New single and video by UK's new "Shakespeare-Terry Hall-Mike Skinner". Posted his first video ages ago here and now you have the new one. Pure, perfect, modern british Pop reminiscing the style of the late Specials combined with a heavy influence of thirties cabaret music. The video also reminds me of the aestethics of dark black&white silent-movies of the twenties/thirties. Awesome and right in time for one of the most irritating and useless things in the world: Halloween??
I like funky dance music. Sirius Mo, Breakbot, In Flagranti, The Twelves...and, of course, Shazam. He knows how the bring the funk back into the clubs. And here comes a new dreamteam via Gomma Records: Munk from munich together with the 19 year old super-talented producer Shazam from Australia. One of my favourits at the moment.
Ok.....many people have been asking already for guestlist...so I guess the flyer is worth a post (btw....if you want free entry....you can win free tickets in my radioshow at Fritz this Tuesday evening). Actually, Mr.Oizo is not in Berlin for the Levis-Tour...but hey....he already was on Saturday at Maria. So therefore, I am gonna post my favourite track from the new Mr.Oizo-Album which is really great. Seriously. Check out "Cut Dick". Have been playing this for quite some time now as well as his crazy coverversion of "It takes 2" from Rob Base & EZ Rock". Nuff chat for now...wednesday its Whitey in town - so we gonna check that out...Also Steve Aoki, D.I.M, me doing stupid warm-up+closing...ect. all@Lido.Thursday is a party@Roter Salon for english fashion mag "Wound Magazine". I will be Djing there as well. Also on the bill: Angie Reed and Cobra Killer Dj-Team. See you there. Mr.Oizo - Cut Dick (yousendit)
Man, have I been annoyed when last weeks post was taken down by blogger on thursday. Why did that happen? First I thought that I must have overdone it with my self promotion. Pointing out how good all my recent releases and remixes were and will be, would not have pleased the gods of the internet. I realized though that boasting and bragging are not a crime yet, not in blogs anyway. It must have been my re-edit. But why was I not allowed to post this mp3?
I am a vergetarian, so beef is not what I aim for (well, I eat fish). There's more than one good reason that made me confident that my post would not be an offense to either artist, remixer or record company. I did not see any possible harm and had my reasons for that.
For one I got the original "Flah Gordon (Per QX Remix)" by Revolte from another blog. You might smile, but it gets better: I downloaded the file over a year ago! Back then I even tried to contact the ominous Revolte project from France to license one of their tracks for my officially released 2CD "WHOW" (CD1 DJ-Mix / CD2 best Malente Remixes till 2007). This would have made them some cents, but they did not answer my request. After I played my "Flash Gordon Re-Edit" out for some months I also wrote a myspace message to the original remixer Per QX, letting him know that I loved his work and played it out everywhere. No reply.
By telling you this I just wanna let you know, that most of times I am not only posting something, but by posting an exclusive Malente Re-Edit I wanna be supportive, wanna help create an awereness for the artist/remixer, wanna try to generate sales (I am an idealist, am I not?). To re-edit sonething aims to show my respect for the artist/remixer. If I spend precious time on editing a track, I consider it to be (at least potentially) outstanding. You should realize that re-editing, only gives me a chance to make tracks better that are kinda good already. This is a bit of a difference to the process of remixing, where you can turn night into day.
Which brings me to another thing I wanna add here. Please think twice before re-posting my re-edits on your sites. In my humble optinion one does not deserve as much credit for edits as for remixes. With the re-edits the focus should remain on the original artsits/remixers. By re-editing I'm just spicing things up. If you're a frequent reader you'll know that I post a proper remix though from time to time. If I do and you dig it, feel free to re-post it. Then I will be the honoured one.
Paul Bryan is a blind brasilian musician, who released an amazing album called "Listen of" in 1973. Back then he was asked to do an english spoken folk album, and hell, he did one! It's a fragile pop album, sort of Nick Drake played by a relaxed Steely Dan backing band. Lush orchestra, shy vocals, echoes of congas, piano, rhodes and a warm, easy groove. It's so full of soul, it can heal any winter depression, trust me! His english voice comes with a beautiful accent, which reminds me of the charming way that Air pronounce english words. Later he lived in America where he - of course - met and became friend with Stevie Wonder and wrote songs for him. Paul Bryan is also the author of 2 books: "Close Your Eyes to See Better: The Limit of the Senses and the Senses of the Limits", a book about dealing with blindness, and "Factory of Sounds", a study about sound production based on his musical experience and prefaced by the Minister of Culture and Brazilian legend, Gilberto Gil. Fellow Berliners Jazzanova just rereleased the album on their label Sonar Kollektiv (first time on CD), so if you are into a little folk with a lot of Soul there is nothing i could recommend you more than this album!
