So far this year this was the party at U60 I had the most eagerly awaited - the return of Adam Beyer to the club since his spectacular performance there on NYE. Plus he was going to be lined up with none other than his fellow Swede Cari Lekebusch, himself a techno heavyweight of international acclaim, and the top newcomer of last year on the European scene, Renato Cohen from Brazil. What raised expectations sky high for Sweden-Schranz-God Beyer was his mediocre set at the Time Warp rave only 2 weeks before. Was he going to redeem himself?

Well, anticipating an awesome night with techno at its finest I met with some friends early around 10 pm. After some drinks at a groovy house bar we got to the club right in time for the start of Renato Cohen's set at 11 pm. What a sensational night ensued!

Renato Cohen started out with rather slow, as was to be expected, yet high quality techno Brazilian style. Instead of taking the crowd on a journey moving up and down he increased his pace almost imperceptibly but steadily throughout his 3 hours. Of course, there were still some Cohen-specific climaxes when to a massive eruption from the dance floor he played his top hit from last year, Pontapé (which in Portuguese means 'to kick', and a kick-ass track it is) and his new and as yet unreleased production Abelhas (Portuguese for 'bees'). By the time he finished his set he had gotten the crowd moving frantically and ready for a shift in gears by Adam Beyer.

And gears he shifted! He opened with a killer track right away and the crowd loved to get their asses kicked, screaming with pleasure. The following 3 hours saw Beyer in top form, hard as, no, harder than ever, delivering Sweden-Schranz Beyer-style: seamless mixing, amazing effects and, of course, his characteristic scratching wizardry. It was relentless, rock-hard techno banging beyond imagination. However, the hallmark of his Schranz is that despite all hardness it remains soulful, meaningful, never slipping into the mindless beats-only tour-de-force often – IMHO - delivered by DJ Rush and some others. Indeed, this set was reminiscent of his among participants now legendary NYE set delivered from the very same decks. How did it ever happen that he slipped at the Time Warp rave, where thousands of people expected nothing but the very best? Well, in a brief chat after his set he revealed that he was too drunk to be in full control at the time, coupled with the technical difficulty of monitor speakers placed too far away from the DJ to allow flawless mixing. Back to the set under review: again, here one of the highlights was the dropping of one of his recent floor burners, Year of Reflection, a collaboration with Hendrik B. Finally, only in his last 15 or 20 minutes he slowed down somewhat, not to make it too hard to follow suit for Cari Lekebusch.

It turned out Cari Lekebusch didn't really need that kind of favour. His set quickly developed into Sweden-Schranz round 2, quite distinct in style, different from Beyer, yet no less commanding. Lekebusch clearly proved his superb mixing and skillful use of the mixer to achieve the most amazing effects are second only to Adam Beyer. He had no problem sending the crowd from one high point to the next in a set that was well over 1 hour longer than those of his predecessors. And to my delight he even dropped Adam Beyer & Hendrik B. – Where Are We Going. The night closed out at 9:20 am with a now rather thin crowd of die-hard schranzers.

As for the crowd, everybody seemed to be really into this music creating a distinctly posotove vibe. Random people would just look at each other, smile and silently or not-so-silently agree that this was the most amazing stuff they had heard in ages, that the men behind the decks were in fact magicians.

All who were unfortunate to miss out on this night really missed out. For me, it made missing PvD at Roxy not only bearable, but a blessing.

Pics to follow soon!

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