FvF Mixtape #102 — Rumpistol - Friends of Friends / Freunde von Freunden (FvF)

FvF Mixtape #102 — Rumpistol

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It takes supreme skills to be able to take a glitchy, almost disharmonious texture and twist it into a form that is steeped in melody and lush atmospherics. Danish producer Jens B. Christiansen, AKA Rumpistol, has that knack in spades.

Jens started out making records under the moniker Rumpistol back in 2003, and since then he has released five albums and three EPs, remixed a plethora of great artists, played live all over the world, created game and TV scores, soundtracks, and much more. In short, he has been busy.

The ability to take disparate elements and combine into something that makes perfect aural sense is an approach that Rumpistol has applied to his FvF Mixtape. “I prefer mixes that cross genres because that’s what all the best music in the world has done, in my opinion,” he says. “I get really bored listening to DJs who play the same 20 new tracks from the Beatport chart in the same genre. I just don’t get it.”

Tracklist

    • 1 Joao Gilberto – Undiu (Rumpistol Edit)
    • 2 Kuedo – Reality Drift (Rumpistol Edit)
    • 3 Leviticus – The Burial (Phillip D Kick Edit)
    • 4 Junior Boys – Over IT (Ikonika Remix)
    • 5 Traxman – Buddha Muzik
    • 6 Moresounds – Dead And Bury (ft. Fracture)
    • 7 Stillhead feat. Zoe Ellying – Pounds Of Gold
    • 8 The Electric Prunes – Holy Are You
    • 9 Dawn Day Night – Higher Plains
    • 10 Beastie Boys – High Plains Drifter
    • 11 John Carpenter – The President Is Gone (Combo ReEdit)
    • 12 Rumpistol – Eyes Open Wide (feat. Ane Trolle)
    • 13 Om Unit – Wagonist Riddim
    • 14 Björk – All Is Full of Love (Funkstörung Remix)
    • 15 Bustos Domecq – DropOutJungle
    • 16 M.P. – You Don’t Know Me
    • 17 Sam Binga & Deft – Steppin feat. Redders
    • 18 Mark Pritchard – Manabadman (feat. Spikey Tee)
    • 19 Eddie Vedder – Society (Rumpistol Edit)
    • 20 Wayne Smith – Under Mi Sleng Teng
    • 21 Giorgio Moroder – (Theme From) Midnight Express
    • 22 DJ Madd – Dredlok
    • 23 N.R.G – I Need Your Lovin’
    • 24 Bwoy De Bhajan – Amazon Lily Hut
    • 25 Shye Ben Tzur, Jonny Greenwood And The Rajasthan Express – Junun

Not content with hopping musical styles, Jens also flits between eras in the mix, spanning time with a wonderful ease. “I’m also a bit of a music archaeologist and love digging out old gems and putting them in a new context or making edits of them. I love the challenge of placing Beastie Boys next to John Carpenter, or Eddie Vedder next to Wayne Smith even though they were written in different decades or from completely different genres. It has to feel natural of course.”

To decide to do a mix which sticks at the same bpm, yet encompasses such a wide range of ideas, is a challenge that most people would run a mile from. On this mix, Jens took the tough road, and started out with the goal of making the full mix run at 160bpm throughout. And he made it work, beautifully.

The video for ‘Eyes Wide Open’, directed by Ernesto Piga Carbone

  • Tell about where you came from and how you got into music.

    I grew up in a very musical environment in a suburb of Copenhagen surrounded by musicians of many kinds. I started playing guitar as a 6-year-old and began writing my own material a few years later. As a teenager I fiddled around with computers and sequencers and then discovered the rave scene some years later. Naturally that changed everything.

  • Tell us about your label, Rump Recordings. What kinds of artists do you support?

    Rump Recordings was founded in 2003 with an aim to release uncompromising electronic from Denmark. However we do not attempt to focus solely on one genre but are more interested in the un-categorizable fields that emerge when artists start to experiment and push the existing boundaries of music.

  • Tell us about your mix.

    The starting point was to make a full mix in 160 bpm, because that’s what I’ve been into as a DJ lately. Especially the more dubby footwork stuff and artists like Mark Pritchard and Moresounds. I also wanted to feature some tracks that aren’t normally associated with footwork or drum’n’bass, but just nice tracks I’ve enjoyed listening to lately.

  • What’s coming up next? What are you looking forward to in the future?

    I just released ”Eyes Open Wide” featuring Ane Trolle last month, which will also be included on the new EP coming out later this year. I also recently released an EP with my band Kalaha and I’m currently working on an album of fictive soundtracks.

Album Covers

“Mere Rum” (Rump Recordings) – 2005 • “Talk To You EP” (Rump Recordings) – 2011. • “Away RMXS” (Rump Recordings) – 2014. • “Eyes Open Wide” (Rump Recordings) – 2016.

Thank you, Jens, for the stellar mix. Check out more of Rumpistol on Soundcloud.

Go deep in our FvF mixtape archive to discover more great mixes.

Text: Jonny Tiernan
Photography: Tobias Wilner

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