+++ PREVIEW 01/15 - 01/31 EUROSONIC / HAMBURG / BERLIN FASHION WEEK & TRANSMEDIALE +++

Ok - some nice little journey ahead there: EUROSONIC in the cute city of Groningen in the Netherlands is said to feature the next up and coming bands. Thats the reason while bookers all over Europe tend to go their and battle for the hottest shit (like e.g. FRANZ FERDINAND a few years ago) and hotel rooms.

Then to Hamburg to see whats going on with dpa-Georg in the PR and print capital of Germany and how its relation with Shanghai EXPO 2010 is doing..

Finally Berlin hits with a double feature: FASHION WEEK for the superficial beautyness of glitz and glamour and TRANSMEDIALE where we will negotiate the intellectual deepness of music and media in times of globalization. How the two work together? Knowledge makes you sexy;)

Also we heard, that our friends from BROKEN HEARTS CLUB and MEDIENGRUPPE TELEKOMMANDER will present their newest projects (did they manage to finally - sounds like fun...

And anyway wondering what JEANS TEAM Franz sofa looks like... +++ PARIS 01/08 – 01/12/09 (MEIN DISKO / DRIFTER) +++

Like last year, we saluted 2009 aka the Obama - year - of - the - global - crisis in style at Achtung Vincent (Vegas) Paris DRIFTER aka MEIN DISKO Party. It seems to be symptomatic for Sarkozian France, that people switch more and more from champagne to beer – but the sexy smelling dancy sweatiness of the party on Champs Elysees reopened legendary Club LE REGINE (man – they have a black panther painted on the dancefloor and mirrored ceilings!!) luckily was not affected by that at all.

And the after party at LE BARON (where Vincent a few weeks before hosted bigger-than-life duo GLASS CANDY) was more than worthwhile, too – though 10 euro for a 0,33 beer seems a little bit overpriced. Beer really seems to be the new champagne.

Close to SOCIAL CLUBs first anniversary (at the venue formerly known as TRYPTIQUE) the Saturday took a decent end with MOCK & TOOFs + MARCO DOS SANTOS (coming back to paris from his three month berlin excursion) dj set before having Paris own BLACK DEVIL DISCO CLUB performing live...

+++ REVIEW 2008 / PREVIEW 2009 +++

Why do I always have to write that the last year has been crazy (see my lines last year)? Maybe because it is a seldom privilege in the life of somebody, to do what he wants to do and survive pretty well on it.

I won´t start the list of where around the world I have been and who of you great guys there I met. But all of you (and especially one person who anyway knows who she is) has made my year 2008. Thanks for that!!!

The ACHTUNG reunion, like last time, took place in Paris, where Achtung Vincents MEIN DISKO (www.myspace.com/meindiskoclub) blew Achtung Eli, me and everybody else away (and will continue doing so in 2009) - and, yeah, I was right, sorry to say this: D-I-S-C-O definitely rocked it!!!



Wasnt that HERCULES AND LOVE AFFAIR piece BLIND an übersong and brought the feeling of the Studio 54 era close to mainstream (and proved that DFA is so much more than a FAD)? Even Cologne might have his own disco party some time soon...

And what will bring 2009? Well, a clear trend seems to point towards Africa and beats from continents that don´t belong to the "old" center of the world... While CSS and BONDE DE ROLE were strong representatives for Brazil the last two years, now DJ MUJAVA and his Township Funk is a good example for this.

SANTOGOLD, who took the heritage of M.I.A. - just with better songwriting and a better voice, and VAMPIRE WEEKEND, who brought the hype above them by claiming they mix their nice indiepop with afrobeats, are further proofs. So is BURAKA SOM SISTEMA, who additionally play on their angolan-portuguese heritage, and might somehow help to transform Portugal from being the “Ass of Europe” (thats how the Portuguese often call their country themselves!!) into the “Door to Africa”.

Interesting, too, that parallel to the musical universe the political one (featuring such diverse players as the EU, China, US, Brazil etc..) is also focusing more and more on the lost continent.

To build up the economy over there might help to reduce the flow of immigrants coming to Europe (btw: more people die by trying to cross the Straits of Gibraltar then crossing the border from Mexico to the US, which gets more and more fortified). But since you can read in any newspaper that China rather recently found its way north and south of the Sahara, to secure its interests (mainly raw materials), the old powers are beginning to try to find some ways to counteract (and secure the raw materials to themselves)

Yep, its not great, that China, as the most recent great power coming to Africa, supports the regime in Sudan (yes, you´re right Mr. Spielberg) but its also terrible, that each and everybody of us has a little piece of metal called Coltan build in his/her cellphone, which comes directly from the civil-war-ridden lands of Congo.... Guess who is delivering the weapons..

But back to music:

MGMT were nice (great embrace-the-world aka neohippie-vibe, too) but sucked live (like the KLAXONS in 2007 btw). But arent they a bit too much, anyway? There is a fine line between minimalism (ask me - I´m from minimal capital cologne) and if you want to call it like that: maximalism. Some Mozart contempoaries already said: "That´s too many notes my friend." and the drum teacher of my best friend told him (my friend, not Mozart) once: "Less is more."

