What to wear at a techno club?

Wear whatever you want, as long as it's black.

Techno music is founded on the principle of it being open to everyone without discriminating. It has an anti elitist stance which explains wearing black as it has a history of being the color of the people. The other reason for black is the fact that a lot of techno music has a dark, sci-fi and dystopian feel to it and wearing a black outfit matches that feeling.

The things you need to do to get into a club.

Wearing black clothes distances you from the hyper-commercial EDM "techno" neon outfits, which is in bad taste for an original techno club. So be toned down, too cool to dress up kind of way. Greys and whites can also be added to the mix and when you pick your shoes, make sure you can dance 12 hours straight as the music is the most important.

Techno Kit 001 T-shirt.

Black is a beautiful tone and it gives you the possibility to pair one type of black with another. A great combination is glossy vs matte black. It's one of the reasons we created the Alex Wulf Techno Kit which is a series of black clothes and accessories for a techno night. Things that are useful for a club night, all in black. The beanie will follow shortly. If you are interested in getting one, then write to Alexwulfmusic(a)gmail(.)com

Have a great night!

My new Bambi Bass music video

Enjoy my new video, shot in Berlin this summer.

See you soon!

#191 Berlin - Freak Carneval

I don't believe there is anything in the whole earth that you can't learn in Berlin except the German language. - M.Twain

Berlin is a dirty city and it's filled with all sorts of freaks, that's what makes it interesting. This Saturday we ended up a punk club called Rauchhauskeller. They had the most interesting ticket security feature I have encountered. They painted a nail of the visitor green. People were dancing to the wall of speakers while the techno Dj was behind them. The beer cost an euro and the entrance was 3-5€. We also ventured next door to a strange garden thing. I can't even begin to describe it.

The two of the rarest creatures ever caught on a
photo - an unicorn and a photographer.

From Friday to Monday the Karneval Der Kulturen took place. We made it down on Sunday.  Enjoy the photos of the outfits, cosplay and street fashion. There were endless cars with different groups who identified themselves by their nationality or interests.
People were dancing, mingling and drinking various festive drinks. There were also a selction of local street foods, we went for some Samosas which I had in Barcelona last time. The locals took part by throwing water from their balconies, considering it was 30+ degrees outside, it was a good thing.

The punk club. I was too tired to look for a person
to ask if photos were okay so I just snapped some shots.
Look there's an unicorn.

Next door to the punk club there was the garden party. We had to make our way
through a maze of old cars and wagons and then we saw a surreal stage
with music and old hippies dancing.

The japanese cosplay paraders, who could have just wandered
around freely, instead of being in the rope cage.

Balloons were a must and there were some funny incidents that
I witnessed but couldn't really capture.

There was a popular group of four or five spidermen, one of them had to be the
black spiderman, I guess the shop had run out of the red ones
and he was the last one there.

People were sitting and doing other stuff where ever, no one cared.

Against all odds, this was the guy playing the hardest techno,
with the tibetian girls serving food next to him.

Some people just took their paints with them and painted their friends at the
festival. The guy looking at the camera was pretty much the only one
I asked for a photo.

The Sri Lankans.

It was okay if you forgot your wig, you could buy everything you needed from right there.

Neon was the safest dress code.

On the edge of the festival I discoverd this guy
and dug his style. He is wearing Adidas winged sneakers.

See you next week.

#190 Gretchen-Stattbad-Berghain-About Blank-Sisyphos

Happy birthday to Dj 4-got-10!

This week was the busiest one yet and I have never had this much to write to a single post. As it's forbidden to take photos in clubs and I didn't want to get thrown out the first time I was let in, I didn't take photos on the inside.

Gretchen was the only club were photos were allowed.
They did ask people not too use flash, but the students
did it anyway.

