BC042 - Five Mixes: HÖR Berlin, August 2023

Techno, a dab of Goa trance, and a few words about the imbroglio.

Slam (screenshot via YouTube)

Obviously, you can’t hear everything. And since my newsletter listening is tied so closely to SoundCloud most of the time, I miss lots of things from Mixcloud and YouTube and HearThis.At alike. Here, I’ve decided to rectify this tendency and be up to date for once (that won’t last long, as you’ll see in upcoming editions), and also to finally spend some quality time in the most famous bathroom in clubland today, maybe in club history. This one’s for the paying readers. That will become more common around these parts, just FYI. Thanks for understanding.

Before that, though: In the time between conceiving of and finishing this post, HÖR put its foot right the fuck in it (phrasing deliberate, be assured) by canceling an upcoming DJ Assault performance: “As an organization committed to promoting inclusivity and diversity,” they felt it necessary to return their offer to play because of “feedback and concerns . . . regarding specific content on your social media platforms.” As many, many people have already commented, the kind of obviously comic exaggeration of dirty words that Assault specializes in as a DJ wouldn’t have caused many people to look sideways at it had a white Berliner played the same tracks. It’s absurd on its face. As a commenter on Assault’s IG post (linked above) put it: “Canceling an outspoken Black artist with a massive discography in the name of inclusivity has to be one of the funniest plays of all time.”