audio Kultur
BEFORE THE BEGINNING THERE WAS FRANKIE
issue 04 apr 2014 free
02 Word for the Herd
T
his month on our back page we honour the great Frankie Knuckles, a man who basically invented what we call house music today, as the resident DJ at legendary membersonly Chicago club Warehouse in the 1970s. The club, which was frequented by mostly black and Latino gay men, pushed boundaries and, in doing so, changed the face of dance music. Dance music owes a lot to gay clubs, which is something that this scene could do with acknowledging a little more openly. Do you really think that straight people are daring enough to get us to the point where Disclosure, Duke Dumont and Route 94 are all churning out number ones? Garage? That New York house sound? Look no further than the Paradise Garage or Studio. They weren't even considered “gay clubs” back in the day, they were just the only options you had to go listen to some serious fucking tunes. Early last month a Lebanese judge presiding over a case prosecuting a homosexual made a landmark ruling, essentially declaring Article 534 of Lebanon’s penal code no longer valid. In case you live under a rock or something, Article 534 basically says that unnatural sexual acts are illegal. Activists, “unnatural sex” (whatever the fuck that means) enthusiasts, and all other reasonable people, were pretty stoked. This is a magazine about music, nightlife and nightlife culture. It’s way past time to acknowledge that people who engage in “unnatural sex acts” (still not over that) have been a part of that scene ever since it existed. Times are a changin’. Liberal attitudes are eroding some ridiculous, archaic belief systems and the Middle East is no exception to this phenomena. Sadly in Lebanon we’re not as accepting as we’ve been touted by the West or even as we claim to be. Soap-box aside, the dance floor and the world could be a much better place if each and every one of us made an active effort to be just a little less cunty. It’s 2014, boys and girls, things like homophobia, sexism, racialism and classism are so passé that they’re solely reserved for YouTube comment dicks that live with their parents. You’re better than that Beirut. Tres Colacion Editor-In-Chief Got something to say? Write us at Junkmail@Uberhaus.me
Publisher überhaus
Editor-In-Chief Tres Colacion
Managing Editor Emma Gatten
Art Director Ali Sayed
Writers
Jackson Allers, Emma Gatten, Abigail Hill
Comic
Raphaelle Macaron
Table of Contents 03
04. Featured Artist:
Ryan Crosson
12. Feature:
The Wanton Bishops hit the US
18. Night Out:
Posh
22. Feature:
06. Flashbacks
& Revelations
16. Featured artist:
Chopstick and JohnJon
20. Featured Artist: Technophile
Dressing Down
26. Tuneage
28. The Review 30. das Komic
04 Featured Artist
All In Ryan Crosson talks his new mix, future plans and the lack of decent record stores in London
Featured Artist 05
gems on this mix.
d
on’t Be Leftout, a new mix LP from Matt Tolfrey & Ryan Crosson seems guaranteed to contain some of the summer’s biggest tunes. The mix, out at the end of April on Tolfrey’s Leftroom label, has 18 exclusive tracks and brand new material from both of the boys. After having the promo on repeat, we figured we’d have a little chat with the dudes. Though Tolfrey appears to be MIA we were able to catch up with Visionquest main man Crosson while he was in Miami.
AK: This mix is chock full of exclusive tracks from plenty of really hot artists. Which tracks do you think are going to make a major impact going into the summer season? I'm quite fond of Gavin Herlihy's track and the Sweatshop Boys.
AK: You recently moved to London from Berlin. Why did you make the move and what is different about the cities? I did Berlin and it was great but I felt I needed to move and be closer to my girlfriend. Long distance sucks and I couldn't take it anymore. I still very much love Berlin and at times miss it. But I feel much more at home in London when I'm fortunate enough to be there. There are so many differences between the two I don't know where to start. I will say I miss the ease of going out in Berlin and quality of dance music in Berlin. It's the best place in the world for dance music and there are no creeps roaming the clubs trying to grab girls. I fucking hate that about some places in London.
AK: First off congratulations on a cracking new mix, we really enjoyed it.How did the idea for you guys to work together on this come up?
AK: What do you think are the emerging trends in electronic music this year?
Matt and I have known each other for some time now and are quite good friends. For a while we had talked about working in the studio together but the opportunity for a specific project never presented itself. We were either in different locations or had something else going. A little less than a year ago he threw this idea at me and off we went.
I think things are going to get stripped back again. The UK seems a bit isolated for me in terms of dance music because none of the record shops carry music I like to play. It's tough for me to see a trend when my local record store only carries UK music and ignores most of the rest of the world and then I'm stuck on decks.de all day. Internet shopping for vinyl is ok I guess to pick up specifics but will never beat "your guy/girl" at the record shop.
AK: How did you guys approach putting it together? Who brought what to the table? We both sent out mails to our friends and artists we admire for exclusive material, explaining the concept for the mix. But as you can see and hear, it settled into Leftroom territory, which was fine with me because of the title of the CD and party series [Don’t Be Leftout] Matt has been working on. I then contributed three new original tracks for the mix under my name; the Sweatshop Boys and Canal & Garfield. Matt was a grinder the whole way on this as per usual. Really digging through a lot of material that came through his artists and channels. His persistence was how we were able to secure some of the
specific label; you'll never be satisfied and the music will never be a true representation of you and your passion.
AK: What have you got planned for the rest of the year; will we get to see you and Matt working together in the future? Yes of course. We will definitely do something again, whether it's parties or studio stuff. The rest of year for me entails lots of remixes coming out, 2-3 EPs, revival of Berg Nixon, a huge Summer of Visionquest dates and completing the next album in the Merveille & Crosson saga.
AK: What do you get up to after you’ve played a gig? Barring an early morning flight... A lot comes down to your energy level and the people around you. If you're rested and comfortable with a crew a lot can happen. Turn to page 24 for a review of Don’t Be Leftout.
