BLACK BOX is the new B2

On may the 31 B2 stopped being a magazine. Now, and inspired by our last issue, we are BLACK BOX BERLIN .. the yearly guide to Berlin’s b-side. Watch out for our next issue, spring/summer 2011…

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free-spirited folkster – WAITING

And even more. The World is waiting… for Davendra Banharts newest album soon to come out. This guy rocks and we still have to hang on to Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon with its frantic “Carmensita”. Damn!

The mystical love-child of the nu-folk movement, Devendra Banhart exerts an inexplicable pull on the music world. People that don’t like folk, like Devendra Banhart. People who think long-haired hippies belong in the sixties, like Devendra Banhart. People who think singer/songwriters belong in Room 101, still lap up anything by this free-spirited folkster.

So it’s with a degree of trepidation that I approach his new album. Are my critical sensitivities going to stand firm, could I dare to criticise the international pin-up of the folk scene? Thankfully, I don’t have serious cause to. Yes, it’s slightly over-long – weighing in at a weighty 16 tracks – but Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon is his most sophisticated, sprawling work so far.

Recorded late at night in the hills of hippy Californian haven, Topanga, it’s infused with caffeine-fuelled nocturnal energy. Banhart dances from genre to genre, lingering long enough to record the odd ten minute epic and then skipping off again through reggae, rock, jazz and Latino rhythms. His distinctive, lilting growl guiding you through to this entrancing musical jumble.

Reference points abound – there’s a nod to his Venezuelan roots on the lush, tropical sounding “Samba Vexillographica”, a dash of 50s doo-wop with a Jewish twist on “Shabop Shalom”… (read the complete review here)

And if you’re not lucky enough to be in California these days just wait. And wait for more to come…

The Charles C. Leary (download some Banhart here)

divided|back_ MODERAT

Sorry but we will abuse from the word milestone. Two german electronic giants fusioned to one: Moderat are Modeselektor and Apparat. But this is not a new joint. We have to go back in time: Moderat’s formation began back in 2002 when Sascha Ring (aka Apparat) and Gernot Bronsert and Sebastian Szary (aka Modeselektor) recorded an EP for the record label BPitch Control. The making of this release was incredibly exhausting for the three of them, and at the last minute they renamed the EP “Auf Kosten der Gesundheit” (which translates to “At The Cost Of Health”). When it came time to begin working on an album, Moderat suddenly broke up. What follows is an incredible story. Divided they created two milestones in electronic music:

Picture by Melissa Hostetler

A short time later both Modeselektor and Apparat simultaneously worked on their own full-length albums — Modeselektor’s debut, Hello Mom!, and Apparat’s collaboration with Ellen Allien, Orchestra of Bubbles. Each went on to become successful releases and were followed by two career-defining albums for the individual acts. Additionally, since their debut releases, both acts have performed over 1,000 shows at nearly every point of the globe.

Modeselektor’s sophomore album in 2007, Happy Birthday!, set another milestone in German music history including musicians such as Puppetmastaz, Mäximo Park and Thom Yorke. Amongst a slew of remixes for the likes of Thom Yorke and Björk, Modeslektor also went on to tour with Radiohead across Japan in 2008. Apparat, on the other hand, moved forward with his album Walls in 2007, taking a musical path that was more band-oriented and kept him on tour for several years running.

It was a twist of fate that brought about Modeselektor and Apparat’s reunion in the spring of 2008. Szary and Bronsert, both proud fathers, were on their way to the “Stadtbad Mitte” (Berlin-Mitte City Pool) with their children for their regular Monday swimming lessons when they ran into Ring, a devout bachelor who happened to be accompanied by several dubious females. After a battering of verbal abuse, the three gentlemen quickly made peace and decided to get back to work on their collaborative album post haste. Thus, Moderat was reformed.

In recording Moderat’s self-titled album, the three men began by renting studio space at the legendary Berlin Hansa Studios (where Bowie recorded Heroes) in order to record the album in analog with the help of the studio’s vintage tube technology and an old EMI console from 1972, restored especially for Moderat…

Check a first result and

DOWNLOAD THE FREE TRACK “A NEW ERROR” HERE

RELEASE: 20.04.2009

FORMAT: CD / CD+DVD / LP / Digital

CAT NR.: BPC200

EAN CD: 880319409523 (Basic)

880319419928 (Deluxe)

EAN LP: 880319418815

Tracklisting:

01 A New Error

02 Rusty Nails

03 Seamonkey

04 Slow Match (feat. Paul St. Hilaire)

05 3 Minutes Of

06 Nasty Silence

07 Sick With It (feat. Delle aka Eased from Seeed)

08 Porc#1

09 Porc#2

10 Les Grandes Marches

11 Berlin

12 Nr. 22

13 Out Of Sight

14 BeatsWaySick (feat. Busdriver) [Bonus Track – Deluxe Version Only!]

15 Rusty Nails (Shackleton Remix) [Bonus Track – Deluxe Version Only!]

btw. of course Moderat will be at this years Sónar: read more …

Refined electronica – SÓNAR 09

Ok. The guys had a weird trip this winter. This year, the Sónar image takes the form of a short film. The central characters are surreal majorettes from the world of dreams, who have lost their bearings in the land of the living as a result of calls from a fiendish telephone booth. They’ve been producing the official Sónar vid somewhere in France – a good idea how Sónar you can get in june. Without freeze:

Click on the picture to watch this years Sónar full length image vid! Or…

watch trailer

What else should be said on Sónar 2009? Get your Barcelona hotel, be prepared for some Raster Noton artists on june 18, Carsten Nicolai’s label touches down at the festival with all its big guns: Alva Noto, SND, Atom TM and Byetone.

Bpitch will be represented by the most expected joint Moderat, the Berlin fusion of Modeselektor and Appart (Ellen Alien’s best bud), more Berlin tunes by Ostgut Ton and on Sónar Nights on june 20 you’ll dance to Crystal Castles. Check the complete line-up here. What could be added to this line up? Just book soon and be there:

TICKETS:

Online
www.ticketmaster.es

UK tix
www.ticketmaster.co.uk
www.ticketweb.co.uk
phone
0844 847 25 11
mon to sun 24/7

NU MIAMI ELECTRO – Afrobeta

Cuci Amador and Toni Smurphio … are Afrobeta. The Miami based microband not only offers a fresh electrofunk mix, but Amador also was present on Calle 13’s last vid ELECTRO MOVIMIENTO.. njoy:

check their myspace

Speak english or die?

B2@wp starts … now. Follow and join us doin’ the impossible to get our tenth issue out. An important decision, we’ll only work mainly with a fix staff. We were far too kind to be an open project. U’ll be screwed if ur arse is wide open, so after that experience ..

Download the Malasaña inspired B2 song made by Kreuzberg’s SCHOKOSCHOCK: Killer Woman.mp3