This one of these cristalline, fragile, simple sounding yet complex compositions which I like to listen to when it’s freezing cold in winter, you sit inside and watch the ice on the windows grow while the smoke from the chimney across the balcony draws structures in the clear sky. Shigeto’s Mini album “Lineage” is one of those I have on repeat right now. I first discovered this London producer via his highly interesting XLR8 podcast and this album I found via Wenkewho and The Fader. Enjoy!

Na, wer erkennt diesen sympathischen dicken Nerd? Dieses Video geht sein ein paar Tagen über meine Social Networks, ein bepulloverter mittelalter Mann bastelt an einem Fußtritt-Sampler und ein paar Synthies rum und entwickelt bei aller peinlichen Niedlichkeit eine gehörige Portion Soul. Lach- und Spaßseiten verulken den Kauz, aber dahinter steckt ein nicht ganz unbekannter Musiker. Auflösung bald.

Here is a great video mix by Ben UFO which I am currently listening to, at 9pm on a friday, ready to let the week behind me. And the music is perfect for that, a bit discoish, a bit breaky, a bit dreamy, nicely mixed, the way I like to do it, too (and sometimes even succeed). Enjoy and have a great weekend!

BR# 68 Ben UFO from BOILER ROOM on Vimeo.

In case you don’t know what Boilerroom TV, the club meets web live music experience is, I wrote about it before, so check it out here.

Ever more often lately, I stumble across 360 degree or panoramic video and photo ideas, tools and gadgets. Now I even have the great pleasure to work on a project with that kind of technology together withe the awesome company called Yellowbird from the Netherlands. They do amazing 360° videos which are embedable and follow the linear story of a video along a timeline, and whilst the film is moving you can change the viewpoint of the camera, like looking at the sky or behind you. Their most successful video certainly is the one from a snowboarders perspective which went pretty viral which is understandable, have a look:
Continue >>

Even if I risk becoming a Native Instruments fanboy here, this is another great showcase of one of their products, presented by the even greater Jamie Lidell. NI released an iPhone app called iMaschine which according to the video is a little all-in-one sequencer, drum machine, synth and recorder to play around with and build little songs. As Jamie does impressively in this video, apparently without editing: building a beat, putting some bass groove on and some chorus and finally verse vocals on top of it, all lying comfortably in bed like on a sunday morning. Pretty amazing for 4,99 EUR in the app store. Let’s see if I get out of bed this weekend if I get this little toy right now.

The electronic music magazine Resident Advisor has started a new video series called “Real Scenes”. The third issue is about Berlin and its protagonists during the last 30 years. The film is great because it explains Berlins techno history in a very understandable way but also very well captures the feeling of getting lost and trying to escape from the pressure which always has and will be a motive for partying, especially in Berlin. The photography is nice with great scenes from Mauerpark, clandestine raves, clubs which have moved from underground to establishment like Watergate and Tresor and lots of squatted houses.

We hear people like Michael Hain (Hardwax), Tobias Rapp (author and Spiegel journalist), Dixon, Dimitri Hegemann (Tresor founder), Bene and Tom (Renate club), Sascha (Apparat) or Daniel Meteo from Shitkatapult. The protagonists explain the history of the openness of Berlin after the wall came down with lots of space and lack of rules. And also its transition from being a German underground city to a internationally known hotspot with all the good and bad this development brings.

You can find more “real scenes” documentaries about Bristol and Detroit.

The all-in-one-sampler, sequenzer and drum machine Maschine by Native Instruments has a little brother, the Maschine Mikro. Here is a pretty impressive demonstration of what you can do with that little thingy.

Am 07.09. findet im HBC am Alexanderplatz die a2n Werkstatt statt, die sich an Musiker und Kreativarbeiter richtet und Wissen und Kontakte vermitteln will. Erfahrene Experten und Auskenner im Bereich Musik und Entertainment beurteilen Musikstücke und vermitteln anschließend in verschiedenen Workshops Wissen zu Lizenzierung, Versicherungen und Promotion. Ein tolles Angebot mit prima Leuten, das ich nur empfehlen kann.

Es geht los mit dem „Public Coaching“: Hier diskutieren Booker, Labelbetreiber und Musik-Journalisten zusammen mit den Musikern die eingereichten Songs. Ihr oder eure Musiker-Freunde können sich dafür ab sofort mit einem Song bewerben, den ihr in die a2n Dropbox schmeißt. Die “Werkstatt-Jury” wählt dann die Tracks aus, die live und vor dem geneigten Berlin Music Week-Publikum besprochen werden. Als Coaches sind illustre Menschen wie Sascha “Bleed” Kösch von der de:bug, Tim Renner von Motor Music oder Stephan Szillus von der Juice am Start.

Die anschließenden Workshops widmen sich Fragen wie: Wie funktioniert die Künstlersozialkasse? Gibt es Alternativen zur Gema? Wie geht Promotion im Netz? Was ist Crowdfunding? Wie lizensiere ich meine Musik für Filme?