AK: What do you look for when someone sends you a piece of music for Visionquest? Any advice to give aspiring producers who are looking for a release? That’s a really tough question for me because I try to be as open as possible when listening to something and not try to focus on one particular thing. It's normally pretty easy for me to decide whether it fits for us and our current direction or not. A problem I see is that people think that we want this one specific sound that happened on catalogue number 1 or 5 and that's just not the case. Make the music you want to make and how you want to make it. Don't make something based around the sound of a
City: London, UK Label:
Visionquest
Website:
www.soundcloud.com/ ryancrosson www.facebook.com/ RyanCrossonMusic
Essential Listening:
Two One Three [TBR] Sweatshop Boys - Wanna Be More [TBR] Tale of Us & Ryan Crosson - Big Sins [Crosstown Rebels] Make My Day (Ryan Crosson Morning Sorrow remix) [Soma] You’ve Got Me feat. Don Fuego [Supplement Facts]
06 Flashbacks & Revelations
Flashbacks & Revelations A month of the hottest parties for your viewing pleasure
Flashbacks & Revelations 07
bphotos018by Saad Salloum
08 Flashbacks & Revelations
COTTON CANDY photos by JIMMY FRANCHISE
Flashbacks & Revelations 09
cphotosu nxt sat by carl halal
10 Flashbacks & Revelations
Merry go round &photos端berhaus by Valentina Lola Vera & Nicolas Cardahi
Flashbacks & Revelations 11
nacht by 端berhaus photos by Valentina Lola Vera
12 feature
Avoiding the Crossroads The Wanton Bishops go looking for a breakthrough, and end up on a voyage of acceptance in the Mississippi Delta By:Jackson Allers Photos by: Balazs Gardi & Franck-Mandon
feature 13
B
eirut's gritty blues-based rock duo The Wanton Bishops have been on quite the climb since their debut LP Sleep with the Lights On was released in December 2012. After securing a publishing deal with Red Bull's new record label in 2013, the Bishops have managed to attract a loyal set of fans locally (Lebanon), regionally (Cairo, Istanbul), and in Europe (France, Scandinavia). This past March, the band partnered with Red Bull to shoot a documentary during a two-week tour through the Mississippi Delta on the heels of their first appearance at the music industry's largest festival, South by Southwest, in Austin, Texas. We tasked Beirut-based music journalist Jackson Allers, who hails from the bayou country of Southeast Texas, to sit down with the Bishops' two frontmen – Nader Mansour and Eddy Ghossein – in their first interview since returning from the US.
Last winter, I got an email from a close friend in Texas, Matt Sonzala, a well-known events producer, music journalist, radio host and former music programmer at South by Southwest (SXSW) music festival in Austin, who told me he'd been contracted to lead The Wanton Bishops on a tour of the South in March, 2014.
Four days later, after a gruelling 20-plus hours of travel, they arrived in Texas Hill Country, with their rhythm section of Anthony Abi Nader on drums and Faisal Itani on bass, for the first leg of their tour.
It was exciting news. The year earlier I had floated a similar idea to The Wanton's lead singer Nader Mansour right after the release of their debut LP Sleep with the Lights On. At that point early in 2013, the Bishops had only played three concerts locally, and despite a significant Lebanese following, as Nader says, “We weren't ready financially, musically or organisationally at that point.”
"Waking up in Austin was not that much of a culture shock, actually,” Nader tells me. “Despite the fact that this was our first time there for most of us, we somehow knew how to handle everything.”
By 2014 they had put some mileage under their belts and with Red Bull stepping up to partner with the Bishops, a film project was born – tentatively titled – "From the Mediterranean to Mississippi" which, according to The Bishops, was meant to be “an examination of the linkages between East and West” and an informal means of attempting to explain why Nader and Eddy were so taken by the blues, given they hailed from Lebanon, a place with no obvious linkages to this Black-American art form, born out of the vestiges of Southern slavery. They got a good warm up for the tour, with their first live show following the release of their new single "Come to Me," playing to a 1,000 strong crowd in Beirut, a “milestone [gig],” Eddy says, “because we knew that if we disappointed our home crowd – we were no good anywhere!"
AUSTIN
What was a shock was the broken guitar that Nader displayed to the group in the lobby of the hotel on the first morning after arrival, its neck snapped from the plane flight, prompting a run to the fabled music shop South Austin Music which – as Nader and Eddy tell the tale – was like being in a “vintage candy shop.” Two hours, two guitars and a bunch of effects pedals later, Matt was literally dragging the Bishops out of the door. As the week progressed, what the guys quickly found out about South by Southwest was its propensity to disappoint. Every year, 2,000 musical artists descend on Austin for a five-day period in which every conceivable bar and performance space in the downtown area becomes an event staging ground. “It was too chaotic and too big for anybody to get noticed by anyone,” Eddy says. “Too many bands. Too many stages. So little time. For us it was – 'Fuck it! Let's play.'” It was the same maxim that the Paris-based Chicago
14 feature
trumpeter Boney Fields had told Nader early on in his career. For the Bishops, Austin became more about what was happening for them on the margins of the festival. Antone's Record Shop was one of those highlights. "The people who introduced me to blues – the older Lebanese bluesmen here – were always talking about Antone's,” Eddy says, “I knew about it through them. So when I went there, it was like a revelation.” Antone Records was founded by Lebanese-American Clifford Antone in 1987. Prior to setting up the store, Clifford had established a live venue of the same name in 1975 in what became one of the first live music venues on 6th Street – a place that nurtured the talented Stevie Ray Vaughan and welcomed a who's who of blues talent, the likes
of Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Delbert McClinton, Pinetop Perkins, Albert Collins, Jimmy Reed, and Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown. While the venue has long since passed hands to different owners and the original address has changed several times, the record store is still owned by the family. “We did an impromptu set that got filmed by a local magazine out in front of Antone's,” Nader says. “We placed some of our records there, and walked out with some vinyl gems you just can't find in Lebanon. It was beautiful man!” On Saturday morning, March 15, the boys packed up their gear and made their way southeast down highway 290 and then due east on Interstate 10 to their next destination: New Orleans.
