Guide: Lehult

Mixmag's Guide series invites our favourite new producers and labels to create a mix of their own productions. This month it's the turn of Hamburg label and party Lehult

Hamburg's nightlife took a huge hit earlier this year when the Golden Pudel, arguably the city's most treasured club, caught fire after news surfaced that it'd close in April. Still not officially closed, though not open for business and pending an auction, it's not exaggerative to say there's a massive clubbing hole in Germany's second largest city.

That's not to say partying has been banished altogether, though. Around two miles north of the Pudel is the intimate PAL, the home of record label Lehult's parties. Shanti Celeste, Jeremy Underground, Boo Williams and Galcher Lustwerk have all been guests, all artists known for playing the type of flavoursome, feel-good house music Lehult releases.

A five-man project (it's run by Lucky Charmz, DJ Assam, Eddie Ness, Liem and Johan Kaseta) launched in 2014, Lehult's been a family-only affair so far with only those behind it releasing records. Lucky Charmz kicked it off with pleasurable and cosmic four-tracker 'Follow Me To Flottbek Falls', with other highlights including Liem's funky jam 'If Only' and the recent '8040' EP from DJ Assam. Sweet and sultry house music (notably the title track and 'With A 'Sound' In My Heart'), anyone into fellow Hamburg label and deep house devotees Smallville should probably add it to their library.

More work from the label co-heads is set to arrive before the year is out, but outsiders will be welcomed into the fold, too. The squad might be changing but one thing will remain the same: the joyous vibes will keep on rolling.

Check out an Eddie Ness mix of tracks released and forthcoming on Lehult and a Q&A with Lucky Charmz and DJ Assam below.

Tell us about the guys that run the label.

Lucky Charmz: It's Liem, Eddie Ness, Johan Kaseta and us two [Lucky Charmz and DJ Assam]. We're all from Hamburg and most of us still have Hamburg as the home base although I'm kind of moving back and forth.

Does each member have a certain role at the label?

DJ Assam: It kind of distributes itself. When there's something to do, the person who has time will do it. It's still a low-level operation really so there's not anyone who does it as his main job.

LC: It's a project we do for fun and something we just want to help each other have a platform and some nice parties so we can get together with our friends and play good music. Centrally, that's what it's about. The distribution of the work is a factor that just gets done somehow.

The releases so far have only been from you guys. Have you got plans to release music by producers outside of the label in the future?

LC: We started out as a group of friends and so far it's been about introducing us a little bit. We're incredibly blessed at how well this has been working so far, getting all these great responses and basically just being able to keep producing more records. As we've progressed we've started receiving demos from people. At first, we decided that we wanted to keep the label for us but the stuff we were receiving was getting better and better and, quite recently, Eddie [Ness] got a remix that we were all quite amazed by.

It was a really weird and different, mash it up approach and that guy sent us more demos that we were super impressed by. One of the upcoming releases we will do will be by this guy - he's from Chicago. We've been talking to him quite a bit. He's actually coming to visit us in Germany so we can get to know him. For us, this is still a friendship-based operation but I think now that we've all had the chance to have an EP or two, we feel like we can go a little bit further if the vibe is good.

Assam: For the 10th release we're probably going to do a compilation which will also feature a couple of the people we've met through doing this, people we've played with and people we've got to know.

What's coming up release-wise for the rest of the year?

LC: A collaborative EP from Eddie Ness and Liem which is really exciting and out in August. I love it so much. It's more tech-y and maybe different for the people who know Liem for his 'If Only' track. Then a solo EP from Johan Kaseta that'll come out around September or October. The ninth EP will probably be with this guy from Chicago.

What effect has the closure of the Golden Pudel had on Hamburg's nightlife?

LC: It's probably the worst thing that's happened to Hamburg in the last five years. It never materialised that we did a night there which is a big shame and something I really regret. We should have pushed it a little bit harder. Hamburg is a city that lives on a balance. It's a place that works because you have the contrast of very posh areas but also some very left-wing alternative areas. The Pudel was one of the last balancing points that gave contra to this flashier nightlife that's coming into Hamburg and isn't fun for anyone into music. The Pudel was a place you could go every day of the week and there would be something on which is crazy.

