MUSEYON GUIDES » Germany

Spotlight On…Delicious Doughnuts, Berlin

Kellas — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 16:45:22 +0000

Nestled in the central Mitte district of Berlin is an establishment that we’re sure has had more than one tourist entering its doors looking for a sweet treat rather than a cold beer. Delicious Doughnuts, unfortunately, does not serve doughnuts of any variety but rather a roster of djs who nightly fill the small dance floor.

The venue has a lounge feel and is decked in a sumptuous, if albeit decaying, scarlet decor. Most nights of the week, the atmosphere is very relaxed and is a perfect alternative to the bigger mega-clubs Berlin has to offer but on the weekend, for a popular dj, can fill-up quickly.

Delicious Doughnuts
Rosenthaler Str. 9, Ecke Auguststr., 10119 Berlin – +49 30 28 09 92 7

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Music Interview: DJ Wool + Berlin

Kellas — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 18:22:13 +0000

Glen Brady, aka DJ Wool, is a DJ and Music Producer, co founder of Berlin based label We Collect Enemies and a founding member of Indie Dance duo The Glass with Dominique Keegan of Plant Records (co-owned by Hip hop pioneer Stretch Armstrong). A Dublin native and Berlin transplant via Brooklyn (did you get all that?) Brady has been tearing-up the Berlin music scene with his original music and remixes.

His latest release, The Dark Snuggler with remixes by Lars Moston, Boeos Kaelstigen and Jetlag, is available on Beatport from June 28, 2010 and iTunes et al July 12 on We Collect Enemies. Brady jet sets back and forth across America and Europe touring at a near constant rate but was kind enough to take a breather and let us in on the secrets of his Berlin…

What should we know before we go to Berlin?
Berlin can be an Oasis of freedom, but you have to choose it.

Who are your local musical heroes?
In a classic German Punk sense I’ve always been a fan of EINSTÜRZENDE NEUBAUTEN.
I got into them in the 80’s through an article in Thrasher magazine. As a teenager I’d heard stories of them attaching microphones to chainsaws and hacking up the stage so I had a very romantic, exaggerated view of them…I’m not even sure if that story is true now though. I’ve had dinner with the drummer a couple of times, which has been a truly unique experience for me.

What local djs should we be listening out for?
I like the Keine Musik parties. It’s a local techno label. Quite different from my usual taste…a break from that, so that’s why I like it.
Their djing is a much mellower technical approach than mine so it’s a nice change. Unfortunately I don’t get to their parties much cause I’m usually playing on the same night. But I think they’re a true representation of what’s up here. They’re tight.

What are your favorite music venues and where should we eat and drink around there?
Berghain, Panorama Bar. If you’ve ever liked techno or electronic music in general then you owe yourself at least one visit to this place. Keep your mind open and enjoy the soundsystem. It’s truly unbelievable.

Villa- I came to Berlin in 1990 and went to a lot of clubs and parties in abandoned office blocks, breweries and general squatter mayhem. This is one of the last clubs to keep that spirit alive and they have a unique, suprising and exceptional booking policy so you’re guaranteed to hear quality music…Check the ‘Awesome’ party…that’s what’s up!

Food wise…do up the Donor! Just kidding….food is very seasonal here which I like…Spargel (white asparagus) is a must in the spring.

Berlin Street Art, copyright Janine Blechschmidt

Any local music festivals or events we should put on our calendar?
Oh man…Mayday, Multi Kulti Parade, Festival Musica, Berlin Festival….the list goes on and on…

Is there a “Berlin sound”? Is there a community/scene vibe in the city?
Techno is the sound of Berlin. Period. But you can still see plenty of other styles every night of the week. Yes, there’s been a rich history of electronic music for decades. There’s generations of techno dj’s and producers. I don’t claim to be very knowledgable about it but in my experience there’s a respect and an understanding of what has come before.

