Memory In Sound: Hunting for “Wassermacher” | 2B vs. Flinsch | Phelt Phinds 082

A question attached to the dance music community like a mollusc.

The people typing those seven letters into IG comments, Reddit threads, and Facebook identification pages really mean them. More often than not, they’re chasing a memory – trying to teleport back to a specific dancefloor where euphoria ran wild.

There’s also something addictively feverish about the search for a song. That hunter-gatherer mentality. Pouring over internet conversations, hitting play on white labels buried in YouTube, flicking through archived Shazams in the hope of finding that specific gold nugget.

My latest one is “Wassermacher” by 2B vs. Flinsch. A track that first graced my ears at Waking Life, courtesy of Jane Fitz. It arrived as one of the last songs in her set, which ended at first light on the final day of the festival. Unsurprisingly, Jane chose the perfect song for the moment, a crescendo to defeat all crescendos. I physically remember swaying with my hands on my head, transfixed by it. Picture the mind-blown emoji. Shout-out to my Belgian pals Boolee & Maxim, who were in a similar frame of mind at the time.

What makes “Wassermacher” so special is how congruent it feels. By that I mean it’s binding; it sounds like a call to arms, the ringing of a town bell telling everyone to gather in the square and prepare for battle.

Leaping off with electrified drum machines and whistling winds, it isn’t long before the track’s centrepiece comes to play. Lo and behold, a bell-tone scale that is just so, so beautiful.