NOLA and The Bayou When they woke up in their hotel room the next day, after a hellish nine-hour drive the night before, they began their tour of New Orleans in the historic African-American neighbourhood of Treme, popularized in the last four years by the HBO series of the same name. It was a Sunday, and the Zion Hill Missionary Baptist Church was their first stop. The sermon began innocently enough, with church leader Pastor Joshua going through his regular motions. But when he noticed the strangers in the back, he decided to call up Nader and Eddy to “testify” in front of a thinned out congregation of parishioners who braved the day's tornado warning to make it to church. Pastor Joshua then asked Nader and Eddy to play for the assembled churchgoers.
feature 15
The generally alcohol swigging areligious characters had a heartwarming church experience. “Religion combined with music as means of bringing people together versus dividing people,” Eddy recalls. “It was the first indicator of the acceptance we were looking for on the trip – the acceptance we were all nervous about, being from Lebanon and all,” Nader says. Of course, as any bluesman would tell you, churchgoing is only a way to make sure you've got divine cover for your sins, and by the afternoon, the boys and crew were sipping Miller High Life (“the Champagne of Beers”) and sucking the heads out of crawfish, about 50 km northeast of New Orleans across the brackish estuary called Lake Pontchartrain. They met the local weatherman – Mr. Roosevelt – who “predicted the weather more accurately than any high-paid meteorologist,” and Mr. Green, the town's “fish whisperer,” who took the Bishops on a boat ride along the bayou – film crew in tow. Later that night, sauced up with the energy from their bayou experience they played their first live gig in New Orleans at “live indie music institution” the Hi-Ho Lounge to a highly supportive crowd of about 60 people gathered for the weekly Sunday night stand-up comedy routines. “Fucking Macaulay Culkin,” Nader laments, recalling the fact that The Bishops had been bumped off their Monday night gig by Culkin's Velvet Underground tribute band the Pizza Underground. No matter, because on Monday night The Bishops found themselves at the the d.b.a. Lounge on Frenchman Street in the Marigny district of New Orleans on stage with Glen David Andrews – one of the city’s brass band fixtures and a self-styled son of Treme – a gospel shouting, soul crooning powerhouse, who spent his formative years playing trombone at Jackson Square in the heart of the the French Quarter with “Tuba Fats” Lacen. Eddy called Glen, “the coolest American I'd ever met.” “They say he's the Treme Prince,” Nader says, “And like so many other musicians we met in the South, he came from a dynasty of musicians. His cousin – Troy “Trombone” Shorty – introduced him to music. And you know...Glen took us around Treme introducing us to the locals – showing us where the Black music legends would come when they were in Treme.” As they walked around Treme, Glen described second line marches and explained how important funerals were in the Black neighbourhoods of New Orleans, something that seemed more poignant when Glen told the boys how the crack cocaine epidemic ravaged Treme, like so many other inner-city settings in the US in the 1980s.
Glen himself was a recovering addict himself and had had numerous run-ins with the law until he decided to enter a rehabilitation program in 2012. He's been sober ever since, and according to the Bishops, it was on-stage that the wild man was allowed to come out. “He was a loose cannon on stage. Like a fucking electric power plant,” Eddy says. After a three-hour show that Nader likened to a scene from the movie Idlewild (“minus the costumes”), Glenn called Eddy and Nader on the stage for what was their last appearance in New Orleans before heading north on Interstate 55 to visit Vasti Jackson in Jackson, Mississippi.
JACKSON, CLARKSDALE AND MEMPHIS They got in to Jackson on a Tuesday afternoon and headed straight to the house of one of Mississippi's most celebrated young writers and poets – Charlie Braxton – who lived on a street called, of all things, The Cedars of Lebanon. It was at Braxton's house that the Bishops met Vasti Jackson, a song-writer, producer and guitarist with few peers, whose 35-year career had connected himself with innumerable musical greats that grew out of his session work with Malaco Records (Mississippi) and Alligator Record (Chicago) in the 1980s and early 1990s. “Vasti and Charlie were like encyclopedias of blues knowledge,” Nader says, and after an impromptu backyard session with Vasti in which they played Oriental-tinged melodies and discussed the influence of the Lebanese immigrants who made their way to Mississippi, the Bishops sauntered over to Bully's Restaurant for some soul food before taking the stage with Vasti at the CrossRoads Bar & Lounge, where they played a full set to a nearly empty club that happened to include Mississippi State Senator Sally Doty and Danny Seraphine, the original drummer and co-founder of the band Chicago. Their education on the blues train continued at their next stop – Clarksdale, Mississippi – the self-styled “home of the blues,” a place that birthed the infamous career of Robert Johnson – whose death at the age of 27 in 1938 led to the Faustian myth of Johnson selling his soul to the devil to be a bluesman at the “crossroads.” While the story might be myth, in 1932 Clarksdale was where Johnson ended up abandoning his sick wife and embarking on a career as an itinerant musician. The crew stayed at the Shack Up Inn where on their first night they got the Hill Country Mississippi blues sound they had been craving. This was music of the kind showcased on Fat Possum Records from men like R.L. Burnside, Junior Kimbrough and, on this evening, from an impromptu performance by Lightnin' Malcolm – a member of The North Mississippi All-Stars.
