Alles dies sind katalanische Köstlichkeiten, herrührend von der Verbbbindung der Macher nach Barcelona. Diese organisieren dort halbjährlich die Modemesse Bread&Butter und eröffnen zur Wintersaison einen Laden in Berlin, in der, genau, Schönhauser 13. Got it? Immer Dienstags, Donnerstags und Freitags zwischen 20h und 24h gibt es also Eklektisches vom Plattenteller und Eklektiker in den Sofas und an den Säulen lehnend. Diesen Dienstag (heute) gibt es Musik von Stylewalker (that’s me!) und Steve (somebody else!). Donnerstag den 24.04. auch (da geht es vielleicht auch ein bisschen länger)

Wer kommen will, sagt mir Bescheid, ich habe ein begrenztes Kontingent auf der Gästeliste und auch für alle anderen gibt es Rabatt. Bitte schreibt mir, ob ihr heute oder am Donnerstag kommen wollt, dann machen wir ne Flasche Cava auf und lassen sie in unsere Nabel perlen. Fins ara!

Located at what used to be the “Schwarzen Raben” at Neue Schönhauser Straße 13 and equipped with what you would call grandma’s old furniture it’s a cousy lounge for friendly people with fresh djs, like Oli deluxe (today) and Stylewalker (soon).

Hurry to see it because soon (july) it will be the clothing store “14 oz.”, run by Bread & Butter.

Download audio file (bohemiaz-clubderdichtentoten.mp3)

“trocken, minimal und vorallem schwedisch wirds morgen im Tresor. Das Malmoer Label „We Are” ist gleich mit 2 seiner Artists angerückt, die heiligen Hallen zu bespielen. Labelowner Agaric wird zeigen, dass er nicht nur gute Platten produzieren, sondern auch genau so begnadet an den Turntables rocken kann. Mikael Stavöstrand holt live (und hoffentlich analog) seine Livepeitsche raus. Aua, ist das geil!”

Download audio file (Mikael_Stavostrand_Live_Harry_Klein_21-4-2007.mp3)

Check out this and all the rest of the going out in Berlin underground party list!

For further dates check e.g. De-Bug or Nachtagenten Berlin. Thank you for all the emails, bulletins and forum entries!

For tomorrow you should check out the new club “Crush” on Behrenstr. 55 (very Mitte!), Pictoplasma Festival and some Djs like Strobocop or Touch of class. Read more here.

Watergate seen from the Oberbaum bridge, by Feffef

Watergate lightshow, by SgisToday, Watergate celebrates its fifth birthday which is a long time for a club in Berlin. Last years fourth birthday was massive already and you better come early because although its a wednesday it is going to be packed. You know: in Berlin there is no difference in between weekend and week, the party people will always be around.

So will the DJs tonight: André Galluzzi (Taksi, Ostgut Ton), Zip (Perlon), Sammy Dee (Perlon), Matt John (Perlon), Sebo K. (Mobilee, Get Physical), Tom Clark (Highgrade), Jens Bond Highgrade, Sender), Phage (Mobilee, Upon You), Daniel Dreier (Highgrade, Klang), Ruede Hagelstein (Upon You), Carsten Klemann (My My), Nick Höppner (My My) and many more.

Stylewalker appears behind the turntables again this saturday at Waldohreule near Schlesisches Tor, so be prepared!

Before you can go to Week-end to attend a lecture held by Sonar Kollektiv and Red Bull Music Academy about the last ten years in music business. Starts at 20pm and features Jürgen von Knoblauch, Claas Brieler, Stefan Leisering, Axel Reinemer (all Jazzanova), Steffen “Dixon” Berkhahn (Innervisions), Dirk Rumpff (Red Bull Music Academy) and Jan Joswig (De:Bug).

You can get there, taking the 55 bus and walk upwards to the castle, In summer, on weekend evenings it used to be open until 2am, now I assume they close a little earlier. Here is another little article about La Caseta del Migdia

At Cookies Phonique plays some records so at least the music will be ok. The people will be especially ok at PartyArty in 103 (creative, unconventional, entertaining), Zementgarten will be open tonight, for free, but the best party I guess will be beneath Schlossplatz across from Palast der Republik, between Karl-Liebknechtstr. and Rathausstr: PALACE RESISTANCE vs. FREAK CAMP @ Katakomben Schlossfreiheit.
View map

This is the first of a series of three films I shot this weekend while I had my aunt visiting. Nice mix of underground and overground culture.

