The Thursday night of CTM spread across all three floors of Berghain – from the main venue down to the ground floor known as Säule (and open every normal Thursday), to the glitzier Panorama Bar upstairs. Being able to move freely between them was amazing, as you could weave in an out of completely different experiences. The main stage was primarily dedicated to live sets, with legends like Youth Code and Louisahhh appearing, the latter with a new project called Pain Magazine.
ABOPF (or Abirdofparadiseflower) is one half of the Seoul-based duo Shade. I’d never heard of her before but was suitably impressed by her set, which is no doubt informed by her latest EP Palimpsest that she released herself earlier in January. Ji Hyeon Kim as her real name is, opened the main floor with confidence and it was a treat to see her perform, working within the idiom of dark and bass-heavy electronic music that I love.
Pain Magazine consists of post-hardcore group Birds In a Row, as well Louisahhh and Maelstrom who are already frequent collaborators. I was impressed by the lightshow behind them, which really made Berghain feel like a top-tier gig venue for the night. Cause of the placement of the speakers in the four corners of the room though, I couldn’t really hear much at the front of the stage. They did a great job, but I didn’t really feel the synergy between them on stage. It works great in the studio though, as proven by their album Violent God from October.
I’ve never really been into Youth Code, despite loving the plethora of groups who have followed in their footsteps, like Purest Form. They’ve been going for so long, it’s easy to forget about the primal energy of their 2013 debut album. They showed they can still bring the intensity of stage, even if the aggression often feels like an act. Overall, they fared a lot better than King Yosef who preceded them – appearing more like unruly brats. Their mix of industrial rock, metalcore and hiphop sounds heavy, but in my opinion, you can’t really be angry on a stage sporting squeaky clean white sneakers.
In Säule, there was a very different, almost ecstatic mood all night – starting with Microhm’s opening set which I caught the end of. Probably the most unique DJ to ever play Säule is Philippines-born DJ Love. He brought the ‘budots’ genre to Berlin, playing the most whimsical edits of megahits – all in the budots style, which frankly, sounded a lot like Outkast, or at least y2k r’n’b. Needless to say, everyone loved it, even if he just played from a laptop and had brought his own controller – ditching the massive 6-channel mixers now found in every respectable club.
After him Nigerian rapper Aunty Rayzor (pictured at the top) did her best to get the serious Berliners shake booty together with Catu Diosis behind the decks. I’ve watched her twice before and I think this was probably the toughest crowd I’ve seen her convince, especially when trying to get the girls to the front and the dudes to allow them the space. She really gave it her all, even if she looked a bit restricted by the tiny space next to the decks, which was the only spot she could climb up on. The tracks from her 2023 album still sound sharp and she’s still getting everyone to sing along in her native tongue. Hopefully she will have some new material out soon though, cause I can’t wait to hear what she will do next.
And Clementaum, I don’t even know what to say about Clementaum, she’s simply one of the most mesmerising DJs around these day, even considering how much attention there is around the Latin scene now. I had the pleasure of catching her at Æden last summer, at a Meta Rave event where Ruiseñor also played (appearing at CTM on the Saturday night after). Her CTM set definitely raised the indoors temperature a couple of degrees, in an otherwise icy and snow-covered Berlin. The Brazilian DJ showed the white folks how to party, that’s for sure.
Another Brazilian artist I’d been wanting to see for several years is White Prata. She partook in a talk the following day, hosted by Resident Advisor with CTM, in which she talked a bit about her background as a trans artist growing up in rural Brazil and falling for the allure of noise and extreme dance music. I think half of everyone who went to that talk fell in love with her. Her set at Berghain consisted of all original music and she had in fact promised only to play unreleased material. I definitely hope the experience was a push to maybe put some of that out, because it sounded brilliant. Harsh kicks, crazy tempos and all intermingled with her love for the traditional Brazilian sounds. It was a bit sad that the crowed thinned out a bit, but even so, the ones who stayed were really into it. Check out the 2025 EP Bootlegs Vol. 2 for a taste of what you missed.
Valesuchi may not be Brazilian (she’s from Chile), but she has been based there for a long time, sparsely releasing music that has as much depth and complexity as it has instant appeal. She played in Panorama Bar, actually performing live rather than doing aDJ set. I’ve been a fan of her productions for years but never thought I’d get a chance to see her play, much less live. I really wonder who decided to put Valesuchi, White Prata and Clementaum all on at the same time – such a purgatory for fans of Latin American sounds. But caught the end of Valesuchi’s set and was impressed by the beat programming, as she seemed completely immersed in the act, only looking up now and then to check her notes.
Pretty much everything was great that night, Jada’s set following Valesuchi flowed like water and I even waited for over an hour for Sudanese-Australian vocalist Vv Pete to break into the set her DJ, called Utility, was building up. Only to have to leave unfulfilled to see the tail end of DJ Love’s set. And by the time Marylou was halfway into her b2b set with Fukinsei I almost couldn’t dance anymore. Still, it was amazing to hear their closing set at Berghain – a completely different beast from the last time I had had the pleasure of witnessing the Berlin-based, French star Marylou (at Intonal festival last year). This set went all-in and had people dancing until the very end. It was a heavy one for sure, with some of the best bass music I’ve heard in a while.
Since Berghain doesn’t allow any visual documentation, this hopefully gave you a little bit of insight into what went down on January 29th.
