Everything mixed again...

Once again it will be a time for total mashup - mix post with different kind of songs and music.
The Eurovisions are coming, Emeli Sandé would be coming to Berlin (I know I should go and see her!) Moby lauched some super relaxed relaxation music (it's actually good for falling asleep), Austra has released a new album called "Future politics" (and they would be also coming to Berlin next week!)...

But first I will chop Eurovisions into pieces...noo...I will not. I will just pick my favorite Finnish song and one from Sweden. Mostly it will be again another year of sad ballads about world peace and over the top glitter blast!

Okay okay, so there's always quite hmmm... "interesting" acts competing in Eurovisions. This year I was super happy about the Finnish contestant Norma John with the song "Blackbird" and yes, it's a ballad with a darker tone. But still works, good song and great piano playing.

Norma John - "Blackbird"

The song starts at 0:37

http://areena.yle.fi/1-3949137

And the Finnish/Swedish Krista Siegfrieds tried to go to the finals in Melodifestival in Sweden. She totally should have gone to the finals but oh no...but she did well!

Krista Siegfrieds - "Snurra min jord"

Bring on the Swedish disco pop!

https://youtu.be/NCW6c5r9aq0

Don't worry that was the ESC part of the post and yes you did survive without glitzer bombs!

Now your task is to imagine a summer morning, early around 05:00 or 06:00 o'clock. The sun is rising and it's already warm and suddenly you hear this song and start to dance!

Rysy - "Crystal love"

Rysy is a duo from Poland and you can hear more of their music here: 

https://soundcloud.com/rysymusic

The next one is from Clap! Clap! they are from Italy. Definitely interesting, bit strange music but will have to listen more to know..but this song was pretty cool! The new album from them is called "A thousand skies"

Clap! Clap! - "Ar-Raqis" and "Black Acre - Nguwe feat. Bongeziwe Mabandla"

The next artist is from Sweden (the promised land of awesome music!)
This artist is called Dorisburg aka. John Alexander Berg and I got to listen the album "Irrbloss" and I really really liked the whole album. Really amazing music. Should buy the album too some time. If you want some pretty chill (well it's officially labeled under techno, but who cares!) but not boring music you should check this album, It's kinda hard to pick my favorite songs from this one because they are all really great!

See (hear) for yourself! I totally love these!

Dorisburg - "Irrbloss"

And okay a second one is a must!

Dorisburg - "Votiv"

And well...third one never hurt anyone...it's more from the techno side..

Dorisburg - "Gloson"

This music totally gets a "hjärtan" from me! You can find out more music from this awesome artist here: https://soundcloud.com/alexanderberg


Now if you know Kings of convenience this sounds pretty familiar...I just can't help hearing them in this song..the musician is Baba Stiltz with a song called "Baby"  hehheee...also from Sweden! Heja Sverige! The song is from the "Is everything" EP.

Baba Stiltz - "Baby"

You can find more music from him here: https://soundcloud.com/babastiltz

If you feel tired from your working day then you should totally hear this song while drinking tea or something soothing...it will be a moment of bliss! The artist is called Lung Dart from the album "As I lay drying" with the song "Healthy functional tissue".  Peace out!

Lung Dart - "Healthy functional tissue"

I can't really figure out the lyrics but there's a part with "you need a woman.."

Found out more here: https://soundcloud.com/lungdart

You can buy the album here: https://lungdart.bandcamp.com/album/as-i-lay-drying

Here's a short info about the duo from their Bandcamp page:

"Lung Dart are Tim Clay and James Rapson - together they make textural, layered music that’s deeply soulful and melancholic, utilising live instrumentation as well as field recordings captured on their phones ranging from sounds of the bowels of Wembley Stadium at 4am to the bellowing wind coming off the Leicestershire hills and broken machinery. The result is a collage of sound inspired by 
the likes of Arthur Russell, Bjork, Lonnie Holley and Scott Walker, with hints of Connan Mocakasin, Windy & Carl and James Blake all influenced and shaped by the world at large. "

The next artist is Akira Kosemura but he has unfortunately only preview songs on his Soundcloud page but still totally worth of checking! Beautiful and calm music!

https://soundcloud.com/akirakosemuraofficial

Wild beasts is also a totally new artist for me. He has also only preview songs on Soundcloud but you should check them and go to Spotify (where you can listen to them all)

https://soundcloud.com/wildbeasts

The next artist comes from South Africa and I have so far heard only one song from her but it is so awesome! The artist is Nonku Phiri and the song is "Regrettables"




Okay and I will end the post with some sleepy music...Moby with "Long ambients" which you can buy or get for free if you want! It's suuper relaxed "quiet" music.

Check for yourself! Good night and sleep well!

http://moby.com/la1/

Radio re-discovered!

The Earth during the night

I love languages and I love music. So I found an amazing site which combines them both!
Huge thanks go to my friend J.M. (you know who you are!) for posting the link in FB! I was seriously stuck with this awesome radio site for some hours afterwards.

I used to listen quite some radio already as a kid. And my dad had this super cool radio that you could listen to all different radio channels around the world. How awesome that you can "sail" trough the world, countries, languages and cultures just by turning the radio button! Nowadays I feel that the radio has lost so much and mostly all channels are playing the same songs on a never ending loop. I tend to open the radio, but then closing it after 30 minutes because I can't take it anymore.

