Sunday Times’ Berlin Sex & Drugs Shocker
Sunday Times video clip of 'decadent Berlin'
Hugely influential and usually respected British newspaper the Sunday Times published a hysterical ‘not safe for children’ expose on Berlin night life this week which suggested that ‘not since the 30s has Berlin experienced such decadence.’
Echoing the entertaining, if usually fictitious prose style pioneered by the Times’ notoriously sleazy deceased sister title the News Of the World, crack reporter Christopher Goodwin said‘ mass orgies’ involving hundreds of strangers are routine while ‘in every Berlin nightspot you openly see people snorting speed or cocaine’.
“I watched thousands of drugged up clubbers dancing in their own dreamscapes,” he continued, “and saw hundreds of anonymous bodies desperately clutching for flesh in the dark sex rooms”. Visions, he added, which left him ‘profoundly depressed’. (Sunday Times: http://thetim.es/wQ9tMb )
Apparently dreaming up his fantasy sex stories after a brief trip to Berlin’s (admittedly open-minded) fetish club the Kit Kat, Goodwin also claimed to have visited Berghain (‘Berlin’s most notorious club’) and ‘The Wilde Renate’ (known to Berliners as Salon Zur Wilden Renate, or more commonly ‘Renate’).
American Berlin scene DJ and journalist Beaner, a regular at ‘the Wilde Renate’ and resident at both KaterHolzig and (now closed) Bar 25, two of the other clubs prominently discussed by the Times, was puzzled.
Berghain's home page; clear proof of ubiquitous Berlin orgies (click for more; NOT SAFE FOR SUNDAY TIMES READERS)
“I actually skimmed through that article, a friend of mine from London sent it to me, in the context of another friend moving here. She asked me what I thought of it,” Beaner told Skrufff, chatting in a decidedly non-sexual, non -drug crazed, though down-at-heel chic bar three days later.
Clearly sex crazed KaterHolzig/ former Bar 25 resident Beaner; click for more
“To me it’s just the basic London journalism,” he shrugged, “You know, it’s using vague second hand non-facts to prove a story that you set out to write already.
2012: Is the End Nigh (Or Not?): Perc (interview)
Click on the picture for more from Perc
According to the Mayan Calendar the world (or at least civilisation) is due to end cataclysmically on December 21st 2012. With economists and futurologists also almost all predicting a year of upheaval, Skrufff asked a bunch of our favourite DJs and personalities for their predictions for 2012; both musically and apocalype-wise . . .
Perc: Berghain Bandwagon Jumpers and Despicable Dubstep (interview)
“In the sub-niche that I work in there will be a continuation of more and more people jumping onto the Berghain/ industrial techno bandwagon.”
Though he’s more than adept at producing top quality underground serious house, Perc, aka Ali Wells, is best known for delivering highly original and idiosyncratic industrial techno such as that featured on his new artist album Wicker and Steel. Adored by critics (Resident Advisor chief Todd Burns loves it, and Quietus dubbed it ‘an antidote to wishy washy electronica’ in making it one of their albums of 2011: http://bit.ly/tXckuu ) the new album has more than a few producer fans too, though copyists are unlikely to impress Ali.
“I’m not bothered 95% of people making this stuff get it so incredibly wrong, with such a lack of vision, that it barely registers on my radar.” he laughs.
“If you were making Minus style minimal two years ago, then big room white noise laden techno last year, then anyone who has any actually knowledge of this music can see your fakery from a mile off,” he warns.
Despite name-checking Berlin’s best known club Berghain (where he performed twice this year) he’s got no plans to join the thousands of other DJs who’ve made the city their home.
“The most inspiring place should be the city you have a local connection with,” he explains.
“People should try to build things up in the city where they are, not dream of moving to Berlin, then getting there and realising that unless you already have some profile you will just become one of the masses scratching around for DJ gigs in bars. For me that city is London, there is a combination of innovation, open-mindedness and energy that is unique to the city,” he says.
David Bowie: Fame (on Soultrain) 70s video
Having a bit of a 70s theme to the blog today; check out the master in his 70s glory days….. (As spotted by Alisson gothz) Plus this one below from Berlin uber-film Christiane F.
Skrufff Top 5: (546):Tim Deluxe, Marco Lys,Ismael Alonso & Mikel Ayerr, Ramon Zenker & Harada, Carl Craig
- Tim Deluxe: Transformation
- Marco Lys: Kama
- Ismael Alonso, Mikel Ayerra: Pena Capital
- Ramon Zenker & Harada: Rappelkiste
- Carl Craig ; Sandstorms
Moving to Berlin (Solo): Steffa Superheilig (interview)
Steffa dressing Fidelity Kastrow/ photo by Jannis Mayr
Six Berlin residents; Pet Duo, Axel Bartsch, Ralf Gutterslut, Steffa Superheilig, Patrick DSP & Snuff Crew, chatted to Skrufff last week about life in the German capital. Steffa Superheilig (the only Berliner of the bunch) is the door selector at Renate and Kater Holzig and formerly Bar 25) and also one of the city’s top underground stylists.
See below for her comments in full (and lots more pictures)
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Click here to read the full feature article; http://skrufff.com/2011/11/moving-to-berlin/
Barrikadestudio Berlin for Elle Magazine
Christina Stivalli for the Actor & Singer Anna Fischer
Moving to Berlin (Solo): Snuff Crew: (interview)
Snuff Crew: click for more
Six Berlin residents; Pet Duo, Axel Bartsch, Ralf Gutterslut, Steffa Superheilig, Patrick DSP & Snuff Crew, chatted to Skrufff last week about their experiences moving to the German capital. See below for (German) Snuff Crew’s Eins’ comments in full.
