Who better to mix the tenth edition of the
Watergate series than club resident and long-time representative of Berlin
open-mindedness,
Marco Resmann? And
what Resmann might lack in profile compared to the series recent contributors (
Tiefschwarz,
Lee Curtis), he makes up for in his lesser-known credentials: he
was once one third of techno outfit
Pan
Pot and co-founded German label ‘Upon.You’.
As the CD opens with field recordings of, what
sounds like, Resmann leaving his taxi, crossing the street and entering Watergate,
you know that this is going to be more than just a series of nicely sequenced
tracks. It exposes a concept in which Resmann is looking to mimesis the
Watergate experience; he doesn’t want to play you some banging tunes, he wants to transport you onto the dance-floor. And
it’s this concept, whilst never overpowering or detracting from the music, that
gives the mix its swagger and validity. Opening with a deftly spliced minimal-house
compound of Soulphiction’s I’ve Got A Feeling, Minilogue’s jazzy Orglar
and Douglas Greed’s Sense, Resmann exhibits the mix’s second
key strength: using tracks as parts, rather than wholes. In a move not
dissimilar to that exhibited by Luciano
on his recent Vagabundos compilation, tracks aren’t simply played but succinctly
and effortlessly disassembled and placed upon one another.
By the time the familiar hook of Ricardo Villalobo’s 1999 classic 808 The Bass Queen emerges three tracks
in, Resmann has found his footing. The mood is muted, muffled percussion
complements the warbling bass and easing vocals. We’re somewhere between
minimal and deep house, a journey charted by both familiar cuts and those
more alien and ethereal. Vinyl that
might be gathering dust in less audacious DJ boxes makes appearances (the
grandeur of Serafin’s Starship
Discothèque and Hertz4’s waspy Intimacy Girl) makes for moments at which you could be listening
to a compilation from any point in the last seven years, before Resmann neatly
steers proceedings into fresher pastures in a swerve towards curve-ball type of
house associated with Crosstown Rebels.
Left’s
Please Don’t Come Alone, deftly placed atop André Lodemann’s Where Are
You Now?, is a perfect example of this full-fat, deep house approach.
This sudden injection of colour and melody fit perfectly, showcasing Resmann’s
ability to join the transitory dots between the current wave of house and
techno, and the more minimal styles preceding it. Then again, you probably
wouldn’t expect anything less from a resident DJ at Watergate, where the flow
of trends and sounds mirror the pace of the Spree that runs alongside it.
Jichael
Mackson’s
enigmatic throbber GTI marks the start for an incredibly strong mid-section, showcasing
recent sleeper hits, as Elon’s head-fuck
Clap Back, Kollektiv Turmstrasse’s melodic
Heimat and Anonym’s organ-bothering Go
Deeper all get spun. The pace doesn’t let up either: Death
On The Balcony’s very British deep house sound makes an appearance, as does
the instantly recognisable hook of Deetron’s Collide before, the momentum
continuing to build, Resmann’s exclusive collaboration with Kiki offers a memorable immersive,
vocal-led deep house experience.
And it is this momentum which lends the mix its
success. It just doesn’t let up.
Whilst the sound flits between the various fringes
of minimal and deep house, there’s no variation in tempo or pace. In the eighty
minutes, Resmann packs in twenty-three cuts, few of which last longer than 4½ minutes.
Each track is treated like an individual component, perfectly fitted and sewn
together, melodies, vocals, baselines glued together with so little sign of
touch. The effect is that this is a mix that feels far more representative of
that live, in the moment experience, than most club-mixes could dream of. Even
listening to this mix in headphones in your bedroom on a cold February morning,
you can almost feel the club’s famous
strip lighting blazing with colour, igniting the collected masses between the
stereo stacks.