Plugged Back In
So I’ve been back from Berlin for about an hour. I’ve checked my emails and both blogs and everything is pretty much the same as it was when I left. Ireland has a dark grey haze over it and my ears are popping a little bit. My shoes are fucked up (I blame the extremely dingy Tresor)
Berlin was as I imagined it would be, a nice split between gruelling and difficult partying (of the kind I barely ever engage in these days) and the edifying realisation that all of this music really is something I am glad I spend my time on, that actually hearing it out in clubs and bars and at parties where everyone likes it makes liking it a whole lot more fun.
We arrived on Thursday and I went to bed pretty early to recover from Romania. Then on Friday I visited Mobilee’s offices for a short few minutes where I was kindly given a vinyl copy of the new Sebo K single (amongst other stuff, again, thanks a lot!) which someone more famous than me probably deserves a lot more.
The single will be released in December as a special one sided vinyl with Paul Snowden from Wasted German Youth doing a design on the flipside. While there I also chatted a little about Mobilee’s plans for parties at Miami and Sonar next year, which seem very ambitious. One idea in particular kind of blew my mind, but presumably nothing is certain yet so I guess keep an eye out for details of whatever plans do go ahead.
So having done whatever you do between 17.00 and going out clubbing (eat, drink, wash etc) we went to Tresor on Friday night to see Exercise One, Pan-Pot, Ralf Kollmann etc playing at a special Mobilee night. Narod Niki (a sort of laptop supergroup with one or all or none of Richie Hawtin/Villalobos/Zip/Dan Bell etc etc etc) were on in Admiralspalast but it was quite an early show so we didn’t bother going. Any reports on that?
So it was on to Tresor. Even in its new incarnation, it’s as hardcore as I’d heard, dark and dingy and quite rough in places. At one point I was in the bathroom and a guy was burning either crack or heroin next to me and offered me some. I declined politely, thinking I haven’t quite screwed up my life enough yet to hit the crack pipe, and he turned to me and screamed “Fuuuuck youuuu!” Quite weird, but it does make a good story eh?
As for the music, Exercise One were the highlight. Anyone who’s downloaded a live set like their mix for Resident Advisor will know it’s a really raw performance. The same was true on Friday night. In fact, listening to it reminds me of a time pre-minimal in a way I can’t quite put my finger on, I guess because the sound is quite big and ambitious, and perhaps a bit more technoey than a lot of current stuff. Also that idea of a big headlining live show that’s perhaps absent a bit in clubs, at least over here.
We went from Tresor to the Arena Club which I know very little about (and remember very little of as well, funnily enough!). I do remember the DJ playing Kabale Und Liebe’s amazing “Mumblin Yeah” though, a record I heard several times all weekend and one that I can’t stop playing myself. It is quickly becoming one of my favourites of the year. From there we went to a party (which I slept at) and then home. My shoes were black all over. Note for the future, wear filthy shoes in Tresor.
On Saturday night I had decided to do nothing because I was so tired, and 2 nights out in a row is a total rarity for me given the health problems I sometimes have, but the great thing about Berlin is that you can be sitting in a house at 5am and find yourself discussing the fact that if you leave now you’ll catch some of Henrik Schwarz live and Sebo K DJing. That was pretty hard to resist, so we didn’t.
After a kebab (about a third or a quarter of the price of the same in Dublin, what a ripoff this fucking country is) we got into Watergate at about 5am just in time to see Henrik Schwarz play the last half hour or so of his live set, in the upstairs room. It was pretty cool though it didn’t quite grab me in a major way, at least not relative to what came afterwards. That’s probably as much because I like DJ sets more than live anyway! Also friend had promised Schwarz live was mindblowing, and he was disappointed too.
If you’ve never heard of Watergate check out this video of the amazing lights on the ceiling. Then go check out 5 or 6 more, Youtube is full of them despite the club’s “no cameras” policy.
At some point between 6am and 10.30 or so, this became the best night of the weekend. We stayed in the upstairs room for a while watching Melon DJ. I knew nothing about Melon beforehand but his set was great, with some Carl Craig as well as quite a lot of deep house (and the speech from “Can You Feel It”).
It’s interesting that a really big percentage of the music I heard all weekend, whether in Watergate or Arena or various bars, was house. Except at Tresor I guess. Not necessarily deep house or minimal, just somewhere in between, it was cool to hear stuff like Christian Burkhardt, Johnny D, 2000 and One etc, a lot of stuff I like. Though I don’t claim to have visited every club, far from it!
