and tried my hand at synth pop like Depeche Mode, anything really. Luckily, I was interested in synthesizers and drum machines and later on, near the end of the eighties I got bored with synth pop and EBM. Then my friends who were buying records introduced me to electronic dance music house and techno I quickly re-gained my interest in synthesizers!
While the links between Rest and the legacy of Chicago house and Detroit techno are tenuous, Isolee s debut album acts on one of the basic tenets of all futuristic electronic music take a template and twist it beyond recognition, turn it into something new.
It s for these reasons that Rest sounds so unlike anything else; beginning with the basic melodic elements of techno s strings and house music s grooves, but managing to end up with a warped, re-invented, gritty re-interpretation.
While Rajko admits, house and techno have had an influence on my music, he s also quick to warn that you can t be too conscious of your influences, you can t say this definitely influenced me. There is always music which is important; Anyway, I don t really like the word influence, it s more about being impressed by other producers.
Despite these misgivings, Rest is electronic music at its most sophisticated: layered, almost woven together, it sounds like Muller has painted rather than programmed his music. Surely such attention to detail requires copious amounts of studio time and patience?
I think how long you spend on a track has no real bearing on its quality , he counters. Sometimes making music in a short space of time means the music sounds very spontaneous, but it s difficult to say when you ve actually started working on a track; until you find the right sounds and all the time you spend experimenting to get it right, it could take up to a week.
An evasive interviewee, Muller provides vague answers, ambivalent replies that only serve to accentuate the mystique surrounding his music. Mention Beau Mot Plage , the unsuspecting club record of last year, which shifted 20,000 vinyl copies and he seems almost puzzled by its appeal.
I didn t expect it was going to be played so much in clubs, he contends, excited but also surprised that Beau could rock the discotheque. I didn t plan it, but it doesn t have the obvious structures of a house track. I tried to avoid repeating myself on the album, and I didn t even want to have it on the album originally, because it should have been a development from the single and get away from the hype. I don t DJ, so I think mainly about someone who listens to my music; an album should allow you to be freer with your ideas and explore melodies and sounds.
It s exactly this fascination with the dynamics of sound that makes Rest such an inspirational work. Detuned, flawed, echoed almost half-heard melodies and chopped up hooks underpin his whirring, clicking grooves.
Sometimes you find a cool melody and then realise that there are pop tracks that have already used it, he offers, adding, It also requires a few listens to get into the album. In fact, I take it as a compliment if someone says they had to listen to Rest a few times before they enjoyed it. After all, I hated most of my favourite records when I first heard them.
Rest is out now on Playhouse.