Rollergirls

As summer passed in its unique lightspeed, the 2014 edition made quite an impact. After returning from our hometown Berlin, where we spent july, we jumped into our second year in Barcelona. Not less than everything has changed and I love how the perception of the language and the general feel of living here becomes more and more of an intense experience.

A little late, but I feel obligated to celebrate the first reunion of Homo & Schlomo on spanish soil this past august. Thanks for visiting, it was more than a pleasure! X

Novi Novog - Philips Glasses

I had a little melancholic Koyaanisqatsi-moment there. Especially after finding out that the song that accompanies this clip is called Philips Glasses, a hommage to the man who filled oh so many movies and peoples lifes with his soul.

Check out some beauty in automation, backed by Novi Novog on the piano.

Released on the collection Solos (FWM 53).

Just for the old times sake...

Koyaanisqatsi, 1982

Bluebird – Oneself (DJ Vadim & Yarah Bravo)

Let’s admit it – deep down inside, we’re all secretly wishing we were back in the 90’s. Back with the obnoxious ‘fros, the neon sneakers, the boom box shouldering, the hip hop bling peppering the streets along with yousawthatright shoulder pads and MTV.

Yarah Bravo’s voice is quirky and soulful. The guitar riffs sound like commas and full stops to her swaggin’ voice, and the beat reminds you of a long forgotten alarm clock, waking you up into the 90’s after a long dream of modernity. I’ve decided to include the video clip this time – because it shows us perfectly what “Bluebird” is meant to represent: chillin’ at the beach with a spliff and some good beats on a boombox. Hell yeah. #ohnoyoudidn’t

The Takeoff

Shooting star Rampue was played by everyone and their mother this year, and has shown off his thang for mixing “ear worms” - as the Germans would say.“The Takeoff” by David Hasert & Matteo Luis, mixed by Rampue, is one of those tracks. That's right - one of those tracks.Press play and get your patience swag on - concentrate on the build up and you're transformed into a tiny speck of colour in a jittery laser light show on a galaxy of stars backdrop – it’s that dramatic. Picture yourself floating around in space amidst comets, shooting stars (and let's throw in some northern lights too, why not)…until oh, look, what's this? Suddenly there's a ghostly  male choir serenading you from the background. The beat builds and cascades to a cliffhanger – before finally breaking into the kind of deep house wave you wish you could hear at your favorite festival with your favourite people around you.This track is emotional and progressive, tragic and hopeful all at the same time. The jitters combined with deep vocals create a sense of expectation that can easily be mistaken for something that feels like hope for the future - while grieving for a past you've finally overcome.P.S. The music video follows a guy walking through Istanbul. As if the music weren't enough.

The Dark Side of Daft Punk aka. The Evolution of Ben

“Some things should never change.”

What sounds like the cliché slogan of conservative grandmothers and grumpy grandfathers complaining about “youth nowadays” or how “everything was better when they were young” can also be seen as the human desire to preserve things in the face of change - the way are now. Even if we complain about taxes, our boring jobs, our demystified relationships and long for more excitement in our daily lives: the new is unknown, and the unknown is just outside our comfort zone. But why are we sometimes so adverse to change? Because we’re afraid of losing what makes the now special, unique and, most of all, familiar.

But life is not static, au contraire - the only constant in life is change. Be it the weather, the amount of money in your bank account, your “favourites” playlist on your mp3 or who you are as a person, we and everything around us are are constantly transforming.

Don't get me wrong: change is a good thing. I love discovering new things. But I also like to know that the old is still there, that I can still appreciate it and recognize it as something I once loved. I need to know that some things are kept holy and are not corrupted the way a classic soul ballad is corrupted into a cheap cell phone ringtone.

Where is this all going, you may ask? Well, today, October 14th, is my friend Schlomo’s birthday. And since I am in Börlin and he is in Arcelona-Bay, I can’t tell him all the things I would like to on the first day of his new year. So what I want to say is this:

Dear Schlomie Mahomie,

For the coming year I wish you the courage to face new challenges in your new life, the guts to embrace unknown territory as your new home, the curiosity to discover unfamiliar customs as your own and lots and lots of sushi.

