Photo by Stefan Braunbarth
After years of delivering us solid electropop hits like Celestial or Ential Cologne-based two-piece VIMES is finally ready to unleash its debut album to the world. Nights In Limbo arrives on February 12, 2016 via Humming Records and to celebrate this event NOTHING BUT HOPE AND PASSION kindly asked Azhar Syed and Julian Stetter to compile their very own and exclusive guestmix for us and answer a few questions about their selection on top of it. Witness the full result right here.
Tell us a bit about your pickings for the mix?
It’s just music we liked listening to recently plus an unreleased track (Tuem) from our upcoming album and our own club-orientated interpretation from our album single Mind. In addition there are some soundscape snippets added and two tracks are a bit modified to make them carry the mood the mix brings up.. All in all, it’s meant to combine the rough and energetic feeling of club music with an emotional impact.
In which way can this selection be compared to your debut LP?
Nights In Limbo is obviously much more pop music than this mix is. We listen to all kinds of styles and the outcome is probably a reflection of all that whereas this mix is more orientated on the stuff you experience when you go out at night.
What’s the main difference, you think, between performing live and working as a DJ?
Being a DJ or playing as an electronic live band is very different. As a DJ you go very much with the flow of the moment. It’s all about improvisation and reacting to the circumstances given. As an electronic live band, everything has to be much more planned and structured – at least to a certain point. The good thing is that once you’ve achieved to find a way of playing your music live in a way it feels right, you again are completely unlimited with what you do. We worked a lot on our live set up (which really is a main difference to DJing, because it really needs a lot of work to built up your live show) to have all the freedom possible, do everything in realtime and improvise with our own material instead of singing over a backing track.
‘Cologne got much more to offer than just Kompakt Records’
Your hometown Cologne and its Kompakt label is quite famous for its releases. In which way did the city influence your work?
It’s a pretty typical development that you move to a capital city as a young adult and then get in touch with the night live and the belonging electronic music scene. In that way, the city and it’s sound influenced us as music making persons. On the other hand, we love Kompakt, have friends and colleagues there but this is by far not the only thing Cologne has to offer. There’s such a vivid scene in this city and we are part of it. Clubs, labels, artists, studios, places,… there’s so much going on here and that’s obviously doing something with us as artists.
If we would like to continue with another mix right after yours which DJ could you recommend us?
Wouldn’t it be exciting to ask someone super inspiring from another musical background to record their favourite 10 songs from a special era or genre? What about asking Berlin’s MAGIC ISLAND doing a 90s set? Or Cologne’s weirdos from XUL ZOLAR if they can mix their favourite R’n’B-Songs? What about asking our Friends COMA if they could to a mix without one single beat in it? There’s plenty of options like that and all of them would be super exciting!
Tracklist – VIMES Guestmix for NBHAP
01. Sean Dixon – Unknown (Joel Alter Rework)
02. Jinjé – Special Dry
03. DJ Richard – Bane
04. VIMES – Tuem
05. Kiani & His Legion – At The Violent Hour (Edit)
06. Ashworth – Money
07. Vessels – Elliptic (Alex Banks Remix)
08. VIMES – Mind (Reprise)
09. Burial – Come Down To Us (Edit)
—