Um Antworten bemüht sich ein ganzes Heer von Musik-Experten, darunter Stephan Benn, Rechtsanwalt und VUT-Vorstand, Artur Schock, Booker bei Audiolith, Tino Hanekamp vom Uebel + Gefährlich in Hamburg, oder Matthias Krebs von der UdK Berlin.
Checkt das gesamte Workshopprogramm.

Summer hit? Who needs a summer hit? We all do, to remember, to dance into the sunset, on the top a roof, above the big city, especially with such a shit summer we have this year in Berlin. So this easy, discoy, kind-of-familiar-sounding thing is exactly what I would play at an open air summer party and that’s the moment when everybody would get into the groove, when the nice conversations start over the second cocktail, when the relaxing kicks in after some hard days of work. This is the kind of summer song we want and we need. This is what it is all about. Enjoy Doctor Dru & Adana Twins – Juicy Fruit in this video which let’s you wish you’d be there. Ok, I admit, it’s a bit cheesy, but “I like it”

Buy the Vinyl on Juno or buy the Mp3 at Beatport or on itunes

The song is out on Exploited, my old buddy Shir Khan’s label. And here you can listen to what it would be like when the party goes on:
SHIR KHAN presents BLACK JUKEBOX 01 (trax by Homework, Doctor Dru&Adana Twins) by Exploited

Boiler Room is a regular livestream from a very small club in London. They do a good job bringing interesting people in like Four Tête, James Blake, Mount Kimbie, Martyn, Theo Parrish, Jamie XX or Little Dragon who play their favorites and edgy tracks. It is watched and discussed simultaneously online and they have a nice podcast running.

I tuned into today’s (tuesday, 19/02/2011) show to listen into the Black Acre session with @bluedaisytwit, @FM_Fox and @Hyetalmusic. To sum it up: Interesting new sounds, I especially liked the Fantastic Mr Fox, cool to watch the musicians editing plus I really got this live feeling: seeing some people dancing in the background, watching the musicians, with a twitter stream, facebook and ustream chat boxes all around the video and people constantly writing stuff.

Mostly people write that they are there watching it, but sometimes also commenting the music, sharing links, tweeting to the bands. Who, and this makes the concept interesting, are mostly also on Twitter and get linked to by the boomboxtv account or by one of the founders and organizers Thristian Richards. But while most performers have accounts, only a few of them would check the discussion while doing music, I assume.

To be honest, there was no real discussion it was more the feeling to be watching the same stuff at the same time that made the experience interesting. And of course, the intimacy of being somehow at a living room party, like you can see in this video, Hudson Mohawke playing a 90ies classics Hip Hop set.

In a Time Out magazine article, Blaise Bellville, the other cofounder, talks about up to 25k viewers when James Blake was on, in this video interview Thristian Richards talks about the concept behind it. Richards is also a dj and Belville used to run “Platform”, a web magazine. It’s offline now, pointing to a new project called Leisure only but I found a nice readplatform.com snapshot from the Wayback machine.

The club is now located at Corsica studios, a small venue inside of railway arches near Elephant & Castle, maybe on their Facebook there is a chance to be invited to the actual performances.

I loved the other Junior Boys stuff, just like Metro area or Emperor machine. Easy, poppy, dubby, slightly discoish music with a little cool and distant flavour. Here you can listen through their new record “It’s all true”. Just found it on Hypemachine who, btw have an iPhone app now!
You can get the album here.

Thx to Alex I got to know The Magician who posts lovely discoish mixtapes on a regular basis. I like! Here is one:
Magic Tape Eleven by TheMagician
Get the rest here.

I am so celebrating this. That guy is really feeling it. No cgi, just the pure effect of the music. I AM copying some moves from this dubstep crazy parrot.

I know, it’s just a funny video, but it so needs to be on the Stylewalker blog. Thanks @herm for putting it on my wall.

Robag Wruhme RA Podcast
Nicolas Jaar on XLR8R
Benoit & Sergio on XLR8R
Hyetal on XLR8R

Wow, that’s a lot of XLR8R stuff, but the podcast is really good

I like this video! It has a cool relaxed style, some nice city views, a pretty actress (Friederike Kempter) and I like disco, as you know.

The video has a very slim format and is shot entirely on the Canon EOS 550D which gives the whole thing a warm, photographic feel. Shooting with a Canon EOS comes into fashion now, the other day I was interviewed by a tv station team that used that technology, too. The music is easy, good for a summer evening.

Thanks for the tip, Deep88!

Very nicely illutrated in this collage-arty, animated video by students of FH Düsseldorf, taking a Desolat track as background. Producing, mixing, publishing, pressing, distribute, select, buy play. Found via jrg.

To The Beat from Desolat MG on Vimeo.

I stumbled upon it via Twitter and right now I am listening to this shining pop pearl in the office. It goes in your ear like icecream in summer in your mouth. You can sense the Australian sun here, it’s like a well tempered white wine with flavours of Paul Simon, New Order, MGMT, even slight Ah-a or Madonna aromas can be found in the bouquet. Here is player to listen to Snippets, if you are on Twitter you can visit the prelistening page, connect it to your Twitter account, send one tweet and as a thanks listen to the whole album.

