TALKS

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

Coil - Triple Sun
Red On - Waters (Golden Diskó Ship Remix)
The Chemical Brothers - The Sunshine Underground
Stingray313 2.4 GHz ISM
Peter Van Hoesen - L9T
Turk Turkelton - Bass Freak
Sansibar - Sissi
Dua Lipa - Physical (Narciss Edit) 
Thomas P. Heckmann - Technik
K-Hand - Psycho World
VOLRUPTUS - Chicxulub Space Rock
Maara - Ultimate Reward
Klangwerk - Die Kybernauten (CYCLOTRON Remix)
Wedding Acid Group - Fried Chicken Taste Acid (Ryan James Ford Remix)
MIDI KIDZ - JUST GETTIN HOT
DJ Delon - Suck It
Mr Worldwide - Mr. Worldwide 3
Two Full Minds - no smoke (deep dap dap)
Cindy - Did You Ever Bone Your Grandma To Death
badsista - ZL CLUB MUSIC pt. II
LSDXOXO - woman eat their man
Ceephac Acid Crew - Bureau de Rave
Orbital - Acid Rave
Falling apart - A1
Thomas P. Heckmann - IV-2
PSYCHE - Unveiling The Secret INTERFUNK remix
TAYHANA - Eterna Migración
AceMo - Perpetrator
K-Hand - On A Journey
Dip Shim - Bergsgatan Acid Jam
Lake Haze - Molecule_Processing
D’Angel - Rolling Thunder Microgroove Mix
Bored Lord - Dancing By Myself
Foul Play - Feel The Vibe
Cosmic Baby - Cosmic Baby Greets Florida
Uterus - Der Neue Mensch Wird Kommen (Thomas P. Heckmann Remix)

Herrensauna Après Pride Opening [25.07.21]

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

Second half of my set from The Ket Gala, 20 hours of anarchy presented by Lunchbox Candy. Kept it gay. Thanks to everyone for the unforgettable vibes. 🫶🏻

THE KET GALA PT.2 🌀 Lunchbox Candy pride special @ Æden Berlin

@djnorthern has been a fixture at our parties and we are happy to announce that she's a new resident of the Buttons fam. Check out this gorg set of hers, the very first set from our very first party at Watergate. 

Recorded live in Berlin
Watergate
Water Floor 
March 23, 2024

Radio Buttons #127 - DJ NORTHERN (Live at Watergate)

We let two of Berlin's most exciting current selectors loose at Sónar by Night this year. SonarMix 051 captures the final hour of Marie Montexier and Mor Elian's raucous back-to-back, which summoned the ghosts of rave's past, present and future  to SonarLab x Printworks. 

No tracklist here, just 60 minutes of hands-in-the-air dance music.

@morelian @mariemontexier

SonarMix 051: Marie Montexier b2b Mor Elian

JENNIFER CARDINI
@jennifercardini
PABLO BOZZI
@pablo-bozzi
WHOLE 24

JENNIFER CARDINI B2B PABLO BOZZI

Alias: Sparkly Pony
Pronouns: He / Him
Location: Berlin
Collective: SWEAT @sweatrave
Labels: SEVEN, Hörz, Durch, Jerk It
Name of mix: For The Love Of Groove
About the mix: "In this mix, I show you my love for a sub-genre that is widely misunderstood. Its grooves, while often associated with more mainstream club culture, carry echoes of the liberating, boundary-pushing spirit birthed on queer dancefloors. The commersialization of tech house makes my music digging process long and often difficult, but the results are always rewarding. Almost all of the music in this mix is released sometime in the past 2 years, so enjoy the fresh sounds!"
Follow: @sparklypony