Tomorrow, saturday, there will be some nice festival at Kiki Blofeld (e.g. with Puppetmastaz) and on sunday big Patentblau Open Air again. Partying in dim light under a metal skeleton, perfect after hour feel, open air, from 2 am to 10 pm, S Bahnhof Storkower Straße.

Picture by VA3 (Great party pictures!)

Justine Electra, Matt John, Liebe ist cool, Oliver Koletzki and many others. 12am to 22pm, it’s free. Be responsible and take away your litter! The weather will not be great, I guess, but dry. See you there!

Update: Schön war’s, nette Fotos gibt es zum Beispiel hier.

Nochn Update: Im taz-Blog hat man genau hingeschaut und alles prima beschrieben.

View a map and a YouTube video after the click.


Größere Kartenansicht

The festival goes on for a week and there are people who actually spend almost all their time there. But the festival wristbands reveal many festival visitors also in parks, museums or in Budapest’s hot springs. All Budapest seems to be Sziget festival during these days, providing an impressive backdrop of art-nouveau, socialist and post-socialist architecture.

There is a nice blog, updated daily by Zeit magazine (in German) about Sziget, which I recommend, so I won’t be writing much here (to sum it up: We had good weather and bad, healthy food and greasy, good music and not so good.. ), just provide you with a short movie I cut together and some foto impressions.

Rain couldn’t stop us

Neither these girls

Get clean in the bodywash

A little classier in the famous Gellert spa

Situated in a hotel

even classier: the old (hundreds of years) Turkish bath

You need like three Palinkas after this

Drum’n'Bass in the afternoon

These “funny hats” never get out of style on festivals..

Make yourself a home at Sziget..

Enough of the past - here’s the future. If you want to go to festivals this weekend, you might want to check these out: Schwedenparty, which takes place on an island in Sweden, very peaceful, deserted and nice (but clean up after yourselfes!) and the Goldmund festival. All electronic and with special hedonistic underground Berlin feel.

Moreover there are some good parties in Berlin, like today at Freakmode at ZMF with some Cologne funky-minimal experts like Marc Lansley (download Marc Lansley’s latest and really exquisit mix here - it’s funky, it’s deep, it’s melodic, it’s something you want to hear a second time).

While that’s it for today (friday) tomorrow, saturday, there’s a lot going on. Like the Mittekill festival (for free) at Eschloraque, the last corner of independent and punky culture close to Hackescher Markt, starts at 14h! Also, there’s “Liebe ist Cool”s birthday party in a very cool location in Friedrichshain

The other is Sick Sinus playing at Mädcheninternat, a former Kindergarten right where Deep club used to be. Being around 20:00h at either place would be a good choice. Plus: you’ll get home at a civil time.

Tomchak, Shir Khan and Ben Mono

This is the case when Best Works, Sonar Kollektiv’s (amongst other artists, e.g. Fat Freddys Drop) booking and event agency host their Sundowner Parties - on the roof. I was there last time (one week ago) to see Shir Khan, Ben Mono and Tomchak and had a jolly good time. See some more pictures!
Update: See even more pictures thanks to Ben Mono who send them to me!

All following pictures are by Ben Mono. Thanks!!

Picture by LotteLenya

It’s interesting: Two years ago, I was one of a few people who wrote about the Melt! festival and one a few people who posted their festival pictures on Flickr. YouTube didn’t exist back then. Last year, there were tons of pictures and videos. And this year, there are even many, many blog posts about this amazing festival on an extraordinary site, not to forget the Melt-forum which has an impressive way of self organization - one half of the people bitches about prices, the growing size, quality of the music and the other half defends their favorite festival with enthusiasm. So I watched many many videos on YouTube, scanned Flickr and the blogosphere just to get you the best and most relevant material on this year’s issue of one of the greatest festivals on the planet.

