here's a short piece i wrote about villalobos/panorama. I'm going to use it in applying for a job so if you've got any suggestions on making it better let me know.
A Night in Berlin
Ricardo Villalobos @ Panorama Bar 5/9/08
There’s a funny way of going about things in Berlin. Glaswegians like to party -but here they just don’t stop, and nobody seems to want to stop them. Having a wee nap before heading out around 4am is perfectly acceptable and a ‘midnight-open end’ door policy is the norm. It takes a little getting used to, but once you do it starts to sort of makes sense – and nothing and nowhere is more suited to Berlin’s 24-hour party aesthetic than Mr Ricardo Villalobos in Berghain’s Panorama Bar.
Ricardo is something of a poster boy for the sunglasses at night minimal party kids – and on arriving at the place it was a bit worrying to see the multitude of drunken trendy/pushy types sprawled all over. The path to the front door was blocked by some cops dealing with a leather jacket wearing, highly hair-cutted young party casualty (who we later saw being thrown out again by an incredibly irate and incredibly large security guard), and on entering the club my friend saw some unfortunate getting punched in the back of the head. Police and punching at Berghain? Its really not meant to be that sort of place.
Berghain is in the strange position of being one of the world’s most famous purveyors of underground club music. Few would claim that the back-to-roots-yet-updated techno of Berghain and its in house label Ostgut Ton, as pushed by Marcel Dettmann’s mix CD or Shed’s new solo album, is really a commercial sound – but it is certainly making waves within the electronic music world. Furthermore, few would argue that a club with such a strict door policy that originated out of, and still to an extent embraces, a quasi-legal men only S&M party could ever really be called mainstream.
Yet Berghain’s clubnights are legendary: the wild hedonistic activities freely engaged in within the club’s dark corners and corridors, the non-stop drug-fuelled parties, and even the menacing power station architecture all add to the mystique and excitement that surrounds the club. In a city that is famous for its techno, Berghain has become one of its leading landmarks. But under such hefty media attention and hype is the club in danger of becoming chiefly a tourist attraction, devoid of the grit and edge that first pushed it into the limelight?
Firstly, I must point out that tonight is not actually even in Berghain, but in its little sister venue the Panorama Bar. Downstairs, in Berghain, it’s a much bigger and darker affair. Pounding techno, leather, and a largely topless male crowd who’ve been coming here for years dominate. Its fun and its hardcore and really not in danger of being over run by anyone whose not suited to it –its that sort of place. However, located on the top floor of the building, the Panorama bar takes a less purist techno stance, catering for a more minimal/house/party vibe with a mixed crowed rather than downstairs’ predominantly, though certainly not exclusively, gay audience.
Ricardo is often called a minimal artist and this is primarily down to his productions –his fabric mix and recent Vasco EP testify to this, but as a DJ it is far from accurate. Sure, there are plenty of beeps and clicks but this is a far cry from Hawtin’s cold, effects-drenched technological monotony. Ricardo plays house music: deep, warm and full of love -music with trumpets, vocals, Latino drums and frequent trips into altogether more psychedelic territory. He does it with just two turntables and he drives the crowd wild.
I’m not sure what time Villalobos started –the place was a heaving mess and getting near the booth while still having a good dance was pretty unrealistic, but by 5am peak-time winners like Sis’s Trumpet and the A-side from La Pena’s newish 12” had folk going silly. He then took things a bit deeper and with extended breaks and slightly off kilter strings before releasing the much anticipated drop to mass hysteria from the floor. I’m not sure what makes him so good, whether its his track selection, creative mixing or just shear experience in making a club dance, but whatever it is everyone in the room seemed to agree: we’re having a pretty fucking great time.
After that Ricardo took a break for a while and a surprisingly fresh faced Zip hit the decks. Similar in style to Ricardo, Zip enjoyed that special time in a Berlin night when the dance floor starts to thin, when casualties go home and where a dedicated, considerate and friendly party crowd remains. And remain they did. By this time the journalist in me had switched off and the sound system (which in both Berghain and Panorama is truly outstanding) owned all. I do know that at some point Ricardo came back on and really let things go wild with very spacey yet funky rhythms twisting you up and taking you out of your mind, pushing people on in there dance-trance energy. It’s at this stage of the night that I think the true face of Berghain/panorama shows itself. It is no longer a tourist destination or a hipster hangout, though of course there are still both tourists and hipsters. It’s a place where people come to dance and celebrate. I’m reminded all the smiling sweaty faces I met of every sort imaginable: an equally heavily tattooed father and daughter lounging and talking in the smoking area; a British dubstep producer raving about his first visit to Berlin; a beautiful Brazilian designer inviting me to an afterparty and an excitable Romanian festival promoter I met the night before at a riverside party with Philip Sherburne. This is really what makes the club special – not hyped up hipster hysteria, drunk on the idea of the hedonistic legend of the place and the DJ, but the people who were actually still there at 2:30 Saturday afternoon, dancing. Ricardo did us proud, as, I think, we did him.
