Unscene Berlin

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...

I knew Himmelfahrt, or Ascension day, had begun when I spotted a group of guys dressed as Superman drinking shots from a bar-on-wheels that they'd set up in front of Zoo station, at 10 a.m.  Just after my day finally ended at 10 p.m., I passed a group of crusty left wingers who were being taken on by an aggressive preppie.  (Apparently he thought that they said 'heil Hitler' to him, which is a pretty creative excuse for a punch-up).  Himmelfahrt is a supposedly religious public holiday in Germany.  In other Christian countries its a day for prayer but here, it's a day for getting nowhere on the trains because people keep falling in front of them piss-drunk, and starting fights on the platform; a day when people are spilling drinks on you left right and center, and you have a very high chance of witnessing or getting caught up in a mindless punch-up.  Basically, it's a special holiday set aside for the same tiresome behaviours we see daily on the evening ...

Despite the hipsters in clashing colours, the smoke-drenched greenery, the dance channels choked with urban debris, and soundclashes discharging like incendiary devices on every corner, this May Day was one of the most peaceful yet.  It was also one of the most homogenous, musically-speaking.  Barring a Balkan beats band and a speedcore rig (both of them found so late in the day that it was technically tomorrow already), the tech-house of yesteryear ruled the May Day of yesterday.   But Mindgrrrind, Anuki and Miss E all had a blast meeting, interviewing and photographing the approachable & articulate partiers descending on Kreuzberg for the workers' celebration.  Their comments left us all thinking hard about consumer culture, apathy and the ever-present 'gentrification' and more reports from those discussions are sure to follow. So, does Berlin's May 1st revel still have any rebels to speak of?   You be the judge! ...

  Friday April 27 23:30: After a determinedly lazy day of lounging on the balcony in the sunshine, I head out to meet a friend at an invite-only party organized by her old-school circle of techno friends...  00:00 ...but first, I swing by Magdalena in Ostbahnhof.  I wanna be one of the first people at tonight's Zero 2 Nine party because they're handing out 100 free CD's.  If it's Berliners they're fishing for, they've used the perfect bait: freebies! 00:55 Shiny, new CD in hand, I leave for Kreuzberg where my friend's party is.  It's pouring rain but I'm unfazed; rain is typical weather for London in spring... summer... fall... winter...  It's one thing I can handle it with hardly any drama.  Unfortunately, one can't say the same about your average Berliner.  After being nearly run over thrice by drivers who seem to be hunting down a sacrifice to the weather gods - maybe in the hope that my squashed body will move the heavens to tur...

Overconsumption: not pretty sight unless you're hipster, right? I've read that 21 Types of Hipster article that's gone viral in Berlin's English communities the past few days.  And I can't help noticing that the definitions in there embrace pretty much everyone I see in the streets - whether I'm in London, Barcelona or Berlin.  The faux-retro truckstop caps, teamed with designer plaid shirts, teamed with H & M shades that cost ten times what they look like they're worth, teamed with Diesel skinny jeans, teamed with pre-stretched American Apparel sweaters and sloppy, scruffed name brand trainers. You could say that the hipster trend is a 'diverse' style, embracing 80s glam, punk, metal, biker, disco, hippy and goth.  Hipsters, generally speaking, are people who seem to have too many teetering piles of zany, mismatched accessories & clothing laying around their funky coversion flat, unworn.  They've gotta be blase about how...

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...

In this interview, Mindgrrind settles the 'core' with Unscene Berlin , discussing her lov e of speedcore, splattercore, splittercore, breakcore, hardcore... basically, anything over 180 b pm! "You should never be told what you want, what to worship or who to be, yet in our society, we have been SOLD these ideals.  Do whatever makes your heart sing and sometimes it means sticking your middle finger up!" The green haired lead singer of Skat Injector is marauding around the stage with the mic, belting out a tirade of raw aural energy.   The restless crowd below her reels and ricochets off each other in a nonstop, chain-reaction of movement & sound.  To all appearances it is a punk gig, except for a few crucial details: the “stage” is actually the back of a sound system van at the Fuck Parade, one of Berlin’s biggest techno street parties.   While the drag queen's vocals belong in a grindcore band, the beats are machine-gun gabba.  Even the singer...