FJAAK selects 10 wicked tracks ahead of GATHER Outdoors Festival

For the past seven years, the hardware-obsessed, cannabis-loving Berlin group FJAAK has excelled in crafting a hard-hitting techno sound for Modeselektor’s 50Weapons and Monkeytown Records imprints that has stunned dancefloor far and wide.

At the start of 2019, the prominent techno boyband went from trio to duo when Kevin Kozick decided to leave FJAAK in order to start a new project. Despite the split, it hasn’t stopped the now duo – made up of Felix Wagner and Aaron Röbig – from continuing their pursuit of creating furious dancefloor tunes and performing explosive jams at both clubs and festivals all over the world.

Before jumping across the pond to perform at Teksupport‘s inaugural GATHER Outdoors Festival, the duo has picked out 10 riotous and amazing tracks that tell the story of FJAAK’s past, present and future.

GATHER Outdoors Festival will take place over Memorial Day Weekend on May 25 – 26 at a resort on Holiday Mountain in the Catskills – a serene and densely forested location that is less than 90 miles from Downtown Manhattan. The line-up includes top electronic talent such as Amelie Lens, Audiofly, MK, Moscoman, Stacey Pullen, Danny Tenaglia, Doc Martin, Floorplan, Jamie XX, Maya Jane Coles, DJ Nobu, Paco Osuna, Goldcap and LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy and more.

Purchase tickets by going here.

Check out FJAAK’s intuitive selects ahead of the event and read what they have to say about each of the tracks below.

“There have always been a lot of people that we’ve looked up to when we first started making music. Kris is one of those guys. He was always a very nice guy to us and when we first started talking to him about music, it gave us a lot of power.”

“When we started to make music we had a lot of people we looked up to And it’s still the same. Kris was always a very nice guy to us and talking with him about music like five years ago gave us a lot of power.”

“It doesn’t matter who you are and what skill you’ve got, people and skill control music but in the end, it’s all created by coincidences. This track is straightforward but effective. The synth, which starts in the first second of this song, has a deep and complex mood. This track can be used as a nice opening track as well.”

“This song has a fucking nice vibe! Aubrey uses some dope synth stabs in this song. The way they come, go and get replaced by groovy percussions is so dope and never gets boring. Since we mix pretty fast, we usually try to mix this song in with its very beginning. A perfect tune for an afternoon in a small sweaty club.”

Pudel Club, Hamburg, 24.01.2016 – It’s a Sunday and the label 50Weapons is about to shut down forever.

“The sound system at the club was pretty shitty, but the vibe was on point. “Was” is the correct term to use here since the place burned down a few days after the party. Modeselektor closed the night, and this was the very last song Szary (of Modeselekor) played. In that moment, it got our 150 per cent of the crowd’s attention. Although the club’s system was not that strong, this song gets its power from the mid frequencies. The synth line is mighty as hell. We loved it, and the people loved it, Szary loved it. REWIND!!!”

“After this night, we started to play this track over and over again in every venue, and we decided to transfer some files to our samplers so we could remix the song. One day, Felix came up with the idea to ask Robert Hood and Claude Young about releasing the remix. After we met Claude in San Francisco and Robert at Awakenings, we finally made it happen!”

“Deapmash is a great guy and pretty young for the age you would expect when listening to his tracks. Halcyon starts with an epic, wide and warm pad before it slowly builds up and some rhythms get added. Suddenly, a digital rewind sound FX comes in and a fat kick and snare hit gets your ass without warning. Powerful song, powerful guy. Check him out.”

“Richard Melville Hall (aka Moby) is a New York-born producer. His name comes from the book Moby Dick. He is one of the most important dance music figures of the early 1990s. Some of you might recognize the vocal sample in the beginning. It’s from The Davis Sisters and the song is called ‘Lord Don’t Leave Me’. When listening to this song back in the day, we got the idea to sample the Davis Sisters as well. We were making a lot of trip-hop and breakbeat stuff around that time and we ended up creating the track directly below this one.

“When we finished this song, we didn’t know what it really was so we showed it to our homies and they told us it’s a banger. After a few weeks, we decided to start our own label with this track. Back then we did everything on our own. Events, bookings, travel, contracts etc. We enjoyed it and got to learn this part of this business as well. We had just finished up this record and it landed in our studio to get a stamp. They were all hand stamped and ready to get shipped out when something unexpected happened… Modeselektor wrote us an e-mail asking to meet us completely out of nowhere.”

“We responded and all sat on a couch in our smoke-filled studio when 30 minutes later, Gernot (of Modeselektor) was at our door. The fresh stamped record got Gernot’s attention pretty fast and we started to show him more of our music.”

“With a FJAAK stamp on the backside of the record and a clean side on the other, he told us not to start our own imprint and asked that we put the record out on 50Weapons instead. The next day, the records got picked up and transported to the Monkeytown HQ to get a sexy 50Weapons stamp on the backside.”

“Who doesn’t like KiNK? Nobody, that’s who! Whether it’s his music or his character. Such a lovely man!”

“This song got released around 2012 while we were still pretty new behind the decks. This was one of our favorite songs to play out and we never forget about it! The track is inspired by a train ride KiNK had. He was probably coming from a rave or something. When you listen closely, you can hear a lot of sounds which are created by a train cruising on the tracks.”

“This song is from 1996. Felix and Aaron were about five years old when this record got released. It’s legendary. When the synth comes in, a real raver has to reply with a loud “WOOOOOOOOO”. While listening to this song on Youtube, we found some nice comments we’d like to share with you.”

– “Cutting my teeth on raves in the ’90’s brought me here.”
– “Driving around in my work van and screaming at people just feels normal while listening to this.”
– “These yokes are mad chewy.”
– “3 am working my way through the sweaty crowd feeling pure ecstasy as I drink a delicious bottle of water.”
“- What would the ’90s be without this hymn!? Nothing

“Kerri Chandler – the house legend himself. When we hugged him for the first time, we felt his human warmth immediately. Such a lovely guy!”

“With this song, he showed us that music is energy and music is power. For example, driving on a rainy highway can be fucked up (and it usually is). But this song makes sure it will be a relaxed drive for at least some of those minutes on the road. Or picture a rainy open-air event where you are thinking about to go home. This song can rescue a lot and just shows how much a piece of music can influence our lives.”

There is no Youtube link for the exact track we are talking about, but it will be coming soon! In the meantime, here is a remix.

This track is already an underground legend and it hasn’t even been released yet. When Bambounou dropped this at Berghain and for the second time during our 50Weapons closing party, it totally went off! This track truly shows us how rough lovely house can be.

Some of you might know how much bad luck this record has encountered – but it is almost over. Just wait a little more time and you can get this track anywhere!