Get Physical Music: 2007
(2013 Update:
What happened to this guy? Samim seemed poised to take the deep-minimal-tech-doff scene by storm after the success of Heater
, but when this album dropped, it barely got any notice, and he hasn't released anything since. It's almost as though he made a deal with the devil, in that he could have his super-mega hit that'd be featured on countless Ibiza Classic Anthems
discs, but the cost would be he could never make music ever again. Or maybe he's just sitting fat on royalties.)
IN BRIEF: Not what the mainstream will expect.
It wasn’t supposed to happen. Really, who could have even planned something like it? Not even the most insidious Swedish pop producer would have been able to concoct a track that reached across so many cultural barriers. Yet it did, and whether you loved it, loathed it, or initially loved it only to loathe it after the fourth time you heard it in a single night, it became a sensation and firmly cemented Mr. Winiger into dance music history. And the name of the track?
House Nation.
Alright, alright. It’s
Heater, but do I
really need to talk about it here? Samim’s surprise hit has been debated and psychoanalyzed to death, and there’s little more to add to the topic at this point. If you haven’t heard it in the club, from YouTube, at a wedding, during sports intermissions, or on a pasta commercial by now, you will soon enough, at which point you’ll form your own opinion of it and render any further discussion moot.
Besides, this and
The Lick (more on which later) are kind of odd-men out on this here album. For the most part, Mr. Winiger are serious house producer. He make serious house music for serious hip Berlin-based label Get Physical. He are serious about his seriousness. Heh, seriously. If you come into
Flow figuring it’s going to be a collection of fun folkish dance tunes, you’ll come away just as disappointed as those who picked up The Grid’s
Evolver looking for more banjos.
Admittedly though, it takes a degree of daftness on his part to make the trend-house brigade accept the accordion as a respectable instrument. It may merely be a sample of an old Columbian tune, but it was still genius on Samim’s part to resurrect it. The man’s got talent and it’s felt throughout
Flow, even if he mostly restricts himself to a minimal style.
What he concocts within those narrow genre margins is quite nice for the ears. He constantly keeps his rhythms shifting with simmering funk while warm bass bobbles about. Of course, this being minimal, it’s all unobtrusive and given plenty of space for effects to tinker between the gaps. Tech influences mix up with natural sounds, creating sonic textures that tickle pleasantly at the psyche.
Forcedfeedback is especially enticing at this, coming off like a night at some German techno club with an Indian jungle lurking just outside the entrance. Ultimately,
Flow is a great headphone album.
However, beyond music for lounging about in the evening, it doesn’t offer much more.
Springbreak has some deep sexy vibes going for it, but it can’t compare to the sweatbox hedonism of its New York counterparts it obviously draws influence from.
Intro is a fine enough offering of sun-kissed organic chill, but doesn’t stir the soul in any significant way.
Zleep does the bog-standard murky monotone Berlin techno thing (with all the requisite hi-hat effects), but much of the stuff from Minus is done more effectively. And whereas tracks like
Blackdeath and
Ukaka are mildly funky, a typical Olav Basoski cut out-funks them within a minute. Mind, it’s not like Samim is trying to outdo them by any stretch but his minimal aesthetic is too restrained to create truly thrilling dance music. For instance, on one of the few instances of him letting wildly loose -
Setupone - the potential for something exhilarating comes up short; the Latin-infused builds are wonderful, but the track seems timid to ratchet the energy higher afterwards, relegating the cut to the ‘really good’ camps rather than the ‘wicked awesome’ ones.
This typical restraint makes the inclusion of a track like
Heater all the more welcome, as it offers
Flow some much needed light-heartedness. However, it’s final cut
The Lick that’ll have you pulling a full double-take, wondering if this is even the same album. Whereas
Heater may encourage hoe-downs,
The Lick will encourage you to get down on a ho; all the playa’ stylee of modern r’n’b, yet delivered with enough self-awareness to let you in on the joke. Samim could have used more moments like this to liven up his debut.
However,
Flow is mostly an album that has the minimal faithful in mind and remains quite easy-breezy in that regard. If you disliked
Heater but mostly enjoy minimal, you’ll dig this album. If you loved
Heater but can’t stand minimal, you’d be better off with a Ministry Of Sound compilation the track’s been featured on (there’s been about a dozen of them already). The rest who meet somewhere in the middle will find
Flow a nice sit-at-home disc.