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Music

Telekom Music Talent Space is Putting New Musicians With Industry Dream Teams

Adi Ulmansky, Fé and Poolside are the three acts to get involved so far.

For a while, Berlin was the perfect place for any artist to end up. A politically fertile city, with a non-conformist, open-minded vibe, a booming economy and a decent rep for inspiring more albums than the concept of love. But a cultural hub like that can only shout about being one of the cheapest capitals to rent in Europe for so long, before the utopia becomes momentary, everyone piles in, and the prices eventually start to rise.

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While the city may not have lost a single ounce of its artisan charm, the talented residents now sometimes need more of a leg up, which is why Telekom Music Talent Space quickly becoming such a popular event. The idea of TMTS, which is ran by Deutsche Telekom (who are already heavily involved in underground music through their Electronic Beats publication), is to create a support network for new and exciting musicians, which helps them in everything from financial, creative and sales advice to monotonous but integral factors like marketing and distribution. And we’re not just talking random label bods here, the line up of mentors boasts Peaches, Korean stylist Soo-Hi Song, UK illustrator Daren Newman, A&Rs with Universal background and many more. Essentially, it’s like having a bunch of been-there-done-thats catering for your whole direction, so you can just focus on writing and releasing the best possible tunes.

The participating new artists chosen to work with this dream team were picked by scouts all over 2014, and the emphasis was on finding acts with a real story to tell. Adi Ulmansky was chosen early on, standing out as a solo female rapper/producer from Tel Aviv who makes the kind of pixilated R&B that paves out a forward path for that Grimes-era sound we all know and love. Second up was LA’s daytime disco duo Poolside, and the final act was Fé: a London duo earmarked for their wonky and reconstructed indie-pop.

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All three worked with the Telekom Music Talent Space team intensely for a week, called “The Accelerator Week”, full of writing, recording, learning German and giving interviews, before performing at the celebration event, dubbed Demo Day. All three acts nailing their performances with all the added nuances and wisdom gained during their TMTS workshops. Culminating the night at Berlin’s FluxBau venue with a turn taking DJ sets swelling with bass heavy jams and straight up club classics.

The idea was that whoever impressed everyone the most that night would be entitled to a much more long term plan of continued support from TMTS, but the program has actually chosen to carry on working with all three acts. As a result, they will all take part in the Electronic Beats 2015 spring festivals taking part across Europe in Warsaw, Bratislava, Prague and Cologne.

For new music fans, Adi Ulmansky, Fé and Poolside are shaping up to be three acts you need to be paying attention to. For young musicians, it seems like with Telekom Music Talent Space, you aren’t so alone at all.

Check out more from Telekom Music Talent Space at musictalentspace.net.