SUSHITECH
Berghain And Panorama Bar, Berlin | 15 February
For a moment, switching off the ear-splitting 4am alarm and drifting back to sleep was the most appealing option. But then, who wants to play sensibly in Berlin? This weekend had been sitting at the top of our musical radar ever since Yossi Amoyal’s label, Sushitech recently announced their renegade party was to be held at the relentless controls of German house and techno bastion, Berghain and Panorama Bar.
The labels diverse family roster has to be one of the most consistently on point out there since its insurgence in 2005, arresting dancefloor urgency with highly intelligent releases like UK techno master, Steve O’Sullivan’s, recent Mosaic Reshaped & Unreleased and his soul-stirring sonic live show currently making its mark across the globe.
In a perfect world, we could rave for all thirty hours and not miss a beat of the Sushitech goodness ( it was forty in the end, obviously!) but choosing carefully, we decided to go for a double header and hit the party twice. Stepping out into the early morning darkness, we were filled with excitement to catch Detroit house badman, Delano Smith, formerly known as part of the ‘Detroit Beatdown’ crew with Norm Talley and Mike ‘Agent X’ Clark and truly killing it solo over the last decade with his second album Twilght about to drop on Sushitech. Anyone else who melts for Detroit house, will have heard Delano’s first album, An Odyssey on Sushitech which is steps ahead of the game.
Climbing the metal staircase, in a dreamlike state – having just woken up – to Panorama Bar, Delano had the room seriously kicking off. Propelling us into a vital club set for the next three hours and the best we’d ever heard him, we were lucky enough to recognise a couple of tracks from his new LP, pushing the limits of that perfect system.
As hard as it was to leave the marvel and swell of the early morning Panorama Bar session in full flow, we knew the afternoon into night promised amazing things with XDB, nd_baumecker, Efdemin and Ryan Elliot all poised to play. And with that in mind we made our exit, more than ready to recapture the musical magic on our 4pm return. With the sun blazing, we fed straight back into the warm and friendly atmosphere of Panorama Bar and with XDB getting down to business, the room was sparkling with that rare community spirit we all love it for. XDB reinforced connectivity among the crowd, drawing us in with an early nineties, emotional and hair-raising track, Choice – Acid Eiffel and firing us up again with jacking house track, ‘Separate Minds – We Need Somebody’ which had to be a stand out moment of the party.
It was hard not be moved by the constant feedback from the crowd, with several spontaneous rounds of applause erupting in support of the artists. Chatting to a German guy at the bar, he told us he only comes to Panorama Bar for the cocktails, “especially the Long Island Iced Teas”, but he was clearly loving it too, as was Portable who we spotted shimmying his way through the dancefloor.
Getting to witness a long standing, Panorama Bar veteran like Efdemin play a sophisticated late night set was a true highlight. Wondering just how many hours the Dial Records associate has whiled away in the place, he reigned us back into the moment with low-key house grooves like Blaze – Lovelee Dae and Norm Talley’s Cosmic Waves which was a real treat to hear at the time. Stepping in for the closing set was none other than radiating ball of energy, Ryan Elliot. Knocking us through the wall with his fast-pased washes of synths and drums in classic house tracks like Kerri Chandler’s Bar A Thym and perfectly infused garage from Zak Thom’s Bring Me Down, sending the crowd into a total frenzy. Elliot is a true force of personality behind the decks and props go to his mates who were getting heavily involved, pretending to be on the mic behind him, cracking us all up.
A big thank you to all of the Sushitech team for making this very special party happen and for simply bringing music and people together.
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Words: Anneka Buckle
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