Yesterday I saw Jesse Rose and Modeselektor play to a couple of thousand people on the street in Prenzlauerberg (local area). I’d have to say it was in the top 5 shows of my life. The atmosphere was so calm, Monday afternoon rave on the street…beers and joints going everywhere, the sun shining…no problemo. Jesse played a very entertaining housey set with a little of that gypsy vibe thrown in and Modeselektor were really interesting and hard. almost IDM but the place was going off…people were there to just dance their asses off in the middle of the street…I felt lucky to be a part of it to be honest.

Reichstag

What’s your perfect night out in Berlin?
I think I just described it!

Any other things that are a must see and do in Berlin?
Of course there’s the obvious historical tours. You can go see the wall and whatnot but I’d advise just getting a few beers and sitting in Gorlitzer park on a sunny weekday…and see what happens…

What’s the best roadside food you’ve found?
Well…it’s always a toss between ghetto and posh so I’ll go with one of each.

Concrete Ice Cream in Springfield, Missouri or Oysters in Paris….you decide which is ghetto and which is posh! Word to Jonas in Missouri for the hookup…Can’t forget Throwed Rolls!!!!

What is your favorite city/venue to play on the road and what place has the craziest fans?
Oh I couldn’t narrow it down to one…It all has to do with the people involved. I love playing in LA because I have a gang of homies there. I love HiFi club in Calgary, I love Erste Liga in Munich, I love Hive in Zurich, I love Razmattazz in Barcelona…wow that’s a beautiful place. I love playing in the Irish Bars in New York for my friends from home (I grew up in Dublin, Ireland). I suppose I just feel very lucky whenever I land in a new place because I know I’m going to try to tear up the turntables and meet up with lots of new people…and I’m well aware of how lucky I am to see the world.

Berghain/Panoramabar
Rüdersdorfer Straße 70, Berlin – 030 29351830

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The Villa
Landsberger Allee 54, 10249, Berlin

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We

Heather C — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 23:17:24 +0000

The first time Berlin hosted the Love Parade, in 1989, the Wall was four months from falling. It started out as a small political demonstration organized by Dr Motte, with about 150 guests attending. When the Wall fell, techno music streamed into East Berlin, filling the abandoned warehouses that were transformed, seemingly overnight, into clubs.

By 2000, the parade was the city’s largest tourist draw, bringing more than a million people to the Straße des 17. Juni, in downtown Berlin, every summer to see the biggest names in techno — including the likes of DJ Tiesto, Paul Van Dyk and Armin Van Buuren — perform at the base of the city’s Siegessäule Victory Column.

Recently, the Parade has faced some setbacks. No longer in Berlin, the parade’s 20th anniversary installment in Bochum was cancelled just this year. Critics say the parade — once a symbolic gathering of hardcore techno fans — has become a watered-down excuse to party, full of mediocre music, exposed breasts and poorly dressed weirdos tripping on ecstasy. Next year, the folks in Duisburg take on the task of reviving the parade. We wish them luck.

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To read more about Techno in Berlin, pick up Museyon’s guide to Music+Travel Worldwide, where Siobhan O’Leary is your guide to Berlin in all its Techno Color glory.

photo by Fabien LeMarie/Flickr

OUT NOW! Music + Travel Worldwide: 12 Cities / 12 Scenes

Heather C — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:31:26 +0000

In Music+Travel Worldwide our expert guides take a musical tour around the globe. Check out our sound sampler before you buy the book…

Jazz Land: Chicago by Peter Margasak
Jazz
Hometown Hero: Ken Vandermark and the Ken Vandermark 5

Click to hear 11 more…

Bring the Noise, Bring the Punk: Dublin by James Hendicott
Celtic Punk
Hometown Hero: Blood or Whiskey, “They Say No”

New Rap City: Paris by Miles Marshall Lewis
Muslim Hip-Hop
Hometown Hero: Booba, “Mon Son”

Techno Color: Berlin by Siobhan O’Leary
Techno
Hometown Hero: Ellen Allien Apparat, “Way Out”

Jailhouse Rock: Moscow +St. Petersburg by Alina Simone
Chanson
Hometown Hero: Yanka Dyagileva, “Na Cherniy Den’”

