- Lately, there's been news abounding of Croatia taking up its place on the worldwide clubbing map spurred largely by reports of the Garden, Soundwave and Airbound festivals, all happening in the same fishing village. After a month of travelling around the country, enchantingly beautiful as it was, I had concluded that whereas most of their admittedly cool sun-drenched beach clubs tended to cane that Guru Josh Project "Infinity" 2008 re-do, alongside other recycled mainstream material, those that had a decent (read: not aimed towards lads out in search of booze and women) music policy were less prevalent.
Exceptions included the aforementioned festivals, and Porat just down the coast; as well as its sister club Sirup in Zagreb. Set amongst glades of trees and sprinkled with ponds, this open-air club consists of a sandy amphitheatre for a main floor, with a pagoda bar area to one side, and another, smaller hut-enclosed dance floor. A stripped down lighting policy of a few lasers only completes a vibe that's solidly geared towards integrating music with nature. Also stripped down is the flavour of techno championed by Richie Hawtin, who was headlining the open night of a concentrated three-week schedule including several other Minus nights, Oslo Records, Lee Burridge, Andrew Weatherall and collaborations with clubs Tenax in Florence and Club de Visionnaire in Berlin.
Represented alongside these, however, is a fair share of local talent, including M Art, who warmed up the place with a trippy, leftfield blend of contrasting shades of techno that stayed subdued as much as it raised hands, the crowd being well into it already by midnight. UNzip Project from Tenax took things a bit more pumping, providing a nice bridge into Hawtin's set. Always interesting is the technical side of his activities; running four tracks on Traktor Scratch with one Macbook, and effects through Ableton Live on another, along with Native Instruments' new Maschine.
Tunes such as Gaiser's "Flashed" peeked their heads above the rolling body of deconstructed rhythms, but for the most part, the set was a scientifically-minded, clinical analysis of what works, techno-wise. Pushing forward throughout, with drops carefully placed to keep the motion and avoid standard four-bar phrases, he demonstrated a techno archetype that sometimes strayed too far towards the standard side of things, which may have been influenced by an over-involvement in technology rather than the music itself. Perhaps more to the point, the setting would have suited a deeper style, with more warmth and feeling. Thankfully about halfway through, he started to adjust to this and atmospheric pads washed the arena as the sun came up; with cheers accompanying each new wave of kicks.
Blighty's Chris Duckenfield and Porat resident Pytzek played back-to-back on the second floor throughout the night, contrasting the main floor with a synthier, more off-kilter tech house style driven by warm bass riffs and early '90s influences, and a healthy variation, with some lower-key material including "Bowyearhawks" by Jeff B. With more space to dance and chat, from a few conversations it was clear that the relative lack of quality underground electronic music elsewhere in Croatia was bringing people together at this event. The lovely surroundings didn't hurt, of course, and as one of the most special locations that I've ever been to for a party, if not right at the top, Porat should be seriously considered by anyone seeking a higher clubbing experience.