In a world where there is too much information, I guess, you just have to find the right amount of everything. Good luck for 2009 then....

See you in China, Europe, the Americas, or hopefully Africa sometime soon....

+++ about COLOGNE/KÖLN, TRENDS the WORLD and MUSIC 11/21-12/31/08+++

It is nice to be in Cologne. For more than a month I havent left the city. Kind of a record for 2008. Friends I call are surprised: "You here!?" Yep - here in Cologne with its provincial charm of trying to be international. Sometimes it works though - Paris and London and Brussels are not far away and artsy people sometimes get invited from all over the world - in music especially during C/O POP time.

Then musicians from India, Southeast Asia and other far away areas are allowed to play in small venues, while "local-heroes-turned-global" from KOMPAKT still pack out the bigger ones. That´s boring on the one hand, but kind of interesting on the other - especially if you start to realize that it took minimal-techno over a decade to finally become the hot shit in the UK, Mexico or even China while it already seems a little bit dated in Cologne.

But the truth is, that the hot shit from somewhere else also seems to be dated by the time it reaches Cologne. Somehow good to know, that even in times of globalization and the internet not everywhere happens the same. Although hipster-trends seem to have a kind of strange livecycle nowadays:

They get hip at the first place, then after a while get hip at the second place, and when people at the second place realize, that the trend faded at the first place they die at the second before they ever get established there. But when people at the first place already get established enough before the trend dies, they don´t like to give up there newly conquered territory ? so that there is still place three, four and five where they can export the trend, too.

Can you follow me. No? Well, don´t worry - cause I´m just listening to my friend PACO MENDOZA on FUNKHAUS EUROPA, an artist on a radio, which both are not about trends but about music anyway... (although FUNKHAUS discovered quite early the impact balcan beats would have... and half way around the world, in hipster heaven NEW YORK, a band called GOGOL BORDELLO, made headlines with their gypsy punk - just an example... - another is the cooler DJ version of FUNKHAUS from Philly called DIPLO - )

About trends, about Cologne, and about music are the following lines: There is a band called MALK (www.malkmalkmalk.de) found in late 2007, on the peak of the rather short music/fashion era called NU RAVE (which nonetheless probably will have ? soundwise - a similar impact like minimal, long after the bad copies of JUSTICE will have been forgotten). They did, what bands normally do, when they get together: They experimented with different styles...

Just after a year of their existence they temporarily arrived in the middle of the two poles techno and pop. Yeah, POP, this bad, bad word, used to be synomym of sell-out and the incarnation of commercialism vs. TECHNO, made for the connaisseur of long nights combined with bad ass beats and drug abuse.





Two planets meet - and this often times at the LIKE (wow, now, love - you, youth) parties, that started in september of 2008 at SUBWAY in Cologne. But if you have a closer look, there are just a bunch of good looking party kids who like to dance to whatever. So, if you want, the only true trend is NEOHIPPIESM these days.

People from the ED BANGER universe who brought together the different crowds from the indie, hip-hop or electro scene at their parties were one of the first ones who realized: Everything goes....

Give MALK another year and they could be the first band from Cologne for a long time who could reflect that. The world and Cologne will finally COME TOGETHER again...

+++ REVIEW: CHINA w DEINE LAKAIEN and the incredible JEANS TEAM BEIJING 10/30-11/11, GUANGZHOU 11/11-11/14, SHANGHAI 11/14-11/15, NANJING 11/16, BEIJING 11/17, WUHAN 11/18, CHANGSHA 11/19, BEIJING 11/20/08 +++





Who would have thought, that one day, I would come to China with the old avantgarde of Germanys Dark Wave musicians? The story of strange coincidences happening on the way is somewhat too long for this blog. This shouldnt hinder me to mention one of my first Chinese encounters: SHANWEI.

There are especially three things that I can remember from the interview I did with this great guy in what would become my very first interview with a chinese person ever: First, he said, while looking on the ground, the Beijing Pop Festival, a festival he helped organizing, would soon become the biggest festival in China. Second, the chinese kids need some serious music education (I later found out, that he did quite some job there by teaching Beijings rock kids an overdose post-punk). Third, he answered my question of what would be his favourite german band quite suprisingly with: DEINE LAKAIEN!!!

When, one and a half years later, DEINE LAKAIEN gave an accoustic show at the 20th anniversary of the GOETHE INSTITUTE in China, in a rather interesting slot right after Chinas biggest rockstar CUI JIAN and before PLAYHOUSE (techno-)label boss HEIKO M/S/O, SHANWEIi nearly had tears in his eyes....

Later the next day after a zillion of interviews, we sat with DEINE LAKAIEN over a typical chinese dinner, discussing the pros and cons of growing old in the music biz. Somehow we ended up with KRAFTWERK: "Well, what should these guys do now?" asked Ernst, who btw did classic as well as 20th avantgarde music before DL, "either they do the same old stuff - then they won´t be very innovative any more, or they try to do newer sounds - but then the young generation will be just better in that kind of stuff." Kill your idols!!