After a while at Melon we went downstairs to see Sebo K going back to back with a couple of other DJs whose identity I’m not too sure of. At this stage the light was streaming in the windows from a rather miserable looking rainy Berlin. It’s actually quite captivating to sit and stare at the water at 6am with the music playing behind you.
Back inside Sebo and co played what I guess is the best kind of afterhours set, not many massive peaks or troughs but a really great constant flow of house music. I kept thinking of the RA interview with Efdemin where he says this:
“It’s a bit like if you have a really good Luciano set - he is my favorite DJ I think, sometimes - then you have four hours of nothing happening. It’s like a long line, which is the best thing that can happen. I always try to play like that. I can’t really because he’s so amazing, but that is the best thing. It’s like the old way of playing. There’s nothing really spectacular happening. It’s about feeling like “Okay. We are here. There is no time and I’m just dancing.”
It’s really great for a DJ to come out and suggest that perhaps DJ sets having a lot of similar tracks in them is not actually a bad thing by default. There is a strength in that style, you get lost in it. Especially where there are lots of tracks pushing a particular sound, and at the moment this is true of minimal house, or deep house, or the fusion of the two that seems to be around.
Saturday was probably a typical night in Watergate for people who go there regularly, but I know the few of us who were tourists were really blown away. Clubbing in Berlin is really invigorating, I would never be able to party as much as I did this weekend in Dublin because the music, at a party or whatever, would eventually bore me.
Whereas in Watergate it was so consistently good and ploughing a similar groove so relentlessly that you just get caught up in it and can’t help but go a little crazy, drugs or not (not in my case!)
We left at around 10am or so, after some pretty wild reactions to the only two really “big” records of the night, Carl Craig’s remix of the Junior Boys and Eurythmics “Sweet Dreams”, a real bolt from the blue! It was definitely one of the most fun times clubbing I’ve ever had, though of course “best nights ever” is not an ordered list is it? Nights are so different from each other. Maybe it’s a disparate list.
I guess after a week in two different cities I can’t help but mention just how poorly Dublin compares to either. For starters, when you go elsewhere, it’s astounding to note how poor the sound systems are here.
Because of this, coupled with the woeful design of every single dance venue, you are swiftly and incessantly distracted from the dancefloor in Dublin clubs even when a good DJ is playing. Perhaps it’s unfair to compare Dublin to Berlin, but Kristal Glam Club in Bucharest (a city which isn’t massively more populated than here) makes a joke of any venue here, with 10 video screens and a brilliant sound system. And about 2000 crazy kids!
Of course above all the licensing laws are the crucifying force here, with all clubs bound to close at 3am, but prices are a little ridiculous too. Most venues in this city would charge €10 at the door when there are no guest DJs, and yet you pay the same to get into Watergate to see Henrik Schwarz, Sebo K, and several other names.
What’s sad about this is that house and techno music are actually incredibly healthy right now around Europe. But anyone who thinks Dublin is getting a decent slice of this once you flick off your ipod and walk into a club is kidding themselves. That doesn’t mean you can’t have fun here, you can make your own fun. But it’s still a fact.
It’s also sad as a fan of this music because the all night parties in Bucharest and Berlin in the last week were really raw and invigorating and I do think (though I’m hardly an impartial observer) they’d capture the imagination of plenty of people here if they were an option, many of whom may have no interest in the city’s current clubbing products. Dance music ideally brings art and partying together but that spirit is quite lacking in Dublin.
Anyway that’s the one negative side to what was an amazing trip away, being back! But then, what’s the point of a holiday if not to teach you a little bit about the good and bad points of where you spend the other 48 weeks of the year?
PS: This week will be insanely busy for me but I have tons of goodies to post here, including a proper run down on what I personally did in Bucharest (the RA article on what I saw and who I spoke to is still to come) and a 2 and a half hour mix I recorded for Cubecast while there. Also there’ll be the other guest mix, hopefully, and whatever else I manage to fit in.
On Friday I got called for interview for a job I never imagined I had any chance of getting with the sort of place anyone in my line of work would dream of working, and I’ve quite a lot of work to do for that, as it’s this Monday (another flight!) I’ve also got very little time to do it, what with 5 days in my current day job ahead of me. But stay tuned and I’ll be updating whenever I can.
PPS: Anyone go to Jay Haze in the Pod/Pogo? How was it?
clom wrote:
Hi Ronan,
My visit to Berlin inspired similar feelings of gloom. Great venues, grown-up licencing, fantastic sound systems and responsible pricing are all notions that are cornerstones of a club culture that’s light years ahead of anything i’ve come across.
them kebabs are only savage too.