This awesome alternative I'm talking about is: Radio.garden It gives you a pretty amazing chance to browse trough many radio channels (mostly internet radios) in "Google Earth" -style environment. So you can just turn the globe and browse endlessly from a country to another.

First of all this page is awesome if you want to learn new languages or keep up with languages which you have already learned but don't hear that often. And sometimes it's just super cool and quite relaxing to listen to music while not understanding the language at all. So you can totally zone out with this page!

So far I've been listening only to a tiny fraction of the stations. Stations in Russia, Greece, Turkey, random Arabic speaking countries, Italy, Finland....

And of course I wanted to try out if I could find any stations in China, but the last time I was maybe able to find five or six stations. North-Korea is totally empty! Last year (2016) in December I was still able to listen to radios in Aleppo, Syria but now there's nothing. But you can still tune in in Damascus.

Here's a small article about the guy, Jonathan Puckey, behind this project:

http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2016/12/16/505829305/radio-garden-lets-you-tune-into-a-world-of-global-broadcasts

And the link to all this awesomeness is http://radio.garden

Have fun browsing and listening!

pssst...check radios in Tehran, it's pretty cool!

Happy New Year people! Something for everyone.

The 2016 went by! Some good things happened and some horrible ones too, especially in the music scene. But as an eternal optimist I'm sure 2017 will be a great year!

I skipped NYE's parties in Berlin, they are overpriced and too crowded. And anyhows you have all the other 364 days to go to nice techno parties which are bit more decently priced! Meanwhile I have found some cool new songs and this post will be again mix of everything (nice!). So bare with me and I hope you like these songs!

I seem to have taught my Spotify pretty well because in the past time I've found quite some cool songs via it. This one is also from my Spotify recommendations. The artist is BeGun and the song is called "Nari" it's a chill and nice afternoon song.
 

According to SoundCloud Begun comes from Spain. He has released an album called "Amma" on 2016, in a quick browse trough the album sounds pretty cool. Relaxed music with some African vibes. Totally recommend it if you like a mix of electronic and African music.



You can also check the video story of the album Amma on Begun's homepage:
http://begun-music.com/

The next artist comes from....Finland!! Even though crazily enough her music hasn't been played yet that much in Finland. I'm talking now about the most awesome Alma ! She's a young artist who has kinda hit trough already, but we are still waiting for a longer album from her. She released "Dye my hair" -album in 2016. If you have heard some songs from her it must be either "Karma" or the song from Felix Jaehn "Bonfire ft. Alma". I still personally don't get why she is not that popular in Finland, because she has really a phenomenal voice! But as so often bigger artists who sing in English are either talked over to change their "singing language" into Finnish or otherwise they can create careers abroad, which is totally ridiculous. This must change!

Here the kick ass songs from Alma! And those superrr beats! Pa pa pa paaa!

Alma - "Karma"

And the already 7 million views gathered song... "I'm the bonfire, you make me stronger...."

Felix Jaehn - "Bonfire ft. Alma"

Okay, still one more...a great video too!

Alma - "Dye my hair"

We will for sure hear more from this fantastically talented young artist!

The next artist come from Spain.. Marcos Cruz  I know only this song from him, but it's a nice one!

Marcos Cruz - "Esencia"

You can follow him here: https://soundcloud.com/marcos-cruz

What would become if you combine Turkish music, electro and some weird disco? You'll get this one:

Débruit & istanbul - "KACIYORUM with Gaye Su Akyol"

And what do you get if you combine electro rockabilly style music with Turkish music?
You get this one:

Gaye Su Akyol - "Eski Tüfek"

You can buy their digital album from Bandcamp: http://music.debruit.com/album/d-bruit-istanbul

These disco dream songs will lead us into some retro tunes:

Bright light bright light  - album "Choreography"

You can follow Bright light bright light here: https://soundcloud.com/brightlightx2


The next one is from a tv series "Stranger things", it's a sci-fi series which is pretty great! "Stranger things" got lot of praise from its soundtrack which is done by a group called Survive from USA, Texas, Austin. If you like synth music, you should definitely check the sound track. It's ridiculous how catchy the main theme is, I think I could watch this 10 minute version of it in one sit:

Survive - "Stranger things - Theme song"

And another favorite from the soundtrack:

Survive - Stranger Things - "Lay-Z-Boy"

Check also these ones from the soundtrack: "Fresh blood" and "Lamps" .

Here's an article from The Rolling stones about the group:  http://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/stranger-things-survive-talk-their-creepy-nostalgic-score-w431789

Boxer rebellion comes from UK. I don't listen that often to alternative rock, but they are great!!

Boxer rebellion - "Let's disappear"

You can follow Boxer rebellion here: https://soundcloud.com/theboxerrebellion

This next band comes from The Netherlands!! And they are awesome! And they are called Crying boys cafe. Here's a live performance from them from the popular talk show De Wereld draait door (The world turn around) in The Netherlands.

Crying boys cafe - "I was a singer"

They have released an album "The keys not the people" in 2016 which is definitely worth of checking out! I especially liked the song "Be so".

