überlin

OK, so it’s actually St. Valentine’s Eve, but we thought we’d lubricate your ears in anticipation of the schmaltziest day of the year. On Monday, Adrian of Post Flashback was kind/stupid enough to let me back into the Berlin Community Radio studio, along with my goodwyfe Zoë – to talk about love, heartbreak, bad dates and other relationship awkwardness. You’ll have to strain to hear us speak (technical difficulties!), but we’ve decided that’s a good thing. Instead, listen in for a selection of our favourite breakup/make up tracks, including The Cure, The Postal Service and Deftones.

Or if you’re on Spotify, you can listen to our playlist minus the shit-talking, plus a few surprise bonus tracks – just click here! And tune into Berlin Community Radio every Monday at 6pm (Berlin time), for nostalgic indie, shoegaze, post punk, post hardcore and other sad dad music. Check out Post Flashback on Facebook for more deets.

Chaos © Jule Roehr

We’re very excited to introduce HYENAZ, the other-wordly, gender-straddling new project from TUSK:

The beats and basslines lift from early house, EBM and R&B; the vocals from soul, blues and prog-rock; the lyrics are punk poetry, cutups — the calls of a cybernetic siren. Synthesizers are built from discarded scraps of metal and 90s nostalgia. Their performance, their visual art and their texts cull from the discarded fabrics of their surroundings, felt and reinterpreted through their bodies. HYENAZ are one, defiled and immaculate, their androgynous flesh quivering on the thin edge between the digital and the divine.

For a glimpse at the HYENAZ universe, watch the video for “Cypher”, in which a transgendered Pierrot morphs into a humanoid hyena. It’s a weird, and oddly placid, clip, for the least singley-single imaginable, but as an introduction to the cosmic, androgynous duo, it’s sheer perfection:

And if you want to hear the intergalactic boy-things channeling the spirit of Anne Clark, listen to Hyenaz’ first single “Sister”/”Reading”:

HYENAZ release their eponymous debut album through Freudian/Slit this Friday, February 13th, with a record launch party at Urban Spree.

It’s Zoë’s birthday today! For the little lady’s special day, Music Montag is devoted of her absolute favourites: “Regenerate” by Booka Shade. This was released just a couple of months before we moved to Berlin, by the seminal Get Physical records, and we continue to think of it as the sound of the Stadt – even though it’s far too mainstream to be played by most of the city’s DJs! Aaaaaaaanyway, check out the full-length version for maximum euphoric breakdown, and help me wish Zoë happy birthday. Altogether now: ♪ “Zum Geburtstag Viel Glück…” ♫