On Wednesday we accidentally went to a student party. We got info that there was a party in Gretchen. I had barely missed Denzel Curry playing there and so I wanted to check out the place as many others of my favorites had played there as well. On the way there we asked two girls at the line of the ATM how to get there. They gave us directions, but worriedly asked us if we had bought tickets already. It was supposed to be a packed party.

The vibe in the Gretchen. Most of club photos would turn out
like this anyway I guess, so no biggie.

We got in and got the ticket. Then we spent some time in there listening to a crap Dj who was mixing everything together and if we had been playing my "When a bad Dj is mixing" drinking game, then we would have gotten very drunk. After a while of spending time with the all German crowd (which rarely happens in a club over here) we left to get some beer and food. We ended up at Mustafa's Gemüse Kebab which is supposed to be the #2 best kebab in Berlin. I too can recommend it.

Mustafa's Gemüse Kebab had a really long line, but good food and service.

On Friday our guests arrived from Denmark and Estonia.
We decided to go to Stattbad's "Grounded Theory 28" to start our weekend, so the plan was almost the same as last week. A little wine, jaegger-club mate aka turbo mate and beer and  off we went. To our surprise there was a face-check at the door and the two guys before us were turned away. Nonetheless we were waved in. We were patted through and our pockets were shamelessly emptied. To the question if I knew it was forbidden to take photos inside I nonchalantly replied "Yes I know, like everywhere in Berlin". We set out to find the live by Teste that had already started, but in the end it proved an impossible task.

The guests have arrived and are celebrating their reunion.

Stattbad's "Grounded Theory 28" Line-Up:

Tommy Four Seven (These Hidden Hands, CLR)
Teste – live (Plus 8 Records)
Sigha (Our Circula Sound, Avian)
Milton Bradley (Grounded Theory, K209)
Jon Hester (EDEC Music)

On Tuesday we went to a house warming and ended up at the attic
because we didn't know which apartment it was at.

On Saturday we went to sleep at 8 in the morning, then got up at 2 and went to the park. In the evening we decided to have a powernap which ended up lasting for full 8 hours. Well they say Berghain is the best on Sunday anyway.

Resting in a bush after dancing to techno in Stattbad.

As our tradition we spent a part of the Sunday at the Mauer Park mini festival, taking in all the outfits, sounds and smells. For a while we were considering what to do, but as everyone tells you about the magical part of Sunday is Berghain we decided to go for it. We also knew a person who was already in and who could maybe facilitate the entry.

The house of Berghain after we didn't get in. As you see there's another three
girls trying to decide whether to go for it.

We met the friend who came out of Berghain. Together we made our way towards the massive building passing a somewhat less massive hardware shop. After a minor adjustment to look more Berghainian and maybe even Berlinian, as it was Sunday evening already. We snaked between the queue barriers with the lazy eye of the bouncers on us. The two guys in front of us were let in and then it was our turn. Our guide from the inside told the guys that he had come out to meet us and we all want to go back in to have fun. The bouncer (who was not the legendary Sven) denied us entry to the techno wunderland. Defeated we retreated to regroup.

The only place in a club where you can do anything is the toilet: sex, drugs
and all sorts of photos.

Our guide quickly did some smartphone magic and found out that about blank was close by. I kind of remembered that their door policy might have been compared to the one at Berghain. We decided to check it out nonetheless. It took a Ubahn and a walk to get there. At the door we were greeted by another bouncer. He eyed us and asked if we knew what the line up for the night was. We didn't and frankly I had always had the impression that Berliners mostly just choose the venue that best fits their mood without paying too much attention to who is playing techno. He refused to let us in

Enjoying the evening at Kotbusser Dam

Our third choice and chance was Sisyphose, which was another 30 minutes of walking. Clown posters and murderous cyclists were our only companions. Our guide did all the talking in German as we got to the bouncers. They however turned to us and harshly spoke something at us. It later turned out that we were told that we looked sad. All things considered this wasn't a big surprise.

The gates of Sisyphos that had fire bursting out from their top side every once and a while.
Our guide takes being refused entry seriously.

