Oh my God, it’s fashion week again

Take a deep breath and prepare for a long and alcoholic week. Click the flyers, register and get free drinks til you drop. And goodie bags. Here is my list of selected Berlin fashionweek parties.

The first one is the classic one, be early, it will be packed.

DANDY DIARY – POOL PARTY, monday, July 1st, 10 pm, Köpenicker Str. 76
DandyDiary-fasionweek-summer13-openingparty

BRead&Butter Opening party, monday, July 1st, 6 pm, Tempelhof Flughafen, only with trade fair pass.
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Also check the other shows on site. They are quite good.

G Sessions at Voo Store, Tuesday, July 2nd, 9:30 pm Oranienstraße 24
G-SESSIONS

Patrick Mohr Human party with DJ Hell , Wednesday, July 3rd, 10 pm, Prince Charles, Prinzenstraße 85f
Patrick Mohr Show

Vice Elements, Thursday, July 4th, 11 pm, Prince Charles
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with ao Renaissance Man, check this Renaissance Man mixtape, it’s strange, it’s good.

Stylewalker’s Sunny Summer Mix

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I used to play a lot of fluffy house music back in the days. And I still have a heart for warm, groovy and sunny 4-to-the-floor tunes. So here are 60 minutes of easy get away which would fit well on a rooftop in Barcelona, a bar in Thessaloniki or a ship in the Adria.

It would also fit well for a sunny weekend to listen during the daytime. Make a coffee, open the windows, get a book and relax in the sun. Which is what I am going to do right now.

Includes music by Sirius Mo, Oliver$, Bonobo, Cosmin TRG, Mathias Kaden, Martyn, Cut Copy, Sbtrkt, Rooflight, Martin Buttrich, Justin Martin, Veitengruber ao.

Underachievers

New favorite hip hop crew: the Underachievers. They are young but their sound is somewhat timeless. A little Golden Era, a little conscious school, some reduced modern effects. Very laid back, very lyrical, very simple but very compelling. I’ve been listening to their mixtape “Indigoism” several times and it’s become a good friend, like someone you know well but always hope to find out more about.

The Underachievers are two kids in their early 20ies from Flatbush, Brooklyn and got signed on Flying Lotus’ label Brainfeeder. Their background is clearly Flatbush, Brooklyn and the Carribean communities there. Their lyrics often are about mind travelling and perception of things and one of them, Issa Gold, likes to anser philosophical questions like if evil really exists on his Tumblr.

Here are the best interviews I found, one on complex.com and another one at MTV Hive.

(The picture is also taken from complex.com, thx!)

Their videos are class, capturing that typical Brookly neighborhood vibe:

So devilish video:

The Mahdi video

Gold Soul Theory

Herb shuttles

And here is the mixtape which made them famous:

Mixtape:

We’ll hear more of them, I am sure!

Testing Traktor for iPad

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Finally, Native Instruments released an app for the ipad called “Traktor DJ“. Since Traktor is the widest used DJ software and the ipad has so much to offer to manipulate music with its interface the expectations were extremely high. And they didn’t fail. The price of 18 EUR is ok for what you get and after reading the first reviews and I instantly had to download and try it.

I spent a nice long ride on the train with figuring out the thing and produce a little mix. The app runs smoothly and is very intuitive, it comes with effects like looping, delays, flangers and filters or freezes. The freeze function is certainly the most innovative. While in a loop, you can touch certain parts of the loop and play it, like single drums or sounds. While playing, mixing or skipping, it never gets out of synch, and combined with a soundcard you can send different sound signals to master and prelistening. So this is actually a serious alternative for a gig in a bar, maybe not in a club.

So here it is, enjoy 30 minutes of bass music with Benga, Kryptic Minds, Redrum and Fused Forces.

The mixes can be recorded directly within the app. I was a bit annoyed at first because I could not find a way to export it. But with a little help from the NI support I found the way. This is how you export and save a recording from the Traktor app for iPad:

“In order to export your recorded mix you need to sync (connect) your iPad to a desktop computer, then open iTunes and click on the iPad tab. Select the “APPS” tab and then scroll down to the section “File Sharing”. You will see TraktorDJ in the file sharing apps list. click on it, it will show you the recorded files which you can save now with the “SAVE TO” button to a location on your harddrive.”

Here is the official promotion video with Richie Hawtin preparing a set in the taxi:

Kryptic Minds Fabric Mix

feature-timoutYears ago my friend Tom Dicicco, who was an upcoming producer then and now a regular guest at Berghain, told me about Kryptic Minds. “They are reeeeealy good”, he said, with a knowing nod, as if he knew they were going to be that big as they are now.

With a heritage of dark, soundfocused and complex drum’n’bass they formed a whole genre of dub heavy, reduced and dense dubstep. The niche of dubstep I really love. They are part of the widespread DMZ crew, releasing on their very own Osiris Records and have a worldwide followership who love their “fearsome sub bass assaults that lead listeners into an edgy otherworld”. Their slow and focused tracks produce an energy which is highly hypnotic and infectious and to me they have been very influential in my own dubstep voyage since 2006. I was especially blown away by their performance at Outlook festival together with Youngsta. It was just so massive and overwhelming.

Now they released a mix as a part of the famous Fabric series. Check it out as it subtly driving forward and roomfilling. The better your soundsystem the more the bass will come to life.

Picture from the Osiris page

Answer Code Request Podcast

I have been with this guy for almost ten years now. Patrick has always been a good friend and musical companion, I first blogged about him in 2004 when we played together in Baden Baden. Today is a special day because he has finally come as far as to release a mix on one of the worlds most important dj podcasts, Resident Advisor. This is truly amazing and I am very happy and proud.

I followed his way ever since his artistic name was “Patrique” and while his style developed from a deep and groovy house to a more complex, dubby and heavy techno, able to fill big rooms. His current musical project is “Answer Code Request” which represents mature, dubby and spacious electronic music with several releases on Marcel Dettmann Records.

As Patrick Gräser he is a resident in Berghain and Panorama Bar, Berlin and plays at Fabric, London, Amsterdam, Moscow and many other major clubs in Europe. There is only one more step for the next years: Put up a massive live show and play the big festivals and international clubs!

Listen to this atmospheric mix with a really smart story and a diverse selection, nevertheless very consequent and flawlessly mixed. It’s dubby, it’s noisy, it’s soft, it’s harsh, it’s techno, it’s dub, it’s bass, it’s step, it’s pop, it’s like a rollercoaster ride, a really essential mix which captures what Patrick does so well: keep a tension the whole night through.