The Bunker weekly has been hosting the best international talent in techno and house for more than five years in New York City. (For the past two, they've set up camp in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.) We walked into the back room of Galapagos Art Space to find a completely black room warmly lit by only a few red lights that gave the space a ghostly glow, arriving just in time to hear Daniel Bell’s first track pumped out of a properly tuned Turbo sound system. It was 11:30 PM, and the room was nearly empty, but within 30 minutes it began to fill with party-goers eager to see what many consider to be one of the founding fathers of minimal techno perform a seven-hour set.
Daniel Bell mixes records with a surgeon-like attention to detail, and I watched him concentrating throughout the night on every blend with unwavering focus. After each perfect beat-match, he then took the utmost care smoothly EQing both tracks, making sure that the very best sounds of both records combined to create perfectly syncopated patterns.
Easing the crowd into his first hour, Bell began the set with graceful deep house. Those soul-stirring tracks became the backbone of the extended set. By 1:00am, with the room completely filled, the set focused on micro-rhythms, shuffling highs, and deeper basslines. Bell settled into a comfortable groove that caused several rows of dancing revelers to form. The rest of the crowd seemed content to chat and simply enjoy the music, likely saving their energy for the long haul, but once Bell transitioned into funkier tech-house territory, he finally got a response from an otherwise subdued room and began to effortlessly weave in and out of an impressive amalgamation of classic house, contemporary tech-house, acid-tinged techno, and a few particularly bleepy numbers.
The music ranged from cerebral and minimal to warm and inviting, peppered with steady tribal rhythms and some more energetic techno. Recent releases on Perlon, Hello?Repeat and Oslo and were intermingled with rare and unreleased gems. During quieter moments meant to give the dancers a break, he brought in hypnotic and lush tracks that were rhythmically spacious and beautiful.
By hour four, a well-lubricated crowd expected Bell to take things up a notch, and he didn’t disappoint. The music moved into more percussive territory at a slightly peppier tempo while still maintaining his distinguishing funk underneath. The crowd responded particularly well to Friendly People’s 'Cap’n Can’t Get Right.' Bell then took everyone by surprise and managed to mix in Mory Kante’s 'Tama,' perfectly blending its afro-rhythms and jolly vocals into an otherwise techno-heavy series of records.
In the final hour, our fearless leader took things into extremely deep and minimal territory. The straggling after-hours patrons blissfully marched and swayed to the bleeps, clicks and ticks, and Bell’s mixing was just as tight as it was during the beginning of his set. After several drinks, we made the ultimate fan faux pas and actually made a request that he play his own track 'Electric Shock.' To my surprise, he decided to use that as his penultimate tune. The perfect ending to a perfect set.
Photo credit: Seze