From time to time i find a 7 Inch, which is so spectacular and fresh it blows me away.
Here is the latest...: Brooklyn-based producer Kotchy is a singer songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and all round super talented. He worked with people like The Epochs, Violet (w/members of Fischerspooner / Rufus Wainwright / Joan As Police Woman / Polyphonic Spree), Yo Mayesty and Starkey.
His music sounds like a mix of Beck, Prince, Lemon Jelly and the sound of Warp records..., sort of D.i.Y.-weirdo-pop with elements of Hip Hop and Dub and other madness. Really hard to explain, cause i never heard something like this before. "She made it easy" is glitch-disco, "bruce fleetwood" is... well the Boss mixed with Fleetwood Mac and more. Mind blowing!
You can get a digital package version (7 inch is limited to 500 copies and sold out) with 2 remixes and another song.
This is one of my all time slow-jam-disco favourites. The song was released in 1983 on the phillysound disco-label Salsoul at a time when disco was already dead. I don't know much about Surface, only that their other songs were really crap. The guy who wrote a review on discogs knows more: "Listen to any song that these guys made from 1987-1992 and you'll see why they died out and disappeared from the scene. Those songs were terrible. And the sad thing is two of them went gold." Ok. So don't waste your time by diggin pearls like this on other Surface records. Just wait for a new post with my next disco-nugget here on Berlin Battery.
I love the psychedelic pop of Of Montreal for some time now. Their albums and even more their Liveshows are really different and from another world. But everytime these guys visit the land of DISCO (well, sort of..), i think they are truely AMAZING. This, their first single from new (more or less 10th) great album "skeletal lamping" is a fine example for it. Even the guys from übercool Hip Hop label Mad Descent think so and released a 12 inch with remixes plus the original, which you should immediately get here.
Sometimes strange things happen. After almost one year the great Friendly Fires released "Paris" again, but with a new video. What was wrong with the old one? I have no clue... DJ Supermarkt posted this song with the old video on Berlin Battery before. So if you want to compare them do it here. I think the music changed a bit. More mainstream now...
The good thing is that there are some new remixes out. Justus Köhncke did a house version but my favourite is the one from Aeroplane with female vocals!
Hey amigos, autumn has arrived. And Air France to me are this year's perfect soundtrack to it. They're from Gothenburg in Sweden and they combine only the best elements of Air and Avalanches and the early Gentle People (anybody remembers...?). The result is dream-pop at it's best, which will make you feel warm inside even in this winter's coldest evenings. Float away with the mellow sounds of this duo. And if you like it, get their top CD (which combines their two eps) at Rough Trade Records. (where else...)
Listening to their music i realize (againandagain), that i really miss The Avalanches. There is hardly an album which made me so happy like their one and only opus. COME BACK, lazy bastards... you are missed so much. Actually it says "working on second album" on their myspace, but since 10 years... Last thing i heard from them was their erratic but beautiful remix for Belle & Sebastian ages ago.
The weekend is going to be mad. Friday I am playing in Paris with Special Ed (the guy who also does the Antisocial-parties@Social Club) at an exclusive event at an old cinema (Elysee Biarritz)@PARTY ANIMALS. Saturday, I am Djing with my buddies Roundtable Knights at the massive CONTORT YOURSELF-Party in Manchester@Roadhouse. Then, I am gonna go to London for a few days. Yippie.
Not only good music, but also an instersting story there. We Germans only know Pro7 as a TV Chanel, but as always we can learn something from our neighbours the French (no joke, check their cuisine dude!).
What was I writing? Ah, yes. In France lives a guy called Pro7. For a long time he had a busy life, beeing Don KiNG’s sidekick. In his bio it says "Pro7 has contributed to the organisation of many Box fights including the famous « Rumble in the jungle » in Kinshasa. Bored of shy ambiances and the monotonous boxing surroundings, he decides to get involved a new challenge: The Wrestling and especially the Lucha Lible. Big Splash Records is born. Only one thing matters: organizing “Audio Fights” bringing together the best fighters around. The word is out: Electro, Trash, Contortions, Rock, Breaks and Distortions."
