Review
Genre and Mood
Sascha Braemer is a Berlin DJ and producer of long club tracks, and No Home, the title track of his first album, is something else: a short song with a voice. The German music site Music Evangelists heard the whole album as deeply relaxed electronic music stirred together from deep house, minimal and electro-pop, with the spirit of the 1980s peeking through again and again, and singled out this track as the best example. Melancholic and longing are the feelings of a song about having no home, sung over a dance pulse.
Song Summary
No Home was released on 22 May 2015 as the title track of a sixteen-track album on Braemer’s own label WhatIPlay, licensed to Kontor Records. Shazam credits the writing to Braemer with Dan Caster and Boris Köhler. On the album it runs three minutes and twenty-six seconds; Kontor’s official video runs longer. A five-track remix EP came out on 15 May, a week before the album, with versions including one by John Tejada.
Musical Breakdown
No review describes No Home section by section, so this page follows what its one detailed review heard. Music Evangelists called it one of the album’s few tracks with singing, and described tinkling synths and a gripping melody, as if Jan Hammer, Kavinsky and Kai Tracid had been thrown into one pot and stirred. Its one complaint was the length: the track is clearly too short, and the reviewer hoped for an extended version.
Concepts in Focus
The same review noted, with a shrug, that the main melody was recycled from Bronski Beat’s Bronski Beat – Small Town Boy. Reusing a melody in a new recording is interpolation: unlike a sample, the tune is played again rather than copied from the old record. The writers Shazam lists for No Home are Braemer, Caster and Köhler, so listen for the resemblance and judge it yourself; the songs share a theme, too, since Smalltown Boy is about a young man leaving home.
Under the voice runs a house groove, the steady kick that let this short song sit on house compilations that summer, among them Kontor: House of House, Volume 21, next to much longer tracks. The remix versions stretch it back out to club length.
Artistic Context
MusicBrainz lists Braemer, born Sascha Hirtenfellner, as a Berlin DJ and producer. Music Evangelists placed him somewhere between Oliver Koletzki, Niconé and Paul Kalkbrenner, and reported that he likes to call his music girls’ music.
Impact and Reception
Music Evangelists gave the album 7.7 out of 10 and called the title track a splendid little song. Play it, then the John Tejada remix, and hear how short a song can be and still carry a whole album’s name.