Crying boys cafe - "Be so"

You can follow them here: https://soundcloud.com/cryingboyscafe

Here, have a beautiful song from the band Sea Bed from the UK!

Sea Bed - "Young"

You can follow Sea Bed here: https://soundcloud.com/seabedband

I will end the fairly long post with this cool song from Waterbed.

Waterbed - "Butterfly"

Oh yeah, and because it's 2017!!

via GIPHY

Some tragic music videos and some not so tragic ones

Tragedy. The fall and the rise. Loosing and finding and letting go. These are pretty common themes in the music videos all over the world. Sometimes it's over the top but sometimes it's very well done and if so the video will stay in your mind for the rest of the week like a good movie you have just seen.

Within the last two weeks I somehow ended up watching these two music videos couple of times and I would say that they are pretty tragic ones, but still great.

The first is from Mykki Blanco. I saw the name at the gig list of Gretchen (a club here) and thought that I had seen the name somewhere, anyhow I didn't end up going to the gig but then last week finally looked up better who is this artist. Mykki Blanco is an artist from USA, he released his debut album "Mykki" this year (2016). I haven't yet listened the album trough but it seems to be more electronic/hiphop. Some people got to know Mykki Blanco from this video about the USA president election 2016 where he recites a poem by Zoe Leonard "I want a dyke for president" which has a pretty strong message:

Mykki Blanco performs poem "I want a dyke for president" by Zoe Leonard

The actual music video which I watched was for the song "Highschool never ends" it tells a story of a black trans woman falling in love with a white neo nazi.

Mykki Blanco ft. Woodkid - "High school never ends"

The other video is a older one. Just somehow stumbled upon it again and watched it. She's one of my favorite artists: Lykke Li and the music video of "Never gonna love again" She's having this "for ever continuing struggle and pain" -theme pretty often in her music videos, sometimes I get also super annoyed by it, but this video just stays in your head. The song hits hard especially if you listen the song (the youtube video version) without watching the video with your headphones on. You will notice if you try.

Lykke Li - "Never gonna love again"

And then some not so tragic videos but visually really cool ones. Solange Knowles has released a new album "A seat at the table" in September 2016 and I really liked her old music videos and the new ones are also great!

Solange - "Don't touch my hair"

Check also "Cranes in the sky" from her

One other for ever my favorite artists of mine is Roisin Murphy. She has always really cool music videos for her songs. This video "Whatever" is from her new album "Take her up to Monto" which was released in July 2016. Brilliant as ever!

Roisin Murphy - "Whatever"

And as we are in the smart phone theme and the emojis, likes and apps it's good to continue with the really stunning music video of Moby and the void pacific choir for the song "Are you lost in the world like me?" from the new album "These systems are failing". (And finally GEMA isn't blocking anymore the youtube videos because they got into an agreement with Youtube (Finally!) Great for everybody living in Germany) The animation for this video is made by Steve Cutts and it's amazing!

Moby and the Void pacific choir - "Are you lost in the world like me?"

Syrian expat philharmonic orchestra

I had the chance to go and see the "Berliner philharmoniker open air 2016" event in the end of August. I don't go often to classical music concerts so thought this would be a nice chance to enjoy some classical music outdoors without this "stiffness" what you sometimes have in the classical music concerts. The "backyard" of Berlin Philharmonic was packed with people when the concert started.

The opening act was The Syrian Expat Philharmonic Orchestra (SEPO, later using the shortening). The group consists of Syrians refugees who had to flee their own war torn country to EU countries and elsewhere. I was really impressed about the passion and the joy the Syrians had in their music, while knowing how horrendous things are happening in Syria at the same time. You could sense the sorrow and sadness from some of the songs, but still the whole set of SEPO was more vivid than the set of the Berlin Philharmonic orchestra. The whole audience of some 5.000 people (guess) were applauding after every song and shouting "Bravo, bravo."

I haven't listened that much Middle-Eastern music and was very impressed about the happiness and livelihood of the music. There were lot of quick changes, the music stayed the whole time interesting and evolving, it didn't have the "typical" ending of the classical pieces which build up into a huge "bombastic" end but it surprised you just when you though you would know what comes next.

After SEPO had finished and the Berlin philharmonic orchestra started it felt like the whole playfulness was gone and the "serious classical music" -mode was on. I felt almost falling half asleep while the orchestra was playing Johannes Brahms and Antonín Dvorák.

It was anyhow good to stay till the end of the concert because I got to hear the announcement that SEPO would be giving a concert in September at the Konzerthaus Berlin. After some weeks I booked my ticket and was very happy that I did!

Konzerthaus Berlin

Waiting for SEPO

Konzerthaus Berlin is a massive, massive building at Gendarmenmarkt at Berlin. It was my very first visit to this venue. The whole hall was packed with people. I think many of people had done the same as me, after seeing and hearing SEPO at the open air booking their tickets for this concert.

Here's shortly the program and the solists.

