'Here now - Night light - Windows - Waiting'
Public Image Ltd. 1984
Public Image Ltd. 1984
The Takeaways from the Berlin Music Video Awards 2024:
1.) Covid. That's why this article goes online pretty late.
2.) Berlin is NOT the Place to be. But it could become one and fine creatures
like the Berlin Music Video Awards show us how.
1.) Covid. That's why this article goes online pretty late.
2.) Berlin is NOT the Place to be. But it could become one and fine creatures
like the Berlin Music Video Awards show us how.
Yeah, crucify me. But did you ever get to the idea after at least 12 hours of nightmarish sleep, the price you have to pay for 48 hours partying hard, that this is all? No idea, no thrill anymore behind it. Just one at the same time cheap and overprized reminiscent show of the eighties and a historical hangover after everything is popped and everyone fucked?
But in the golden words of Billy Idol - I sing for culture.
But in the golden words of Billy Idol - I sing for culture.
DJ CatMint @mashavolkova.art
In Berlin there always was an event for every cultural discipline when you could make public funding work. That also forced it to be something for everyone, ergo mediocre. In a way this never changed. And it didn't get better with public media's big wave of Talent-Shows and the disastrous coops of state funding and the diluted German entertainment industry. The results showed that copying international shit didn't make it less shittier.
Then the wonders of digital media did their work with a world becoming not smaller but more reachable. Making it easier to lean out with EVERYTHING under the eyes of the international audience was raising the chance that a few pearls could pop up which otherwise never would have seen the light.
The message was to be brave and resilient. This message is an old one refurbished. And even now when not much is viral anymore cause every method gets abused by capitalism sooner or later the new bold is something we would love here to stay.
What was missing with these charming, intimate mirror and brush-performances or 'guys and their guitar' was the highly entertaining and identifiable quality of the basement TV-operas of the ending millenium, the Video Clip. The sometimes cinematographical enhancement of music through a miniature drama or a delightful fever dream.
Enter Aviel Silook. He missed it too.
With the endurance of a guy who is still willing to invest full minutes (yeez!) of lifetime to watch maybe a piece of visual art that couldn't enfold in TikTok-measures Mr. Silook followed through his mission to keep the Art of Music Video alive by giving it space to breathe in a sublime, durable and independent awards show. Here we are.
What was missing with these charming, intimate mirror and brush-performances or 'guys and their guitar' was the highly entertaining and identifiable quality of the basement TV-operas of the ending millenium, the Video Clip. The sometimes cinematographical enhancement of music through a miniature drama or a delightful fever dream.
Enter Aviel Silook. He missed it too.
With the endurance of a guy who is still willing to invest full minutes (yeez!) of lifetime to watch maybe a piece of visual art that couldn't enfold in TikTok-measures Mr. Silook followed through his mission to keep the Art of Music Video alive by giving it space to breathe in a sublime, durable and independent awards show. Here we are.
Thunder Bae @thunderbae___
Thunder Bae @thunderbae___
Thunder Bae @thunderbae___
Thunder Bae @thunderbae___
Black Prez @blackprez
Claudia Santoso @audi_emmanuela
Dalton John @realdaltonjohn
NOANNE @this_is_noanne
NOANNE @this_is_noanne
Awards Angel
Awards Angel
@bianca.radoslav, @gunnbjorngunnarsson and Award Angel awarding Best Art Direction to MASSTOR @masstorofficial
For this year's 12th Edition the Father of the BMVAs decided to skip the Styling and Fashion-section of the contest to focus even more on the visualization of music. This is what we got and we realized eventually that we wanted it, too. In three parts of crisp presentation from 12th to 14th of June the event made happen to represent an International but also very European mix of musical styles and paths of visual storytelling in the Berlin way of being the worlds living room.
The full program and the parade of winners is easily found if you follow the Links below. It was a lot and to not let SKINNER become a FanZine for the BMVAs allow me to pick my favorites as Musician and Photographer. The call for submissions for the next season is already out. So now I have to recover for the next confetti bomb of alternative Music Video Culture, looking forward to it, over and out.
