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-- Jack Moss - This Is Not Berghain [Banging Acid & Techno]
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Jack Moss - This Is Not Berghain [Banging Acid & Techno]

Last weekend my girlfriend and I flew all the way to Berlin only to be told "Nicht Willkommen" at the door of Berghain. I guess we just weren't Techno enough. As a consolation I decided to record my idea of a good night out, a selection of the finest banging techno and acid, old and new. Some of the mixing is a bit rough and the flow might not be that smooth in places but this is very much a "don't give a fuck" mix, and it gets pretty relentless towards the end. If anyone wants to pass it on to Sven the Berghain doorman, be my guest.



Tracklist:

01. X-Press 2 - Muzikizum [Skint]
02. Desert Dwellers - Acid Monsters [Desert Trax]
03. Full Blown - Funk Acid Machine (Asle Dub Mix) [Whoop!]
04. Armand Van Helden - The Funk Phenomena (Edge Factor Dub) [Henry Street]
05. Nick K - 80s Ball [SOG]
06. Sqartaque - Code Zero [IAMT]
07. Absolut & Blade - Crash [KumQuat]
08. Segue - Reset [Smash Bang]
09. Banco De Gaia - Obsidian (PFN Vs The Light Remix) [Disco Gecko]
10. Jan Driver - Drive By [Hope]
11. Axel Karakasis - Gobble [Remain]
12. Dax J - Elta Perfa [Natural Rhythm]
13. MCJ - Back 2 [IAMT]
14. Skaivox - Shadow Funk [AK]
15. Cosmithex - Cylinder [J00F]
16. Alexey Kotlyar - Barakuda [Groove Heart]
17. Norman Andretti - Dallas Incident [Unaffected]
18. Heaton - JRM (Goncalo Remix) [AK]
19. Skaivox - Lab Rat [AK]
20. Ganez The Terrible - 303% [Central]
21. DJ Misjah & DJ Tim - Access [Tripoli Trax]
22. Vince Watson - Timeless (Live At Berghain, Berlin Mix) [Bio]

isn't that a little too far to go clubbing?

Definitely checking out.

Do you think you were refused entry because you're English?

really enjoying this mix. right up my alley.

quote:

Originally posted by Syntonic Do you think you were refused entry because you're English?

It's mostly random. One hand, like any club in Berlin they need tourists to actually fill the club up all weekend long but on the other hand there's too many people wanting in to let everyone in. You probably do have a higher chance to get in if you speak german though and they tend to be nicer to germans than to tourists. It's pretty weird though, from what I've observed they tend to be respectful to everyone for the most part but they do seem to enjoy telling random people who did nothing to fuck off like they have some personal vendetta against them, even though they probably would have gotten in no problems had they queued an hour earlier or later.

Did you at least have some fun elsewhere?

Regarding the mix, there's obviously some nice classics in there but a lot of these newer bigroom tracks were not my taste at all. Maybe it's because I've never been a psy-head but I thought some of psy-ish bassline tracks were pretty terrible to be honest. I think JOOF plays a lot of that stuff as well but to me this psy-trance producer makes techno stuff always sounded sort of cheap.

quote:

Originally posted by Woony Regarding the mix, there's obviously some nice classics in there but a lot of these newer bigroom tracks were not my taste at all. Maybe it's because I've never been a psy-head but I thought some of psy-ish bassline tracks were pretty terrible to be honest. I think JOOF plays a lot of that stuff as well but to me this psy-trance producer makes techno stuff always sounded sort of cheap.

Which tracks do you mean? I can only think of 3-4 maximum that would match that description. Granted, a lot of these tracks aren't the coolest or most credible strains of techno around, but as the title says: this ain't Berghain, and the point was to play something a bit more fun and 'aving it than tastefully bland boom-y Ostgut Ton techno.

This looks massive to me, I'll download asap. Love the Skiavox tunes and I've been hammering MCJ - Back to in my sets lately. Will report back soon

incidentally, they wouldn't let me in to Tressor when I went, but that was cuz I was fucking bladdered

quote:

Originally posted by JonDC incidentally, they wouldn't let me in to Tressor when I went, but that was cuz I was fucking bladdered

Haha, no surprise there. With Berghain we were both sober, the only thing either of us said was "Zwei" when asked how big our group was, and it was 12.20am. I wasn't optimistic though because I could see them turning away a lot of guy/girl couples or groups. I suppose we looked too conventional to be serious techno clubbers, but who knows?

quote:

Originally posted by Woony Did you at least have some fun elsewhere?

