- Summer has officially begun in Berlin. May 1 marks social solidarity, protest (with bigger riots this year than for some time), music and dance: Tanz in den mai—dance into May, into summer. That's what people do. And there are few better places to do it than Rechenzentrum. Far away from the party capital's music and club centres, Mitte and Kreuzberg, Rechenzentrum takes some getting to. You need to take a train to Ostkreuz, and then search for the shuttle-bus out to the Funkpark—an ex-Soviet era communications facility and computing centre that's a half-hour walk from Ostkreuz station in former East Berlin past hulking turbine-halls, pumping stations and smokestacks of the Vattenfall energy-centre. And, into the venue, past rusted out hulks of cars, sheds with single light-bulb lit tables and chairs, and a Barbarella-like white, voluptuous pod.
Rechenzentrum is the antithesis of consumer-club culture: hidden away in a back-end of town, with little to announce its presence and, inside, little in the way of branding, club-identity or hype. Yes, it's about the music. But it's also about the atmosphere, the place, the party. And, I guess that's why, at 2 AM, it's already heaving.
Photo credit: Mackz Mustermann
Summer appearing in Berlin means outdoor parties, beach bars, deck chairs and sunrises over the Spree. And it means a hundred and fifty people queuing outside the Rechenzentrum to get into Mobilee's release party for Exercise One's In Cars We Rust. On the bill: label boss Anja Schneider, Exercise One (live), Pan-Pot and Deadbeat. Inside the computing centre, Anja Schneider's playing to a packed dance floor, appreciative of her apparent track of the moment, Lee Van Dowski's "The Variable Man." Charged with the task of taking the evening from a standing start right through to the full swing of the night, Schneider raises the temperature, and tempo, before passing things over to the Mac Book set-up of Exercise One.
The duo drop straight into a four-four filled techno set. "People want techno," seems to be the understanding from talking to DJ's on the night. And, refreshingly, Exercise One deliver that in full force, blending material from their new album with previously released tracks. Live, superb and at times a little flawed (a beat-too-late here, a misplaced stab there… it's live, it's not perfect, and it's not meant to be) Exercise One engineered a set of energetically musical techno: dark, smooth and entirely of the moment. With the German government pushing cut-price new-cars-for-old, what else are we to expect? God is Dead: In Cars we will, indeed, (T)rust. Techno for Berlin, recession era 2.0.
Sound in Rechenzentrum is tight, close and bass-packed: and in the 1970's office block (one story, pre-fab construction, slightly crumbling) the effect of a focused, dance-orientated sound-system is excellent. But, as Exercise One said, it's not all bass—the mids pick out the detail here: crisp, cutting and loud. And the crowd seem intent on dancing. This isn't a sit-back and be seen venue—you travel out here because you know, at four in the morning, you're going to be sweating, and you know that tomorrow—if the sun shines—Oliver Deutschmann will be manning the decks for a day of electro, volleyball and lounging…
By 5:30 AM, Pan-Pot have induced shirts to come off, dancing to break out on the speaker stacks and generally created their very own electronic stimulus package. There's confidence here—if nowhere else in Europe—and Mobilee's shares in the electronic music scene testify to that. Put the management of the economy in the hands of Anja Schneider and I think we might just be OK.