I’m so happy you’re happy where you are now. And because I'm sure many things will change this year for you, I hope you retain your naturally positive outlook on life, your wonderful taste in music and your appreciation of good food. Like I said above: even if you delete old songs in your playlist in favour of new ones, never forget why you loved them in the first place, and who you were when you first put them on a 7-day listening binge on repeat.

This song is a rework of Daft Punk’s already iconic “Get Lucky” - the song of everyone’s summer this year. And while the original version is - let's face it - a classic, this remix is the evolution of something that will always be valuable to us as listeners in its untouched state. The remix is the more grown up, more mature, savvier version, and it represents embracing change without forgetting the song’s original flavour.

Happy Birthday, Schlomo.

                             

Melt

Apa Selektor

Berlin in the house.

Moderat "Bad Kingdom" | Monkeytown Rec. from Pfadfinderei on Vimeo.

Everything is fine

What an exciting day! Not even mentioning today's continuation of the epic saga of Walter White, (Will he win once again?) me and my gorgeous girlfriend Toma actually started work here in Barcelona today. Seemed a bit overwhelming at first, I'm sure we will hang in there and dig our way through it. Sometimes, something has to remind you that everything is fine.  Sometimes it's your woman, at times it is a song. This extraordinary piece of music, accompanied by lovely visuals, is very much doing so.

I feel like everybody on this planet should listen to this song right now. I will do so and wish you a pleasant, leisure monday night.

Push play already!

Washed Out - Don't Give Up

Washed Out always been unique in their ways. Both musical and visually. Now this music video advertises this fact pretty good. A music video of the marvelous kind. A hallucinogen, which only acts for 4 minutes. Here we go.

Washed Out - Don't Give Up (Official Video) por domino

Their album Paracosm is out and you should most definitely give it a spin. Have a great sunday!

Thanks to Philipp Ferdinand for this piece of art. Gurghhuu!

Lead Me Home

Mount Kimbie - Made To Stray

It just keeps getting better and better. Once this tune entered my ear canal it bursted right into the temporal lobe of my brain and, I think, won't ever leave. It might need a second or third listen, though. So, for god's sake, give this song a chance!

Made To Stray is Mount Kimbie's first release off of their current Album Cold Spring Fault Less Youth. It's not the official Video, but I actually prefer this one. Enjoy!

Mount Kimbie 'Made To Stray' from Navier Romain on Vimeo.

Beach Don't Kill My Vibe

So if you happened to be around any kind of a beach and they tell you there is going to be a screening of Nowhere Boy, the story of John Lennon's rebel youth, at this beach for free - what are you going to do? It's like I didn't have a choice. After taking a dive in the ocean, taking a few drags on that magic cigarette, trying not to get distracted by the flickering glow of Barcelona's shining coast, I was prepared to focus on the movie. And it worked. In fact, the only thing that stole my attention from the screen was the constant string of luminous airplanes far over the sea, approaching the airport located in the west of the city.

Cinema Lliure a la Platja is a free film festival, where everyone is invited to enjoy some of the best movies shown on Film Festivals in Catalonia. It takes place once a week from June to the end of August, so basically all summer.

In the movie, John Lennon steals a couple of records and actually shoots almost all of them into the river, stating that Jazz sucks. This one survived. Quite rightly. Hear for yourself. Awesomeness.

Imany live @ Palau de la Música Catalana

Last week me and my girlfriend had the privilege to see Imany live in concert at this breathtaking venue you see above. Though unusual to see a contemporary artist in such a location, this fact actually made it even more exciting. The audience was sitting more or less comfortable, leaning back and enjoying the performance. While it wasn't very hard to stay in this position during the first act, whose name vanished from my harddisk the moment she left the stage, it was rather challenging to stay seated during Imany's show. She and her band were the personification of the spark that lightens up the crowd. You could actually feel her strong personality up to the higher loge.

Next to the awesome performances of her own catalogue, she managed to weave in classics like "Ready Or Not" from the magnificent Delfonics or "Mercedes Benz" by the ever-great Janis Joplin. What a wonderful night.

Please check out this acoustic version of her single "You Will Never Know"  and perceive a glimpse of her talent.

Drop it like it's hot

If you were at Nation of Gondwana this year, raise your hand - put your hands in the ai-yer, and wave 'em like you just don't ca-yer! 

