Anthony Attalla’s Incorrect ADE Event (Friday October 21)
Club Home, Friday October 21
Incorrect Records chief Anthony Attalla chatted to Skrufff this week about his upcoming Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE) showcase party and said he’s looking forward to meeting more than a few of the DJs on the line-up for the first time.
“The vision of this party is simple; to unite a group of artists that work closely together but rarely have the time to interact on a face-to-face level,” the Detroit based producer explained.
“So much of our industry relies on ‘cyber relationships’ these days so we find ourselves building working partnerships with artists from across the globe, yet never having the opportunity to actually meet, sit together in the studio, or share ideas over coffee or tea.”
“In the true spirit of ADE, this is what this party is all about; uniting those individuals under one roof who have all worked together in some capacity; that and having a great time, of course,” he added.
The party takes places at Club Home on Friday night (October 21st) and features 12 DJs including Da Fresh, Christian Cambas, Jonty Skrufff, Roy Rosenfeld and John Acquaviva and costs EUR15 (or free to ADE delegates).
Secret Island’s Berlin Reunion (October 8)
FK on the island (click for more party details)
Secret Island Nation (SIN) festival promoter Bjorn chatted to Skrufff this week as he finalised preparations for the latest Berlin party at brand new Kreuzberg club S.K Robinson (October 
and vowed that he’s capping capacity for future events.
“This year we actually sold out all 500 tickets in advance and while we didn’t turn away few additional guests who without pre-sale tickets we really want to keep numbers down in future,” he said, “Rather than growing in size we’d prefer to enrich the non-musical program and the hippiesque vision of how to make the world a better place to party.”
Revealing that he’s also in discussion about putting on events in Oslo, Copenhagen and Iceland next year, he sounded a note of caution about limiting the numbers of spin-off parties too.
“As you all know the world goes down on 21/12/2012 so SIN 2012 will be the last one,” he chuckled, “So make sure to grab one of the only 500 tickets soon, especially as half of the contingent is reserved for “veteran islanders” (though I haven’t figured out a fair way yet….),” he added,
The upcoming Berlin party takes over all three floors of the brand new club with a line-up of island regulars including Dirk Sid Eno, Skrufff DJs Fidelity Kastrow and Jonty Skrufff, Seyman, German Lachs and Dirty Ragga Squad. Partygoers can also buy uber cheap SIN tickets for 2012.
“Pre-sale will start at the Reunion party, again with discounted early-bird-tickets: the first 50 will be available for 50EUR,” said Bjorn.
“Then they increase in price, with 50 more for 60EUR, and again 70EUR. Regular price for the remaining 350 tickets is 90 EUR.”
“As always, we will provide travel packages by bus or flight from Berlin, Oslo and Copenhagen/Malmö. Tickets sale outlets and online purchase information are to be found on www.secret-island.eu in the next days.”
Seb Mortimer (Skrufff.com)
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Jonty Skrufff Joins Russia’s Sochi Winter Music Conference
Jonty Skrufff & ADE chief Richard Zijlma @ SWMC 2011
Skrufff Media chief Jonty Skrufff has teamed up with Sochi Winter Music Conference (SWMC) to become a moderator, consultant and European representative for the fast growing Russian nightlife and networking event.
The Berlin based British DJ/ producer and Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE) consultant will be helping SWMC to expand its international programme, developing panel concepts and selecting speakers for the annual mid-winter conference.
“I attended SWMC this year and as well as enjoying the parties and social side enormously was most impressed with the organisation and in particular the enthusiasm of delegates,” said Jonty.
“I’m delighted to be joining the SWMC team and will be doing my best to help internationalise what’s already a superb networking event for anyone involved in doing business in Russian nightlife.”
300 delegates and 1,300 guests attended the very first SWMC in 2005, with numbers swelling to 1 500 delegates, and 7,500 guest this February, attracted by its three days and nights of panels and seminars and parties throughout the Black Sea resort.
The city itself is renowned amongst Russians for being the country’s most celebrated and chic holiday resorts, blessed with an unusually mild Mediterranean style winter. It’s also rapidly becoming even more recognised for its status as the new home of the Russian Grand Prix and the Winter Olympics, both of which take place in 2014.
SWMC chief Mike Spirit & DJ Nastia
“More and more Russian producers and DJs are crossing over internationally and the nightlife scene there already rivals and surpasses many other countries,” Jonty continued.
