News

MixesDB stays and is now called Mixes.wiki

MixesDB, the DJ set database, will continue to operate under the new website Mixes.wiki, thanks to the successful collaboration between a new team and the former owner of MixesDB. The team updated the outdated code from the original site, enabling the database to run on modern servers. Mixes.wiki ensures the continued accessibility and cataloging of DJ mixes, radio shows, podcasts, and set recordings for the community. It serves as a music resource and platform for DJs to share their mixes with a wide audience. Established in 2006, MixesDB was set to shut down in June 2024 due to its outdated code and the significant programming effort required for updates (as we reported). With the transition to Mixes.wiki, over 200,000 DJ sets across 100 genre categories are preserved.

Music database MixesDB about to shut down

The platform for DJ sets MixesDB will be shut down on 29 June 2024, as announced on the website. The reason for this is an outdated website code that makes it incompatible with modern servers. The site has been active since 2006 and not only served the 45rpm.ch team as an important resource for finding track IDs in DJ mixes, podcasts and radio programmes. Almost 200,000 DJ sets from over 100 genres were listed on the site, including mixes from legendary closed clubs such as Plastic People, Haçienda and Shelter. Update (09.07.2024): MixesDB will remain and is now called Mixes.wiki

Opening of the CB Lab at Rote Fabrik

As we reported in May last year, the Clubbüro at Rotefabrik is working on a music production studio for everyone - the CB Lab - under the direction of Isi von Walterskirchen. After an intensive planning and construction phase, the opening will be celebrated on 05.03.2023. This will be accompanied by the joint founding of the association that will look after and maintain the CB Lab in the future, followed by the handing over of the keys for the spatial and organisational infrastructure. The opening is also the kick-off for further events. More information can be found in the official newsletter.

TRNSTN wants its pétanque lanes back

The Fribourg radio station TRNSTN launched a crowdfunding campaign with the aim of raising enough money to build new pétanque courts. Some time ago, the container studio from which the radio broadcasts its regular programme had to move. Fortunately, it is still located on the beautiful grounds of the Bluefactory, but unfortunately, the lanes in front of the container had to give way. Because they were an important meeting point for the community around TRNSTN, the organising team now wants to restore them. A cause worth supporting - click here to go to crowdfunding.

New documentary about The Hacienda in Manchester

On 5 November the BBC will air a one-off documentary about The Hacienda. It's called The Hacienda: The Club That Shook Britain and is produced by Wise Owl Films. It's a one-hour retrospective of one of the world's most legendary venues from the 80s which unleashed the acid house and rave scene and brought us bands like The Smiths and New Order. This tweet says: "The film combines rare and unseen archive footage with revealing first-hand testimony from people involved during the Hacienda's heyday."

New pressing plant opens in Champagne

With Doca Vinyl, a new plant is starting operations. The plant is located in western Switzerland, in Champagne region near Yverdon on Lake Neuchâtel. On their website, they write. "Thanks to its privileged geographical location, it can reach both French- and German-speaking Switzerland." At Doca Vinyl, orders of 100 to 1000 copies can be placed and the turnaround time is given as 3 months. For the time being, only the 12" format with black vinyl will be offered. Recently we wrote about the return of vinyl pressing plants to Switzerland, you can read that here.

HÖR unveils its new website and subscription model

Some call it Berlin's most famous public toilet - and because it's in Berlin, it's obviously occupied by DJs. But all joking aside. The streaming platform HÖR has become one of the most important places to go for lovers of DJ sets. The platform has now launched its own website, which comes along with a subscription model. The website allows live streaming, a chat room and offers DJs the option of submitting a playlist with the tracks they played. Some features still need to be unlocked, but it is an interesting step towards a service independent of Big G and Metaverse.

