The International Writers Magazine - Our Tenth Year: Europe DanceKlub

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Balkan Parties • Rob Rigney Balkan parties reflect the new face of a city which is more and more stamped by its immigrant populations, and they offer something techno can’t: soul, pathos and hot-blooded Balkan wildness. To the odd tourist in who wants to sample a bit of Berlin night life chances are a night out in a Berlin techno club belongs to the standard itinerary. But isn’t techno sort of a nineties thing? And doesn’t Berlin have much more to offer in regards to clubbing? In many ways Balkan parties offer the perfect antidote to a tired club scene. In fact Balkan parties reflect the new face of a city which is more and more stamped by its immigrant populations, and they offer something techno can’t: soul, pathos and hot-blooded Balkan wildness.

Balkan parties are a product of the Yugo migration to Berlin which took place in the nineties when many young people from Serbia, Bosnia and Croatia fled the wars in the former Yugoslavia and came to Germany, bringing with them their taste for Balkan music and a heavy does of nostalgia. What started out as insider parties for homesick immigrants has become a trans-ethnic club phenomenon. Now there are Balkan parties in Paris, New York, LA and Istanbul. But Berlin with its strong Yugo communities offers the real thing.

So forget your tab of ecstasy -- de rigeur at any techno party -- a couple shots of homemade slivovic or at least vodka suffice to put you in the mood as you dance to classic songs like ‘Kalashnikov’, ‘Disco Partizani’ and ‘Gas, Gas, Gas’, songs forged out of love and war from a much maligned and misunderstood region of Europe which means – appropriately enough – "the land of blood and honey".

Robert Soko
Robert Soko, a former taxi driver from Bosnia, was the first to throw Balkan parties in Berlin in the mid nineties and is largely considered to be the godfather of the Berlin Balkan scene. The founder of ‘Balkan Beats’, Soko, who started off playing Yugo rock, punk and New Wave cassettes in Kreuzberg’s Arcanoa club, discovered Serbian Gypsy music a la Goran Bregovic and Emic Kusterica around eight years ago and since then hasn’t looked back. With his kind of Balkan ‘Russen Disco’, Soko became famous for his nostalgic Yugo parties celebrating Socialist holidays from the SFRJ at the Mudd Club in Mitte. Now the Mudd Club, where Soko had his monthly parties, is history. And with its cramped dance floor and dilapidated toilets it wasn’t the ideal place anyway. Now Soko has a monthly gig at Lido in Kreuzberg, while playing sometimes in Pavilion and Admirals Palast, when he is not on the road in Paris, Budapest and London. Be prepared for long lines. But be assured all your favorite Balkan hits will be played. A colorful mix of Germans and Balkan characters enliven the dance floor which keeps going at a fever pitch till six in the morning.

Jugotonka
Jugotonka, a thirty-something Croatian DJane, who has been living in Berlin since the mid nineties, has a different take on Balkan music than Robert Soko. While Soko sticks to a tried and true repertoire of Balkan Gypsy hits and Balkan Beats favorites familiar from his three compilation CDs, Jugotonka throws in some wonderfully pathetic Yugo schlager, known locally as Turbo-folk (folk meets pop). Some, like Soko, may hate the stuff, but it has to be said nothing expresses the sentiment of the Balkans better. Jugotonka has had a regular gig at Studio 54 at the Tacheles on Oranienburgerstrasse, until November when they closed doors for the last time. Now she can be seen regularly at Privat Club in Kreuzberg and at SO36, where she plays with DJ Ipek, -- a Turkish Djane – and Lepa from Serbia, who together make up ‘Balkan Witches’. Like Soko, Jugotonka has her own crazy Balkan clique or fan club, which shows up to her parties and shows everyone how it’s done Balkan style.

Beatshock Beatshock is a thirty-two year old DJ from Bosnia who has been throwing his Balkantronika parties for several years now in the somewhat out of the way Kulturfabrik in Moabit. Beatshock, who has a background in drum-and-bass in addition to Balkan, likes to think of himself as a more underground alternative to Robert Soko, who, instead of playing the, admittedly infectious, traditional Gypsy hits, opts for a wild mix of electro-Balkan, dirty Gypsy keyboards straight from the Balkan Gypsy mahala (neighborhood, quarter or ghetto, as you will) and hip-hop. Occasionally live acts grace his stage – a crazy Gypsy synth player from Serbia or a sexy Bulgarian belly dancer. Be sure to avail yourself of the homemade Bosnian slivovic at the door.

Occasionally live acts grace his stage – a crazy Gypsy synth player from Serbia or a sexy Bulgarian belly dancer. Be sure to avail yourself of the homemade Bosnian slivovic at the door.

Cigan Aldi
Cigan Aldi is the only non-Yugo of the group. A Turk with Mongolian roots, and a former taxi driver like Soko, Cigan first got turned onto Balkan music during a trip through Romania. Known to friends as Hasan, he got the last name of his sobriquet for bringing all his CDs to the club in an Aldi shopping bag (his first name means ‘Gypsy’ in Serbian). Known for his tall tales – get him, if you can to tell you his made-for-fiction story of how he came to Berlin – Cigan can be seen every Saturday at Cake Club on Oranienstrasse in Kreuzberg, where he plays a mix of Balkan Gypsy and Latino. Cigan’s two loves are Romania and Brazil and when he came to Berlin as a child – and with little knowledge of geography – he was excited at the prospect of just hopping on a bus and driving to Rio. Be prepared, though, for a packed house and a small dance floor.

Valentino Valente
Now everyone is throwing Balkan parties it seems, and the latest to hop on the bandwagon is Valentino Valente, a talented Balkan/flamenco guitar player in his own right, who can be seen weekends in Kreuzberg and Neukölln playing bars like Hotel and Mama. Despite his Spanish name and Latin looks, Valentino actually comes from Serbia. The war and nationalism encouraged him to leave and he ended up in Spain, where he learned flamenco and took on a new name. Now he lives in Berlin and last month he held his first Balkan party in a temporary space in Neukölln.

Links and Addresses
Robert Soko:
www.balkanbeats.de
Beatshock:
www.balkantronika.de
Valentino Valente:
Myspace.com/djbalkanexpress
Lido
Curvystrasse 7
www.lido-berlin.de
Privatclub
Pücklerstrasse 34
www.privatclub-berlin.de
So36
Oranienstrasse 190, Kreuzberg
www.so36.de
Kulturfabrik
Lehrterstrasse 35
ww.kulturfabrik-moabit.de
Cake Club
Oranienstr 32
www.cakeclub.de

© Rob Rigney March 2009
robrigney@snafu.de

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