Free techno you say? Hoorah! Friday nights rarely get better than that and better still it’s not just the usual dose of locals that came for nix, we also got to hear the celebrated clinical tones of techno auteur Robert Henke AKA Monolake. For those unfamiliar with Mr. Henke, he dwells in a niche entirely his own leaning towards the more experimental end of techno and often taking it off the deep end with his Layering Buddha and Studies for Thunder side projects. The trio of aforementioned aliases only scratches the surface of a resume that sports the creation of unique MIDI controllers (his own Monodeck and Monodeck II), various interactive art installations and not least of all involvement in the developing of Ableton’s rampantly popular Live software package. Struggling for breath? No surprises there then.

Being a Plexus event, the evenings entertainment at Uber wasn’t all about Monolake as there were a raft of local acts in support, one of which was to make for a pleasantly surprising debut. Tricktronix were out on a maiden voyage armed with a laptop and Access Virus primed for an auditory assault with more ammunition than the US Army. Veering from the depths of stripped back dubsteppish depravity to the nosebleed heights of neo-trance esque rainbow synth ravishing, the duo created more atmosphere than the early time slot they had would normally warrant and set the bar high. Time should hopefully have a kind effect on the development of Tricktronix and it’s doubtless the sincere hope of mostly everyone to have the pleasure of seeing their debut that they should get the opportunity to do so again.

Plonked into the warm up set for the coming Monolake onslaught was Spatial Anomaly who was engaged in the self-appointed duty of playing a set primarily filled with his own productions. Not to be viewed as purely indulgent however, treats were in store for the minimal fan. To cite a couple of the highlights Ricardo Villalobo’s remix of Shinedoe’s Phunk and Luciano’s remix of Mambotur’s Pacheco were typical representations of Spatial Anomaly’s own sound both in production and as a DJ. Unfortunately the sound seemed woolly by comparison to that of the previous act, something attributable more to the gear being used in the booth than the music itself yet something which requires some attention for future events held in the room involving DJs.

The hour had come for Monolake to make good on the promise his releases provided yet the end result came somewhat mixed. No doubt the sound quality was second to none, the rhythms were unique and the synths crisp, but the set lacked a certain je ne sais quoi or perhaps vibe. Henke created music more akin to sonic wallpaper, beautiful yet more suitable in creating atmosphere than actually dancing to through being so ethereal. This is a personal opinion but one which is rooted in fact, though there was a relatively well populated room for Henke to entertain very few people were actually dancing at all let alone with energetic abandon which which ought to be considered more imperative at an event which is held for the sake of people doing just that. In all seeing Monolake live wasn’t so much disappointing as simply different to what was expected, and maybe the tin should be relabeled to suit.