- Berlin-based duo Modeselektor have a long history of diversity, with a catalogue that spans house, techno and electro. Presumably, it was their profound eclecticism that made for such a diverse crowd at their recent London date, courtesy of Lovebox promoters Bang The Box. The cross section of fans who flocked to the Kentish Town Forum was also a testament to the night's assorted lineup, with everyone from aging techno crusties to young urban hipsters, tattooed indie rockers and electro scenesters present and accounted for.
Cooly G was the first of the live acts to step to the stage, rolling out the unique brand of deep, dubby house that has fuelled her rise to prominence. Her sound was perfect opening act material, as the set gradually wound down into the moody bass music her home label, Hyperdub, specialises in, finishing with an audience-baffling cover of Coldplay's "Trouble." The maiden London performance from Modeselektor's Monkeytown label mate Siriusmo followed, with the German producer and graffiti artist looking every part the bespectacled bedroom musician when he emerged. But his brand of wonky electro was far from geeky. After an early acapella from Breakbot's "Baby I'm Yours," he delved into his own productions, reeling off "High Together" from his debut LP Mosaik, his rework of Idiotproof's "Gorilla" and, at the performance's tail-end, "Nights Off." Ably bridging the gap between Siriusmo and the headliners was Boy 8-Bit, who tested the small yet powerful speaker rig with a darker take on the night's electro theme. To the obvious delight of the dance floor, his set was tough and bass-heavy, but also pleasingly interspersed with more melodic moments like his own "Yard Bird" and Kölsch's "Loreley."
At 1:30 AM Modeselektor took to the stage, backed by two large panels for long-time visual collaborators Pfadfinderei to beam their work onto. Gernot Bronsert and Sebastian Szery had just a small table of kit separating them from the audience, ensuring Bronsert's enthusiastic dance moves were in full view. The opener from their new album, "Blue Clouds," kicked things off, eventually melting into the first rinsing of Monkeytown's many collaborations, the Thom Yorke-featuring "Shipwreck."
One of the several skits between songs featured Szery's mock electrocution, with the resulting "reboot" of the system segueing into the only section of their set not comprised of new music. The banging "Keep Up" by Supermodels From Paris initiated a 20-minute techno assault, after which an encore took things back to Monkeytown, closing the show with Otto von Schirach collaboration "Evil Twin," the light-hearted "German Clap" and the powerful PVT partnership "Green Light Go." At the end of the day, while some of Modeselektor's older works would've been a welcome inclusion, when the current source material is this good and entertains such a varied cross section of fans, it's somewhat churlish to complain.