Unscene Berlin

DAVE the Drummer Breakxit's   organiser Liam always manages to put together a lineup that lures Berlin's lurking, seditious UK expats out of their various nooks and crannies around the city. His third Berlin  event  will pull together many strands of the UK's dance music underground, to produce the sonic equivalent of one of those contemporary art pieces that looks like it's exploding and coalescing, all at once. DAVE The Drummer  will be headlining, this time around. Even before the days when  Hydraulix records were sticking up at the front of everyone's DJ bags, DAVE the Drummer's reputation was already affirmed by the very full dance floors that faced him wherever he went. With an almost mischievous, straight face, he'd transform digitally altered beats into legit percussion sections, live or in the mix. Henry, as he's known by partiers and non partiers alike, lives up to his DJ name well: he's also a serious drummer  - a skill that...

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 !

The terrace at Space in Ibiza: a universe of its own I've just returned from Ibiza, where the peak of dance music history seems to have been permanently etched on the island's landscape, like those erratic, angular hills which crisscross its terrain.  Idealistic impossibilities seems impossibly easy in Ibiza; take, for example, the gravity-defying ease with which its club scene seems to have sustained the idealistic highs of Balearic rave, nearly three decades after the fact.  And that is despite the influx of new blood, new ideas and new music that's flooded it every summer since the original Summer of Love.  That's quite a feat. Everywhere else you go in the world, time seems to move on restlessly, leaving its golden moments in the dust to chase after the possibility of something shinier around the next corner, buying what's newest at the cost of what was best.  Ibiza meanwhile, has found its single idyllic moment and i...

" Gegen U will turn you inside out only to reveal that your intestines are made of beautiful carnivorous flowers." I ask you, with media packs like these, who needs nightmares to keep them awake at night? Gegen seems to be the David Lynch of the club scene: it scripts both the scenery and the soundtrack that makes our subconscious wanna squelch into the slimelight . To get to their party this Friday, simply follow the chalk sidewalk arrows from S/U Bahnhof Frankfurter Allee and then listen for the sound of boundaries collapsing and intestines... er, blossoming. Unlike the upcoming Souterrain party at Stattbad, most of Berlin's really underground parties don't bother advertising the fact in their name. Check this one out at Scharnweberstr. 38 in Friedrichshain if you love techno and hate to revel without a cause. The Antira benefit features some of those lovely, militant about:blank's DJs too. C.R.A.S.H. is doing techno & dubstep this Saturday...

Is there really a 'war' between the sexes? Depends how you define war. If you define 'war' as an armed conflict between two groups of people who already have lands, rights and freedoms of their own, then there isn't any war between the sexes. In a 'war' both sides usually have access to weapons and defence training of some kind. Both sides are usually fighting to defend resources or rights that they have been granted by laws or traditions that they defined themselves. The struggle for gender equality is not like this at all: it has been led by women whom, until recently, could not even enter the military; who started off with no rights, freedoms, lands, laws or even elected leaders of their own. And how many 'wars' have you heard of where the victors simply want to work WITH their opponents and earn equal pay, or live with them in peace? The 'war' between the sexes is not really a war. If anything, it's a popular revolution; a mode...

If you are reading this in the hopes of finding some hot tips on Berlin Music Week or BMW for short (cute acronym) then I am afraid that you have come to the wrong place. My reasons for ignoring such a huge event are practical: this blog is based on my personal experience and I could not attend half of the offical BMW parties myself, not even if I was magically bestowed with the stamina of a 20-something and an unlimited supply of drugs and cash. There are many other websites covering the festival though, if that's what you're into. On with the preview, then! Above: Stattbad Wedding by Celine Gaulke . The event that I am looking forward to the most this weekend is the Re-opening of Stattbad Wedding . I have never been there before but its reputation precedes it. I'm eager to verify the rumours and continue exploring the fresh sights and sounds which are emerging from Wedding.

East of Ostkreuz and south of Frankfurter Allee lies a white-washed shanty-town of factories, cobblestone streets and rubble-strewn sidewalks. It's a blank spot on the map, sandwiched between Friedrichshain, Lichtenberg and Rummelsberg. Lately I’ve been trying to think of a new name to fill in that blank: Ostenberg? Frankenkreuz? The area might not have quite the same exotic catchet as Kreuzkolln (another trendy Berlin borderland) but it does have its own niche to pull in the crowds: after-hours clubs. Frankfurter Allee and Ostkreuz S-bahn stations mark the eastern boundaries of Friedrichshain. They are the last exits to clubland for partiers who simply cannot face going home yet... and if the solid afterhours scene in this area is anything to go by, there are more people who can't face it than there are who can. Salon Zur Wilden Renate (which I have already covered here ) ://about blank, KILI Lounge, K-Pax and a few more ad hoc venues are located a few minutes' ...