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Music, Friends, And What House Music Is All About

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!

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Posted 14 May 2008 † tobias lear § House Music ‡ Comments (0) °

Mix #04: April Mix Set

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
  • Motorcitysoul – Mango – Freerange

Go out, use the nice weather and enjoy the music!

Tobias Lear - April 08 Mix Set [ 1:08:48 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (2101)
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Posted 20 April 2008 † tobias lear § House Music § Podcast ‡ Comments (5) °

Short-term Gig at Chameleon

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.

 

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Posted 19 April 2008 † tobias lear § Events § House Music ‡ Comments (0) °

Saturday at Freizeit Lounge

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.

Freizeit Lounge
By Freizeit Lounge

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.

Kalei-doskop and Hektiker
By Freizeit Lounge

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!

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Posted 07 April 2008 † tobias lear § Clubbing § House Music ‡ Comments (0) °

See you tonight

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 ;).

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Posted 04 April 2008 † tobias lear § Events § House Music ‡ Comments (0) °

Friday at Watergate

LED ceiling at Watergate
By sourpix – cc 2.0

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.

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Posted 30 March 2008 † tobias lear § Clubbing ‡ Comments (0) °

Rediscovering vinyl

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.


By jem – cc 2.0

Well, finally here are some of my currently prefered tracks:

  • Mara Trax – Get Loose – Oslo
  • Andomat 3000 – Vertical Smile – Cecille
  • H.O.S.H – Steppenwolf (Anja Schneider Remix) – Diynamic
  • Guido Schneider & Jens Bond – In Order to Dance – Upon.You
  • Anthony Collins – Cannibale – Highgrade
  • Steve Bug – Momwack – Poker Flat

Well, and watch out for my upcoming mix set in the beginning of April!

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Posted 28 March 2008 † tobias lear § House Music § Vinyl ‡ Comments (0) °

Can you feel it

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.

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Posted 23 March 2008 † tobias lear § House Music ‡ Comments (2) °

Review: Dead Man’s Hand on Poker Flat

Poker Flat Compilation: Dead Man's Hand

I’m currently in Jena due to writing my thesis. Fortunately I found some time yesterday night to take a look at the local record store here in Jena – the Fatplastic (owned by Sören Bodner btw, one half of the Wighnomy Brothers). Finally it was time to listen to the new Poker Flat Compilation “Dead Man’s Hand”. I think this album shows once more a changing style in the musical direction of the whole label. Like the last two label compilations it prepares the listener to the of musical production depth of the upcoming releases. I will especially highlight three tracks:

The first is “Momwack” by Steve Bug. He self conducts to produce with more analog utilities, to get away from so many similar productions by other artists that try to copy his sound and at the end sound like Steve Bug. In my opinion this track is a good step in this direction. I still waiting for his next artist album, but looking on his busy DJ schedule I think we still have to wait for some months.

The second track is “Nightmare” by Tokio based Ryo Murakami. Man, this guy definitely rocks!! Already his first appearance “My Soul” on Steve Bug’s second imprint Dessous in late 2007 was a bomb and also his release on the Japanese label Kawaya was quite good, and “Nightmare” follows his musical pattern of rough minimal hypnotic vibes. I also looking forward to his first own EP on Poker Flat coming around April/May.

The third recommendation is “Here & Now” by D’julz. The French producer from Paris shows us how to produce a percussive minimal house track that heats up the dance floor to banish the Winter at the same time. A track for lukewarm Summer nights.

Thus no question, that I’ve bought it at the end. Be prepared to hear some of these tunes at Saturday :)

Buy this album as vinyl/CD or in digital form.

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Posted 14 March 2008 † tobias lear § Reviews ‡ Comments (0) °

Mix #03: Beats and Magic

Ok, finally it’s here – the next mix set. A littler later as I promised, I still had to fight with some effects of the last weekend. I’ve compiled and mixed this set exclusively for my friend (sort of a gift), whose party at Saturday night ripped me off a little bit ;) Anyway, there are really cool records from late 2007 and also great new stuff from early 2008 in it, to form a nice reflection on the electronic club music of the last Winter season, preparing for the upcoming Spring.

My personal favorite by the way, is the last but one track. It’s Redshape’s “Unfinished Symmetry”, a masterpice of detroit techno!

Tracklist:

  • Luna City Express – CDG – Upon.You
  • Anthony Collins – Bricolage – Liebe*Detail
  • Dennis Ferrer & Mia Tuttavilla – Touched The Sky (Joe’s Dub Beats) – Defected
  • Martin Buttrich – Hunted – Cocoon
  • Gel Abril – The Underground Bullshit – Ovum
  • Coming Soon – Yeah – EC Records
  • Simon Baker – Plastik – Playhouse
  • Lee Curtiss – Over The Influence – Dumb Unit
  • Gaiser – Withdrawal – Minus
  • Office Gossip – Carbon Copy – Winding Road
  • Phonogenic – Future Bass (Sasse Remix) – Mood Music
  • Nivek Tsoy – New Galaxy Love – Dessous
  • Petre Inspirescu – Camera Deep – Vinyl Club
  • Redshape – Unfinished Symmetry – Present
  • Jamie Lloyd – May I (Quarion Remix) – Future Classic

Remember, that I’m playing at the Chameleon this Saturday. I hope to see some of you there! (Here is the event announcement from last week)

Tobias Lear - Beats and Magic Mix [ 1:04:22 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (1575)
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Posted 11 March 2008 † tobias lear § Podcast ‡ Comments (0) °