Monkeytown comes to Kentish Town.
Friday saw Modeselekor and Siriusmo fly in to preview the new sounds emanating from the studios of Berlin, courtesy of Lovebox crew, Bang The Box. ‘Mosaik’, the LP from Siriusmo was released earlier this year to less fuss than it deserved, and Modeselektor’s third solo release ‘Monkeytown’ has only just been let out of the cage.
Siriusmo takes to the stage as though he is approaching a bus stop, unassuming and timid. He’d rather let the music do all the talking tonight. 'Call Me' is a great opener, a segue track taken from ‘Mosaik’. An onslaught ensues as he plays more tracks from the album alongside his popular remix of Breakbot's 'Baby I'm Yours' and his lesser known but killer remix of Idiotproof's 'Gorilla'. The crowd go wild upon hearing the first bars of the euphoric 'Nights Off' and the wonky 'Einmal in Der Woche Schreien'.
I once saw Siriusmo described as "the Mozart of Techno" and my first reaction was that the comment was clearly not thought out. Yet upon listening tonight the correlation seems more plausible with his great ear for interesting chord structures and diverting melodies. Time will tell if he has the same output as the great composer and his excessively large shoes to fill.
A well rounded set from the man who leaves the stage to huge cries yet just as timidly as he entered. Choosing to DJ his tracks rather than playing live is disappointing considering he's not in UK that often, but he has certainly played a dynamite set.
Boy 8 Bit takes up the headphones playing jump-up techno and breaks rather than his bass-heavy material. His set wouldn't have been amiss in Ibiza during the closing week. Not known for his DJing yet from tonight’s show you’d guess it was his forte.
The anticipation for Modeselektor couldn't be higher. They enter to a fanfare of applause. I'm expecting them to spray champagne over the audience as they’ve been known to do in the past. Instead they approach the array of equipment in front of two large screens and soak the audience with ‘Blue Clouds’, the opening track from ‘Monkeytown’. The screens alight with projections taking us into an animated version of the cover art with its blues on black, spiralling through and around a collage of evolving shapes.
Concentration is paid to the recent release, and deservedly so. The album has an array of guest collaborators - from hip hop’s Anti Pop Consortium and Busdriver, dancehall’s Miss Platnum, to the vocalist from math-rock band PVT, and of course long time collaborator, Thom Yorke. We were hoping Thom would make a guest appearance as he seems to pop up as surprise addition occasionally.
We are blessed with an encore of ‘German Clap’ and ‘This ft. Thom Yorke’ and more light-show madness before the curtain is finally called, leaving only the monstrous cloakroom queue to bring home the reality that the colder evenings have set upon us.
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Click here to read our review of Modeselektor at Black Atlantic.
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