My Re-Edit features "Reversim" a track from the first EP of this series of "Audio-Fights" where Intertrigo meets Pro7 himself. If you don't know what "Intertrigo" means please don't google it you might end up with .jpgs. Instead buy the first EP at Juno or better Bounce Records and watch out for the 2nd EP coming these days. It contains great tracks by Pirate Robot Midget, Dilemn and a remix by Swedens very own Blende. And both 12"es come with great sleeves. Intertrigo - Reversim (Malente Re-Edit) (yousendit)
well, you can literally dance on the sand now where the legendary RIO Club used to be. Kind of changed... Rio was the club, where we bb-boys (and everybody else...) hung around and deejayed a lot before joining forces. This is how it looks right now.... Actually i can't even remember the paintings on the wall, but that's not the only thing i can't remember from these nights... R.I.P.
"Her name is Rio and she dances on the sand Just like that river twisting through a dusty land And when she shines she really shows you all she can Oh Rio, Rio dance across the Rio Grande"
"Finger weg, Kids!" Is it pornografic or even pornographic? A video that shows how similar the words are... Gets uploaded and then deleted on youtube every 10 minutes since some days and will never be on MTV, beleive me. Love this video. It's an arty parody on all those stupid Hip Hop video clishees. Of course Flying Fish's really exciting all Hip Hop-barriers-breaking album "Los Angeles" on Warp Records would be reason enough for a post here on bb. But this video makes it even more funny to tell you about this young genius on the rise.
Berlin Battery Exclusive! Here is my remix for Sidney duo "Act yo Age". They also remixed "RQM - Miss Pacman" for "Exploited" and now I remixed them. I call the style of my remix Tropical-Jackin-Gospel-Powerhouse. Check it out. Will be released on October 18th alongside a remix from Inflagranti, Rico Tubbs, Edu K on "Sweat it out!" This here is the Dub-version, but there will be also a vocal-version. Btw - I am playing Australia again in December. Will also play "Empire" in Brisbane at the Sweatitout!-Party (12.12.) and some more gigs in Sidney, Melbourne, Adelaide. Ohhh....and can somebody upload this file to Zshare for me please? Dont know why but whenever I upload on Zshare it fails....So this here is only a Yousendit-link and I guess that expires soon...(hey....thx to the anonym person who uploaded it for me....here is the zshare now...)
I am glad this remix from Tomboy and Fredski finally made its cut on the Vinyl. This remix has been around long time ago and nobody really knew what was happening with it. The Single "Bathroom Gurgle" from "Late of the Pier" (produced by Erol Alkan) came out last year in October 2007. All 500 limited edition copies flew off the shelves in a matter of days. Now, there is new remixes: from Breakbot (...the one we had on our party at Cookies), Duke Dumont, Tronik Youth and a special remix from Boys Noize for the track "Focker". And last but not least, Tomski and Fredboy did the most stunning rework. The Release will be out on October 27th. BTW - Tomboy is also playing this Saturday at the Lodown Party at Crush. Did I tell you that the new Whomadewho-single is so weird? But I love it - comes with a Hot Chip and a Tomski&Fredboy Rmx.
we have another party for you. this time in the infamous zpyz-club in x-berg, one of the best kept secrets in berlin clubland. Guests are our "partner in crime" MALENTE and for the first time the ACIDKIDS trio from the south of germany. The three "Seppls" definetly know how to throw a party. All three of us bbs have been guests so far in their well known "acidkids" home-clubnight in Ingolstadt (as well as Boys Noize, Boris Dlugosch, the Ed Bangers and soon Trevor Loveys), so we know what we are talking about...
Friday 10.10., 23:00 Uhr Zpyz club Reichenberger strasse 125 Kreuzberg;berlin
berlinbattery presents: Acidkids Malente Jack tennis Dj Supermarkt
(...the Acidkid in the middle of this foto is NOT Housemeister...)
The Acidkids also produce banging electro music, here is my favorite track that builds upon a dangerous cut up sample of the eighties... be careful...or go straight to jail!
I already wanted to upload this a long time ago. Sorry for being so lazy. Sometimes I feel like I even dont have the time to download all the tunes I get - so I dont even know when to upload a track. So at the end of the day I dont post much - its just too much out there to blog about and others are probably much quicker and better in this. But - hey - this track here is essential. Its from one of berlins oldest oldschool techno-djs "housi" aka "housemeister". I think since 10 years or probably even more he always looked the same: basecap, sunglasses, jointsmoking, trainers, big necklace. "Housi" talks the Berlin Slang and he has one of Berlins biggest images I would say. On his latest installment WHO IS THAT NOIZE? he asked all his friends to make some Remixes. I really rate the remix from SKATE under his moniker of UNSPORTMANLIKE (who is also into the visual collective of VJ PFADFINDEREI - the dudes who do the "Modeselektor"-visuals and the "Bpitch"-Artwork) which got a bit Dubsteppy. The best remix comes from SIRIUSMO. But as far as he told me - thats actually not a real remix. All he did - was putting the vocalsample of WHAT YOU WANT - YOU WANNA DANCE on top of one of his most secret bombs. "Housi" can be proud. He got a real killertrack. This track is guaranteed to make ALLTHEGIRLS fall in love with Housi and Siriusmo.
