Recently the amazing German dance music lover  Heiko M/S/O lost his fight against cancer. Although lots of young kids might not have heard about him before, he was a very prominent figure in the establishment of club and dance music culture in Germany and was famous for his very kind and humble spirit. We’ve only been able to meet him a couple of times, but every time we did, we appreciated it immensely. He was part of the famous Wild Pitch crew in Frankfurt, resident at Offenbachs Robert Johnson and one of the people behind the labels Ongaku, Playhouse and Klang which set the global standard for over a decade. A couple of weeks before he died, he decided to record 12 mixes for people to be heard after his death. Five of them have just been published on his website. Its a five part set through which Heiko tried to encapsulate the spirit of the early years (1987-1988) at the legendary Dorian Grey club in Frankfurt. On a site note, Dorian Grey was the only German club that featured a Richard Long sound system. The picture shows Heiko in the middle, accompanied by a young nd_baumecker on the left and  a young ATA on the right. LEGENDS!

We just listened to the mixes and had goosebumps throughout. Amazing music that needs to be heard.

Check the mixes online here.

 

Ein popkultureller Gesprächs- und Musikabend!

Zur Veröffentlichung von SZ LANGSTRECKE 2/2017 sprechen Andrian Kreye (Feuilleton-Chef) und David Pfeifer (Langstrecke) über alle Spielarten des Pop und legen begleitend Lieblingsschallplatten auf. Drängende Themen für diesen Abend: Vinyl: Tradition oder Mode? Welche Schallplatten sollte man besitzen (und dürfen sie weniger als 180 Gramm wiegen)? Und wie groß ist die Plattensammlung von Grandmaster Flash? (Außerdem: die Rückkehr des analogen Schlagzeugs) Die Referenzstücke kommen unter anderem von Miles Davis, Kendrick Lamar, Led Zeppelin, The White Stripes, David Bowie, PJ Harvey, Soulwax, The Weather Report, Jay Z, Lambchop, Dmitri Schostakowitsch, Erik B. & Rakim Dazu eine kurze Einführung in die Feinheiten der sensationellen Soundanlage, mit der wir die Musik hören werden.

Interesting article by the the Vinyl Factory on the renaissance of the tape deck.

With news that tapes are in fact not dead, Jason Kennedy rounds up the best cassette players for home listening and advises on what to look out for when buying vintage.

Tape decks or recorders are becoming increasingly popular as an alternative form of analogue source following the rather unexpected cassette comeback. The format is particularly popular in the experimental electronic field but also chart-topping releases are finding their way on to tape again.

Today very few tape decks are still being made, in fact in our search we couldn’t find any non portable types on the market. However, as cassette was a massively popular format up until the late nineties there are plenty available second hand and often for giveaway prices.

Read the full article here.

 

In 1985, Grace Jones put this sexist interviewer in his place. How can you not love her!

https://www.facebook.com/babeswhodgaf/videos/1459164950762461/

From Studio 54 to Paradise Garage: Richard Long’s Life-Changing Soundsystems

A super interesting article feat. by Red Bull Music Academy Daily.

As New York City’s dance music underground began to flourish in the post-Stonewall world of the early 1970s, a premium was put on its soundsystems. In both private loft spaces and clubs alike, the emphasis was on the sound itself, giving the music a physical element that could coax your body to move for hours on end. And as the decade wore on, the underground disco scene broke into two philosophies as to that sound: there was David Mancuso’s Loft, powered by Alex Rosner Custom Sound and Larry Levan’s Paradise Garage, whose system was built by Richard Long and Associates. Mancuso’s Loft came first, its state-of-the-art system crafted by Rosner and defined by its tweeter-array clusters and stereophonic disco mixer.

Richard Long originally worked under Rosner, but when they parted ways one night in 1974, it was a matter of the apprentice becoming the master. “Richard Long used to be Alex Rosner’s fix-it man and if something happened during the night, he’d send Dick Long out,” Francis Grasso told DJ History back in 1999. “He outbid him, he outperformed him, and he out-equipment-wised him. Richard was really on the cutting edge.”

Rosner’s touch is undeniable in club culture, installing systems at the Loft, Copacabana, Directoire, the Ginza, the Limelight, Max’s Kansas City and more, all filled with his sterling sound. But Long’s métier reads like a list of the greatest dance clubs in history: Studio 54, Area, Bonds International Casino, Zanzibar in Newark, The Box and Warehouse in Chicago, the Colosseum in Tel Aviv, Dorian Gray in Frankfurt and dozens more. Most famous of all, Richard Long was the audio wizard behind the booming mecca that was the Paradise Garage in lower Manhattan, arranging and maintaining the most iconic soundsystem of the modern era.

Read the full article here

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Pulse radio published an interesting article on no photo policies in clubs. Berlin’s clubbing legends explain why “NO PHOTOS” makes partying there so special.

This article was originally published as part of the Creative Footprint project, a non-profit organisation that measures and advocates for creative public spaces in Berlin, and soon the world.

It’s sometimes difficult to imagine a space still removed from the omnipresence of social media and camera phones in modern society. Where a person’s actions aren’t instantly recordable and uploadable for the world to see, left instead behind closely guarded doors, shrouded in mystery.

But that’s a huge part of the allure of Berlin’s club scene, and what’s helped advance its mythos as an adult playground hidden from proper society, where people can be whoever or whatever they want to be. You can dance in Berghain to Wagnerian industrial techno while wearing latex and chains on Sunday evening, and return once again to your banking job on Monday morning. It’s an integral part of the Berlin clubbing experience.

Read the full article here

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A couple of years ago, Muallem and 2 Many DJs had a chat about clubs. The talk was published in Groove magazine.

 

Vor 25 Jahren, als diese Zeitschrift gegründet wurde, waren Clubs entweder noch klassische Hochglanz-Diskotheken oder Kellerlöcher mit schlechter Anlage und Stroboskop. Seitdem hat sich nicht nur das Ausgehverhalten geändert, sondern auch die Orte des Nachtlebens selbst. Wir sprachen mit David Muallem, dem DJ und Clubbetreiber des Münchner Bob Beaman, sowie David Dewaele, einer Hälfte von 2ManyDJs, der seit vergangenem Jahr zusammen mit James Murphy mit Despacio versucht, seine Idee eines perfekten Clubs zu verwirklichen. Einige der Themen: Der immer stärkere Fokus auf den DJ, die Bookingpolitik und der Sound der Clubs.

Read the full article here.

 

 

 

Süddeutsche Zeitung recently published an interesting article about our sound system and acoustic space design.

Click here to read the full article online.

Mixmag has just released an article presenting the 15 most influential techno labels of the past decade according to their view. Ilian Tape, the fantastic label run by our residents Dario and Marco Zenker, is listed as well.

 

 

We live in times where most of us are so obsessed with documenting moments and experiences that more often than not we miss the most special ones. We dream of creating a space, where we all dance together while listening to amazing music in an intimate, safe and real environment. Therefore we have decided to apply a strict no recording (photos/videos) policy in the entire club and want to ban phones from the dance floors. Let’s leave the virtual realm we are all constantly occupied with in our everyday life and engage with each other for real on the dance floor. Its all about this magic vibe that we want to experience with all of you, when people meet people. LOVE IS THE MESSAGE!