MUSIC
DOPE LEMON - LIVE AT BRIXTON ACADEMY
The Australian band led by Angus Stone delivers a brilliant live performance at the venerable Brixton Academy. Impossible to pin down to a single genre – their sound is too versatile, their songwriting and sense of atmosphere too distinctive. An absolute exception with a kind of catchiness that runs deep and an authenticity that is truly hard to find. Dope Lemon is one of my all-time favorites – and the concert’s opening track, >Stonecutters<, has become the most important song of my life so far. To my ears: pure magic.
ARTEMAS - WET DREAMS
Even though the style of British musician Artemas isn’t usually my thing, I can’t deny that his approach to making music strongly reflects the current zeitgeist and resonates deeply with a lot of young people across different backgrounds. But the song >Wet Dreams< is an exception for me – it comes with such an intensely erotic flow, it’s basically sex in audible form. Fittingly, I discovered it through someone I had a bit of a crush on – who ended up rejecting me. Since then, this song has become a kind of audiographic manifestation of desire, lust, intimacy, confusion, and heartbreak.
MOTHER'S CAKE - SEROTONIN
What these four Austrians deliver here is exactly what the song title promises – a pure rush of serotonin in musical form. While the band isn’t widely known in the mainstream, they’re considered outstanding and highly respected among music lovers and insider circles. With unbelievable raw energy, Mother's Cake compose pieces that somehow manage to bridge the impossible gap between hard rock and laid-back groove. In my opinion, they’re easily one of the most technically brilliant bands in the world right now. Just saying.
BLUE BOY - REMEMBER ME
Calling this track timeless almost feels like an understatement – it could just as easily have been released in 2025, yet it’s nearly three decades old. To me, it’s a tribute to confidence: the sound of a cool, slightly ironic arrogance that says, “I know I’m cool – and I really don’t care what you think. But one thing’s for sure: you won’t forget me.” There’s a kind of relaxed boldness in it that’s rare in today’s hyper-polished soundscape. It doesn’t ask for attention – it demands memory. For me, it’s the perfect vibe to soundtrack a great day on the rollercoaster of life.
ARCADE FIRE - THE SUBURBS [LIVE]
This performance is definitely one of my all-time top ten – a combination of several unique and special factors. On the one hand, there’s a complex band on stage, made up of many individual musicians and subtle nuances. On the other hand, the grand arrangement becomes a minimalist backdrop for a nonconformist Win Butler – at the piano and the microphone. What he delivers here is truly impressive: his very distinctive voice and phrasing go straight under your skin - and he proves that just a few simple piano chords can create more atmosphere than an entire orchestra – all carried by lyrics of almost surreal emotionality and depth.
PHENOMDEN - NUME DRUM
Critical, almost angry reggae in Swiss German? Yep – apparently, there’s nothing that doesn’t exist. I understand maybe ten percent of the lyrics, but you don’t need to understand them to get what this is about. And definitely not to fall for that flow – it just pulls you in whether you like it or not. The track may be a few years old, but its message feels even more real, urgent, and on point today than it did back then. It’s the kind of song that hits harder the less you expect it to.
DEICHKIND - RICHTIG GUTES ZEUG
Deichkind doesn’t make music – they create altered states of perception. Honestly, I have no idea what this song is actually about. I think it’s about drugs or something? But since I clearly have no experience with that kind of thing, I can’t be sure... I’ve heard of CBD oil though – isn’t that the legal stuff those hopeless weed junkies are allowed to buy? Anyway: I have no clue what the Deichkind crew might have taken to come up with something this absurdly creative and ironically brilliant – but there’s no way this was written sober. Or was it? Maybe that’s the real trip: not knowing for sure. What’s absolutely clear, though, is that this track is seriously good, weird stuff.
CANNONS - FIRE FOR YOU
What’s truly special about this group from California is that their stunningly beautiful and incredibly talented singer, Michelle Joy, could easily have been turned into a mass-produced pop product by the music industry – and probably would’ve made it big as a global “superstar.” But instead, she’s chosen a different path with her two bandmates, Ryan Clapham and Paul Davis. No Hollywood staging, no overblown image – just a synth-driven flow that doesn’t try to copy the ’80s, but reinterprets them in a way that feels fresh, honest, and completely present.
SCARS ON BROADWAY - 3005 [LIVE]
You won’t believe it, but I guarantee you’ve heard this guy with the psycho stare before – I bet on it. Daron Malakian. The name probably means nothing to you, and neither does that crazy face. But once I tell you he’s the lead guitarist, composer, and co-vocalist of System of a Down, I’ve basically won the bet. I mean, what other alternative hardcore band has a video with over a billion views? After System disbanded, Daron started a personal project that’s in no way inferior to the Armenian hard rock kings of the 2000s. It’s raw, loud, obsessive – and weirdly melodic. You can feel he’s not trying to prove anything anymore, and maybe that’s why it hits so hard. This live performance isn’t technically perfect – but that’s what makes it so real. It’s one of the most radical and emotionally charged rock ballads I’ve ever heard.
