Bless your little heart. Hazy Pockets has just rode into town. Cowboy-conjurer, dedicated disco dilettante, Berlin DJ by way of Texas and California, Joel Isaac Black is a memorable, if not divisive figure, a tireless soul man preaching boogie music in a robotic techno town. Hazy Pockets’ marathon sets steal from the best and give to both the rich and poor, ecstatic dancing for the raver kids and the suits, human-level soul music at the club. In his last years as both DJ and chef at Berlin’s Kater Holzig and Kater Blau clubs and Fame/Katerschmaus restaurant, Joel’s primary calling has been honing a rigorous instinct for performance and service, often the both combined. Long nights in the open kitchen, riding the pulse of a packed house of fine diners, followed by even longer Berlin club nights, pushing dancers into soulful ecstasy with relentless disco-house, acid-funk, and blues-stomp, Joel is a worker dedicated to his craft. Your enjoyment. It’s working-class blues, drinking music, it’s oh-my-god-we-work-so-hard-we’re-gonna-have-a-good-time-tonight music! Joel was born in Texas to a blues musician father, harmonica and swamp guitar his lullabies. Moving out West to L.A, working first as a rock ’n’ roll drummer, and later a studio owner and producer, Joel continued to chase that certain guttural, soulful sound he was introduced to at an early age. Arriving in Berlin, re-baptised at the discotheque, he is still seeking those uplifting, funky moments to this day, albeit in maximal dance floor form. Drawing upon a decade of crate-digging and curating a world-renowned vinyl store in Los Angeles, drumming for an array of West-Coast pop-rock supernovas, Hazy Pockets’ music arsenal is extremely diverse, a conscious love-letter to both the undeniable pop hooks and the obscure dirty bass counterparts. Funky-disco-acid house in subtle winks and deliberate bounce, but all imbued with a human funkiness that shakes it all loose.