Legram VG needs a new home

The record shop in Renens (near Lausanne) has launched a crowdfunding campaign because it has to leave the building by the end of the year. On their website, the operators of Legram VG, Oscar Conway and Anaïs Lirot write: "We need to leave this beautiful building at the end of the year as they are demolishing us to build some apartments and we have no other option than to start the next phase." The shop was known for its neat interior with a "flying" DJ booth from which DJ sets were regularly streamed. There seems to be a plan for a new location, the following sentence in the announcement might be a hint: "[...] to see us continue doing it in a new location, we could even be moving closer to your neighbourhood, who knows? ;)"

Buy Music Club updates its player

«No more pressing play on each individual track!» the makers of Buy Music Club write on Twitter, announcing that they have rolled out a new player that enables automatic and continuous playback for all lists. This means that when one song ends, the next one on the list begins. Many people who use Bandcamp regularly are also fans of the Buy Music Club website. It allows playlists to be created with little effort and is therefore a popular tool for DJs, labels and radio hosts to share their favourite songs, label catalogues or radio playlist with their audience - and encourage them to buy the music on Bandcamp. As Bandcamp is one of the fairest platforms for musicians to sell their music, the Buy Music Club is a welcome addition.

Sihl Records moves and expands

Earlier this month, Sihl Records founder Andreas announced that the shop at Martastrasse 114 will close at the end of September, only to reopen a few streets away at Kalkbreitestrasse 33 on 4 November. It is now exactly 5 years since Sihl Records opened its doors. During that time, the small shop contributed a lot to Zurich's electronic music scene. It introduced young ravers to the medium of vinyl, brought together all the active music labels in one place and established a meeting place for DJs and other figures of the scene. With the steady growth of a lively community, it had been clear for some time that the original shop was too small. The new location now offers more space for Sihl Records and its community to flourish.

Gilles Peterson pauses Worldeide FM

Today Gilles Peterson announced that Worldwide FM, the radio station he founded six years ago, will be on pause from the end of October. On Facebook, WWFM wrote: "We are having to make certain changes at Worldwide FM re-organising and re-evaluating the next phase and financing for the station." 150 hosts from around the globe presented regular shows, and WWFM established itself as a musical hub for eclectic and soulful music. In his post on social media Peterson also wrote: "WWFM’s website and archive will remain active and I will continue to host shows. Stay tuned and watch out for a big event before the end of the year."

Synthesizer Museum SMEM turns 5!

With its huge collection of synthesizers, organs, keyboards, effects and studio equipment, SMEM is the world's first museum to exhibit this type of instrument. Not only that. In the museum rooms in Fribourg, you can also play with them. Now the SMEM, which stands for Swiss Museum of Electronic Musical Instruments, turns five and celebrates that with a three-day event. Many Swiss synthesiser virtuosos such as Noémi Büchi, Angelo Repetto, Weith or Varuna will play. On 3 September, the festival will also present internationally renowned artists such as Azu Tiwaline from Tunis, Flore from Lyon, Delay Grounds from Bristol and Stenny from Munich. The entire programme, which also includes workshops and lectures, can be found on the SMEM website.

Last Boiler Room at Dekmantel Festival

During the Boiler Room stream from the Dekmantel Festival, which took place in Amsterdam last weekend, the speaker announced that it was the last time after 7 years in a row. DJs like Young Marco, Palms Trax or Marcel Dettmann, who have already played remarkable BR streams, came back to play once again. There is no doubt that the programme during the Dekmantel was BR's most exciting and probably their most prestigious, giving also the festival an online presence that reaches far around the world. Now the question arises: is Boiler Room deliberately giving up its best programme of the year? And will Dekmantel replace Boiler Room with another streaming channel - perhaps HÖR?

New Record Store and Listening Bar in St. Gallen

Analog Bar, a new record shop, listening and natural wine bar, is opening in St. Gallen. Our friends from UBWG report that the musical centre of the bar will be the RDM40 4-channel rotary mixer from Varia Instruments and the speakers are described as "impressive boxes made of wood". Owners Philipp Buob and Magdiel Magagnini know what they are doing. Philipp ran the Freshcuts record shop in St.Gallen until eleven years ago and now runs the Stickerei restaurant, where he and Magdiel also work together. Analog Bar will also host regular in-store sessions and could become the new meeting place for DJs and vinyl lovers in eastern Switzerland.

Pinkman Record store to close at the end of the month

One of our favourite places in Rotterdam was the Pinkman Record Store. Now they have announced on Instagram that they will be closing soon. "We poured our hearts and souls into this project over the last 4,5 years. It has been a crazy ride filled with music and people we love. However, we are ready to enter a new chapter." The store emerged from the record label of the same name and has made a name for itself for high-quality club music. Nevertheless, the label will continue: "At its core, Pinkman is a record label and we are ready to return to where we started and take it up from there. Next year we will celebrate the 10year anniversary and our plans for this will be our main focus for the coming months."

