Ninja Tune: Falty DL Record Release Party with Floating Points at Gretchen, Berlin

Following release of Falty DL’s third long player in January Ninja Tune held a belated launch party at Berlin’s Gretchen Club to celebrate. Joining the main man on the night were Delfonic and Floating Points.

Situated a little further from the Spree, than most of the better known clubs, it was nevertheless a short trip on the U-Bahn from Friedrichshain which delivered us unto the fairly unassuming locale in the well below zero Berlin evening.

Thinking we were on Berlin time we probably arrived a little late and after passing Gretchen’s gaudy bizarrely named neighbour (“Miami”) we entered to be greeted by the evening’s protagonist on the decks and a healthily filled dancefloor bopping to latin infused house.

The venue was a bit of a revelation, this was not an invite only event and the door staff showed no signs of Berlin selectivity; perhaps a luxury of it’s relative obscurity. A slightly glitzy decor behind the bar sat nicely in the warehouse type space. The pale brick vaulted ceiling, supported by oddly ornate pillars, and  walls were decorated by an array of well placed projectors. Definitely worth checking what’s on if you’re visiting Berlin as previous guests have included Flying Lotus and Nosaj Thing.

The two hours or so we caught glided through danceable beats hopping between house, techno, disco and garage, bringing out a varied palate of timbres and instrumentation with plenty of material from Hardcourage being showcased too. At one moment a trumpet line was brought so far forward a double take was required to ensure he hadn’t got someone playing live with him.

Next to take the reins, Floating Points, brought us briefly back to the latin carnival feel before diving through a similarly diverse selection. Closing out with an extended play of the Velvet Underground’s “Heroin” which might have been tacky had the context not been judged so well. As things stood it was a great moment and with the crowd now mostly dissipated we made for our coats before catching a few minutes of Delfonic and heading back out into the cold.