- The New Year celebrations firmly behind us, it was time for the hard-working people at Musiklab to kickstart 2006 in earnest with a night that promised some energetic techno courtesy of Chris Liebing. Having offered his services for the entire night, tonight provided a rare opportunity for the Waterford posse to experience a start-to-finish set from the German DJ/producer.
Looking around the venue, it was evident that every effort had been made to create the perfect stage that would allow Liebing to make his prescence felt. Anyone who witnessed this man's set at Global Gathering Ireland 2005 should remember an amazing vibe that left the crowd begging for more and tonight was no different.
Gritty, mechanical, rhythm shuffles got the night underway with Chris keeping things ticking over as the venue filled up. Using plenty of EFX and dropping out the low end, Liebing teased the crowd by hinting at what was in store for the evening, without showing his hand too early.
Playing from 2 laptops fed into an Allen+Heath Xone92, Chris also used Traktor 3 (the new version now compatible with Final Scratch) allowing him to use 4 virtual decks. His other battle weapons included Ableton for its ability to loop track sections and also plenty of live effects, which he added on top of the tracks being played.
As the temperature rose, so did the volume and the numbers in the crowd; tough percussion used to great effect to keep the intensity building, and clattering mids used to create intervals of relative peace when the bass took a rest, as if to preserve the energy for later.
Trentemoller's "Polar Shift", a Hardcell track and a mix of Dinky's "Acid in My Fridge" all got the Liebing workover with brutal drums pushing the tempo on; the crowd responding somatically and whoops going up all around the Forum. It was time to strap yourself in for the tornado that was on its way!
Chris Liebing's sound is rooted in the German techno associated with the Tresor club and label and although he has moved on by adding a personal twist to create his own rhythm signatures, tonight it was a tough, and at times uncompromising breed of techno on display. The BPMs were however, kept within the reach of the human body, allowing the not-so-bionic among us to keep up.
Huge crescendos in noise, in combination with the venue descending into complete darkness, almost petrified the party-goers as the lighting rig took a breather to create an arcane ambience. Then out of this black hole came those pounding rhythms, a pattern which repeated itself as the night wore on.
Liebing used material off his Collabs album with Speedy J, in addition to tracks like Tony Rohr's "Slowburn"; the military, marching beats getting us all hopping around. The superb visual feast, again provided by Stress, really added to the vibe created inside the venue.
A quick glance at my watch revealed it was only 1 am, and how Liebing would manage to maintain this heightened tension for another 2 hours began to weigh on my mind. At one stage he provided a brief 'Intermission' with his remix of a Joey Beltram track recently released on the Tresor "It's not over" album. Still, many onlookers were amazed as to how Liebing was keeping this relentless rhythm rolling along, while apparently having plenty left in the tank to step it up when needed.
The music lacked melodic elements at times and although repetitive to some, it was highly effective in galvanising the capacity crowd into a real stomp - the combined body heat of the dancers could have provided enough energy to power the whole city! Looking down onto the dancefloor from the stage it was quite an amazing sight with flailing limbs thrashing about as the night progressed. In fact, one would have been well-advised to wear a crash helmet and body armour when crossing the dancefloor.
As the night finished, Chris wound things up on a real high with an exclusive and unsigned Phil Kieran track called 'Alloy Mental'. There was quite a furore on the part of the up-for-it crowd too; the stage almost besieged by autograph hunters and all manner of hero-worshippers in an attempt to get the ultimate souvenir from Liebing - an apt indicator of the success of the night.
Big thanks to Timo for his help and additional info on the night.
Special thanks to Luke and the Musiklab team, who were once again pivotal in bringing another great night to the city of Waterford.