Lately discussed developments in contemporary art - no generally binding form at all and thus sooo 21st century - versus contemporary “dance” music - very strict/ conservative form and thus sooo 20th century - with friends, among them Harry Seldom btw. Afterwards felt the need to expose what happens to a poor DJ in the sophisticated art worlds, visiting the Documenta 12 in Kassel. You know, this mega art event which takes place every five (!) years only in this forlorn place… please, read on, it starts now:

Kassel-town, northern Hessen, middle Germany.

Yo, dis is da brother Zuck form da label Stalking Go Go Girls. We spared no money no hardship but left one of those famous Berlin weekends behind to go where no DJ has gone before, Kassel-town, norther Hessen, middle Germany. No Weekend Club roof, no Panne Bar, no afterhour, no eatin’-out at Goldener Hahn. Not even electronic music. Just(ice) art. Actually an art marathon. If not the “iron man” of all such art shows. Plus, pedagogy everywhere. That’s what they Germans call “Betroffenheit” I hear. Say me my German sista Heidi who has brought me poor DJ man here. And at night only a poor Salsa Club to serve the Party hungry crowds (uhm, where are they in Kassel town, northern Hessen, middle Germany?). So when we arrive at a time when in Berlin they all do their jumpstyle it’s only ’bout 4 couples left dancin’ - very well dancing’ though. I wonder why you rarely find such hot, tire burning’ chicks in these so called “cool” Berlin clubs. Oh-my-ass…

For that latter concerning da art shows, you better go Art Basel Miami Beach man, there you get da full package ma man. Basel is all about da money and Miami all about tits - and it shows, plus the partying hard after. Cool with me even if I not invited play there (yet - word for it!). But Documenta, Kassel-town, northern Hessen, middle Germany. Not again my friend. I rather stay home and spank Heidis behind as these German Fräulein’s like it. Yo! Over and out from da hypnotic minimalist Doc Zuckermann.

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Justice - Love (or) Hate. These are the two only alternatives with those French Touch re-visited all digesting hyped-up Disco diggers. Or let’s say, sometimes it’s both. Although we loved that famous Simian Mobile Disco’s ‘Never be alone’ thing, we actually hate ‘Dance’. There is no other word for it. Although it has the same catchyness, and even a somehow similar beat, it is just pure crap. Like so often with music, doing the right beat it walking on the raser’s edge, really. So yeah, ‘Dance’ the song is just so banal, it hurts. The actually nice idea with the children choir get’s really enervating after about 20 seconds (and that’s shorter than in some other real cheesy pop tunes, let’s say by a certain Justin Timberlake, but ok, the man is being re-worked and re-musceled by a certain Mr. Timbaland, so here we are in for some musical brains). And now for something completely different:

Cause we just looove the ‘Dance’ video. It’s perfectly cool and modern, and so reduced and sooo abundant, and so CGI and so simply analogue, and all at the same same time that it hurts too. But this time because it’s so f***in’ good. Even my girlfriend who is into Björk, urgh, was instantaneously caught by it.
So there you go my friend - LOVE HATE.

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Very interesting producer! Never heard of him before, but these Romanians are up and coming anyway they say;-)
I didn’t listen to “Carbon” DJ mix yet but checked his own productions on his myspace site. And yeah, his “Midnight” is a real original and kicking Minimal House track. Clever, surprising and full of interesting ideas. The future of minimal (= dead for now)?

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“Thanks for the hint (about the site). Unfortunately their are no girls at all to be found on the site”.
Comment by Emir on http://audioblogging.wordpress.com.

Our retaliation:

“we are working on the girls;-)
For now you’ll find a number of thrilling articles about music and club culture instead. Plus some up-and-coming releases soon.
check it! (so much about house advertising:).”

Uh, Emir, what we forgot to mention: girls you’ll find a lot on the web - just gooooogle, man ;-))

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Since you’ll find that mentioned in the post down below, it had to come out BIG!-;

An iLight (pronounced the way French do:) of this new dance music melange thing hit Berlin one of those last weekends (finally I have some time for writing this…). But before we come to the real act of the night, the now in Brasil Circus Company label boss Sety played a nice warm-up set, upfront minimal but groovy. That is until he started to play some of the great classics of House music, including Jaydee’s ‘Plastic Dreams‘, hmmm…

Anyway, then NOZE rocked the Panoramabar even better and for real good. And in a manner rather untypical for an “electronic music” live act. And we don’t only mean the awesome manerisms of the show. For example the by now rather notorious half-strip of those gentlemen, but also the reactions of the audience. The thing felt like a mixture of a rock concert and a boygroup event. People just freeeeaked out and behaved like it. So it was not only packed to the max but the only thing actually lacking was a stage diving by the artists. But how do you stagedive over a huge, awe inspiring mixing desk in front of you? Well, at least here, Noze didn’t prove to be reeealy upfront.