A Night in Berlin
Ricardo Villalobos @ Panorama Bar 5/9/08
There’s a funny way of going about things in Berlin. Glaswegians like to party -but here they just don’t stop, and nobody seems to want to stop them. Having a wee nap before heading out around 4am is perfectly acceptable and a ‘midnight-open end’ door policy is the norm. It takes a little getting used to, but once you do it starts to sort of makes sense – and nothing and nowhere is more suited to Berlin’s 24-hour party aesthetic than Mr Ricardo Villalobos in Berghain’s Panorama Bar.
Ricardo is something of a poster boy for the sunglasses at night minimal party kids – and on arriving at the place it was a bit worrying to see the multitude of drunken trendy/pushy types sprawled all over. The path to the front door was blocked by some cops dealing with a leather jacket wearing, highly hair-cutted young party casualty (who we later saw being thrown out again by an incredibly irate and incredibly large security guard), and on entering the club my friend saw some unfortunate getting punched in the back of the head. Police and punching at Berghain? Its really not meant to be that sort of place.
Berghain is in the strange position of being one of the world’s most famous purveyors of underground club music. Few would claim that the back-to-roots-yet-updated techno of Berghain and its in house label Ostgut Ton, as pushed by Marcel Dettmann’s mix CD or Shed’s new solo album, is really a commercial sound – but it is certainly making waves within the electronic music world. Furthermore, few would argue that a club with such a strict door policy that originated out of, and still to an extent embraces, a quasi-legal men only S&M party could ever really be called mainstream.
Yet Berghain’s clubnights are legendary: the wild hedonistic activities freely engaged in within the club’s dark corners and corridors, the non-stop drug-fuelled parties, and even the menacing power station architecture all add to the mystique and excitement that surrounds the club. In a city that is famous for its techno, Berghain has become one of its leading landmarks. But under such hefty media attention and hype is the club in danger of becoming chiefly a tourist attraction, devoid of the grit and edge that first pushed it into the limelight?
Firstly, I must point out that tonight is not actually even in Berghain, but in its little sister venue the Panorama Bar. Downstairs, in Berghain, it’s a much bigger and darker affair. Pounding techno, leather, and a largely topless male crowd who’ve been coming here for years dominate. Its fun and its hardcore and really not in danger of being over run by anyone whose not suited to it –its that sort of place. However, located on the top floor of the building, the Panorama bar takes a less purist techno stance, catering for a more minimal/house/party vibe with a mixed crowed rather than downstairs’ predominantly, though certainly not exclusively, gay audience.
Ricardo is often called a minimal artist and this is primarily down to his productions –his fabric mix and recent Vasco EP testify to this, but as a DJ it is far from accurate. Sure, there are plenty of beeps and clicks but this is a far cry from Hawtin’s cold, effects-drenched technological monotony. Ricardo plays house music: deep, warm and full of love -music with trumpets, vocals, Latino drums and frequent trips into altogether more psychedelic territory. He does it with just two turntables and he drives the crowd wild.
I’m not sure what time Villalobos started –the place was a heaving mess and getting near the booth while still having a good dance was pretty unrealistic, but by 5am peak-time winners like Sis’s Trumpet and the A-side from La Pena’s newish 12” had folk going silly. He then took things a bit deeper and with extended breaks and slightly off kilter strings before releasing the much anticipated drop to mass hysteria from the floor. I’m not sure what makes him so good, whether its his track selection, creative mixing or just shear experience in making a club dance, but whatever it is everyone in the room seemed to agree: we’re having a pretty fucking great time.
After that Ricardo took a break for a while and a surprisingly fresh faced Zip hit the decks. Similar in style to Ricardo, Zip enjoyed that special time in a Berlin night when the dance floor starts to thin, when casualties go home and where a dedicated, considerate and friendly party crowd remains. And remain they did. By this time the journalist in me had switched off and the sound system (which in both Berghain and Panorama is truly outstanding) owned all. I do know that at some point Ricardo came back on and really let things go wild with very spacey yet funky rhythms twisting you up and taking you out of your mind, pushing people on in there dance-trance energy. It’s at this stage of the night that I think the true face of Berghain/panorama shows itself. It is no longer a tourist destination or a hipster hangout, though of course there are still both tourists and hipsters. It’s a place where people come to dance and celebrate. I’m reminded all the smiling sweaty faces I met of every sort imaginable: an equally heavily tattooed father and daughter lounging and talking in the smoking area; a British dubstep producer raving about his first visit to Berlin; a beautiful Brazilian designer inviting me to an afterparty and an excitable Romanian festival promoter I met the night before at a riverside party with Philip Sherburne. This is really what makes the club special – not hyped up hipster hysteria, drunk on the idea of the hedonistic legend of the place and the DJ, but the people who were actually still there at 2:30 Saturday afternoon, dancing. Ricardo did us proud, as, I think, we did him.
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