“I'd never seen that played live before. Only on recordings,” Eddy says of the one-man band with bass drum, hi-hat, snare and guitar. “That was a slap in the face to see this great bluesman struggling,” Nader told me. “We'd just came from a show of 1,000 plus people in Beirut and then you see this legend of a musician – an amazing human being – who deserves huge crowds, playing to a nearly empty house for gas money to go see his daughter in hospital!” Three days later, after the boys had played behind 82-yearold Fat Possum mainstay Leo Welch and the young gun bluesman Al “Big A” Sherrod at the Shack Up, they found themselves in Royal Studios in Memphis where just a few months earlier Lightnin' Malcolm had laid down guitar tracks for an upcoming record with Led Zeppelin's Robert Plant. According to the boys, they'd pssed their ultimate test of acceptance in Clarksdale, playing to a group of “nonhipster types” as Nader put it – real blues lovers who met them with love and praise after their set was finished. That energy carried over during a 12-hour recording session at Royal Studios, which was guided by Lawrence “Boo” Mitchell, the son of the seminal blues recording figure Willie Mitchell. Boo had long since taken over the day-to-day operations from his now deceased father, who started Royal in Memphis in 1956. It was sacred ground for The Bishops and they tried to rise to the challenge. “When you're in the place where Keith Richards is recording his album, and Robert Plant was at the same studio the month before, not to mention all of the other folks – Al Green for example – you have to come up with something. And we did. Maybe we divined all of the things we'd seen in the last week, but I think we came up with something special,” Eddy said. Perhaps the most telling story of the whole was the fact that The Bishops kept trying to find Robert Johnson's crossroads when they were in Clarksdale. Twice they drove past the intersection at the highway of 49 and 61. “I think it was a sign – we shouldn't be on the crossroads, or better, that we weren't meant to be paying attention to the idea of the crossroads for success,” Eddy says. Why employ the devil to showcase your talents when they're clearly there for everyone to see?
16 Featured Artist
Chop and Change Chopstick and JohnJon mark 10 years with 12 tracks
Featured Artist 17 AK: First off, congratulations on the album, it’s quite an achievement. Why do you guys think that the album is still sort of a rare format in dance music? Thanks for the kind words! For us an album is still something very big. It's become a rare format in our genre because an EP could already get an artist to a point of recognition and in the best case gets him/her traveling the world gigging all over – so there is no immediate need for an artist to write a whole album. We think an album should represent a wider musical range of the artist...for us it's like a playground where you can show all your sides whereas an EP is limited to about 3-4 tracks. We'd love to see more artists releasing an album.. and we're sure all artists who take their musical career seriously will at one point write an album!
AK: You guys have been to Beirut a few times now.
What do you think about the city and the crowd?
We love Beirut!! We always have such a great time there! We have made great friendships there and even though it wasn't always a safe time to travel to Beirut, we still decided to go and play and we definitely felt the love from the crowd in return. What definitely stood out is that all Lebanese people are so well educated. They speak three languages fluently and are very sophisticated...and good to party with!
AK: Neither of you are originally from Berlin, but you both now call it home. We find more and more producers are adopting the German capital as a base. Why do you think that is?
o
ver the past 10 years Chi-Thien Nguyen and John Muder have worked their way through a plethora of sounds - techno, electro, and hip hop. The classically trained musician (Thien) and former hip hop DJ have settled down a decade later, finding their own brand of funk-laden house and producing their first full-length album, a rarity in dance music. Based in Berlin, the pair founded their label Suol in 2010, where they nurture their select roster of artists. We talk to them about making the German capital home, Thien’s criminal history and the new record, Twelve.
In Germany they say that if you live in a city for over 7 years, you are allowed to call yourself home to that city – and we've lived here for 10 years now. John is originally from Hamburg and I'm from Stuttgart. Berlin is a melting pot for artists and it's sort of still cheap compared to other major European cities – I guess that's one of the main reasons for the young people to move to Berlin too. Berlin isn't the most beautiful city though, but in the end the people make the vibe of the city and Berlin for us still the most interesting city without a doubt!
be the “next big thing”? Any artists to tip? That's a good question which we best leave unanswered – we simply just don't know and we don't follow the latest trends etc...so for us to speculate what the next big thing will be is like predicting the weather in Vancouver. We can say though that electronic music in general in all forms and varieties is getting more and more international and we love that development. Kids who dig Guetta etc will maybe dig deeper at some point and discover artists such as Koze, MCDE, etc.
AK: Thien, we’ve read somewhere that you’ve got a bit of a dodgy past...care to set the record straight? Ha! I “stole“ a synthesizer when i was growing up in Canada and got a criminal record for that – no shame about it (maybe a bit...). I had to serve 40 hours of community work and now when I look back to that part in my life, I have a big grin in my face.
AK: You’re are constantly playing gigs. Tell us what you do on your ideal day off. On our ideal day off, we are both at a sea or river with rods placed at the shore and beers in our hands – life is good! After that we would probably go play tennis and work off our beer bellies..
AK: After you’ve finished a show what do you guys normally do? Do you like to party on days off? Who are your favourite DJs to get down to? After we finish a show, we usually hang around and chat with the promoters and have a few more drinks until we pass out. We don't usually party in clubs on our days off unless a friend is playing...we'd rather go watch animated movies in 3D or just hang out with our girls. There are a few DJs like Tanner Ross, Andre Lodemann, MCDE, Jimpster, Koze and all Suol DJs. Chopstick & Johnjon's Twelve is out on Suol.
AK: You guys have had your own label, Suol, since 2010. When producers send you records to be considered for the imprint what are you looking for? It's probably every label’s principle to sign something that stands out. For us it's very important too but the personal aspect is also really important. Since we work very closely with our artists and always make a five-year plan, we need to get along well with the artists – not only on a professional level but also on a personal level. When we do sign someone new (and we barely do that – hence our artist roster of 7 artists only), that means we have spent a solid amount of time with the artists and believe in his or her musical skills. In the end it's then up to the artist what he or she comes up with musically...it can be a guitar track only or a string symphony or a piano sonata...if we dig it – we will release it!
AK: Dance music is always changing. What trends do you see emerging this year? What do you think is going to
City:
Berlin, Germany
Label: Suol
Website
http://www.soundcloud.com/ suol http://www.facebook.com/ chopstickandjohnjon
Essential Listening:
Pining Moon [Suol] Crossing Borders [Embassy One] Zdarlight (Chopstick & Jonjon Remix) [Toolroom Records] Listen [Suol] Look Around (Chopstick & Jonjon Remix) [Golden City Sounds]
18 feature
Night Out: Posh A little bump and grind By: Emma Gatten Illustrations: Noura Andrea Nassar
feature 19
b
eirutis love to tout their hedonism, but the truth of it is most places you go in the city you have to look a certain way and behave a certain way. Posh, the $20 all-you-can-drink, anything-goes club, eschews all that.
