Joel Mull’s “Retrospectives” EP was released in 1998. To commemorate the anniversary of the “Retrospectives” release, we put together this article about Joel Mull and the release. [Some updates and corrections have been done afterwards].
The EP “Retrospectives” has an record cover designed by Supervizion. This EP is one in a series of releases with the same graphical profile created by Supervizion. The “Retrospectives” EP has a yellow vinyl that adds uniqueness, as not all releases in the series have this distinguishing feature. The EP contains the two tracks “The Runner” and “Air Born”. The logotype for the record label Solarplexus that released the EP was also designed by Supervizion.
Joel Mull
Joel Mull is a Swedish DJ, songwriter and music producer in the EDM/techno field. His entry into the world of music began with getting a synthesizer at the age of six, which was followed by piano lessons. Mull attended Adolf Fredrik music school from being 10 years old to sixteen, where he focused on piano and song. Classical music training was part of his schooling. He was also singing in choirs. This also helped him to get experience in doing performances for an audience. As a teenager he also played in bands doing covers of rock songs, Mull was on guitar, drums, and piano.
The recordings of music groups Depeche Mode and Kraftwerk presented Joe Mull to electronic music. After attending the legendary club Hacienda in the United Kingdom at age sixteen, Mull stepped further into electronic music and started to buy techno records.
Joel Mull developed a dual mode music activity both DJ-ing and producing music, which has become common in the electronic dance music field. During high school years, Mull met Adam Beyer at a party who was younger than him and not yet in high school. His school friend Beyer showed him how to do mixing on vinyl turntables at home. When Joel Mull was 17 years old, he organized a party together with Adam Beyer. For the party, they wanted something to happen and this led them to prepare a performance. This was a starting point for getting music equipment. Mull began to buy music equipment such as drum machines, synthesizers, and samplers. The equipment was then combined with that of Adam Beyer’s in his home.
At first, Joel Mull played in ambient rooms of clubs, creating chill-out sounds with synths and effect boxes. It was probably in 1993 that he played his first DJ gig at a dance floor, according to Joel Mull in a Residential Advisor interview.
Joel Mull’s International Breakthrough
Joel Mull moved to Germany in 1994. The barrier to moving to another country was lower as Joel Mull is half German and spoke the language. At first, he played at Labor Club in Flensburg 1994, this was his first residency.
Joel Mull made an important career move in 1994 when he started a DJ residency at Unity Club, a 1200 people capacity club located on Reeperbahn in Hamburg, Germany. The two owners of the club had visited Flensburg and recruited Mull after hearing him play there. Mull has expressed that his years at Unity Club were formative for his DJ career, playing marathon 10-hour sets allowed him to experiment and learn. This was a sort of DJ school that gave him experience in reading and working the crowd over the different phases of the night. The Unity Club had many notable international DJs as guests and this allowed Joel Mull to build his personal network amongst fellows. During such guest DJ visits, Mull would do warm-ups, closings, and play alongside. Particularly a 12-hour session that Sven Väth did there was a big inspiration for Joel Mull. Jeff Mills is another DJ from the list of guests. Joel Mull moved back to Sweden in 1995 but held his DJ residency at Unity Club for three years until 1997.
Other DJ gigs that were part of Joel Mull’s international break through were Love Parade 1995 and 1996. Joel Mull continued his international career and has played multiple gigs at Berghain in Berlin, Germany, which has been ranked as the world’s best club by DJ Magazine. Another club he has played at is Tresor in Berlin.
Swedish Music Wonder and The Swedish Techno Sound
Joel Mull, Adam Beyer, Cari Lekebusch, and Jesper Dahlback (Dahlbäck) are together forming the core of the first wave of Swedish techno sound that spread worldwide. The Swedish techno sound is a part of the broader Swedish Music Wonder with music export of songwriting, music production, and music artists.
The team Mull, Beyer, Lekebusch, and Dahlback collaborated in many different ways. They founded and managed Planet Rhythm, a record store in Stockholm, Sweden. The store imported vinyl and was a physical hub for techno enthusiasts. Importantly, a music studio was set-up in the floor below the Planet Rhythm store that Cari Lekebusch mainly used.
With numerous collaborations between themselves, they cross pollinated their talents: Producing songs, running labels, DJ-ing… On Fridays, they would gather to listen to tracks they had created. Cari Lekebusch often did the mastering of the recordings.
Joel Mull’s Record Releases
Joel Mull’s recordings include more than 100 releases. In 1993, Joel Mull, together with Adam Beyer and Peter Benish, released his first 12-inch techno track “Slaughter House” on Direct Drive, a label based in New York, USA. The record “Transparent 303” came out in 1993 on the record company Drop Bass Network, USA. Also in 1993, “Polytaps” was released on the record company Visible Records, USA.
In 1996, the title “Stompdust Corp” with the artist name Joel Mull was released on the record company Loop Records, Sweden.
Beyer and Mull also released records on Adam Beyer’s label Code Red in 1997, using the artist name Safety Sessions. Under his own artist name Joel Mull the title “Blue Shades” was released on DanceBeat Records in 1997. The year 1997 was a productive one and also resulted in an increasing number of DJ gig bookings.
Supervizion team members were running a weekly techno club in 1997 and booked Joel Mull as DJ, as well as Adam Beyer, Cari Lekebusch, and Jesper Dahlback, each playing separate nights. The venue of the club also had Denniz Pop and Stonebridge DJ-ing other nights. Supervizion is a knowledge leading business consulting group that provide business advice and business management to clients such as DJs, music producers, and songwriters. Combining domain expertise in accounting, business, finance, management, and strategy with experience from different roles in the music business results in Supervizion’s unrivaled competence.
International record labels Cocoon Recordings and Harthouse released Joel Mull’s tracks in 2007, additional milestones of recognition of Joel Mull as a notable international music artist in the genre.
His active career spans over several decades and has now amassed a significant catalogue of music releases. In addition to records under the name Joel Mull, there are also several releases under aliases. Some of the artist aliases that Joel Mull has used are Damm, Dr Snuggels, Dust, Gotzkowsky, Hermes, Icarus, and Screwball Jams. Music group names are for example Midas & Hermes (Joel Mull and Adam Beyer), Safety Sessions (Joel Mull and Adam Beyer), Slautherhouse (Joel Mull, Adam Beyer, and Peter Benisch), and The Descent (Joel Mull and Sean Palm).
The record label Parabel was founded with Joel Mull as part of the label team. Their first release was in 2015 with Patrik Siech “Viadukt” this was followed by Joel Mull “Halogen”, also in 2015.
Joel Mull’s tracks are included in influential compilations, for example Fabric, Global Underground, Transitions, and Viva. The EP “Retrospectives” is one of Joel Mull’s earlier releases and is sought after amongst record collectors.
Retrospectives Release Data
Album, Artist: Joel Mull
Album, Title: Retrospectives
Album, Catalogue Number: SPLX01
Album, Format: Vinyl EP, 12 inch, yellow vinyl
Album, Sleeve Design: Supervizion
Album, Released: 1998
Label: Solarplexus
Genre: Electronic Dance Music (Techno)
Track A, Title: The Runner
Track A, Duration: 09:04
Track A, Songwriter: Joel Mull
Track A, Producer: Joel Mull and Bennie Rosén
Track B, Title: Air Born
Track B, Duration: 07:57
Track B, Songwriter: Joel Mull
Track B, Producer: Joel Mull