The girls who still had the stamps from last night were also turned down as they said: "No foreigners, this is our night to party". We got back on the Ubahn and two of us continued towards Rosenthaler's bars while the other two went back to try Berghain. I later heard that our friend got in after trying three times in 2 hours.

The spätkauf windowshopping. 

We had a beer and the world's worst muffin at the Späti. Then went to Meih Haus am See to get our dose of music. To my friends big surprise, the Chinese Dj she had met last night after Sisyphose and who had done her zodiac on the spot was there and about to go on. We hung there and then headed for home. I managed to get lost at the same place as always and ended up asking the polizei for directions.

See you soon.

#189 Fail: How to not get to a Berlin club

This is a cautionary tale of Berlin

Welcome back,
If you like posts with detailed stories written out like in this one, then press the like button up here so I know next time.

To make up for not telling you the nights out stories in the last post and the one before, I took my time to give you a full report of last Saturday night, which wasn't special in other way than that the fact that nothing much happened. It could be called a fail. It is however a good account of how time disappears in Berlin, we went through 8 hours as it was nothing.

There's always something to see on the walls.

This weekend we decided to go to a club. The only available night for us was the Saturday and so we chose that. We met up at Kotbusser Tor at eleven pm and decided it was too early for a club and we should hit the bars first to go to a club later. The first stop was a bar on Oranienstrasse, which is quite a good street for going to a bar and I have witnessed more action here than at the Kreutzberg area (feel free to disagree with this in the comments).

Enjoying the park and beer.

We went to a bar I had spotted last weekend, but hadn't gone in yet. When buying beer the standard "also pay the DJ with the 1st drink" rule applied. We reluctantly accepted our stamps as we had planned to only stay for one drink and the DJ was playing some boring reggae or something else. The bar was packed and after circling it we found a sitting place on a ledge. Soon after sitting down I was asked to take a photo of the girls and a boy at the table next to us. They were using the "small" Fuji instax that prints out the photo straight away. It was a fun toy, but it takes forever for the photo to appear on the paper. It took significantly less time for a waitress to appear and to tell me it was forbidden to take photos, I forwarded her to the owner of the camera. This didn't faze them at all and as the waitress left they took a photo of us too and handed it to me, saying that it's very expensive.

The expensive Instax photo of us in that bar.

Soon after that we continued on. We had to decide between Berghain, Stattbad, About Blank, Louche and Renate. As Stattbad had Elektro Guzzi and Cassegrain playing lives and it was really close to our home we decided to go for that. We agreed that the night wasn't right for the Berghain line. We still had a bottle of bubbly to chug and we decided to take everything from being in the south before we headed back towards the calmer north. I managed to storm a rock bar only to discover it had a ticket when I backed out of there ten minutes later. We spent some time sitting in a park and tried out an obnoxious Australian accent we had heard on the street.

The bar where everyone drinks their own drinks.

We then continued to a bar in Kotbusser Tor where I was told it's "okay" to go there with your own drink. We got to a random door opened it and pushed a side the thick dark curtains. Inside there were people sitting and smoking on furniture made of wooden storage pallets. Old monitors were used as interior design and the vibe was strange. We finished our drinks in there and continued on to look for something more vibrant. By then it was around 3 am.

Rosenthaler platz bar.

We got the Ubahn to Rosenthaler platz at 3:30 to see if it had more action than the nights before. We stopped by a Spätkauf and got a couple of Sternburgs and Peeter whipped out a pair of sandwiches from his backpack. You see he had come straight from work and there were some catering sandwiches left over as he left. So we enjoyed the sandwiches and beer outside of the Späti and tried to out talk the loud Spaniard youths sitting at the next table. Needless to say we lost that competition.

Sandwiches are a good alternative to kebab...