We went to About Blank on the Friday and I enjoyed sitting in the garden with a joint listening to some lush future garage, and after the Berghain failure on Saturday we went to Renate, as we'd been told it was very cool there. But to be honest I was pretty disappointed with the clubbing. Although the venues were busy and people were dancing, the crowds weren't very friendly and everyone just seemed to be drinking alcohol. No smiles, no water bottles, a lot of tourists milling about.

quote:

Originally posted by SYSTEM-J Which tracks do you mean? I can only think of 3-4 maximum that would match that description. Granted, a lot of these tracks aren't the coolest or most credible strains of techno around, but as the title says: this ain't Berghain, and the point was to play something a bit more fun and 'aving it than tastefully bland boom-y Ostgut Ton techno.

I see what you were going for but for me a lot of these tracks around 60-75min for example just sound like the type stuff a Drumcode DJ might play as fodder. I'm not seeing how that type of stuff is any more fun than more restrained techno just because it's a bit more in your face. It's still just bassline, drums and fx.

quote:

Originally posted by SYSTEM-J We went to About Blank on the Friday and I enjoyed sitting in the garden with a joint listening to some lush future garage, and after the Berghain failure on Saturday we went to Renate, as we'd been told it was very cool there. But to be honest I was pretty disappointed with the clubbing. Although the venues were busy and people were dancing, the crowds weren't very friendly and everyone just seemed to be drinking alcohol. No smiles, no water bottles, a lot of tourists milling about.

I can definitely relate to your experience, that type of vibe sadly happens quite often here. I think it's just what happens when you have so many tourists that there's no regulars or familarity which bonds people and creates a good vibe. In smaller scenes you'll probably have all the heads in one spot if there's a good night but here it's just always really diluted. Germans also tend to not be the most open people in the world which certainly doesn't help as well

Not that there aren't a lot of parties with a good vibe (Panoramabar tends to have a pretty good vibe most of the time for example) but the type of situation you've described does happen in a lot of clubs and it can be quite depressing at times.

quote:

Originally posted by Woony I see what you were going for but for me a lot of these tracks around 60-75min for example just sound like the type stuff a Drumcode DJ might play as fodder. I'm not seeing how that type of stuff is any more fun than more restrained techno just because it's a bit more in your face. It's still just bassline, drums and fx.

The biggest obvious difference to me is the more driving, persistent basslines. The Drumcode sound for me is defined by being quite spacious in the low end which give the track more opportunity to "boom" in a big room. I personally find it much more gratifying as a dancer to have a really driving bassline: it creates so much more energy and it just gives you more to dance to.

And the other thing is I've tried to sequence the set to have "heads down" sections where it just bangs relentlessly, and then a couple of more big and eventful tracks to provide a peak. The problem I have with a lot of techno DJs is they just thump away relentlessly and there's no real sense of dynamics to the set. It might be a more PLUR-tastic raver mindset, but I like to get locked in for 20-30 minutes and then have a big anthem to make me rush. So while there are sections of this mix that are definitely just boom-boom techno without anything particularly clever or "interesting", I hope they exist for a purpose rather than being an end unto themselves.

I don't know, every time i've seen a DJ that plays this type of stuff what ends up happening is that you get this enormous wobbly bassline that drowns out the kickdrum and completely overpowers the room with bass which makes actually dancing hard. And then they play tracks with the same fucking bassline for hours on end and it just becomes obnoxious. Also i'm not a fan of the complete lack of any sort of hook in this stuff most of the time. If I hear techno without some kind of synth/chord/stab pattern to hook me I just get really bored after a few tracks. For the same reason I get really bored if someone just plays the dark atmospheric stuff for extended periods of time.

I do agree with your criticism of techno DJs, i've talked about with Adam quite a bit. A lot of techno DJs seem to not know how to properly build peaks and valleys, often i'm on the floor and thinking come on, gimme something big now but they won't deliver and just continue playing tool-y stuff for hours on end. A friend of mine has categories for 'diva' records and 'slave' (tool) records and most techno DJs just tend to play way too little diva records.

yessir

quote:

Originally posted by Woony I don't know, every time i've seen a DJ that plays this type of stuff what ends up happening is that you get this enormous wobbly bassline that drowns out the kickdrum and completely overpowers the room with bass which makes actually dancing hard. And then they play tracks with the same fucking bassline for hours on end and it just becomes obnoxious. Also i'm not a fan of the complete lack of any sort of hook in this stuff most of the time. If I hear techno without some kind of synth/chord/stab pattern to hook me I just get really bored after a few tracks. For the same reason I get really bored if someone just plays the dark atmospheric stuff for extended periods of time.