Posted 19 Nov 2007 at 9:58 pm ¶
Ronan wrote:
Yep it’s just quite an effortless place to go out really.
Posted 19 Nov 2007 at 10:06 pm ¶
B wrote:
Maybe its because I went during PopKomm and all clubs were discriminating and using “guest lists” but I found Berlin to be too damn arrogant and divisive to love it…that said, it was easy enough to find other diversions to Panorama/Watergate/Weekender as insane parties seem to be around every corner there…
Posted 19 Nov 2007 at 10:15 pm ¶
philip sherburne wrote:
can’t even begin to tell you how effing envious i am.
and yeah, “mumbling yeah” is inexplicably amazing. was out last night in barcelona with kalabrese, listening to a long set of fairly indistinguishable minimal, but they’d played that early in the night. later, kvetching (as he’s wont to do) about the state of minimal, kalabrese said to me, “will you remember ANY tracks from tonight?” and i said, of course, “mumbling yeah.” to which he could only nod and say, “that’s right, that’s the track of the night.”
Posted 19 Nov 2007 at 10:25 pm ¶
Ronan wrote:
Well I’m home now, so no envy! Really need to move there I think, though I guess everyone says that.
As for “Mumbling Yeah”, it’s incredible, just so funky. We were in a bar on Saturday night and some English guys were DJing who were quite good. They played a lot of stuff I have, so I got chatting to one of them and after a few mins I asked him to play “Mumbling Yeah”….
At which point he pointed to the platter to reveal he’d already got it ready to go.
Posted 19 Nov 2007 at 11:05 pm ¶
jd wrote:
good stuff…
But I wouldn’t dismiss irish clubs and nights like that. sure, the sound systems have a lot to live up to in virtually all of the venues in dublin, and the nights are empty 2 nights a month and full the other 2, regardless of who’s playing.. but the enthusiasm of the irish crowds is something that you don’t come across as often abroad. yeah sure you get shouts and hollers in many places abroad but there’s a certain type of energy I’ve only experienced in irish clubs which puts them up there at the top for me. (I have had many good nights abroad however, but not as many as here in ireland)
It seems to me like a case of the far away hills are greener. but again this could be purely subjective.. that’s my opinion on it anyway.
Posted 20 Nov 2007 at 1:14 am ¶
jeremy wrote:
hey sorry ronan we didn’t meet up in Berlin. Tami & I went on a massive bender in Frankfurt unfortunately (Cocoon & U360001) and Tami lost her cellphone and glasses and credit card…and we slept away Sunday. But it will make for an interesting review i hope
oh well
Posted 20 Nov 2007 at 2:21 am ¶
Bn1 wrote:
Look forward to reading the RA article.
I daresay there’s upsides to Ireland (as jd mentioned in the comments). I live in NZ which is obviously pretty far away from the action, and suffers from similar issues to those you describe. The upside of the isolation and our small scene (good house and techno not being popular here) is that the people who get along to events are generally there because they love the music, which is nice.
Posted 20 Nov 2007 at 6:26 am ¶
RoK wrote:
Good to see Kabale & Liebe and Melon, both Amsterdam acts, are getting props.. I also intend on going to Berlin this year. Now I need to convince some friends.
Posted 20 Nov 2007 at 7:51 am ¶
Ronan wrote:
I’ve had lots of good nights in Ireland too JD but I think the enthusiasm everyone speaks about is mainly a by-product of the fact that everyone knows they’ve only got 2 hours of a full club till 3am and then another 3/4 weeks till a DJ they really love plays again.
In which case, is it really worth it? Seems like eulogising about the low crime rate in a dictatorship or something. Also Berlin seemed pretty damn enthusiastic to me this weekend.
Also “far away hills are greener” generally refers to someone speculating about those hills while looking at them. I was on those hills, they are greener!
All I’m saying is, don’t believe that stuff like “Ireland has a great atmosphere” blah blah blah. It’s all just part of reassuring ourselves that it’s not better abroad. And I reckon most dance fans would agree it is better.
@Jeremy: No hassle, I was pretty ragged on Saturday myself, glad Cocoon was good. No doubt I’ll be back soon.
@Robin, yeah I noticed Melon was Dutch also, definitely a lot of that Dutch sound being played out and about. Heard several 2000 and One tracks.
Posted 20 Nov 2007 at 9:15 am ¶
Eoghan wrote:
I gotta add my 2 cents………moved over to London last year and clubbing when I home to Dublin kills me. Combination of all of the points mentioned above, it just gets dull and repetitive after while.
Posted 20 Nov 2007 at 1:27 pm ¶
lou wrote:
If you think Dublin is bad, come to DC!