Cut Copy – Zonoscope [Clips] by modularpeople

Bergstübl last friday and here is one hour mix of that session. I played more than 5 hours which I haven’t done in a long time. Here is a mix I recorded in the beginning of the evening, it starts of with some nice remixes including Doors and Grandmaster Flash lyrics, brings in Trickski’s überhit Pill Collins, Rodion’s Electric Soca, Chopstick & Johnjohn’s Clear Eyes, Cruel Intentions by Simian Mobile Disco (Maurice Fulton remix), Louder by Major Lazer always is a good tune to wire people up, Black Van – The Calling is next, Pawas – It’s Working (Trickski remix), the Blackvan remix of Aeroplane’s Without Lies, Test is a pretty deep track by Mario Basanov and Vidis, I tried to mix in Reckless with your love by Azari, the Manuel Tur remix,and here we are in more elctronic surroundings with Antony Shakir’s Detroit State of Mind and this is where the mix ends. It was a great evening, thanks to everybody who was there.

From Disco to Deep by Stylewalker

I gotta say, I reignited my love for filmmaking. Documenting nice stuff with my camera and cut it together nicely (which usually takes more time than expected). So, here are the videos I shot within the last three weeks: A video documentary from the Picnic festival in Amsterdam, an event for creative entrepreneurs with lots of fun, interviews and technology which I did for Netzpiloten. Last week I did an interview with Jan Kage aka Yaneq who is the mastermind behind the Party Arty series who saw its 33rd issue this saturday. And finally a clip from the Party Arty which shows a massive moshpit going on during the Foreign Beggars show while performing their hit “Contact”. Watch enjoy and give me comments so I can improve my skills!

Unfortunately, this is only an interaction mockup. But hell, what a great idea! The American designer Gerg Werk put together an ideal digital system to install in clubs so DJs would only have to bring a flash drive with their setup and music and plug it in. It’s a touchscreen that emulates several decks and is controlled by different finger gestures to perform the most important DJ functions, like pitching, cue points, equalizing, mixing and even looping. Watch this very juicy and goodlooking project presentation:

Without many comments, it is finally here, the ultimate video looking-back to the most awesome Melt! festivals ever. This year, I actually had the time to shoot some videos and finally (erm, 1,5 months later..) edit together a 15 minute piece of our experiences as artist hosts at Melt festival. Me and a friend had the pleasure to work there and took some time to bring you music and impressions by Skate, Shout Out Louds, Two Door Cinema Club, Black Rose, Groove Armada, The XX, Modeselektor, Daniel Haaksman, Hurts, Edu K, DJ Shadow, Moderat, Get Well Soon, Broken Bells, Massive Attack and Who Made Who.

All condensed in some very intense 15 minutes, filmed with a flip camera.

If you are looking for the official all concerts of Melt professional high quality documentations, you can find it at 3min.de

Berlin has a fashion week, a social media week, a week full of movies (Berlinale), but despite the vibrant scene, no established big music event. Now, for the first time, Berlin will host the Berlin music week which is bunch of events like conference, fair, festival, lots of concerts and parties.

Of course, in its parts, it is nothing new. Alltogethernow (#a2n) as a conference saw it’s first issue last year. Popkomm as a global trade fair for the music industry has a tradition of over 20 years and is slowly getting back some of the relevance it lost while the major music labels had to fight with revenue losses. And the Berlin festival started 2005.

From a branding aspect, it is good idea to put all this under one umbrella and attract people from all sorts of music business, whether it be major or indie labels, concerts, live events or distribution. It will be a week packed with talks and meetups and of course many concerts. I am personally looking forward to being present at a panel at a2n about the myriad of possibilities of self marketing for artists and will be attending the Berlin festival, of course.

The Guardian and Soundcloud put together a list of bands they consider to be great in 2010. The bands had to be featured in the “New band of the day” column. Certainly, there can be disagreement in the selection but there are some really interesting artists featured. All very indie, poppy music, some digitally experimental. I like Washed Out, Elle Goulding and James Blake.

New Band Of The Day

I saw this band at the #tlgg2 party this saturday and was pretty impressed by their performance. It’s pure pop and a lot of energy, they certainly won many new fans that night. I think Zpyz has the potential to become pretty popular actually if they manage to build up an audience that reaches beyond Germany.

Take the arty attitude of Franz Ferdinand (just take a look at their website) , Goose’s raw energy, Chromeo’s synths and Phoenix’ pop appeal and you have Zpyz. They already played Melt! festival in 2008, remixed Polarkreis18 and have Köhncke and Koletzki remixing them which are good stories to tell.

Now they released a real hit, “She’s a dealer”, a song, almost too pop, but so catchy you cannot get away from it. It feels like you have heard it on the radio in the 80s, like Hall & Oates or Toto have come back. It’s brilliant:

Interestingly their music is released by DEAG, originally a live event company. Not a bad catch for DEAG since Zpyz can also cause a good dancing crowd beyond their spectators, getting them into the mood and groove with a tight sound and a great show, as you can see in this live clip:

Good luck guys with your music, I am pretty sure you’re gonna be big!

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