Edinburgh DJs & promoters PULSE have been bringing the best electronic music to the capital for six years now, and they are some of the best people you’ll meet: still working the tickets at the door, happy to chat, and it’s this personal investment they put into each of their nights that makes it special.
They’ve curated a brilliant line up of artists in 2015, featuring Vitalic, Substance, Karnival, and Glasgow legends SLAM (who amongst their own achievements, put out Daft Punk’s first ever single – no big deal, right?).
Tonight wraps up a magic year for the crew, with a visit from techno Don, Ben Klock. This is a man at the height of his Darth Vader-level powers: he is the resident DJ at Berghain. If he is Vader, Berghain is his Death Star II. If you’ve not heard of this club before, it’s a weekly three night (and day) freak fest held in a cavernous, disused power station, located in a post-communist industrial slice of East Berlin, and it’s the oracle of anything techno.
Ben Klock’s set is as dark & abrasive as you could imagine. Which makes sense, considering he is the prince of a techno dungeon. Framed by gigantic hexagons of pulsing lights, he spins tracks that are faithful to his name, with clock-work like percussion and ticking hi-hats whirring in such perfect time I’m sure Rolex would be jealous.
But it’s the contrast of this percussive perfection against wails of white noise, knife edge synths and screams of reverb that make the set stand out. Using this, coupled with occasional basslines on warped 80s synths, and other unique tricks, Ben Klock stands out from other techno DJs, creating an atmosphere uniquely his own.
It’s like watching a highly skilled Audi engineer draw up some beautifully detailed technical diagrams, then flip out and splash surreal Dali landscapes over the top of the perfect lines and shapes. He is as much an artist as an audio perfectionist.
With their last show of 2015 being this good, I can’t wait to see who PULSE bring to the Capital in 2016.
- Neil Landstrumm - 16 March 2016
- Ben Klock - 28 December 2015
- Yak / Hidden Charms/ DTHPDL - 8 December 2015
Ben Klock by @PULSE_Edinburgh was epic! See them support @toddterjeolsen @thisisourvision @LIQUIDROOMS on Hogmanay! https://t.co/DK9j4qIlQG