Nah, I can’t complain too much. Ryan Elliott was just here on Saturday. He too played “Mumbling Yeah” and I was in heaven!
Posted 20 Nov 2007 at 1:45 pm ¶
Marc wrote:
I’d complain about NYC, but I’m off to London for the weekend and some great parties! And anyway, NYC ain’t so bad.
Posted 20 Nov 2007 at 3:12 pm ¶
jon wrote:
your excluding DJ Eddie on Fridays in Duffy’s of course?
Posted 20 Nov 2007 at 3:26 pm ¶
j wrote:
nightclubs in ireland are brutal, the reason for the supposed atmosphere is that everyones hammered. also find the irish atmosphere a little more aggresive
Posted 20 Nov 2007 at 3:38 pm ¶
chris wrote:
Should probably try and remember that Berlin has been a centre for alternative lifestyle for over a hundred years and so has this tradition built into it’s very fabric. This in turn serves the current climate of liberalism that is pervasive in lots of different parts of Berlin life, not just nightlife etc.
So to simply say Berlin good, Dublin bad would be a tad unfair and not really taking the bigger picture into account.
Berlin also has 12 districts most of which the average tourist never sees but if they were to go there they’d see some pretty ugly facets about Berlin culture that say a lot Berlin as a city today too.
In the end I’d have to agree with JD, although it’s cliché to say, in general Dublin/Irish crowds are better than any other out there especially Berlin where there is an innate reserved ness and lack of spontaneity to social interaction, something that is taken for granted in Dublin.
Posted 20 Nov 2007 at 7:25 pm ¶
doru wrote:
Hey man,
great to hear you had a good time in Bucharest.
Do make sure you come back again on the 1st of May, or as we call it here: New Year’s Eve. (the proper one, not the “wimpy hippy shit” from December).
Posted 20 Nov 2007 at 7:48 pm ¶
Ronan wrote:
“So to simply say Berlin good, Dublin bad would be a tad unfair and not really taking the bigger picture into account.”
I never said “Berlin good, Dublin bad”, I wrote a long blog post about my experiences in Berlin and Bucharest (you ignored Bucharest)
Of course, most of what I saw was a few nightclubs. Hence that’s what I criticised about Dublin.
If you think clubs here are better, fine. But rest assured you’re in the minority. When I was in Romania last week a friend told me some old people say “Ah things were better in Ceausescu’s time”. I found that pretty funny and am reminded of it now, though at least we aren’t actually in a dictatorship.
Not every facet of Ireland or Irish society is something to be proud of, or even innately “Irish” at all.
Posted 20 Nov 2007 at 8:22 pm ¶
jd wrote:
“If you think clubs here are better, fine. But rest assured you’re in the minority”
- how are you so sure of this? The consensus more often than not among irish I’ve met abroad and indeed some foreingers in dublin has been the one I’ve outlined.
- Maybe the kind of music you are looking for in clubs (sorry to use the big generalisation - minimal) might be lacking in the atmosphere you require, or indeed lacking in nights (to quote a previous one of your articles where you posted a youtube of raresh at some love parade and said, ‘how much fun is this’.. well to me.. not fun at all.. a big soulless crowd with no atmosphere - so maybe our tastes are too different to agree)… but for other types of house and techno I’ve generally found the crowds here to be better. There’s many a time I’ve gone into a club in town on my own and hooked up with complete strangers and enjoyed quality music, everyone dancing, energetic, fun, no aggro, no pretense, no bullshit. While that has happened on occasion abroad as well, the atmosphere is not always the same. I find there is more often than not an over-abundance of the “super club” ethos.. where clubbing is treated as a fashion choice - people seemingly interested in being there and looking their best, even if the music has been amazing and cutting edge underground.. This is thankfully lacking in irish clubs (apart from the spirit type clubs etc).. this is the difference for me. Also, a major factor to consider as well, which I something I think one can only appreciate when you’ve lived away from Ireland for a long period of time - the class distinctions in other countries are often very much more pronounced and this manifests itself in the clubs too. Go clubbing in anywhere in latin america, asia or eastern europe and only the upper classes are in the clubs. Western Europe a bit different obviously. But you can walk into a club in ireland and have a millionaire, a bricklayer and student all chatting together at the bar. Ok maybe an over exaggerated analogy but relatively true nonetheless… Once again this is the type of atmosphere I am talking about in irish clubs. Don’t get me wrong, I have experienced many great nights abroad on clubs but I do think that more times than not the club atmosphere is slightly better in ireland.