When I met the "young" generation (which in elecronic music somehow seems to refer to beginning 30s) at C:UNION, a wonderful chilled club in the South of China (Guangzhou or Kanton by the German name that is), they were as happy as a bunch of teenagers having their first party.





No doubt, during my one week on tour with JEANS TEAM I realized, that these guys knew how to have fun. No matter if it was a huge stage in Guangzhou, a packed house in Shanghai or some western-saloon-like half filled club with dice playing chinese customers: Somebody was always dancing!! A more than rememberable tour with a lot of great people that helped on the way.

Thanks a lot to ABE, the S.T.D and WUHAN PRISON crew, CANDY, FEI TENG and the loco CHANGSHA COCOs - you were wonderful - we´ll come back!!

+++ PREVIEW: PARIS (WAKAL VIDEOSHOOT/ACHTUNG SUMMIT) 09/10-09/14, BERLIN 09/14-24 MEETING PET CONSPIRACY from CHINA), HAMBURG (REEPERBAHNFESTIVAL) 09/25-09/26 , KÖLN (MALK RELEASE PARTY w PET CONSPIRACY and WAKAL VIDEOSHOOT) 09/27, ZAGREB/BUDAPEST w PET CONSPIRACY 09/29-10/07, 10/07-10/11 BERLIN (POPKOMM), 10/11-10/14 BARCELONA w PET CONSPIRACY, 10/14-10/16 FRANKFURT (BOOK FAIR), 10/17-10/23/08 MALLORCA +++

Exciting times: September seems to be some sort of climax to Achtung´s latest activities. A lot of people from all around the world will meet each other in some projects initiated by the Achtung team. The shoot of WAKAL´s new musicvideo that began in Hong Kong a month ago, will be continued in Paris, Cologne, Berlin and Rome. As fate wanted, Achtung Eli will head from Amsterdam (which served him a temporary home for a year) to his last stopover before going back to the States (which itself is just another stopover on his way back to Asia). Since this stopover will be France´s capital, natural home of ACHTUNG MEIN DISKO VINCENT-ZE, the Achtung Team finally reunites for the second time in two years. A historic moment which of course will be celebrated by, yeah exactly: WAKAL´s videoshoot (the idea of which btw was born in New York - see below).






From Paris to Berlin to meet a chinese supergroup: THE PET CONSPIRACY from Beijing will touch european ground for the first time on September 15th to explore the german capital for a week or so, before playing in Cologne LIKE at a party (www.myspace.com/partylikewow) where not only Colognes most promising newcomers MALK will celebrate their release (on Chinese label PILOT RECORDS) - but also WAKAL, accompanied again by a giant chicken, will cross paths once more for some camera action who will bring director JÖRG STEINECK of WELCOME TO TIJUANA fame back into the game. So ACHTUNG: It´s LIKE Mexico´s WAKAL, filmed by WELCOME-TO-TIJUANA-Jörg, meets China´s PET CONSPIRACY at MALK´s Cologne concert. ACHTUNG LIKE COME TOGETHER is cool!

After getting rid of the apparently inevitable hangover this legendary party in the making will produce, it is time to go east. This time not China but Zagreb will be explored - and soon after: Budapest. From there it is just a tiny step back to Berlin´s POPKOMM (country of honor: turkey) followed by a PET CONSPIRACY concert at Barcelona´s RAZZMATAZZ.







Then it´s Turkey again (guest of honour) at Frankfurt´s book fair (the biggest in the world) before spending some time in Mallorca.
Kind of a nice little trip - isn´t it? And from here it´s just a few days until the return to China.

+++ BERLIN FASHION WEEK FEAT. BROKEN HEARTS CLUB´S FRIDAY 13th 07/16 & 07/18 + MELT FESTIVAL 07/18 - 07/20/08 +++

Arty, farty and pretty fashionable. Berlin is on a good way to become a player in the international fashion scene - but it is still on the way albeit with a great soundtrack for you, Broken Lovers...
And MELT is the best soundtrack for you, sleepless bunch. To quote another sleepless P: That was serious fuuuun!!N

+++ MIA. RELEASE PARTY BERLIN 02/06/08 +++

Mein Freund, Dein Freund, Unser Freund. Like always borderline kitsch with great melodies from one of Germany´s most controversial artists. Either you love it or you hate it.

+++ REVIEW NEW YORK 06/01 - 06/03/08 /// PREVIEW SAN FRANCISCO, MEXICO, GUATEMALA 06/03 - 06/23/08 +++

LIKE WOW - things getting kind of scary now. I´m already travelling faster than I can write about it. And the dynamics are - well - dynamizing. Just spending four days back in Cologne I flew to New York again. While I was planning to dig the up and coming (nu-)disco scene here (which I sort of did by going to 205 Tuesday´s weekly - ACHTUNG VINCENT will spin here in two weeks - and didn´t by missing out on SANTO´s pre-opening place to be party - the jetlag finally got me - sorry Jaques for not saying hallo - was just too tired) something quite unexpected happened.

Remember Illya the Tijuana girl from my Rome trip? Well, she gave me the contact of director DYLAN VERRECHIA. I met him in a café and told him about my upcoming "from San Francisco to Guatemala" tour with German-Latino brother duo CARAMELO CRIMINAL / PACO MENDOZA. He got totally excited about it and since Tijuana makes him happy (www.myspace.com/tijuanamakesmehappy) he decided to join the tour and shoot either a documentary or music video (depending on how much plata friend Goethe likes to invest).