Assam: In Hamburg there's a scale of negative stuff going on with money flowing into the wrong cultural areas. There's a new building for a philharmonic place that cost millions and millions. Pudel made it bearable to live in the city. It's overflooded with these awful commercial things. Now it's gone, there's a big hole.

Do you guys feel you have a responsibility to fly the flag with your own parties at PAL?

Assam: It would be nice if people see it that way. We just wanted to get out there and do nice parties for our friends. If people feel that way then that's perfect.

LC: Hamburg definitely has the potential. Pudel has been a place where these things can be showcased, especially on the weirder spectrum. Maybe we have a little less ideology than the Pudel. We just want to do parties for our friends to come together and have a good time. It's not really to go against things that are going wrong in the city. There's kind of a bit of political activism connected to Pudel which we wouldn't really have at our parties.

What's so special about PAL?

LC: It's a very clean club in terms of design. Its programming usually goes towards the techno end of the spectrum. We're one of the few house nights there. It's been working out really great so far. The system's really good and it's a place where there's only really a dancefloor and you can't do much else but dance. It always stands and falls with the music. If there's bad music people will leave, if there's good music it works out!

Assam: The guys that do it definitely filled a hole in Hamburg. There wasn't really a place that showcased this kind of house and techno music for a few years. It was all in a bit of transitional phase.

LC: Hamburg's always going up and down a little bit. We've all DJ'd and been involved in different scenes. I wouldn't say we're veterans but we started going out when we were 13, 14 and 15. So it's been like a coming and going of clubs. PAL is a place that offers a space where they have aspirations musically. It's not a place where they go for stupid, blind programming just to get cash, they actually care about having good music played there. For us to do a few house-orientated nights there is a pleasure. We're standing next to Smallville and the guys from Session Victim. For us guys being new to this thing and a young label, it's been an amazing thing.

What do you look to achieve?

LC: I think it can really go hand-in-hand just to make people have a good time through music. We take quite a bit of pride to put in a good warm-up at our parties. A lot of parties start full-on nowadays and they don't really seem to care. We always try to have a good warm-up, a solid main set from a guest then a finishing set that keeps people there for as long as we can. Our aim is to really bring people together and give them a space where they can have a good time.

How important is it for you to combine high-profile names like Prosumer and Boo Williams with local guys like yourselves at your parties?

LC: For us, we're in a financial position where we can get these guys to play with us. Most of them are people who have inspired us, from whom we've learned a lot about music and DJing and all these things. It's just an amazing opportunity to be able to play a warm-up for or close after one of these guys we admire. We try to go through a mix of the bigger acts, while slipping in people who are up-and-coming as well. We've had Galcher Lustwerk and Shanti Celeste in the past. We do smaller parties where we look to book local DJs and friends. Being able to curate a party is a great opportunity to push people you like and show them to the people who go out here. Many people didn't know who Shanti was before they came to our party and after they were like 'who's this girl? She's playing amazing'. That was just really nice to hear that.

Do you have plans to throw parties outside of Germany?

LC: That will be the next step. A few of us are playing abroad every once in a while. Liem has taken off quite a bit, He's over in France every other weekend. He's playing in the UK too. DJ Assam has played Lisbon recently. Our Hamburg night at PAL will be our flagship event but we'll sneak in a few other parties in the city. We've just spread out to Berlin where we've done two parties so far. It's more of a techno-leaning club but they seem to like our house vibes because we've been invited back. The next one is end of June.

Finally, tell us a bit about the mix and the tracks you've included.

LC: We decided to narrow it down to tracks that are going to come out on Lehult from now until the beginning of next year really. As you can hear, it goes from two different places. It starts with a hip hop beat and then it goes into groovy house, vocals, then into deeper territories before fading out with some slower jams. We really wanted to showcase this whole spectrum we put out on the label. I do think we have a sound but I don't think it's narrowed down to any genres. It's got tracks from the third, fourth and fifth EPs and two tracks from my new one. There's one or two from Liem and Eddie's EP, one from Johan and a curveball from DJ Slyngshot from the 10th release. Also another track from me which is a contender for the Lehult sub record we'll do. It's what's hot for us now and an overview of what we've been doing.

Assam: People who are going to listen to it probably haven't heard of us before so we thought it'd be nice to give an all-round view of past, present and future.

The 'U Still Coming Over' EP by Lucky Charmz is out now

Dave Turner is Mixmag's Digital News Editor, follow him on Twitter