- KOKO in London's Camden Town is a grand venue. The Playground on Saturday, August 22nd was my first time there, and I was looking forward to seeing how the techno of Juan Atkins, Gregor Tresher and Oliver Huntemann would work in the space. When I entered the building I immediately started exploring the former theatre, while onstage Agents Of Time held the growing crowd's attention. The Italian trio had filled a table with hardware, and were playing bass-heavy, melodic techno with a euphoric edge.
Gregor Tresher instantly broke the euphoria with a mix of pulsating basslines and percussion, which really got the floor moving. He suffered a minor technical glitch later on in his set, but it didn't seem to affect the crowd's feelings towards him. Next up was Juan Atkins, who I'd seen play live as Model 500 just a few weeks earlier at Dekmantel. He opened with raw drum patterns, before slowly bringing in the kicks. Bit by bit he ramped up the intensity until he was thrashing out fast techno, then he brought things back down with some lighter house and funk tracks.
Oliver Huntemann followed, filling the theatre with stunning and lightly arranged techno. The sounds became deeper and more low-slung as time moved on, putting the audience into a trance-like state. Like Tresher before him, Gary Beck killed any lingering flickers of euphoria with breakneck techno. His set's structure was a little drop-heavy for my tastes, but the floor was loving it. Bristol's Dubspeeka closed, veering off in a new direction entirely. While he dropped cerebral breakbeats to the delight of the remaining throng, I reflected on how well the music had suited KOKO.