M.A.N.D.Y - fabric 38 CD

It's not often that two people discover a friendship as special as the Berlin-based creative duo M.A.N.D.Y. (Patrick Bodem and Philipp Jung). The first call rang when Patrick's family moved from Zurich to Saarbrücken at the age of 15; his friendship with Philipp was immediate and vibrant, and the inseparable pair immersed themselves in sports, compilation tapes, Tears For Fears and Janis Joplin records.

Dabbling in the corporate world while the sun shined (Patrick working as a project manager alongside his thriving painting career, Philipp at Logic Records working for the pop band Snap) and throwing parties well into the night, their paths reached a fork in the road once again when Philipp received a tempting offer from Jive Records. Moving to Cologne for Jive, Philipp began working closer with two long-time friends and successful producers, Walter Merziger and Arno Kammermeier, who collectively produced under a variety of aliases - they would eventually become best known as Booka Shade. Walter and Arno taught Philipp and Patrick a few tips in the studio, and the four began producing together "...under a name we don't even want to mention, it was some horrible music! Hey, you have to start somewhere." Another chapter in the story began at a Bread & Butter fashion show in Cologne, where Patrick and Philipp's DJ set caught the interested ear of Patrik Dechent and DJ T from Frankfurt's Monza club. A likeminded spirit, DJ T took a liking to the pair straightaway ("T became our good friend very quickly, we loved each other from the very first second"), and invited them to be a resident a Monza, playing sets alongside fellow residents Tobi Neumann, Ricardo Villalobos, Tiefschwarz and Steve Bug every 6-8 weeks. In 2002, forming the Get Physical imprint seemed only a natural progression, as the five pieces of the puzzle fit together so perfectly: Philipp's record label and A&R experience, Arno & Walter's production talents and fully-equipped studio, Patrick's creative head and artwork, T's envious contacts book (being founder/editor of the highly influential German music magazine Groove in 1989) and wealth of knowledge. With all bases covered, the formula has proven to be nothing short of a beautiful success - 5 years on and the label's releases and artists are stronger than ever.

"On one CD, it's hard to capture everything you want to do within a certain amount of minutes. We try to always be - well, not to be minimal, of course not, because that's not us, but - we try to be subtle. We like to pick tracks that can exist for themselves, but which make a really nice flow for the whole mix. And you don't want to overdo it and only play the hits or too much melody...a mix should gently take you by the hand and say 'hey, this is our interpretation of the actual sound' - bit of the old stuff, bit of the new stuff. It shouldn't overload you but still it should make you move your butt." M.A.N.D.Y

Throughout the 25 tracks, M.A.N.D.Y. tenderly tells a story that swells between moments of poetic ache and voracious hunger. Spanned on by deep, ethereal techno, glitchy staccato and bass-heavy machine funk, the tracks sparkle alongside each other with brilliant elegance, breeding standout moments from Gui Boratto, Lucio Aquilina, Audion and the cream of the Get Physical crop. A thrilling portrayal of M.A.N.D.Y.'s sound, the effervescent mix moves in directions most unexpected, and grooves in ways previously unimagined.