TO BE CONTINUED.
DOPE LEMON - LIVE AT BRIXTON ACADEMY
The Australian band led by Angus Stone delivers a brilliant live performance at the venerable Brixton Academy. Impossible to pin down to a single genre – their sound is too versatile, their songwriting and sense of atmosphere too distinctive. An absolute exception with a kind of catchiness that runs deep and an authenticity that is truly hard to find. Dope Lemon is one of my all-time favorites – and the concert’s opening track, >Stonecutters<, has become the most important song of my life so far. To my ears: pure magic.
ARTEMAS - WET DREAMS
Even though the style of British musician Artemas isn’t usually my thing, I can’t deny that his approach to making music strongly reflects the current zeitgeist and resonates deeply with a lot of young people across different backgrounds. But the song >Wet Dreams< is an exception for me – it comes with such an intensely erotic flow, it’s basically sex in audible form. Fittingly, I discovered it through someone I had a bit of a crush on – who ended up rejecting me. Since then, this song has become a kind of audiographic manifestation of desire, lust, intimacy, confusion, and heartbreak.
MOTHER'S CAKE - SEROTONIN
What these four Austrians deliver here is exactly what the song title promises – a pure rush of serotonin in musical form. While the band isn’t widely known in the mainstream, they’re considered outstanding and highly respected among music lovers and insider circles. With unbelievable raw energy, Mother's Cake compose pieces that somehow manage to bridge the impossible gap between hard rock and laid-back groove. In my opinion, they’re easily one of the most technically brilliant bands in the world right now. Just saying.
BLUE BOY - REMEMBER ME
Calling this track timeless almost feels like an understatement – it could just as easily have been released in 2025, yet it’s nearly three decades old. To me, it’s a tribute to confidence: the sound of a cool, slightly ironic arrogance that says, “I know I’m cool – and I really don’t care what you think. But one thing’s for sure: you won’t forget me.” There’s a kind of relaxed boldness in it that’s rare in today’s hyper-polished soundscape. It doesn’t ask for attention – it demands memory. For me, it’s the perfect vibe to soundtrack a great day on the rollercoaster of life.
SCARS ON BROADWAY - 3005 [LIVE]
You won’t believe it, but I guarantee you’ve heard this guy with the psycho stare before – I bet on it. Daron Malakian. The name probably means nothing to you, and neither does that crazy face. But once I tell you he’s the lead guitarist, composer, and co-vocalist of System of a Down, I’ve basically won the bet. I mean, what other alternative hardcore band has a video with over a billion views? After System disbanded, Daron started a personal project that’s in no way inferior to the Armenian hard rock kings of the 2000s. It’s raw, loud, obsessive – and weirdly melodic. You can feel he’s not trying to prove anything anymore, and maybe that’s why it hits so hard. This live performance isn’t technically perfect – but that’s exactly what makes it so real. It’s one of the most radical and emotionally charged rock ballads I’ve ever heard.
ARCADE FIRE - THE SUBURBS [LIVE]
This performance is definitely one of my all-time top ten – a combination of several unique and special factors. On the one hand, there’s a complex band on stage, made up of many individual musicians and subtle nuances. On the other hand, the grand arrangement becomes a minimalist backdrop for a nonconformist Win Butler – at the piano and the microphone. What he delivers here is truly impressive: his very distinctive voice and phrasing go straight under your skin - and he proves that just a few simple piano chords can create more atmosphere than an entire orchestra – all carried by lyrics of almost surreal emotionality and depth.
SCARS ON BROADWAY - 3005 [LIVE]
You won’t believe it, but I guarantee you’ve heard this guy with the psycho stare before – I bet on it. Daron Malakian. The name probably means nothing to you, and neither does that crazy face. But once I tell you he’s the lead guitarist, composer, and co-vocalist of System of a Down, I’ve basically won the bet. I mean, what other alternative hardcore band has a video with over a billion views? After System disbanded, Daron started a personal project that’s in no way inferior to the Armenian hard rock kings of the 2000s. It’s raw, loud, obsessive – and weirdly melodic. You can feel he’s not trying to prove anything anymore, and maybe that’s why it hits so hard. This live performance isn’t technically perfect – but that’s exactly what makes it so real. It’s one of the most radical and emotionally charged rock ballads I’ve ever heard.
