Heard In Berlin

Heard In Berlin

10 August, 2009 | 4.53AM

• Written by: Terry Church
• Filed under: Music News: dj charts, heard in berlin

Exit Kottbusser Tor U-bahn station in Berlin on a Friday night and you’ll find a normal city, winding down its work week, gearing up for the weekend.

Enter the Festsaal venue opposite, past the Poopsy Club sign, by the till boy with an undercut, across the urban garden with its wooden picnic tables and bar that only serves beer, down the concrete steps to the basement, through the cold corridor with its graffitied walls and solitary red light, into the swinging black doors, beyond the kissing skinhead lesbians, over the crumpled plastic cups, and you’ll find two painted men in balaclavas, stiletto heels, and corsets, shouting.

They are Petra Flurr, an “immoral and decadent” duo who could best be described as queer punks. They scream into microphones in German, as hardcore electro beats in speakers try to escape. Their performance is wild and bizarre, like circus clowns singing Sex Pistols’ hits in a karaoke bar on acid.

The act that follows pops balloons to thrash metal - it’s that kind of place.

More familiar sounds arrive later as dirty house and techno keeps shadows moving, in the darkness. The soon-to-be huge Fred Falke & Teff Ballmert ‘Chicago’ comes on.

“Chicago, Chicago, what ya gonna do in Chicago?” is already a summer chant for Berlin house aficionados.

The Windy City theme continues with ‘Let’s Break’ as Soundstream’s house spirit shines proudly through the pure, enchanting rhythms. The party unfolds briskly in its hi hats.

The amassed collection of extroverts and deviants, symbolically and figuratively underground, seem happy to dance to anything, even Nathan Fake’s collapsing goliath ‘Basic Mountain’, a euphoric tech breaks monster that falls apart, quite spectacularly, out of tune.

Reade Truth’s wonky electro vocals on ‘Another Dilemma’ later play, sounding like they were made just for Poopsy Club. It sings, “I have no idea why I am the way I am...now it’s time to play the game and there you are just acting cool, no strings attached...”. The vocals distort and twist off into familiar sound FX oblivion.

Later Kolombo’s remix of his own track ‘LOL’ laughs uncontrollably as funky tribal-disco beats clap with approval. Its backed up, like a stumbling muscle man, by Lee Curtiss’ solid floor-filling groove ‘Whatcha Need’ (Raw Cut).

It takes a dirty kebab and a drunken cycle home to get the curtains in this house straight again.

Two days later, there’s an unexpected Berlin sight, as a beach party with golden sand, bikinis, and glorious sunshine unfolds lazily via minimal techno beats.

Berlin Beach Break, a one-off event organised by local promoters Stadt Strand Fluss, lucked out with the weather. A few early birds gather as Perlon’s Zip plays Motor City Drum Ensemble ‘Frontin’.

Later Dan Bell plays a live set, that includes some of his most memorable techno sounds including ‘Spock’s Brain’ and ‘Losing Control’, that are segued effortlessly into raw techno loops.

As the sun inches slowly towards the horizon, the perfect afternoon summer cut Baeka ‘Right At It’ plays out.

There is much peace to be found in the gently soothing chords of ‘Right At It’, as there is funk to play with in Newworldaquarium’s deluxe deep house track, called fittingly ‘Trespassers’, because you felt like one, as you danced with the sand between your toes, near a city whose clubs blossom in the once dilapidated power stations and empty factories of an era, gone but not forgotten.

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