Photo credit /
Les Fistons - Lead, Nina Kraviz
Jacob Khrist - Voiski, Varg, Avalon Emerson, Midland
Keffer - Marcel Dettmann
Mathieu Foucher - Fan, Carl Craig, Crowd, Balaclava, Balloon, The Martinez Brothers, Moodymann, Lasers
The Peacock Society 2017: Five key performances
- PublishedJul 18, 2017
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- Paris's nightlife has perked up in recent years thanks to venues like Concrete, online radio outposts like Rinse France and the blossoming of a new generation of talent across the city. On the festival front, The Peacock Society has been doing its bit, and in just five years it's established itself as one of the city's main electronic events. The 2017 edition once again took place in a small corner of Parc Floral, its diverse lineup deftly combining some of the biggest electronic acts in the world (Dixon, Jackmaster, Kaytranada) with more niche DJs (Peggy Gou, KABLAM, Ancient Methods) and a smattering of French acts both new and old (Apollonia, AZF, Kekra). The strategy clearly worked, as both nights were stuffed to the brim with energetic throngs of young, mostly Parisian ravers who danced until dawn.
Here are five key performances from across the weekend.
Voiski Early on Friday night, it felt like The Peacock Society might be a spacious affair. Make no mistake, there were already thousands of people onsite, most of them happily taking in the leftfield excursions of Carl Craig's Versus Synthesizer Ensemble. But there was also plenty of room to maneuver between stages, and those looking for a break from the action could easily find a patch of empty grass outside. First impressions can be deceiving, though—by the time Voiski began his live set at 12:30 AM on the festival's main stage, Warehouse, the dance floor had swelled exponentially. It suddenly became clear that not only was the festival going to be packed, but that the crowd wanted nothing more than to let loose. Voiski had come prepared and wasted no time ramping up the energy levels. Though the French producer has spent much of the past few years delivering a run of impressive releases for top labels like Delsin, Dekmantel and L.I.E.S., it's during his live sets that his talents shine brightest. On Friday, he hit the crowd with a steady barrage of kick drums, while bringing the mood up and down by filtering in differing arrays of synth melodies. At times, the vibe was dark and driving, but more often than not the music was streaked with bright bits of analog acrobatics. In keeping with his own infectiously bouncy presence in the booth, Voiski never lingered on any one sound too long, his machinations perfectly setting the tone for a long night of partying.
Marcel Dettmann As strange as it sounds, Marcel Dettmann is often misunderstood. Although he's undoubtedly one of the world's biggest DJs, his long-running affiliation with Berghain has led to the notion—even among some of his fans—that he's some sort of greyscale techno monolith. To be sure, the average Dettmann set will likely include a certain amount of dark-hued punishers, but anyone who's seen the man at work knows that he's just as effective when he strays from a linear blueprint. Dettmann followed Voiski on Friday, flexing all of his DJ muscles over the course of two hours. One minute he'd be playing a rigid piece of ominous techno, the next he'd switch it up with a slice of industrial breakbeat or the kind of EBM that populated his recent Selectors compilation for Dekmantel. These flourishes didn't come across as random asides or wild detours. Instead, the marriage of stompy post-punk with ice-cold techno sounded like the most natural thing in the world. Moving fluidly between genres and eras, he kept the dance floor enthralled, which is probably why the crowd gave him such an enthusiastic ovation when he finally let off the throttle.
Varg Set apart from the main festival complex (which housed both the Warehouse and Squarehouse stages), a smaller building nearby hosted the Nightclub stage. On Friday, Parisian techno collective Blocaus took over the space, piecing together a lineup that included Ancient Methods, Codex Industries and Varg. Although the room was hot and poorly ventilated, the soundsystem was banging and the programming was downright adventurous compared to the more straightforward sounds that dominated elsewhere. Swedish rabble-rouser Varg was particularly compelling. Taking the stage with Gucci bags under his arm and a dark hood around his head, he opened with an extended patch of crackling, washed-out ambience and all but brought the room to a standstill. Drinking champagne and performing live with what looked like just a laptop and a MIDI controller, the Northern Electronics affiliate continued to buck convention over the course of his hour-long set, conjuring hypnotic pieces of fast-paced, static-laden techno before suddenly changing tack and taking the music in a completely different direction. (At one point, he even played a lurching bit of hazy drone-rap.) This stop-and-start, up-and-down aesthetic persisted throughout, resulting in a performance that wasn't smooth, wasn't precise and, more importantly, wasn't like anything else at the festival that night. Sure, it may have been a bit silly and self-indulgent at times—Varg has occasionally been called a troll, with good reason—but it was also downright refreshing. In an era when so many artists are essentially doing tiny variations of the same thing, Varg was intentionally forging his own path and reasserting that there's still plenty of room to get weird.
Avalon Emerson On Saturday night, Resident Advisor took over the Squarehouse stage. While French acts AZF and Raheem Experience more than adequately warmed up the dance floor, the room properly came to life when Avalon Emerson hit the decks. The Berlin-based artist wasted little time in ratcheting up the tempo, diving headfirst into a ravey session of techno with a healthy dose of breakbeats. Emerson has something of a penchant for brash drum patterns and bright, crunchy synths, but even though she often pulls from a vintage sound palette, her DJing never comes across as an exercise in nostalgia. This set was no different—whether she was reaching for an old classic, an underappreciated gem or something new that nobody had ever heard before, she made it all sound unmistakably her own. Some of this undoubtedly stemmed from Emerson's celebrated arsenal of personal edits and remixes, but it went beyond selection. Simply put, she was a charismatic presence. Having seen her play countless times before (full disclosure: her first record came out on Icee Hot, a now-defunct label I used to run), I'm very familiar with her DJing, but on Saturday she performed with a palpable sense of confidence—some might call it a playful swagger—that took her talents to a whole new level. Beyond that, she exuded a genuine sense of joy from behind the decks. Plenty of DJs claim to love their craft, but Emerson is one of the few who manage to display that passion without crossing the line into over-the-top antics. If she can maintain the sheer vitality she displayed at The Peacock Society, there won't be many limits to how far she can go.
Midland Midland has been releasing music since 2010, and although he's dropped plenty of successful records in his career, none of them can touch last year's "Final Credits." It was one of the biggest tracks of 2016, and has likely left many people with the impression that a Midland set is going to be an extended session of loopy, sped-up disco anthems. In fairness, he did provide a few of those at Squarehouse, but his first hour largely consisted of brawny house and techno bangers. Taking the stage after Avalon Emerson and facing a sweltering room that was absolutely stuffed to the gills with young partiers, he let the drums do the work. That's not to say that the music was overly linear—there was a bassy hybrid for every straightforward techno cut. Nevertheless, melody took a back seat and the crowd stomped along as they were gradually pounded into a sort of gleeful submission. As the end of his set approached, Midland shifted into brighter territory, smartly rolling out a powerful medley of tunes from his Regraded label, including his own "Double Feature," Gerd Janson & Shan's recently announced "Surrender" and, of course, "Final Credits." After throttling their skulls for the better part of an hour, Midland still took people where they wanted to go. He got there, though, by following his own path—the mark of a truly impressive DJ.
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