international news _ 6th June, 2007
Umek Goes 'Melodic Minimal'
Text by Jonty Skrufff (Skrufff.com)
Slovenia's number one DJ Umek unveiled details of his new single Print This Story/ Ricochet Effect this week and described the new tracks as moving 'a little bit more towards the melodic minimal side of techno'. Each track has more elements of trance than the stripped down techno usually associated with minimal marking a surprising switch for the techno icon.
Chatting to Skrufff several years ago, he suggested British trance acts like Sasha and Digweed would struggle to draw 300 people in Slovenia in marked contrast to techno parties where 5,000 revellers would frequently gather.
"I was thinking about this recently about why it's the case that techno's so strong in all these countries that have been war zones," he said, "For most of the ex Yugoslavia countries the living standards are really low so it's impossible to invite big pop stars to play plus the pop stars are scared to visit. This is why underground parties are so popular. And people in these places can only choose between local music or electronica. People also want to forget their problems and party, so there's a big connection to that attitude," said Umek.
Umek headlines the brand new 4 night Refresh Festival in Montenegro (August 9), spinning alongside Ian Pooley, Lottie, Robert Owens and Jonty Skrufff.
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