Broken and Uneven – Ostgut Ton X 50 Weapons, London

The Easter bank holiday has become a bit of an arms race within electronic music within the UK.  Across the country promoters strain to capture the imagination of electronica lover with increasingly large rosters with an ever growing number of stars.  However, this is no bad thing and goes someway to curing my disillusionment with New Years Eve and the nonsense that accompanies it. Perhaps the largest of this years Easter events was put on by London based eventing powerhouse Broken and Uneven in  assembling an ambitious line-up with no less than 5 acts that were all perfectly suitable headliner material for some of the worlds biggest clubs.

The venue was originally slated to be happening at Peckham Palais but  due to unforeseen circumstances had to be moved on the very day of the event and it is a testament to the determination  of the promoters that not only did they find a suitable replacement venue in time but one with the capability and history of Elephant and Castle’s Coronet.

The Coronet has played host to some of electronicas biggest names in the past including a recent party by Parisian electro giants Ed Banger and whilst not having the greatest sound set up in the capital certainly does the job.

Now to the line-up after heading in past what seemed to be an over vigorous search upon arrival conducted by some fairly over zealous doormen the fun began. Packed to the rafters the stellar line-up had attracted techno lovers from all over London and spirits were high for a debauched night punctuated by 4/4 sounds. Berlin’s famous Ostgut Ton  provided one half of the entertainment and for the sake of coherence I’ll go through their acts first.  First up it was a pleasure to see Function performing his live show for the jacked up crowd. Far improved from when I saw him at Fabric, Function swerved through pulsating sounds, perfectly building the energy in the room for the night to come.

Next up was the criminally underrated Baumecker showcasing his live show with techno loving cohort Barker.  Giving a sublime performance, quite how he and Barker are not making end of year lists yet is beyond me.  For those of you interested check out this baumecker set from a few months back.

Then came the other Marcel from Ostgut Ton in Mr. Fengler and the Berghain resident didn’t disappoint with an accomplished set that both invigorated and innovated.  Keys rained down over pulsating beats, bodies intertwined and people got very sweaty to the point where the hip hop loving Fengler could look out to the crowd and consider a job well done.

Unbelievably there was still more to come in the shape of bonafide Detroit legend and former Underground Resistance member Robert Hood. For my money Hood has and always will be the most talented of the techno originators to come out of Detroit, not that you need to break down the movement in such a manner but Robert is the one who over the years has been most willing to adapt and it shows. Mixing between the classic and the contemporary the man who has a claim to inventing minimal on his seminal ‘Master Builder’ release in the 90’s put in another show stopping performance.  

Now to breathlessly cover the 50 Weapons performers who made up the rest of the contingent of the night and I’m ashamed to say weren’t granted as much of my attention as they would have been given on a lesser bill due to the stacked nature of the program.  Modeselektor’s 50 Weapons has gone from strength to strength since its inception and has launched some of the scenes coolest names in the last few years, with a series of some of their heavy hitters gracing this event in Shed,  Benjamin Damage and Addison Groove. The enigmatic Shed remains a tricky character to pin down and the enigmatic German’s expert cross pollination of techno with  unpredictable strands of other realms of electronic remains a joy to listen to whilst the saviour of the garage sound Benjamin brought a funkier edge to soften what had otherwise been a blistering night of sharp edged muscular techno. For those less familiar with Benjamin’s work check out his excellent collaborative album he released with Doc Daneeka last year.

So with a great night had by all and plan to make our way aboard the MS Stubnitz for the official after party we bade farewell to the Coronet and the memories we made inside, leaving with the though If you ever get the opportunity to see Robert Hood and you’re into techno then you really should. Well done Broken and Uneven, see you soon.