05.03.2016 by Jamal Al Badri

An afternoon at the Pudelbar with Ralf Köster, f#x and Nika Son

At the Hamburg harbor, in between the Queen Mary, various gentrification projects and fish sandwich stalls, there sits a little witches’ hut: the notorious Golden Pudel club. Founded in 1995, the Pudel has developed over the years into one of the most important clubs in Germany (or Europe, or the world… or the universe?).

In the past two decades, representatives of the Hamburg School have had their residencies here, but there have also been visits from massive international acts like Actress, A Guy Called Gerald, Alva Noto, Anthony “Shake” Shakir, Ariel Pink, Atom Heart, Appleblim and Autechre (just to name some of the acts starting with ‘A’).

On a Friday evening at the end of May 2014, zweikommasieben had the honor of presenting its eighth issue there and we played a couple of records to mark the occasion. In the hours leading up to the event, Jamal Al Badri sat at the Pudel bar and listened to the stories of three protagonists. One was Ralf Köster, who has been responsible for bookings at the venue for a small eternity and who has made a mark with his MFOC series in particular. Secondly Kris, aka f#x, one half of Black Sites (Helena Hauff being the other). And thirdly, Nika, aka Nika Son aka Nikae aka a_cis, who recently received attention for a superb mix for Berceuse Heroique. Kris and Nika are both event organisers, resident DJs, bar staff, regulars,…

Jamal took notes for zweikommasieben, whilst Thomas Baldischwyler photographed the three of them (on the afternoon in question as well as a couple of weeks later, due to Thomas camera going missing between the shoot and being able to download the data.)

Ralf Köster Of course there are some good things in Hamburg – there’s the Golem, the Hafenklang, and the MS Stubnitz is back again. That’s all worth something. But generally, the role of the clubs has changed drastically in the last few years, moving ever further in the direction of event culture, where one is expected to serve the public. That’s not what we do. Not serving the public obviously brings with it the risk that every now and again you’ll play to an empty house. But it’s important to us that we are not just a service provider who simply serves. And that’s also the reason why the Pudel is still running after more than 20 years. As a club, if you only serve, then you’ll last five years, six at the most. On the other hand, the Pudel is constantly reinventing itself. Sometimes, because we don’t commit ourselves to a specific content, we really drive the public crazy. They say, “That’s not for me; that’s not techno.” But it’s important for us that we remain resistant.

Unfortunately, the fact is that soon there won’t be any clubs like the Pudel left. We are obviously also under too. Hamburg is currently thinking about hosting the Olympics. If that happens, then it’s all over. When the nineties came, we were on our own here. There was dog shit on the streets and opposite was a dead harbor. Now it’s like in other cities: the harbor area is totally trendy. And, accordingly, we have the difficulty that attention is focused on us. The city uses us as marketing, boasting about the “exciting sub-culture landscape.” And at the same time, they go at us hammer and tongs. Noise control, artists’ rights – that doesn’t make it any easier. When I came to St. Pauli back in the eighties, I pressed 200 Deutsch marks into the hand of a pimp whose brothel had gone bankrupt, and I had free run of the place for a week. You just set up your system and that was it. No invoices, no rights, nothing.
I was socialized in the eighties. Back then, we were all “live fast, die young.” You didn’t expect to get old. So, in line with this, I thought, I’ll press the button and that’d be that. I’ve lost all my teeth now and every part of me is buckled. Back then, you treated your body differently to how you do now. The young today are certainly more aware of security. Career comes first. That surprises me. And I’m interested to see how that will develop. I’m amazed how clever people are. James Blake was here a while ago for a DJ set and he was only 18 years old at the time. Everything he said was really clever. The guys from Ill, or Kris [f#x], Nika and so on, they’re really advanced for their age. I’m impressed by it. At that age, I was a total arsehole…

But I’m still waiting for the 16-year-old genius sitting in a room somewhere who comes up with the new thing. It just hasn’t happened. The last things of importance were techno, house and hip hop, and since then there’s been nothing. What we hear today is simply repetition. And that isn’t necessarily all bad. It isn’t just repetition but also a carrying forward; so in that sense it’s evolution. I also ask myself whether it’s even possible to create anything new. Because, you see, we’re living in a retro age. But I’m still waiting for someone to go and do something completely crazy. I’m looking forward to it.

