Usually I disagree with almost anything fashion designers have to say, but when I was compiling this
EP I remembered this quote by the ‘iconic’ german designer and finally exactly understood what he means. I realized why I react so strongly to Den Haan’s music. Like proper Italo Disco it’s so wrong it must be right. The two glaswegian producers do everything right when it comes to pushing buttons on the dancefloor. To follow their releases on Dissident, Optimo Music and their own imprint Courier Of Death, they have put together this EP that sums up their impeccable feel for hi-nrg / italo fueled dancefloor madness. Not much can be said about the Burning Cock Theme
besides that playing this in a techno club is what separates DJs from fashion victims. Ridiculously camp yet simply irresistible. Vocoder madness with over the top italo-style vocals, latter defintely not autotuned. B-side’s first track Increase The Beast is an extended edit of the most effective DJ weapon i have heard in years. Animal noise intro followed by a 4/4 kick with timpani thumps and ubergay male whoohaa-s, a drop into a Cowley-sque synthline abruptly ended by a machinegun-like two note bassline - by the time you have reached this point in the track usually people want to strip naked on the dancefloor. I kid you not.
The second track on the flipside, Afterburner is an edit of their digital release exclusive coverversion of the dutch classic Burn It Up (Mr. DJ). A
real builder based on elements of the cover that could well be from a 80s movie soundtrack a la Miami Vice. A real gem. The coverversion itself is a vocoder ridden stomper with anthemic traits.
Instead of applying coffeetable-compilation aesthetics to their music like most recent producers have been doing in the course of the italo and neo- disco revival, Den Haan choose to make you feel uncomfortable by putting their hand on your balls in order to evaluate if they are big enough to play their tunes on a dancefloor packed with techno purists and urban hipsters.
yours truly, Xaver von Treyer