“Not every facet of Ireland or Irish society is something to be proud of, or even innately “Irish” at all.” -
believe me, I’m certainly not one of the people always trumpeting irish stuff just because its irish.. I give praise where praise is due and call shit where its due too.
Posted 21 Nov 2007 at 12:14 am ¶
Ronan wrote:
I’m talking about the clubs themselves, I didn’t bring up the atmosphere red herring.
For me liberal opening hours and good soundsystems are two incontrovertible necessities for a good club scene. We don’t have either and no crowd could make up for that.
I also disagree about the atmosphere in other cities but since it’s a matter of opinion and I’ve heard the creaky manifesto that “Irish crowds are the best in the world” about a zillion times in my lifetime I think it’s best to leave that well alone.
I don’t know how the collective mind of millions of people who happen to be born in one city or another affects clubbing and I don’t care to speculate about it. I think it’d take more than you or I to work this out though. Or maybe, just maybe, every person is an individual and these stereotypes about countries are a load of nonsense.
It certainly seems far more sensible to say “how late a club can open affects the scene in a city” or “how many venues there are affects a scene in the city” than “the nationality of the people in the city and the innate traits ALL OF THEM display when dancing affects clubbing more than either”
If you want to talk about why Irish people are genetically hardwired to have more fun than other nationalities then start a blog about eugenics!
Posted 21 Nov 2007 at 1:33 am ¶
bobbyboulders wrote:
The vibe in clubs affects the scene in a city just as much as the opening hours or number of clubs. And stating that one culture behaves in a different way to another does not require a discourse to lurch towards eugenics. If it’s reasonable to state that Berliners are more enlightened in their attitude towards opening hours, the required quality of soundsystems etc. then saying that Dubliners behave differently when clubbing is not only reasonable but quite likely. And it doesn’t have to be “ALL OF THEM” for a general trend to be prevelent.
From my experience the vibe in Dublin clubs beats most cities and this includes cities that have stricter openining hours and are even more starved of quality DJs playing.
To put it another way, would you dispute the old cliche that the atmosphere at Anfield is far better than Stanford Bridge on a European night? And remind me what genetics has to do with the answer either way?
Anyway am not sure if any of this detracts too much from your blog post which was spot on, it’s just that some of your subsequent responses have, imo, been a little wayward.
Posted 21 Nov 2007 at 9:35 am ¶
Ronan wrote:
Stamford Bridge and Anfield are football stadia, the analogy has nothing to do with club scenes.
If you compared say, the Pod or Tripod or Spirit to Watergate, that might be worthwhile. That’d be an interesting comparison and one people who’d been to both could make. As a matter of interest, what Irish clubs or nights are you all specifically talking about? Or is it just “the 3 times a year there’s a brilliant night in Dublin it’s better than anywhere else”.
As for where dodgy generalisations came into things, how about “especially Berlin where there is an innate reservedness and lack of spontaneity to social interaction”. Basil Fawlty stuff.
Posted 21 Nov 2007 at 10:11 pm ¶
Ryan wrote:
Can anyone recommend bars in Berlin that have great music and a great vibe.
I am heading there this weekend and need some places i can enjoy without going to hard.
Cheers
Ryan
Posted 21 Nov 2007 at 10:48 pm ¶
bobbyboulders wrote:
The shared communal experience and resulting atmosphere at football games and house & techno clubs are directly analogous on a number of levels.
For either form of entertainment, you get drunk/high, pay into venue with friends, consume the product on offer, jump around and make noise. If you’re there on own your or with an apathetic crowd then it can be a bit shit, but if there’s lots of other suitably enthusiastic punters then the communal aspect of the experience can heighten the pleasure and connect with you at a deeper level.
The atmosphere generated by one set of football supporters can be much better than others. The atmosphere at clubs in some cities is better than others. It has little to do with genetics and everything to do with culture.
You can say it’s specific to the venue / stadium but the fact is that I’ve experienced a great vibe in lot’s of Dublin clubs, Tivoli, Wax, Crawdaddy, Redbox, Belvedere, Legal Eagle, TBMC… it really didn’t seem to matter about the venue, just who was playing and who you were there with. You’ll likely retort that those special nights are rarer than I remember, but the fact is, I live in a North American city where no matter the club/ DJ, the atmosphere is ALWAYS anemic. I can see it in the culture, the kids just don’t get as messy or enthusiastic for this type of music.
Posted 21 Nov 2007 at 11:15 pm ¶
Ronan wrote:
So someone who doesn’t even live in Dublin is trying to tell me about what the scene is like here, with a list of venues that mostly don’t exist anymore.
