Welcome to the fourth edition of my mail-outs. This instalment comes a little earlier than usual since I wanted to let everyone know that there are two events coming up that I will attend because I have to.
On April 25th, I’ll play an hour-long DJ set at the first evening of Wolke Verlag and Free Music Production’s three-day Spring Fest at FMP1. There’s no entry fee, but there’ll be some live performances and you can buy a whole lotta books and records, too. More info, timetable, etc. over at Wolke Verlag’s Instagram.
On April 26th, I’ll be doing a Q&A with Martina Bertoni at Berlin’s After following a listening session with her stunning new album »Electroacoustic Works For Halldorophone« on Karlrecords.
And as usual, please find a—this time, very brief—overview of my recent articles and radio features as well as a sort of recommendation rant below. Again I specifically point it out if a piece is available in an official or my own English translation.
+++++ Stuff That I Wrote (or Said on the Radio)
— Different actors from the music industry are suing different AI companies. Is this Napster all over again? No, not at all—at least not in my view. In the latest instalment of my Quartalsbericht column for DJ LAB, I argue that the main difference is that this time around, the industry has a strategy.
— Germany is getting a new government. A day after the new CDU (right-wing) and SPD (right-wing but pretending not to be) announced the first major points of their coalition deal, I talked with Boussa Thiam over at DLF’s Kompressor about the single sentence dedicated to the protection of the country’s club scene. Long story short: don’t get your hopes up yet.
— Franco Battiato would have turned 80 years old on the 23rd of March, so I wrote a profile on Il Maestro for HHV-Mag (English / German). Due to some silly reasons, the piece came out a little later, but … who cares, right? This is eternal stuff.
+++++ One Recommendation
I have the strangest relationship with Lungfish. They are definitely my favourite Dischord band and possibly one of my favourite bands of all time. But I’ve only heard a fraction of all the releases they have put out since 1990 after discovering them some 15+ years ago. Back then I downloaded two or three albums and bought one at Bis aufs Messer, to this day one of Berlin’s best record stores, and ever since I just have been occasionally thinking about them, going back to these albums or maybe find one that I haven’t heard and take it home with me. Listening to a record that I previously haven’t known always feels like getting an out-of-the-blue phone call from a friend with whom I rarely talk but who I know will be there until the very end. It’s a rare thing to happen, which is precisely why I appreciate it so immensely. When Bis aufs Messer announced that they had stocked represses of the »10 East« 7” and the »ACR 1999« LP, I picked them up immediately. While I was there, I told Norman from Bis aufs Messer about my serendipitous relationship with Lungfish, and he said something that stuck with me: »I’m so jealous of you because you still have that experience of listening to so many of their albums for the first time ahead of you.« I think that’s one of the most wholesome things anybody’s ever said to me and perfectly describes what I love about my strange relationship with this band. Since then, I’ve been back once more to pick up something else and took a copy of »Pass and Stow« with me, and I think it’s possibly my favourite Lungfish release next to »The Unanimous Hour.« Those two should serve as great entry points into their oeuvre, though honestly you cannot trust me on this—after more than one and a half decades of being a fan, I don’t even know half of this band’s discography. Maybe one day I will, but I’m more about the journey than the destination anyhow.