Conductor: Ghassan Alaboud

Solo clarinet: Kinan Azmeh

Solo violin: MAias Alyamani

Solo nay (sort of a flute): Mohamad Fityan

Solo violin: Jehad Jazbeh

Solo oud (sort of a lute): Maher Mahmoud

Solo percussion: George Oro

Solo soprano: Rasha Rizk

I wished I would/could have done notes from all of the songs. But here are the songs which were played:

1. Tomorrow

2. My beautiful homeland

3. (song name only in Arabic)

4. Oh birds

5. Oh! My homeland

6. Rose

7. One way ticket to Damascus

- Break -

8. Passion

9. Sea waves

10. Damascus - one more aspect
11. The silk road
12. November 22nd
13. Wedding
14. Longa Nahawand

SEPO

I truly loved the whole concert! It was so great to see so much commitment, strength and passion in the orchestra playing. I was very astonished by the vividness of the music. Some songs reminded me bit of the Greek music. The Middle-Eastern music has such a different rhythm than the western music. It was refreshing to hear something totally new. And knowing what these people had to go trough made the concert extra special. I think many from the audience felt quite moved after the concert. The whole hall was standing and clapping till the orchestra went off from the stage. It was also my first time hearing a soprano singing in Arabic. I would have loved to hear more songs with the oud played by Maher Mahmoud, really loved the sound of it. But I have to admit that all the soloistst were amazing!

Standing ovation

Unfortunately SEPO doesn't have yet any albums out, I would surely want to buy the album of this concert.

You can follow SEPO on facebook here:  https://www.facebook.com/Syrian-Expat-Philharmonic-Orchestra-SEPO-108858616125496/?fref=ts
Here's the official homepage: http://sepo-philharmonic.com/

Here's a short video report of DW from the concert in Berlin.

One song from the concert at Malmö, Sweden the day after the concert in Berlin:

"Damascus, one more aspect" (with oud)

And here's their own YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtDjhSW1vaNthlKlFUygQeg

More info about Middle-Eastern music: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_Eastern_music

Mix and mash part 2

The second part of the notes is purely from the Bleep newsletters I get. You can also order them via bleep.com. They have often quite interesting picks. I went trough some of the older emails I had and picked my own favorites from there and there were many. There's going to be some classical music, techno, drumm n' bass, oldskool and some African music!

Jherek Bischoff is an American musician, composer, well, a multitalent. I haven't heard before about this artist but I'm considering buying the new album "Cistern" from him. His soundscapes remind me bit of Nils Frahm. 

Here's a short discription of his new album from the Soundcloud page:

"Cistern is an album inspired by time Bischoff spent improvising in an empty, two-million-gallon, underground water tank, with a 45-second reverb decay. The unique acoustics of the space forced Bischoff to slow down and adapt his compositional approach - something which, unexpectedly, brought him back to his childhood, and the slow-pace of life he experienced growing up on a sailboat."

I haven't yet listened trough the album but for sure it will be interesting to listen! You can find the full album already from Spotify.





This next one is just hautingly beautiful and a touching song.



Here's the link to Bischoff's Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/jherek-bischoff

And just now noticed that of course the record label where Bischoff is, is Leaf where's also artists like Colleen, Caribou, Efterklang and Vladislav Delay and here you can find the rest

http://www.theleaflabel.com/en/artists

I'm an optimist but sometimes I have to listen music from a Pessimist ha ha haaa...I know a lame joke but I had to. Pessimist aka. Kristian Jabs comes from the UK and makes drumm & bass music.
Even though I haven't been a big fan of drumm & bass (well Burial..) I really enjoy Pessimist's work and sounds.









Here you can find the Soundcloud page of Pessimist: https://soundcloud.com/pessimist


Then it's time for some totally awesome oldskool vibes. Letherette aka Andy Harber and Rich Roberts come also from the UK,

Letherette - "Maybe"

Letherette - Maybe from Synesthesiæ Films on Vimeo.

Check the new album under this link (can't embed it)
Especially the songs "Sweeter" and "D&T"

https://soundcloud.com/letherette/sets/letherette-album

Sweeter found from here:

https://bleep.com/release/71449-letherette-ep3

More you can find at Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/letherette

Volte-Face is a totally new UK artist for me, but oh he makes great techno! I really really love his sound! Just listen this stream trough and you'll love it! Even though the last song is named "Dead cat on the dinner table" it's an amazing song! Put your techno shoes on!




You can buy Volte-Face's "You bury me" from Hard wax: https://hardwax.com

One other artist I found from Hard wax (I should take time and go them all trough) is Emiel Zwart who comes from The Netherlands, Rotterdam. (A great place of techno in the The Netherlands). Should buy also his stuff!





And one more via Hard wax: Abayomi who's a Berlin resident.





Ok some more easy going music now.... The Avalanches sounds groovy! The next would happen most likely if you watch "The wizard of Oz" on drugs..

The Avalanches - "The Wozard of Iz"

The Avalanches - The Wozard of Iz [Music Video] from Danny Brown on Vimeo.

And when the whole village goes berserk....don't drink that neon-lemonade!

The Avalanches - "Frankie Sinatra"

The Avalanches | Frankie Sinatra from DIVISION on Vimeo.

Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/theavalanches

Konx-Om-Pax comes from Scotland but resides in Berlin. They have a new album called "Caramel" out from the label Planet Mu. I really think I will end up buying it!