SCARS ON BROADWAY - 3005 [LIVE]
You won’t believe it, but I guarantee you’ve heard this guy with the psycho stare before – I bet on it. Daron Malakian. The name probably means nothing to you, and neither does that crazy face. But once I tell you he’s the lead guitarist, composer, and co-vocalist of System of a Down, I’ve basically won the bet. I mean, what other alternative hardcore band has a video with over a billion views? After System disbanded, Daron started a personal project that’s in no way inferior to the Armenian hard rock kings of the 2000s. It’s raw, loud, obsessive – and weirdly melodic. You can feel he’s not trying to prove anything anymore, and maybe that’s why it hits so hard. This live performance isn’t technically perfect – but that’s exactly what makes it so real. It’s one of the most radical and emotionally charged rock ballads I’ve ever heard.
SCARS ON BROADWAY - 3005 [LIVE]
You won’t believe it, but I guarantee you’ve heard this guy with the psycho stare before – I bet on it. Daron Malakian. The name probably means nothing to you, and neither does that crazy face. But once I tell you he’s the lead guitarist, composer, and co-vocalist of System of a Down, I’ve basically won the bet. I mean, what other alternative hardcore band has a video with over a billion views? After System disbanded, Daron started a personal project that’s in no way inferior to the Armenian hard rock kings of the 2000s. It’s raw, loud, obsessive – and weirdly melodic. You can feel he’s not trying to prove anything anymore, and maybe that’s why it hits so hard. This live performance isn’t technically perfect – but that’s exactly what makes it so real. It’s one of the most radical and emotionally charged rock ballads I’ve ever heard.
SCARS ON BROADWAY - 3005 [LIVE]
You won’t believe it, but I guarantee you’ve heard this guy with the psycho stare before – I bet on it. Daron Malakian. The name probably means nothing to you, and neither does that crazy face. But once I tell you he’s the lead guitarist, composer, and co-vocalist of System of a Down, I’ve basically won the bet. I mean, what other alternative hardcore band has a video with over a billion views? After System disbanded, Daron started a personal project that’s in no way inferior to the Armenian hard rock kings of the 2000s. It’s raw, loud, obsessive – and weirdly melodic. You can feel he’s not trying to prove anything anymore, and maybe that’s why it hits so hard. This live performance isn’t technically perfect – but that’s exactly what makes it so real. It’s one of the most radical and emotionally charged rock ballads I’ve ever heard.
SCARS ON BROADWAY - 3005 [LIVE]
You won’t believe it, but I guarantee you’ve heard this guy with the psycho stare before – I bet on it. Daron Malakian. The name probably means nothing to you, and neither does that crazy face. But once I tell you he’s the lead guitarist, composer, and co-vocalist of System of a Down, I’ve basically won the bet. I mean, what other alternative hardcore band has a video with over a billion views? After System disbanded, Daron started a personal project that’s in no way inferior to the Armenian hard rock kings of the 2000s. It’s raw, loud, obsessive – and weirdly melodic. You can feel he’s not trying to prove anything anymore, and maybe that’s why it hits so hard. This live performance isn’t technically perfect – but that’s exactly what makes it so real. It’s one of the most radical and emotionally charged rock ballads I’ve ever heard.
TO BE CONTINUED.
PHENOMDEN - NUME DRUM
Critical, almost angry reggae in Swiss German? Yep – apparently, there’s nothing that doesn’t exist. I understand maybe ten percent of the lyrics, but you don’t need to understand them to get what this is about. And definitely not to fall for that flow – it just pulls you in whether you like it or not. The track may be a few years old, but its message feels even more real, urgent, and on point today than it did back then. It’s the kind of song that hits harder the less you expect it to.
DEICHKIND - RICHTIG GUTES ZEUG
Deichkind doesn’t make music – they create altered states of perception. Honestly, I have no idea what this song is actually about. I think it’s about drugs or something? But since I clearly have no experience with that kind of thing, I can’t be sure... I’ve heard of CBD oil though – isn’t that the legal stuff those hopeless weed junkies are allowed to buy? Anyway: I have no clue what the Deichkind crew might have taken to come up with something this absurdly creative and ironically brilliant – but there’s no way this was written sober. Or was it? Maybe that’s the real trip: not knowing for sure. What’s absolutely clear, though, is that this track is seriously good, weird stuff.
CANNONS - FIRE FOR YOU
What’s truly special about this group from California is that their stunningly beautiful and incredibly talented singer, Michelle Joy, could easily have been turned into a mass-produced pop product by the music industry – and probably would’ve made it big as a global “superstar.” But instead, she’s chosen a different path with her two bandmates, Ryan Clapham and Paul Davis. No Hollywood staging, no overblown image – just a synth-driven flow that doesn’t try to copy the ’80s, but reinterprets them in a way that feels fresh, honest, and completely present.