“I DJed in Moscow in April for the first time and was blown away by the atmosphere and sheer qualities of the clubs,” said Jonty. “Somewhere like Arma 17, for example, is as good a superclub as Berghain in Berlin, if not better, and is certainly far superior to anything the UK has to offer. And it’s just one of several in the city attracting thousands of revellers.”
“There’s enormous potential for both the Russian scene and SWMC to develop more domestically and internationally and I’ll be doing my best to help facilitate that process.”
Sochi Winter Music Conference 2012 happens in February 2012: more details to follow shortly.
Jonty Skrufff & DJ Nastia
Seb Mortimer (Skrufff.com)
10 Years of Skrufff: Hans Peter Kuenzler Interviews Jonty Skrufff
Live at the Roxy, Prague, Czech Republic, 2007
As well as writing a bestselling Michael Jackson biography and another book about Michael Jackson fans, Hans Peter Kuenzler is a leading London ‘stringer’ or foreign correspondent/ music journalist, writing about music and the arts for print media and radio in Switzerland, Germany, UK and other countries.
Hans asked Jonty Skrufff a typically imaginative and indeed tough bunch of questions recently for a feature he was doing about dream jobs.
Hans Peter (click for more)
http://www.hanspeterkuenzler.com
Hans Peter Kuenzler: Was being a DJ a dream job for you before you started?
Jonty Skrufff; “Actually, no I’d never considered it and was totally happy being a clubber/ journalist until a sequence of serendipitous events transformed my life in the summer of 2004 (involving, variously, Exit festival, Serbian podium dancing girls, Ibiza, statuesque models, Judge Jules, London’s (then) hipster club du jour Golf Sale, the much missed Alex Silverfish (RIP) and S Express’ Mark Moore.) Not necessarily in that order.”
1st night nerves at London's 333 Club
Hans Peter Kuenzler: Did it become a dream job once you had become one?
Jonty Skrufff; “From the very first moment, yes, I was totally, irrevocably hooked. It was at London’s 333 on a Sunday night, Alex Silverfish was DJing, with a shaking hand I picked up the stylus (in those days DJs still played vinyl) and put it at the beginning Of Justice’s Never Be Alone (still then an obscure Gigolo release). The opening chords rang out, the crowd roared and that was it. I ROCKED it. OH MY GOD!”
Hans Peter Kuenzler: Why did you change from being a journalist to being a DJ?
Jonty Skrufff; “I refer to my last answer; OH MY GOD! Though actually I remain a journalist- the two roles have a fantastic synergy.”
Live at Buddah Club, Mauritius (February 2011)
Jonty Skrufff & the Berlin Konnektion: Mauritius C’est La Folie (interview)
This article was written by Benjamin from Mauritius’ Four Aces after the gig….
Buddah Club, Grand Baie
Berlin DJs Jonty Skrufff and Fidelity Kastrow performed at Buddah Club in Grand Baie last weekend and delivered exhilarating sets of Berlin style electro and techno, the likes of which have never been experienced in Mauritius before.
As well as DJing at many of the world’s biggest superclubs, Jonty is an acclaimed producer and founder of press agency and blog Skrufff.com and also works as a moderator/ consultant for leading music conference the Amsterdam Dance Event. An expert on all aspects of international club culture, we chatted to him after Berlin Konnektion to find out his thoughts on both Mauritius and club culture in general.
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Jonty & Agathe
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For more information on Berlin Konnektion (including details of future parties) click here; http://on.fb.me/ijQCaX
Fidelity Kastrow and Aga
Berlin Konnektion (Benjamin Bolton): What did you think of Mauritius?
Jonty Skrufff: “I loved all the obvious attractions; the scenery, wildlife, natural beauty, ocean and climate; and also met loads of interesting people who made me feel immediately welcome. There’s also definitely a special energy that’s almost tangible on the island; I’m impressed.”
Berlin Konnektion: How did you get involved with Berlin Konnektion?
Jonty Skrufff: “The Berlin Konnektion came about when Skrufff DJ Fidelity Kastrow (http://tinyurl.com/yjhlcmt )and I met Mauritian promoter Agathe last August at a festival in Sweden called Secret Island. The party is presented by a Berlin promoter who transports 200 or so Berliners and 300 Swedes to the island each year for four days and nights of nature and outdoors techno. Everybody sleeps in tents and swims or strolls around the island by day, dancing by night.