Posted 21 Nov 2007 at 11:32 pm ¶
bobbyboulders wrote:
Yeah I am. Well spotted.
The point remains unchallenged.
Posted 21 Nov 2007 at 11:59 pm ¶
Ronan wrote:
What point? You don’t have a point except “I had some good times in Dublin clubs once when I lived there”. Since practically none of those venues are in operation anymore perhaps Dublin is shit since you left and you’re none the wiser. Who knows. Oh and there was the football thing.
In any case to say you’re not still here Dublin obviously wasn’t that good.
Posted 22 Nov 2007 at 12:03 am ¶
bobbyboulders wrote:
“I went to Berlin once and it was better”
Posted 22 Nov 2007 at 12:04 am ¶
Ronan wrote:
I live in Dublin right now and the clubs I was at in Berlin (and Bucharest) are better than anything this city has to offer at the moment in my opinion.
You’re discussing a city you don’t even live in and haven’t been out in for years judging by the clubs you cite.
Posted 22 Nov 2007 at 12:06 am ¶
bobbyboulders wrote:
You seem unsure as to what my point is. Put simply, in terms of enthusiasm the crowds in Dublin are above average compared with other cities.
Your point about not living in Dublin is a Red Herring.
Posted 22 Nov 2007 at 1:58 am ¶
spideresistance wrote:
great review ronan. mumbling yeah track of the year!!
Posted 22 Nov 2007 at 7:49 am ¶
Joe wrote:
Sounds like a memorable weekend. i’d love to make it out there sometime and see it for myself, although i’ve heard various horror stories about other huge fans going over there and not actually getting in to anywhere…
good luck with your interview - wouldn’t it be great to be doing something you really love!
Posted 22 Nov 2007 at 9:39 am ¶
Jake wrote:
Since practically none of those venues are in operation anymore perhaps Dublin is shit - - lol. ALL of the venues bobby mentoned with the exception of the Belvedere are still in operation: Redbox is now Tripod and while TBMC is more of a live venue, it still does club nights - maybe not the type of nights you like, but to suggest that nearly all of these venues don’t operate any more is simply wrong. are you sure you live in Dublin?
Posted 22 Nov 2007 at 9:44 am ¶
jd wrote:
People here have merely stated their opinion, as you have yours. I feel it quite strange to say the least that you felt the need to block my IP address from your site???!!! I’m now accessing this through a proxy server?
I am discussing the atmosphere in clubs, which for me is the THE most important thing. No amount of thoughtful layout, super soundsystem, lazer shows, national or international DJs etc is going to make up for a crap atmosphere.
The fact that some international DJs regularly cite Ireland as one of their favourite places to play is surely more than mere coincidence, not a “creaky manifesto”.
I enjoy your writing even if I don’t share your musical taste exactly. As I pointed out in my first post your article was a good account of your experience. I felt the need to state my opinion on that one point however. To then block my IP address from posting on your site seems an over-reaction, or is this an error?
Posted 22 Nov 2007 at 11:22 am ¶
Richard wrote:
Hey Ronan, hope you had a good time in Berlin- it looks like it from the photos. I really enjoyed what Jay (Haze) played - as is often the case though with visitng DJs to Dublin, he was only hitting his stride when the club closed. The sound was pretty good in the PoD too. You may have noticed this by now, but all of the venues ‘bobby’ mentioned in his post are actually still open (apart from the belvedere) - you need to get out more to the breakcore nights they are running down at the legal eagle!
Posted 22 Nov 2007 at 11:37 am ¶
clom wrote:
my initial posting was related to setup rather than atmosphere, although I have to say that the couple of hours i spent in panoramabar between 5 and 7am offered plenty in that regard. friendly, energetic crowd going for it in a very big way.
In terms of atmosphere the “irish crowds are the best” argument doesn’t really hold water.
I used to live in Dublin but I’m currently based in Scotland and regardless of the music played at clubs over here you’ll see similar levels of excitement/debauchery/insanity/all of the above at places here as you will across the water.
there are a few venues I go to in Scotland that match up to the ones I’ve come across in berlin. Sub Club and the Arches being two, the college of art and the Fruitmarket are also great. the barrowlands, although a venue that’s predominantly rocky, is the best place in the world to be when it kicks off.
what separated my Berlin experiences from any great nights I’ve had in Glasgow was largely the scale of the soundsystem, the licencing hours, the sensible pricing policy both at the door and at the bar.
