John
90 minutes. 90 tracks. 13 exclusives. These are the vital statistics of Ostgut Ton’s latest DJ mix release Berghain 09. Curated and mixed by relatively new Berghain resident Vatican Shadow (Dominick Fernow), the mix is part field recording, part industrial, part noise, all underpinned by a foreboding techno sound:
“My interest in DJing developed naturally out of industrial music traditions such as mail art, tape trading, and sound collage. While this mix, of course, does not solely focus on cassettes, they were used as the bridge between the seemingly disparate areas and cross-sections of underground electronic edits you will find sewn together from diverse factions to create a sonic ‘cut up’. Accordingly, the artists featured with exclusive tracks span several continents and generations of electronic music subculture, from the birth of industrial in the UK and the rhythmic loops of Japanese noise, to the raw collision of genres found in the NYC underground. Berghain 09 is a tribute to the techno mixtapes that influenced me during my introduction to raves and dance music in the 90s.”
Listen here:
What sets this mix apart from the hundreds of DJ mixes uploaded to Soundcloud each day is, as we’ve seen twice before, Ostgut Ton’s attention to quality.
Click the Soundcloud download button and we find ourselves rewarded with a 24bit/48kHz version of Fernow’s mix. In DJ mix circles, lossless downloads are like hen’s teeth; that casts hi-res downloads as dolphins tears.
And for those thirsting for liner notes, the Berghain 09 release page offers up 300dpi images and a .pdf.
A double 12″ vinyl release accompanies the mix for those wanting to get physical with Berghain 09 and dig deeper into a smaller selection of its composite parts, including a single side (D) of locked grooves:
A1. Genesis P-Orridge – Ritual Music [1:31 min]
A2. Virile Games – Black Iron Prison [4:48 min]
A3. Los Angeles Death Cult – El Culto De Los Angeles De La Muerte [6:00 min]
B1. Ron Morelli – Colts Neck [6:41 min]
B2. Volvox – Becoming [7:04 min]
C1. JK Flesh – Decontrol [5:55 min]
C2. Alberich – Werkstatt [5:19 min]
D1. Ugandan Methods | Prurient – Venom Timetables [4:13 min]
D2. Merzbow – Loop 1 [1:02 min]
D3. Merzbow – Loop 2 [0:54 min]
D4. Merzbow – Loop 3 [0:54 min]
D4. Merzbow – Loop 4 [0:59 min]
D6. Genesis P-Orridge – One Being, One Orientation, One Power [2:56 min]
Further information: Berghain 9
[Photo credit: Sven Marquardt]
