- One of the Montevideo club's key residents plays his final set before departing for Europe.
- Montevideo, small and laid-back, is dwarfed by the bustling Argentine metropolis Buenos Aires, which sits on the other side of the Río de la Plata. The Uruguayan capital can be eerily quiet. When I first visited Phonotheque, a well-engineered basement club in the Cordón neighborhood, I was surprised to see so many half-empty bars and so few people walking the nearby streets. The city's much-celebrated house and techno scene is also small and tight-knit, revolving almost exclusively around Phonotheque and its residents. These days, DJs like Z@P and DJ Koolt occasionally appear at the tops of lineups in Berlin and London, but back in Montevideo, it still feels like everyone in the scene knows each other.
On Saturday evening, a storm brought torrential rain. In a city like Montevideo, rain can have a big impact, deterring casual partygoers. Due to its location, Phonotheque gets little passing trade even in the best conditions, and I was warned before heading out that it might be a quiet night. But this seemed to fit the occasion. The club was full of friends and regulars—even during the busiest period of the night, 50 per cent of the crowd felt made up of DJs and close crew. Everyone was here to see three long-term residents perform. Kino and Emilio, who played first, were both leaving Montevideo for good very soon. Kino will follow Z@P to Berlin, while Emilio is moving to Barcelona. This would be Emilio's last set at Phonotheque for some time.
Kino was warming up with slick and imaginative house when I arrived. Soon after taking over, Emilio sped things up, laying down fast, groovy techno and house. Various styles and eras were blended together, united by a dark yet often surprisingly sensitive energy. There were very few hands-in-the-air moments. Breakdowns, when they happened, were often met with total silence and concentration from the ultra-receptive crowd, instead of the usual whoops and whistles. At around 6 AM, Emilio rolled out a magic combination of "Flying Saucers" by Housey Doingz into a classic Terry Francis track, paying homage to the originators of the '90s tech house style that forms the backbone of the Phonotheque sound.
At 7 AM, Emilio let the tension dissipate, before finishing with a euphoric electro track. As the crowd cheered, he and Christian, the night's final DJ and one of the club's original founders, embraced for a full minute behind the decks. There was an unspoken sentimentality in the room. DJ Koolt, often considered the group's leader and mentor, is on tour in Europe this summer, and Z@P has already moved there, soon to be followed by Emilio and Kino. As such, there's a sense that things are changing at Phonotheque. The club, which, in truth, is a small and unremarkable space, owes much of its reputation to its residents. Could we be approaching the end of an era?
Christian's set distracted me from these thoughts. He brought in a track that, like 99% of the tunes played that night, I'd never heard before. It was dark and loopy, its percussion tight. Immediately, the dance floor regained the focus and tension built so brilliantly by Emilio. Stonem, a young Uruguayan artist, told me with a smile, "this is one of mine." Alongside the likes of Michelle and Santiago Uribe, he's part of a younger generation of Uruguayan DJs and producers who got their first taste of electronic music through Phonotheque. Hearing this record felt like a significant moment—Christian, the veteran DJ and founder, playing a track by a young local producer, as yet unheard of outside of Uruguay.
A week earlier at Phonotheque, I'd been chatting with Kino. I asked him who would play here now that he and Emilio were leaving. He gestured around and reeled off a long list of names, pointing out several people on the dance floor and behind the booth. "There are loads of people that can play," he said. It's hard not to feel excited about what's to come in Montevideo.