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FEATHERED SUN

Saubohnen

The eight-minute title track of the Berlin collective Feathered Sun's 2015 Saubohnen EP on Circus Company: six friends, among them Acid Pauli, Raz Ohara and Nu, whose label heard playful vocal intonations and live instruments over laid-back grooves.

By korczis 3 min read
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Review

Genre and Mood

Feathered Sun’s Saubohnen is house music made by a band rather than by one producer at a laptop. Its mood, as its label tells it, is relaxed, carefree and playful: the soundtrack to a perfect idle summer’s day spent amongst friends, with just enough bite to keep the vibe lively.

Song Summary

Saubohnen, German for broad beans, is the title track and the A-side of a three-track EP that Circus Company, the Paris label, released in July 2015; Hmm Hm Hmm and Help fill the B-side. At just over eight minutes it has a whole side of the twelve-inch to itself. The label describes the EP as a whole: playful vocal intonations meeting live instrumentation over laid-back grooves, made without a need for hype or drama.

Musical Breakdown

No review describes Saubohnen on its own; the label’s text covers all three tracks. So this breakdown names only what that text suggests to listen for.

Main Section

Listen for many hands at work. Circus Company writes of an organic band dynamic that can only be wrought by many hands working in unison, and of a sound born from friends jamming wherever the mood is right rather than in rigid studio sessions. Over eight minutes, notice which parts sound played and which sound looped.

Outro

How the track ends is not described in any source. With a whole side to fill, notice whether it winds down like a jam or simply stops.

Concepts in Focus

Everything here rests on the groove, the felt way the rhythm parts lock together. The label calls it laid back yet with bite: slow enough to lounge to, steady enough to tap your toes. A jammed groove can breathe and shift in a way a quantised loop rarely does.

The EP’s story is also about club culture. The label opens with the season when the electronic music community leaves its darkened rooms and heads back to nature, and ends by setting the collective’s down-to-earth sound against the mass identity of the dancefloor. Outdoor daytime parties are part of that culture as much as clubs at night.

Artistic Context

Circus Company names the six members of the Berlin-based collective as NU, jO.K.e, Raz Ohara, Chris Schwarzwaelder, Iannis Ritter and Acid Pauli, friends who each release music elsewhere. Acid Pauli is the alias of Martin Gretschmann, of Console and formerly The Notwist; Nu and Schwarzwälder made Nu – Dance in My Pants together. Saubohnen was their second release, after a first one on Platon Records.

Impact and Reception

No review of the track or the EP from a music publication was found, and no chart place is reported. Discogs users have rated the record highly. Jo.Ke uploaded the track to his own channel in 2024, nine years after release. Give it the full eight minutes, ideally outdoors.

Learn from this track

Introductory

What you will learn

  • Explain how a collective of producers who also play instruments can make a house track that sounds like a band jamming.
  • Describe what a laid-back groove is and how it differs from a peak-time club track.
  • Read a label's description critically: tell what it says about one track and what it says about a whole EP.

Listening guide

  1. the groove Circus Company describes laid-back grooves made without a need for hype or drama, yet with enough bite to keep toes tapping: listen for both at once.
  2. the voices The label hears playful vocal intonations across the EP; listen for voice used as sound and texture rather than as a sung lyric.
  3. the instruments The label speaks of live instrumentation and an organic band dynamic that can only come from many hands working in unison: try to hear the players rather than a programmed loop.
  4. the length Eight minutes, alone on the A-side of the twelve-inch, which plays at 45 RPM: a track given room to unfold.

Concepts in this track

club culture

34 tracks

The world of nightclubs, DJs, dancers and their rituals in which house, techno and much dance music were made and are judged.

groove

63 tracks

The felt quality of a rhythm that makes people move: how drums, bass and the other parts lock together and push against each other in time.

Listen next, and why

Questions for discussion

  1. The label says the electronic music community leaves its darkened rooms in summer and heads back to nature. How would a track made for that setting differ from one made for a club at night?
  2. Six producers with their own careers form one collective. What would you expect each to give up, and what to gain?
  3. Why might a band that jams together be slow to release records, and what does that do to the music when it does?

References

  1. Circus Company. Feathered Sun - Saubohnen (2015). Label
  2. Discogs. Feathered Sun - Saubohnen EP. Database
  3. MusicBrainz. Saubohnen (recording). Database
  4. YouTube (Circus Company). Feathered Sun - Saubohnen (2015). Label
  5. Wikipedia. Console (Band). Encyclopedia

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