I couldn't find my favorite "Perc rave" anywhere else than the Bleep page:

https://bleep.com/release/74090-konx-om-pax-caramel

"Oren's Theme" and "Caramel" are great too...Just check all of the songs!

Here's their Soundcloud page: https://soundcloud.com/konx-om-pax

Special request aka. Paul Woolford is a great artist too

Listen "Damage" from here:

https://www.beatport.com/track/damage-original-mix/7221942

Check from the "Modern warfare" songs "Take Me" and "Simulation" .

https://bleep.com/release/64252-special-request-modern-warfare-eps-1-3

My Nu Leng are from Bristol. Great club music. This song is from a cool collaboration, which My Nu Leng participated too, between musicians and Malawi.

"Beating Heart is an exciting music project 65 years in the making and featuring 21 artists including: RUDIMENTAL, MACHINEDRUM, LUKE VIBERT, THROWING SHADE and many more. They have taken the recordings of man called Hugh Tracey who wanted to share African music with the world and remixed them for tracks to feature on a brand new album with a brand new sound. Release 3rd June 2016."

 Here's a short trailer about the project:

Beating Heart project

Beating Heart - Malawi from VOX Films on Vimeo.

My Nu Leng - "Eyes"

Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/mynuleng

Definitely worth of buying this collection "Burning heart - Malawi". (Though I think I will have to get some other ones too, too much great new music out!)  Hope you enjoyed the music tips of this post! Until the next one!

Mix and mash part 1

You know the moment you start to have too many notes on tiny pieces of papers lying around on the floor, on the table and some are already lost. I usually write all the new nice songs which I hear down so I decided to go trough some of my notes and emails and found some nice new music. Lets start with something legendary...After laughter comes tears...

The song "After laughter" is originally done by Wendy Rene (1947-2014) written together with her brother in the 1964. Maaany artists have done covers from this song.

Wendy Rene - "After laughter"

Nicolas Jaar has made a quite cool remix of the original song:

Wendy Rene - "After laughter comes tears Nicolas Jaar edit"

Should actually write a post about Nicolas Jaar because he has done a lot good music!

Even though the Eurovision song contest was competed already a while ago, (see, my notes are bit old), there were some great artists that even didn't get to compete to Sweden. One I really liked was Mick Pedaja from Estonia with the song "Seis" (Stop). I really love the magical atmosphere of the song. I would definitely love to see this artist live or to buy an album of his!

Mick Pedaja - "Seis"

Here's the extended version of the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwCKtC5E4Bg


Mick Pedaja - "Peakskiviimaks / Ought at last"




Go and check his Soundcloud page too because he has some really beautiful ambient tracks there:

https://soundcloud.com/mick-pedaja

And then jump to something totally different...a mix made in heaven! Burial & Four tet mix can only mean something good!

Burial & Four tet - "Nova"

Lets stay bit in the same vibe with this one:

Christian Löffler - "Blind"

Should also write and check more songs from him! Here's the Soundcloud account:

https://soundcloud.com/christianloeffler

Next one I heard thanks to Spotify....

Turtle - "Who knows"

Here you can find the Bandcamp page of Turtle: http://turtle.bandcamp.com/album/who-knows-ep

I heard also the first time Beck, (well at least knowing it was Beck) now even though I've heard the name before, but I totally love the new single which is out just now!

Beck - "Wow"

We are not happy with GEMA.

here's just the link because GEMA wants to be annoying:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZlbahhoEIo

and a short teaser: 

WOW from Ulysse Prom on Vimeo.

Die Antwoord @ Zitadelle, Berlin

Finally I got the chance to see the one of the most controversial bands from South-Africa; Die Antwoord. They were playing at Zitadelle at Spandau, Berlin 4.6.2016. The event was sold out already for a long time before and I was expecting that there will be lots of people, but not really that much what it actually was. According to Berlin Morgenpost there were aprox. 10.000 people at the gig!

Romano

Romano was the warming up act for Die Antwoord, He's a pretty well known German hiphop/rap artist. He is known from hits like "Köpenick" (it's a city district next to Berlin) and "Klaps auf den Po" (Claps on the ass). I like his style and sound, was just bit surprised when watching the music video of "Köpenick": it was shot in L.A. Compton. I was looking forward to see something cool from Köpenick itself, maybe next time then when he would write a song about "Königs Wusterhausen"! Romano mixes his rap with dance electronic sounds like in "Klaps auf den Po". Romano's music made everybody dance (even though I didn't still understand all the lyrics, but the beat and sound was good enough on its own). And as a non hiphop/rap person I was convinced and danced along, this guy has a good sound and attitude!

Romano - "Köpenick"

Romano - "Klaps auf den Po"

Check also the "Metalkutte" from Romano! More videos here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7La9K4wQtzU2q7gQ57X3cQ
And the official homepage: http://www.romanomusik.de/

After Romano had played it started to rain quite a lot, and there was still waiting before Die Antwoord would go on stage. DJ Craft (K.I.Z) was playing still in between, but it was pretty boring to be honest (mixing just some big hits until the point the public was getting tired with it and wanted to see Die Antwoord).

