Superpitcher

The German DJ/electronic musician Superpitcher has a well-defined and even iconic sound based on a handful of key elements:

01 The slight, pulsing schaeffel beat that forms the skittering, perfectly too-slow foundation for microhouse, the name for a minimal style of house music. Superpitcher has a beautiful sense of how to use this rhythm, interweaving it with an arrangement’s other ingredients so that the beat not only pushes the track forward, but accentuates and punctuates elements of the melody as well.

02 Superpitcher’s melodies are very elementary. On his breakthrough (and perhaps best) track, “Heroin” (not available at eMu), the chord progression is incredibly sluggish, the bass shifting notes at the start of each measure, creating an appropriately druggy feel. His songs are very meditative, but outwardly so; he seems like the sort of man who feels comfortable brooding in public.

03 He really likes one keyboard preset (Or is it a type of keyboard itself? I haven’t been into gear since high school…): a clangy, hollow-sounding piano that sounds as if it’s cutting out with each burst of noise. The keys are roomy and staccato, nicely balancing out the restrained fluidity of his bass lines.

Superpitcher uses these elements in his own work, of course, but he also liberally employs them when remixing others (also seek out his non-eMu cover of Eno’s “Baby’s on Fire,” which is interrupted mid-song by the jangling guitar line from the Velvet Underground’s “Waiting for the Man”). While eMusic is sadly bereft of Superpitcher’s solo work, the catalogue does have seven fantastic remixes that he has done, all of which are highly recommended. Here’s a list, in order of preference:

01 Ghostcauldron | “See What I’ve Become (Superpitcher Smallville Mix)” | !K7 | link

This is basically a Superpitcher solo cut — I haven’t heard the original, but this whole throbbing track feels exactly like his best work: precious, epic, hypnotic, etc, etc. This is a must.

02 Dntel featuring Ben Gibbard | “(This Is) The Dream of Evan and Chan (Superpitcher Komapkt Remix)” | Plug Research | link

I’ll hazard a guess that this is Superpitcher’s best-known track, thanks to this basically defining what the Postal Service would be two years later. The original Dntel track, which features vocals from Death Cab for Cutie’s Ben Gibbard, is an opaque bore (and this from someone who gets off on the purposely obtuse!), but Superpitcher deftly reaches right into the song’s guts and pulls out Gibbard’s cloying hook and rebuilds it around a sighing organ and that schaeffel beat (and sleighbells!). A good place to start.

03 Tocotronic | “Pure Vernunft Darf Niemals Siegen (Superpitcher/Wassermann Mix)” (nine-minute version) | L’age D’or | link

Tocotronic | “Hi Freaks (Superpitcher’s Beautiful Freaks Mix)” L’age D’or | link

The first track here was featured on the sixth volume of Kompakt’s absolutely essential Total series, and after one listen to the mismatching rhythms of the guitar strumming and the song’s beat, it’s not hard to see why. The other song, “Hi Freaks,” is the housiest I’ve ever heard Superpitcher sound on record. There are few of the precious gradations that so clearly delineate his other work.

04 M83 | “Don’t Save Us From the Flames (Superpitcher Remix)” | Global Underground | link

“Don’t Save Us From the Flames” sounds pretty much exactly like a mix of “Heroin” and “Baby’s on Fire” (Superpitcher versions, both), except with an added little wrinkle of a mournful half-ooh/half-whisper/half-coyote call (make those thirds, I guess) that comes at the track’s midpoint. It’s also interesting to hear Superpitcher playing around with a very rock bass line — he leaves it largely untouched. This makes for a great mixtape closer.

05 Contriva | “Stuck (Superpitcher Remix)” | monika enterprise | link

So slow and woozy it’s almost chopped and screwed; recorded about five or six years ago, and the song isn’t quite Superpitched to the degree that the others are here, which is fascinating, especially in that he mucks about more with little hitches in rhythm and melody, like hiccupping the keyboard drone and the little flourishes in the cymbals. He’s still feeling his way through here, but it’s fantastic.

06 Hell | “Je Regrette Everything (Superpitcher Mix)” | Gigolo Records | link

Nothing terribly special here, but it is eight more minutes of Superpitcher.

Anyway, expect updates when we get more SP remixes on eMusic. In the meantime, be sure to grab Gui Boratto’s “It’s Majik” single here. His upcoming Kompakt record is great, but this track, which sounds like Superpitcher remixing the Steve Miller Band, is just unbelievably wonderful. Expect more on it later.