And, by the way, in a two hour conversation we just figured out a plan for shooting an around the world music video for WAKAL`s new track. So, let´s see where what eventually will be the outcome of a random two-hour-over-coffee-conversation and a 20 hour working day. One is for sure: San Francisco, San Diego, Tijuana, Tecate, Ensenada, Mexico City, Guatemala City, Quetzaltenango, Lago Atitlan, Antigua, Tikal, Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Hanoi, Bangkok, Bangalore, Paris and Berlin are awaitng us.





+++ REVIEW BEST OF THE REST (DUBAI / HANOI / BANGKOK) +++



+++ SPECIAL REVIEW CHINA +++

Looking back at my stay in China (Shanghai - Beiijing - Shanghai - Shenzhen, Hong Kong - Chongqing - Beijing - Nanning) the historic momentum this country is living through becomes crystal clear. When I arrived for most people in China (and around the world) it was the time before the Olympics and after the unrest in Tibet. Now, four weeks later, it is still the time before the Olympics but it is also the time after the earthquake (just today all of China stand still for three minutes mourning for the estimated 50.000 dead caused by the Chengdu earthquake). Under such circumstances it might be inappropiate to write about music events. But on the other hand...





+++ PREVIEW DUBAI (04/08-04/13) CHINA (04/13-05/19)/ HANOI (05/19 - 05/23) / BANGKOK (05/23 - 05/26) with MEDIENGRUPPE TELEKOMMANDER / FOTOS / DEICHKIND / MIA. etc +++

Didn´t we mention it before? Yep - it´s China year. With the Olympic Games coming up in August and a critical situation in Tibet, RIGHT NOW (inform yourself), we are on our way to China. While last time the task was capturing the concert of 2RAUMWOHNUNG in Nanjing (you can see the result by buying the latest issue of QVEST magazine - the one with FRANKA POTENTE on the cover) this time we organized a nice little tour for MEDIENGRUPPE TELEKOMMANDER (and like to thank Raimund, the Goethe Crew and Jens for their precious support) and also helped out DEICHKIND and FOTOS with their gigs (, that, of course, would never have happened in the first place without the übermenschly powers of China-Udo, his team, and, again, Sr. Goethe)..

So check the tourdates and join us:

MEDIENGRUPPE TELEKOMMANDER (www.mediengruppetelekommander.de)

04/15 NANJING - University of Nanjing
04/17 HANGZHOU - Zhejiang University of Science and Technology
04/18 SHANGHAI - Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCa)
04/24 BEIJING - Yugong Yishan
04/26 BEIJING - Mao live house
05/01 BEIJING - Midi Festival


CHONGQING - Deutschland und China - Gemeinsam in Bewegung

05/09 FOTOS (www.fotosmusik.de)
05/09 STEREO TOTAL (www.stereototal.de)
05/15 DEICHKIND (www.deichkind.de)
05/17 MIA. (www.miarockt.de)

Hey - and while Achtung Philipp will be cutting his chinese birthday cake, MIA. (www.miarockt.de) will play in Chongquing - and the day after in Beijing @ Star Club (tbc). (05/17 and 05/18)

There will be a lot of stories to tell…but probably no time, since June 1st after spending some time in Hanoi, Bangkok and Cologne, the next stopover on the way to California and Mexico is New York. This time with CARAMELO CRIMINAL (www.myspace.com/caramelocriminal) and PACO MENDOZA (www.myspace.com/pacomendoza1) who will bring out his DJ VADIM (www.myspace.com/djvadim) - produced debut album this year… But even before you can have a listen to one of his new tracks (CANDELA) cause - three months before going back to Tijuana and after nearly a year of post-production the documentary WELCOME TO TIJUANA (www.myspace.com/welcometotj) is ready to be televised. Check out the trailer and stay tuned... (Kind of needless to say that ACHTUNG homie - WAKAL (www.wakal.com) will appear on the soundtrack of the documentary as well as in Mexico in June/July)




+++ INTERMEZZO: COLOGNE + SURROUNDINGS in 03/2008 +++

Yes, I have to admit: I have heard of it. Never intended to go there, though. But what should you do if MALK plays a party in Paderborn? Fortunately it was not just A party - but actually it was the first RICH KIDZ ON THE BLOCK PARTY (www.richkidz.de) ever. Hm - maybe Paderborn is not the greatest place to make your first party you might think? But think about it twice: As a great german showmaster once said (of course - as the most great german showmasters - he was not german but dutch): If you want to conquer Germany you have to conquer the provincial backwaters - exactly that´s what MALK did - so much so, that somebody even peed on himself. CONGRATULATIONS!!

