Attention folks, the start of the Summer is going to be hot! I will celebrate my birthday at the 21th of June with two nice gigs. The starting shot will be given at Friday, the 20th of June, when I'm going to play in the Freizeit-Lounge together with audiOptix DJ Team aka Kalei-doskop and Plaste. Many of my friends have already confirmed to come. We will celebrate into my birthday, and you are all very, very welcome!
At Saturday, the 21th of June I'm going to play in the Zebra -- a nice cocktail bar and open air location for hot Summer nights! The perfect location though to keep on dancing into the Summer!
Event Schedule:
Friday, 20.6. - Cafe Electronique @ Freizeit-Lounge (Luckenwalde), 10 p.m.
Tobias Lear vs. audiOptix DJ Team
Saturday, 21.6. - Tanz in den Sommer @ Zebra (Luckenwalde), 9 p.m.
Tobias Lear, B-nito
I really looking forward to this and hope to see all of you at those nights, or at least at one of those ;)
Besides the neverending stream of records and large amount of singles currently coming out, there are also many albums being released these days. I wan to take the chance to present five selected albums which are worth to listen to.
1. Shonky - Time Zero - Freak n' Chic:
I've first heard of Shonky in 2006, when he did a wonderful remix of Anja Schneider's "Rancho Relaxo" along with Jennifer Cardini. Later the French DJ and producer also released the 12" inch "August In Paris / Lies" on Anja's mobilee label together with Jennifer. With other releases on Resopal Red and Freak n' Chic he developed his sound to a deep but functional experience of dark rhythms, bleepy patterns, always tribalistic and hypnotic. Recently he released his debut album "Time Zero" on Freak n' Chic. The 10-track work is the perfect profile of his skills to produce a great mixture of darkness and deepness, which I really like. My favorite tracks are the tribal "Nebula" with this neverending, hypnotic beat and "Ondulation" which continuosly rises to a ghostly and spacy athmosphere.
Shoky - Nebula:
Shonky - Ondulation:
2. Falko Brocksieper - Heavy Day - Sub Static:
Falko Brocksieper, co-founder of Sub Static, released his first album in 2003. Since then he only released a few 12", but a couple of remixes, with the remix of Daypayk & Padberg's "Close Up" being one of the best I think. On his second "Heavy Day", which is coming out these days album, Falko presents his qualities for funky, light-weighted rhythms. His tracks are well aranged and have a special athmosphere, which he creates with characteristic and fancy synthesizer sounds. The secret gems in my eyes are "Private" and "Zychological".
Falko Brocksieper - Private:
Falko Brocksieper - Zychological
3. Argy - Focus On: Argy - Poker Flat:
Greek raised, now Berlin based DJ and producer Argy already released a couple a great 12" on well-known, influencing labels like Poker Flat, Cocoon, Raum...musik or Liebe*Detail. On Poker Flat he is now coming up with a special album. "Focus On: Argy" is full of exclusive collaborations with some of the most skilled house producers. Argy is known for his deep, sexual and techy productions, where he's building up a special atmosphere, that heat up the dancefloor. On his debut album Argy takes his skills to another level and works together with producers like Solomun, Jerome Sydenham, The Mole or Maral Salmassi. The tracks are mostly transporting a percussive, housy flair leading to warm - sometimes tribal - and athmospheric sounds. My favorite is the funky "Cantstandlovegetaway", a collaboration with The Mole.
Argy & The Mole - Cantstandlovegetaway:
Addition: For those of you, who simply can't get enough of Argy's producer skills or who just enjoy listening to his sounds, there's a free download of Argy's "Poke Her Flat" at the official Poker Flat Argy promotion page.
4. Anja Schneider - Beyond The Valley - mobilee:
Who doesn't know Anja Schneider? After her successive radio show "Dance Under The Blue Moon" on Radio Fritz she is still doing, she found her own label "mobilee" together with Ralf Kollmann in 2005. Well-booked and playing the clubs around the globe recently she is now releasing her debut album "Beyond The Valley" on mobilee. The tracks on "Beyond The Valley" wait on with suprising sound architecture, which I had never expected after knowing Anja's last releases. Although some of the tracks seems frisky through special sounds she is using for patterns and shapes, they always stay dance floor oriented. My favorite is "Gimlet", which is a very straight forwarded track, with an uplifting beat structure.
Anja Schneider - Gimlet:
5. Loco Dice - 7 Dunham Place - Desolat
Loco Dice's first artist album - produced in NYC together with no one else than Martin Buttrich - persuades one with an intelligent mixture of soulful deepness and housy grooves. I've actually expected an album that looks about a more minimal, and more techier flair. But anyway, Loco Dice comes up with a quite good expression of US-house and European minimalism. My favorite tracks are "La Esquina" which is constructured around a nice piano arrangement as well as "How Do I Know?!" with a funky and groovy dancefloor orientation.