The occasion of the tonight’s foray is the leaving party of my friend Philip, a British PhD student who's been here for two and a half years. A terrible, unapologetic hipster and doyen of East London's gay/straight/whatever bar scene, he really, really loves Posh, and is constantly droning on about why it's Beirut's best. “It's got the air of like the Joiner's Arms before it got too trendy,” he says, Joiners being the gay bar in Shoreditch popular among hipsters because of its late licence, karaoke and general griminess. Although it’s rumoured the club isn't actually all that friendly to the non-cisgendered, true to what Philip says, Posh's attendees are a varied bunch. It’s a sausagefest, but not unwelcoming to ladies. Aside from one super-smart comment in the elevator (“Is this a lesbian night?!” Nice one!), nobody cares whether their fellow partygoers have the right look, or anything else. Everyone likes to let loose and it doesn't get much looser than Posh. One female member of our party spent half the night fending (and sometimes not fending) off advances from guys. It’s nice to think you can go to a club and not worry about being groped on every turn but still find a nice young man. The location itself isn't much to write home about; a warehouse on the second floor, big dance floor, lots of lasers. The stage is the focal point, the place where Posh's clubgoers go to be seen and there are some pretty outrageous dance moves and impressively tight outfits going on throughout the night. No photography is allowed in Posh, which is understandable. The journalistic cliché of Beirut as the liberal capital of the Middle East notwithstanding, the country is still rife with prejudices of all kinds. Money
provides insulation, as ever, but Posh isn't the preserve of the wealthy. There’s none of the white-shirted, tableserviced, work-in-banking dickheads here. While there’s certainly a few well-dressed, walking Topman adverts here, most of the guys look like your average Lebanese. And if you live outside the mainstream and you aren't rich you only have to piss off the wrong person or be in the wrong place at the wrong time to find yourself with a crapload of problems. The place has characters. One, Philip tells me, is nicknamed 'The Accountant', because “he looks exactly like an accountant, yet always has flashy rave jewelry and changes his outfit throughout the night.” Sadly, I don't see him this evening. The people are probably what make Posh, letting loose like nowhere else I have been in the city. On one particularly loose night, a female friend was surprised to find a guy resting his naked penis on her leg as she stood at the bar. You get the impression that for some people, coming to a place like Posh is the rare time when they can be themselves, which is what a great club is all about – a place where people can express themselves outside the confines of day jobs, family expectations, social norms. There's something about the laissez-faire attitude at Posh – less focus on image, more on fitting in as much hedonism as possible – that brings out the eccentric. Despite my liberal utopia of a world free of social segregation, I suspect it's the contrast between the outside world and here that encourages this, providing a free space for people who generally face restrictions and judgement. After all, if there's nothing to rebel against, what's the point in doing anything outlandish? That's one of the reasons I was such a boring teenager. My parents never told me not to do anything. There's none of that staring at the DJ, nodding-along, ignoring everybody around you dancing at Posh. The dancefloor is packed so tightly it's impossible not to dance along with your neighbours, a sea of buff young men. Some of the guys we're with are determined to make me loosen up, their hands on my hips, crotch in my arse. I’m definitely out of my own personal comfort zone but I’m not worrying that my inability to grind is going to mess with my sex appeal. Someone is licking me; I turn to find the culprit, a normally well-behaved and mild-mannered friend of mine. For a club with a valid reputation for being a free-for-all, the weirdest thing about Posh, then, is all the security. There must be about 15 security guards prowling through the crowds, always in sight. Among other things, they're looking for people snogging, or grinding too enthusiastically, which seems out of keeping with the atmosphere of the place. I can't tell whose protection they're here for, although running a club like this is
undoubtedly risky business, so it perhaps makes sense that they might wanna keep salacious behaviour to a minimum. I wonder if they're gay or straight, because most of them have that overly buff look shared by the violently homophobic and the workout-obsessed homosexual beefcake. At least some of them are straight if the barefaced flirting they're doing with certain female members of our group is anything to go by. My friend responds defensively; flirting back to distract the guy’s gaze from two other friends trying to get cosy on the dancefloor. Most of the security guards are stoney-faced though, determined to ruin as much fun as possible. If anything's going to stop Posh becoming 'cool', it's got to be the music. It's horrible, unless you're into terrible, mind-numbing house and techno, which it appears lots of people are. Later in the night it turns from Western to Arabic dance, which is maybe marginally better. Overall it's the kind of music I might expect to be played at full volume bombing down the coastal highway in a minibus driven by a bunch of lads from Dahiyeh. I'm not really keen on liking stuff ironically, but my distaste for it makes me feel like a dick, since nobody else seems to have any complaints. I try and get into it for the spirit of things, although I have to draw the line at pretending to like that Avicii song, the nadir where everything bad about music in recent years has met. We leave around 4 am. Although the club hasn’t emptied at all, I’m old; my hedonism has a 4-hour time limit and I’m about to turn into a pumpkin. Beirut has a great reputation for its nightlife; deservedly so. But most of it, realistically, is the preserve of the few and borrows heavily from the international scene. Posh is none of that and it’s about as authentically Lebanese as you can get.
