- Like Detroit, Turin is famous for its automotive industry, home to world-renowned makes such as Fiat and Alfa Romeo. And like Detroit, it's home to Movement festival—every fall, it hosts the European arm of the Motor City's premiere techno event. Many industrial districts encircle the northern Italian city's pretty central streets, full of huge buildings that seem a perfect fit for a techno rave of Movement's proportions.
The three-day festival's central hub is Lingotto Fiere, a vast complex that houses an Olympic-sized ice skating arena and an exhibition centre. The action kicked off elsewhere on Friday, though, with a comparatively intimate session in Audiodrome, a venue in an area brimming with works units and seemingly void of residents. Kerri Chandler headlined with a self-assured selection of chunky, anthemic house, intertwined with deeper cuts such as Larry Heard's "The Sun Can't Compare." Davide Squillace followed, playing more Balearic-tinged techno.
Things moved up a gear on Saturday, delivering on the promise of real machine music. The mood was upbeat from the get-go in Lingotto Fiere, fuelled by uptempo sets that were well received by the boisterous locals. On the Detroit Stage, Kevin Saunderson ploughed through a selection full of ravey breakdowns, while Paul Ritch, Alan Fitzpatrick, Len Faki and Chris Liebing ensured the main Movement Stage was never anything but rammed. Even Lil' Louis went in full throttle, with Plastikman's "Spastik" a lasting memory.
If pounding 4/4s weren't your thing, though, there were plenty of alternatives. On the House Stage, Derrick Carter sacrificed jackin' grooves for lunging, rolling booty music, and Henrik Schwarz turned out a live show of jazzy techno that lent the Yellow Room a different feel. Robert Hood played as Floorplan, dropping favorites like "Baby, Baby" and "We Magnify His Name." His set achieved something similar to Schwarz's, offering melodic respite for anyone tired of the non-stop pounders.
Across the weekend, groovier, more varied sounds were buried amongst the rough and fiercely club-ready, and nowhere was this more true than at the final closing party on Sunday. Arriving at Scuolo Holden, a performing arts centre, Giorgia Angiuli's impressive showcase of live instrumentation—from brass to wind—and thundering kicks was visually captivating and musically on-point. But it was Virgo Four who stole the show. Performing classic, melancholic Chicago fare in front of just a few hundred or so, they closed out a strong weekend's partying with one of the best sets I've seen at any festival in 2015.
Photo credit: Simone Arena