Have you been to Berlin? How about Detroit? For any techno fans, these cities are the ultimate breeding ground for the electronic dance world: heaps of history, heaps of artists, heaps of music.

What if I said that you could experience the music and nightlife of both these cities in one venue, in one night, right here in Melbourne? Well, it happened, with a few of the world’s finest techno producers. The philosophy of the event promoters, Novel, is all about giving Melbourne something different and new by touring artists that don’t come around too often. Their vision was brought to life perfectly as they hosted John Roberts, Fritz Kalkbrenner and Octave One at Brown Alley last Friday.

The opening act, John Roberts, looks like a very quiet, unassuming person. Playing an Ableton set with pretty much all his own music, the second-to-none sound system in Brown Alley made listening to his polished sounds a real experience.
I went to Berlin for the first time this year, and watching John Roberts definitely brought back memories. When I looked around, I saw the same verve in the crowd that I saw in the Berliners and heard the same music that has put it on the world stage. Even though John is not actually a German himself (he’s actually American, believe it or not) he spends a lot of time over there. His music fits perfectly with that scene, and was soaked up by Melbourne crowd that night. Just picturing the silhouettes of people moving to the smooth techno still gives me that warm feeling.

The dance floor was warmed up very nicely for the next act, Fritz Kalkbrenner, whose brother played in the same venue for the first time at the start of the year. Now, Fritz doesn’t break any new boundaries when it comes to his music: his sound has actually been branded ‘techno-pop’, and I think that’s the perfect way of describing it. It’ easy to listen to, very smooth and simple and palatable to most tastes.

Mr. Kalkbrenner had the plum timeslot of 1.30am and everyone was ready to dance. He filled the coffers of the punters perfectly and dished out some solid tunes. Like John, he played mainly his own music on a laptop set from his album, Here Today, Gone Tomorrow. Having listened to this religiously over the past couple of weeks, hearing the songs played by the man himself in front of an enthusiastic crowd was something else.

The highlight from Fritz was, of course, his encore, right at the end. Fritz may envy his brother for getting a lot of the limelight recently, but he can still claim Sky and Sand as one of his best songs to date. It doesn’t matter that the track is a collaboration, his distinct sound still shines through and when he dropped the track the energy stepped up a notch. It was electric.

Next up, after Dave Pham changed the tone nicely with a half hour set, was Octave One: the stars of the show. Their thumping techno gripped the crowd straight from the onset, and didn’t let go until the very end.

The sound became noticeably different when the Burden brothers came on. If you look at it one way, we had just travelled from Berlin to Detroit – which are worlds apart in distance and sound. Their sound was a little more basic than the previous two headliners and had a more 90s feel to it – but that is the joy of their music. It was good back then, and still holds up today. They were on very late (around 4am) so only the true fans stayed, which made for a passionate crowd. You can imagine the response when they played Black Water.

All in all, Novel delivered an international night out in Melbourne that was really something special. Fritz definitely stood out for me as the highlight, but each act was worth paying for. If only every night out could be like that.