No, this is not the Soulwax/2manyDJs trailer for "Part of the weekend...". But it looks exactly the same. It seems as if they played the same parties, the same venues with the same freaks...No new idea for a live DVD Justice? A bit boring...
I couldn't sleep last night. And this is the result. The Song of the moment in a devestating Malente Remix. Upfront here.
The Artist Name remains a secret. In fact these guys went thru a great deal of camouflaging as you can see above to hide their identity. The hole in the guitar player's trousers reveals though that it's not the Klaxons. But if you're curious, you can read more about this secret over at Discodust and Get Weird Turn Pro and get the Original Version of Dope Fiend.
As you can see from the legth of my senteces today I'm not in the mood for writing a book. Not even a short story. So I better stop and you better listen. More to come next week. Yours Malente. Dope Fiend (MALENTE's 1 Hour Remix) (yousendit)
Last weekend I played together with DJ Supermarkt in Leipzig were i played a Peech Boys song and he said that i have to post more of this funky disco tunes. He is right. More old funky music on Berlin Battery alongside all the new dance, pop, nu-disco and whatever stuff.
One of my heroes of the golden disco-age is the DJ legend Larry Levan. He founded the Paradise Garage (together with Micheal Brody and Mel Cheren), a club which has influenced a lot of following discos (like the Panorama Bar/Berlin) and gave the name for what we call know "Garage House".
Larry played the records with two Thorens recordplayers, the mixes wasn't so tight like today but he created a special atmosphere by doing the lights (!) and spinning a extatic sound that made the people go wild. After being the Paradise Garage resident for 10 years he designed the sound system for Ministy Of Sound and played some gigs together with his old buddy Frankie Knuckles, although he was still dependent on heroin. Larry died 1992 of heart failure caused by endocarditis, an ailment common among intraveneous drug users. Beside a lot of remixes for all big disco artists, he founded his band the "Peech Boys" (later the N.Y.C. Peech Boys). "Don't make me wait" (1982) is one of my favorite tracks:
This is how it looked at the closing weekend 1987 at the Paradise Garage. Larry Levan plays Sylvesters "Over and over" (12" Version). Give me a time machine, I want to be there! Yeah.
Bank crisis everywhere. Must be hard times especially for the Billionaires around the world. A short question for you: Who said in a speech: "And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country. and my fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man." a) George Bush b) John F. Kennedy c) Osama Bin Laden d) who cares...
if your answer is d) then you will proabably not support our bb idea of a "Soli-party for the banks", which we are planning at the moment. We will organize a night soon, where all artists are playing for free and all the money goes to help the humble troubled banks in Germany. Honestly, lets help the bankers, because - they are humans like us after all. And don't forget. Didn't they support us "credible" creative people with an unregular income for years by heart? Of course they welcomed us with a red carpet and always immediately provided us with even the smallest credits when we had problems. And if they - once a millenium - didn't support us, the reason was simple and totally understandable: it was their duty to be careful about the bank's money... and we were not worthy. Oh, not to forget... i am so thankful for some of their good advise like: "with every businees you do, never take too many risks...". Bankers, we still beleive in you! Mistakes are human! Burning trillions of dollars/euros could have happened to me, too. I am realistic! Accidentally my favorite track to play out at the moment is by a band called Depressed Billionaires from New York (no joke...). They have an E.P. out on idiot-house (great label name by he way..), which is awesome! Get it at beatport. If you like Holy Ghost and Hercules & Love Affair with a little more punch and dancefloor, here is your team. Instrumental Disco Electro at its best! >>>DEPRESSED BILLIONAIRES - coconuts.mp3 (yousendit) http://www.myspace.com/thedepressedbillionaires
well, i knew that there is a blog for everything. But i couldn't beleive, that there really is a blog for billionaires. Weird world... check it out: billionaires blog
(the foto was taken at last years HYPO REAL ESTATE BANK christmas party which had the motto: "come as a billionaire")
