Had a really fun night at this party, well, once Joanne and I got over the shock of seeing again how expensive a night out here in Sydney is, compared to Berlin a few weeks before. We stayed at this till the very end, lights on, eveyone out at 5am.
Prior to the night, I was a bit concerned that Marcel Dettmann may just play hours of that cold, deep, stripped bare, building block techno that he and Ben Klock are known to play, produce and have on their labels. I like that sound, but hours of it, wouldn’t be very interesting, well, not to a crowd outside of a night at Berghain in there for the long haul. After seeing Marcel Dettmann play, I can tell he knows this too.
I was well impressed with the range of sounds and intensities he played here in Sydney. Mixing up some of that Dettmann/Klock sound with lots of memorable, melodic techno/house, and a little tech-house, and minimal, with many nods to past techno/house classics, and a large serve of some proper, percussive, hard, solid, techno compression, all kept under 127bpm (I like how techno has slowed down).
He kept my interest for his entire set, playing for more than 4 hours. I had a great jump around on the dance floor. Even with the changes of style/intensity throughout his set, it all seemed to flow well. He finished off with some interesting selections for his encore tracks, some electro, electronic-body-music, beatless melodic electronica, some Krautrock and Kraftwerk, respect. I think he was using both vinyl and CDs to play, a few slips in the mix here and there, but mostly he was solid and tight. I was left musically very satisified and inspired. Joanne noticed he was wearing a Sandwell District t-shirt too, very cool.
This party was going to be at Plantation at The Empire (old Palladium) in Kings Cross, but from what I heard management there kicked out all the recent house and techno nights/promoters, leaving the Disconnected crew with a tough time finding a new venue at the last minute. They ended up getting the side room at Space (above Shark Hotel) in the city, sharing the venue with the DefQon1 crew using the main room.
Probably no more than 100 people there for Disconnected in the side room, but enough for the small space to look/feel busy enough to create a vibe. Minimal lighting, lots of darkness, space to move, respectful dance-floor, with lots of friendly, familar music passionate people about, plus friendly staff and quick bar service, all win! The only negative was the sound system which struggled to push out any proper bottom end or volume intensity, but was adequate enough. I think every other sound system will fail me now though, when compared to experiencing Berghain’s. There was no sound bleed from the main room, and the DefQon1 kids stayed away, all good.
Some of the tracks Marcel Dettmann played that I knew/remember…
Aaron Carl(RIP) – Down
Gerd – Arkests Blaze
Justin Martin – The Sad Piano (Charles Webster Remix)
James Ruskin – Work (Steve Rachmad Remix)
Shed – My R-Class
Deuce – Cue Ed
Planetary Assault Systems – Hold It (Deuce Remix)
DJ Hyperactive – Wide Open
Lil Louis – Why’d U Fall ( I Called You)
Marcel Fengler – Sculptures
Richie Hawtin – 005
DJ Hyperactive – Music Box
Ray Kajioka – Steam
Function – Diassafected (Ben Klock Remix)
Junior Boys – Work (Marcel Dettmann Remix)
Tadeo – 4
Kraftwerk – Numbers
Kraftwerk – Computer World
Thanks for putting this on Disconnected crew, top night. So, Ben Klock next?