überlin

Berlin’s reputation as a world music capital is undisputed. The city’s signature sounds – house and techno – have defined its sonic landscape at home and abroad for decades. However, as creative minds from around the world continue to flock to the city in search of advantageous conditions for their work, Berlin is witnessing a radical expansion of its musical diversity at the edges of these scenes and beyond. What are these truly adventurous sounds and musics that are currently arising from the city’s maelstrom of simultaneously sounding musical styles and cultures? With Berlin Current, CTM Festival puts an ear to the scene and presents new, future-oriented musical ideas from Berlin together with Berghain, Boiler Room Berlin, BLN.FM, No Fear of Pop, and ICAS.

In its second year, Berlin Current is supporting the city’s emerging artists, including some already featured here on überlin – Lotic, Moon Wheel and Objekt – through live concerts, showcases and creative commissions. Here are just a few of the standout acts we’re looking forward to seeing at the Berlin Current kick-off concert at First We Take Berlin, and at other shows and projects later in the year:

These Hidden Hands

A collaboration betweem studio buff Alain and Chris Liebing protege (and Emika collaborator) Tommy Four Seven, These Hidden Hands warp the techno template into new and almost unrecognisable forms. It would take a hundred hidden hands to carry the weight of this shape-shifting Boiler Room set.

Sarah Farina

Sarah Farina gets bonus points for coining a new genre description for her frenetic fusion of jungle, juke, hip hop, and UK garage and funky – Rainbowbass. Originally supported by Berlin bass queens Sick Girls, Farina is stepping into the spotlight as the go-to DJ for maximum BPPM (Booty Pops Per Minute).

Opium Hum

Last, but by no means least, is the excellently-named DJ alias of Michail Stangl, co-organiser of CTM Festival, Boiler Room Berlin and the Leisure System parties and labels. With predilections running from drone to doom metal, Opium Hum‘s sets take on the form of dark, hypnotic lucid dreams. 

[EDIT: this competition is now closed. Click here to see if we’re running any open competitions] 

How’s that for a lineup? Techno godfather Dave Clarke, leader of the new school Objekt and a very special guest from Berghain residents Ostgut Ton.

We can’t think of a better set of DJs to celebrate the classic !K7 mix series X-MIX at this awesome “audio/visual nightlife experience” at Stattbad Wedding this Friday. And we’ve heard that Pussycrew’s live video installation based on the original X-MIX archives is NEXT LEVEL.

Scroll down to find out how you can win two guestlist spots to the hottest event on the Berlin clubbing calendar!

But first, here’s a little remind of how far we’ve come: Dave Clarke’s “Electro Boogie” X-MIX from 1996 (accompanied by Lawnmower Man-calibre computer graphics) and a collection of Objekt’s feverishly fresh recent mixes.

HOW TO WIN 2 X GUESTLIST SPOTS FOR X-MIX 1993-2013 AT STATTBAD ON FRIDAY 22ND NOVEMBER:

Just leave us a comment below. Say something, anything. But be nice.

You have until 6pm on Thursday 21st November. Good luck!

The Boring Bit (yawn, RULES):

1. You must be at least 18 years old to enter.
2. ONE ENTRY PER PERSON!
3. We will keep a record of each comment in a database and then a random number generator picks the winner.
4. Remember to include your full (real) name or we won’t be able to put you on the guestlist!
5. We will announced the winners via our Facebook page on Friday 22nd November.

Full event details here.

The Berlin outpost of the world’s leading underground music show, Boiler Room, has been broadcasting from the unique space of Stattbad Wedding for about 18 months now. During that time, the former swimming pool has hosted some of the best DJs and electronic acts in the world, including Carl Craig, Richie Hawtin, DJ Hell and überlin faves Modeselektor (celebrating above), Objekt, Redshape and Ellen Allien.

Boiler Room Berlin is strictly invite-only, and we’ve been lucky enough to get into this Thursday’s CTM festival special. The frankly ridonkulous lineup includes Kangding Ray, dub master Pole and Mr. Digital Hardcore himself, the mighty Alec Empire! If you can’t physically be there, tune into boilerroom.tv at 8pm (7pm GMT) to catch all the action. In the meantime, I’ve tried to pick some favourites from the archives, in which pretty much every set is a highlight, for your home viewing pleasure:

[EDIT: this competition is now closed. Click here to see if we’re running any open competitions] 

We love New Year’s Eve! Whether we spend it dodging fireworks on Oberbaumbrücke or tearing Monster Ronson’s Ichiban Karaoke a new k-hole, we love the excuse to get together with friends and get wasted! This year we’re planning to end up at Horst Kreuzberg’s Silvester spectacular and we have two pairs of tickets to give away to lucky readers!

Scroll down to find out how to get yourself and a friend into this awesome party (Facebook link), where Emika collaborators Brandt Brauer Frick will be DJing back-to-back, alongside Peter Van Hoesen, Evian Christ and the spectacular Objekt. To get you in the mood, here is the latter on Electronic Explorations, mixing up Jeff Mills, UR and Surgeon classics with contemporary bass tracks from Actress and Shangaan Electro.

Good luck, and Guten Rutsch!

HOW TO WIN 2 X TICKETS TO “NEW YEAR’S EVE, MY GOD, IT’S FULL OF STARS” AT HORST KREUZBERG:

Leave a comment below, telling us your full (real) name and one of your New Year’s Resolutions.

You have until 2pm on Monday 31st December to enter. Good luck!

The Boring Bit (yawn, RULES):

1. You must be 18 years or older to enter.
2. We will keep a record of each comment in a database and then a random number generator picks the winner.
3. We will announced the winners via our Facebook page on Monday 31st December.