If there is one band at the moment we b.batteries can all agree on the most it must be Metronomy. The way they blend disco and electro-pop with arty attitude is so smooth and so catchy, it is way above other contenders. I saw them ages ago at the White Trash in front of 100 people (supported by Late of The Pier....!!!!) and they blew the whole place away. And that was before the songs of their new album. This is the video to Metronomy's new single "heartbreaker". It is about "boy's friendships" and the silly things you do trying to make your "broken hearted friend" feel better. The single comes with extremly good remixes by Discodeine, Faze Action, Diskjokke and Kris Menace. What a package! And in case you don't have the album, which is top ace, get it at Rough Trade Records quickly, as only there you get it as a special edition with an extra CD. myspace.com/metronomy
The wheather is so unbeleivably shitty since two days in Berlin: just rain and storm! Today I needed some really uplifting tunes... and there comes KIDDA. I came across this guy, because there is this really cool HERVÉ remix around for "under the sun", which we batteries are playing for some time to great effect. I won't post it here because it is everywhere in the blogs already (get it for example at our friends from Welcome to dance club) But this guy KIDDA has an album out called "going out" which makes my day now. It's actually quite Hip Hop but in the old school "non-purist" sense of De La Soul, mixed with the sound of Northern Soul, bouncy electro-pop a la Junior Senior, some Doo Wop, Motown, great, sweet vocals and millions of vintage dusty samples, that make the sun shine for a moment! (THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) Guest singers are Gary Lightbody (Snow Patrol), Blak Twang, Psycho Les (The Beatnuts/Big City) and local luminaries Jim Oxborrow (smallwhitelight) and soul beauty Laura Vane. The album is out on Brighton's Skint label, the label of Midfield General and real home of Fatboy Slim. But there is much more about that guy! He already did videos for several other artists (My Federation, Midfield General, a.m.m.) and created the character KIDDA. He also remixed the Ting Tings, did a funny mashup for Fatboy Slim, which everybody is looking for... and more. check both his myspaces and his funny "Billy Jean"-website...
There you will also discover that he did two already legendary compilations with his own fun Beastie Boys versions/remixes (32 tracks!!!), which are free to download thanks to the cool attitude of The Beasties with their own acapellas:
looks like the Beastie Boys liked one of his versions so much, they used it for one of their videos/Tv appearance which is really funny and features a hairy monster (rumours say it is Mixmaster Mike inside the costume...): BEASTIE BOYS vs KIDDA:
and here is the original version of "Under the sun". if you need some sun in your life, listen to it on repeat and buy the album!!!!!
This is essential. And now it's time to share it. I kept this to myself long enough. So grab it now before the whole Rave frenzy is over. Best Remix / Re-Edit of this classic. No arguing here.
The original Quadrophonia was first released in 1990 and a cooperation of the two Belgians Lucien Foort with Abbeloos Olivier. Both of them now seem to be more into cheesy house. The kind of music I can imagine you can actually make money with. A lot of "soulful" vocals in their production.
Speaking of vocals. Quadrophonia, also the name of the project, hired a rapper even less talented then Turbo B of Snap! in 1991 to make this already big tune a bigger success. I recently bought the Album "Cozmic Jam" and wished the rapper to hell because if there was a quality to those tracks on there, he terminates it as soon as he drops his lines. Well that's how it is with the oldschool rave stuff. If you are into this sometimes crappy sometimes brilliant music you have to check the oldskooltimes blog by the way.
My Re-Edit though is quality and doesn't feature any part time rappers. You can even open your set with it, because I did a special Intro Re-Edit. Grab grab grab.
Hey and you have to check out Turbo B's myspace. He only got 86 friends though his site is da shit!
In case you want tracks or fotos removed, just e-mail us to berlinbattery(at)gmail(dot)com and we will react immediately! thanks for supporting the future!
This is one of my all time slow-jam-disco favourites. The song was released in 1983 on the phillysound disco-label Salsoul at a time when disco was already dead. I don't know much about Surface, only that their other songs were really crap. The guy who wrote a review on discogs knows more: "Listen to any song that these guys made from 1987-1992 and you'll see why they died out and disappeared from the scene. Those songs were terrible. And the sad thing is two of them went gold." Ok. So don't waste your time by diggin pearls like this on other Surface records. Just wait for a new post with my next disco-nugget here on Berlin Battery.
Last weekend I played together with DJ Supermarkt in Leipzig were i played a Peech Boys song and he said that i have to post more of this funky disco tunes. He is right. More old funky music on Berlin Battery alongside all the new dance, pop, nu-disco and whatever stuff.
