Barem

It was only a matter of time...

Techno is the heartbeat of this city (although there is a surprisingly large amount of Drum 'n Bass as well for some reason - answers on the back of a stamp addressed envelope please), the modulating pacemaker that keeps everyone in check and you hear it pretty much everywhere you go. Although I have mad love for techno, over the last year or two I had begun to think that lots of it, the minimal scene in particular, had started to consume itself. Too may producers, too much music, not enough quality control. A genre that had started out as a reaction to the ostentatiousness of house and the sheer uncoolness of trance, had quickly become that which previously it had most despised. People like Richie Hawtin, were doing tours more reminiscent of Tiesto, and Sven Vath's Cocoon night at Amnesia in Ibiza was the toast of the island. That's why it is good to come across people like Barem. A Buenos Aires native, he exemplifies the founding philosophies that min tech should stand for. By all accounts, the techno scene in BA is minute. Playing to a crowd larger than 50 is an acheivement, let alone actually releasing tracks. Therefore, there is something nice about a producer coming from such a scene, so far removed from the techno boulevards of Europe, and actually producing good music, music that manages to remind you why you fell in love with techno in the first place.



PS. And its not just Barem. Check out Ceph as well, an equally accomplished producer also from Buenos Aires.