Robert Hood and Chris Liebing in Birmingham

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  • Techno parties are in a strange deadlock in the Midlands and—one could argue—the UK in general. The genre doesn't have the same avid following as it does in much of the rest of Europe; there just aren't many nights left that can put on line-ups with headliners like Robert Hood and Chris Liebing and sell enough tickets to cover the costs of booking such high-calibre foreign artists with the weak pound and rising DJ fees. That said, Atomic-Jam seem to have things firmly under control. Walking in to the Q Club to the sound of Mark Broom's moody remix of "Asperity" made for quite an entrance and it took me a good half hour to fully take in the sheer enormity of the venue. The sound felt a little cavernous because of this, but was accompanied by a colossal lighting rig that echoed the club's gothic architecture. The VJs cleverly accompanied each set with a blinding yet refined display of strobes, lasers and visuals for a crowd that was obviously excited and up for it; a friendly, if slightly weathered looking, bunch of techno aficionados. Photo credit: Danny Pardoe Chris Finke and Broom's warm up set was serious and hard, but fitted the vibe and the expectations of the crowd perfectly, occasionally working in familiar acid rave anthems like Outlander's "Vamp" and recent cuts like youANDme's edit of "Mind/Feeling," bringing the crowd to a controlled frenzy while bathed in blinding strobes. Brian Sanhaji was up next and his marching techno kept the crowd eager but nonetheless suffered from the same issues of most laptop live sets, namely a lack of stage presence and a monotonous sound. Chris Liebing's set utilized more gear; his charismatic charm came across well as he moved between 2 laptops and his Maschine sequencer—punching in the high end percussion on the fly. Photo credit: Danny Pardoe Disaster however, struck one hour into his set. Presumably Traktor crashed after its four-deck possibilities were pushed to the limit and the sound went with a sudden "click." Ever the showman, Liebing made his apologies clear in a jovial fashion but, looking back, the gap in the sound created the most memorable part of his set. His use of Traktor ultimately accumulated into an extremely loop-based sound that didn't diversify, progress or mutate into anything particularly new and the crowd seemed somewhat worn down rather than ecstatic by the time he finished. Robert Hood obligingly opened his set in the same loopy bass-heavy style of Liebing before launching into some of his recent cuts on Ostgut Ton and M-Plant. Hood's ensuing emotiveness transformed the atmosphere and my tired feet and ringing ears started to regain strength. That rush of feeling, of raw emotion, that had been so sorely lacking for the past three hours, came flooding back. Photo credit: Danny Pardoe Despite leaving the club feeling that the music had occasionally been below my admittedly high expectations, nothing was clearer in my mind than the achievement and the spectacle created by the people behind Atomic-Jam. 14 years is a very long time to be doing anything, but such dedication to the genre has earned them a legion of loyal fans and one hell of a party.
RA