But there won’t be any youth revolutions any more, like rock’n’roll, punk, hip hop or techno. It just won’t happen. Which I think is a shame, because I loved that feeling. I’ve experienced many youth revolutions in my life. Young people today won’t be able to experience that. This elation when suddenly everyone just throws themselves at the new thing; the idealism that takes place there. Where you just say, “I’m quitting my job: I’m a punk now.” That doesn’t exist anymore. That’s probably where these thoughts about security come from. First the traineeship, the degree and then I’ll make some electronic music in my bedroom. And when it doesn’t work out, I’ll become Professor for Computing or some such. But young people do want it, this infamous nightlife. It’s still in them. That’s why they never come to the club before midnight. We tried it on Sundays, but no one came. I wonder what they do beforehand. They can’t just watch Tatort [1] until 2 a.m.! They really get here at 2 a.m. Sober.

Nika Breithaupt The first time I came here, I didn’t live in Hamburg yet. I came to Hamburg with a couple of friends and we went to the Pudel. My first impression was “Wow, what the hell kind of place is this!” Back then I only knew it from hearsay. It must have been a Sunday because I heard Ralf DJing – a Father Christmas playing drum’n’bass. There were about ten people here. And I knew straight away: “This is a strange, special place.” At some point I moved to Bremen and started studying there. During that time, I came to Hamburg again and again, and the Pudel was a place where I felt good, musically. After two years I moved to Hamburg. I was then together for a while with Alex [Solman] who does the flyers for MFOC. We met on a Sunday. That’s how I became part of the family. Then I started to work here. Charlotte, who is also head of staff, always ran one Wednesday night every month. On one occasion, for whatever reason, she couldn’t make it, and she asked me if I wanted to stand in for her. But I didn’t have any desire to become a DJ – and that’s still how it is today. I also mainly DJ here. But yeah, I just got more and more involved. At some point I started organizing events here too. The Pudel also had a massive influence on my own musical development.

KJ If this were to disappear… to create a new space like this one, it just wouldn’t be possible. This place is full of stories. There are people who got to know someone here fifteen years ago and come back again and again because of that. For me it’s also something very emotional, coming here.

NB Totally. For me, the walls are a symbol for this. They’ve really soaked up the years.

KJ There are no rules in the Pudel – except that no idea is allowed to get throttled at birth. And that at some point on Sunday Ralf and Tim must play. Apart from that, there’s no day when anything is set in stone. It’s always different. You come in on Monday and classical music is playing and the next Monday there’s a concert. So you never come here with any preconceptions. Often, people simply come in for a beer and bump into each other again on another night without expecting it.

NB Sometimes during the week one of these magical moments take place that are completely beyond normality, that you can’t possibly classify – in a musical sense, but also in terms of the people who come here. That’s why it never runs dry. There are no norms. Anyone can come here. There’s no dress code and that’s why there’s always a mixed crowd.

KJ In the last five years, I’ve been here often and it really hasn’t ever run out of steam. Because the Pudel is always open, and has been so for years, it’s simply there for you. So when I want to go out on a Tuesday, I don’t need to think, “Ah, the club’s only open from Thursday to Sunday”. There’s always the opportunity to come here when you need to. Every day. I don’t know what I would do without the Pudel. I’d be completely stuck. You just can’t exist without it.

KJHamburg has this tech-house-scene, if you want to call it a ‘scene’. There are certainly a couple of clubs that focus on this music the Ballsaal, the Egon. I would find it very frustrating to be part of such a scene for any length of time. Also because there are parameters if you want to organise events at such places. The events have to fit inside the box. And personally, I find the box pretty damn small. The Pudel is different. It’s simply amazing to spend a night playing tracks here. You can bring completely diverse music along. And you can play it as well! Even though this means new musical directions that you yourself didn’t expect.

KJ The question is, how far can you go in this direction without disrupting things. In my opinion, you should change up several times in an evening. I sometimes do that when experimental acts play here. I please the crowd at the beginning and lure them into a false sense of comfort. That works really well, because then they all feel so cosy and then… Bam, a cut! That has an interesting effect. And the people who come sort of know to expect it. Anything can happen. There are often people here who remain intrigued because they’ve never heard a certain kind of music before. In other clubs, that kind of cut would probably empty the dance floor. There’s that whole party-concept make sure the people have something to drink at the beginning, make sure they hang around, create a bit of an atmosphere… Here you can be more uncompromising in that respect.

[1] German television program on Sundays, of comparable omnipotence to Eastenders