PhobiaWhen I was working with DJ Hell on several common productions in 2007, I suddenly heard bells in my mind. This happens quite often in totally different situations: suddenly a sound or a melody strikes my mind like a comet and I wonder where I know this from.
Those heavy dark bells would not leave my mind until I finally remembered a few days later, where I knew this from: AndrĂ© Fischer aka ADSX, with whom I am connected until now through our Liquid Sky Berlin family gave me some promos of Laiki Kostis’ label Cyclotron back in 1991. One of them was a white label with a dark ambient tune. There was “Phobia” written on the white label and the voice on that tune pleaded in a bittersweet voice “Silence! Let me have silence!”
I always used to love that tune, started sets in the 90s with it and always found it hard to mix the next record into that track. I decided to create a beat edit in Ableton, where the beat would come in just where I want it, to make it easier to mix. I played that edit to Hell and he loved it immediately. Hell wouldn’t be Hell, if he would not think of how to work with this discovery in a creative way. So he contacted Pink Elln, the original producer of that track to receive clearance for a release of the 1991 original and a 2007 DJ Hell-Remix on Gigolo Recordings. Credits on Discogs. We produced this remix in my Deerpark Studio, which was situated next to the St.Matthias cemetery in Schöneberg. I was working there during the second half of the 00s.
We wanted to create a remix, that felt like an extended Old School trip but preserve the sublime sonic feel of the original. So we opted for that deep and moving Bobby Konders House bassline and a typical arpeggio sequence. We also sneaked in other sounds that we both love, like those pitch-bended Derrick May-like strings.
I also love the artwork of the cover, it reminds me of night moth.
Listening to this, I think I should start a set with this track once again.

Phobia – Phobia (DJ Hell Mix) (2007)

P.S.: André Fischer send me this link with other hard-to-find versions of the original.
German Groove Magazine wrote this review:
Phobia ist ein Pseudonym von Tobias Freund alias Pink Elln. 1991 veröffentlicht, gehört das Ding in das Pantheon Frankfurter Techno-Bretter. Und der hier vorhandene „Silent Remix“ von Atom Heart ganz ohne Diskussion zur 1992er Standardausrüstung von Sven Väth. Zwecks Update legt der oberste Gigolo legt selbst Hand an und zimmert einen Housetrack der ganzen alten Schule. Fast so, als hätten sich Bobby Konders mit Echolot, Nick Holder und Kevin Saunderson zum Kiffen getroffen. Hut ab!

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