Artist of the Week: Solomun

As much as we love a bit of a heads down, no nonsense, fast paced rave soundtrack here at Skiddle, there’s nothing better than a slower groove to get your grind on too. It’s been endemic in clubland over the past few years, helping dance music reclaim a foothold back in the pop charts in the process. And one of the people who has been at the centre of this new found renaissance has been Hamburg’s finest, the indomitable Solomun.

Born in Bosnia, Mladen Solomun relocated to the German city where he would become a fixture of the movement which saw the nation reclaim its status as the central force in electronic music at the start of the Twenty First century. He purchased a club Ego, which he runs still to this day, but it was the starting of a record label, Diynamic, in 2006 that would spearhead his rise to the top.

It helped establish Solomun’s unique take on the sound of the times, which although based around the slavering for more minimal grooves proved he could add a bit of ingenuity and flair to the genre. He managed to float between the wonkier club sounds of the times on labels like Four:Twenty and Poker Flat, and then more soulful cuts on the likes of Sonar Kollektiv, also becoming something of a hidden gem on the underground as a DJ as well. It wasn’t long though before the secret would come blurting out to the winder clubber community.

2011 was the point where Solomon began to carve his niche beyond that immediate vicinity. Pitching down the tempo and drenching the beats with a sexier undercurrent, his sound sat comfortably with the song led histrionics pushed out by labels such as Hot Creations, Crosstown Rebels and Visionquest, as a slew of killer remixes and productions forged the now patented ‘Solomon Sound’. Arguably the best, and certainly the most well-known, was his take on Noir and Haze's ‘Around’, but we’ve got a particular fondness for the sluggish mumble based brilliance of ‘Daddy’s Jam’ too.

It was at this point that Diynamic would come into its own as a label as well, their stable of artists such as H.O.S.H, Stimming and David August marking out their talent in their own right as Solomun surged into the stratosphere. 2012 was the point though where he would hit the big league, taking his label to Ibiza for a maiden season at a club that was also about to project itself indelibly into the hearts of dance fans across the globe, Sankeys.

Dynamic’s Neon Nights was arguably the success story of the 2012 season (we were enamoured from the opening party), and if that was open to debate Solomun grasping the accolade of the island’s most feverishly in demand DJ certainly wasn’t. He simply owned the summer last year, his sets bubbling with a wash of synths, vocals, swaggering grooves and the kind of sunshiny brilliance that made perfect sense in the dark confines of Sankeys.

Fast forward to 2013 and such is his superstar status that he can hold two residencies on the island, adding an underground zeal to Pacha with his +1 parties (where he DJs alongside a different DJ every week) and continuing the brilliance of Neon Nights every Tuesday at Sankeys. He’s currently on a 33 date tour of Europe which will see him play a gig nearly every three days in the space of two months, which includes four dates in the UK - at Yousef presents Circus in Liverpool (his first date at the club) and three festival performances at Love Box, Creamfields and SW4.

We’ll leave you with this absolute corker of a DJ set which underlines just how brilliant he is, seventy minutes of pure body-popping funk he delivered for our pals Mixmag earlier in the summer. 

Like this? Then check our preview of Yousef presents Circus where Solomun will be healdining at the end of the month.

And for all things Diynamic based head to the Diynamic Ibiza group here.

And check out Sankeys Ibiza on Facebook.

Tickets are no longer available for this event