Kühlhouse quickly established itself as a serious venue for house parties in Bremerhaven and appealed to ‘new’ people in particular. Not just scene-goers like me. That was refreshing because it meant the expectations were different.

It was also nice that it took place with a certain regularity, especially in a city like Bremerhaven, which didn’t really have a scene and where nightlife was generally a bit difficult. The Alte Bürger was struggling, having previously been the go-to place for nightlife in the city. There were a few discos that appealed to a different clientele, but they also had their problems. The Kühlhouse stood out. It was small, intimate, played good music, and people met there for a good time in a relaxed way.

At least that’s how I remember it. You tend to remember the good things!

There were plenty of good things going on. I organised a party with Matthias, who rented the halls to the left and right of the Kühlhouse. There was a guest list of 110 people, we took practically no admission fees that evening, but the bar was proverbially drunk dry. It was a lovely evening, Tas & Phunk were there too.

Later, I often DJed there alongside Kolja Bäcker, who was a resident DJ at Rosigen Zeiten in Bremen. After that, Dimi & Loco from my DNMK roster, if you can call it that, did a lot there, and I was occasionally involved. My time as a DJ, especially in Bremerhaven, was very much influenced by Kühlhouse.

Years later, I met Marc at the Alte Bürger Festival. I had been living in Hamburg for a long time and didn’t visit Bremerhaven that often any more, but I immediately asked him about the Kühlhouse. ‘Sold the joint, couldn’t be arsed any more.’

It broke my heart a little, but I understood.
Not only have people like me been moving away from Bremerhaven in increasing numbers, but perhaps the momentum for such things has simply run out at some point.

I think it was in 2018 or 2019 when I wanted to see what was still going on at Kühlhouse, so I looked it up online. I was feeling a little sentimental and curious. I wanted to see what was happening in my old home town.

The URL kuehlhouse.com was not linked to any website because someone failed to renew the registration.

Almost reflexively, I registered the URL and almost immediately had the idea of making an homage mix. With records from that era or records that I particularly liked at the time.

Side note: With my history in the techno scene and not being tied to just one genre, I was always the DJ who didn’t quite fit in 100% at Kühlhouse. I adapted at times, but I also, let’s say, tested the boundaries. Around 2008, I was really into bloghouse, which was influenced by French Touch. Great music, but not always suitable for Kühlhouse.

So, the idea was to make an homage mix with a selection of records. It took me this long because I’ve always found it very difficult to record mixes at home. My mixes were always worse than my sets, partly because at some point I needed the trigger of seeing people’s reactions to my music.

Because I ended up selecting over 60 records for this mix, it was impossible to record it at home with my bias against home recording. When dj.studio came out a while ago, I knew immediately how I could finally record this set outside my comfort zone, and I’m glad that piece of software exists. Without it, the idea would have died!

Long story short, here is my homage mix, which at least reminds me of a good time at the Kühlhouse. Maybe you too?

I hope you enjoy listening to it as much as I enjoyed making it.

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Direct link: kuehlhouse.com

I mean, I have similar images from my early days as a DJ, just not with Beyoncé looking incredulous, but with other, rather unknown people.

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Yes, it’s nonsense, I know. Compared to him, I was probably a bit lazier. I put less effort into getting new records and gigs. That’s how I’d sum it up after reading the book…

Mark Ronson wasn’t really on my radar. Sure, Amy Winehouse, Bruno Mars… I was aware of all that. Not my kind of music. But I also found the memoirs of Carl Cox and Harold Heath very interesting, if only because of my proximity to the subject. So picking up this book wasn’t a stretch.

Of the lot, I actually think Mark Ronson’s is the best. I like his writing, some of the scenes are incredibly quirky and entertaining (no spoilers: Robin Williams), and the music scene the book covers mirrors a time when I was tuned into much of what he describes.

Long story short: please get the book, it’s good!

The official playlist for the book is available on Spotify, with a copy also available on Deezer.

This post is part of my reading page.

The goal was simple: capture Laurent Garnier’s career in a documentary. They were looking for backers, and even though I’m not the biggest Laurent Garnier fan, I found it fascinating to be part of it. Just like with Lucas Levitan or Thimbleweed Park.

