OSTGUT TON x 50 WEAPONS
The Coronet, London | March 28th
A decent club space won’t make your night, but an inadequate one can certainly break it.
Luckily, since the classy promoters of Electric Minds and Broken & Uneven first emerged at Hackney Downs Studios one year back, their “secret warehouse locations” have consistently delivered. And this, despite the growing ubiquity of faux-clandestine London parties, where nowadays an “edgy” clubbing experience somewhere totally grotty can cost you as much as £20. The line-ups, the rigs, the surroundings: all have been reliably top-notch so far.
So picture the panic on Thursday, when that night’s chosen venue – the Peckham Palais – had its licence revoked just 12 hours before the night was due to begin. Southwark council bureaucrats had found the venue’s paperwork insufficient and closed it down. An “edge” too far, perhaps.
On the first night of a Bank Holiday weekend, cancellation was a grim prospect. The promoters had curated a Berlin-leaning line-up of huge quality for the occasion. Across two rooms, they planned to contrast Ostgut Ton’s cold techno with the more eclectic vibes of Modeselektor’s 50 Weapons imprint.
Between Shed, Robert Hood, Function, Marcel Fengler, Addison Groove, Benjamin Damage and Barker & Baumecker, there wasn’t a dud hire in sight. It could be months before techno’s stars aligned this perfectly over London again.
Hats off, then, to the organisers, who said they were “devastated” by the blow in a circular to ticket holders that afternoon. They brushed themselves off, hit the phones, and successfully landed a replacement site within hours.
OK, so the cavernous Coronet Theatre in Elephant & Castle might be London clubbing’s ginger step-child, but it does the job. And the move turned out to be bittersweet. On the one hand, the Coronet’s existing sound system is hardly geared up for music that relies on crystalline definition across the frequency spectrum, plus serious punch. On the other, the most indecisive revellers would get to listen to every single DJ. The music was being hosted in a single room, so zero clashes.
This meant, unfortunately, that producers who would headline anywhere else, were forced into graveyard slots. Benjamin Damage and Addison Groove played diverse sets to a handful of chin strokers between 9pm and 11.30pm. Addison, in particular, judged the mood well with dub techno cuts accelerating into thick, synth-driven beats that finished with a smattering of breaks.
Barker & Baumecker, fresh from the success of September’s Transsektoral LP, ceded momentum in favour of detail. Playing live, complete with wire-strewn modular synthesiser, their techno was stop-start, but always engaging. In a smaller room (The Coronet has space for 2,500), their broken beats, and occasional garage textures would have satisfied, but the impact was lost in such a spacious acoustic.
It was the real techno overlords who best tackled the venue’s shortcomings. Function, Marcel Fengler, Robert Hood and slightly less so, Shed, all delivered bracing, immersive sets.
Function’s Incubation, released on Ostgut Ton in March, is a difficult full-length to enjoy on the headphones, primarily because it is so austere. Its austerity though, its icy textures and its subtle, absorbing bass drops were the perfect antidote to an imperfect audio set-up. Fengler, likewise, pulled out a memorable string of bangers. At 4.30am, Shed’s live should really have been a DJ set.
Robert Hood’s sound gave out at the start, but he came good to close the night out. The Coronet’s bouncers were horribly aggressive, and the room’s lighting humble at best.
Yet sometimes, a stellar cast can outshine its environment. Whoever was to blame for the venue fail, the organisers deserve credit for a sufficient plan B. The Coronet certainly didn’t make the night, but it didn’t break it, either.
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Words: Nick Johnstone
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