Classical Studies: Istanbul by Alexandra Ivanoff
Classical
Hometown Hero: Fazil Say, “Black Earth”

Swing Shifts: Addis Ababa by Mikael Awake
Ethiopop
Hometown Hero: Mulatu Astatke, “Yekermo Sew” (with the Heliocentrics)

Passage to Indipop: Mumbai by Shamik Bag
Indipop

Hometown Hero: A.R. Rahman, “O Saya” (with MIA)

Experimental Methods: Beijing by Nick Frisch
Experimental
Hometown Hero: Carsick Cars, “Mogu, Mogu”

CARSICK CARS – 蘑菇蘑菇 MOGU MOGU (Music Video) from Maybe Mars / 兵马司 on Vimeo.

Art Rock Confidential: Melbourne, Sydney & Brisbane by Mel Campbell
Art Rock
Hometown Hero: Deloris, “Playing the Spaces”

The Digital Domain: Buenos Aires by Eve Hyman
Cumbia
Hometown Hero: Chancha Via Circuito

Chancha Via Circuito – ZZK Records from ZZK Records on Vimeo.

Folk Lure: Los Angeles by Jessica Hundley
Calicountry
Hometown Hero: Devendra Banhart, “Brindo”

Devendra Banhart – Brindo from Rômulo Martinz on Vimeo.

The Scene in Six Sounds: Germany

Heather C — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 15:15:43 +0000

Q: Man or Machine? A: Kraftwerk

In this week’s installment of The Scene in Six Sounds, Museyon Guide James Hendicott heads back to Germany, a country where he used to live, to give us a report on the local scene — from delightfully cheesy Euro pop to some slightly scary metal. So James, tell us: Was ist mit der deutschen Musik?

The Scene in Six Sounds: Germany
By James Hendicott

It’s true; Germany is at the heart of the Euro pop scene. After all, this is the home of the undisputed Euro pop queen, Cascada. And that does mean that there’s an unfathomably large amount of throwaway electro-dance music around. There’s also a huge penchant for angst-ridden rock, but dig under the surface a little and Germany shows its true colors. And surprisingly inspirational they are, too, including some true techno legends and a fresh selection of modern day indie.

The ‘Experimental Krautrock’ Superstars: Kraftwerk

There can be few more influential bands internationally than Kraftwerk. Starting out in the early 70s with seminal albums like ‘Autobahn’ (motorway), which remains a key influence on the electro genre to this day, and were amongst the first to incorporate numerous (now standard) electronic techniques. The artwork that accompanies their music has also become a standard synthpop style.

The Up and Coming Indie Heroes: Flea Market Poets

A rag-tag, Munich-based assortment of musicians who originate from the US, UK, Ireland and Germany, Flea Market Poets debut album ‘Dirty Days’ is putting German indie music in the map. Infectious tracks like ‘Annie Superstar’ and ‘Captain Nate’ recently went down a storm on an Irish tour.

The Euro-Pop Superstars: Cascada

Best known for tracks like ‘Everytime We Touch’ and ‘Evacuate the Dancefloor’ this Bonn-based three piece are fronted by Natalie Horler, the German-born daughter of two English parents, who provides the alluring, delicate vocals on tracks that have almost made Euro Pop fasionabel again. Almost.

80s Heavy Metal Heroes: Scorpions
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Launched in 1965, and still going strong to this day, Hannover metal heads Scorpions have sold an incredible 75 million records worldwide, and are best known for tracks like ‘Rock You Like A Hurricane’, ‘No One Likes You’, ‘Still Loving You’ and ‘Wind Of Change’. Lead singer Klaus Meine had extensive throat surgery early in his career, and many questioned whether he’d ever sing again. Nearly 30 years later, they’ve been proven emphatically wrong.

The Fire-Loving Industrial Psychopaths: Rammstein
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Named to commemorate an airshow disaster in a town of the same name (as well as to portray the style of their music, ‘ramming stone’), Rammstein have become icons of the fiery metal genre. Performing in German, English, French, Spanish and Russian, the band have recently released their sixth studio album, and continue to divide audiences with a lively stage show that many critics describe as bordering on violent.

