Motor City Drum Ensemble

DJ Kicks EP (Freshly Repressed) Motor City Drum Ensemble

repress! TRACKLISTING: A: L. O. V. E (DJ-KICKS) B: BASEMENT L. O. V. E (DJ-KICKS) OVERVIEW: Danilo Plessow, known to the world of dance music as Motor City Drum Ensemble, was always incredibly young with things. He started producing at the age of eleven—“way too early” as he jokes—having his first release out just five years later: Inverse Cinematics’ “Slow Swing”, released in Pulver Records in 2002, found its way into Ricardo Villalobos’ record bag as well as onto one of the first Fabric mix CDs. An album under the same name and a string of EPs followed. “It was really important how young I was, not just how and where I was raised. That naivety when it comes to things, like, ‘does it sound good?’ or ‘are you even allowed to do it like this?’ Those things never concerned me and in large part that was due to my age. It was good having that kind of light heartedness! Also, in those years, you are like a sponge and just so enthusiastic! That can absolutely lead the way.” Hip Hop led the way and around the same age he started producing he kept crawling into the back of his hometown record shop. Specialised in heavy metal, it was in the farthest corners where the owner had stashed away the kinds of records Danilo’s idols Native Tongues, Pete Rock, Premier and Dilla were sampling: Jazz, Funk and Soul records. His formative years as listener and record collector took place in that handful of crates. “It was really healthy being in my own cosmos. I mean, the internet is great of course but if you grow up in circumstances like me, where there’s not an infinite amount of unheard music available at all times and you’re forced to work with what’s available, that’s a whole different kind of inspiration than when you’re browsing sites on the web, you know.” Those years of deep listening and self-schooling certainly paid off and it’s not surprising that, after moving to Germany’s de facto “Motor City” Stuttgart, he should become famous for a string of sample-based reco