When I heard Kompakt’s 10th birthday party was being held in a conference centre I feared the worst, but the bare red bricks and vaulted ceiling of this cavernous venue were perfectly suited to a clubbing extravagnza, with space for well over 1000 people. From the crisp sound to the ease of getting around, everything seemed as professional and well organised as you might expect from such a major German label - though respectably decadent I might add.
Supermayer were given an early slot in the main room and they did their jolly thing with style to a crowd that stayed enthusiastic all night long. Former Orb producer Thomas Fehlman played in the much smaller second room, and his class showed. Fans squeezed in to enjoy his laptop set of dubby techno. Up front, Ewan Pearson seemed to have embraced the Germanic beat, and his skills just about kept him on top of his selection of melodic, riffing house and daring 3 deck mixes. Aril Brikha followed, though you might not have guessed - any hint of his work on the Transmat label was absent from the first half of his set, seemingly having forsaken the sounds of Detroit for a deep trancey feel ('micro trance' anyone?) Back to the second room and Reinhard Voigt played an intriguing live set, all soulful arpeggios and grand breakdowns – none of the tough, jarring beats you might have heard on his releases. After Voigt another live set, from Maxim Dangles, who kicked it out, raising the tempo and heart beats.
I get the impression that Kompakt have had a taste of success and can’t help striving for populism over anything else – their musical and accessible sound has probably introduced many people to house music, many of whom will have moved on to other things by now. They might be targeting people who aren’t actually into house music as such with their sound these days. Which is not necessarily a bad thing..
DJ Koze and Tobias Thomas finished off in the first and second rooms respectively, and whilst Tobias started with a harder techno edge and Koze (who's name means ‘drunken spewing’ by the way) dropped things right down to begin with the Nina Simone sampling minimal anthem of last summer, they were soon both playing comparable deep minimal beats. All rather subdued for 6am if you ask me. Koze manouvered his set admirably but I was a bit puzzled to hear him playing the kind of stuff you might warm up a headline DJ with when he was finishing the main room.
He's clearly a fine DJ, but I'm afraid I didn't wait to find out if something to get the crowd bouncing again was just round the corner.
Michael Curtis
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