Then it was David Hasert´s (singer of MALK check: www.myspace.com/thewinningweasel) birthday party. A new location in Cologne (GASTHOF ZUM FETTEN BASS) and an eclectic selection of DJs made the party an incredible success. Just too sad, that about 100 people couldn´t follow David´s invitation (TANZ MIT MIR - DANCE WITH ME) because the place couldn´t hold ´em all. We´re looking forward to the next one (including the visit of beautiful post-RUFF CLUB New York aquaintance Ola)…

But first there´s MALK´s upcoming gig with London´s freaky TRASH FASHION and Paris´ chartbreaking-electro-chanteuse YELLE on March 29th - don´t miss it..




+++ REVIEW Paris Mein Disko (01/23 - 01/28) / Berlin Fashion Week (01/28 - 01/31) / Cologne Karneval (01/31 - 02/05) / Hamburg Schanze No. 1 (02/08 - Berlin Malk (02/13 - 02/20) / Rome Loaded (02/20 - 02/25) +++

WOW - we were kind of aware that 2008 would be a turbulent year but that it would start this breathtaking - who would have predicted THAT? Sitting in the airplane back from bella Roma, still deligthed by the culinary highlights I was allowed to have with a varied and not less exclusive crowd taken from the INTERNATIONAL SUPERGROUND (starring: Illya "la reina del arte y de la carbonara", Seba "il re della Vespa" y Bea "la señora LOADED (www.myspace.com/letsgetloaded)" - thanks to you all!!!) I have to sum up the last two months:




Starting with Paris, where the first meeting of the ACHTUNG CREW in the new year took place at a very apt scenery: Achtung Vincent´s MEIN DISKO (www.myspace.com/meindiskoclub) fulfilled all the Ds you need for an amazing night out: DANCE DANGEREUX with Daring Disco Dudes. Not only has his monthly at legendary PARIS PARIS easily gained glittery grandeur, his DJ-skills spin the discoball just towards another level. To see the same beautiful girl that night (hey Heydi;) and two days later on my flight to Berlin speaks for itself… It should also be mentioned that Paris´ first two Malk fans made their debut into Achtung Radio´s parisienne life (merci Ms. Susy et Md. Coline) as did - in a nicely repetitive fashion - WAKAL (www.myspace.com/wakal) and DUNWICH (www.myspace.com/dunw1ch).


The MOTOGIGZ crowd from FLECHE D'OR, ED BANGER´s Amandine and the Paris Paris parisiennes should not be forgotten either (Also thanks to Guido, Marco and Antoine).



Flying high from Paris to Berlin, the landing was somewhat down to the ground. High expectations on BERLIN FASHION WEEK were corrected when glimpsing towards the cheap straw-spicked prosecco-piccolos. And that the fashion fans at these occasions are not the most fun ones is not grand news either. But looking at so few beautiful faces in the end was a real deception…. As the force was with me, meeting a cologne-conocido outta old school skater tradition increased the fun factor markedly. He had found out about the pleasures of -yep- straw-spicked-prosecco-piccolos and saw apparently more beautiful faces than others did - and he was not tired mentioning it ---- to those faces, of course…



In the search for better music- and alcohol quality and after a short trip to MICHALSKY which ended, as so often, with some guestlist confusion at the door - we made our way to somewhere where we definitely didn't were on the list - and entered freely. The gig of french indie-outfit ONE, TWO at ROTER SALON was mediocre - but the first three rows of teenage girls danced to the good looking music anyway… It was time to meet good people at good parties - which brought me to the DONOTS cozy aftershow hangout at Club MAGNET… From there Berlin´s BROKEN HEARTS CLUB was close enough to not break my heart. Funnily, I had to go to SoMe´s first exhibition in Paris´ LAZY DOG to find out about it. Cause there I picked up a new magazine called BANG BANG BERLIN (www.bangbangberlin.de) who described this monthly party where more or less famous DJs spin their TopTen lovesongs. And guess what? (Short break for something conspiring: TRANSMEDIALE 2008 (www.transmediale.de) Didn´t have really time to go there - but to see/hear mexican-music-master MURCOF (www.murcof.com) creating a new universe at Berlin´s planetarium was definitely an experience) On the last page of the magazine I saw a foto of the girl, that I met at MEIN DISKO and later on my flight to Berlin. No wonder, that she was at that party, too… Crazy world isn´t it?

Crazier even, when it is KARNEVAL in Cologne - but also totally pissed, kissed and fucked off! No comments

And then Hamburg: Meeting some journalist friends from Cologne (everybody is either working as a journalist or at PR-agencies in Hamburg) and an ex-guerrillero from Bolivia. Finding out, that in this poor but quite revolutionary country of dead revolutionaries (R.I.P. Che), Hitler´s infamous manifest "Mein Kampf" (Mi lucha) is totally en vogue and sells like mad (= geschnitten Brot). This fact combined with a DIY-manual for bomb-making circulating around, and virtually free access to dynamite turns Bolivia into the ideal destination for your next adventure trip. But if you just make it to Hamburg´s HAUS 73 you might wonder "Don´t I know this guy from TV" and "Where is the sister of MISS STEREO?" If you find out please let me know…. In the meantime a loud "Hey Ho Let´s go" to Schorsch, Johan, The Dude, Nina, Christoph and Schanze No.1 - you´re exactly that!! Ach so Rockers: "Haste schon geb…….?"



