There are a lot of DJs to keep track of out there on the Internet, so I'll spare us all the prosaic foreplay and assume that this is your first encounter with the Dutch provacateurs known as Baskerville. Their new single "Britefoot," released on Boys Noize Records, is a shimmering beacon of synth amidst a landscape of forgettable tech-house tracks—and it occupies prime real estate on Tchami's recent DAD mix and DJ Snake's spanking new Essential Mix. There's nothing worse than having to play catch-up with the French, so we're giving you an edge on the comeptition, and offering the track for free download! Go on, take it, it's yours.A rarity in our single-centric dance culture, their album Strongroom is an ambitious project that delivers upfront dance tunes like the above, as well as downtempo groovers and quirky mutations of dance-adjacent styles. At times they sound damn near an indie band (remember those?) and at others a bedroom synth-pop team. Such a cavalier assortment is treacherous terrain, but Baskerville pull it off far more often than not.Despite their affiliation with BNR and an irrefutable flair for producing thoughtful bootyshakers, the Haarlem-based duo remain criminally under-appreciated outside of their native Holland. Ours is a subculture prone to minute categorization, and I'm as guilty as the next guy, but it's as if Baskerville's output is at once so broad and anomalous that nobody can figure out what the heck they're supposed to say about them. I tracked down Thijs van der Klugt, one-half of the Dutch duo, to grill him on this and other subjects last week:THUMP: Are you as shocked and appalled as I am by the fact that so few people seem to know about you?
Baskerville: Well, I'm not shocked. You have to have a lot of promotion and a good label worldwide to be noticed by foreign people. We have a lot of promotion in Holland, but not outside of the country. We're working on a release in France and a release in Belgium. But any further than that? No. America? Not yet.How did you end up on Boys Noize Records?
We did a few releases on Bart B. More's label, Secure Recordings, and the last release got Boys Noize's support… He's one of our heroes. We made some new tunes and were like, 'Why don't we just send them to Boys Noize? And he responded in, like, five minutes.How do you divide the work between the two of you?
It depends on the purpose of the song. In album studio mode we always work together but with EPs or remixes we also work apart from each other and finish the track together. I mix all of our tracks, and Bart is really keen on groove and timing of specific samples and synths.Your older stuff was primarily dancefloor electro but your sound and setup have changed…
We started out with some semi-live stuff—we had a singer with us. But we both come from a live music background; hip-hop bands, rock bands. We really wanted to make a combination between electronic music and a live band. We decided to do that four years ago.There's some real breadth in the aesthetics you go for on Strongroom—from dance-y elements to nods at Radiohead, Boards of Canada, some dream pop…
Exactly! Those are two of my favorite acts. I grew up listening to Radiohead. They were the first live band that also experimented a lot with electronic music. You can definitely hear the process of them being a live band and becoming electronic musicians… It really influenced me. Also, Aphex Twin, Air, Kruder and Dorfmeister, downtempo stuff… also Moda disco and Moda techno vibes.What is the weirdest thing about Dutch people?
For such a small country like Holland we have a lot of weird shit going on [laughs]. But if I have to name one—we have artists that make this kind of dutch "folk" music, sort of like german schlager music. They make the most awkward low-budget music videos and they are BIG hits on youtube.And there you have it. Check out the whole album below:
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Baskerville: Well, I'm not shocked. You have to have a lot of promotion and a good label worldwide to be noticed by foreign people. We have a lot of promotion in Holland, but not outside of the country. We're working on a release in France and a release in Belgium. But any further than that? No. America? Not yet.How did you end up on Boys Noize Records?
We did a few releases on Bart B. More's label, Secure Recordings, and the last release got Boys Noize's support… He's one of our heroes. We made some new tunes and were like, 'Why don't we just send them to Boys Noize? And he responded in, like, five minutes.
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It depends on the purpose of the song. In album studio mode we always work together but with EPs or remixes we also work apart from each other and finish the track together. I mix all of our tracks, and Bart is really keen on groove and timing of specific samples and synths.Your older stuff was primarily dancefloor electro but your sound and setup have changed…
We started out with some semi-live stuff—we had a singer with us. But we both come from a live music background; hip-hop bands, rock bands. We really wanted to make a combination between electronic music and a live band. We decided to do that four years ago.There's some real breadth in the aesthetics you go for on Strongroom—from dance-y elements to nods at Radiohead, Boards of Canada, some dream pop…
Exactly! Those are two of my favorite acts. I grew up listening to Radiohead. They were the first live band that also experimented a lot with electronic music. You can definitely hear the process of them being a live band and becoming electronic musicians… It really influenced me. Also, Aphex Twin, Air, Kruder and Dorfmeister, downtempo stuff… also Moda disco and Moda techno vibes.What is the weirdest thing about Dutch people?
For such a small country like Holland we have a lot of weird shit going on [laughs]. But if I have to name one—we have artists that make this kind of dutch "folk" music, sort of like german schlager music. They make the most awkward low-budget music videos and they are BIG hits on youtube.And there you have it. Check out the whole album below:
@JemayelK