In its familiar format CTM, the well-established festival for club culture returned this year. Some of Berlin's finest sound systems, including the ones at Berghain, RSO, and HAU2, have once again been selected to host electronic and experimental music acts from around the world. Anna Grubauer reflects on a week of inspiration, surprises, and lack of sleep.
For two days in late November, the music-discursive event Territory Disrupt gathered various artists and researchers at SOMA Art Space Berlin. The concerts and discussion rounds focussed on the topic of cultural imperialism and artistic work in times of war. Music and cultural production are ways of fighting oppression and inspire solidarity and resistance. Anna Grubauer entered this space for exchange and discourse and shares impressions from the artistic interventions and discussion rounds.
The notable showcase festival ESNS gives upcoming artists the opportunity to display their talents in the Dutch city Groningen and if in luck, be booked for festival giants like Rock am Ring, Glastonbury, Primavera or The Great Escape. Ahead of the new edition, Anna Stich selected eight female(-fronting) acts who have made the most out of their performance at ESNS.
The renowned Pitchfork Festival series has at last reached our German capital (and NBHAP headquarter) so we took the opportunity to catch up with Bay Area’s ravishing indie outfit Fake Fruit and New York City-based synth-pop-trio Nation Of Language to talk about the euphoria of live music, post-pandemic music industry and their budding pop careers. Time for an introduction.
The term Pop is slippery like water. Its wide range exceeds definition yet it is used ubiquitous. Shaped by a hegemonic discourse, what is considered pop often moves within a narrow realm. Berlin's alternative pop festival, Pop Kultur, questions the definition of pop and the tastemakers by curating an inclusive, diverse, and critical line up of artists and speakers at their eighth edition earlier this year.
Get to know some of the most exciting new bands from Italy at the third edition of La Festa. The showcase takes place on 21st of September at Hamburg's Reeperbahn Festival and features the bands Her Skin, Qlowski, and KOKO. Ahead of their show, each band shared ten songs from their home country with us. The La Festa playlist gives a little taste of the past, present, and future of Italy's versatile music scene.
The Neukölln label has become a place where alternative pop artists from the German capital and beyond can bloom, and a symbol of a sound embedded in the city's music scene. We spoke to founder Anton Teichmann, and some of their artists, to talk the past, present and future of Mansions & Millions.
Rants about Spotify and their questionable practices as the top dog of the streaming industry have become an established tradition of pop-cultural criticism, but rarely do comments lead to action. Following up on the Joe Rogan conflict with the Swedish company, NBHAP co-head Andreas caught up with musician and activist Joel Jerome from the "Union Of Musicians And Allied Workers" to find out more on the organisation and how to get involved.