Finally after some hours (about two including the both warming up acts) Die Antwoord came on stage! They had literally an insane show and the public was with them. I was pretty much forced to go bit back in the crowd because everyone, meaning this huge sea of about 8.000-10.000 people, was starting to jump and push around "crowd moshing or mosh pit". But as a bit smaller person this was seriously not fun, being stuck and trying to keep other people on jumping on me I kinda lost the first parts of the gig totally trying to just concentrate on not getting mad and punching other people.

Maybe I should have read this one before, How to mosh in a mosh pit: http://www.wikihow.com/Mosh-in-a-Mosh-Pit

Die Antwoord had just released a new album "Donker mag" a day before the gig (3.6.2016) but they played maybe like 2/3 new songs. It was great the hear all the huge hits like "I fink u freaky", "Enter the Ninja" etc. The stage show was good and hyper energetic as you could expect from Die Antwoord. Great backup dancers and lots of Die Antwoord clothing (crazy sweaters, neon colours and red). Saw also one dedicated fan who was looking exactly like Yolandi Vi$$er, props for her!

I've now listened couple times the new album "Donker Mag" through and sort of liked the sound, but the "angst" is just still too much in the album, can't help it. My favorites were "Ugly boy", "Cookie thumper", "Donker mag" (with beautiful organs) and "Girl I want 2 eat U" which had bit the sounds from reggaeton (at least remotely).

But I have to admit I've developed now sort of a like/dislike relationship with this band since the first time I heard about them. I do get that they want to give this "crazy wacky" image. It's anyhow quite hard to become a huge name/artist from the South-Africa and so quickly. In that they have succeeded. I'm anyhow still bit disgusted/disliking/"done" with some of their music videos, like the "Pitbull terrier". I have just seen too often this super angst what they have in their videos and all the violence, and I'm not now talking about just someone shooting someone or so, but about Ninja dressed in rubber "pitbull terrier" mask eating other people's necks while the blood is bursting all out. (wrong for all the nice pitbull terriers out there!) Here you can see for yourself if you want!

Die Antwoord - "Pitbull terrier"

And here you have real pitbull terriers:

The "Ugly boy" is bit less in a good way but again the blood is flying...

Die Antwoord - "Ugly boy"

After a while you just kinda get tired of it... I still like the music from them but I hope they would just some time soon(!!) take the next step from this "hate/violence/angst/666" stuff...I started to feel that the band is solely based on this "shock effect"and that would be sad...very sad.

I was anyhow happy that I went to see the band live but would NOT recommed Zitadelle for such big events, was just too many people in too small space.

Here you can listen trough the new album "Donker mag":

Berlin music video awards day 2 part 2

So finally found to the time to write about the rest of the music videos from day 2 of BMVA. In the coming categories the same "hip" themes of the year were used quite often, stripper bars, pouring paint on bodies, milk baths and black contact lenses (so stolen from Die Antwoord...) You can again see the full list of contestants from here and all the videos too: http://www.berlinmva.com/main/nomineescategories-2016/

"Best art director" category

Mat Zo - "Sinful" from this song I only noted down two things: welding masks and strippers in a bar.

My favorite from the category of Best art director was definitely the Jolin Tsai - "Play".  The artist is coming from Taiwan. I really loved the humor of this video! You see the Taiwanese hipsters fighting and getting out older and older cameras and gramophones while trying beat each others in this coolness competition. The hipsters then end up in a big fight hitting each others with ukuleles.

The song is quite dance pop but combined with the video it makes a perfect couple. I think this video and song was one of my favorites from whole BMVA 2016. Here's the music video with English subtitles (click them on while watching, it's more fun when you know the lyrics too)

Jolin Tsai - "Play"

Catz 'n Dogz feat Tanika - "Get it right". This Polish creation was also high on my list. I like how they have gathered so many different groups of people into this video; you have the motocross boys, cheer leaders, american football girls, equestrians, priests, fishermen, the hooligans and the high class house wives.

Catz 'n Dogz - "Get it right"

Petite Meller - "Barbaric" not so much to say; scary make up, random dance moves and a swimming pool with old people.

Tame Impala - "The less I know the better". Not so much to say either; crazy video with a basketball player going oral on a girl and then the girl is later stolen by a big gorilla. And the gorilla dies in the end when a basketball pierces it. Here's a impala for you:

and the other kind of impala

Be quiet - "Ichor" yet again another music video with lots of....MILK. In this video though the milk is kinda taking over the whole world, in a very literal way.

Here's the milk wave taking over the world!

The best editor category was bit hard for me. I first just mostly disliked all the videos coming up...or maybe I was just being too picky and getting tired of the overdose of music videos. (Can happen!)

Synapson - "Fireball" in this video two girls are getting bored with their boyfriends and end up being a couple. Pretty common story line, but even being in Berlin the audience gave a small "ohh" sound when they saw two girls kissing in the end of the video.

Gilligan Moss - "Choreograph"  Only want to say: lots of fried eggs.

Reid Willis - "Search for the blue pearl" maybe I've seen too many time Matrix because I was wanting to write the name of the song several times wrong: Search for the blue pill.  This was one of the rare videos that was shot in Berlin (you can spot the S-bahn (city train) from the video). I like how the song itself is pretty minimalistic and so are the small subtle changes. They have shot normal every day life from Berlin and surroundings and afterwards changed small parts and made non living things move with the music. You see the iron bars jumping up and down, lights turning on and off. I really liked the theme of how the whole city gets its own life.

