inthemix with… Dubfire & Stephan Bodzin @ Arq, Sydney (06/06/08)
Strolling up to the front entrance of Arq for the first time for the very first time last Friday night, at 11:30pm it was a pleasure to be greeted by a small queue and polite door staff, only having to wait in the cold for no more than two minutes. On entry, we proceeded to cloak our jackets and head for the Minimal Fuss room – under the mistaken impression that this was in fact the main room. After the hard, driving beats provided by Pete Nouveau resulted in our heads bopping back and forth uncontrollably along with an associated rattling of the kneebones, we realised something was amiss and decided to check out the rest of the venue.
On entry to the real main room at almost midnight on the dot, we realised that it wasn’t our entry that was being greeted by the roar of a packed shoulder-to-shoulder crowd; but rather that of the shiny bald head and black rimmed glasses so famously donned by Stephan Bodzin. Enthusiastically joining in the roar of the crowd, Bodzin obliged by wasting no time whatsoever in getting right into the mix of things with a banging tech number, and from what I heard, right in line from where Robbie Lowe had left off. It was at that moment when I understood the hype over what I’d been told was one of the best sound systems in Sydney. Arq can certainly deliver, and there wasn’t one ounce of bass distortion – only pure, crisp, unadulterated German techno. The addition of impressive lasers and strobes also made the moment memorable, providing some good entertainment on the now bouncing dancefloor.
With the promise of this set being ‘live’, I was initially a little pessimistic, having been disappointed by countless other artists claiming to be performing ‘live’ sets when in reality, the only thing live about it was the body behind the decks. Bodzin however was not one of these artists. A video camera catching his movements behind the equipment and broadcasting it to a massive visual screen above his head allowed the average punter to gaze on in admiration, of the skill and expertise oozing from his tricky fingers. Certainly, enough to encourage this plucky punter to push his way to the front right side of the dancefloor and get a glimpse of what was going on. The first element to catch your attention was the white gloves worn by Bodzin, assumedly for the purpose of working the various tools he was using, these being the three midi controllers, the Chaos Pad, Firebox, MacBook Pro and Lemur (the electronic device made famous by Bjork’s musical crew). In terms of setting a standard for a real ‘live’ performance, my hat goes off to Bodzin.
The set was full of glitchy minimal/tech numbers, reminiscent of that prevalant German sound and Bodzin’s past collaborations with the likes of Oliver Huntemann, Thomas Schumacher and Marc Romboy. I personally enjoyed the first half of Bodzin’s set more so than the second, but this was to be expected as the opening had more of a melodic flow to it whereas the pinnacle of the second half was filled more with huge buildups and heavy drops. One thing was for sure; the night had started off amazingly, 100 per cent attributed to the greatness of Stephan Bodzin.
It was then at 1:30am that the man dubbed by Pete Tong as the “deeper half of *Deep Dish*”, none other than Ali ‘Dubfire’ Shirazania graced the decks to a roar that reflected the crowd’s anticipation of the international superstar. While seemingly preparing for his set, a dark winding track filled the speakers for a good few minutes that didn’t seem to go anywhere, leaving many on the dancefloor wondering what exactly was going on; this not being quite the ideal start that everyone was hoping for. Thankfully, the next track dropped and was quite indicative of what was to come for the rest of the night. Obviously having chosen to go with the German (specifically Berlin) style of minimal techno, the night was then filled with enough bass to bring down the Berlin Wall for a second time. However, there were quite a few moments when the mixing was somewhat questionable, unusual when you consider that many of his recent sets (his Essential Mix in particular) were flawless. The view from the second level and side stage showed that he was using a mixing program and no decks, and no changing of any CDs in the CDJs – which was a little disappointing. In spite of this the track selection was brilliant, with the entire dancefloor lapping up everything he had to offer, including his collaboration with Oliver Huntemann aptly named Diablo, Radio Slave’s Grindhouse (Dubfire Terror Planet Mix), his own Emissions and Ribcage and Plastikman’s Risk Assessment. I found the set a little unimaginative and would have preferred something more along the lines of his Essential Mix, but as this was a side show, it was fair enough he would be laying down what we’d generally want to be hearing in a dark cave – with the addition of a state-of-the-art sound system, of course.
Overall, the track selection made up for the occasional technical errors and the set was still to be remembered as a great one; however, in all honesty I very much enjoyed Bodzin more than Dubfire. If there is one thing to be taken away from Friday night, it’s that anyone lucky enough to be graced with the headcaving characteristics of German techno won’t be soon forgetting it; neither in their minds, nor in the constant ringing of their eardrums afterwards.
Stace the Mace says...
Bodzins set was incredible, I was pretty unimpressed with Dubfire, especially when he arguably the biggest name in underground dance music right now. Mixing was woeful