Unscene Berlin

As published in Siegesauele, May 2015 edition. May 1st is a time when the spirit of change grabs us. Across Europe, people used to celebrate the day by lighting bonfires to magnify the sun’s life force. From Beltane to Walpurgisnacht, modern versions of these same celebrations embody a pre-Christian tradition of burning out the old, bad energies of winter to make way for new ones in spring. As manmade systems slowly replaced nature as the governing force in our lives, these too were added to the list of things that people yearn to regenerate. Eventually, May 1st was even chosen as International Workers’ Day to symbolize the ongoing struggle for equality between the haves and the have-nots.   That may be why authorities tend to pour cold water on the May Day spirit: they’re afraid that they may get chucked on the fire to make way for something new. That seems to be what happened in Berlin on May 1, 1987 when police brutally clamped down on a pea...

The adjective "overrated" is often used in relation to Berlin's clubs, especially during the tourist high season . It' s the time of year when do zens of pop -up parties suddenly appear, run by peo ple who are in it for nothing but quick cash, an ego injection or the c hance to play God for a while .   To illust rate, I'm republishing this early party report written about an openair party I went to in Apri l 2011.  T he party happened on the site where Kosmonaut club now stands but it was under different management then , so any resemblance between th e old club and th e new one is purely coincidental.  B e warned: this review is so bad that it's almost good agai n (i f you know what I mean). Please don't bother reading past this point if you dis like that sort of thing !

Berlin's Thought Police in action You might have seen the footage on the news in the last few weeks of flack - jacketed cops milling around outside of one of Friedrichshain's playfully patchworked 'squats' (which aren't actually squats , anymore, although they once were). Y ou might have read a snippet of text or two, telling you about an attack on a passer -by in the street, and a raid o n a house.  The chances are very good, though , that you didn' t get the whole stor y of what actually happened in Rigaer Strasse.   I know I didn't.  So i n this po st, I'm going to share what I've learned about it so far.   According to the press, on January 13th , a police officer was a ttacked in   in Rigaer Strasse in North Friedrichshain .  Der Spiegel wrote that the injured officer in question " was overthrown, beaten and kicked to the ground" by four people who were " suspected" left wingers. "According to p...

The " Reclaim Kottbusser Tor " venue looks as good as SFB sounds Berlin's club scene may be gritty and psychedelic but it is also strangely predictable, and often awash in disco-y house sounds.  Searching for events that have an underground, experimental feeling to match their underground, experimental decor can be a lot like exploring a three-dimensional "Where's Waldo" p rint ( or maybe' you'd call it "Where's Weirdo" instead?).   When I went to my first Sounds for Berlin openair party over a year ago, I thought I'd found the kind of party crew I'd been looking for since my arrival in Berlin.  They were open-minded, openair, friendly and native to the city.  They had a high quality sound system and high-energy DJs who played an unpredictable but balanced mix of sounds: tech house, hard techno, chillout.  T here was even a bit of dark psytrance in there, somewhere.  So clearly they can walk the walk, do they talk the tal...

The experience of putting on my first party in Berlin lived up to its name - Mind Smear - because it left my mind feeling pretty smeared.  Anyone who's thinking of 'making party' for the first time in Berlin should do themselves a favour and read on, to find out and what I learned from my mistakes. 1) There are no norms in Berlin's party market. I was given venue rental quotes ranging from 60 Euros to 2000 Euros per party, and the venues ranged in size anything from a 20 sq. meter cellars with leaks, to sprawling, hypermodern spaces that rivaled Tate Modern. Unless your bestie owns a cool space, expect to spend up to half of your organizing time finding a venue making it just right for the guests. Also unique to Berlin: there seemed to be no universal method of getting in touch with venues.  Some club managers are contactable by telephone, others by email, Facebook, SMS, YouTube video, telepathy, interpretive dance...  At times, I seriously considered sp...