Meute (German for “pack”, “rout” or “crowd”) is an eleven-piece self-described techno marching band from Germany. The band arranges techno, house and deep house works by well-known DJ’s, augmenting them with electronic beats created by marching band instruments. In doing so, they seek to “[create] a new genre by combining hypnotic driving techno and expressive brass band music”, thereby “detaching electronic music from the DJ desk.” Meute was founded by trumpeter Thomas Burhorn in Hamburg in 2015. The band had their breakthrough in early 2016 when their video for the song “Rej” by Berlin DJ duo Ame became a viral hit on social media. Within a week, their interpretation of the deep house song received more than 400,000 views on YouTube.
After the release of their debut album, Tumult, in mid-2017, Meute toured music clubs in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France and Luxembourg. In total, the band gave more than 150 concerts in their first two years of existence. In 2018, Meute participated in the showcase festivals ESNS and SXSW, ending the year as one of the most booked festival bands in Europe.
In addition to formal gigs, Meute has given unannounced concerts in several cities. In June 2018, one such performance in Berlin gained widespread attention when a video of the band performing its song “You & Me (Flume Remix)” went viral. As of July 2021, the video has had over 55 million views on YouTube, making it the band’s most widely viewed to date. Meute’s unannounced October 2018 appearance in Rome drew attention to their single “Hey Hey (Dennis Ferrer Remix)” in a similar fashion.
Meute’s arrangements have earned recognition from their original artists. In 2017, Meute and Laurent Garnier, whose song “The Man with the Red Face” the band had prominently covered, made a joint stage appearance at the 2017 Festival Yeah! in France. In 2018, Meute and Stephan Bodzin took the stage at the Festival Reperkusound in Lyon.
In early 2019, as part of their “Europe 2019” tour, the band toured forty cities across fourteen countries. Later that same year, the band played concerts in South Africa and Eswatini with the help of the Goethe-Institut. Meute undertook their first North American tour in October 2019, with 14 performances in the United States and Canada. In October 2019, Meute released their first live album, Meute Live In Paris, which they recorded in March 2019 at Le Trianon in Paris. The collection consists of 14 previously released songs as singles or on album, as well as three previously unreleased tracks. Additionally, Meute supports projects by Musicians without Borders with the help of Musik Bewegt, a German philanthropic organisation seeking to use music to make a difference in education, integration, health, and youth.
