Mule & Man
Mule & Man / 22:00 – 22:40 / SchwuZ Kathedrale
The dictator now has a co-dictator! Tobias Jundt made a name for himself as the similarly sympathetic, chaotic and »strict« leader of the escapist ruckus-band Bonapart. Jose Antonio Garcia Soler, on the other hand, works as DJ, producer and musician not only for and with rapper Marteria respectively his alien clone Marsimoto, but is also raising eyebrows under the alias of Kid Simius. Now the two are crossing their musical swords and ride into battle against the windmills of boredom. As Mule & Man, they tickle the most beautiful Electronica out of their instruments and devices. Pop-Kultur will host the premiere of their collaborative album. Be assured: You will have no choice!
Ryan Vail
Ryan Vail / 22:20 – 23:00 / SchwuZ Salon
90 years ago – that’s when the story of Ryan Vail’s solo debut began. Back then, that certain piano was built in England and shipped to Northern Ireland. The piano, the man from Derry used after its restoration, to write his new compositions. Thus, Vail had opened up a broader field of possibilities for himself – next to his old analog synthesizers that now have an acoustic antagonist. The dynamic and intensity of a typical Vail concert are similar to the performance of the likes of Olafur Arnalds or Nils Frahm.
Al English / 22:20 – 00:40 / SchwuZ Bunker
Actually, Al English is at Pop-Kultur to work. Managing Liars and Algiers, both playing at Pop-Kultur, he is busy for Mute Management, a side arm of Daniel Miller’s legendary label Mute. Thus, English is a music expert and moreover is the owner of an extensive record collection, which holds much more than just the music of his two artists. As a DJ, he is going to present a selection.
Diät
DIÄT / 23:00 – 23:40 / SchwuZ Kathedrale
Something is afoot in the world. Hardcore and Punk have reconciled with Post Punk. Suddenly, there are melodies again. The best example: DIÄT from Berlin. Their album »Positive Energy« is a snappy discourse of a lot of things, that are pretty shitty. Be it killing sprees or miserable non-stop self-optimization. One could say that DIÄT make the sound against everything that is against oneself. In the end, that sounds, pardon me, pretty fat and tends to provoke comparisons with Crisis, Killing Joke, and Bauhaus. Not the worst kind of addresses, if you ask us.
ABRA
ABRA / 23:20 – 00:20 / SchwuZ Salon
She calls herself the »Darkwave Duchess«, maybe because the US-American grew up in Great Britain. But the sounds of singer and producer ABRA are actually not that dark. She rather is the latest star-in-the-making of a shimmering DIY R&B scene that has established in Atlanta. The beats and tempi on her second album »Roses« have the compelling quality to be neither fast nor slow. Her voices grandly but subtly float above them, her lyrics are the self-determined romantic poetry of a woman who had to rub her heart and mind sore before she could fully concentrate on her art. ABRA is making bedroom music for those who love to sleep under the stars, on beaches or on the great hills above the city. »I’m young and I’ll waste you away«, ABRA sings in her hit, »Roes«. Rarely, anyone claimed the succession of the immortal Aaliyah with such emphasis. Be warned. With a brand new EP Abra comes after you again.
Valerie Trebeljahr
Valerie Trebeljahr / 00:40 – 2:40 / SchwuZ Bunker
Valerie Trebeljahr is head and founder of the fantastic band Lali Puna. Born in Korea, raised in Portugal, risen to be an international music star from Weilheim and Munich. Lali Puna are valued for their delicate melodies and their tricky Ambient-Electro Pop in- and outside of Germany. The distinguished label Morr Music grew with its act’s success. Before Trebeljahr and her colleagues are joining up again, she plays one of her seldom DJ-sets in Berlin.
LUH
LUH / 00:00 – 01:00 / SchwuZ Kathedrale
Ellery Roberts owns the most beautifully croaky grater-voice anyone under thirty has to offer at the moment. Even Henning May of AnnenMayKantereit-fame can wrap it up and take a hike. It was first heard as part of the mysterious collective WU LYF, which managed to amass international awareness and even recorded a regular studio album, only to lastly implode. Robert now returns as LUH, accompanied by the immensely talented Ebony Hoorn and a little studio help from The Haxan Cloak, who recently worked with Björk among others. Their debut could, in its passionate drama, be the soundtrack to the end of the world. It will be released on Mute a little ahead of Pop-Kultur. By the way: LUH stands for Lost Under Heaven. That probably means earth. But we’re sure LUH will make it to the SchwuZ-Stage. If the stage is still standing by then, cannot be answered by a festival program.
Zebra Katz
Zebra Katz / 00:40 – 01:40 / SchwuZ Salon
In the beginning, Zebra Katz taught us how to read. »Ima Read« was a huge hit about the so-called reading, a competitive analysis technique of the counterpart in the Voguing-Scene. In 2012, the track made Zebra Katz famous in no time, as the designer Rick Owens used it for a fashion show in Paris. The poet, rapper and performer Ojay Morgan, who is behind Zebra Katz, kept following up on this success. The character, the New Yorker created, is that of a carried away, yet always stylish villain, who is not only scaring little children. Then again, everything else would be boring. He recently released a collaborative EP with the producer Leila.
The Numero Group
The Numero Group (Rob Sevier) / 01:00 – 05:00 / SchwuZ Kathedrale
For 13 years now, Tom Lunt, Rob Sevier, and Ken Shipley occupy themselves with the excavation and restoration of outstanding music that has been buried by time or unfortunate entanglement. Their label The Numero Group has thusly published more than 200 rarities, opaquely disparaged at the time of their first release – mostly from the genres of Soul, R&B, and Blues. Its work assured musicians such as Catherine Howe and Syl Johnson some well-deserved fame and has already caught the eyes of the Grammy-Jury. Co-founder Sevier will unveil the less known sides of Soul for us in a DJ-Set – including a historical visual display and a few recent Numero-Discoveries before their re-release.
Naked
Naked / 02:00 – 03:00 / SchwuZ Salon
The experimental music duo Agnes Gryczkowska and Alexander Johnston calls itself NAKED and lives in London. Their music is the stylistic equivalent to the accerlationistic school of thought: if we just accelerate capitalism fast enough, it might eventually abolish itself. Consequentially, NAKED play with digital worlds of experience, wear a lot of black and white and bring up destructive and distorted sound cannons. It’s the soundtrack for the moment, your smartphone rises up against you. In other words: Pop as a buzz saw. They played shows with SOPHIE, were a highlight of the 2016 SXSW and recorded a song with Mykki Blanco. Now, they finished an album that they will bring to the stage for the first time ever at Pop-Kultur.
Sarah Miles
Sarah Miles / 02:40 – 05:00 / SchwuZ Bunker
Lately, there was a lot of talk about the renaissance of radio. No, not of format radio and its computer playlists, but of the tiny engaged DIY-curated broadcasters, that now preferentially use the Internet to step up to the FM mainstream. At the same time, they make the radio more attractive for a generation, which was believed to be lost to MP3-Blogs and streaming services. The Berlin Community Radio is one of the new beacons of our city. Sarah Miles and her co-founder Anastazja Moser do give a home for discourse, trend research and most progressive music to an eponymous community of originals and expats. The broadcaster offers more than 100 shows by now. But Miles will probably not play as many tracks in her DJ-set.