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Music & clubs

Ethio-Jazz to Balkan beats: Seven gigs to catch this October

From Balkan beats to icy electropop, we round up the best live concerts to catch this month.

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Il Civetto have become firm local favourites with their infectious blend of Balkan beats, swing and folk. Photo: Jan Felix

As the nights draw in and indoor shows return, our music editor picks out seven highlights to soundtrack your autumn.

Il Civetto

POP These Kreuzberg natives are firm fan favourites in Berlin, and with good reason – their infectious blend of Balkan beats, swing and folk simply demands to be danced to. It’s as close to a hoedown as you’ll get in the city.

Festsaal Kreuzberg. Oct 9, starts 20:00.

Smerz

ELECTRONIC Icy electropop from the über-cool Norwegian duo who, having broken onto the scene a few years back, might well have fallen down the industry rabbit hole. Instead, their expertly crafted 2021 debut album Believer is a brooding, disorienting odyssey and well worth the wait.

Volksbühne. Oct 15, starts 21:00.

Mulatu Astatke

JAZZ The godfather of modern Ethio-jazz, Astatke is as powerful a force at 77 as he ever was. In the guiding hands of the old master, this concert may get as close to sheer serenity as is possible on a Berlin stage.

Metropol. Oct 18, starts 20:30.

Squid

INDIE Where do you begin to describe a band like Squid? When genre goes out the window, you have to focus on feeling. Bombastic, riotous, intense, poetic… Whatever your response to their music, you can be guaranteed to feel it full force. One of the best live bands for years and years.

Lido. Oct 18, starts 20:30.

Liefur James

ELECTRONIC This deft composer‘s productions meander gently between soulful, jazzy numbers and rain-streaked electronica. Stylistically diverse and always tinted with a signature noir, James‘ music exudes a kind of detached intimacy that yearns to be heard even as it shies from sight.

Burg Schnabel. Oct 19, starts 20:30.

Twin Tribes

POST-PUNK Goths, rejoice – Urban Spree is finally back! And with it some of the finest proponents around from the poppier end of modern post-punk. Think Stranger Things mall-rats with back-combed hair and leg warmers. Feel seen? You’ll love this gig.

Urban Spree. Oct 20, starts 20:00.

Bearcubs

ELECTRONIC One of those artists synonymous with the phrase ‘sweater weather’, the London-based producer excels at the kind of misty, damp melancholia for which the British Isles are so renowned. A skilled composer, Bearcubs concerts are rich in their subtlety and deeply entrancing.

Kantine Am Berghain. Oct 24, starts 20:00.