“…ein unerwarteter Schub von rechts und schon liege ich. Alle großen Momente meines Lebens (Fummeln bevor Anatomie in Bio drankam, der erste Jägermeister, Pilzragout auf’m Dorffest) ziehen nochmal vor meinem Auge entlang. Doch dann zieht mich die Hand, deren Anhängsel gerade für mein Fallen verantwortlich war, mit einem Lächeln wieder hoch. I can feel the community!”
Read the whole hilarious review at Wertaufholer [via Andreas]

So how was Melt X, the 10th issue of this tasty in-between indie and electronic music festival on a peninsula surrounded by gigantic machines? Overwhelming and amazing again I must say. I worked most of the time but it would be a lie to say that my job is not a great one. Taking care of the musicians as they come and wander around with their mouths open to see the venue and then get blown away by the audience. Few don’t get excited by that. Unfortunately Kelis was one of them. Let herself drive to the stage (20 meters..) and then sing like a man and move like a crash test dummy. Biggest disappointment.

And I felt a little bad for Snap! who had to play six o’clock in the morning after Deichkind had totally rocked out the energy of the crowd. So when “Rhythm is a dancer” set in, everybody just had to leave. Too bad, really. Opinions to Deichkind differ - some thought it was a little boring, the same show in the third year but thousands of enthusiastic people can’t lie and actually the band put more effort in the costumes and the show than ever. They always start many hours before stagetime and handicraft themselves into madness. I very much enjoyed the show this year again (which might also be connected to the many vodkas I had to drink in a very short time - boss’ order, what can you say).

Deichkind - Bon voyage:

“Melt Festival… OMG! What an amazing location for a rave/dance party, out in the middle of nowhere, amongst a heap of gigantic, massive, old, rusting, industrial, mining, digging, steal processing machines, all lit up with fantastic lighting, excellent sound and lighting everywhere, market stalls, diverse music line-up, lots of food and snacks, and cheap drinks.”
Read about a whole tour involving Melt, Tresor, Maria am Ufer, Berghain/Panorama Bar AND Knut in only three days at decoded_

Ok, but who was the best on the festival? Goose definitely rocked so unbelievably hard that I thought the roof was coming of. Such a perfect mix of rock and electro that blew everybody away. Best sound award goes to Trentemöller. He just put out a gigantic blanket of bass and melody over the crowd and everybody who expected club madness was surprised and delighted to be carried away by such a dubby experience. Polarkreis18 surely lived up to the expectations being one of the most interesting young German bands. I just hope they don’t get tired of all the playing and always delivering such an emotional performance.
Best entertainer: Dendemann. Even for those who don’t like Hiphop he did a good show with lots of head nodding and booty shaking.

Polarkreis18:

Goose - Ultimate Heavy Electro-Rock Alarm:

Trentemöller Dubby Drum club experience:

Two bands I did not see but listened to because I had to work, were Black Rebel Motorcycle Club who had a bright and fat sound but somewhat seemed to be a little fed up and overplayed. And then there were the Shout Out Louds who sounded like The Cure - great! Hot Chip surprised not only me but a lot of people. Disco-popping into the sunset. I personally very much liked Werle & Stankowski with their very unique mix of singer-songrwriter tunes, electro background and bluesy attitude. But there were so many great bands, impossible to mention them all. I subscribe to Tonspion’s view when they say:

“Wenn ihr wissen wollt wie der Jan Delay, der Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Shitdisco und Tocotronic waren, müsst ihr eure Freunde fragen. Sorry. Man kann nicht alles sehen, denn das Melt hat ein Luxusproblem: zuviel des Guten.”

But the unofficial, secret star of this festival certainly was Jake the Rapper. He played a live set and a DJ set one day later, he was always around, connecting and small talking and without him, I guess I had become target of a severe thunderstorm: Goldie in a bad mood.

The records and CDs of the charismatic entertainer, DJ, manager, writer and most of all godfather of Drum’n'Bass had been accidently transferred to London instead of Berlin (actually that happens quite often I must say). A DJ without music is a sad figure - what were we supposed to do? Thanks to Senuti and Jake’s Mac, Goldie could transfer many files from his iPod to Jake’s computer and burn seven cds. These he used for his three hour set and definitely made the people very, very happy. He was very happy himself, not to say enthusiastic: “You know when things go wrong like this and you have to improvise, that’s the best. Nothing new ever happens if you never have to improvise!” Said it, hugged me so hard I hardly could breathe and then ran off to meet Richie Hawtin (who he hadn’t met before). Climbed right on stage and hugged him as well. Very intense person, very charming and interesting. It was a pleasure to meet him, really.

Goldie and MC Lowqui begin:

and deliver:

Coming slowly to an end, I just want to pay credit to all the people who share their memory on the web, especially those who really made the effort to edit little movies about their Melt experience. There are many many interesting and cute documentaries out there.

