Album of the month | Send Return by keinemusik

Artists: keinemusik
Title: Send Return
Label: Keinemusik
Released: 12 November

Sounds like: The gang going beyond the limits of House & Techno with help from their friends

keinemusik

Though the stable is growing in size, keinemusik is the label, production outfit and DJ crew commonly formed of &Me, Adam Port and Rampa.

Highly-respected as solo artists, the three stand at the forefront of Berlin's, and indeed the world's, underground electronic music scene.

&Me rose through the ranks, making a name for himself on Tech House label Saved. Since then, he has become one of the most sought after producers and remixers in the business, putting his name to some of the biggest Deep House tracks of the last few years.

Adam Port didn't follow a traditional route to electronic music, coming via a teenage punk phase and later an obsession with Hip-Hop. Although he now seems completely adapted to the Techno scene, those early influences can still be seen in his work; in mindset, if not obviously in sound.

A self-confessed music nerd, Rampa is the third man of the trio. Not only is his output sparse for such a respected producer, but broad in range, from the sultry House of Defected-released Everything to the finger-sharp DC10 ode, Terrace.

The roll-call of labels he has released on is impressive, boasting a CV that includes Kompakt and Innervisions. This year alone, his track 2000 made a late surge at the shortened end of summer club season.

Individually, their musical output as producers is nothing short of exceptional, as the picks above highlight. Yet when the three friends come together under the keinemusik banner, magic is never far away.

Send Return

Four years on from the collective's debut album, You Are Safe, keinemusik's stock has risen as the trio find themselves in high demand.

Two of Ibiza's biggest parties, Black Coffee and Circoloco, know keinemusik's worth, making both members and the group key components. Elsewhere on the island, keinemusik's sound continues to influence across the board.

For Send Return, the ball got rolling as far back as March, when lead-single Discoteca hit the airwaves. It holds the curious honour of being a track that gained traction through the power (or perhaps abundance) of pandemic-forced live streams.

Tribal drums, raindrop-poised keys and Ali Love's silk-touch vocal on the Amapiano-like Confusion, further keinemusik's affinity for African-influenced music.

Hidden amid the songs, the instrumental What You Expected is the height of club-focused material, but that's not to say there isn't plenty to appreciate.

Regular readers will find it no surprise that the Solomun-collaboration The Day I Met You, features highly on our list of favourites. One of the more energetic cuts from the album, it takes us back to that night and day double-header in October 2019. How we yearn for a repeat.

Moving away from their signature sound, Send Return also sees keinemusik drift into other territory. Welcome experimentation can be found on several of the other tracks.

A past collaborator, London soulstress Chiara Noriko, delivers some lovelorn neo-R&B on Love Jones. Then later, Pay To Play smudges the boundaries between Nu-Disco and Punk, whilst commanding a beat that could have been produced by Billie Jean-era Quincy Jones.

More solemn Electronica comes in the form of Ry X-featured Feeling, while former Azari & III frontman Starving Yet Full leads the funk-driven Paris, underlining the contribution that keinemusik's chosen collaborators have engendered.

The sum should always be greater than its parts. This is true of keinemusik at all times, but when adding other artists into the mix, seemingly nothing is off the cards.

Highlights: Discoteca, Confusion, The Day I Met You, What You Expected