Summer Camp at Rote Fabrik announces Line-Up

There is a lot of news about activities at the Rote Fabrik these days. That's because of the hyperactive Clubbüro we reported in this article. Now this year's Summer Camp starts tomorrow. Until 7 August there will be radio shows, workshops, performances, panel discussions and parties. Like last year, a great bunch of local DJs and artists will be playing in the wooden shack in the courtyard of the Rote Fabrik. The complete programme can be found on the Summer Camp website.

Jenny Cara and Belia Winnewisser start DJ and production workshops

Over two semesters, Jenny Cara and Belia Winnewisser teach DJing and music production. The project called eXchange is aimed exclusively at FLINTA* who want to take their first step into the music and club world. Cara and Winnewisser both have more than 10 years of experience in booking, event production, DJing and music production. The workshops are therefore not only about the technical aspect of DJing and music production, but also about topics of promotion work, industry insights and the history of electronic music. Learn more here.

New documentary highlights the history of Swiss club culture

Switzerland has a rich club culture. Some may have experienced or at least heard about the infamous after-hours in Zurich in the late 90s and early 2000s. The documentary 'Revolution Dancefloor' by Bjørn Schaeffner and Silvan Lerch shows that there is more to it than that. Schaeffner has made it his mission to write down the stories of the country's club culture and has been doing so for many years as a journalist. He is also the founder of ClubCultureCH, a platform dedicated exclusively to this topic. With his expertise, it's no wonder that the one-hour film is packed with interesting facts that ravers may not yet know. In Switzerland, you can watch it in the SRF media library.

"Last Night A DJ Saved My Life" by Bill Brewster gets an update

Probably every dance music journalist has it in their library: Bill Brewster's encyclopaedic book "Last Night A DJ Saved My Life". It is over 600 pages long and covers the "entire" history of dance music from its origins to the present day. Almost. The book is now updated with chapters detailing the history of the women actors who contributed to the legacy, and it is "carefully modernised" with a fine-tooth comb without destroying the original intention.

Sonic Topologies Festival makes places sonorous

The festival is dedicated to the soundscape of urban landscapes. From 24 to 26 June, concerts, lectures, soundwalks and workshops will take place in Zurich at the Old Botanical Garden, the Lyren Reservoir, the Käferbergbad and Lake Zurich. The department for landscape architecture at ETH Zurich has invited local and international actors from music, art, science and architecture to work with the places and develop a new perception through sound. Check the full programme here!

New festival Alpodrom takes off in Interlaken

A team of people who are mainly active in clubs all over Switzerland has launched the new festival Alpodrom in Interlaken. Their goal is to put Switzerland on the map of international attention from touring DJs, clubs and ravers. They tackle the ambitious goal with international rising stars like Marie Montexier, LUZ1E, Sarah Farina, KI/KI, Stenny and surround them with local talents like NVST, Lexx, Kejeblos, Luca Duran and Noria Lilt. Disclaimer: The people responsible for 45rpm.ch are part of the festival's line-up.

Tbilisi based Mutant Radio streams from Zurich

Mutant Radio from Georgia's capital has established itself in recent years as one of the most interesting platforms for left-field electronic music culture. Now the Zurich label Spezialmaterial invites the two founders Tata Janashia and Nina Botchorishvili aka Ninasupsa to Zurich. There will be a day and night Programme on Friday, 20 May, at Club Zukunft. At night Ninasupsa will play in the club alongside Flo Dalton and Princess P. And by day the station's programme will be streamed live from Bar3000 with the DJs Ashwini, Bassinä, Ina Valeska and L.D.R. which host an hourly show. Check it out or tune in!

Rote Fabrik receives funding to build a Sound System

"These are two long-held dreams of mine," says Isi von Walterskirchen as she announces the news. The head of the Clubbüro at the Rote Fabrik, the organization of the cultural hub in Zurich that makes it possible to try out new ways of thinking about how club culture can thrive, has used the time to raise the money to build the CB-Lab - a high-end community-recording studio - and its own sound system. The collaborative process has already begun and the speakers should be ready and in use at the Rhizom Festival. As with any project initiated at the Clubbüro, everyone is welcome to join in. Get in touch if you would like to get involved.