‘Music’ Archives
Justin Bieber’s “Slowth Spurt”
Berlin-based music writer Philip Sherburne explores Slow Music via Justin Bieber's U Smile... August is always a slow news cycle, so it's somehow fitting that this month's big viral sensation was about a really slow song. The song in question is Justin Bieber's "U Smile," but you've never heard it like this before. Using a free audio application called PaulStretch, a musician named Nick Pittsinger has slowed the tune 800%, stretching the 3:16 tween-pop ditty to over half an hour long. (You [...]
The Badeschiff
Looking to beat the summer heat? Try Berlin's Badeschiff - a swimming pool in the Spree... Badeschiff - literally "bathing ship" - opened in 2004 as an art project organized by Berlin's Stadtkunstprojekte (City Art ProjectSociety), the AMP Architectos (Teneriffa), architect Gil Wilk and local artist Susanne Lorenz.The initial aim was to enliven city life along what was then a long-neglected stretch of the Spree, between the former Osthafen (East harbour) and Flutgraben, a small [...]
Melting Point Records
STB's wax professor Dave Tinning pays a visit to Kastanienallee's Melting Point records, a legendary Mecca for house, soul, funk and boogie vinyl... When Melting Point opened on Mitte’s Neue Schönhauser Straße in 1994, it was the only store - of any type, really - in Hackesche Höfe, an area which is now jam-packed with designer boutiques and chain stores. By 2005 the store was feeling the squeeze of increasing rents and decided to move to the (then) more affordable [...]
Oye Como Va
Dave Tinning profiles one of Prenzlauer Berg’s premier vinyl outlets…. Oye Records, nestled in a basement just off Prenzlauer Berg’s main drag Kastanienallee, has carved a unique little niche for itself in the capital. Originally catering for collectors of Latin, soul and funk records, Oye has since diversified to cover an impressive range of styles, from afrobeat to blip-hop to UK funky, and on to those Berlin club staples - house and techno. Record stores are not always known [...]
Solid Gold
Where music meets couture... There’s been a well-documented sea change in the way that musicians make their money over the last few years. Antelope-hide briefcases stuffed full of cash and handed over by record companies in return for another collection of generic dross are out (except for the lucky few). Instead, sweaty musicians are climbing off the stage and heading straight to the back of the venue to hawk merchandise to eager fans in order to pay their hotel bills. It’s an [...]
To Rococo Rot
Paul Sullivan chats to Berlin-based electronica mavericks Robert and Ronald Lippok, aka To Rococo Rot... “This was where the main bohemian scene used to be,” states Ronald Lippok, gesturing out of a large café window in the general direction of Kastanienallee. “When we were younger, playing in punk-rock bands, all the rehearsal spaces were around Schoenhauser Allee and here in Zionskirchplatz. This was the centre of the art scene in the 80s. Places like the Wiener café and the [...]
Q&A: Nils Frahm, Composer & Musician
A Berlin-based composer with a penchant for piano improvisation Raised on a musical diet of classical and jazz, Nils Frahm started playing the piano as a young student of Nahum Brodski, himself a student of Tchaikovsky’s last protégé. When the budding musician wasn’t hovering over a keyboard, he was sifting through his father’s vast collection of ECM records. Now, aged 27, Frahm has become a masterful improvisational pianist. In December he released his first two [...]
