Onur Özer: It's All Just House To Me

Ignoring the fact that Steve Reich, Robert Hood and of course Basic Channel have been experimenting with the concept of 'minimalism' in music for years now, there's a media obsession with the current techno scene that sees journalists wanking themselves stupid over any kind of stripped-back, refined electro, frothing at the mouth over even the most boring clicks. It's a bit unnerving when even the Guardian starts running articles about 'Minimal' and chatting knowledgeably about Magda, Hawtin and Villalobos.

Berlin-based label Vakant has been tarred with the minimal brush since its inception, and with Alex Smoke's dryly titled Shminimal and ring.click.ting EPs, pushing to the limit the musical possibilities of, er, rings, clicks and tings, it's not all that difficult to see why.

Kaşmir is a compelling argument against such accusations. Sure, the beats are stripped back, but Özer incorporates Arabic and African percussion, flutes, a glockenspiel, marimbas and more into his sound. "I don't believe genres such as Berlin minimal... For me it is only house in the end," he tells us.

There are also cinematic influences, soundscapes and a hefty dose of weirdness with track titles like Terpsichoerean Echoes. He downplays this widescreen approach, claiming that his mission statement has been simply "to put little bit of Turkish-style melodies on top of techno music." Considering that his Breezeblock mix took Angelo Badalamenti's Mullholland Drive theme, Shackleton's Blood on My Hands and Pink Floyd, as well as that non-existent Berlin Minimal, that seems a pretty modest summary.

The emperor's favourite cloth comes from Germany, and though Vakant throw their best parties in Berlin, Özer created Kaşmir in Istanbul, a cultural crossroads for thousands of years and a unique place to be making music. The title alone implies division, referencing the frontline of a collision between cultures and philosophies. "Making music in Istanbul is much more cool for me," he says, "because you are away from everything, and making music in a city which has millions of ways to get inspired. These inspirations are not so easy to get in Europe." Whilst it's easy to see the Arabic influences in Kaşmir, Önur maintains that he's keen to take in all influences and all forms of music. "It can be from [the] US, it can be from Germany, or it can be from Portugal, or wherever it came from."

The Twilight and Red Cabaret EPs used obscure sounds and key signatures, but they only hinted at Özer's psychedelic potential, whilst Kaşmir dives full length into the spectrum of musical influences drawn from both Arabic and European cultures. The album format (Vakant's first artist album) has allowed Özer to "start to put [in] more from me, more from my musical wisdom," and to indulge this fascination for unique sounds and musical cross-breeding. In comparison to the aforementioned EPs the tracks are more spaced out and explore a much greater depth of sound, even if this does allow for a couple of slightly dodgy Bossa Nova breaks.

But this isn't some bongos-and-congas 'world music' for middle class techno fans; it's still uncompromising dance music. "Whichever style I make, my main focus is always the dancefloor. In my opinion, if a track has a good groove, even if it is slow, fades out, or even [if] it is fast and rave, it is dancefloor for sure... my attempt was to not get away from the dancefloor."

Following the release of Kaşmir, Onur will be working on more EPs, bootlegs and one-sided rarities to be released on Vakant. For only their second CD release, Kaşmir is a bold choice for them, and Özer intends to concentrate on a more streamlined sound in his next works. It's a challenge for one artist to control and be so heavily invested in a label's creative direction, but if Kaşmir's anything to go by, the future's bright for this not-so minimal label.