Last week we presented the first five participants on our Facebook event. Find here said information gathered in one blog post entry! We are happy to begin our line-up presentation with such vibrant artists.
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Born in Beijing and based in Berlin, He Zhao is a musicologist and rhythm ambassador, applying historical materialist analysis to the evolution of social music. He will not only host a talk about “The Revolutionary Essence of Social Dance“ and answer questions afterwards, but is also up to play music for us as DJ Zhao, bringing the poly-cultural understanding of rhythm to his deeply percussive cross-genre sets. 🥁 Not restricted by style or convention, DJ Zhao draws from wildly different times and places, connecting the global North with the South, acoustic and electronic, traditional and hyper-modern.
Check out his mixes here:
https://www.mixcloud.com/djzhao/
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Spiriel, a child of Berlin’s emerging Techno movement, came into contact with electronic music in 1993 at the age of eleven. Disappointed by the declining demand of the harder styles such as Hardcore, Hardtrance / Trancecore and Rave during the mid 90s, she stepped away from what Techno has become, dedicating her whole attention to what has been left of the Hardcore scene.
From the mid 2000s, Spiriel who, at that time, was only known by the name of Stailen, played at locations such as Tacheles, Kato, Brunnen 70, Alte Seifenfabrik – none of which exists anymore – and the Fuckparade. After she took a hiatus from the Hardcore scene for about seven years (2011 to 2017) she restarted DJing and producing music only at the beginning of 2018. Spiriel is a die-hard fan of a wide range of harder electronic music ranging from Rawstyle, Hardcore, Breakcore, Terror, Speedcore, Freeform Hardcore, Happy Hardcore, J-Core or the lesser-known FINRG.
Although nowaddays she mainly plays dynamic and melodic uptempo Hardcore and Speedcore, chances are high that you stumble upon the one or the other obscurity from other genres in her sets.
So expect the unexpected.
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For about ten years Jahminta Zulu plays reggae, exploring it by following the heart.
She says: ‘Altghough I knew dub (referring to dub reggae), it wasn’t part of my focus and life really until 2006 when I went to a Shaka session in London. Since then, sound system as a part of reggae music with its message of rasta culture and the art of how it is transported by soundsystem and soundwoMen inspires and drives me to play and offer my humble contribution as an ambassador for this spiritual culture and its music.’
Jahminta Zulu started out co-founding the Vintage Night in Cologne many years ago – she also played a lot of sessions with the Young Veteran Soundsystem outta Cologne (Ballroom Skank). A top notch selectress who knows how to hold up the vibes – she plays ital, heavy, roots – from foundation to year 3000 style! We are very much looking forward to have her playing a dubby selection on the sound system.
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We are happy to feature two intruiging EXHIBITIONS facing one another:
• David Riley`s collection of information and photos related to the roots of sound system culture in Jamaica, including the significance of early genres like Mento, Ska and Rocksteady
• Ed Twist`s mixed media artworks of flyers, logos, posters & photos reflecting the style & vibe of UK Sound System Culture in the 90ies
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David Riley grew up in Montego Bay, Jamaica. Since early childhood, he developed a deep interest in the evolution of the various genres of Jamaican music, its roots, cultural background and influences from Africa. After leaving school and having worked in banking in Jamaica, he moved to London to study accountancy. Due to his passion for music, he got side tracked and instead completed a diploma at the London School of Audio Engineering.
However he still made use of his accounting skills by working for various labels including Jive, Death Row, Sony Music and Century Media. Outside of the 9 to 5, he was also a recording artist, touring the USA, Europe and South-East Asia, selling 250.000 albums and 3 million singles as a member of a 90ies pop group. He currently works for a major record label in Berlin and still is an avid collector of all kinds of music. On rare occasions, he shares his passion for the musical culture of Jamaica by DJing as well guesting on radio shows. You can check out his approach here:
https://www.mixcloud.com/…/i-dream-of-piranhas-i-dream-of-…/
For this event we have the honour to host his exhibition about the roots of sound system culture, seasoned with audio examples from his side and the opportunity for an open dialogue.
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Ed Twist had been actively involved with Sound System Culture since 1994 when he co-founded BWPT sound system with some friends. He went on to form Ugly Funk and the Ugly Funk record label and has been organising free parties and club nights for 25 years. He also works as a graphic artist and animator largely in the realm of electronic music and creates animated videos and live visuals at clubs and festivals like Bloc Weekend, Bassline Circus, Glade and Glastonbury and recently showed his animation on the MS Stubnitz.
He has shown his artwork at a range of exhibition spaces throughout Europe including the Centre for Contemporary Culture in Barcelona and is part of the UK based Temporary Autonomous Art / Random Artists collective who “use free party tactics to open temporary arts and social spaces in occupied and often derelict buildings”.
For Sound System Culture Ed Twist will present some personal work created in response to the criminalisation of techno and free parties based on his own first-hand experience of when the culture was outlawed in 1994, shown together with some of his photographs from the frontline at this time.
www.edtwist.co.uk
www.instagram.com/edtwist_
www.uglyfunk.com
Sound System Culture 
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