- First Friday night in Barcelona during Sonar and you’re not exactly stuck for choice: turn one way and Roman Flugel and Ata are playing, turn another and there’s Luciano and Loco Dice and there was also a big Kompakt night at Nitsa. Luckily Mobilee had figured out that the early bird catches the worm and scheduled their label showcase night for Thursday, and the room was packed (but not too packed), the crowd was up for it and the vibe was jumping.
And straight. There was a lot of beer being drunk, much to my surprise. I’d never been clubbing in Spain before, and the crowd were thankfully into it (unlike Tokyo) and thankfully not aggressive (unlike London) but the beer drinking thing surprised me. Shouldn’t everyone be on pastillas at five Euros a pop? Not a bottle of water in sight. Oh well, it didn’t seem to affect their appreciation of the music any, so I grabbed a beer myself and headed up the front.
We’d arrived in time catch the end of one DJ whose name I could not discern spinning Ame's remix of ‘Phuture Bound’. I knew I was going to write this review and so I worked my way to the DJ booth to find out who it was and there was about twenty-five Germans standing behind there having their own little private party. I asked one of them who was playing and he said “I dunno”. I guess the party was not so private. Well, whoever you were, I was digging your tracks so hi there!
Next to step out of the booth throng and behind the decks was Sebo K, Mobilee mainstay with a sound that straddles the divide between Chicago house and minimal techno and tonight was more of the same: lots of tantalising new sounds but perhaps a little too heavy on a looong vocal house track which deflated the crowd a tad. Does this means Barcelona is a techno town? Yay! Still, unlike a lot of producers he DJed fluidly and confidently and he played his excellent ‘Moved’ track with Prosumer so Sebo K did more than OK by me.
The room was getting fuller now, and Exercise One stepped up to his laptop with a live set. Now I like this guy’s stuff, especially his release with Donato Dozzy ‘United Elements’ but he makes very flat, hypnotic techno, and a live set of flat hypnotic techno which are all your own tracks is a very hard thing to take, especially if you’re only on beers. I’m not much of a fan of laptop sets anyway, unless your tracks are absolute killers (after all, it’s easier to buy those absolute killers at a record shop than make them yourself). So after thirty minutes of this I went upstairs to figure out the Spanish vending machines and buy cigarettes.
Upstairs at Raum there is another bar where the other half of the Mobilee people were playing, but the sound system was a bit rough and the punters looked a bit wandered-in-off-the-street casual so I headed back down. (okay, the truth was I was a bit disorientated by then and I didn’t even realise upstairs was part of the Mobilee party until I woke up the next morning. Which was a shame because I really wanted to see Gummihz and that’s where he was playing I think.) Anyway, hi, Gummihz, and I’m sure I’ll see you next time if you play on the main stage!
Back downstairs and Mobilee label boss Anja Schneider was on. I really like Anja Schneider especially her friendly voice on the Dance Under the Blue Moon show on the net (which we listen to even though we don’t understand a word of German) but I was surprised that her set didn't do it for me. She played kinda ‘eccentric techno’ that was too awkward to dance to and made me sit down. But oh well. She thought up Mobilee Records and has a great radio show and was the only female in a DJ booth filled with now rather inebriated and shouty German men so good on you Anja, you are very cool!
Okay, now I’d stopped drinking beer and I’d started drinking water which was great timing because Patrick Chardronnet came on. Before I go on I think I should give you my Patrick Chardronnet top four to let you know where I’m coming from:
1) Goldfish and Der Dulz – Privacy (Patrick Chardronnet mix)
2) Eve By Day
3) Just a Little Peek
4) Claude Von Stroke – 7 Deadly Strokes (Patrick Chardronnet mix)
Suffice to say, I’m a fan, and he’s the man because he’s got four amazing tracks and that’s three more than most producers. I think I even yelled out his name at the climax of his set (which I hoped nobody noticed) and obviously many others in the crowd agreed because the room went absolutely off its rocker and all the Germans in the DJ box was smiling in awe and all was well with the world. That’s how to do a great laptop set: fill it with brilliant tracks.
Then I can’t remember much of what happened, except Sebo K came back on (or was it another tall and good-looking German? Not sure) and he played some stonking tunes and the crowd danced some more and I made friends with some nice people who had just flown in from Scotland. Hi, people from Scotland! And then at 5 a.m. promptly, the lights came on and that was it. Don’t tell me closing time is 5 a.m here?! That would be the first thing I’ve found wrong with Spain!