Back to Berlin after just two weeks of abstinence made possible by MALK (www.myspace.com/malkmalkmalk). Roughly four months and 30.000 myspace clicks into their existence, the masters of MAXIMAL made their first Hauptstadt-appearance. And despite the fact, that the gig was tainted by technically difficulties, the audience did what they were supposed to do: They DANCED!!! After the concert we had a PICKNICK at the VILLA with BOYS NOIZE, MODESELEKTOR and FEADZ or somethin´...


Finally you find yourself waiting without sleep at some café in Berlin at ten in the morning waiting for a friend from New York (HI kat;) to arrive and wondering, by taking a look around, if, one day, you will end either as a poor Prenzlberg Party Styler or a well-off Prenzlberg parent. Anyway, to close the circle: in vino veritas - and try the one from Rome - even better when consumed with great friends. WE LOVE YOU ALL!

+++ REVIEW 2007 / PREVIEW 2008 +++

Well guys, you know: it´s time for the inevtitable. 2007 comes to an end and we have to turn around our heads and look back for a moment. 2007 has truly been a crazy year. The Achtung Crew was never couch patotoeing it´s way through life, but this year broke the record (so far): Miami, Porto, Lisbon, Beijing, Shanghai, Berlin, Paris, Barcelona, Bilbao, London, Hamburg, New York, Washington D.C., Frankfurt, Osnabrück (sic!), Shanghai, Nanjing (attending, and filming the FIRST open air concert in this chinese city of 6 million, look out for this video on one of the next issues of QVEST magazine) Amsterdam, Dublin, Svalbard (guess where that is) and of course Cologne… We met so many GREAT people, that helped us, partied with us, worked with us and loved us;) You´re too many to mention but anyway- you know who you are, and of some of you we took fotos (check www.myspace.com/achtung_radio and click on the logo). Thank you all VERY much!!

What else did happen in 2007? Hm- we interviewed some Bands (e.g. Klaxons, Justice, The Album Leaf, Mit, Pitchtuner, RichandKool etc.) saw many, many concerts, organized a great one, read a lot of books, had fun and… started Achtung Management.

Yep - Achtung now is the proud manager of Cologne based trio MALK (www.myspace.com/malkmalkmalk) and the mexican electronic dance machine WAKAL (www.myspace.com/wakal). No explanations - just go to their concerts and you will see…

Music wise 2007 was the year of a joke - so-called NuRave. What will 2008 be like?

Preview: Hm - a guess: Disco is coming back definitely (DJ Harvey - ooooh yeah!!)


And Achtung Vincent already is on the forefront with his monthly Mein Disko at Le Paris Paris (www.myspace.com/meindiskoclub) - not to mention that Achtung Eli´s vynil disco collection gives you fever - and House seems also on the rise. The big question: How long will the neon kids survive?

Anyway - The Achtung Crew will survive and ... travel. It will be definitely the Chinese year, and the European year, surely the Southeast Asian year, probably the US year, maybe the Latin American year, and hopefully the world year. (It definetely won´t be the Bush year) Keep in touch and we will be with you soon!! Have a SUPERGROUNDING 2008!!!!

+++ JUSTICE in Amsterdam PREVIEW/REVIEW (11/23 - 11/25/2007) +++

PREVIEW: Achtung Amsterdam. Why not take a trip to blossoming tulip town and see how Achtung-Eli is doing? Eat Frikandel, smoke a spliff, interview JUSTICE, dance to PITCHTUNER, say hello to the hookers int the shopping windows and so on. Sounds like a doable programme. We´ll see where it takes us….




REVIEW: Well, it took us to Armageddon (see picture)!!! Man, that was JUSTICE for the third time in 8 months. From a relatively small audience in Miami and New York their cross grew into übermenschly rockstardom. The symbols say it all: The cross, the huge Marshall stacks on the stage (AC/DC style) and an audience ready to crowdsurf - these super-nice guys from Paris are maybe the first real rockstars who don´t play the guitar (but still like to mess around with the distortion pedal). For the Frikandel, the hookers, the spliffs: Nothing has changed: They´re still where they were when I was fifteen.

+++ KLAXONS / DAVID LYNCH Cologne (11/15/2007) +++
Strange day in Cologne. Klaxons are in town and David Lynch gives a speech about transcendental meditation. As a friend observed quite poignantly in respect to the latter: "He succeeded in surrounding himself with people who are even stranger than him" Indeed: These crown-wearing, in heavenly-white-clad fidels of self awareness, that sat right next to him, held quite some simillaritiy to the three kings of the orient. Their plans to open a university of meditation to make Germany invincible will probably lead to some protest in the surrounding nations. Somebody here didn´t really understand german history. Anyway- the Klaxons really understood somethin about marketing. Smart and very friendly boys these are. They just invented NuRave out of a joke. Well, if I were them I would still laugh.. By the way: David Lynch confessed, that he never took LSD, while a lot of his old college friends did. But taken from his own words they said to him: "Well David, we think LSD might not be the right thing for you"

+++ CHINA 2RAUMWOHNUNG (10/16 - 10/20), FRANKFURT BOOK FAIR/SÒNAR NITS (10/10 - 10/14) OSNABRÜCK (there is no time in Osnabrück) +++

Lean back! Drink a beer! Relax! Reflect! Rewind! Strange becomes the favourite word sometimes. What happened? Where was I? Ahem: one day in Osnabrück, four days in Frankfurt and four days in CHINA!! Another proof that the way into the world out there follows windy roads through provincial backwaters. Just shout out some words and the universe will respond. In this case the words sounded something like: "Could I write… " and the answer was: "Could you film…" And so for the second time in 5 months I ended up in China (Shanghai and Nanjing) filming Germany´s best known electro-pop band 2RAUMWOHNUNG for QVEST magazine (have a look at the February/March issue 2008 and try this link: http://www.2raumwohnung.de/home_live.php).