So we continued further at around 4:30 am. I remembered from the internet that there was supposed to be Trust bar on Torstrasse. It turned out that internet was a senile liar and the bar had since moved. We found a bar with a mirror door on the way, which seemed to only let in models. As we approached the door a random looking woman denied us entrance because of Peeter's work clothes, which weren't dirty, just worn. We continued on to Chelsea bar and wanted to check if this was the night when someone would actually be there. Yet again we were denied entrance, this time because of his steel tip boots. I knew I looked fine, because just ten minutes ago a passing stranger had complimented my shirt to me. As I had mentally prepared myself to get turned down by Sven at Berghain, these random bars didn't hurt more than a mosquito bite after a broken arm.

...kebab is a good alternative to sandwiches...

So we continued on towards Stattbad and watched the dawn near the Berlin wall at 5:17am. As our home was on the way, Peeter insisted that he could leave his backpack and change clothes before we go to Stattbad to start a fresh. We left our place at around 6 and headed towards the club. On the way I stopped a couple of girls and asked them about the state of the party. They told us that everyone was leaving and it was pretty much over. We were somewhat disappointed.

...all in all there's food lying everywhere.

Once we arrived there at 6:30 we were still asked to pay the full cover fee, the two live shows were over and the last Dj was about to go on. Didn't seem like it was worth it. So we went to check out Panke across the street. It was closed, but someone was having a party in the house next to it. We tried our luck on crashing it, but after ten minutes of looking for the right door, we realized they were already cleaning up the party. At that point the bed seemed like the best private club for me. Peeter still insisted on going to club Humboldthain and we split ways.

One of the last things I saw when I went home.

From 7 I slept till 11 to perfectly hit a sleep cycle and possibly go to Club Der Visionaere or another Sunday morning after party, possibly an Open Air. We however only had the energy to go to the Mauer park fleamarket, which was packed full because it was a beautiful day. The sun, a friend from England and Club Mate made the perfect Sunday.

See you,

#188 stories of Berlin

Welcome back
Another busy week has passed in Berlin. As usual I make music and play ping pong every day and we walk in the parks when it's sunny and during night time we go to bars and eat döner kebabs. Instead of one big story I'll give you the mini stories with every photo from this week.

After a hard night of work, the best thing is to have a beer in the sun at Humboldthain park.

Jaan Toomik opened his video and painting exhibition this week in Berlin.

Trying on baggage for size at the display window.

Some CSI type of car accident around Hermannplatz.

Finding Admiralbrücke in Kreuzberg and enjoying the vibe until the police came over and kindly asked
us all to leave the bridge with the moderate noise, because the people had paid good money
to live with silence in the flats on the side of the bridge.

Late night drive through shopping on a rainy night.

Meeting people from New York when admiring her jewelry. She was
similarly enthused when I told her she would be on an Estonian
night life blog. This all happened outside of a spätkauf 
on Oranienstrasse.

The vicious alligators in the Neptunbrunnen.

Neptunbrunnen night dip.

See what happened last week or
See you soon!

#187 Neukölln night

Hey welcome back,
Another busy week has passed in Berlin.

I love places like this, with the postered walls and the lighting.

First of all I finished the remix for Käärkäsi's track "Without You" and here's a part of it for you. It's somewhat dark and melancholic, so be prepared. Don't worry there will be summery tracks soon as well. The whole track should be released soon, it's not up to me.

I'll keep it short for words for this post and let the photos tell the night's story.

On the East side of Berlin, not far from us, there's a bar called Old CCCP.

The graffiti in Berlin's toilets form a kind of an aesthetic pattern.

Invite only event for the "culture people", launch of a magazine.

We also saw a film shoot involving a bunch of people getting into a white stretch limo.

The lights on the way were captivating, especially  after rain.

Modelling on the way to Neukölln with whatever we find.

Watching the early dawn from a new friend's Neukölln balcony.

Friends from Estonia made it.

A picturesque view.

At the market waiting for the local guide.

Click here to see more nights from Berlin.
See You soon!