Flux is the newest release from the Berlin-based label, Sleep Is Commercial. Produced by label boss Andrea Ferlin, it exhibits his unerring dedication to quality music. With the label as busy as ever, this is their second release of 2018 and Ferlin’s first since the Supercell Stry EP he released with Sinob Satosi last year on Fasten Musique. A two track slice of brilliance, Flux emphasizes the deep and dark style of dance music in classic Berlin style.
With such a great back catalogue behind them, we decided to ask the main man what he feels are his favorite label records to date. Needless to say, he perked up with a few gems, with each one giving us a fascinating insight into one of the scene’s most genuinely intriguing outlets…
Fumiya completely took the track to another planet and this one is a real futuristic-sounding classic club track. The reinterpretation of the vocal – in a totally different atmosphere compared to the vocal – shows his production skills and he really is a great producer and incredible DJ. He played recently at our party in Berlin as Tofu Productions alongside Thomas Melchior. Also, I should mention here that Thomas is involved with a release we’re working on right now: two remixes of Wareika’s track with Ricardo Villalobos, ‘Shamania’. A four track double vinyl release, it features 4 extended mixes and 1 on each side. The 4th track is a Dunkle Dummies remix, my project with Francesco Assenza. Watch out for the release Autumn 2018!
I discovered Traian´s music when I received a 2 CD with a bunch of unreleased tracks he gave to Giuseppe Marchegiano (Hubble).
We shared his music with our inner circle of DJs around the label and the sound coming from Traian´s tracks was really catching our mood at that specific moment, and I played the demo version for some time. Traian then delivered a smoother version of the release and we opted for Petre on the remix – one that ended up being a bit mental but also very organic sounding too. I think this is a really spiritual record, and it always catches the attention of the dancefloor when it’s played at the right time. The accompanying video of the track also signalled my first foray into video production. I remember with Vanvia (the music video project I run with Victoria Velarde), we started with this video to experiment and overlap videos with fx. Both tracks and their videos mean a lot to me.
We tried to combine organic elements with acid bass lines and other chromatic elements in long jams, all supported from solid minimal techno grooves. We did an album on Sleep Is Commercial on the CD series (SICCD002) and we released the 2 of the 5 tracks on vinyl.
I remember having a lot of fun recording these tracks, going more into sequencing and discovering and experimenting with AALTO a very powerful semi-modular software synthesizer.
Kiwi X-Cruise-On is one of the tracks included on his album “Down By The River” on Sleep Is Commercial’s CD series (SICCD003). This extended track has a tremendous bass line and a fresh groove.
The reaction of the dance floor to this track, well, it doesn´t matter where I play it, it’s always the same! Basically, suddenly the dance floor starts to boil and become curious with many people asking what Im playing! This is a very distinctive track and represents perfectly the label at the time of the release/
Thinking about the members of the label, now our interaction is solid and the special thing is that we are still a compact group of friends, developing a similar vision of sound, everyone with his own style. But this track is more describing the energy of the starting of what is Sleep Is Commercial today and all the new labels projects followed, like Proboscide, Rummenigge, What Now Becomes, Atoll, Dead Rail, Triptease, Domv and the Owl.
I’m really happy we are all on this journey together.
Well I had to pick one of my own ones! But this too is a very special one for me. I think when I produced this that I’d reached a new style of music production, especially on this track.
The deepness, the fantastic sounds made from the vocal, the slow and smooth evolving of the track during the whole length, those whole elements forge together so well.
We decided to release an extended version on one side of the last SICLTD release. During those days we had the chance to met Koss (Ion Ludwig) and to know him a bit better, so his remix here came about pretty naturally. He came back to me with two versions and it was kind of hard to choose one for SICLTD007.I moved back to Berlin after I did this track and I started to develop a new sound after it that became Atoll. So kind of a track of transition for me.