For those of you who missed it - what can I say? You missed the most happy/hippieliscious, colourful & celebratory festival of the year. And no, I'm not biased. This is the absolute and objective truth, and one that requires spreading extensively.

The word "festival" traditionally conjures up pictures of smelly, overflowing toilets, stumbling around in the dark in search of one's own tent, sticky stuff (everywhere), sweaty armpits, drunk idiots, security guards, beer ads and of course, mosquitoes.

Not anymore, little Birdies. 

So picture this instead: let's say there was a God. And this God decided one day to take his electric razor and shave a huge circle in the middle of a thick forest, about 30 mins outside of Berlin. 

So you're in the middle of this huge circular field, and there are no security guards, no beer ads, no backstage areas. Instead, all you see is a dance floor in the grass, people walking around barefoot, elaborate colourful decorations, a little wooden DJ hut. 

You can feel the bass reverberating through the grass and into the tips of your toes. You see people wearing glitter, feathers in their hair, neon sunglasses. Umbrellas with stuffed animals perched on top. The music adapts to the sun - melancholic as it sets, slowly progressive as darkness sets in. You decide to explore a little bit, and walk into the forest: black lights hanging from the branches. A blue forest. You keep walking and all of a sudden you reach a clearing - it's a lake! And this lake is surrounded by christmas lights, swings, torches.

People sitting on one side and hanging out on the beach, people dancing in the sand on the other side to chill music. A bar behind the water floor, and a swing hanging from the trees. 

Inside the trees, a light show. Glittering fireflies, moving ripples of light, leopard skin patterns in the leaves. Lights everywhere! 

The sun comes up.

The best part: the fire brigade sets up a water hose and sends a fountain of water into the crowd when the sun gets too hot. This, in turn, creates a rainbow - right above the dancefloor, prompting people to undress and dance happily in the rain, underneath a perfect, almost touchable rainbow -

This track was playing at 8 in the morning, when Dominik Eulberg worked his magic to get the crowd to embrace the rising sun. "Noch ein Bass im Ärmel"  (meaning: "another bass up my sleeve") shows us the tension music can build, when you keep expecting and expecting the bass to drop now... no now,...ok now - only to realize this will not happen when you want it, but rather when the track has built up so much suspense, the only option left is to set the listener free with the final release.



This long, passionate text is my ode to Nation, my ode to this year's summer and my ode to Dominik Eulberg - who always manages to make tracks that combine filigree sounds with prolonged Schranz distortions: the result is a tantalizing track that celebrates the drop like the celebration of a perfect day.

Ends & Beginnings

To be honest, Schlomi Mahomie and I have been trying to get our shit together and set up a blog for, oh, let's see, maybe 6 months now. Staying true to our procrastinating nature, we decided to wait until the end of our legendary era as roommates to actually begin our cooperation as fellow-bloggers/co-bloggers/floggers/cloggers - in an endeavor that spans two cities: from Börlin all the way down to Arcelona-Bay.

Looking back at the song that was playing when we said our goodbyes in Bergmannstrasse... and forward to what I hope will be an extension of ourselves on Birds on a Wire, I thought it only fitting to post a track from Shlohmo, remixed by Nicolas Jaar.

"Rained the Whole Time" takes you on a journey: beginning with an element of uncertainty, you start to hear tentative and then more confident beats in the background. They start sneaking up on you, adding more and more flavor along the way, revealing the depth of creativity in slow rushes of chords and hi hats, guitar plucks and choir voices, synthesizers and piano grooves.

And then there is the break -







.... and the bass drum starts.

So sit back, close your eyes and let it take you somewhere you never knew you wanted to go. The end is but the beginning, my friend.

Here we go

Welcome everybody. In this case, everybody means not more than a handful of people that already like us. (And I hope you won't make up your minds after reading this Blog) - When I say "us" I am talking about myself, Schlomo, and my beautiful and witty friend Homo. As time goes by you will get to know us better. We hope to compile a nice selection of art, some insights of our interests and also a little bullshit. This is going to be a coop from Berlin to Barcelona.

I think I'm just going to shut the F up and let the music speak for now. Never heard of Clare Maguire, but she got me with this one. Hear for yourself please. 

See you guys, I hope you stick around!