Lecken Residency x Refuge Worldwide

LIVE FROM LECKEN

TALKS

DJ Lentil — Spring Solstice Drift

Originally aired on Refuge Radio's "B Story" show, April 8th, 2021. 
Thanks to Damien Cummings for hosting & letting us repost!

Zoe Harris on the "B Story" of Lecken w/ Damien Cummings

Recorded live at Lecken, vinyl only.
Sticker artwork: Landon Whittacker

at Lecken

eLBee BaD, the Prince of Dance Music

Marylou

recorded 27.5.2022 @ ÆDEN
https://soundcloud.com/yung_womb

Sticker design: Fran Marcos

yung_womb

Dubbed our psychedelica, trippy breakbeat wigglers, rhapsodising vocals, and groovy foot steppers… This is a live recording of the steadily pulsating, multi-textured tapestry of sonic seduction Katiusha weaved for our lateral floor — a dance and listening space dedicated to spacious and spacey sounds — hosted at OXI Club in September 2022. Dance music is multiple and the body can keep many scores. Let this journey groove you into a more intimate zone. [recorded 16.9.2022 @ OXI]

Design:  http://instagram.com/_fckboi/

Katiusha

Kicking things off with a Lecken pleaser—an edit of Karen Finley's “Lick It”, https://soundcloud.com/abnama literally drove us cucu closing down the rave floor last September with her “over-packed” record bag holding all manner of trancey groovers, galloping bangers and acid outer spacers. A long-time co-conspirator and core babe of our xeno-fam, it’s been a joy watching and listening to her blossom into this force to be reckoned with. Buckle in cos you’re going to want to stay tuned in till the last record spins! [recorded 16.9.2022 @ OXI]

Design: https://www.instagram.com/_fckboi/

ābnamā

Back in September, our secret guest, playing under the moniker #swif, returned to Lecken for another tour de force set. Best known as a veteran producer and selector of electro-style techno, and his long-standing involvement with Berlin’s techno palace, #swif brought a ravier, chuggier, and more libidinally charged side of his record collection to our house, delivering that high-octane exuberance techno is known and loved for. 

Recorded 16.9.2022 @ OXI

Design: Fran Marcos

#swif

PAARTANZ’s opening set on the lateral floor at OXI Club—a sonic weaving of shimmering, oscillating, and pulsating all-vinyl beauties, spanning the entire palette from the folkloric to the futuristic, progressively rising and releasing like the collective breath we took in that room for a couple of hours together.

Design: Fran Marcos

PAARTANZ

Live recording of our fresh resident, @skankstasy, bringing down the house with the sweaty concoction of pumping basslines and shuffled rhythms she prepared for Leck My Button(s) on January 20th 2023 at Club OST. Relentless drive and buoyant energy from our tireless trouble-maker. 

Tracklist

Da Partycrasher — DJ Chuckie
Bamboo Riddim — Ahadadream 
Kill Dem — Jamie xx
Need a Friend — Marco Solo
This Is Business — Dance System feat. Mike James
Let's Get This — Sally C
Drop the Bass — Saoirse
That Thang — DJ Manny
If the Shoe Fits — DJ Swisha
Tessa Drive — Mary Lake
The Clapper — Justindemus
Honey Badger — Rhyw
Move — Interplanetary Criminal
Lighter VIP — Champion
Soulja Tool — Odd Mobb
Trust Me — Interplanetary Criminal
Coming on Strong — Interplanetary Criminal
THC (The Hardest Cru) — Ruff Cru
Ruff — Interplanetary Criminal
Backshot — ATW
Here We Go — Armando
Funky Groove — Untidy DJs
Blow Ya Mind — Lock n Load
Caipirinha — DJ N.K.
Dagga Da — Sammy Virji
Skanka — Hamdi
Bel Mercy — Jengi
Hammond Groove — Big Miz
Sponk 900 — Big Miz
Bombading — Dance System
The Originator — Dance System
Magestic 12 — Pangaea
Xtasis (Pearson Sound Remix) — Nick Leon feat. Babtr
I Can See It — yourboykiran
Sale GiraFA — TAYHANA
N4STY G1RL F4NT4ST1K — Chané
Ganz OK — DJ Pirna

Pic by Filipe Serro; Design by Fran Marcos

Skankstasy

We looove bass music, in all its varieties: dub, dancehall, dnb, jungle, dubstep, garage, grime, footwork, gqom, kuduro, kizomba, zouk, East African vibes, moombathon, perreo, baile funk, and many more, plus all the genre crossovers in between. Gradually, when clubs reopened in 2022, we began consciously booking more bass acts at Lecken, starting with the night where Sarah Farina delivered a masterful “rainbow bass” set, right after yung_womb from SLIC Unit gave us an electric neo-perreo & baile funk initiation (check out the recording on our SC). That night, for 4 hours, the physical particles of time stood still. The dance floor and podiums surrounding the DJ booth were packed tightly, pelvic floors were shedding off every disciplining convention, and everybody just got how “polyrhythmic portals can lead people into trance states,” to quote AfroOankali.  