Here the link to the video: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x43ndgx

Sbcr - "The grid" video with a very very angry bodybuilder.

Delta Q - "Ode ( An die Freude)" (Ode for the happiness)

This was the only stop motion animated music video of the category and possibly of the whole BMVA 2016. The Delta Q guys are singing multiple times the same song but in different styles and for each style they created own scenes. Was thinking how insane amount of work this has taken. I totally agree that this music video was also the right one to win this category of best editor. 

Delta Q - "Ode (An die Freude)"

The "Best song" category went bit pass me, being so tired after seeing all videos I was forcing myself to stay and see the videos. In this category they had thought only about the song and didn't care about the video itself. It was very easy to pick my favorite from this and my personal winner was: Robot Koch & Julien Marchal - "Care". I knew Robot Koch from before and was waiting already something great when hearing the name. The video is also quite astonishing with the colors floating trough the air, combined with the dreamy song it definitely was a perfect combination.
Watch this from a bigger screen if possible!

Robot Koch & Julien Marchal - "Care"

Berlin music video awards day 2 part 1.

On the second day of the festival I was able to attend it myself. Second day there were videos competing in five different categories: Best visual effects, Best cinematography, Best art director, Best editor and Best song. So it was a full day's or lets say full evening's work to watch all the videos. It took about 4-5 hours to watch it all (including breaks). The BMVA took place this year in Gretchen, which is a nice club close by Mehringdamm in Berlin. FYI I don't mention all the videos that were competing but my favorites or dislikes. You can go for the full listings to BMVA site: http://www.berlinmva.com/main/nomineescategories-2016/

The first category was Best visual effects 

The new "hip" in this year's videos were different kinds of paints and liquids splashing or oozing from the eyes. After you saw it in a couple of videos you started to think if they had seen bit too much of X-Files (black oil kröhmm..). There were some big names competing too in the best visual effects category, one was Zayn with "Pillow talk". I had heard the song quite some times in the radio before but was surprised how visually beautiful the video was. But at some point the couple's kissing and the red oozy eyes were getting bit blah..but anyhow the video had some beautiful moments. Here's some photos from it:

  Find more from http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/pop/6859330/pillowtalk-moments-zayn-grown-up

and here the bloody eyes:

I think Gem club - "Speech of foxes" should have competed in the best narrative section instead of the best visual effects. While watching I was just thinking about the story of the man in the video, where he was burning all his old photos. While throwing the photos into the fire he started to burn himself too and turning slowly into ashes.

                                                     Gem club - "Speech of foxes"

One other big name competing in this category was Björk with "Mouth mantra".
I had pretty mixed feelings about this video. First I thought oh how cool idea, then it was just gross and then I was thinking if I'm watching a mouth or a vagina..so after all that going trough in my head I just disliked the extreme close ups of the mouth. If it was Björk who's mouth was being filmed I can say at least that she has good teeth! See for yourself:

                                                            Björk - "Mouth mantra"

Carpenter brut - "Turbo killer" was one of my favorites from the category or maybe even my favorite. It's super camp disco style but it was cool and fun to watch! And the video stayed in my mind afterwards which tells that it was good!

Prepare for some camp and fasten your seat belts!

Carpenter brut - "Turbo killer"

Montmartre - "Out of violence" was confusing video to watch. The song was pretty dance'ish happy going and the video was like the world would be ending.. If they tried to use this contrast as a powerful tool they failed. The song has some vibes from Daft Punk, it would be nice to dance to in a disco, but combined with this huge black storm thingy (which reminded me of the Dementors from Harry Potter) I couldn't really enjoy the video.

Montmartre - "Out of violence"

M+R / MONTMARTRE - OUT OF VIOLENCE from NOSIDE on Vimeo.

And here a Dementor for you too!

Darwin Deez was competing in multiple categories this year but I still didn't like his video "Kill your attitude" that much. It had a funny idea behind though...the whole music video was shot like the singer would be part of a video game "Counter strike". But I never really liked Counter strike so then I didn't really like the video either.

Noah - "Flaw" was one of my favorites too. A visually beautiful video with amazing landscapes. I liked the flying clothes and the floating bodies. The song was bit Sigur Ros'ish. Super dreamy!

Noah - "Flaw"

Noah "flaw" from takcom™ on Vimeo.

My immediate favorite was Stromae - "Quand c'est". I've listened before some music from him and have big respect towards this amazing artist! He has other genius videos too you should check out! (At least Tous les memes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAMWdvo71ls) The song "Quand c'est" when translated means "When it is?" in English. The trick is that if you say Quand c'est in French it sounds bit like cancer in English. Stromae uses this kind of tricks often in his songs and lyrics like "Moules frites" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Z2fQjJIWMw) If you understand French the double meanings of the lyrics will open up easier.

But anyhow back to the video of "Quand c'est". It is a captivating and touching video to watch. How the "cancer" is taking hold of the theater and then eventually of the dancer while Stromae is singing. He is asking when the cancer would be taking a holiday, telling how mischievous it can be starting from the mother's breasts and taking slowly over the whole body. Stromae won the category of best visual effects with this video.

