Hey, my name is Joshua Levin and I’m a 19 year old DJ/Producer from Boston, MA. This year instead of going straight to college I decided to go off on my own to Berlin. The scene here is amazing and unbelievably interesting. The clubs, the parties, the people, it seems like people here breathe music. In my quest to become a DJ I have created a blog called Make Or Break: Berlin. Ean posted about the Techno scene in Berlin, and my Blog discovers the dj scene here. Check it out if you want to learn more! http://makeorbreakberlin.blogspot.de
make sure to come visit leipzig. this is where i life. it´s about 2 hours away from berlin and has an amzing club scene as well!
good luck on your travels though
And as I’m off to Berlin tomorrow, good timing too.
Can’t help but think your slightly misjudged when saying vinyl is dying, it’s on the rise. And you find it interesting that “people are convinced they can find something special in a room full of plastic”
Which you certainly can, a lot of house/techno and a lot more only see release on vinyl, and to be honest the quality of releases on vinyl is much higher.
If you’re interested in the Berlin techno scene and some insightful thoughts on the whole industry from a social scientist’s point of view, you should check out the Berlin Mitte Institut. Apart from that, I think Berlin has a reputation that reality can’t keep up with. Of course, for everyone who is new to Berlin and especially for anglophone expats, it’s all cool and new, but after six months or so you might find out that Berlin has a lot to offer, but quantity doesn’t induce quality. If there is one thing that Berlin can teach you, is that you don’t need Berlin to have fun.
Have fun though, the first months of any stay abroad are really awesome!
nice blog mate, funny to read the post about hard-wax, been there and if i hadn’t researched its exact location on the internet i wouldn’t have found it
also, if you are looking to buy some records, check out oye-records, my favorite record-store in berlin yet, lots of new releases and not as techno-heavy as hard-wax
enjoy your time, ill gladly be reading your blog-posts from now on!
No doubt that vinyl is on the rise but ultimately as a form of media it is dying, in the last few years vinyl sales have risen this year mostly due to the release of daft punks album. For me personally I see releases on vinyl and I think it’s an attempt to keep things underground in a way, people feel that if their music is pressed to vinyl its more precious or special. I guess I’m not an analog head or anything like that and wav is ok for me! I think this whole movement behind vinyl is cool, I had a pair of technics myself, but the thing I’ve heard from djs who worked in the 70s/80s was that carrying crates was a pain in the ass. When you can have 3,000 tunes in your pocket why not just make it easier for people to access your music? You know what I’m saying?
Haven’t posted in a few weeks, but here’s what I was up to last weekend. I’m currently working hard to get my freelance visa requirements met. So if I may ask, does anyone know someone in the Berlin nightlife scene who can help me? I’d like to talk to some people about starting out as a Dj in Berlin as well as how to plan a big party. It’s a lot harder planning things when I don’t have that many connections . Also if anyone wants to meet up to collab on music production projects, thatd be awesome too! I have found myself spending a lot of time finishing tracks and such, and have been looking to collaborate for a while. Thanks for reading guys, awesome feedback!
Living the dream man, I would absolutely love nothing more than to go live in Berlin for a while and just take in all I can from the culture and lifestyle, but alas I’ve already gone the college route, 2 years into a 4 year degree One summer I will still go and party it up at Tresor and Berghain though.
. Also if anyone wants to meet up to collab on music production projects, thatd be awesome too! I have found myself spending a lot of time finishing tracks and such, and have been looking to collaborate for a while. Thanks for reading guys, awesome feedback!