..and holy shit my perspective on the genre of techno has been changed completely once again. I’ve only been going to clubs and raves for about a year now but still get so amazed when I have a different experience on the dance floor. Let me tell you about my night.
It starts off at home waiting to get the location with suspense. At around 19:00 we get the mail but quickly they announce that they’ve had to change location because of circumstances. Next mail goes out at around 00:00 and that is when I head out into the night. I get there at 02:00 and about 100 people are waiting outside, chatting, smoking in the freezing cold. They were still setting up the sound system so we get in at 03:00. Seeing as this was a metal shed with holes in the walls “inside” was barely inside but at least enough to keep the place dark and filled with smoke. And the atmosphere of the place was really cool as well. Walls filled with grafitti and an overall underground vibe. The first dj played a good warm-up set, nothing out of the ordinary but it got everyone dancing as we desperately needed to get the heat up haha. Slowly but surely people were taking their jackets off and were able to move more freely. There was a really friendly vibe all around the crowd and a lot of chatting going on. At 04:00 Shlømo started his set and instantly brought the energy levels up to a 10. His hard hitting but still funky, french style techno had everyone dancing and smiling so hard together. He was using a lot of disco/hip-hop/funky vocal samples and it fit the style really great. Overall a great, really fun set that got everyone comfortable with each other which I think was crucial for what was about to come next.
06:00 Alex.Do starts his set. From this point on I do not know what time is anymore and my sense of self is totally shattered (Im in my bed crying just writing about and re-living this). He sets the mood instantly with some dark chords and a buzzing drone, spreading a darkness over the floor. For the entirety of his set he puts the crowd in mass hypnosis. Not letting up for a single moment. No one was smiling or dancing hard anymore. Just flowing in an seemingly endless sea of loops and madness. Building up slow, super loopy grooves for 10-15-20 minutes at a time. One more hypnotic than the next and impossible to get out of. Where every single sound added or taken away made the biggest difference. I have never experienced techno like this live before (mainly more “hard” and “dancy” artists) but I was in love. Never in my life have I felt pleasure like in this state of trance. I went to the front for a while and watched him do his thing. Super focused, in the zone, with totalt control over his decks and mixer. Adjusting things every second and you could really tell that he cares deeply about his craft. Other than that my eyes were shut and mind somewhere else for the entirety of the set. He played some faster more bouncy tracks at the end to get the crowd out of the trance but still veiled in darkness.
When Alex was done there was this kind of “where do we go from here?” feeling in the crowd. But that was quickly washed away when either Monument or Techno inferno (both organizers) residents started playing their b2b set. Im not sure who it was because I never saw a time-table but it was such a great set to carry us into the next day. Keeping up with Alex loopy sound they played a similar but less melodic and more hard hitting set. Sometimes stripped down to only 2-3 sounds going on and it really forced you to keep dancing even if you were tired and coming down. The music stopped and party ended at 11:00, around 50 people were left at that point. There were probably around 300 people there during the night.
I really gotta give a huge amount of props to the organizers for making this happen in a time where the police are shutting down and harassing almost every single rave. And having the balls to book such talented international artists with the risk of being shut down. Thank you u/Henningski and more! And thank you everyone that was there contributing to the vibes.
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