#beatguide

[thekais77]

[clubub]

collection of artists and sets we like. mostly from berlin venues.

[beatguide]

OFF Week 2013 Barcelona | Part #2

It is thursday night half past midnight and we arrive to the East Ender Festival. Next to the neighbouring recycling factory beautifully lit, the busy entrance looks quite magic.

The “East Ender” spreads on two nights, three stages and thousands of visitors each night. When we arrive, Marcel Dettmann is playing on the CLR techno stage. Chris Liebing is next and welcomes us with a smile. The stage will be then closed by the young techno talent Tommy Four Seven.

We catch Valentino Kanzyani at the “Cadenza” stage for a short interview. Valentino, truthfully called “the founding father of Slovenian techno”, is also always a joy to talk as thanks to his cheerful and entertaining mood.

Beatguide: There are many festivals around the world at the moment. Yet there are still very many people who come to Sonar and the OFF Week. Why is that?

Valentino Kanzyani: Maybe because it is in Barcelona and Barcelona is a very beautiful city. And it has everything.. open air areas, bars, beaches, clubs. And every 5m there is a restaurant or a bar. Barcelona is very entertaining. And very convenient.

Beatguide: Any party tips that you would like to give us?

Valentino Kanzyani: Yes, last year there was a great party with Zip, Portable and Thomas Melchior. And this year Zip is coming back with Ricardo Villalobos. And there are of course the small label parties which I always recommend because they enrich the scene of the OFF Week.

Friday

After a quick trip back to Hotel Silken Ramblas at the “Reverse” rooftop pool party with Andrea Oliva, Cristian Varela, Danny Serrano, Technasia and many more, and with as much as twice as many people than the day before, we head to Parc del Forum to the “Save the Day” party.

The Forum has a powerful history – it was built on the site of the Camp de la Bota, a prison camp during the Franco regime and where prisoners were shot on the beach until 1952. The Forum stands for multispace and it is used for all the big celebrations in Barcelona such as the “Primavera Sound”. It is very kind from the city Council to offer this massive space as a recipient for OFF Week parties. With a top lineup from Juan Atkins, Lone, Nathan Fake, Untold, Wolf & Lamb and Space Dimension Controller, we leave satisfied towards the East Ender festival.

We arrive at the East Ender for the second festival night. On the “Diynamic” stage we finally we catch up with Solomun who points us to the Berliner young talent – David August. Solomun saw his potential and did not hesitate to ask David to join his label. David kindly agrees to share with us some secrets of the depth of his livesets.

Beatguide: You were the DJ who opened the “Diynamic” label stage. How do you prepare the crowd for the night when you are the first DJ? 

David August: I try to make music in an honest way. For the people who don’t know me, I try to play music that they don’t expect. I like to surprise them.

Beatguide: There must be a lot of hype around you before and after your gig. How do you bring yourself in front of the crowd in that honest state you were just talking about?

David August: I think you have do be very self-confident and do what you want. Because if you are not, then you will become a product of what people want. Of course you must interact with the crowd and feel them, but you must be the one guiding them, and you must know what you want to say.

Saturday

On Saturday we celebrate another day and night on the El Prat beach at the beautiful “Chiringuito Maravillas” beach bar location.

The“Spanish Unit” party is a concept that stands for giving the decks to national DJs  - Uner, Dosem, Henry Saiz, Los Suruba, Ramiro Lopez, Triumph, One D, Simon Garcia and Ivan Picazo. We finally get to see Uner at the decks. He starts his set with an endless reverb to raise the decibels of the party until the first beat comes in. It goes without saying that it was probably one of the most inspiring parties, facilitated by the romantic location and the straightforward Spanish happy-mood music perfectly combined the blue sea, the sunset, the sunrise, the night stories and the friends.

Sunday

On Sunday, the last day of OFF Week, we go again to the beach, this time to Sant Adria de Besos for the “20 years of Kompakt” party. With DJ Koze and Michael Mayer as headliners, 5000 people are there dancing and it is almost impossible to get another meter ahead. The sunrise arrives again and we witness the end of the OFF Week 2013 with an emblematic track Gat Decor – Passion.

We would like to give a big Thank you to the artists for bearing with us and to the promoters, clubs and venues for opening their doors for us.

See you next year. No doubt.

[beatguide]

Q&A | Esther | Review Team

  What is your job at Beatguide?

I have different tasks at Beatguide. I verify all the events and venues of Barcelona and part of Ibiza. That means that I check them and see if everything is okay before they get published. I also work on the spanish translation of the app and help Ivan, our ambassador in Barcelona, with some article translations and communications with the Berlin team.

How did you get in contact with Beatguide?

I worked in the same company as Brendon, Maciej and Tino. I have to say that I enjoy a lot working with them again because they are really nice people. But the whole Beatguide team is amazing!

What’s in your opinion the special thing about Beatguide? 

I really like the idea of going out with no plan at all, check the app and see what is going on at that moment, where to go and see who’s playing. Besides, I always look for the lineup of the party I’m attending if it exists (some venues have papers with that on the walls). So when I like how the DJ is playing and I don’t know his or her name, I check the time and look for the artists name. When I arrive home, I look for information about the DJ on the internet. Now with Beatguide this is faster and easier and I can do it right at the party and see the upcoming events of these artists. And that’s awesome.