But before, the world of catalan culture took over Frankfurt and its book fair (the biggest of its kind in the world). Since supersonic Sonár festival from Barcelona had been so good to ACHTUNG RADIO in the summer of 2007, the decision to catch a train down to banker´s city to have a glimpse at SÒNAR NITS was quickly taken. So during the day it was books, books, books (oh yeah-reading makes you so intellectual-just try it!!) during the night it was dining (as its best, since top notch catalan chefs took care of the menu), drinking (not too bad either) and well- you guess. Nice to see SVEN VÄTH in his home town drinking water all night while FLORIAN SCHNEIDER of KRAFTWERK fame liked funky music machine REACTABLE obviously much more than the idea of having taken fotos of himself (he refused strongly and pointed at his colleague SEÑOR COCONUT on stage.) Needless to point out, that some writers graced this very delightful event as well…



In between all that there was Osnabrück, mysterious german city. Not much happened there, though…Let´s call it, politely: A nice break…


+++ HAMBURG/ESSEN/COLOGNE 09/17/2007
N.Y.C. / D.C. review - BERLIN Popkomm preview +++

Where was I? Sometimes you can get confused when you check out some art openings managed by a strange Cologne -gayclub - DFA connection (Daniel & Dennis - you rule!!), after meeting some music biz related friends of friends from Buenos Aires (Oh - sweet Candy, muchísimas gracias), while randomly staying with models in some New York hostal (Mey, Kat, Tina, Vance, Baptiste: Thanks guys - got quite an amazing time with you funny bunch at Ruff Club, the last Misshapes bash and a Block Party feat. Michelle Rodriguez of "Lost"-fame) for New York Fashion Week the one day and the next day you speak with former Assistant Sectretary of State in Washington D.C., who allegedly was involved in staging a coup against Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez (Tanja, Pete & Brian - you´re great).



When you finally, after meeting some German dude, who proofs once again, that the world is a village by knowing the same people in Beijing as you do, continue from JFK to Hamburg, via Essen and Cologne to Berlin where Popkomm awaits you, you are somewhat left your mouth wide open.

And that´s where we find ourselves right now: SOMEWHERE SUPERGROUNDING on the road towards Berlin, beloved friends and a LOT of music.

It´s actually nice that Popkomm invites ourselves (referring to us Germans), making Germany not only the host- but also the guest country of Europe´s biggest music fair. ACHTUNG RADIO, at least, feels delighted, since we like to make ourselves (and German music) guests all over the world - why shouldn´t we be guests of ourselves? Last year (World Cup - oleole!!) the world saw, that we are good hosts, now we have to proof, that we are good guests, too. Germans invite Germans - is it that what Berlin based band Mia. meant when singing "I´m not a stranger to my country anymore"? (Ich bin nicht mehr fremd in meinem Land).

Well, the question, as always, is: Where does the money flow to? Equipped with a million Euro newly founded "Initiative Musik", sucessor of short-lived German music export office "Gemansounds", presents itself at Popkomm. Presentations cost money, of course. And who gets the money? Well - the guess is up to you. With what remains after presentations and wages, structures for bringing German music to the world (meaning: to you guys) should be established. Against the backdrop of Germany´s federal system and the existence of a whole bunch of different interests groups within it, it remains doubtful, however, if such structures will be established before presentations and wages take their tolls. Less doubtful is, however, that Dieter Gorrny will have a big time giving even bigger speeches. And one thing is even damn sure: ACHTUNG RADIO will have a hell of a blast being guest at such historic events. So let´s salute: PROST a.k.a. CHIN CHIN!!

+++ NEW YORK / WASHINGTON D.C.
09/05 - 09/15/2007 +++

Ten days of Fashion Week, Music and Politics. You can call it an interesting mixture, we call it a SUPERGROUNDING experience. .. Would be strange if we wouldn´t find some characters here. Already heard of some Argentineans, Mexicans, Germans, French, Italians and there might be some Americans, too.



+++ HAMBURG 08/28 - 09/05/2007 +++

Hamburg City. Working class dodgyness meets bourgeose intellectual leftness (This boy is Tocotronic). So let´s read a book or two…drink two beer or three… take a look at Reeperbahn/St. Pauli or maybe better the Schanzenviertel. And let´s see what happens in the week before glitz & glamour takes us overseas….