While Justice/Simian Mobile Disco’s song “We are your friends” was the unofficial hit of the festival last year, this time it was Soulwax’s edit of the Klaxon’s song “Gravity’s rainbow“. I heard it over ten times in different locations, here, some people are dancing to it on the camping site:

Not everybody was so lucky:

“es kam was kommen mußte: Ich rutsche auf dem Arsch die Böschung hinunter bis ich im Schilf des Sees zum Stehen kam. Was für eine groteske Situation: 500 Meter hinter mir spielte gerade unüberhörbar Dizzie Rascal sein Set auf der Mainstage, während ich auf einmal in der Uferzone des Gremminer Sees eine Fangopackung genoß.” from Reality on the rocks

Here’s a short video about Red Bull’s music academy activities, very interesting and ambitious approach, still:

And I would like to finish the longest blog entry I have ever written with this video that shows Magda on the Big Wheel floor which was pure electro all the time. Out of the Minus crew, I like her best:

Here are some more links: Really good pictures have Tranzland and Sint@Flickr but you’ll find great pictures by other photographers all over. And here’s a list of not to be missed blog entries about Melt 07 aka Melt X.

Saturday, 21 July, 24:00 – alexanderplatz underground.
bring your own radio – every watt counts. tune into 95.2 FM. you bring your radio/boombox/receiver/xpod … to become part of the sound system! grime, dubstep, µrave and more.

via Grimetime

Update:
Check out this massive überdubby, tearprovoquing techdubhopmix:
Download audio file (Denis_the7notes_-_DUBDRIVE-16-06-2007.mp3)

Amazing.. [via Dubstepforum]

Apparently it was a very cool party, so writes Miss Glitter:
“Wenn mehr Gäste ein Radio mitgebracht hätte, wäre es noch besser gewesen aber der Sound reichte zum tanzen und gute Laune haben. Als Anlage dienten vier dieser Boomboxen. Ausreichend für Grime und so, für Dubstep gab es ein bisschen wenig Bass aber trotzdem toll. Stattgefunden hat das Ganze im Untergrundgraben zwischen Haus des Lehrers und Alex. Die Grimetime Leute haben an der Stelle in den letzten 2 Jahren schon Partys gemacht, die letztes Jahr wurde nach 2, 5 Stunden von der Polizei beendet (war allerdings auch überfüllt). Dieses Mal neu: die Radioidee Idee. Angemeldet war die Veranstaltung als Filmdreh (oder so) zwischen 0 und 4 Uhr, die Polizei ist nicht gekommen und um 4 sind alle brav weitergezogen (wir nach Hause, auch müde). Geklappt hat es super und im August gibt es den Spaß vielleicht noch mal.”

Pictures gibt’s bei Flickr-Boombx

A3000 mixt für Delikat, die ihr Party- und Künstlerimperium weiter ausbauen.

Download audio file (a3000_untitled.mp3)

Nach dem Klick gibts einen tollen Film der Delikat-Crew, die eine lange Partynacht von der Vorbereitung bis zum Piercingzungenschlag in wenigen Minuten zusammenfasst.

Feinkost @ DELIKAT-Berlin

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I will be working again as artist host which means I am the first person to talk to and take care of all the special needs of the musicians and their party. I had the chance to meet some really interesting people in the last two years, like Aphex Twin, Roni Size, Bloc Party, Hot Chip or Laid Back. This year I am honoured to be the host for Dizzie Rascal, Goldie, Trentemöller, Goose, Ladytron and Snap. Oh and Deickind again, haha. Probably, I’ll figure that out when I am there on friday.

Read all about Stylewalker’s experience at Melt! of the last two years.

Secret Shows sind kostenlose Konzerte, auf die man kommt, wenn man ein ausgedrucktes Myspace-Profil mit den Secret Shows als Topfreund dabei hat. Die ersten 50 in Hamburg kriegen auch noch ein T-Shirt und Justice Poster dazu.

East London consists of neighbourhoods like Hackney, Shoreditch, Whitechapel, Bow, Bethnal Green and so on. Especially the latter is famous for its galleries, e.g. One in the other where the McNally exhib was at. All in former industrial buildings, hidden in basements and behind metal curtains, focusing on young and raw artists, more the art of tomorrow than the art of today one finds in random and commercial central London galleries.

