überlin

Author: James

  • Pick Berlin’s Best Song and Win Headphones Worth €200

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    James
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    Achtung: this competition is now closed! You can find out who won here, and listen to a playlist of Berlin’s best songs here.

    Behind on your Christmas shopping? Well never fear, because our homies at DefShop Streetwear Store have given us a pair of swanky Nixon headphones to give away to one lucky reader. They’d make the perfect gift for a loved one, even if that loved one is yourself – once you’re encased in these genuine leather ear cushions, you won’t need anyone else!
    Nixon Master Blaster headphones

    All you have to do to win these sleek “Master Blaster” cans, worth €200, is name Berlin’s best song. It can be as obvious or as obscure as you like, as long as it says something about this great city – it could have been produced here, by a Berliner, or simply reference the place… get creative! I’ll build a playlist from all the entries, put it on random, and the first song I hear will be our winner!

    I’ll start you off with an überlin favourite: “Rusty Nails” by Moderat. This collaboration between Berlin producers Modeselektor and Apparat is one of the most emotive works ever to have come out of the city, especially when coupled with this stunning video from local visual collective Pfadfinderei:

    Get the idea? Then leave us a comment below with the name of your favourite Berlin track, and the artist that produced it. (If you’re feeling inspired, tell us why it’s so great!) The winner will be chosen at random on Monday 19th December which should give DefShop time to ship the prize in time for Christmas Day.

    Excuse us while we shelter from the cold and shop for cosy Winterjackets online! Good luck!

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  • Berlin TV Tower

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    James
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    Even when bad weather spoils the views from the Berlin TV Tower, the Fernsehturm makes up for it with its awesome interior. The retro-futuristic finishes, scarcely updated since the tower was built in 1969, make a visit there like a trip back/forward in time to the deck of the original USS Enterprise. Book “VIP tickets” online and you can skip the queues to the lift (which travels at 6 metres a second!) and to the revolving restaurant, a 207m-high leather and chrome homage to the Space Age. Beam us up!

    If you want to see the 360° views from the Fernsehturm – on a nice sunny day – check out this “In a Berlin Minute” video from Good Hard Working People.

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  • Music Montag: Alaska in Winter

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    James
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    Alaska in Winter

    If you’ve read anything I’ve ever written about Bon Iver, you’ll know I’m a big fan of people holing up in cabins to make heart-rending music. That’s how this project from Albequerque art school dropout Brandon Bethancourt got its name, and the frozen-tears aesthetic so suited to his sometime home, Berlin. I love this emotronic ode to the city, the lo-fi retrofuturism of its video, and the comedown expressionism of its lyrics. I love the fact that the act’s official website opens with a letter to the fans, all about the struggle to make this music, and confessing to feelings of despair and thoughts of suicide. I especially love that letter’s conclusion: “I thank you all from the bottom of my heart for opening my eyes and showing me the love and beauty which I was blind to for so long.” I give you: Alaska in Winter.

    Alaska in Winter, “Berlin”

    I swear that I saw lasers in your eyes, and though it was a blur, I had seen the future, I swear I kissed the sky, the lightning laser sky…. the lightning laser sky… the lightning laser sky.

    
You bring some water, I’m your shark, dear… some water…. your shark deer.

    
You are now made of lightning laser water, dance floor future shark at night,

    You are now made of lightning laser water, dance floor future shark at night.

    
I’m finally home now, in my foreign land, I’m finally home now, in my foreign land, and I’ll never leave you, my Berlin, cause I’m finally home now, in my foreign land.

    
oh my Berlin, always my friend….

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  • Music Montag: Billie Ray Martin

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    James
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    Billie Ray Martin
    Too much man-ass.

    That’s my only criticism of the artful new video from “queen of electronic soul” Billie Ray Martin. High concept, high drama, with washed-out colours and abstract cinematography, “Anatomy Of A Plastic Girl” tells the tale of

    a young wannabe actress in L.A. who reflects on her facial surgery that has left her scarred and punctured with holes inside and out

    …but, thankfully, not all that graphically.

    Equally inventive is Martin’s new album, Hollywood Under the Knife, a co-production with Norwegian musician Robert Solheim – together, The Opiates. Wrapped in Wolfgang Tillmans imagery, it contains intricate character sketches of nine different misfits, each given voice by the singer’s pristine, powerful vocals. It might sound odd and off-putting, but some hack’s description of The Opiates as “the electronic Carpenters” is pretty dead-on.

    Ignore Martin’s past as frontwoman for S’Xpress, The Grid etc. and treat this not so much as a new chapter, as a whole new storybook. Turn the page…

    This article originally appeared on Bang Bang Berlin.

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  • überlin is (nearly) one!

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    James
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    We’ve been in Berlin nearly 12 months, which means that this here blog is almost a year old. Our little baby’s all grows up!

    We’re throwing the little feller a birthday party on Saturday 19th November – a year to the day after we first landed in Berlin. We’re going to celebrate the best of the British-in-Berlin, by taking over an expat friend’s bar, drinking specially-priced gin and tonics and listening to Bowie, Iggy and anyone else who’s ever loved this city as much as we do. The fabulous Foodie in Berlin has even offered to make us a birthday cake!

    So come on down and help us toast a year of living and blogging in Berlin. Prost!

    one
    Saturday 19th November, 10pm – ?
    The Black Lodge, Sanderstrasse 6, Neukölln, 12047 Berlin [link]