Tassilo Ippenberger and Thomas Benedix, the two humanoid parts that make up Berlin based techno duo Pan-Pot, had a date with Pacha Barcelona, which meant that I had a date with Pacha Barcelona! What kind of specimen waving the flag from the techno turret turns down a social engagement with Pan-Pot? That’s in bad taste. Speaking of taste, as far as Pacha Barcelona goes, it’s not up there in my top 3 clubs in Barcelona, but when it comes to FACT and Insane’s take-overs, these promoters bring in dance floor royalty.
Pan-Pot, or Pots ‘n’ Pans as my friends and I (un)originally call them (sounds good in a Scottish accent), had the flocks hovering round the beachfront club early doors, because Pan-Pot were due on the operation table from 2am for a three hour techno tear-down. Now you know when a night just feels like it’s going to be a cracker!? You don’t really know exactly why; other times you’re surrounded by the same people with the same calibre of tunage, but for whatever reason, the energies of that day didn’t create a utopian paradise born from music and mates. Anyway, it felt like it was gonna be the former: a cracker.
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Take a look at the XOYO Birmingham opening night - In PicturesUnfortunately I didn’t catch Barcelona based DJ Herr. I seemed to time these dates with absolute precision, that in other situations would have you marked down for being a keen breed of the bean. Obviously, it was a date minus any civilised “how do you do’s?” and like most of the clubbers, it was straight in with the “YEEESSSSS. I love these guys man!” When I saw them at the beginning of this summer, they left me haunted by some absolute beauty of a track they played. I think because I was so taken aback before I got right into it, I didn’t arse any time using Shazam; or I forgot I had a phone.
Months later, thanks to a mate having it in his set, I found my track ghost: Gregor Tresher’s Goliath. Kind of felt a bit old school not having the name of a gem slapping you in the eyeballs within 3.2 seconds of it playing and instead not being able to find it for ages. Months on, and it hadn’t lost any power when it was fired through at Pacha and I had the comfort of knowing that this dark and moody growler was already in my stash-bank, meaning I could fully muck-in with everyone else going just as mental.
It was busy, but you could have passed a fair few bags of multi-pack McCoy’s through the spaces between us, so it was a really great atmosphere to be in. Correct me if I’m wrong, but that’s how I remember it. Not having room to give it the full let-go when the music is that class is a breeding ground for frustration and in some extreme cases, imaginary violence. And the only hint of violence should be the self-attack on your face from utter sonic pleasure going between the eardrums.
Other belters in their agenda swung in from Sasha Carassi’s ruthless banger Afternoon Deelite and Christian Smith & Wehbba’s tasty groove number, Mutate (Kaiserdisco remix). It was the right crowd for the right booth talent, with both parties contributing to that special atmosphere that has you reaching for your old pal Jimmy Knobbly Knees, grabbing your new-found mate Tommy Buttery Fingers and bringing you all together in a time-warped connection only music seems to be able to create.
When asked about the decision behind their name a couple of years back, they said that there is no great story behind it; Pan-Pot is simply a brainstorm baby that came from a rake-through of their audio engineering dictionary. No great story behind it, but in front is an absolute chapter turner. Thankfully the pages don’t seem to be getting thinner and ‘The End’ is still some way off.
