Production duo Rework talk us through their new album, track by track.
Needed You
This is one of the tracks we made together in one night. At that time we met every evening in the studio at Hauptbahnhof. We started to record the track after listening to Blondie’s ‘Heart Of Glass’. Obviously it turned out to sound completely different but that’s intended. Sometimes you gotta ride that wave. Originally released as She Lies, the track was also remixed by The Asphodells which made us very proud.
Heat
Sometimes we work together like this: I do some live recordings, first some drums from the VPROM LM-1, then adding a bunch of Poly800 chords, finally combining it with the weird Prophet 2000 which does random things when you’re tweaking the parameter knob while recording. The raw material flies go through WeTransfer to Michel and he picks the best parts, adds some Prosoniq Northpole-filtered vocal bits (yes, we still use it!) and there you go.
And it’s fun
Inspired by the band Glass Candy and other Johnny Jewel productions, this track was made with a Juno bassline and some Korg synth sounds. This track has a kind of sadness I love. We made this one after watching one of my favourite movies, Polanski’s Chinatown. Movies can also be a cool inspiration to bring some feeling into a track. The lyrics are about fun or better non-fun situations in life.
You Are The One
A real old synthpop track. We had the instrumental version for years on our hard disk. Kind of a follower of our Chris & Cosey cover of ‘October Love Song’ from our first album. Lots of Polysix sounds and a mix of different drum machine samples. We tried to record vocals for the tracks several times but it never worked out. At the end we found some vocals from our She Lies collaboration just before we wanted to throw the track into the trashcan.
Baby Disco
I made this track in memory of a rave in Düsseldorf. We played there in 1993 as Cybordelics and not a single track of ours was under 142 BPM. After the show we went backstage and there were two DJs playing downtempo house with that feel: easy grooving, soft and positive. I liked it more than what we were doing. I would like to have a recording of that night and the name of the DJs. I didn’t ask them. Introvert problems.
He’s So Different
We love to produce some old-school Rework tracks like the first ones we released on Playhouse. We always start with an 808 drum pattern and a heavy bass sample, adding some minimal vocals, and then we start with the arrangement. Made after some club nights in my favourite Stuttgart club, Romantica. This place is only a five minute walk from where I live so it’s always worth traveling there.
Kiss
Another one with vocals by the girls from She Lies. They live in Berlin now so we don’t have that much time to make music together. Synth sounds come again from the Juno. The track is about kissing kiss kiss kiss yeah.
Should We
‘Should We’ comes with two sounds from our Playhouse releases ‘You’re So Just Just’ and ‘Loin de Moi’, some tambourine sounds and minimal vocal samples. The intention was to produce an easygoing and sexy house track. The staccato synth sound at the end comes again from the Polysix. I think it’s really exciting to start a new track with sounds from old tracks and watch what happens.
Wait
A sweet instrumental synth ballad at the end of the album. I wrote it after the end of a relationship and the sadness of not seeing her again. Inside there are some Polysix and Juno lead sounds and a Minimoog bassline. If you listen closely you can hear the sea and the waves inside the track.
Rework’s Heat is out now on My Favorite Robot.