Helena Hauff is drawn to a very specific set of sounds. The Hamburg-based DJ and producer is obsessed with the subaquatic experimentations of James Stinson and Drexciya, and she is equally enthralled by Kurt Cobain’s misanthropic grit. “I’m looking for the perfect sound,” Hauff said in an interview last summer: something “grainy and rough and a bit fucked up. But the sound isn’t my first priority; my first priority is the energy of a track.” Hauff’s energy in her acclaimed DJ sets knows no bounds, and it has resonated. In the past two years, her profile has risen considerably, particularly considering her origins with the Golden Pudel, the deeply underground, decidedly bohemian Hamburg club where she cut her teeth: She earned a coveted residency on BBC Radio 1 and delivered a knockout Essential Mix for the same platform earlier this year, not to mention her blistering closing set at this year’s Dekmantel festival and a proper reissue of her 2015 scorched-beat cassette A Tape.
Hauff’s productions overlap with her artistry in the DJ booth, but Helena Hauff the DJ and Helena Hauff the producer are distinct in intent and execution. While Hauff’s DJ persona lights up clubs with wall-shaking, laser-like beats, breakneck tempos, and gnarly acid lines, as a producer she is a noisy lo-fi expressionist. On her latest EP, Have You Been There, Have You Seen It, Hauff captures the ironclad force she delivers in her DJ sets while further carving out her own space in the electro landscape, shedding the Detroit techno influence of her debut album, Discreet Desires, and offering four arresting and varied tracks in her dark and unforgiving style.
The opening “Nothing Is What I Know” is a booming, spine-tingling 808 workout, suffused in whispers, that slowly unfolds over seven and a half minutes. Her meandering synth melody feels improvised but fully cooked as both the voice and drums drift in and out of focus. “Do You Really Think Like That?” is far more direct and gritty, grooving through controlled chaos with a clenched-fist bassline. Today, hardware-based techno producers are a dime a dozen, but Hauff’s rugged beats and stylish non-conformity give her a unique voice. Using vintage gear within the rhythmic template of 1990s electro-techno, Hauff admits, “I don’t think I bring anything new to the music. Nothing whatsoever actually...But I don’t see that as a problem.” Rather than being explicitly nostalgic, Hauff uses her self-imposed analog limitations as a mechanism to push herself in the studio, shaping noise and distortion into expressive energy.
“Continuez Mon Enfant Vous Serez Traité en Conséquence” is a bristly and vicious slice of low-slung techno. Here, Hauff’s TR-808 is in overdrive, the distinctive drums sizzling with a fluttery crunch, and the acid bass rumbles with distortion. The slow-mo groove only emphasizes the lo-fi wreckage within. “Continuez” is an excellent example of Hauff pushing her machines to their breaking point, their overloaded circuits screaming under the strain. The closing “Gift” is the highlight of the EP. It’s one of Hauff’s cleanest tracks, where lean, snaking arpeggios provide a delicate counterpoint to the steely, chugging beat. It’s a strong turn for Hauff towards a more refined and straightforward sound that still makes no compromises—and still leaves listeners devastated in its wake.