20 Featured Artist
Break Out Nesta walks a new path as Technophile
Featured Artist 21
N
abih Esta aka Nesta aka one half Beirut’s very own Ronin & Nesta is off to a pretty good start to the year. A few months after introducing his Technophile pseudonym, the DJ is already starting to make ripples in the international scene. A more techno-focused endeavor (as the name suggests) Technophile has already landed a release on Italian imprint Indepth and labels such as Blaq and Cuatro are beginning to take notice of to take notice of his dark, experimental groove sound. We caught up with the homegrown talent in his studio to discuss his latest release and what the future holds
AK: Congratulation on your new release on Indepth. Tells us a bit of the story behind how it came out. Thanks man! I actually already released an EP on Indepth more than a year ago, and the Italian guys behind the label (Genetikal Twins) believed in my music since day one and supported me in everything. The new one, entitledLe Plaisir, came out April 5, will be out April 5. It was done in my studio back when I was in London. To be honest, the day Le Plaisir was created, I wasn’t that inspired, so I decided to listen to an old Tangerine Dream record to change my ideas. When I reopened a project on Ableton later on that night, I recorded a 5 minute jam on the keyboard, and that’s how Le Plaisir’s hook was done. Later on, I wanted to include some French poetry in the record, and I remembered that I have some female samples from “Les Fleurs du mal” by Charles Baudelaire, so I added it and it gave a really sexy and sensual feeling to the track…
AK: Obviously you’re most well known in Beirut as
one half of Ronin & Nesta. What is different about you as a DJ/producer with Technophile?
The idea behind Technophile is to be able to play records that I usually can’t easily play in clubs, something that I can’t really do with Ronin & Nesta because the crowd already knows the product, and they are waiting for it, they are waiting for bangers in clubs. As for Technophile, the music is really different, more dubby and acid, experimental sometimes…in other words, with no boundaries at all. I can play at a really low bpm or I can play a record with no kick at all, and I will be enjoying it to the max and that’s what is important to me! As for the production side, same shit. The project has no limits in style, it goes from minimal to dub house and dub techno, techno, acid house or breaks, even some glitch and triphop.
AK: You recently spent some time in London. How did that influence the music you are playing and making now? I admit that London was the best thing that happened in my life, personally and professionally. I’ve always been a fan of music from the UK, from Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin to Porcupine Tree, from Joy Division to Happy Mondays, from Terry Francis to John Digweed… but the experience that I had there was just brilliant. I simply felt alive, I used to spend my days [going] from one record shop to another, meeting amazing people, listening to new records and talking about music… All these bits and pieces from the simple walks on the streets, the surroundings, the late night epiphanies, all of these little things really influenced me and helped shape my sound. To summarize, London vibes have definitely made a huge impact on me.
AK: How did it feel coming back to the scene in Beirut? It’s always a warm pleasure to come back home. I have to admit that during my eight months’ absence from Beirut, the scene has changed a lot. Electronic music parties have become a new trend in Beirut; parties have tripled and new promoters have made their appearance. I am not stating it in a bad way, on the contrary, competition is always healthy and challenging. The scene is rapidly increasing and what I actually love about it is the dynamism of the new generation and their education in electronic music. Ten years
ago, people were more into trance (don’t get me wrong about trance), and now they are appreciating dub, techno and house. We can say that the scene has evolved in that perspective.
AK: We’ve heard that you’re in the process of starting a label. Can you tell us a little about what that’s all about? Yup! That’s true. I wanted to have my own platform to be able to connect with people from all over the world and to express my vision through music production. The label will be called “Fantome de Nuit”, it will be a digital and vinyl label. The first releases are done, let’s hope the first EP [takes off] in the summer. Some names already scheduled are: Signal Deluxe, Lars Von Licht, Refresh, Ezequiel Esley … and trust me, what you will hear from this platform is going to be really special and unique.
AK: What can we expect from Technophile in the future? I will be starting an exclusive residency as Technophile starting June at the Gärten this summer! As from the production perspective, I have started many collaborations with artists… I’m actually working on an EP with Paul Loraine, another one with Andre Buljat, have signed four new tracks on a vinyl-only label… the sound is going to be very dubby, slow mo. I would classify it as acid dub but you can call it whatever you feel like. There’s also an EP coming out as Ronin & Nesta in collaboration with Ohm Hourani, including a Wareika remix… I feel that the future is going to be very fruitful and full of surprises, and I am really looking forward to it!
City:
Beirut, Lebanon
Label:
Indepth, Blaq, Cuatro
Website:
www.soundcloud.com/ iamtechnophile https://www.facebook.com/ TechnophileMusic
Essential Listening:
Rawthentic (Gunnar Stiller Remix) [Smiley Fingers] Trippin Alone [indepth] Des Tresses et Detresse (Technophile's Bipolar Mix) [Blaq] Daydreamer (Original) [Blaq]
22 Feature
Dressing down High fashion, low prices at Souk al-Ahad By: Abigail Hill
Feature 23
W
hen you think of Souk al-Ahad, good quality designer clothing might not be the first thing that comes to mind. But Beirut's busy Sunday (and Saturday) flea market, tucked away under a bridge in Sin el-Fil, holds a secret. Beneath the piles of used phone chargers, fake watches, religious paraphernalia and old kids’ toys lies a treasure trove of pure sartorial gems. All that’s required for souk success is a little determination, some selective tunnel vision and preferably as little a hangover as possible.
That's why I'm here one bright Sunday morning, armed with $20 and a challenge: find a banging head-to-toe outfit among the crap, suitable for a night out among Beirut’s typically sharply dressed clubgoers. I begin with my favorite lady, who sets up shop right by the entrance. Her stall is literally piles of old clothes on the sidewalk, but it’s where I have found some of my best pieces. As ever, on my approach, my lady starts handpicking items she hopes I might be into; a stellar personal styling effort that, though not unappreciated, leaves me wondering why she thinks I would want a nylon rainbow skirt-suit with immense shoulder pads. Sadly, her selection is sparse today, so I move on. One of the most overwhelming things about Souk al-
Ahad is the seemingly neverending amount of footwear, piled high on the floor. My biggest piece of advice to the souk-uninitiated would be to not turn your back on what is collectively a dirty smelly pile of old shoes, because within these odorous piles lie some true gems. Nike Air Max, New Balance and Vans poke out between the old worn running shoes. A pair of classic Doc Martens for LL5,000 calls my name. But here's the tragedy of the souk: just one half-size too small and shoes which once held such promise are rendered useless. Finding both the correct style and size is a challenge, but time and patience can reap rewards. Which leads on to my first purchase of the day – a gleeful find by my shopping companion – a pair of black high-top Reebok classics, my size. LL15,000 down.
