TuneLab
Ralf Kollman in The Lab Johannesburg
Ralf Kollman's Johannesburg Lab outing is a deep house connoisseur's dream, a marathon of dusty grooves, unexpected classics, and basslines that feel like they've been aging in oak barrels. This is for us, the ones who arrive early and leave late, chasing that specific feeling when a DJ plays a track you forgot you loved. The room is likely dark and smoky in a metaphorical sense, with a sound system that prioritizes warmth over sheer volume, perfect for getting lost in the details.
The genre here is deep, soulful house with eclectic touches, maintaining a steady 124 BPM on average but with a wide dynamic range, and it's harmonically anchored by the rich, familiar territory of 12A. The energy is overwhelmingly focused on the low-end (78.5%), creating a deep, pulsating foundation that's both meditative and irresistibly funky; Kollman's style is patient, layering tracks to build a dense, atmospheric soundscape. The crate digging is exceptional.
He opens with the atmospheric tension of Albion's 'Kompression', then drops the timeless, raw piano house of Mike Dunn's 'Rise' like a secret handshake. The inclusion of Daft Punk's 'Veridis Quo' is a stroke of genius, a left-field ambient-disco moment that completely reshapes the room's energy, while the OSKIDO remix of 'Tsa Ma Ndebele' is a vibrant, local anthem that connects the global to the hyper-local. The journey is a masterful narrative: it begins with deep, probing textures, hits a peak of nostalgic bliss with the Daft Punk curveball, and winds down with the smooth, jazzy resolution of DjVakay's 'Detente'.