Helena Hauff – Have You Been There, Have You Seen It EP
On Have You Been There, Have You Seen It, Helena Hauff proves she knows how to craft techno for both the mind and body
As a DJ, Helena Hauff is more than used to creating muscular, enveloping sets, but it’s also an ethos that she brings to her records. Much like her debut album, Discreet Desires, her new EP Have You Been There, Have You Seen It takes the blistering energy of her live DJ sets and filters it into an analogue-only production.
Improvised in her studio in Hamburg, each track is built on a foundation of pulsating beats and swirling, hypnotic electronics, the tone set by sprawling opener Nothing Is What I Know. Hissing percussive elements rub up against reverberating sub-basses and undulating melodies. It’s undoubtedly music made for the dancefloor, but there’s enough texture here to make sure that it goes beyond the club walls. From ghostly, haunting vocals embedded within the mix and the little changes in tone and pace to fidgety, glitchy flourishes, there are details that are just begging to be heard more than once.
Gift sums up the EP in a microcosm. It’s an arpeggiated yet melodic odyssey that gets the balance between airy spaces and hardcore elements just right – even though it does peter out and cut off anticlimactically. Despite this, Hauff proves that she knows how to craft techno for both the mind and body on Have You Been There... with enough energy and intrigue to satisfy both.
Listen to: Gift