In December 2022, we invited DJs, curators, and activists, @sarahfarina and @afrooankali, to talk to us about the roots and politics of what they respectively call “rainbow bass” and “ritual bass,” their artistic & curatorial approach to it, and the wonderful home they’ve built for it, the party series Emergent Bass held at Mensch Meier. The talk was moderated by Wanda Gaimes [@skankstasy] from Lecken.

The talk took place at OXI Club on 9.12.2022, and the first few minutes of the talk did not make it onto the recording due to technical difficulties. 

Poster design by Fran Marcos.

Emergent Bass Artist Talk

At our bacchanal last December in OXI, Emergent Bass founder & resident, @afrooankali, served ritual bass, effortlessly layering different Afro-Caribbean percussive influences and polyrhythmic low-end frequencies that hypnotised our bodies & booties into a slow-motion trance. So blissed that we can finally share that recording with you all, and revisit one of those entrancing Lecken dance floor moments.

Design: Fran Marcos

Afro0ankali

What would a 160 skankgurl be without her 80bpm down time? @Skankstasy's jazz rap score for when the heart slows down to half time and you remember u missed something you never even knew the name for.

Tracklist:

Life (Instrumental) — J Dilla
1992 — Rejjie Snow feat. Loyle-Carner
Self Care — Mac Miller
Time — Setwun
4r da Squaw — Isaiah Rashad
Time Is — ZeeloperZ feat. duendita
My Line — Dahlia Jovan
Emotion — 16-17-18
Feel Like Jazz — Diegosouzaa
Workout — DJ Swagger
Black Magic — JonWayne
Runnin' — The Pharcyde
Never Fallin' — Living Legends
Flowers — Sampa the Great feat. REMI
Forgotten — Jim-E Stack
Extra Smooth — Aaliyah
37 — Capsula del Tiempo
Mantra — TroyBoi
Head Right — Local Artist
Nothing to Prove — Kae Tempest
Don't You Ever — Kae Tempest
Bitter Suite — Raffy Bushman

Skankstasy x Refuge Worldwide [April 2023]

The last time @WorksOfIntent touched radio it exploded in his hands and his eyebrows haven't been the same since. Expect equally unpredictable and explosive entertainment once again as @s_ruston attempts to teach a man who's never worn a belt about fetish wear.

S Ruston & Works of Intent x Refuge Worldwide [April 2023]

PAARTANZ x Refuge Worldwide [June 2023]

Bad Puppy x Refuge Worldwide [June 2023]

                              

Carmen 16 x Refuge Worldwide [Aug 2023]

Tracklist:

Word and Sound — Mala, Natty & Bejamin Zephaniah
Lies — Sherwood & Pinch
Black Roses — Barrington Levy
Easy Money — Horace Andy
She Wicked She Wicked — IZCO & Reek0
Puente — Chancha via Circuito
Monastery of Sound — Adrian Sherwood
Senseless — Jonah K
Tao — Donato Dozzy
Rub a Dub Steady — OBF feat. INFINITE
Herbman Skank — Le Peuple de l'Herbe
Focused — Kaval
I Get So High — MarceauxMarceaux
Spying Glass — Horace Andy feat. Massive Attack
Headstrong — Skitz, YT, Joe Burn
Times Up part I — Rockers HiFi

Skankstasy x Refuge Worldwide [Aug 2023]

Live set recording of Indigo Plateaux playing to a roaring Lecken dance floor in September 2023, leaving so many folks on the dance floor wondering "who is this?” as well as "what is this sound?!” Being able to share this recording feels extra special: witness 2h of original unreleased material produced by what someone rightfully called, "Berlin's secret weapon.” Listen, sweat, and pay heed!

Indigo Plateaux

For this edition of our Lecken residency on Refuge Worldwide, we got a deep dive into @s_ruston's 20+ years of record collecting, followed by an hour with our guest, @sweetapple-807106846, showcasing things borrowed, blue, old and new from his expansive music archive, which you can follow in his nearly 100 SoundCloud mixes.

S Ruston & sweetapple x Refuge Worldwide [Oct 2023]

An unbeattable duo—@pleasurepolitics & @ff69b4—bonded by a passion for all things 160 sizzling our ÆDEN dance floor in June 2023. Graphics by the inimitable Fran Marcos.

Pleasure Politics b2b DJ STRAIGHT GIRL

Sinewing through wiggly bass and jacking club numbers, Ōtone's Lecken set—served at our last pre-sabbatical rave in ÆDEN in November 2023—settles into an uncompromising dish of hardgroove and funky techno. A 2+ hour confident and multi-textured percussive score from a DJ and producer close to our hearts and dance floors for many years already. @otonenoto

Ōtone

Already a member of our expanded fam and a repeat guest on our dance floor, Pleasure Politics still turned a lot of heads when she took over the peak time slot at this unannounced rave. Blending booty bass, wubbed out wobblers and the occasional scorching 4/4 banger, the Big.Luv founder (@wubwub.bigluv) plays in an effort to co-create the collective messy blob that inhabits our temporary chaotic and beautiful club worlds. This ride started out with UKG and gradually galloped into ravey bouncy trance, punctuated by teary-eyed euphoria and resulting in what many would remember as the big moment of togetherness of that epic night.

