German International Deejay Duo Schlachthofbronx, Set to Rock Nairobi

“This is our first time in Nairobi but not Africa. We have heard a lot about the club scene here and are excited to perform tonight,” reckons Jakob. Nairobi is their last stop on their sub Saharan tour, having just come from playing live in Kampala, Kigali, Yaoundé and Jo’burg.

The duo is set to perform tonight at Tree House Club Nairobi as part of the German Week. The club event is being organized by the Goethe-Institut Kenya.

Schlachthofbronx is a DJ duo from Munich/Germany who produces and plays innovative multi genre club music. Besides being known as on point performers on club and festival stages, the guys also built their reputation with production and studio work with and for artists like Snoop Dogg, M.I.A., Major Lazer, Buraka Som Sistema, Bonde Do Role, and others. In the club they deliver a fast paced, eclectic mix of styles and genres, reflecting their various influences reaching from Dancehall/Reggae and Hip Hop over Booty Bass to Techno, Cumbia and UK Bass – amongst others.

Just a Band who were present in the press conference held at Myks Lounge on the fourth floor of Chester House in Nairobi showed excitement in tonight’s event and a probability of working with the German duo.

Schlachthofbronx, made up of Jakob (32) and Benedikt (34), are known for a very particular sound that is not only influenced by traditional Bavarian music, but also by rave, dancehall, dubstep, baile funk, bounce, and cumbia.

“We play club music with all the dance tempos and genres,” notes Benedikt, “and everything in between.”

The duo who hail from Munich tell us that they were not really best of friends and having grown up together, they never liked each other. “We met in 2007-2008 thereabouts and both of us were deejaying,” Benedict tells us enthusiastically, before Jakob interjects, “we met through a graffiti crew. Munich is a small city for people with the same interests and yes, we decided to get along together after that.”

When asked about their name, Jakob joked that they were never meant to explain it, but then he let us into the name, “people refer to Munich as Schlachthof and as kids growing up, people would refer it to Bronx. That is how the name came about and it sticked.”

When asked about what they enjoyed and hated about what they did in a past interview with South Africa’s Channel24, they said: “The best thing about what we do is we get to meet so many different people and get to travel to so many exciting places. That is really rewarding and always mind-opening. The hardest thing is difficult to say, as we know our ‘job’ is a pretty nice one as we are able to do what we love and make a living out of it. Maybe the actual travelling, like sitting in an overbooked early morning plane after you just got from a club playing, heading out to the next thing without sleep or food, sometimes can get a little demanding, but it’s part of the whole greater thing so we will never complain.”

Their new ten-track release titled Rave And Romance directly represents the diversity of their unique sound between rump shaking slow jams and bass-heavy rave tunes. Fellow ravers and romantics Nicky Da B, Warrior Queen, Bonde Do Role and candelilla got recruited for the release and added the shouts as well as the dirty talk. These guys play clubs, festivals, museums, tents, boats, floats, busses, strip joints and beer tents - it doesn’t matter where,Schlachthofbronx always starts a party. With their Rave And Romance formula - and their bag of custom made tracks and exclusives - Schlachthofbronx will continue to put happy and sweaty smiles upon peoples’ faces. Supporting acts from Nairobi will be DJ Tendwa, Alai K and Just A Band.

About their thought on Kampala, where they were straight from performing, the duo said, “Kampala was great. It was a ware house family party with local artists and djs. The club scene and energy there was amazing. We loved it.”

For the duo, there is no rest. A 12 hour flight after Nairobi and they are back to deejaying in Europe even as the festival season kicks in back there.

As we happily get our selfies with the duo, Jakob is fast to tell us where to find their album even as he writes the link on our notebook, “The tour has been great so far. It’s an amazing journey. We can’t wait to see what Nairobi has for us tonight. You can get our album as a free download via our website. No strings attached. Just because we love you,”

Listen to Schlachthofbronx - UP