City Report: A spring stroll through the downtowns of Berlin
By Mike Riemel
See also, Top 5 clubs The temperature is rising in the city and it's not coming up from minus 20°Celsius this year. So where's the beef in these April days? The interesting turf Berlin is known for? The reason for millions of tourists and pubcrawlers to flood and squat the streets.
If you go deeper than the major clubs, the hotspots like Hackescher Markt or the institutions like Hamburger Bahnhof or Kunstwerke, you will notice that the multicolored "underground" is suffering through several phenomenon: A massive wave of investment means (East) Berlin no longer looks like Prague in the nineties, and the mostly newly arrived inhabitants of those pretty (and expensive) buildings are quite nervous about sounds--the sounds of the music city and its mostly young guests.
Berlin Fashion District, Riemel Photo 
So there are no more clubs in Mitte or Prenzlauer not suffering from a plague called neighbors. There are almost no more clubs (at least compared to the city's roaring nineties). Fact. The image of galleries as the driving force behind gentrification (it should also be ateliers where artists live and work by the way) is proven right when you look at the ultra-hot Brunnenstrasse, where more than 20 galleries opened during the last two years. That includes a repeating chain reaction of vernissage events or openings, (loud if good and busy!) and the search for the chilly place to digest the art afterwards.
Coming to Berlin and trying to live some real music culture sometimes leads to a shopping urge. So where to get this hot vinyl to spin back home? As there is probably more than 50 relevant shops I will start with the Prenzlauer Berg and Mitte destinations for you...
The recently moved Dense Store from Danziger Strasse resides now close to the Mauerpark (the summer hangout for everybody surviving summer in the city) in the socializing avenue Oderbergerstrasse. These rare re-openings are sticky hot meeting points for active music lovers and their peers.
*Vopo Records, Danzigerstrasse 31, punk, rock, metal.
*Das Drehmoment, Lychenerstrasse 23, wave, electro.
*Deeroys Dubstore, Pappelallee 9, dub, roots, reggae.
*Freak Out, Prenzlauer Allee 49, indy, alternative.
*Station B, Kastanienallee 94, rock, alternative.
*Franz und Josef, Kastanienallee 48, second hand.
*Rotation Records, Weinbergsweg 3, techno, house.
*Dense, Oderbergerstrasse 34, electronica, avantgarde.
*Oye Records, Oderbergerstrasse 4, funk, house, elektro.
*Melting Point, Kastanienallee 55, house, funk, disco.
*Downtown Records, Brunnenstrasse 186, old school, rock avantgarde, jazz.
*Dig a little Deeper, Torstrasse 103, funk, soul, jazz, breaks.
*Staalplaat, Torstrasse, avantgarde, electro.
*Leila M, Rosa Luxemburgstrasse 3, house, electronica.
In the next edition I will let you know a bit more about the fun shop galleries like Ausberlin, Luxury International, Risi Bisi, Neurotitan, Fleischerei, Berlinerklamotten, Big Brobot, Merz or Schoenhauser Design. There you can be sure to get those small Berlin design goodies you will not get anywhere else. So enjoy the sun and lets us know what you think.
Mike Riemel April 17, 2007
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