You really couldn’t find an artist who epitomises the atmosphere and musical ideology of Funktrust more than Malente does. The first time I ever heard the German producer and DJs now infamous track “We came to Party” was at The ‘Trust many, many, many beers ago, and despite having heard it pretty much every time I have been there since (shoutouts to the Learned Hand) I have never seen it fail to get everyone on the dancefloor.

So it was with great excitement that I headed along to Funktrust for the first time in ages to see the man whom the Funktrust boys have claimed as their own. Arriving relatively early to a chilled but anticipatory crowd, we were greeted excitedly at the door as always by Monsieur’s Styles and Hand and led straight to the bar for what would be, in traditional Funktrust fashion, the first of many drinks for the night.

The room filled quickly and I was noticing a lot of familiar Funktrust Faces in the crowd who had obviously made the return to their favorite haunt to see a DJ that we had heard so much about over the last couple of years. With the bass heavy hip-hop beats of Will Styles starting to get people on the dancefloor, and the anticipation building, we made ourselves at home in a free space and starting enjoying the old-school breaks – beers firmly in hand.

By the time Malente came on, the now packed dancefloor was well lubricated and bouncing all over the place, ourselves included. Starting of with some older funk samples and slower beats, he quickly moved the party up a gear into party breaks and his well known style of electro tinged funk.

It quickly became obvious that his mixing style follows on from the type of music he produces, with mixes, drops and cuts being executed with irreverent flair and no regard for genre. This style of course fit perfectly with the tradition which Funktrust has upheld over the last 3 years and he soon had the crowd going absolutely crazy.

Dropping mostly his own tunes and remixes, including both the original and the breaks remix of “We Came to Party” and most of the tracks off his recent “No Risk, No Funk” album, he also dropped tunes from the recently released Mashed Up Funk bootleg EP which is rumoured to be his very own and features party breaks and funk remixes of artists such as Michael Jackson, Jamiroquai and the Beastie Boys.

The vibe in the room was electric, with people breaking and dancing on every available surface as he worked the crowd into a frenzy. Suffering from the effects of not having any dinner and the large quantities of alcohol consumed, we were forced to depart before the end of Malente’s set, however we were told that it was impossible to pry him from the decks as he ended up playing back to back with the Learned Hand till the very end when they shared another “We Came To Party” moment together.

All in all, one of the best Funktrusts ever, although the train ride home the next morning was not so enjoyable…