I’ve been to tons of great nights in Dublin and Glasgow. But many of them feel incomplete when they finish at 3/4am. Wouldn’t it be better to be able to roll along to another club and listen to hours more great music around this time rather than spend ages getting a cab to someone’s gaff, cadging cans off some random and listening to comfort tunes that everyone’s heard thousands of times before. Sometimes that’s great too, but not all the time.
Also, the longer opening hours in Europe do permit a DJ to play sets like the ones Ronan describes in the post above where the music blends together so well and you’re listening to a “sound” not so much a selection of tracks. This, and I know it’s a matter of taste, is what I prefer rather than a succession of big tunes played against the clock.
Posted 22 Nov 2007 at 12:32 pm ¶
Madou wrote:
Good to read that you enjoyed Berlin so much…
It’s indeed unbelievable that every club in Berlin has such a good soundsystem, even the smallest bar has got a soundsystem that many worldwide clubs should be ashamed!
Cool to hear that you loved the dj-set by Melon, he was the first dj that booked Villalobos in Amsterdam a long time ago… Think he is one of the strongest dj’s in the Netherlands.
)
Playing with him friday the 30th of november at the Flexbar (Amsterdam), so anyone around should check it out.
(The Flexbar has got a good soundsystem btw
See below link:
http://www.residentadvisor.net/event-detail.aspx?id=34990
There is small discussion going on about the Narod Niki event on mnml.nl, with some youtube video links…
http://www.mnml.nl/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=24828
In the mean time check out my podcast as well… some nice minimal mixes… Hope you don’t mind posting it here..
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=126807690&s=143452
Posted 22 Nov 2007 at 1:10 pm ¶
bobbyboulders wrote:
My IP is blocked too, obviously a coincidence…
Posted 22 Nov 2007 at 5:42 pm ¶
Ronan wrote:
“You seem unsure as to what my point is. Put simply, in terms of enthusiasm the crowds in Dublin are above average compared with other cities.”
When? In 2003? You don’t live here now so how could you know. While I don’t agree that the atmosphere is crap in other countries, I do agree it was very good in Dublin at one point, but not for years now. There isn’t even a large venue operating regularly. Same goes for the issue of gentrification, clubbing in Dublin is almost totally middle class now. I’ve seen a few threads about this on messageboards here so clearly I’m not the only one who thinks it.
And @JD
“I am discussing the atmosphere in clubs, which for me is the THE most important thing. No amount of thoughtful layout, super soundsystem, lazer shows, national or international DJs etc is going to make up for a crap atmosphere.”
It all goes together. Soundsystem, venue, and crowd all combine for atmosphere, for me.
And fwiw, Bucharest had a far more frenzied atmosphere (if that’s the be all and end all for you guys) than I’ve ever seen in Dublin.
Berlin is a little deeper (though not in Tresor) but I don’t presume to guess that other people are “there to look cool” or something. People danced and had fun and it was a great atmosphere, for me I enjoy that every bit as much as Dublin.
As for IPs, yeah I banned them in the hope this would end as I am currently so out of my mind with work that I don’t have the time to get dragged into this wasteland. Glad you found a way to do your important work.
Posted 22 Nov 2007 at 7:15 pm ¶
Ronan wrote:
hold up just saw the moderated comments by richard and co
“Redbox is now Tripod and while TBMC is more of a live venue”
erm yeah…this is the problem. the atmosphere in tripod/redbox has never been the same since it changed. the soundsystem in there currently may be good but it’s desperately low anytime I’ve been in.
as for TBMC, yes it’s a venue but not for dance nights anymore. since this post is about the dance scene that rules it out.
tivoli may have recently reopened but it’s not the same as the tivoli that came before, which had guests on a weekly basis.
I didn’t realise the Belvedere was back going again, or the Legal Eagle, so I stand corrected. But even though I’ve had one or two decent nights in places like this, they aren’t even clubs.
Why is it so hard to say “Dublin could be a lot better than it is for dance music”. It seems obvious. Hell even change that to “Dublin could be a lot better for house and techno”.
Posted 22 Nov 2007 at 7:23 pm ¶
bobbyboulders wrote:
Holy shit Ronan, banning IPs? That’s poor form on so many levels.
I’d never have guessed you’d be that sly or offended by dissent, so I’d presumed it was a technical glitch. I worked around this so I could find out what had happened to my web connection and not because I needed to do my “important work” as you so charmingly put it.
I’d liked the blog post, agreed with just about everything in it. I disagreed with one of your responses in the thread and stated so, naively thinking I was contributing to the conversation… but instead I was dragging the thread into the wasteland that is the topic of clubbing in Dublin, where apparently I’ve not lived since 2003…
I won’t bother your frazzled head or blog again.
