Review: “DJ VLK” – Ballermann Partykeller

Every year during the summer, drunken Germans had to the island of Mallorca to engage in drunken antics. These “Ballermann” party hard and the new release on Strategic Tape Reserve, „DJ VLK”‘s Ballermann Partykeller purports to be the ideal soundtrack for these summer months. 

Except, you’re never quite sure what you’ll get with an STR release. What lies behind the green tape cover, with its Comic Sans and balloon fonts, and what one can only assume is an incredibly accurate photo of „DJ VLK” in action? 

60 minutes of plundered Balleric beats looped and mangled to the very edge of recognisability is the simplistic answer but there is more below the surface. There is still a structure, and a form to this mix, with the same swells and rises, drops and come downs as the music it has plundered. This is still at its heart dance music. 

Admittedly you may not be in a big club surrounded by thousands while you Dave to this but it can illicit the same feelings in a darkened room, or party cellar if you have one. 

Experimental music has a reputation for being a po faced and serious business, and to often a sense of humour is seen as a negative quality, a hint that the musician is not taking things seriously enough, but thank goodness for Strategic Tape Reserve, showing us how wrong that view is. At the same time, Ballermann Partykeller is both a funny joke, and a very good piece of music, a fitting experimental tribute to those Ballermann and their partykellers.