#tracklist
01. Sparkly Pony - Stretch & Repeat [Forthcoming, SEVEN , 2025]
02. Mike Millrain - Together (Dub) [Soul Revolution, 2024]
03. Pastel Blue - Move to the Drum (Extended Mix) [Toolroom Trax,2024]
04. Simone Liberali - Jamal [Club Sweat, 2024]
05. Nick AG - In the House [Klaphouse Records, 2024]
06. Danny Howard - Keep On [Nothing Else Matter, 2024]
07. Viton (UK) - Bad Bitch [Deeperfect, 2024]
08. CRYME - Hold On [SEVEN, 2024]
09. James Lee - You Hear Me Girl? [Glasgow Underground, 2024]
10. Nicole Fiallo - The Power (Elias R Remix) [Transmit Recording, 2024]
11. CASSIMM - The Rhythm (Shane Fernandes Remix) [Summerized Sessions 2024]
12. Blow (ITA) - Deeper [Drop Low Records, 2024]
13. Javi Colina - Teke Teke [Drop Low Records, 2024]
14. Trace, Liquid Rose - Bitch Don’t Kill My Vibe [Nervous Records, 2024]
15. Tektonauts - Doko Doko [Transmit Recording, 2024]
16. RuPaul - Category Is [RuPaul Inc., 2016]
17. shotgunwedding - When I Start Dancin [Klaphouse Records, 2024]
18. Francis De Simone - Idimoni [Desolat, 2024]
19. Late Replies - Dos Locos [Pakate Records, 2024]
20. Cromby - House Flava [Big Saldo Chunkers, 2024]
21. Radio Slave & Michael Love - Can’t Get You (Radio Slave Club Mix) [Rekids, 2023]
22. Mike Millrain - Autumn Leaves [Soul Revolution Records, 2019]
23. Hiast, AtLows - James Brown [ Late Night Jackin, 2024]
24. James Dexter - It’s True [Bondage Music, 2022]
25. Sparkly Pony, Posture - Closer [Forthcoming, SEVEN, 2025]
26. Jay de Lys - No Sleep Club [Toolroom Trax, 2022]
27. CRYME - Back2Room [...is serving, 2023]

otherstothefront.noblogs.org/house-of-others-099/

House of Others #099 | SPARKLY PONY | For The Love Of Groove

live at LARK, Berlin on 02.01.2025
@majdolenn
@dirtydaddydon

DUMP 005 - Majdolen b2b Dirty Daddy Don @ Lecken Lovers NYE

▪️ Soundcloud: @schacke
▪️ Resident Advisor: ra.co/dj/schacke
▪️ Instagram: instagram.com/schackedelic/

TASCAM DR-44WL

SCHACKE - RECORDED LIVE AT WAS. UTRECHT (09.03.24)

This is my closing set recorded live at Faggots Are Women in NYC. FAW isn’t one of those mid parties begging for attention, promising collective moral high ground without doing anything. This party is an entire world—full of gags, friendship, and intention. The art, copy, door policy, sound, lights, chill areas—and its very existence in today’s USA—is T. It bubbled up from a scene that needs it, agitates the status quo, and doesn’t seek outside validation—IYKYK.

Its theme: “Faggots are FLINTA*s: Escape from Berlin.” We know New Yorkers love to say “Berlin is over” (while others say NYC is over). Some say Berlin is known for cheap living, liberated mindsets, world-class nightlife, and hot people - but it’s also dark and easy to disappear. For me, how you feel there has always been an inkblot test: it depends on who you are right now. 

But since Oct 7, 2023, Berlin has changed radically. A place known for freedom of expression has descended in to a McCarthyist hellscape for pro-Palestine activists. Cultural institutions cooperate by silencing dissenting views, and police enforce this with overtly racist brutality. It affects everything — everyday life, art, music, dancing and fun.

Obviously the political situation is similarly bleak in the US. It feels like a bizarre time to celebrate, but also a critical time to be together with the people you love. This is why the level of intention here is important: worldbuilding by and for a community, even just for a night, has the power to nourish us in so many ways.

And so I tried to match that level for the closing. Not gonna spoil the references, but they are thick and deep, and call on some very important voices. It’s usually hard to listen back to a live set without focusing on the flaws. But in this recording, I think of Charlene giving me a quick face beat en route, the unsure gays when I started, the grind-train of culturatti dolls towards the end, and the gaggle of Colombian queers losing it for Shakira. The room was unhinged and alive, full of the best. This is for those who were there—and for those who get it.

Live at Faggots Are FLINTA*s

@mamasnake & @nenetreat

Mama Snake (they/she) & Nene H (they/she/hey)


Nene H and Mama Snake unleash a surge of raw energy in this live-recorded mix from the legendary Club Raum. Pulsating with immersive rhythms and hypnotic layers, their set dives deep into the heart of techno and trance. Fierce, sensual, and unapologetic, this mix is a testament to their artistry and the electric chemistry that fuels their sound.

MARICAS n.79 - Mama Snake b2b Nene H

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

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

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

Lecken

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