24 Feature
With the shopping endorphins kicking in, we walk swiftly past the tragic animals-in-tiny-cages section and on to what can be described as full 2010-hipster heaven. Row upon row of plaid flannel, long-sleeve denim and geometric patterns. We find a beaut Yves Saint Laurent men’s button up and I snap up an oversized black silky blouse. Whilst the lack of changing rooms does provide a potential problem, you can’t really go wrong with a $3 shirt. As I continue to make my way round, now alone, everyone in the souk suddenly seems to be moving in the opposite direction to me. This makes getting around awkward. On one passageway congestion gets so bad we bottle-neck, all caught in limbo, unable to move either forward or back. I am firmly wedged
between a pot belly, a sweaty armpit and a lit cigarette, and am dimly aware of a small child by my legs. With some liberal elbow usage I am able to free myself from my the tangle of bodies. The market has been a steady commercial staple of Beirut for over 20 years, but with the recent influx of refugees from Syria, the number of market sellers and buyers has swelled, filling the area with jostling bodies and an unprecedented competition for space. Whereas two years ago you could find thirty vendors touting their goods in the outdoor area, there is now such an intense struggle for selling room that you have to climb over the mountains of bric-a-brac and squeeze through tables to move around.
Men and small boys stand on the stall tables, shouting at an unnecessarily high volume, advertising price and product. Some enterprising stallholders have created a recording of the set phrases, which plays obnoxiously through a crackly megaphone and only serves to make me scurry away in irritation. It makes me wonder how many shoppers you can entice by standing on a table and ringing a bell continuously while shouting 3SHRAT ALAAF 3SHRAT ALAAF for hours on end. The first signs of fatigue set in, but I must trudge on. There are piles and piles of clothes waiting to be waded through. What if I miss the perfect item? The threat looms large and spurs me on. It’s impossible to differentiate one pile of clothes from the other, and sometimes finding the one can feel like a futile mission. It’s important to listen to
Feature 25
your souk instinct on these matters and let your intuition guide you. Hanging in one of the stalls near the back I find a little pink camisole bodysuit which may or may not be intended as nightwear but I think could look nice with something high-waisted. LL2,000. On I continue, past the section of stolen iPhones, the old-man jeans and the many, many piles-of-randomcrap. I also pass the familiar buzz of my personal favorite – the tattoo section, where I learn they operate a strict no-photos policy. The rule seems harsh but I don’t argue with the large, angry-looking man enforcing it. The man getting it done appears unfazed by the clear violation of several hygiene codes and happy with the bleeding, dodgy interpretation of some person he knows on his chest.
I come out on to the covered area, a relative oasis of calm, relieved to no longer have 12 crotches pressing against me at any given time. Here I can browse peacefully, and there is even some sunlight. By now everything has started to look the same. I almost give up, but I wander into a stall where a man enthusiastically starts holding clothes up to my body, constantly proclaiming that everything is “ktir good, ktir good.” I am usually skeptical of such efforts, but now I can see the benefit of someone else perusing the piles, while I get to just stand there and watch what delights come from within. And yes! Our collaboration yields one pair of high-waisted black denim shorts and a sweet little striped blouse with gold buttons. LL5,000 each.
Congratulating myself on not experiencing a claustrophobia-induced panic attack, and now laden with an armful of clothes, I head home to put everything in a hot wash, satisfied that although I might not be the most glamorous girl at the club, there certainly won’t be anyone wearing the same thing as me. Until next week, Souk al-Ahad.
26 Tuneage
Tuneage Twenty Years of Wiggle
Don’t Be LeftOut
Fever
March 24th, 2014
April 28th, 2014
April 7, 2014
5/5 Reviewing mixes is alway such a weird task. It’s tough to place a rating on something that could become better or worse depending on where you’re listening to it. I don’t really know if Matt or Ryan planned for their mix to be listened to on my couch, but that’s what they’re getting. The mix starts out deep, groovy and pretty much perfect for the location. However by the time Gavin Herlihy’s “Was I Supposed To?” floats in I find myself considering trading my cup of tea for a bottle of gin. And once Huxley and Sam Russo’s “Don’t Understand” drops a few tracks later, I’ve already made plans to have a cheeky Thursday night out. Crosson’s slow-burning “Two One Three”, which comes in the mixes’ final chapter, is pretty much destined to be one of the biggest tracks of the summer. Oh, did I mention nearly all of the tracks are unreleased exclusives?
3/5 Turbo Records’ main man and avid supporter of wearing sunglasses at night, Tiga, teams up with Audion (aka Matthew Dear) for this infectious techno tune. After a few listens it’s not apparent whether this is the good kind of infectious or the kind that leads to a horrible, drawn out death, although the record has garnered early support from the likes of Duke Dumont, Sven Vath and Seth Troxler, none of whom have died. Built around a simple beat and a single vocal sample, the track keeps things pretty uncomplicated. Respite from the track’s monotony comes via remixes from Maetrik, Tom Trago, Acid Arab and Kink.
Various Artists Wiggle Records
4/5 Twenty years of anything is a pretty fucking good reason to celebrate, and the boys behind Wiggle seem to agree. Their Twenty Years of Wiggle EP, which dropped at the end of March, brings together Terry Francis, Nathan Coles and Eddie Richards for this milestone release. Coles teams up with David Coker for the first two tracks “Nastie Bizzness” and “Shifty Bizzness,” both of which are led by a grooving vocal sample and some signature saw wave bass. Terry Francis, under his Klunk + Zilly pseudonym, is up first on the B-side. “Dubup” is, as you might guess, driven by some dubbed out vocals and sub tones. The vocal can be a bit much at times, but overall the track holds its groove well. But it’s Eddie Richards’ “Duck Fat” that’s the standout track on the release. Stripped back and oozing classic house vibes, this one was built for the dance floor. Richards gets the vocal samples perfect to round off this solid release.
