So how you doin'!? Last Thursday I headed down to Electric City to see Koln's very own Justus Kohcnke and our own very own Americhord in Traffic. This was Americhord's first gig since she had a baby last year (Dylan, future electro superstar? We'll just have to wait and see) but she definitely hadn't become rusty as her set was sterling as always, marred only by a bit of a problem with the sound.

Unfortunately I can't really say I was as impressed by Mr. Kohcnke. I'd never actually heard much of his stuff before, except for a track on the Kompakt 100 compilation which I didn't really like. He started off with some r'n'b track before moving into the more poppier end of the Kompakt spectrum which didn't grab me at all. He played the Richard X Kraftwert/Whitney Houston "I Wanna Dance With Numbers" bootleg which I kind of like but then he went even cheesier with some house remix of The Bee Gee's "How Deep is Your Love" which pretty much drove me home.

Friday night saw me holed up in work as late as I've ever been in any workplace on a Friday night so to compensate I popped into Hospital on the way home, I hadn't been there in ages but it's still a hedonistic sweatbox of floppy haired hipster kids (hey I fit right in!). Mark Alton was busy sweating half his bodyweight over the decks when I finally managed to push my way onto the dancefloor. They've still got the clever decorations going too, a washing line of Hospital t-shirts for sale was hung over the DJ box. There was a collection box for English Tom as he lost a load of stuff in a fire at his apartment! Ouch! Buy him a pint next time you see him.

Saturday saw The Advent return to headline at the Temple Bar Music Centre courtesy if the Invisible Agent guys. Supporting him were 2Bit and Decal, I was a bit late in and missed most of 2Bit's set, I managed to catch all of Decal's though and it was great! A lot more technoy than any Decal set I've heard previously, with just one or two electro bits near the end. Alan had ditched the multitude of gear he usually brings out in favour of Ableton Live on a laptop but he assures me he's going to augment this with his MPC and "one of the racks of equipment I have". Cisco Ferreira himself (Monika from Poland was making fun of me because I couldn't remember his second name) pretty much banged it out for most of the night which I didn't really get into, but everybody else seemed to enjoy it and the place was pretty full so an atmosphere of fun prevailed (I'm trying out some Olde English here in an effort to make this site a bit more classy).

Meanwhile in the bar Eddie Brennan, Richard Brophy and Jay Galligan were playing whatever took their fancy. But I have to say, the bar part of the TBMC is the worst place ever to DJ. The sound system in there is terrible, the door to the main room is usually left open so there's a horrible sound clash in there and nobody really pays attention to the DJ there anyway. Personally I think promoters shouldn't bother putting DJs on in the bar, maybe just stick a mix CD in the CD player there or pipe the music from the main room in somehow.

But enough of my whining! This Thursday at Electric City the three deck using getto tech superstar Deetron is gracing the wheels that are made out of steel once again (he was over in April 2004 if I remember correctly, and I usually do when it comes to nerdy DJ facts!) with support from Conan "The Ladies Like Me Because I've Shaved My Head" O'Donnell. I've heard really good stuff about Deetron, supposedly he's quite nifty on the ones and twos (and threes in this case) so I'd recommend checking this one out.

I've got some photos from the Ellen Allien + Alexander Robotnick gig but they're all pretty blurry, I'll upload them when I get a chance though. There's also a long overdue skkatter DJ mix coming up soon, watch this space (with your face)! And since it's Valentine's Day this Tuesday I'd like to dedicate this entry to the one true love in my life..............the ladies.