Played Out: How Camea And La Fleur Close At Watergate Berlin
PLACE: Watergate Club, Berlin
TIME: Closing out Saturday morning circa 10 a.m.
1. Camea: Ambivalent, “Whyou (Michael Meyer Remix)” (Kompakt/Spiecher)
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Playing at Watergate in Berlin is always a great experience. The club sits on the Spree river, which runs through the center of the city and is an amazing location for the sunrise. After the upstairs closes, everyone comes together on the Water Floor for the last hours of “vibey-ness” in the morning. This is why I choose the legendary Michael Mayer remix of Ambivalent on Kompakt/Speicher called “Whyou”. It encompasses the sound of Berlin summer with padded back rhythms, a catchy rework of the original melody and steady but light tech house percussion to keep everyone dancing and in the zone.
La Fleur rides out “Whyou” with a long blend into “What Is The Time Mr. Templar?”, making space for and awareness of the morning to dawn and move towards the end of the set.
2. La Fleur: The Persuader, “What Is The Time Mr. Templar?” (SVEK)
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After Camea’s choice, I think it’s a good moment for a classic. Playing a morning set is about diversity to keep people on a good trip, and that means you can’t go flat on them. So I picked something from from Swedish record label SVEK (1996-2003) to keep the floor moving. Back in the day this imprint was on the forefront of underground techno. My selection, “What Time Is It, Mr. Templar?”, has one of the coolest track names and is one of my favorites from the label. It was produced by Swedish techno veteran Jesper Dahlbäck in 1997 under the alias The Persuader, and it delivers an absolute stunning piece of spacey, ethereal techno.
Camea starts to mix about three minutes into the track to keep up the excitement with new percussive elements, bringing the kick drum in and pulling it back a few times to transition into a more bouncy techno track—jacking it.
3. Camea: La Fleur “Longevity (Camea Remix)” (Watergate Records)
Whenever I play at Watergate, I always like to include at least one of the records from the club’s own superb label. This is actually the first club that I ever played in Berlin back in 2007, so it has a particular sentiment for me when I’m performing there. For this mix I want to keep up the energy, so my track choice is my remix of La Fleur’s “Longevity” from her Hedione EP, which was released at the end of August. I’m often a bit shy to play my own tracks, but this one is really about the reworking of Sanna’s super beautiful elements, and it’s been rocking on the dance floor this summer.
La Fleur brings things to the next level with a long mix. She layers the end of her track with the build of the next one to get the perfect upward flow and keep the energy going.
4. La Fleur: Point Blank AKA Secret Cinema “Meng’s Theme (Christian Smith & Wehbba Remix)” (Gem Records)
Since nobody really wants the morning to end, I decide to keep the vibe up with this new remix by Christian Smith and Wehbba of the classic “Meng’s Theme”. It’s a soaring techno cut with driving drums, raw percussive patterns and that signature synth jab. It sits well with the rolling beats of Camea’s remix and makes a long, smooth transition.
Camea lets this one ride out, as we’re getting near closing. This time she makes a bit of a quick mix into the next track as we change styles and start to take things down.
5. Camea: Kasper Bjørke, “Cloud 9 feat. Urdur (Gerd Janson Mood Swing Dub)” (Hafendisco)
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This is about the time we usually get “wrap it up” looks from the night manager. Depending on how much I’ve had to drink, I might start making feeble attempts to stretch things out a bit more (DJ tip: those patient, closing-time looks from the staff can easily turn into stink-eye if you aren’t careful). I want to send everyone home with a smile and have some fun, so I switch the mood and play some funky, morning acid house. I’ve picked out a remix from the master of vibes and one of my favorite artists right now, Gerd Janson, using his splashes of post-disco synths and soul vocal interludes to get the booties shaking one last time.
These two tracks fit well together, and La Fleur introduces the vocal, “Sunlight in my eyes,” and loop part of the break from Cloud 9 until the groove of the Mood II Swing track kicks in, then lets Cloud 9 play out to bring some more edge to “Sunlight” until the first break comes in.
6. La Fleur: Mood II Swing “Sunlight In My Eyes” (King Street Sounds)
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Last track of the morning! As a resident of Watergate, I have a few special tracks that are favorites, because I had great moments with them or just because I know they will fit beautiful on the Water Floor—and this is one of them. The black-out curtains are moved to make more light on the floor, the sun is up over Spree and our morning has come to an end. The daylight brings out sunglasses and euphoric smiles. I have chosen the classic 1994 deep house tune “Sunlight in My Eyes” because it’s a great way to send everyone home with good energy and lots of love in the room.
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Read past Played Outs with Mike Servito, Borusiade and more. You can also check out La Fleur’s Slices video here and get a sense of her DJ sets in action through her EB Radio mix. Camea will DJ live at Watergate on September 21.
Published September 20, 2016.