Matt Tolfrey Tiga vs. &Leftroom Ryan Crosson Audion Turbo
Tuneage 27
GARDEN OF EDEN EP
TECHNOPHILE indepth April 3, 2014
4/5 Technophile is the noms de dance of one Nabih Esta, aka Nesta, aka one half of Beirut selectors Ronin & Nesta. His new EP on Italian imprint Indepth features three original tracks and another Beirut favourite, Andre Buljat, on remix duties. The title track is a minimal, almost ambient slow burner. “Trippin Alone” takes a darker, more hypnotic twist. Combining hard bass melodies with drowned out vocal choruses, the track would sound at home on one of Beirut’s dark dancefloors. Buljat’s take on “Tripping Alone” peels back some of the darkness from the original and injects an upbeat acid vibe into the mix. This old school take on a current sound really makes the track pop. Finally “Le Plasir” introduces another side of technophile. Its almost progressive vibes are held together by a sexy, uplifting vocal.
Happy New Year
Paris With a K
March 18, 2014
April 5, 2014
Etyen self-released
4/5 The dreamy debut EP of homegrown talent and producer ETYEN (aka Samer Etienne Chami) is a mechanized breath of fresh air in a city of humdrum tunes. The EP flirts with glimmering glitches and synths, creating a haunting effect. The opening track, "Autumn", a daze of dual vocals, elegantly chimes with a host of finely placed sounds, finishing off with what sounds like a star-showered whale dance. The track takes hints of oriental harmonies, expands them, and translates them into tangy, atmospheric rhythms. "Not Alone" features soothing vocals that inhale and exhale alongside simple piano chords and percussions. The slightly sinister elements of "Make Me Wholesome" create a glitched-up Massive Attack effect, followed by brain-poking intergalactic slivers of sounds. This shit's the shit.
Salah One28 Recordings 3/5 Apparently the product of a studio session after a Time Warp weekender, Paris With a K is the sixth release on the Dubai based label. The EP features a single track with remixes from Paris-based Jeff K and Lebanese selectors Ronin & Nesta. The original mix and Jeff K’s remix sound strikingly similar. A mildly upbeat house tune with a warm feeling and groove, the original mix is packed with some clever drum programing. Jeff K looks to strip the mix down a bit and add some keys, but in the end the result really isn’t strong enough to stand on its own. The EP’s final remix attempts to guide it in a slightly different direction. Ronin & Nesta make good use of the vocal sample and give the entire mix a bit of a kick. Definitely still more of a warm-up track, but it does stand out against the other two on the release.
28 The Review
The e Review
very month The Review looks to tackle a different facet of human existence. This month: the late night munchies. While New Yorkers have their late night slice, Londoners their own variant of the kabob and the Germans their currywurst, Beirut is awash with late night dining options.
I can already hear the purists groaning in disdain for giving a convenience store a shout, but Hibou has earned its place right up there with the big boys, so shove a shawarma in it and pipe the fuck down. Delivery 24/7, relatively fast and ultimately reliable, Hibou is has your back in your hour of need. Horrible American cereals? Check. Booze? Of course. A cheeky bottle of lube? Sure; not really a food item, but I hear they now come flavored so why not. If it’s loaded with saturated fats, MSG, or E-numbers, Hibou supplies it. They even sell ice and you know that every after party since the existence of time has needed ice. I know this is starting to sound more like an advert than a review, but in all honesty Hibou is just that great. Insider tip: If Fadi is working the night shift (and he always is) make sure to ask for an “Hibou surprise.”
Hibou Hotel-Dieu 01-339-305
Barbar Hamra/Spears 01-753-330
What more can one say about the place that won CNN’s Best Kabob In The World thing or whatever? Nothing much, other than that I’ve definitely had a better kabob. But let’s try anyway. A Beirut staple and the only dining establishment where I’ve had a man wank at me in the queue, the place does make some pretty fucking great food. Personal favourites include the cheese rolls, the chicken schwarma (obviously) and you’ve just gotta love the prison tray. Barbar (Hamra at least) gets a special shout for having a 24-hour bathroom – essential – and a 24-hour booze shop around the corner. The food is cheap and greasy, which is all you want when you’re mashed at half four with some girl or boy whose name you only kind of remember. The only downside is its location in Hamra, because who the fuck goes there anymore.
The Review 29
BTooto B many places 01-JUST-SAY-NO
This is probably one of the worst places that I’ve ever had the disservice of dining at. If you like things that taste like plastic versions of the things they’re meant to taste like, then you would probably fucking love it. However, I tend to prefer things that taste like food so I’m going to go ahead and advise you to stay away. If you do find yourself somehow transported here at some godforsaken hour and the only choice you have is to eat something or die, avoid something called the Tunasso like the bubonic plague. Apparently the bubonic plague is actually a thing again and if you had it, I reckon the Tunasso could kill it. But no plague, no Tunasso. Seriously.
Hot dogs, those magical rolls of compressed meat that possibly have more in common with chipboard than anything naturally edible, are only acceptable when it’s getting on to 5am and you’ve drunk enough for a small wedding. Charlie’s are pretty fucking good. They’re cooked on a grill, which makes everything better, and the meat tastes less compressed wood, more compressed cow. Arafat, the Egyptian bloke serving them up, is really smiley and he almost always wears gloves. He’s also got a heavy right hand, which really plays into you favour if you’re a fan of topping off your hot dog with a solid helping of processed cheese. One of these bad boys will also only set you back a mere 5k and that’s what I call a win.
Charlie’s Hot Dogs Gemayze/Hamra 03-446-346
30 das komic
das komic 31
RIP FRANKIE KNUCKLES January 18, 1955 – March 31, 2014