Loco Dice - How Do I Know?!:
Loco Dice - La Esquina:
You can buy all theses albums or single tracks as digital downloads at What People Play and Beatport as well as the physical vinyl or CD versions of the albums at Decks or Web-Records.
Last Sunday I had my last gig at this event series. That night was a good example of how people contribute to the music by communicating with the DJ. Although there weren't much people overall that night, a couple of friends joined me.
It's simply amazing how friends influence me in making music, in making decisions which track to play next. They are dancing although there's no dancefloor, showing me, that the current tune exactly meets their mood. They are making jokes, if a their don't like a track that much. They pretty give me something back I try to give them by playing records and making music.
And this is what I mean. Communication through music, having fun together, staying with friends. And house music is an important part of the whole thing. Thanks to my friends!
Well, I finally did it: the Magic Through Music April mix set is available to listen. Sorry for the delay! Unfortunately it took a while.
I hope that your listening pleasure will be worth the wait :) The mix includes some brand new releases, like Ryo Murakami's new EP on Poker Flat and the Tiger Stripes Remix of Lee Jones' "Aria" as well as a few older records from mid and late 2007. It's a cut of one of my favorite tracks at the moment.
Tracklist:
Andy Stott - Made Your Point - Modern Love
Argenis Brito - Amplified - Cadenza
Gruber & Nürnberg - Our Feeling - Lorna
Stimming & H.o.s.h. - Radar - Diynamic
Guido Schneider & Jens Bond - In Order to Dance - Upon.You
Lee Jones - Aria (Tiger Stripes Remix) - Aus Music
Westpark Unit - Proper Thang - Farside
Dan Berkson & James What - Indigo - Poker Flat
Jon Cutler & Matthias Heilbronn - 651 - Distant Music
Nivek Tsoy - Time & Space - Dessous
Eve White - He Said / She Said
Ryo Murakami - Down The Sky - Poker flat
Rene Breitbarth - Le Rythme Korg (Westpark Unit Remix) - Dessous
Surprisingly a friend of my skipped his tonight DJ gig at Chameleon and asked my to take over. So, there will be a short-term gig at Chameleon tonight. I've no extra time to prepare some specials, instead I'll simply take the newest records I bought yesterday at the record store and we will see what the night will bring ;) Such improvising performances really can be fun -- well, must be fun!
Hope to see you tonight!
Regarding the April mix set: I've already recorded it and will be posting it tomorrow.
Well, I'm not a usual fan of the anual tavern night at my home town. That's because of two main things: first, the music played is not the kind of style I really like (very un-electronic) and second I simply dislike being in a general tavern. Saturday was kinda different, since a new bar called Freizeit Lounge joined this year's procedure, promoting to serve electronic music. Of course, one good reason for me to go there.
The Freizeit Lounge - opened in March - is a small, comfortable bar in an arches-like location. Having a dance floor and a nice arrangement of settees makes it a good location for alternative events, lounge nights as well as providing a base for local artists of multiple music styles. And the more minimalistic arrangement (in positive sense) is also suitable for electronic music.
At Saturday three DJs have played - Kalei-doskop, Play and Hektiker. The night started with some older vocal house tracks: pretty good grovin' and danceable of course. I'm actually not the huge fan of vocal house, although I still own some vocal house records from the days I began to buy records, but it was quite nice listening to this style though after a long time. The crowd was also pretty cool. I also met some old friends there, but the most suprising thing was, that Kalei-dokop (the owner of the bar) was a former classmate of mine :) The longer the night the more electro records were played by both Kalei-doskop and Hektiker, who then were performing a ping-pong set, and also serving well known tech-house classics like Steve Bug's "Loverboy" from 1997 (man this record is 11 years old and still rocks!) and Guido Schneider's "As Dry As I Can" from 2003, both on Poker Flat.
My night ended around 6:30 a.m. after enjoying a nice breakfast (still being at the lounge) with the last few people. I know that this wasn't the end at all, so be prepared for a long night if you go there ;)
Altogether it was a great night with good music, relaxing people and with old and new friends. Definitely not the last time I was there! Check out the upcoming events at the Freizeit Lounge!
This is just a short post, since I'm playing at the Chameleon tonight from 9 p.m. and have to prepare some records. Tonight's special is about a musical journey from Detroit to Tokio, so be prepared to hear some classics of Chicago house, Detroit techno and special tunes from Japanese artists of eletronic music. In between the latest stuff of the club scene of course. Let's see if I will make the balancing act ;).