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Click here to read the full feature article; http://skrufff.com/2011/11/moving-to-berlin/
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Moving to Berlin (Solo): Ralf Obergfell (Gutterslut): (interview)
Six Berlin residents; Pet Duo, Axel Bartsch, Ralf Gutterslut, Steffa Superheilig, Patrick DSP & Snuff Crew, chatted to Skrufff last week about their experiences moving to the German capital. See below for (German) photographer/ Gutterslut promoter Ralf Obergfell’s comments in full.
Click HERE to read the full feature article.
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Moving to Berlin (Duo): Pet Duo (interview)
Pet Duo: click for more
Six Berlin residents; Pet Duo, Axel Bartsch, Ralf Gutterslut, Steffa Superheilig, Patrick DSP & Snuff Crew, chatted to Skrufff last week about their experiences moving to the German capital. See below for Brazilian techno heroes Pet Duo’s comments in full.
To read the full feature: click HERE
Moving to Berlin (solo): Axel Bartsch (interview)
Axel Bartsch (Click for Axel's Soundcloud page)
Six Berlin residents; Pet Duo, Axel Bartsch, Ralf Gutterslut, Steffa Superheilig, Patrick DSP & Snuff Crew, chatted to Skrufff last week about their experiences moving to the German capital. See below for German producer/ DJ Axel Barsch’s comments in full.
To read the full feature: click HERE
Moving To Berlin? Pet Duo, Axel Bartsch, Ralf Gutterslut, Steffa Superheilig, Patrick DSP & Snuff Crew Discuss (feature)
Berghain (taken from Snuff Crew's video for God; click for more)
“A lot of times people move to Berlin for just three years or something and then they go back to America or Italy or whatever. But they bring the impact, the energy. That’s really good for the scene, because we have all these new people doing something, trying something. That’s why the music scene here is super dynamic.”
Chatting to US lifestyle guide Flavorwire.com in 2010, born and bred Berliner star Ellen Allien was positive about the hordes of incomers relocating to the German capital though added one important proviso:
“Rich people just visiting for the weekend, that’s what’s killing the city,” she warned, “but as long as people keep moving here, Berlin will remain cool.” (http://bit.ly/97ZU85 )
International DJs who’ve since gone include Made to Play’s Jesse Rose (who moved to LA this year) and Visionquest’s Seth Troxler (now based in London) plus Berghain resident Cassy, a Berliner for 8 years up until recently.
“The rent is cheaper than elsewhere, this of course is a very tempting factor for staying in Berlin but the world is big, there are so many places to look at and live in,” she told Sweatlodge Magazine last month.
“I wanted to live in a place where the food is amazing and there’s more life in the street, more energy,” she explained (Sweatlodge Radio; http://bit.ly/uL8SYy )
Styling by Steffa Superheilig: picture by Jannis Mayr for Proud Mag
That Berlin can be bitterly bleak on windswept wintry nights (and uber-cold; down to minus 20ºC) is certainly true though it can be equally sweat-drippingly hot in July and August when temperatures regularly top 30ºC.
In energy terms too, it’s searingly scalding, at least according to Wired magazine who recently branded Berlin ‘one of Europe’s hottest start-up capitals’.
German magazine Der Spiegel agreed too, reprinting Wired’s words plus another interesting assessment from leading US technology blog TechCrunch.
“It’s become the place where misfits in Europe — people who want to be artists and creators, people who don’t fit in rigid social structures of cities like London — flock to do what they want,’ Der Spiegel (Tech-Crunch) reported
“If London feels like a European New York; Berlin feels like a European Portland or an Austin or a Boulder. And perhaps one day a European San Francisco,” they predicted.
If London feels like ‘a European New York’, Berlin feels more like a retro New York, specifically the avant-garde, anything goes, ultra decadent lower East Side playground of the 80s.
Packed with clubbers, punks, gays, DJs, freaks, nerds and assorted global (and German) misfits, Berlin (or rather its three inner city districts of Kreuzberg, Friedrichshain and Neukoln) shares the same mix of graffiti tagged brownstone tenements, though unlike 80s era New York, it’s safe.
Remarkably so, in fact, despite the fact that every other street light is switched off after dark, as a budget saving device by cash strapped local authorities. And while it’s superficially menacing after dark, it’s also a surprisingly tranquil city, packed with cafes, parks and trees (Berliners will proudly tell you it’s the most tree filled city in Europe.)
It’s also full of cyclists and bicycle lanes; legend has it that hundreds were built after the second world war, both because so much of the old narrow street grid was flattened and because fuel shortages meant cars were beyond most people’s means.
Snuff Crew
Skrufff chatted to six Berliners who presently call the city their home: Steffa Superheilig (stylist, door selector at Renate, Kater Holzig and formerly Bar 25); German producers Snuff Crew and Axel Bartsch (Sportsclub), Brazilian incomers Pet Duo, Gutterslut (German) co-promoter Ralf Obergfell and Canadian producer Patrick DSP and asked them to share their insider tips for making the most of the city.
Ralf Obergfell's new series 'C U R R Y 6 6 6'
