Some Germans making 2010s-does-1990s R&B…

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Katherine St Asaph: How did the music-blog-reading sliver of the world become enamored by a couple of Germans making sun-dappled mid-’90s R&B? Thank the Internet. Before 2017 both artists, and producer Plusma, had minimal German-language coverage — the one interview I found, in Der Spiegel, was mostly about their viral hit. (I mention this only because some words-on-autopilot blogs are inevitably going to cite this as part of some “revival of Germany’s R&B scene.” Ace Tee already distanced herself from said scene; this is more a couple SoundCloud newcomers who got lucky with PR and happen to be from Hamburg.) Also thank The Internet, whose Syd has suffused her and others’s music with gossamer nostalgia. Now, I love gossamer. But what too much of this forgets is that TLC and Blaque and Mya and everyone else who’s a touchpoint here had less atmosphere and more hooks.
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Thomas Inskeep: Gorgeously woozy take on ’90s ’round-the-way-girl R&B, but not entirely straightahead: the production’s a little glitchy, which gets me every time. The elements are from things you know, but the way they’re put together is new and completely superb. 
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Leonel Manzanares de la Rosa: Maybe it’s the German language, but there’s a certain darkness to Ace Tee’s silky vocal that sells this 90’s-indebted R&B beat. I’ve read people comparing this to Aaliyah, but the emphasis on texture is more of a Velvet Rope thing. And that snare is pure CrazySexyCool.
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Crystal Leww: Every few months, I go on a Missy Elliott spurt and go through much of her videography on YouTube. “Bist Du Down?” reminds me so much of early Missy Elliott, particularly “The Rain,” from the speed of the track to the overall vibe. Ace Tee mostly stays smooth but lapses into a few moments of rap for effect, and the contrast from Kwam.e suits the vibey, spacey track as well. This is late-’90s music that sounds like the future somehow, except also German.
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Mark Sinker: Beat and arrangement like a cracked lens: image of a feel and a mood currently lost to the world, intimate and oblique and throwaway.
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Micha Cavaseno: Listen, I was that guy. I owned multiple Brand Nubian cassettes. I know the exact year DJ Premier abandoned an SP-1200 for an MPC. I watched a dude get his face swollen shut in a fistfight at a Boot Camp Clik set (opening for Raekwon and Mobb Deep). I rebuked Kanye for MF Doom in high-school. I know the vibe that Ace Tee’s trying to provide all too well, and I definitely busted out laughing at Kwam.e’s Nine impersonation. Part of me is forgiving because look, I get that the whole “real hip-hop era” feel of the ’90s is refreshing for people who don’t like modernity in the moment. Then another part of me knows this Dilla-by-numbers type beat is actually more ’00s. It’s light and breezy all the same, and it lacks the arrogant true-schoolisms of the Pro-Era camp because these kids prefer getting together and enjoying each other over proving how “real” their hip-hop is. In that regard, they sure get it a lot more right than most people trying to live that life.
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Claire Biddles: When I was 12 I used to tape the Radio 1 R&B chart off the radio every week and listen to it over and over and over until my perfect timing and syncing was ruined by the cassette physically wearing out. I had to buy a replacement jewel case for my copy of Fanmail because I broke it taking the lyrics booklet out every time I listened to it. This was the summer before I became self-conscious and started listening to boys playing guitars and got rid of all that. I can’t wait to listen to “Bist Du Down?” in the summer. This summer.
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Will Rivitz: A rare example of an R&B song which would sound better without its vocals. That’s not to knock Ace Tee, who sounds fine, but the slick, fluttering instrumental is so sublime that there’s hardly a singer in the world who could improve it. It’s a perfect amalgamation of West Coast bounce, Stones Throw flourishes, and ’90s girl-group softness, bent around the edges by serviceable singing and mediocre rap. Can’t have it all, I suppose.
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