Review
Genre and Mood
Solomun’s Friends is nine minutes of deep house in its most seductive form, with the drive of a peak-time house record and the depth of an electronic journey. It is hypnotic, groovy and quietly euphoric, the kind of track that never shouts but keeps a dancefloor leaning in for its entire length.
Song Summary
Friends is about the long game. Solomun builds it from a supple, swinging groove, a warm, rubbery bassline and moody chords that rise and fall in waves, adding and removing details so gradually that you only notice the change once it has already happened. The memorable detail is the swing in the drums, loose and human, which keeps the long running time from ever feeling static.
Musical Breakdown
Built for DJs, the track unfolds in long, patient sections rather than verses and choruses.
Intro
Kick, claps and shuffling hats set a lean, inviting pulse, perfect for mixing in from another record.
Build-up
The bassline slides in and percussion layers multiply, the groove growing denser bar by bar.
Main Section
Moody chords and melodic fragments arrive over the full groove, hypnotic and warm, cycling with small, satisfying variations.
Bridge
The kick drops out for a breakdown of chords and atmosphere, a brief moment of suspension before the return.
Climax
The beat comes back with the chords at full width, the track’s most euphoric stretch, carried by momentum rather than a big drop.
Outro
Layers are peeled away until the drums alone carry it out, a clean exit for the next track.
Concepts in Focus
The foundation is the house groove: a kick on every beat, claps on two and four, hats around them. Everything else in Friends happens on top of that unchanging grid, which is why small changes in the chords or percussion feel so significant.
What keeps the grid from feeling mechanical is swing. The shuffling hats are played unevenly, each pair of notes slightly long-short, so the rhythm lilts instead of ticking. Swing is a setting on most drum machines and sequencers precisely because a little of it makes programmed music feel played.
The shape of the track comes from the logic of the dj mix. A DJ blends one record into the next, so long, sparse openings and endings give room to mix; the nine-minute length is a tool, not indulgence. Compare another long German track that uses its length the same way, Marek Hemmann – Gemini.
Artistic Context
Solomun is Mladen Solomun, born in 1975 in Travnik in what was then Yugoslav Bosnia and Herzegovina and raised in Hamburg, where he ran the club Ego until 2014. In late 2005 he founded the label Diynamic with Adriano Trolio, and in December 2010 he launched 2DIY4 as a second, more experimental outlet; Friends came out on 2DIY4 in 2014. By then he was among the defining figures of melodic deep house, named Mixmag’s DJ of the Year in 2012 and a repeat winner at the DJ Awards in Ibiza, where his Solomun +1 residencies later ran at Pacha and Destino.
Impact and Reception
Friends is the kind of record that lives in DJ bags long after release, a track that shows how a simple groove, handled with taste and patience, can sustain nine minutes. It belongs here as a reminder that restraint can be the most powerful tool on a dancefloor. Give it time, ideally on a proper sound system, and it will give you a lot back.