The Politically-Influential, Controversial Rockers: MIA
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MIA is so steeped in deep, debate-ensuring politics that their music is sometimes overlooked entirely, and articles about them can often be found in the ‘opinion’ or ‘debate’ section of German newspapers, particularly for their praise of the colours of the German flag, a controversial topic given the nation’s history. Following their fourth albums release in 2008, the band is currently taking a year long break from touring.

James Hendicott is a travel and music writer living in Ireland, and your guide to Celtic punk in the Music+Travel Worldwide from Museyon Guides. More of his work can be found at hendicottwriting.com. And be sure to tune in next Wednesday, for a new local playlist.

image via myspace.com/kraftwerk

Music for a Rainy Day

Heather C — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 18:23:11 +0000

‘She Brings the Rain,’ by Can. From the 1970 album ‘Soundtracks.’ Introduced by Brian Eno.

Krautrock kings Can formed in Cologne, Germany in 1968, changing the face of rock ‘n’ roll music with their experimental brand of minimalist avant-garde rock. The song ‘She Brings the Rain’ first appeared on 1970’s ‘Soundtracks’, an album that marked a sea change for the band — the replacement of singer Malcolm Mooney with Kenji “Damo” Suzuki. The two singers could not be more different, just like their sounds — Mooney, an African-American sculptor/artist/poet from New York with a smooth, jazzy voice and a slow and psychedelic stream-of-conscious delivery; Suzuki a young and energetic Japanese vocalist whose tightly wound vocal stylings matched the band’s increasingly complex style. The track is Mooney’s swan song with Can, recorded shortly before he left the band to return to the States, reportedly following a mental breakdown and the advice of his psychiatrist.

Meet Museyon: Siobhan O’Leary

Heather C — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 16:22:32 +0000

In Music+Travel Worldwide’s guide to Berlin, Siobhan O’Leary takes you a tour of all things electronic. With the weekend on our minds, she gave us her picks for the city’s coolest clubs and the best bet for 6 a.m. döner kebabs. After the jump, Siobhan talks techno and gives us the scoop on everything from her favorite festival to her Teutonic travel tips — including why you should never pay too much at a club. Now that’s the kind of advice we can get behind!

Home base: Berlin, since February of this year
Day job: Translator, Literary Agent, Freelance Writer
Last show you saw live? I suppose it was technically the celebration of the 19th anniversary of Germany’s reunification in Tiergarten (take to S-Bahn to Tiergarten station) last weekend. There were DJs playing all weekend in the evenings and plenty of good German beer and wurst to go around. It was quite a festive atmosphere, especially given that the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall is coming up next month.

The party in Tiergarten

Museyon Guides: How would you describe the Berlin sound? Is there a “Berlin sound”?
Siobhan O’Leary: I would say it’s hard to pinpoint one particular sound that goes with Berlin, which I think is true of most cities. Sure, I’d say a more industrial sound is the “default” here, but there are plenty of artists, techno and otherwise, who experiment with different combinations of sounds and music genres. Henrik Schwarz, for example, infuses his techno with jazz elements.

MG: Where’s the best place to see a live show?
SO: Though I wasn’t explicitly going there for a techno experience, the best show I’ve ever seen was the Radiohead concert last summer at Wuhlheide — a large outdoor venue here in Berlin. Modeselektor opened for them (Thom Yorke is a big fan) and, despite the unseasonably cold and rainy weather (and a very dramatic series of phone calls after I realized I’d left my ticket at home in NYC), the whole night was quite unforgettable.

Choosing one specific place that is the best for live shows is no small task because of the huge range of nightlife options Berlin has to offer. Each neighborhood in Berlin has a very different vibe. There are all the massive warehousy clubs in Kreuzberg, the more intimate bars in Prenzlauer Berg, like August Fengler (Lychener Str. 11, Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin), which often feature DJs. Then there’s the really young alternative crowd in Friedrichshain. Every individual finds his or her own nightlife niche in Berlin.

