Beck's Fusions pres. The Berlin Sessions @ Shape, Perth (06/06/08)
Berlin is famous for many things including bratwurst and beer, but to anyone reading this review, they would know it is the Mecca of all things dance music. Some may say Ibiza still deserves a mention, but the ludicrous club prices and overall cheese factor limit limits its appeal for any discerning clubber. How can you argue with the city that gave birth to the Love Parade, the world’s first dance party that was attended by over a million people? Many would also consider Berlin to be the spiritual home of techno. Detroit may have been the birthplace of techno, but it would be fair to say that few have embraced the genre like the Germans and more specifically, Berliners. German pioneers Kraftwerk have been credited as pursuing the techniques and ideas that were heavily drawn upon by Derrick May and other techno pioneers (although they are from Dusseldorf).
Lest I digress, Germany’s favourite ale and supporter of live music Becks brought two of Berlin’s finest and one honorary Berliner over to Perth for the first of the Berlin Sessions shows, that will be taking in Sydney and Melbourne as well. Becks is a good supporter of live music in the West, bringing the Music Box to town every February and March and now the Berlin Sessions which will hopefully continue for years to come. Perth versions of east coast tours always seem to be streamlined a little on their way over the Nullabor and this year’s We Love Sounds was no exception. The Berlin Sessions picked up the gap with techno legends Ellen Allien and Modeselektor being recruited for the trip west to whip up a dance floor storm with their cranking mix of techno/electro/dubstep/glitch/IDM and everything else they choose to mix in. Oslo’s favourite space disco producer Lindstrom was thrown in the mix for some deep disco love rarely seen in Perth, which rounded out an amazing lineup at Shape and created quite a buzz around town.
With the show being sold out a couple of days before, limited tickets were available on the door but they were surely snapped up quickly and the venue was packed for the start of (Hans Peter) Lindstrom. Norway’s finest seemed to reinforce the notion that most DJs/producers are nerds, decking himself out in checked shirt and a bucket hat, but still looking cool as ice. His setup consisted of the ever-popular Macbook laptop running Ableton, which seems to be the weapon of choice for most producers doing ‘semi-live’ sets, and two midi keyboard controllers. It was always going to be interesting to see how Lindstrom got the dance floor moving with a lot of his material being on the lower range of ‘beats per minute’. Though when he kicked things off, the BPMs were up and running and this had punters gravitating towards the dance floor immediately. Dreamy synthscapes were woven in and out of handclap house beats creating the cosmic disco sound he is so well known for. Triggering all sorts of samples and percussive beats throughout the set, it made things very difficult to know when one track was starting and another finishing. This was no real surprise, with his soon to be released second album featuring only three tracks that will clock in at an average 25 minutes each. Visual stimulation was provided by live projections across Lindstrom and the walls behind him showing stunning scenes of fireworks, lightning bolts, expansive cityscapes, explosions and wispy smoke. The visuals really heightened the experience and it makes one wonder why they are so prevalent at festivals, yet generally seem conspicuously absent at small clubs. Running through tracks like his upbeat single Breakfast in Heaven and a couple of tracks from his debut LP It’s A Feedelity Affair, including fan favourite I Feel Space, Lindstrom really had the room moving. It was like being transported to another galaxy with lush strings, kettle drums, robotic keyboards and broken percussion echoing throughout the mix. Finishing up the set to a very healthy crowd ovation, Lindstrom wasn’t shy with the crowd and didn’t mind signing records and chatting with fans when his set had finished.
After the ovation from Lindstrom, the first lady of techno Ellen Allien took to the decks over the other side of the room for some hot and heavy beats. The owner of the esteemed BPitch records has DJed pretty much every club from here to Timbucktu and comes with a reputation the size of John Holmes’ you-know-what. Being a fraction shorter than expected (though you can never really tell with these things), Allien was dressed in a striped sailor type top and seemed cute in a baby lion kind of way, ie. cute and cuddly but could tear you to shreds if she wanted to (well your eardrums anyway). The pocket-rocket demanded respect! Kicking things off with what sounded like a remix of Bjork’s Earth Intruders, Allien put in a real two hours of power. With her most recent album Sool really stepping into the dark side with a definite industrial edge to it, one could have been forgiven for thinking that her set would have been a brooding and deep set, but it wasn’t to be. She kept the dance floor pumping for every minute of the set with her mixing and track selection being as expected, nothing short of perfect. It would have been surprising if anyone hadn’t been enjoying themselves with Allien dropping everyone from Apparat to her own tracks and playing a thoroughly techno, but very accessible set.
After a comprehensively impressive set from their label boss, the Modeselektor boys set up their live gear and were determined not to lose any of the atmosphere created by Allien. They did a good job of this with a bit of trademark humor on the microphone announcing, “We prepared something special for you guys tonight. Just kidding we’re going to lay down the same shit as usual,” and BOOM in came the bass. The bass was twisted and heavy, so so heavy. Playing a mix of about every dance genre under the sun, the boys were rocking out having a great time behind their expansive live setup. Intermittent broken beats, dubby percussion and some glitchy bleeps has the crowd wanting more even though they hadn’t stopped since Lindstrom. Playing a couple of tracks from recent album Happy Birthday, including Dark Side of the Sun featuring Puppetmastaz, the lads cheekily shook up a bottle of champagne and proceeded to spray it all over the front of the dance floor. Proving that you can always do something new in a DJ set with the champers spraying, the boys announced that they its was 3 O’clock and they unfortunately had a plane to catch. This was greeted with a couple of despondent moans from the crowd who obviously hadn’t cottoned on to the boys’ unique sense of humor. Name-checking, well I guess track checking, their homeboy Thom Yorke with their remix of his Eraser track Skip Divided, the boys kept the crowd excited with each new sample coming out of the twin Apples.
With the crowd thoroughly exhausted after an absolutely huge night of clubbing, the night seemed a resounding success with punters with some even proclaiming it “close to the best night out of the year to date”. Even if the west coast festivals miss out on big names like the ones playing tonight, if the Becks crew continue to put on first class shows like this one I’m sure it will be a fruitful relationship for all involved.
troids_master says...
modeselektor were bass heaven... my fave dance night all year for sure!