Unscene Berlin

There are two reasons why I haven't been blogging regularly about Berlin's party scene lately: one good, one bad.  The good reason is that I've been extremely busy plugging away at a book about the rise and fall (and rise again) of London's underground party scene.  I will be publishing that novel in E-book format this spring, with free excerpts and a special price for all Unscene Berlin readers.  Stay posted for updates! The 'bad' reason is that, to be honest, nothing much has changed in Berlin's party scene in a-g-e-s.  There are still tons of parties in Berlin every weekend, and they are still as cheap and liberal as ever, but the sound hasn't changed.  The DJ's haven't changed.  The venues and party names haven't really changed very much either.  Thrill-seeking novelty-junkies like myself are hard-pressed to find a fix in this town, these days.   I'm not saying there's anything wrong with a bit of consistency, but wh...

Unscene Berlin recently met with artist Penny Rafferty to talk about her new collective, Punk Is Dada.  What is Punk Is Dada, though?  Is it art, movement, festival or anti-fashion statement?  As it turns out, Rafferty’s not too sure herself.  That’s part of what makes it so exciting... Still from Punk Is Dada's new video 'Just F*ck It' Unscene Berlin first encountered Penny Rafferty, artist and co-founder of Berlin's Punk Is Dada collective, in December 2012.  She had organised an anti-consumerism Christmas spectacle at Mitte's ZMF club entitled Cult of the Personality .   Every product that was on offer at the event - from the clothing to the zines to the music by the drag dance band that played at the end - was created to articulate a clear viewpoint on a social or political issue that its creators believed in.  And not one of the artists involved in the event resorted to the textbook tedium of politic...

“Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before! What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. What if Christmas...perhaps...means a little bit more!”   Dr. Seuss, How the Grinch Stole Christmas For the New Year's party listing, please scroll down. If you believe that the mid-winter holidays are about sharing, relaxing and hanging with friends and family, you may be feeling a bit like a Cindy Lou Who in a world full of Grinches right now.  Every other news broadcast seem to be tracking pre-Christmas sales like they're the pulse of an ailing patient, and the unseasonably warm streets have emptied of people, while the artificially-lit sweat shops of Ku'damm et al are full of shoppers grimly chomping up deals like pie-eating contestants about to explode.  Not caring about money and, well, stuff at this time of year almost feels like sacrilege, and wanting to share for sharing's sake feels a little bit naive.  But if you...

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...

What a shame that Halloween falls on a Thursday this year.  Because it's right in the middle of the week, hardly any venues are doing silly theme parties.  That means I can't go overboard making naff puns about them like I've done in years gone by.   Actually, most of this week's party picks fall on Day of the Dead so they mostly have a deadly-serious tone to them: Gegen's Death party, Slaughterhouse, Burn the Machine and Dia de los Muertos.  Gegen Death. Kit Kat Club, Friday Nov. 2nd The name says it all: this month's Gegen will take Berlin back to the roots of Halloween by hosting a party on All Saint's night.  It's the moment in the season when everything in nature is both living and dead: live trees are shedding their leaves, living crops are getting the chop for harvest, and live Berliners bar-hopping and clubbing although their brains have shut down for winter; trawling the streets like so many trick-or-treaters in a candy-induced daze....

The Weird An increasing number of street artists in Berlin (and worldwide) seem to be putting up designs that are well executed and eye catching, but strangely lacking in meaning.  I'm not really sure why, but I find this unsettling.  Same goes for the many streetart prints that I have seen described as 'a piece for your living room' by decor websites and artists, alike.  Isn't streetart supposed to speak to the world ?  Or is it just there to make the world look more interesting?  I think that the answer is 'both'.  In either case, the living room is the wrong place for it. XOOOOX The relevance of streetart lies not in its aesthetic but in its ability to speak to passers-by via its aesthetic (and by passers-by I mean regular people too, not just art critics).  To do that, it should say something that 'everybody knows' but  they have never seen written or illustrated anywhere else.  Scrawling that view on the outside, underside or...

Members of the Big Six assembling outside of the Bundestag to plan our demise.  Just kidding: it's actually the Festival of Lights The skies are grey but colourful events are falling on us like the trees' leaves and brightening the streets of Berlin.  We'll start with the obvious one, the Festival of Lights , a two-week celebration of, well, lights.  It may be a cynical attempt to draw tourists to Berlin for a last minute cash-boost before winter sets in... but, well, it's free .  And it can be quite pretty, as well.  You may not want to say that in front of the Berghain bouncers, though; your street cred will go down the tubes. Check out the website on the link above for a listing of light shows across the city.  On until October 20th. Monsanto is a company that would like to see the world without any leaves, even if they're really pretty autumn leaves.  They are the proud manufacturers of the toxic defoliant Agent Orange, widely used during t...