Bleep

Yours & Mine, the debut LP from Germany’s Steffi sent shockwaves through the scene upon its initial release in 2011. With a history of playful DJ sets leaning on techno, electro and other sounds during her residency at Berlin’s Panorama Bar, most were not ready for Steffi to drop a house record on Berghain’s Ostgut Ton of all labels. The record defines a sleek and modern update on the house music that hammered out of Chicago and Detroit in the 90s while maintaining its own personality.

Yours & Mine opens with the slow boiling ‘Lilo’. Building up from a simple shaker and kick drum into a full realised suite of classic house sounds, the canny bit of sequencing acts like a mini thesis for the rest of the record. ‘Yours’, one of two tracks to feature vocalist Virginia, goes especially retro with simple-but-sturdy synth chords and a chunky house beat shuffle that’s light on modulation, but severely in the pocket for all the dancers. While she dabbles in acid with ‘Manic Moods’ and ‘Nightspacer’, Yours & Mine is at its best with tracks that ride along simpler chord progressions like the emotional ‘Mine.’

More than ten years on, Yours & Mine is a definite classic of the genre as well as signpost for Ostgut’s continued move towards a more open-ended catalogue. In honour of its anniversary the DESTEFSTER label has a fresh vinyl reissue with updated artwork and a bonus dub rework of ‘Yours.’