The island is in the North Sea and is totally deserted with no trees or buildings anywhere, so it’s a total back-to-nature experience. Agathe loved Fidelity’s set and they made friends afterwards, we then spent the next two days sunbathing on the beach and that’s where the idea first popped up to do parties together in Mauritius. We all met again in Berlin after that (particularly at Panorama Bar) and the plan became solid fairly quickly.”
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magic hearts
Berlin Konnektion: Who was the lady sprinkling stars and glitter on everybody’s faces?
Jonty Skrufff: “That was our good friend Kalina who is one of Berlin’s most colourful creative characters in the night-life scene. Kalina brought some of the magical vibe she always sprinkles round clubs such as Berghain and Salon Renate whenever she’s present and when I say ‘magic’, I mean magic literally. For this particular party, she added loads of glitter and silver stars to my face, specifically forming a band across my forehead, which looked lovely. However, when we saw some of the photos were uploaded afterwards on Facebook, all you can see is shining love hearts. The camera mysteriously captured the invisible energy of the party and depicted it as glowing love hearts on, and around my head: c’est incroyable!”
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Kalina in action
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Berlin Konnektion: What did you think of the Mauritius crowd?
Jonty Skrufff: “The Mauritian crowd? Wow, what can I say . . . Oh My God they were wonderful! To give you some contrast, I was playing in Russia a couple of weeks ago at the Sochi Winter Music Conference where I was struck by how crazy the Russians are. Everybody- male and female- were total party animals and I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Mauritians are equally, if not even more crazy. Hearing everybody on the dance floor screaming was fantastic and totally euphoric. The Mauritian clubbers made the party truly special.”
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Mauritius party: part 1 (chez Agathe)
Click on the picture to listen to the End is Nigh mix
Getting ready for the first Mauritius outdoor session: amazing new promos being downloaded and sorted: God Bless Miami Winter Music Conference! (click HERE for my latest mix)
Sochi Winter Music Conference: Russia Rocks! (Review)
SMWC official site
(pictures courtesy of Nightparty.ru)
“Insane. There’s no other word to describe that country. That expression ‘From Russia with Love’ also now has a totally different meaning for me too.”
Six years after 300 delegates and 1,300 guests attended the very first Sochi Winter Music Conference (SWMC), numbers have swelled to 1 500 delegates, and 7,500 guests including Soundcloud new business manager Nils Westerlund.
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Nils, a Berlin based 20-something Swede whose floppy fringe haircut, designer spectacles and carefully ruffled understated attire apparently means he looks EXACTLY like a Moscow hipster, admits he’s thoroughly enjoyed the 3 day/ 3 night event.
“How much do I think Russians deserve their ‘crazy’ reputation? They do in full,” he says, “Vodka instead of water, I think that should explain most of it,” he laughs.
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Googling ‘Russia, business etiquette and vodka’ suggests he’s right, with one site (suite101.com) advising ‘vodka is properly drunk in one gulp’ and another (worldwide-tax.com) recommending ‘do not under any circumstances present vodka as a gift as this is interpreted as a reflection on the poor quality of the contents of your host’s drinks cabinet’.
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Mike Spirit and DJ Nastia
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SWMC co-producer (and champion vodka drinker) Mike Spirit is not so sure.
“Why do we drink so much vodka? It’s because Russians aren’t allowed to smoke like the Dutch so we drink instead,” he laughs. “If we could smoke legally, then the Sochi conference will become more similar to ADE.”
His reference to ADE (the Amsterdam Dance Event) is appropriate, as both events combine a daytime program of clubbing related panels and seminars and a nighttime smorgasbord of all night parties and each attracts A List DJs, music business types and party mad revelers. Unlike ADE though, SMWC’s clientele is currently mainly domestic though with Nils from Soundcloud and myself and Richard Ziljma from ADE invited along this year, Mike stresses the plan is to become a lot more international in future years.
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ADE chief Richard Zijlma pauses for thought...
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“We’re attracting more delegates and presenting more and more interesting reports, lectures, round-table discussions is increasing too. It’s also funny to see when public discussion can suddenly turn into real business agreements,” he notes.
Life, Death & Danceteria Mash-Ups
Ludlow street, Lower East Side
20 odd years ago, Jonty lived and almost died in New York City, suffering a horrific lift accident at seminal 80s club Danceteria (where he worked at the time). Crushed and literally dragged between the base of the lift and the wall of its shaft, he suffered six normally mortal injuries, receiving the Last Rites some 40 minutes later as he waited outside a hospital operating theatre for the anaesthetic to kick in . . .
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