A good friend of mine asked me to join him to go to the Faces, a rough night club that is famous for its Thursday night parties starting at 6 am to end up in the late evening, a good choice though when leaving the Wednesday Tresor party and you actually don't wanna quit yet. We'd planned to go to the Faces last Friday, but appaerently the club was closed that night. Their website doesn't seem to be that up to date.
After discarding one club after another as a compromise (we were a group of one girl and five guys, and had to find a club with a moderate door policy) we've tried our luck at the Watergate. The last time I was in the Watergate was around 2004/05. And it's also while ago, since I was in a Berlin club.
The wating line wasn't that long, so we were waiting just for about 5 minutes. Thanks to the anonym girls in front of the club, who helped us joining the club as fake couples ;)
Inside the Watergate we were first checking out the Water Floor, where The Cheapers aka Ruede Hagelstein and Fraenzen Texas were playing a 12 hour ping pong set. Fast checking the schedule of that I explored, that Mitja Prinz was playing in the upper LED floor. Since my last time here, they've rebuilt this floor with a nice arrangement and freaking, long spread ceiling with thousands of LEDs, controlled by a VJ. I've already hear about the LED lights and also saw some videos, but you have to check out this thing in real time! It's simply gorgeous!!!
Mitja Prinz played an fine grained techhouse set with some darker influences, which generally was interessting to me. Most of the tracks he played were unknown to me, either brand new or unreleased stuff, or records I still not know. Two tracks I definitely remember were Konrad Black "Medusa Smile" and Spektre "Capacitor" (a relatively new one). After him Scarlett Etienne, an upcoming female DJ from London started between 3 and 3.30 am. I really liked the first few records, that she was playing. It was interesting that both were playing with digital setups and vinyl emulation, Mitja with N.I. Traktor Scratch (a software that also Steve Bug and Ritchie Hawtin are using) and Scarlett with a - to me - unknown software.
We (a friend and I) left the club at around 4 am, which means, that the night wasn't so long for a Berlin club night ;) Maybe the next one will last longer, since I plan to visits the Pokerflat label night at the Watergate in April.
Here are some tracks I'm currently listen to and which I probably will also use in upcoming sets. I've bought most of them as digital download without having a real vinyl record in backup. Once I decided to play with Final Scratch a couple of years ago I tended to buy only digital tracks online, but since I was in a real brick and mortar record store again, I rediscovered my love for real vinyl. This does not intend to pray for vinyl as the one-and-only thing, since offering digital downloads makes much sense for independent labels, as this article from Ronan Fitzgerald well explains. Also the alleviation of only carrying a laptop and a small bag instead of lugging around cases of records must not be underestimated, especially for musicians that are booked a lot and have much to travel (Side note: I only playing with FS because I'm lazy :) ). But like many DJs I'm also a lover of the music, which (in my case) implies to collect some touchable records.
This posting is a little music lesson: Back in the good old days of the mid and late 80's, when the electronic music scene of Chicago house already brought a few classics that are still played today and Detroit techno was in it's infants, the three guys Larry Heard, Robert Owens and Ron Wilson produced the track "Can you feel it" under their synonym Fingers Inc. Released in 1988 the track expresses the feelings and the passion of the whole underground scene, a little movement in the area of Chicago and Detroit that should fastly influenced other musicians in Europe back in these days. Today "Can you feel it" stands for the addiction and devotion of people for house music and Heard, Owens and Wilson are legends of the electronic music of Chicago house.
Unfortunately I'm not allowed to show you the video with the original recording with some photos of the three guys, but I show you how this record still works today. Presented you by no one else than Steve Bug, who - in the video - played it as the last track in his set:
At Sunday, March 30th Larry Heard will be playing an afternoon set in the famous Berghain/Panoramabar in Berlin. I think we can expect an outstanding set of house music, maybe bringing this passion back for a few hours.
That this track also influences producers and musicans can be seen in the outstanding case of the Christian Prommer. The Munich based producer recently released his album "Drum Lessions" on Sonar Kollektiv, where he succesively proves to transform well known tracks of electronic music of the last 20 years into the space of Jazz with the help of drums and percussive elements. Part of this experiment is of course "Can you feel it". Last Thursday Prommer and his live band were playing in the Lido in Berlin.
The second video shows Prommer and his band performing "Can you feel it" in their interpretation and without losing the charme and the soul of the original. Pretty awesome! The performance was made at the 10th anniversary party of the Sonar Kollektiv record label.