Photo: @tonipetraschk
Graphics: Fran Marcos

Pleasure Politics

The second episode of the monthly VANTABLACK by marum with guest Wanda Gaimes. Enjoy a selection of funky beats of house and techno paired with a conversation with Wanda about her hybrid dance & sex party Lecken, in Berlin, welcoming "hivesex_nomadic fetishisms_masculine femininity_male-to-male drag_feminist whores_king kong_non-possessive sex_inter-sex solidarity_desire without a subject_comfortable alienation" among other forms of sexual disorientations.

VANTABLACK by marum #2 (27/03/2017) w/ guest Wanda Gaimes

Lil' foretaste of the sexy sonic treats you can expect from our secret guest of honour, #swif, at our two-year anniversary edition on June 2018.
Sticker design by Sven Gutjahr.

SWIF_Mixes

SWIF Mix for ☾ Lecken 2Y Anniversary

Carmen 16 @ CTM2019

@wronghole recorded at Lecken_12, in May 2019. 
Sticker design by @dirtydaddydon.

Yoni

@n-a-e-m-i recorded at Lecken_15, in March 2020. 
Sticker design by @maisoncc.

exael

fast mix for fast drifting down the lockdown spiral

a new world apart - PAARTANZ technodrift mix

@elissasuckdog recorded at Lecken_15, our very last dance before the lockdown in March 2020. 
Sticker design by @maisoncc.

Elissa Suckdog

New Feathers
Text arranged by Lou Drago (@lou_drago)
Music and sound design by Valentino Mora (@valentinomora)
In conversation with Wanda Gaimes, ZD Harris, Mmakgosi Kgabi, 
Pedro Marum, Paul Mernagh, heather purcell and Camilla V. Barratt-Due

The intimacy of friendship, Derrida writes, lies in the sensation of recognising oneself in the eyes of another. But what chance do we have of truly seeing another in a world increasingly reduced to pixels, (binarised) swiping, and blocking? 
In a moment where societies are supremely polarised and fake-news permeates oft undetectable, it begs to question what has precipitated this shift. One speculation could begin with the way society is atomised into distinct family units and how increasingly, connecting is considered something done via social media. Hyper-connectivity and infinite information access give the impression of being able to know anything and anyone at once, and caught-up in the fast-pace of neoliberalism (the brainwashing endures the pandemic) we can suffer from the pressure to know more than is humanly possible as we skim-read headings in the same breath as friends’ posts.  

Capitalism both assumes intimacy to occur primarily between romantic partnerships and promotes the idea of success being attributed to a lone individual. Isolated and in competition with one another, capitalism thrives on the myth of the individual, attempting to negate that we are all entangled with the ideas and affects of others. In a society where friendship (like everything else) is co-opted by capitalism to be transactional, shallow, and disposable, subverting these conventions to create intimacy as well as acknowledging ones interconnectedness can be pivotal. “If capitalism works by dismembering transformative relationships” carla bergman and Nick Montgomery ask in Joyful Militancy, “can friendship be revalued as a radical, transformative form of kinship?” 

In the work for Spaces of Faux Intimacies, Drago troubles these capitalist assumptions by diving into intimate conversations with several of their close friends and comrades, exploring intimacy not only as the subject, but as a process by inviting discomfort, challenging social anxiety, and through broaching difficult topics to explore vulnerability. These conversations are later transcribed carefully keeping the voice of each speaker in tact, and fragments are woven together to create a dialogue.  Through the anonymity of the format and the intimacy provoked by the process, Drago’s confidants share their impressions of what it means to exist under digital-capitalism.

Lou Drago - New Feathers

with Pedro Marum, Maria F. Scaroni, Heather Purcell, Wanda Gaimes, ĀBNAMĀ

Beyond carrying the torch of pleasure activism, the social role of queer parties has been to hold a place of togetherness, conviviality and mutual aid for queer, trans and BIPOC communities. They have been a place for resilience, regeneration and resistance. Since the beginning of the pandemic, however, the dancing has stopped (for the most part) and people have been pushed into domestic isolation surrounded by a heightened sense of anxiety and emotional distress. With no certain resolution to the current clubbing crisis in sight, we are faced with a gap in the (social) role these spaces once served.

The format curated by Pedro Marum for Tanztage Berlin takes a closer look at the resilience of queer dance culture, highlighting initiatives that were birthed from the necessity to keep the restorative and transformative power of the dance alive in safer ways. The conversation with invited guests is followed by an invitation to participate in a listening session from the series Infinity Rug.

https://tanztage2021.sophiensaele.com/en/programm/an-endless-dance/

Tanztage Berlin Podcast 04: An Endless Dance (curated by Pedro Marum)

<< queer-feminist catalyst for sonic, somatic and collective pleasure activism unfolding once a trimester in Berlin >> 

Everybody welcome: hivesex_nomadic fetishisms_masculine femininity_decolonized masculinity_feminist whores_king kong_non-possessive sex_inter-species solidarity_desire without a subject_comfortable alienation

Residents: 
@killadujour
@car_men_16
@skankstasy
@marclohr

Lecken

Pinned to spotlight

Popular tracks