Laurent Garnier was one of the pioneers from France in the early 90s, when techno and house were blowing up. To me, he’s defined by tracks like Feelin’ Good and of course The Man With The Red Face. But also by the panel I attended with him at ADE 2016.

As far as I could remember, some of the footage was already in the can, with a few selected “Off The Records” events still to come in early 2020. One of them fell on my birthday. With the benefit of hindsight – knowing what the following years had in store – I should have gone. But I didn’t.

The pandemic naturally delayed the production as well. As tends to happen with crowdfunding campaigns, communication and the shipping of perks slowed down a bit. But given the circumstances, understanding was more than warranted. In the end, the team was determined to see the project through properly, and I did receive the digital downloads and the Blu-ray.

After a while, the documentary made it onto Arte and was freely available to everyone. Unfortunately, it’s no longer on Arte. It can still be found on Vimeo On Demand and Apple TV.

—
Photo: Featuristic Film via Kickstarter campaign page

This post is part of my Kickstarter page.

Every few years I consider whether it’s time for a new pair, and about a year ago I bought a pair of in-ear headphones. The reviews on Amazon were quite positive, the price was reasonable, but the performance was unusual and subjectively ‘mediocre’.

With both the IE 8 and my old HD 25, Sennheiser is really exemplary in that you can get replacements for most wear parts. So the IE 8 was refurbished with a new cable and the newly purchased headphones ended up in the drawer.

My HD 25 has only survived 17 years through constant patching and replacing. Only the headband and drivers are original. All the cables, and later the plugs and pads, have been replaced several times. However, I never really got rid of a loose connection on the left driver and so the question came up again recently: Which headphones could be better?

It’s a bizarre question, as I’m a creature of habit with a soft spot for Sennheiser, but I thought I’d give it a go.

After spending some time looking at what was currently on the market, I considered a few models. First there were the Nocs NS 900, the Pioneer HDJ-C70 and the updated version of the HD 25. Later, the Aiaiai TMA-1 appeared on my radar, but disappeared just as quickly.

The Nocs were my first choice, as a post by DJ Stylewarz convinced me that this thing could be good. I ordered them, and two days later they were already on their way back to the dealer. The headphones are fantastically well-made, look great and feel incredibly high quality. However, the sound failed to convince me. The strong bass made me think of the Beats, but the Nocs’ sound is not quite as bad and mushy. The bass was not the problem, but the treble and midrange were too crisp and unclean, and I did not enjoy listening to music with them.

That’s probably the point: the sound of a pair of headphones is largely a subjective judgement. Stylewarz may get on better with the Nocs than I did, and the crisp highs may be more to someone else’s taste.

Now that I’d subjectively been kicked in the teeth with the Nocs, I wanted to play it safe. While waiting for the Nocs to arrive, I had read this djtechtools article and compared possible models a bit more carefully. The Aiaiai was out because of the djtechtools review, the Nocs was on its way back, and now the new HD 25 and the Pioneer equivalent were left to choose from.

The 17-year-old Sennheiser HD 25-1 (rear) and the fresh Sennheiser HD 25-C II

The decision was made relatively quickly. The Pioneer has less punch than the Sennheiser, and Pioneer only gives a one-year warranty on the C70. This suggested to me that they were not confident in their product. Perhaps it was the creature of habit again, wanting to play it safe for the next 17 years. In the end, I just followed the summary of the djtechtools review. The Pioneer was already quite close to the sound of the HD 25, and why work with a copy that was less punchy when the original was simply excellent?

And so it proved! The HD 25-C II is an unfussy, simple, professional and, in my opinion, excellent-sounding pair of headphones that not only fits well, but also has excellent grip and isolation, and makes me uncompromisingly happy. I definitely won’t need new headphones for the next decade!

The Sennheiser HD 25-C II is available from your specialist dealer for around €175.

* The IE 8 is no longer available in the version I still have. There were two successors, the IE 8i and the IE 80. The IE 80 is the closest equivalent to my IE 8.