MG: Any insider tips/dos and don’t for people visiting Berlin?
SO: Don’t overdress or overspend to go out in Berlin. For example, I had dinner with a friend the other night and we were thinking about going to a club afterward. I was wearing a really frumpy I Heart NY T-shirt and jeans and not feeling too hot, to be honest. The solution for getting me club-ready, however, was not for me to go home and get dolled up, but rather to throw on one of his old wife beaters. Totally acceptable club attire. Berlin is also a very inexpensive city. Having lived in New York for nearly all of my life, I sometimes have to shake the feeling that bartenders are giving me back too much change. There’s no sense in paying outlandish club cover charges or restaurant prices — chances are, those places are not very Berlin at all.

When you’re done recovering from your night out and ready to see the city by daylight, I’d suggest setting out on foot or on bike. There are the usual bus tours, but Berlin is a very human-sized city. There is hardly a building that is taller than five stories and you’ll notice a lot more if you’re on your own two feet or wheels.

MG: What’s your idea of one perfect night out in Berlin?
SO: When I plan a real night out, I almost always end up in Kreuzberg. If you play your cards right, you can start the night with Turkish dinner and end your night … or morning, really … at a Turkish bakery for breakfast. My favorite Turkish restaurant in Kreuzberg is Hasir (there are two of them on Adalbertstraße at numbers 10 and 12). Then it’s just a short walk to Ankerklause (Kottbusser Damm 104, Kreuzberg), a little bar on the Landwehrkanal with a nautical theme (sounds cornier than it is). It’s quite easy to find places just wandering through the area near the Kottbusser Tor U-Bahn stop — Möbel Olfe (Reichenberger Str. 177, Kreuzberg) and West Berlin (which feels like something special if only because it’s located in a former doctor’s office directly above a grocery store), to name a couple. Of course, the fun starts quite late in Berlin. When your guidebook tells you that the real party starts at Berghain (Am Wriezener Bahnhof, Friedrichshain) at 6 a.m., it is not exaggerating. Another good option if you don’t mind tight quarters is Das Hotel (Mariannenstrasse 26a), right off Paul Linke Ufer. In typical Berlin style, it is a space for drinking, dancing and even watching documentaries (while drinking). Then the brave who make it to Berghain at 6 a.m. will quickly realize why there is a no photography policy there.

MG: How do you find new music?
SO: I often turn to Hype Machine these days. Then I buy what I like and don’t buy what I never would have bought to begin with! I also pay attention to what my favorite artists recommend.

MG: For people just getting into techno, where should they begin?
SO: For the background story, I’d suggest they read Tobias Rapp’s book Lost in Sound, which was just published in Germany and will be published in English next year. It give a great overview of the techno scene in Berlin and the socio-political situation from which it emerged. Besides starting with some of the artists listed here and in the related Music+Travel piece, I often find it useful to check out the programs of music festivals throughout the world to find new artists. Berlin’s huge music convention / festival Popkomm was cancelled this year but is scheduled to happen again in summer 2010. Their previous programs are posted on their website, and we’ll just have to wait and see what lies ahead for next year.

MG: Is there an artist, album or venue that you wish more people knew about?
SO: I really like the minimalist sound of Ellen Allien (and give her credit for making it big in a field dominated by men). Am also a fan of the irregular beats and sometimes even melodic sound of Modeselektor. Plus they put on a pretty awesome live show!

photos courtesy Siobhan O’Leary

Techno Color: Berlin

Heather C — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 21:40:57 +0000

Berlin. The one place in the world where 24/7 clubbing and social activism meet face-to-face. Join Museyon Guide Siobhan O’Leary for a tour of Germany’s “poor, but sexy” capital, and find out why, some 30 years later, innovators of techno still come to the city where it all started. Hit up the Love Parade, dance at the legendary Tresor Club and discover a city that has survived a staggering amount of change, without ever losing its creative edge.

image: iStock