ARTISTS
Yeah… sounds good already … just put´cha feet up … close your eyes … and … melt … to the sound of the Homewreckers. It´s the year 2008 and the location is any urban center in Germany where music lovers are holding a late-night basement party. It is one of those dimly-lit blue-light affairs, and the party has settled down to where the revelers have paired off into couples, tightly clasped together in a slow shuffle dance across the floor, while wafting through the air is the plaintive sound of the Homewreckers.
With its roots in 70s funk, hip hop, house music and smooth crooners like Sam Dees, the resulting combination of soulful moods over a powerful churning percussive rhythm section is hardly surprising in its impact. Soul for them is always a latent force. It is just that it is sometimes buried within a bleeping MIDI interface…
The Homewreckers are to a large extent a tale of three cities – Bochum, Gelsenkirchen and Hagen – each of which grew up as an isolated regional outpost as far from the studio system of the majors in spirit as it was in geography. Johannes Ehmann was born in Essen, but grew up in Hagen, Westfalen, where his father became a precentor in the Church of Johannis am Markt. At nine he joined his father and his sister in a trombone quintet called Posaunenchor Emst, and just a few years later he became a member of the Loop Vandals, an R´n´B and house DJ team that was founded by high school friend Tobias Koth. After they started up their own night at Planet club in Bochum and then at Rote Liebe club in Essen, they soon became known to most of Ruhrgebiets dance music lovers. That was where DJ Krischan J.E. Wesenberg (who started his musical career at the age of eight as the drummer of the Dixieland band Sugar and the little Birdies) first laid eyes on them. “It was a DJ set at the Planet club and they had that particular charisma,” recalls Krischan from Gelsenkirchen. “People just liked the guys; they could relate to them. I thought to myself: These guys are jewels.” But it wasn´t until Gregor Pottmeier began taking on musical responsibilities that the Homewreckers found their way. Pottmeier grew up in Krefeld where at six he learned to play piano, alto, organ, clarinet and trumpet. When he left school to go out on his own, he played first in a Count Basie-styled big band, then in a smaller Ska-inspired combo.
In 1995, they first came together under the name of Broccoli Brothers vs. The Righteous Men and began recording for Chicago DJ and producer Felix Da Housecat’s “Thee Blak Label”. Their first release, “Ruhrschnellweg”, generated such great response in European clubs that it quickly entered many DJs’ dance charts. Today it is still a favourite of Paris DJ Laurent Garnier and has become a much sought-after collectors techno classic. The follow-up, So many tongues (on Radical Fear), features the glorious vocals of Chicago singer Harrison Crump. The EP was co-produced by house legend Marshall Jefferson. Although this new 1996 garage house style was certainly still an artistic success, sales in general seemed to be flagging. The quality of “Watchin’ you, watchin’ me” was undoubtable but did not coincide with what was then deemed to be booming in Europe and America. In the meantime Krischan’s role expanded. He was not only producing as a Broccoli but was also working on a solo career.
In 2000, with the release of “Nobody loves you…” on GAP, Krischan, Johannes and Gregor changed their name to Homewreckers. The new tracks are unlike anything else that they have done before, not so much for their arrangement as for the impassioned undercurrent of feeling that lies just beneath the surface. What characterizes the entire 12″ is the almost painful honesty of emotion that comes through. But among the most surprising aspects of listening to the tracks of the Homewreckers are the quiet moments at the center, the moments of stillness where action stops and “knowledgeable” anticipation takes over.
As a unit, the Wreckers are examples of the discipline and feeling that make modern funk our most difficult performance art. They also form part of the reaction against the arrogant sloth and snarling decadence that face us all, threatening to devour all craft and purity, and to push human beings into the hopper of hysteria, where they will be stripped of all but obvious responses. In that sense, their music is a declaration of war against the contrived and the worthless, a statement of elegance, optimism, compassion and of pride. And it shows how safe the warm soul of funk is in the winter of our world.