Posted 22 Nov 2007 at 9:15 pm ¶
Ronan wrote:
@Madou, thanks a lot for that info. Cool to hear about Melon.
@Bobby, like I say, I end up replying and in this case I really don’t have the time, not least to deal with people reading here who take the first opportunity (a post about Dublin) to make tired criticisms of the music covered here. no coincidence why every single post with 30-40 comments has an argument with somebody from Dublin posting in it. Though I’m just as bad for actually including a negative spin in the original post……complete waste of time. why bother starting debates I don’t even enjoy engaging in, might as well cut off a finger.
@Richard, just read your post properly, yeah great time in Berlin. Do you rate the Pod soundsystem? For me it is pretty poor, but maybe the best of a bad lot.
I’d say Tripod has the juice to be great, or so I’m told, but they don’t turn it up loud enough for a reason that is so stupid and Dublin-like that I can’t even say it.
As for the breakcore, somehow I don’t reckon it’d be for me!
Posted 22 Nov 2007 at 9:35 pm ¶
barry wrote:
went to berlin last february for what seems like a pretty identical weekend to yourself.
identical in so much as we noticed the deep house/minimal fusion and just how much better the lucky krauts have it compared to here in ireland.
and of course kebabs.
sven vt playing davina at 5.30 on the bottom floor of watergate..i’ll have that please.
Posted 23 Nov 2007 at 11:30 pm ¶
dop wrote:
what a nice holidays review !
Posted 30 Nov 2007 at 8:41 pm ¶
tom/pipecock wrote:
what i find funny after looking at a couple videos of Watergate and other Berlin spots is that what’s going on reminds me of raves way more than house and techno clubs. i dont think i could tolerate those lights (though they do look kinda cool) for very long. it’s just such a time warp in a bad way, it really hammers home the mnml/prog comparisons as this is the kind of thing that would have been huge in the days of prog being so popular.
one of the best club nights i ever attended was lit by a couple red lightbulbs, and later in the evening a single strobe light was added. it’s like Kerri Chandler’s album title from the early 90’s: “A Basement, A Red Light & A Feelin’”. that is all you need, nothing else truly matters in dance music.
Posted 02 Dec 2007 at 2:21 am ¶
tom/pipecock wrote:
oh yeah, and that “mumbling yeah” track is not actually that bad, though i don’t think its really all that special either. the beat is just a straight up chicago rhythm track but not as interesting.
Posted 02 Dec 2007 at 2:23 am ¶
Ronan wrote:
I think the lights are more low key than they look in a way, the club is still quite dark. In the second room downstairs I’m not even sure there were many lights at all.
The minimal/prog thing would be fine except that the music isn’t really quite as proggy anymore, a lot of it.
haha they should put “not actually that bad”-tom pipecock on the cover of “mumblin yeah”. it is definitely very simple and not really anything insane or off the hook production wise, but a simple idea done really well, it also is a total earworm, it just gets better each time you hear it.
Posted 02 Dec 2007 at 3:26 pm ¶
Ciaran wrote:
Yeah, agreed the Dublin clubbing is poor, for a popular city as it is and with such a reputation for tourism etc it really does not do justice for the scene at all. When Dublin has events its more like a really big deal so prices are extremely high, I think its E28 for a ticket to the tripod after credit charges etc…
Outside of Dublin forget it, I think thats reason enough to conclude that Ireland in general simply does not have a scene.
Posted 02 Dec 2007 at 6:07 pm ¶
tom/pipecock wrote:
“The minimal/prog thing would be fine except that the music isn’t really quite as proggy anymore, a lot of it.”
i dont know, even in that mumbling song, the thing that really made it not my kind of thing was the very prog-esque whooshing synth bit and goofy breakdown. lots of mnml has that kind of thing going on, it really grates on my nerves. you dont need all these props, a good groove and a good idea goes a long way!
Posted 03 Dec 2007 at 5:02 pm ¶
RoK wrote:
I’ve got a 6 hour solo set from Melon, just don’t know how to share a 400 mb large file. He played solo at 11, one of Amsterdams best clubs. It’s a lesson for all aspiring dj’s how to play the whole night long, intro, build-up, climax and so on. Does anyone have any ideas how to share this magical set? In fact, is anyone interested in this? It’s mainly house music in its purest form..
Posted 07 Dec 2007 at 11:29 pm ¶
Ru wrote:
Good read - only getting round to it now. That Arena club is class, I think I successfully wasted 12 hours of my life in there in October, nice and good sized club compared to some of the bigger shiznits in Berlin.
Posted 10 Dec 2007 at 7:04 pm ¶