Stromae - "Quand c'est" 

The second category Best cinematography.

Alice on the roof - "Easy come easy go" was totally new for me.

Easy come easy go is a very beautiful song, but the video didn't really get high points from me, it was another "breaking up" video. Seems like that was one themes of the music video's this year's competition.

Here's a live session of the song instead. It's soo much better than the original video. Sometimes voice is all we need.

Alice on the roof - "Easy come easy go"

More music from Alice on the roof: https://soundcloud.com/aliceontheroof

Major Lazer ft. Nyla & Fuse ODG - "Light it up"

Major Lazer is more known from his tongue in the cheek type music videos like "Pon de floor" so I was very surprised about the video I saw, in a very positive way. The music video tells about a funeral in a small village somewhere in Africa. I think there they see funerals as a more joyful party to celebrate the life of the deceased person. I like this idea a lot better and think that it should be more common in Europe too. Why to just mourn these people while we can celebrate the life what they had and remember the good things?

The "Light it up" video is just beautiful. It has a short extract from a poem in the end. The poem is called: "Kae" (translated remember). I was lucky enough to find the poem and would like copy it here so you can read the full poem before listening and watching the music video. It's a bit long but worth of reading trough. It tells about the struggle and the suffering Africa had to go trough because of the invasion of the western people. I tried to fix the possible typos what the translator left there..

"Kae"

 by Kwadwo Nkita-Mayala as translated into Twi by Obadele Kwame Kambon

"My people

Do you know what time we are in now?

It is time to remember

To remember

To remember life

My people

We’ve rested so long in sleep

Far too long

Let us arise

Let us arise and remember

Remember life

Wise people and Fools

Beautiful stars and powerful Suns

Children and Elders of Africa

Remember

Can we remember the time before

The arrival of albinos/Europeans to Africa?

The time before we were dispersed all over this earth

Before slavery

Before colonialism

Before exploitation

Before the heart of Africa began bleeding

Who caused all of this suffering?

We know

We know

And remember

We did not forget

Remember and be prepared

Who ignores the truth?

Who ignores the history?

Who can forget Our suffering?

In slavery

In exploitation of colonialism

Nevertheless

We survived

We survived

Remember

Our enemy will be brought before justice

He cannot hide from the eyes of the Ancestors

Remember

Remember and stand

Birds have feathers because they were passed down to them by other birds

Remember

Remember

Where is the returning path (to Our Way)? 

Look back and feel the unseen power of remembrance

Because Our Ancestors are with us

They are Our strength

Our Ancestors work very hard on Our behalf

We also, we must work very hard

To help Our children and change life on earth

Life is dying and undying

But you must remember

Look back

And remember

We are at a crossroads

Between life and death

Who will show us the way?

Who will open the path?

It is 

Train your mind

Train your mind

To remember and to heal

To remember and to destroy

Remember

To hold onto that which holds you up

Do not give it away

Rise up (spiritually)

Sing a new song

Remember Our traditions

Let’s Return

To Our roots

To Our systems/nature/order

Remember

For Change

Remember

For Justice

Remember

For Balance

Remember

For Life

Remember

Collectively

Remember"

And here the music video which was one of my favorite from best cinematography category:

Major Lazer ft. Nyla & Fuse ODG - "Light it up"

Nao - "Bad blood" was also something totally new for me. It seemed to be also a trend to have naked people walking around. As a person from the North I was like okay again they have tried to use this nakedness as some sort of an effect, so people would go like "Oh what, she's naked!". I saw the person naked as a some sort of a life giver. When she was watching people they would have small trees popping out of their eyes. And the people would arise from dead. The song itself is pretty much house.

Nao - Bad blood

Lunakid - "Technicolor". Lunakid comes from Germany and some of the producers and other crew of the video were also present. The video had very cool costumes! I hope there would be actually a category only for costumes. It would be awesome! I remember from this video mostly only the golden and black masks and the vcr tape. The atmosphere is pretty dark and so the song too. They are worshiping VCR cassetes, well sort of...maybe.."Must have old tape!"
Anyhow it is a cool video!

Lunakid - Technicolor

Susanne Sundför - "Accelerate"
I was happy to see Susanne Sundför competing in this category and knew the song already beforehand. Accelerate is a music video with loots of strobo lights, big disco ball and people floating naked in the water. Kinda sexy! The video is well done and fits the song good. Great song to listen bit louder!

Susanne Sundför - Accelerate

Hurts - "Lights"  was a totally new artist for me. They had a pretty crazy video with some as crazy dancing in a disco. And if you watched the video you'll know not to mess around with these people while they are dancing! This video won the category even though I would have wanted to give the prize to Lunakid!

Hurts - "Lights"

Lance Butters - "Es zieht, ich zieh" (Google translate says: It attracts, I pull)
This was maybe the most disgusting video of the competition. It shows a man shooting himself to the head and how the corpse starts to rot with maggots wriggling around and mice eating the body. So in you have been warned and you can watch the video if you want. Maybe not good thing to do while eating or before eating.

Lance Butters - "Es zieht, ich zieh"

I'll leave the Best art director, Best editor and Best song to the next post!