Photography by Peter E. Reiche / @peterereiche
Berlin Music Video Awards @berlinmusicvideoawards
Favorite Bands:
SIIE - It's a Mystery
And it should stay one. SIIE is an industrial Dark Wave-Duo for adults. The lover has to live with two faceless but not genderless phantoms. One delivers spoken observations and paroles in an appealing female voice from a high tower of speakers emmtting minimalistic but dynamic beats modulated by the guy you're tempted to call the stomping cybernetic engineer.
SIIE @__siie__
Please imagine that scene animated by AI. This comes up hearing SIIE's pieces which are more than body music. It goes in a soundtrack direction, demands visuals and is at least a satisfying vengeance run on a speedbike through Night City - but always in a thinking man's tempo. Are these robots or humans or synths - what does it matter, move your interlinked cells to the pulse.
SIIE @__siie__
SIIE @__siie__
SIIE @__siie__
Glam Punk for Future - GENNRE
The formation from Paris won 'Best Song' and 'Best Video' for 'Wynona' and it's completely understandable why. Anna, the Singer and Lyricist, explained the song as a story about how mostly physical ideals are making espicially women hating themselves where self-love and confidence are needed.
The formation from Paris won 'Best Song' and 'Best Video' for 'Wynona' and it's completely understandable why. Anna, the Singer and Lyricist, explained the song as a story about how mostly physical ideals are making espicially women hating themselves where self-love and confidence are needed.
Anna is also working as a fashion model and before this background she obviously knows what she is talking about. The same with Etienne, the guitarrero and composer, who is also a fashion photographer and produces the set together with his business and life partner, the model and actress Camille Zarat, the 'Camille' from 'Emily in Paris'.
The Videographic outcome is a glam-dirty pastiche battle scene of Teen-/Twen-Angst, with knights on crossbikes fighting all elements of despair about life's meaning, being beautiful while dressing and doing shabby, questioning the own sexuality and checking the limits with all risks and side effects like drug abuse, flirting with suicide (which ends up here with taking the shotgun, unlike Cobain, for a bong) and even metaphorically or literally killing what makes you sick. The game is actually the one we remember well from the 90s and it is highly enjoyable to see the slacker decadence reborn, taking it also as a ever valued message how delicate self destruction can be to a point when it is no more. The prop-grave of almost Hollywood Star Frances Farmer stands for it. Fun Fact: I learned that she actually never got lobotomized. At least she worked later again as an actress after leaving the asylum, raped and broken by Showbiz. Well, on the other hand then...
The Song for this Grunge-mini-opera includes Nirvana-harmonies and Alice in Chains-mood changes, appreciated. And I think actually Grunge is what this world being close to the edge (like in 'endgame') needs, again. Ingredients are laconia, zynical fatalism, then bad conscience and weltschmerz, stirred up to healthy catharsis, think about it when the music ends. Grunge was born from Punk after Glam Punk was done. Song and Video are up to date, so go for it guys!
The Song for this Grunge-mini-opera includes Nirvana-harmonies and Alice in Chains-mood changes, appreciated. And I think actually Grunge is what this world being close to the edge (like in 'endgame') needs, again. Ingredients are laconia, zynical fatalism, then bad conscience and weltschmerz, stirred up to healthy catharsis, think about it when the music ends. Grunge was born from Punk after Glam Punk was done. Song and Video are up to date, so go for it guys!
GENNRE @gennre_music
GENNRE @gennre_music
GENNRE @gennre_music
GENNRE @gennre_music
GENNRE @gennre_music
GENNRE @gennre_music
Favorite DJ: CatMint
What can I say, you can't resist a Manga-Amazon blasting out feelgood-vibes like a Techno Fairy. Don't be surprised to possibly find a special about CatMint soon on this stage.
DJ CatMint @mashavolkova.art
DJ CatMint @mashavolkova.art
Shot at Gretchen Berlin, June 12 to 14, 2024 by Peter E. Reiche