Preview: the week ahead (27th Jan - 2nd Feb)

CTM festival has already started and is still going on throughout the week. It features some amazing acts, musicians, installations and lectures but there’s also other noteworthy music happening in Berlin as well.

Monday

• Felix Kubin w/ Mitch & Mitch + Warm Graves at NK: Felix Kubin whom we featured here more than once is going to release a new record calles “Bakterien & Batterien” together with Mitch & Mitch which they will present at NK this night. Prepare for some interesting and sophisticated electro music. Support will be Warm Graves from Leipzig, whom you might have seen last summer when they opened for Circle. They play psychedelic lo-fi guitar pop.
• Phill Niblock + Eli Keszler + Valerio Tricoli + Zinc & Copper Works at HAU2: As part of the CTM festival this is one of the most interesting events taking place for me. The three musicians will all perform solo as well as collaborating in different constellations. The event is called De Tune for a reason, this is pretty experimental and none of the artists rely on conventional song structures or patterns. Phill Niblock, known as a minimalist composer of electronic music, plays sophisticated drone music. Eli Keszler is an amazing percussionist and drummer. He’ll present an installation and live music thereafter. Valerio Tricoli is an Italian musician, focussing on experimental electronic music using old analog equipment. He’s part of the PAN label family. Check out CTM festival’s website for more info.

Wednesday

• Steve Gunn & Band at Monarch: Besides being known as the guitar player for Kurt Vile, Steve Gunn also plays amazingly interesting solo music. He combines great guitar skills with beautiful song structures and melodies, including folky tunes and intense lyrics. He’ll be supported by a whole band, so I suppose this will sound a bit like in the video below. Perfectly fitting to Monarch’s series of interesting folk/guitar music.

Thursday

• Mo Leen + Vow at Schokoladen: A nice night at Schokoladen presented by La Moustache. Vow play their first Berlin show. They do quirky but still very melodic indie pop with some electro and experimental elements. Also playing will be Mo Leen who plays intense singer songwriter music with just guitar and voice.
• Adam Green at Babylon Mitte: Unfortunately already sold out, but still: An Adam Green acoustic show at Babylon cinema sounds like a nice one.
• 100% Chevalier + mOck + Gift at Marie Antoinette: 100% Chevalier from Strasbourg play a psychedelic mix of Noiserock and groovy Math-rock elements. Think of bands like Maserati and similar. Support will be two Berlin bands, mOck will play their jazzy indie-post something and Gift play something like Grunge Noise.