German marching band MEUTE reworks a Deadmau5 track into a live techno song
Yesterday we were passed a video of the German marching band, MEUTE. The video captures the band reinterpreting a techno song with nothing but their instruments. The eleven-piece band was in Ibiza on their way to join Solomun for a guest performance at club Destino, but they decided to play a little live set along the way.
Could you imagine being a tourist in Ibiza harbor when these eleven musicians in their iconic red jackets start setting up their gear? I’m willing to bet that most of the people in this video didn’t know who MEUTE were much less what they were about to see. Because of the organized dress code, they would have probably suspected that they were about to witness some slightly above average busking. But there is no way they couldn’t have imagined just how good it would be. Once the band started playing however, onlookers would have thought they had won the busking performance lottery!
What started as an experiment on the streets of Hamburg, Germany has quickly evolved into a world-acclaimed phenomenon. MEUTE combines hypnotic driving techno sound and expressive brass band music to become something quite amazing. In one clever move, they’ve been able to free electronic music from the DJ desk and overhaul the image of marching bands across the world. The only ingredients are drums and brass — no computers involved. This is all they need to revolutionize techno music and bring it back to its roots. There’s something so simple about that kind of analogue reinterpretation. It’s a minimal approach to a genre that already prides itself as being minimal.
Besides blowing people’s minds at their live shows, MEUTE garners a lot of respect from the DJs they reinterpret. Flume dusted off his saxophone in November and jumped on stage with the guys at the Studio Brussel Showcase to perform the album track “Rushing Back.” (It was MEUTE’s guerrilla video covering Flume’s “You & Me” that helped initially put the band on the map)
The reputation of their live show was captured on their LIVE IN PARIS album released last year. The album was recorded during their show at the prestigious club Le Trianon in Paris, in March. The set features the band’s own versions of songs by Deadmau5, Dennis Ferrer, Solomun, N’to and Trentemøller.
This year the techno marching band is set to release their second studio album: PULS (which means “pulse” in German). The LP will rework songs from Flume, Röyksopp, Kölsch, Rival Consoles, Boris Brejcha, and Oscar House. And for the first time, the band also includes three original compositions that fit into the record seamlessly.
The album is due out on February 21, 2020 on the in-house label TUMULT.
deadmau5 – Slip (MEUTE rework)deadmau5 – Slip
