Kristoffer Tellstroem, the man behind Djupet and a DJ we often see in our booth is a versatile musical personality. He can easily go from the Afro Rhythms of Øyvind Morken’s Untzdag residency to warming up a Saturday crowd with some House and Disco, peering into the more obscure corners of each genre style and era as he goes. Whether he’s sampling the sounds of eighties South African synth-pop or bringing DJs like Mika Snickars to Oslo from his native Sweden, Tellstroem is always on hand with some new musical anomaly to share with the rest of us.
And this is how he came to the Æmix, with a bag full of records, that delved comprehensively into 90’s era Techno. The records wear their age well with the excited tempos and few break beats the only real indication of their age. Melodic arrangements with the percussive sections resigned to assume their position in the background rather than the foreground, makes for an engaging and stimulating sonic experience that leaves us hanging on each track as it progresses. It’s Techno way before it assumed the darker draconian dimensions of its present day, concrete warehouse facade, and still bounded with the spirit and the sound of the future. Pads and strings stretched to near-infinity soften the blows of sharp 909 kicks and even though tempos exceed our accustomed 120BPM self-made limits, the tracks feel tame and approachable.
Tellstroem keeps it very concise for this mix with music from Eric Ericksson and Susumu Yokota as prime examples of the music of their time, music that hasn’t lost any of its distinctive touch.