SCARS ON BROADWAY - 3005 [LIVE]
You won’t believe it, but I guarantee you’ve heard this guy with the psycho stare before – I bet on it. Daron Malakian. The name probably means nothing to you, and neither does that crazy face. But once I tell you he’s the lead guitarist, composer, and co-vocalist of System of a Down, I’ve basically won the bet. I mean, what other alternative hardcore band has a video with over a billion views? After System disbanded, Daron started a personal project that’s in no way inferior to the Armenian hard rock kings of the 2000s. It’s raw, loud, obsessive – and weirdly melodic. You can feel he’s not trying to prove anything anymore, and maybe that’s why it hits so hard. This live performance isn’t technically perfect – but that’s exactly what makes it so real. It’s one of the most radical and emotionally charged rock ballads I’ve ever heard.
TRICKY - NOTHING'S CHANGED [LIVE]
Adrian Nicholas Matthews Thaws – better known as Tricky – is an exceptional artist in more than one way, but one thing stands out above all. In many of his productions, he’s not the lead vocalist himself, yet still shapes the entire vocal expression. What he does is something I’ve never encountered anywhere else: he works with rotating female vocalists who take the lead, while he subtly underlays their voices with his own – like an instrument playing along. The result is a complex, yet completely coherent duality in the vocals that has become Tricky’s own unique musical language.
FATBOY SLIM - ROLE MODEL
If you’re still getting entire crowds to lose their minds at the age of 61 – and producing tracks like this one, full of radical self-irony and provocative lyrics so sharp that not even your metaphorical grandson would dare write them – then you’ve pretty much become a paradox. But hey, even the name Fatboy Slim is one. He doesn’t reinvent the wheel – he makes it bounce. He doesn’t chase trends – he creates states. And now, in the spirit of self-irony, I have a confession to make: Except for the fact that I can’t lie and don’t like fake lips, >Role Model< is basically my personal anthem. Ironically, of course. Or maybe not. And no – that wasn’t even a lie.
FALCO - JUNGE RÖMER
When I was the tender age of six, I was allowed to pick my very first CD at the local music store (for Gen Z: that’s a shiny, round disc you put into a device with real speakers – then press buttons and music plays). I chose Out of the Dark, simply because the dark-looking man on the cover seemed kind of cool. Back then, I had no idea this guy would become one of the few true idols of my life. That started when I realized that in Mother, the man with the coke is here, they weren’t talking about the guy who used to deliver coal for our kitchen stove. I laughed back then – and somehow never stopped laughing since. Hans Hölzl may be dead, but he’s one of the truly immortal ones. Not just for the music, but for turning being misunderstood into a lasting, unapologetic art form. And he’s one of the reasons I became a young Roman who still dances differently from the rest.
THIEVERY CORPORATION – ALL THAT WE PERCEIVE
If I want to hear something from Washington D.C., it’s definitely not that confused man with the strange skin tone on his face – it’s Thievery Corporation. And yes, they really do steal something from you: your full attention. Rarely have I heard a bass guitar plucked so smoothly, paired with a guitar line so subtle and precise it almost feels illegal (which stealing technically is, after all). And to top it all off: a voice like I imagine an angel would sound, but - „Gott weiß, ich will kein Engel sein“ (shoutout to Till). It’s music that wraps you in warmth while keeping a distance. Heavenly thieves, indeed. In this case, a court of music wouldn’t just acquit them – it would sentence the accuser to life in total silence.
RAMMSTEIN - ARMEE DER TRISTEN
And since it fits so well, let’s move from musical heaven straight into musical hell – the kind so hot even lifelong sauna lovers would break their personal sweat records. It’s not my place – and I believe not anyone’s except for those directly involved – to judge what was reported in the media and never pursued in court. I’m neither a defender nor an accuser. The only thing I can judge is Till Lindemann’s lyrics – and they trigger something in me that no other poet ever has. They stab me straight into the heart in the most brutal way, and still manage to move me to tears. Even if I had to, I couldn’t change that fact. What could change, however, is Rammstein’s strange habit of not releasing more professionally filmed live performances – which forces the audience to record them half-legally, half-professionally. You can love this band or hate them. But once you’ve seen them live, there’s one thing you’ll never be able to do again: forget it.
STROMAE - MAUVAISE JOURNEE
I honestly don't know how anyone can so brilliantly weave together sky-high euphoria and profound despair, crowned with an undeniable pride - whether something so intense and emotionally complex can ever truly be planned or whether it simply appears from thin air. The maestro has long transcended the zenith of the music industry, yet somehow he sits above it all, reigning like a melancholic king. His style feels refreshingly alternative, and he's audacious enough to sing in his native French, a language that typically wouldn't stand a chance on the international stage. But Stromae hasn't just defied the odds once - he's repeatedly proven, as billions of YouTube views testify, that he can. Whenever I think of Stromae, this is the track that immediately comes to mind. And no, I don't speak a single word of French. Except maybe one: "Merde - this is fucking brilliant."
MUSIC