Signals from Southwark # 19: Mark Hawkins Live @ E-lectribe, Kassel, Germany, 22.03.10

Recorded live at E-lectribe, in Kassel, Germany. One of my best gigs in ages, great organisation, great location, great soundsystem, great music and great people! Went and hung out at the Local House/Techno radio station "Minimal City Radio Kassel", whilst Louis Osbourne rocked it out on the decks playing tracky house classics. Did a small interview in German with Michael, the radio host, which was a lot of fun and drank a few beers & some sickly kind of cherry schnapps with some of the other people hanging out there. It was the perfect pre-club hang out! The radio station was situated in the same building that used to house the legendary Stammheim/Aufschwung Ost club, where I played on New Years Eve 2001/2002. Michael had a crack at taking me up there to bring back some old memories of debauchery, but the guy on the door there was having none of it! We also made a funny jingle for the radio in German, which took me about ten takes to get my pronunciation right - the Schnapps really wern't helping there! You can check out the radio-station here: Minimal City Radio Kassel jeden Samstag auf 105.8 on MySpace Music - Free Streaming MP3s, Pictures & Music Downloads

On arrival at the club, it was full of people, and we were greeted by Phillip, one of the organisers. One thing I really liked was that there were a few people involved in the night who were really friendly, so there was always someone to hang out with making me feel completely at home. Also, the decorations were designed by the same guy who did the decoration at Stammheim, it had a similar style to the old Planet nights in Leicester. The music had started out quite housey, but was making a transition into techno which was really refreshing to hear also. It was almost like a trip back into the mid-nineties, a really great inspiring experience which will live on in my memory as one of the good ones!

Anyway, on to the point, the music- Norman (Norman on MySpace Music - Free Streaming MP3s, Pictures & Music Downloads) made an awesome recording, taking in not only the set itself in good quality, but the crowd reaction, capturing perfectly the atmosphere of the evening - He also played on the night, and I hope to feature his set soon on SFS - we'll see.

This current live set is a variation on the last one I posted here, but bolstered by the addition of an MPC2000 to do the old school drums. Again, it is raw and random, utilising some of Spandex's Nord modular perpetual techno machines which I mangled myself to change the sounds, and some self sequencing patches of my own, joined by some old pieces from previous live sets.

Big thanks to everyone involved, especially Norman for this great recording!


You can see pictures of the night here: Fotos Ww präsentiert: Club E-lectribe mit Mark Hawkins (live) und Louis Osbourne - Club E-lectribe in Kassel

Further links:

Club e-lectribe Kassel
Club E-lectribe on MySpace Music - Free Streaming MP3s, Pictures & Music Downloads