+++ POPKOMM vs. C/O POP 2nd ROUND
REVIEW C/O POP +++



after five days of music mania in dom - city (yes, dear non-german reader we´re referring to cologne, home of the famous gothic cathedral, called "dom", right next to this building, that is frequented by a lot of trains, which itself finds itself next to the building -the beautiful "rheintriadem"-, which was frequented by crowds of music lovers due to its function as c/o pop headquarter), well, after five days of music mania in dom - city we have to repeat: IT WAS F***************G HUGE!!!!

Hey, and if you can say HUGE after missing main acts like UFFIE (who fled the stage in panic, when it was entered by some adolescent party shakers) and M.I.A (who invited adolescent party shakers onto the same stage the day after) you mean, that it was somewhat of a SUPERGROUNDING experience. Yes it was - so nice and INTERNATIONAL. People, GREAT PEOPLE, came from all over to Cologne. At this point ACHTUNG RADIO likes to thank Necati (PHONEM festival, Istanbul); Dimitri from Nowhere (SYNCH festival, Athens), who brought with him italian legend BEPPE LODA, probably the best dj, who played the festival; Alberto (TRAFFIC festival, Turin); Tibor (WILSONIC festival, Bratislava) the BUMM BUMM BOYS and ETEPETETE GIRLS (SPRING festival, Graz) who made the party A PAAAAARTY. But also our Jakartan friends from GOOD NIGHT ELECTRIC and all the other fantastic people from Pakistan, Ivory Coast, Kenia, Algeria, Estonia, New Zealand, UK, Spain, France, Southeast Asia, Berlin and of course Cologne that we met on our way through the nights and to the SIX PACK. All of you and the other approximately 30.000 people (if you believe the organizers, which, of course, you never should if you talk about crowd-sizes;) made the c/o pop days of 2007 unforgettable. Please come back next year!!!!

Some remarks added: No festival without highlights: And while meeting wonderful people when a good soundtrack is in the air is already a privilege, you know that you are part of something special when you forget the people around you. This definitely was the case when KALABRESE & THE RUMPELORCHESTER grooved the hell out of an average PA and made people MOVE. And if you ever had the chance to see the BATTLES alive and kicking, you might forget the people around you but never, ever the concentrated crazyness of their drummer. The word amazing not even touches it….

+++ KÖLN 08/15 - 08/19/2007 vs. BERLIN 09/19 - 09/21/2007 +++

++ C/O POP vs. POPKOMM vs. SOUTHEAST ASIA ++

It´s been four years now! Four years that popkomm, went to Berlin and c/o pop, started in Cologne. popkomm? c/o pop? Never heard of? And never heard of what is going on in South East Asia´s music scene either? You don´t even have a clue how these things could be connected to each other? Well, then it´s time to learn:

+++ KÖLN 06/29/2007 +++




“Schwundstufe Zwei” THE ACHTUNG RADIO PARTY. Won´t tell you anything. Who´s not gonna be there will…well, no words…but all the LOVE and HAPPINESS (=gude laune, alder!)!!!!!!!


+++ LONDON 06/20 - 06/23/2007 +++

Party with STANKOWSKI is the working title for this one. Let´s see what his partner WERLE is up to..(Well, these guys give their live debut in the UK). Meeting with some old french aquaintance aka Buenos Aires connection might happen, too. Same same for the China/Cambodia one. We´ll see - and be happy in the meantime…




+++ BARCELONA/BILBAO 06/12 - 06/20/2007 +++

It´s Sonar time in Barna and a good opportunity to meet some Mexican friends…(pues, me parece que ustedes estan en todos lados. Acordando Madrid/London/Berlin/Paris - only people from KÖLNCAMPUS and RWLers can compete with you) and all the good people known from San Diego among other places…A little adventure trip to Bilbao will be included. (ETA just recently ended its ceasefire, poooh!)


+++ PARIS 06/07 - 06/10/2007 +++

In the city of love, in the club of love love PARIS PARIS, the three from the ACHTUNG crew will be at the same place for the first time in three years. SLICY SHIT (and some early morning Louvre experience)!!! And WAKAL should be among us, as well…Hey, and what´s this DUNWICH guy doing???? And JUSTICE for all…(and every tube station).


+++ BERLIN (RICH AND KOOL RELEASE PARTY 05/30 - 06/03/2007) +++



Yeah, the ACHTUNG game of 2007 that began at Miami´s Winter Music Conference spread around quickly to some VERY different places. Unfortunately so fast and furious, that all the experiences taken in on the way have to be kept unwritten for the moment. But all these GREAT (and some naked) people everywhere!!! - they will be mentioned, eventually. (especially the Berlin family. THANKS!!) Keep tuned… and have a look at the following itinerary. Maybe we will meet SOMEWHERE out there..


+++ CHINA 04/25 - 05/09/2007 +++


+++ PORTUGAL 04/13 - 04/23/2007 +++


+++ MIAMI 03/19 - 03/29/2007 +++

a new era of ACHTUNG RADIO is dawning.

the story, that once began in san diego/tijuana, california now returns from its japanese/european exile directly to miami´s winter music conference.

for a short period of ten days, miami will be THE place for the INTERNATIONAL SUPERGROUND.

crowd out there: ACHTUNG/WATCH OUT!!!! - the game is just about to begin...