Ordentlicher Drive – Proper Pull – frohfroh – electronic music from leipzig

Parties in shared apartments and in the open air, plus a podcast that's well worth listening to – and now a label too. Proper Pull is definitely one of the most exciting Leipzig crews at the moment. The first compilation has just come out.

Thousands of new tracks are released every day. Keeping track of this is a completely ridiculous undertaking. The many curated and privately created playlists from streaming providers don't help either. Personal tips are even more in demand. In the indie and pop sector, for example, there is the newsletter “One song is enough”, which is run by the Leipzig music agency Golden Ticket. If you are looking for tips for electronic music, you may have already stumbled across the “Proper Charts Podcast” on Soundcloud with the iconic master Proper-inspired artwork.

Since 2022, selected DJs and artists from Leipzig and the wider scenes have been presenting their current top 5 tracks here once a week. Sometimes there are short introductions, sometimes just the music. A very good format because it remains compact in length and is musically very broad. The podcast has now reached over 100 episodes. There has also recently been a Proper Pull live show on Sphere Radio.

The Proper Pull crew came up with the idea behind it during the second major Corona lockdown, which was at the end of 2021. Previously, a loosely organized group had organized parties in shared apartments or at open airs. When that was no longer possible due to the pandemic, the crew launched the podcast. The first official Proper Pull party followed in Halle in May 2022.

A look at the crew's Soundcloud profile reveals: This is a well-rounded crew with very different personalities and genres. Included are, among others, Ch4r2otte, the GlutenfreeGirlz and Peter Sniffin.

In the summer of 2023, the crew decided to take the next step: founding a label. Good idea, after all many of the musicians and DJs as well as their artist friends also produce tracks themselves. The first compilation, “Close Coordinates”, was released in mid-October – a very versatile and extremely successful showcase of work, far away from the techno and house paths that are otherwise so present in Leipzig.

A lot has happened here in recent years. The Leipzig sound has opened up, becoming more broken and permeable. The compilation shows this very well with its range of electro, ambient, jungle, ghetto funk and many other sub-sub-genres. Overall, the compilation still sounds very cohesive, very fresh, very young – even if nothing is completely reinvented here, but rather a different niche of 90s rediscovery.

And the highlights? Well, this is of course very subjective. For me, Varum's deep, hectic, rattling “Northern Lights”, the poppy, lascivious “Nightly Hopes” by GlutenfreeGirlz x Peter Sniffin and NB🧚MC's “Longing” particularly stand out.

Proper Pull Links: Instagram / Bandcamp / Soundcloud