Oliver Huntemann
Myths abound in the north when it comes to techno ground zero, and they
refuse to go away. Oliver Huntemann is one of a handful of children of the
north who, for what seems like an eternity, add an element of credence to the
mythology. He does not, of course, live in a snowy forest or at the edge of the
polar oceans. The sun does, on occasion, shine down on Hamburg.
Nevertheless, there is a tendency towards hypothermic reduction in the
rigorous efficiency of the Huntemann oeuvre. Images of cold storage
warehouses, desolate heavy plant sites and bluish flesh are not entirely
misplaced. Shards of German Engineering glimmer in his music, laced with
persuasive logic, gruesome Darwinism. What remains: what works.
In “Brighter than the sun“, the English music theorist Kodwo Eshun depicts
the birthplace of Kraftwerk, Dusseldorf, as the “Mississippi Delta of Techno“.
Huntemann’s tracks may well have dragged themselves out of the same
primeval soup, but it was the far north which fired them with the necessary
steel for clubland. The resulting creations are linear, free of fancy, charmingly
direct. One particular London arbiter of taste sought to label the nature of his
skeletal sound as “bare and striped back to the metallic core“ – whereby
Huntemann’s reduction does not end in thin minimalism, it draws attention to
the core itself. Less is more to the max. The only luxury is a little dirt.
Whilst hordes of German producers and DJs set their satnavs for Berlin,
Oliver Huntemann chose to head back home.
His epicenter is, and will remain, the north. Hamburg, to be exact. This is
where he produces his music and it is from here that he sets out into the
world, thrilling the populous with his DJ sets.