Tell us something about yourself! 

I am a web designer that arrived in Berlin almost two years ago, leaving the sunny spain for some time. Why Berlin? Well, Berlin is a city that I liked at first sight. It is also one of the most important tech cities in Europe due to all the start-up scene happening here. I wanted to live a new challenge in my life (including learning a new language). And here I am, enjoying my berliner life.

If you could have one thing from your home here in berlin, what would that be?

Sounds stupid, but I would bring the living room door of my parents place. It has a special sound when you close it. And since I’m living abroad, everytime I’m at my parents place and go to bed, I hear that special sound again when someone close that door. Then I feel like ‘home sweet home’.

Which artists do you like to listen to at the moment?

Bonobo, Disclosure, Henry Saiz or Dosem are the artists I’ve been listening to in these days. But I’m always searching for new artists and styles that I might like or even I go back to the ‘origins’ and listen to artists like Larry Levan.

What are your favourite venues here in Berlin?

I love Lichtpark during summer time. And as indoor venues, I’d say ://aboutblank. Everytime I go to this place, I remember Theo Parrish saying in an interview: ‘I would support clubs with lights out while playing music. This way the ego would be dissolved in the darkness.’ I love dancing in the dark.

First website you check, when you turn on your computer?

Esther:  Twitter. I like to be updated about what is going on in the world, in my country, about design, interesting people that I can learn from, technology and some artists, blogs and magazines about music.

[beatguide]

We met Roldano and Stef from Startüberlin for a short video interview last week. 

[beatguide]

Q&A | Simon | Android Developer

Today we want to introduce our Android Developer Simon. He joined us just two weeks ago but did a really nice job so far. Get to know him a little bit better: 

  1.       What is your job here at Beatguide? Simon: I am the Android Developer and currently working on the Beatguide Android Application.

2.       Why did you choose to work for Beatguide? Simon: I simply wanted to combine my love for music with the job. Beatguide is the perfect company to do that

3.       Tell us something about yourself!

Simon: I am 23 years old. I like parties, sports, girls and eating as much as possible. I already managed a few Android projects before I joined the team. A month ago I worked as an Android Developer in a small 30.000 people village near Mönchengladbach. I wasn’ t even allowed to listen music while working. That was really horrible. But now i am here and thats awesome. That’s my story so far. 

4.       What’s in your opinion the special thing about Beatguide?

Simon: There are nice people everywhere. I really like to see how the company is growing with its new useful features. It helped me and my friends several times to find the right venue for going out.

5.       What is your favorite venue here in Berlin ?

Simon: That’s definitely Kater Holzig.

6.       Which artists do you like to listen to at the moment?

Simon: Currently I really the stuff of Dominik Eulberg and Oliver Koletzki.

7.       First website you check when you turn on your computer?

Simon: Funny question, my PC is always on.

[theconnecthou]

Beatguide Combines Club And Concert Calendar Listings With Streaming Music

Beatguide is a new electronic music events listing and discovery site that adds sound to the experience of searching for shows and club nights. The service is already described as an improvement over Resident Advisor for listings though Beatguide currently lists only shows in Berlin. With both more locations and more features in the pipeline, Beatguide is off to a strong start.

Beatguide launched its web app in February and its iOS app last month. The co-founders, Tino Ehrich, Brendon Blackwell and Stefan Baumschlager, are based in Berlin with backgrounds in such startups as Last.fm, Crowdpark and Rdio.

Beatguide Brings Music Discovery to Calendar Listings

The basic concept is simple with an appealing, easy-to-navigate design combining event listings with streaming music by the featured acts via SoundCloud. In doing so it brings together search and discovery in one organic package. Silicon Allee recently profiled the startup:

“Beatguide is really trying to inspire people through discovery rather than giving them just texts, lists and the broad data that you see on most of these music platforms. I think all types of music could benefit from this kind of platform.”

Not that long ago MySpace would have been the preferred option for linking people to music by indie acts they were considering seeing live. SoundCloud is a logical choice now given the ability to embed its audio players as well as its strong uptake by electronic musicians.

One of the nice results of using SoundCloud is that whole dj sets are up for review on Beatguide. That makes a big difference in getting a sense of what a dj is about especially if they're not composing music themselves.

Beatguide's Plans and Potential

Peter Kirn also wrote about Beatguide. He shared a few comments and plans from one of the co-founders:

"We always thought it was strange that the promotion of events never included the music, so that’s where it began."

"We will also be releasing a widget very soon, which can be placed on Facebook or other blogs which will allow people to see the details of events and play the music from the page it is shared."

Kirn concurs that Beatguide's events are a big improvement over those ofResident Advisor but he makes a bigger point:

"To me, though, the story is a bit deeper than the particular implementation. So much of the focus on streaming has been whether artists can get revenue from it. As that answer continues to be a depressing, resounding 'no,' it seems to me that a more significant question is whether it can get warm bodies to live events."

Beatguide has already done a nice job of combining events listings and streaming music. It's certainly something I would have liked to have had back in the day when I was regularly seeing shows by bands with which I was unfamiliar.