Other than that, they are. It’s the hottest, sleaziest act, this town (yes, you hear me - Berlin!) saw for a long time. And we are talking music this time. Their ‘Kitchen’ track is not just the burner which Tom Waits sometimes came close, but never really made it to, but every single girl in the room seemed to know the, uhm, a bit adolescent boy-style lyrics (”come, come - and follow ME, we’ll have some FUN. I’ll make YOU come, ALL night looong” - all sung with a pretty charming french touch). Just another proof, that machism is dead (and feminism with it) - the girls liked it.

To come back to the music, Noze ironic, and full of clever references approach is just marvellous. Mainly because even if you think of Tom Waits’ voice sometimes while the singer yells hoarsely into his mic, lots of other influences can be heard, namely, Chanson, Reggae, Gypsy music, Pierre Schaeffer and… humor. But the point is, you never really think of those genres or of citations, but all this does, is to melt into an ingenious blend that can only be called “Pop” (in a very advanced sense of the word). Plus the state-of-the-art minimal beats (i.e. ‘Piano’). It’s all just becomes completely ‘nozy’, even if you wonder about that carnival piano sound in the background sometimes. Finally “House” that doesn’t take itself too seriously - what a refreshing feeling in my, uhm, noze.

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WOW!!! What A-list. You guys must have been digging the crates deeeep…
I agree on a lot of this selection of yours, particularly on NOZE, NOZE and NOZE I saw their live in Berlin’s Panoramabar (THE Berlin club experience iykwim) and it was just miiiind…well, whistlin’ (the only thing left in the frenzy was some stagediving by the half naked artists). then the very, very elegant Alex Under, almost always a yery good bet. And yeah, Shackleton!!!!! all these exclamation marks reflect his surreal “bassyness” btw. And not to forget: DJ Koze for president!!!

On my personal “i rather not agree” list: Serafin & Roman Bruderer - i never really got all the hype about some Cadenza artist anyway (Thomas Melchior beeing the one great exception). Then Karma (forget Compost, these guys are from Munich - uh, just a Berlin joke;-).

But anyway, before this gets too long and since you have them on your list too, if you find the time you might want to read my review on this Junior Boys - Like A Child/Double Shadow (Carl Craig & Kode 9 Mixes) release, incidentally just posted on our blog: www.stalking-gogo-girls.net.

cheers and keep up that crazy good work!

Zuckermann from Berlin town

Original Post (also check for further comments)

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Wow, being a Berliner made me always wonder if i ever could live in places where going out permanently meant to end club nights force(!)fully between 5-7 a.m. Because here in Berlin, there are just no limits; start on Friday nights, end on Monday evenings - and it sometimes can get worse…

But that also means: no end-of-night-tunes since you’ll often end up in places where, even if you can’t go on anymore, the music just won’t stop. And I bet, at nights like that even a Michael Mayer would have never dreamed of dropping that wonderful 80ies tune at the end of his set (!).

Since I don’t go out as much anymore either these days, it might be a good time to move someplace else again. Berlin is just no place for any wonderful “ending” experiences - only for new beginnings…

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A warning before you read this review, it is written by a real fan. And although we don’t like the obvious 80ies sounds in a lot of other artists (even today, where the end of Electro Clash became history already), here they don’t appear to be mere and empty quotations but something new, fresh and original. If you don’t fear more eulogy, read on…

So, yeah, a word about those wonderful Junior Boys. Last year when their album ‘So This Is Goodbye’ came out, it probably was the most consoling experience for all those souls which had been left by their lovers. To name but one possible dimension of their truly enchanting music. Then came the Sonar Festival Barcelona 2007. And although the sound on the main stage was not the best, the Junior Boys somehow lived up to their studio recordings, giving the whole thing a bit more of a dancefloor feel in the process.

So anyway, then I just happen to stumble across a bunch of Junior Boys remixes marked Promo CDM - whatever for. So yeah cool, there we have an ingenious Hot Chip RM of my almost all-time favorite ‘In The Morning’. And although Hot Chip do a good job here (like most of the time, they’re just cool geezers themselves), they don’t make it up to the hights reached by Alex Smoke’s RM (not on this CD) of that very same song. The Smoker makes a real dance hymn out of the rather thoughtful and poppy original - he manages that by not only putting a cool, state-of-the-art beat underneath the melodic arcs, but creates a track that comes across as truly organic. As if it would be an original composition in the fist place - maybe by a yet unknown Border Community artist. The Hot Chip approach is more subtle though - more fiddly and idiosyncratic if you wish. More listening than dancing for sure, but then…
And although we have a really nice, dubby Kode 9 RM plus a quite mediocre RM by Tensnake, an artist I never heard of before, the other highlight of that particular disc certainly is Carl Craig’s adaptation. What a journey from a very simple, but endlessly hypnotic opening beat towards a clever escalation and some quite surprising turnarounds (simple voice delays on one word for example). This definitely sounds remix - unlike the Alex Smoke track. But one which is crafted to a minimalist perfection only a few people reach these days, among them Radio Slave or Ricardo Villalobos.
So listen up your DJs with a poetic disposition, get these three remixes and both, the Berlin Panoramabar minimalist geek and the Stockholm glamour girl WILL follow you.

This DJ and listening recommendation brought to you by Zuckermann

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