Every first thursday in a month, there is an event, that holds the whole scene together: firstthursdays - Late night art in East London. Over 80 galleries and museums open until 9pm. So, it is like: Tomorrow! If I’d still be in London I’d definitely check it out.

London is speed, business, danger, money. And when people go out there, they let loose and forget about their shitty service or administration jobs, they don’t care about the money, they just want to have a good time.

Fabric is a perfect place for that. We went there last friday, it was already 2am or so and there were three different lines to stand in. Some pretty wasted people around us, getting into trouble, some guy rapping about his ‘44 (caliber? I had no idea..), and suddenly it opens up and everybody rushes in. Inside: Massive drumnbass, an interior architecture you couldn’t figure out really, lots of stairs and different rooms, three dancefloors and overall an amazing sound. Crystalclear, fat and crisp, it wasn’t even too loud but just overwhelming. Sad enough, Fabric closes about half past 5, I would have liked to dance longer.

But walking around in the morning light on the Millenium bridge was a pleasure, too.. Ever since I listen to Drum’n'Bass again and there are some brilliant sources on the internet, like dnb-sets.de or newmixes.com.

Here, I picked out one DJ Hype mix from Kiss 100, especially the first tune is absolutely mindblowing:
DJ Hype for Kiss 100

What are the best parties for tomorrows “Fête de la musique” in Berlin? Well first, here is the official program, ordered by neighbourhoods. Mostly openair and all for free, this worldwide music festival which started in Paris is Berlin’s halfofficial kick-off party for the summer.

I’d like to mention some parties, the Dirty Kicks/Neurocomic party at Mauerpark and later at Aqua Ritter (Ritterstr.24, Xberg) a location which is supposed to be very special. (Lineup: Gebr Teichmann, Aroma, Jean Ferré and more)

The other one is the supposedly last openair party (Line-up: Koletzki, Woody, Diringer, Luna City Express) by famous club Sternradio which is going to close soon. And last but not least there is the Disco Mafia at Pulp Mansion at Saarbrückerstr. 36. Check out the flyer!

Photo by Red One at Flickr

In Berlin steht der Karneval der Kulturen an, am Sonntag zieht der bunte Umzug wieder durch Kreuzberg und wieder mal - soll es regnen. Aber das hat dem Karneval noch nie geschadet.

Dazu gibt es eine passende Afterhour, neue partyreihe “eis am stiel, oststrand heisst jetzt strandgut…” (UPDATE: IST WEGEN VERWÜSTUNG DER LOCATION ABGESAGT) mit JEREMY P. CAULFIELD [dumb unit/trapez], PETER GRUMMICH [spectral/kompakt], ERIK PANZER [barfuss] 12 uhr bis montag morgen, mühlenstr. 61-63, ostbahnhof. Aber es gibt noch viel mehr zu verpassen:

Noch ein schönes Open Air steigt heute abend am Mauerpark, TANZ DEN TITO! Lutz Friedrich Koop mit Balkanblackbox. Bernauer Strasse 51-64 (bekannt vom Flohmarkt), zwischen Mauerpark und Wolliner Strasse dann 1000 Meter Kerzen folgen, Kino und Grillen im Hof.

Außerdem spielen Zombiediscosquad und Shir Khan im Tape Club, in der Heidestr. Ein Club, der langsam aber sicher an Fahrt gewinnt. Von den Helsinki-Machern, zusammen mit einem Buddy aus New York haben sie den Laden schick gemacht und bereiten schon mal den Boden für ein zukünftiges Bahnhofsviertel.

Samstag dann was ganz besonderes:

“auch ihr habt es mal verdient, nach langem gott nen guten mann/frau sein zu lassen… nachdem ihr euch über staubige pisten und mit dubiosen warenhändlern durchgeschlagen habt, bieten wir euch ein stück heimat !!! die nacht beginnt um 23 uhr. keine widerrede.. es erwartet euch das, was es ist…

kommt früh, um nicht davorzustehen wie ein haufen tollkühner.. ihr sollt was auf die haube kriegen:
irma, matt john, ekkohouse live, franklin de costa, miss fitz
: storage schlesische strasse 38
date/time : saturday 26/05/2007 11pm - 10am

Tja, und wer gerade in Montreal sein sollte, dem wird nicht entgangen sein, dass dieses Wochenende eines der besten elektronischen Festivals dort statt findet: Das Mutek