I've heard at least one of the tracks in that 15 minute spell you highlighted on a big, crisp system as part of a set of this kind of techno, and I can categorically say that I did not experience what you are describing. As for a lack of a hook, that seems a strange complaint to make of techno, but the chopped rhythmic vocal sample in Elta Perfa or the synth vamp in Back 2 are as hook-y as you can expect from most clubby techno records.

I really liked this. I'll probably end up listening to this a few times so I'll post some thoughts then. The psytrance that was in this I found to be fine and didn't really negatively effect the flow. There's some really nice crossover stuff in the genre, some of which you put into the set well. I also really liked the flow and it has an appropriate and strong finisher.

quote:

Originally posted by SYSTEM-J I hope they exist for a purpose rather than being an end unto themselves.

I feel like they do. This set wouldn't be a great end of night set but it'd be great at 1-4am. It's not as straightforward smooth in flow and some other sets but that can be a good thing. It's also far closer in style to the sets I hear IRL than the ones people post on the net).

Given that jet lag continues to rattle its way through my anus like Rolf Harris with those two little boys, I figure I may as well leave my review.

Any criticism I could think of, youve already mitigated. The flow is never that bad anyway and the only time I ever notice anything is when you are coming out of a tune I'm familiar with and just have it in my head that I use it in a different way. Other than that mix in to Back 2 - thats just perfect!

I fucking love the tunes on here. I've been to a shit load of techno nights lately including Sonar and off Sonar parties, and the music never grabs me by the balls like this. This set is full of techno, but it's got the moments that I always crave and never get when I'm out. Excellent stuff

I'm deffo nicking that funk acid machine tune too

Where did this come from? ON IT.

Cheers for the review Jon (although I could have done without the heinous analogy to paedophilic anal rape). I assumed from the way this had dropped off the page with no replies that everyone thought it was bobbins.

I havent left a review because I havent managed to make it all the way to the end yet (due to distractions, not dislike) and its quite difficult to pick it straight back up in the last 30 mins or so cos its quite banging and i like to be eased into these things at least a little in my old age.

Perhaps ill get it on while Im hammering tomorrow afternoon

I've longed for something like this. Will give it a go just as soon as I can grab it, I'm browsing on a miserable ps3 and apparently it doesn't like soundcloud

Bamski

Here's a non-Soundcloud link, if anyone needs it.

http://www.sushipunk.net/Mixes/This_Is_Not_Berghain.mp3

Another great set, Jack! Nice mixture of familiar and unknown tracks, for me, with great mixing throughout, of course. Listened to it last night, which was probably a mistake since it was so energizing. Will definitely keep this on my iPod for a trip to the gym!

quote:

Originally posted by Sushipunk Here's a non-Soundcloud link, if anyone needs it. http://www.sushipunk.net/Mixes/This_Is_Not_Berghain.mp3

On it, thanks captain.

Thanks for the perma-link, Stu.

quote:

Originally posted by Lews Another great set, Jack! Nice mixture of familiar and unknown tracks, for me, with great mixing throughout, of course. Listened to it last night, which was probably a mistake since it was so energizing. Will definitely keep this on my iPod for a trip to the gym!

Cheers mate. This is most definitely a gym/running mix. You are being kind though, because a couple of the transitions are definitely ropey.

Bad motherfucking ass, Jack. This is definitely my favorite mix of yours. I've been waiting for you to just bust out all the energy you can, because I knew you were capable. The liquid DNB, trance sets, and others were always good but didn't do it for me like this one did. I don't give a shit about the occasional wonky mixing, this whole set was bonkers. So many boss tracks, and the psytrance infusions were even better. Mad energy, mad acid, mad techno. I fucking love it. Excellent job. I kinda wish you hadn't tapered off at the end though, and just ramped up even more for one final explosion, but after 2 solid hours of diesel acid techno and chair-raving, my brain was pretty exhausted anyway. Nice work, dude. I would be a sweaty, adrenaline-fueled mess after hearing this set on a big system

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