TuneLab
Ben Klock - Awakenings Easter Festival 2022
Ben Klock at Awakenings is less a DJ set and more a temporal dislocation device, designed to transport you to a specific, pitch-black room in Berlin for two hours. This is functional, driving techno of the highest order, where the only melody is the melody of machinery and the only release is a slightly different hi-hat pattern. The vibe is monolithic, hypnotic, and profoundly serious—in the best way possible.
Locked at a relentless 139.5 BPM, the set is an exercise in minimalism and pressure, with an overwhelming focus on the 12A key to maintain a hypnotic, unchanging tonal centre. The energy is almost entirely low-end focused, a deep, pulsating throb that allows subtle textural shifts in the mid-range to feel seismic. Klock’s curation is impeccable: KAMRI’s ‘Black Hollywood’ is a sleek, modern weapon, while the Alarico & Matrixxman collaboration ‘27th District’ offers a darker, more dissonant edge.
Shelter 12’s ‘cannot wait’ and Acidphase’s ‘Digital Sex’ are masterclasses in atmospheric tension, and Marcal’s contributions, ‘The Only Way is Forward’ and ‘Ainozama’, provide the kind of driving, loop-based momentum that defines this sound. It begins in characteristic obscurity, builds through the raw power of these selections, and exits on the timeless, jacking funk of Digital Express’s ‘Man, Woman, Love’.