Sonic Youth | No Discipline | Part II

Sonic Youth were never just whirring feedback and loads of distortion. For the past 27 years, this famous postpunk band was also a crystallization point for a network that goes from cool to artsy, from avant-garde to sectarianism, and is ambitious and multidisciplinary across all the arts. To shed light on the furthest reaches of this cosmos, an exhibition is currently touring through Europe: “Sonic Youth etc. – Sensational Fix.” We asked the curators and artists involved in the project for their own personal feedback. [Read more]

Sonic Youth | No Discipline | Part I

Sonic Youth were never just whirring feedback and loads of distortion. For the past 27 years, this famous postpunk band was also a crystallization point for a network that goes from cool to artsy, from avant-garde to sectarianism, and is ambitious and multidisciplinary across all the arts. To shed light on the furthest reaches of this cosmos, an exhibition is currently touring through Europe: “Sonic Youth etc. – Sensational Fix.” We asked the curators and artists involved in the project for their own personal feedback. [Read more]

Distance | “My Demons”

The name alone preserves distance. And British DJ and producer Distance is in fact regarded as a bit of a lone wolf by his colleagues. A brooder who didn’t give his debut the title “My Demons” entirely by chance. It was his buddy Jamie Vex’d (meanwhile living in Berlin) who at the time pointed Distance’s dark tracks out to Mike Paradinas whose predilection for twisted states on the floor had once with a certain inevitability made him into dubstep’s most important supporter. [Read more]

Franz Ferdinand

“Welcome to the Dada-Dancehall!”
Tonight: Franz Ferdinand. The title of the current, third album by the band from Glasgow recalls a time long past. A time when adjustable black letters on light-boxes announced the evening’s program highlights, lending a chic flair to even the trashiest joint. But first it’s about the everyday here and now. Today: Franz Ferdinand. In the interview with guitarist Nick McCarthy and drummer Paul Thomson in their German record company’s office. [Read more]

The Double Club | Congo and the West

Born in Brussels in 1961, artist and natural scientist Carsten Höller is mainly known for his large installations. We remember the Tate’s slides: giant, silver slides, which have  completely integrated their sliding visitors into the artwork since 1998. His current installation wants much more than that and much more than a single exhibition: “The Double Club” connects art and lifestyle, doubling everything in more ways than one. Or, as Höller would put it—half and half, half art and half non-art, half Congo and half West. [Read more]

The Rise of Jamaican Dancehall Culture

Ever since music has been produced in Jamaica, Jamaican music has been dancehall music. Ska arose from the need for hard rhythm & blues, that in the USA was replaced by rock’n’roll and soul, and for that reason was interpreted so distinctly by Coxsone Dodd’s studio musicians that a new style emerged with the characteristic offbeat accent. Ska– Jamaica’s first original pop music–was then slowed down one incredibly hot summer by rocksteady, which established the bass-heavy sound, shortly thereafter igniting the birth of reggae. And in whatever directions the music next developed, including roots and culture, deejaying and dub—the sound system was always the driving force, the seismograph of the audience’s needs, the speaker’s corner for many voices and opinions, test track and maiden flight for every technical innovation. So it’s actually misleading to speak of a dancehall era, because firstly reggae never was anything else and secondly this era continues through today. [Read more]

Mjunik Disco

“Mjunik Disco – München bei Nacht von 1949 bis heute” (“Mjunik Disco – Munich at Night from 1949 to Present”) promises parties with Giorgio Moroder, Beckenbauer and Thommi Gottschalk, but also with DJ Hell, F.S.K., Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Chicks On Speed. The book presents legendary Munich nightspots: ’50s rock’n’roll at the Cracker Box, punk at Lipstick and at Damage (immortalized by Rainald Goetz in his book “Irre”), disco at Sugar Shack, indie guitars at Club2 and the Atomic Café. Hairstyles, gestures, dance moves to the sound of vinyl: Sometimes you can’t help but laugh when you see some of the photos. [Read more]

Justice & Oizo | Bang your Ed

 

Hooligan disco” is a term Ed Banger’s head hool Pedro Winter likes to use to describe his label’s output, which has been dominating dancefloors for five years without wasting a lot of effort on decorum or political correctness. “If they were gay and had had a baby, I reckon I could be Rick Rubin and Timbaland’s son,” said the 33-year-old Parisian to the reporter from the English “Guardian.” But how Rubin and Timbaland could have an almost two-meter-tall, blond, lanky skater boy for a son—that would be something for genetic research to investigate. [Read more]

Do You Read Me?!

For some, the need to do things differently perhaps arises because the initial idea is too simple or just a mere copy. For others, the concept is indeed simple but good; the niche is there and a new cast is long overdue. So sometimes people fulfill dreams that not only make their cliental happy but the initiators as well. We can assume that Mark Kiessling (graphic designer and magazine buff) and Jessica Reitz (communications consultant and book buff) are very happy people at the moment. Half a year after deciding to launch a magazine store in Berlin, they have now opened “do you read me?!” in Berlin-Mitte. [Read more]

A New Career In A New Town

 

Much like Bob Dylan and Madonna, you could never really nail down David Bowie for being just himself. In his early days, he was a mod. He came to fame as the astronaut Major Tom, only to transform into the androgynous Ziggy Stardust and subsequently the Thin White Duke, before he finally adopted the role of an alien for Nicholas Roeg’s 1975 film “The Man Who Fell To Earth.” In the first decade of his career, Bowie was always somebody (or rather something) else. But in 1976, he shed all these theatrical skins to concentrate on the music: [Read more]