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clubland’s fiercest live shows
MODERAT @ ACA D E M Y, G L ASG OW Pyramids of light and a several blazing LCD grids hang in the air as the hypnotic bass crunch of ‘Running’ washes over us. Later, banks of lasers flare red and the words “hell is above” float enigmatically during the seismic, punishing ‘Rusty Nail’. The three men on stage (Modeselektor’s Gernot Bronsert and Sebastian Szary, and Sascha Ring aka Apparat) huddle behind tables in the darkness, Ring’s chillwave vocal occasionally chiming through this grand former cinema. It’s been four days since the release of Moderat’s inventively titled third album, ‘III’, and it seems the trio have graduated from clubs to concert halls. Their live set’s still a moody, nocturnal affair which pairs Modeselektor’s liking for deep, dark techno beats with Apparat’s delicate, tuneful style, but now with added audio-visual power. As the familiar sonar ping of ‘Bad Kingdom’ drops and the crowd goes nuts, it’s fair to say they know their way round a crowd-pleaser worthy of a stage this size. DAVID POLLOCK
HAÇIENDA CLASSICAL @ THE ROYAL ALBERT HALL, LONDON
El Clásico AN ICONIC, GLOWING Haçienda logo hovers before the UK’s second largest pipe organ. Under it, bathed in blue light, sit the full Manchester Carmerata orchestra, conductor front and centre, as Madchester legend MC Tunes takes the mic, beckoning Mike Pickering and Graeme Park to the stage’s central DJ podium. The two Haçienda residents wave to the sell-out crowd, then, to roars of elation, decks and strings fire simultaneously into T-Coy classic ‘Carino’, launching us into a seamless, near two-hour, 21-track blend of house music’s greatest players, complete
LIVE BITES
HENRIK SCHWARZ
[[1L]] JUNE 2016
with backing singers, Parky scratching, and an audience dancing and singing from the off. ‘Voodoo Ray’, ‘Pacific State’, ‘Promised Land’, ‘Move Your Body’ and ‘Ride On Time’ – one by one they fill the opulent Royal Albert Hall as dazzling mirror-ball speckles are flung out over a crowd whose jubilant euphoria almost blows the roof off when New Order’s Peter Hook joins the fireworks for a belting ‘Blue Monday’ and Shaun Ryder unleashes the screech of ‘Hallelujah’ for the encore, Bez with his maracas taking on crowd-conducting duties.
Digitalism take their ‘Mirage’ album tour to Washington’s U Street Music Hall, while Kompakt’s Justus Köhncke is live at Berlin’s White Noise on May 20 ... Lock in for Âme Live at Roxy in
Prague on May 20 too ... Henrik Schwarz lines up for Stereo in Montreal on May 22 ... French journeyman Thylacine plays Le Trianon, Paris on June 1 ... It’s New Order live at the Sydney Opera House on June 5 ...
“Mike and I chose twenty songs each,” explains Graeme Park postshow. “We wanted to see what acid house tracks and repetitive grooves sounded like when scored. Then I created a final DJ mix that was [orchestrally] arranged. In the end we lost ‘French Kiss’ because it was way too repetitive and no-one was prepared to perform the orgasm in the middle.” But perhaps Hooky sums it up best. “I was absolutely terrified. It’s the expectation. But once I was out there I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. It was amazing.” PHIL DUDMAN
Ed Banger’s Breakbot brings a new show to London’s Jazz Café on June 10 ... French heroes Air will be celebrating 20 years, plus it’s the return of The Avalanches both at London’s Field Day on June 12 ... It’s
Rodriguez Jr live on the Mobilee Rooftop at Hotel Silken Diagonal, Barcelona June 19 ... Catch Haçienda Classical at the Festival of House, Dundee on June 10 and at Birmingham’s Rainbow Warehouse July 31.
DUSKY @ VILLAG E UNDERG ROUND, LONDON You hear the crowd before the music: they stretch right down the block outside Village Underground. Inside the vast room is hazy with sweat, bodies jammed to the front ready for Dusky’s debut live show – their first London appearance in half a year. Kicks and snares ricochet between the brick walls on openers ‘All We Ever Needed’, ‘Tiers’ and ‘Skin Deep’ as they build each track from the stems up. “We have more control over the music, which is nervewracking”, Alfie Granger-Howell and Nick Harriman tell us post-show. But there’s no sign of nerves tonight, especially when dropping ravey new single ‘Ingrid Is A Hybrid’ from new LP ‘Outer’ (due Autumn). The light show from Will Potts (who’s previously worked with Disclosure, HudMo and TNGHT) erases all but the pair’s two signature silhouettes: one tall, and one seriously tall. When it came to the challenge of going live, Dusky were always going to rise to it. ALLY BYERS
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EL DE PEREZ, SEAN CAMPBELL, LUKE DYSON
Haçienda legends fill the Albert Hall with house