Berlin techno is a favourite in the underground dance scene – think sweaty clubs, humid, foggy air and deep, rolling basslines. Named after its origins in the German capital, this particular brand of techno is known for its deep synth, minimalism and hypnotic energy, cultivating a cult-like following in clubs across the world.
This is the culture that local DJ collective Cat House want to introduce to Melbourne, collaborating with local producers and international artists to carve a Berlin-esque techno niche into our nightlife.
“We are trying to bring this European, principally this Berlin scene, that we discovered like three years ago now,” says Guillaume Boin (aka Bandar Seri), one of the three founders of Cat House.
He and co-founders, Miguel Forero (Lanzer) and Sameer Shachi (Sameer), are DJs and self-proclaimed techno enthusiasts, who started out playing house parties in the winter of 2016.
“We started with a few house parties here and there, playing since the beginning techno,” says Boin. “We [began to] play more progressive and low BPM techno, and started out with like 15 friends on the weekend. Then we reached one with 60 people one night, so we decided that we needed a bigger place to run our events. This is where the name of Cat House got created.
“The first place we started doing shows was an underground bar in Collingwood, Caz Reitop’s Dirty Secrets. It had two floors, so you could have 60 people downstairs and then maybe 60 people in the bar upstairs too, we were playing house music upstairs and techno in the basement.”
The guys then went on to host a series of events at Brunswick’s My Aeon, starting off with ‘Lunatic’ and following up with ‘Berlin Calling’. The sounds of Berlin techno were already prevalent in their music, but it was a trip to the city late last year that reignited their passion for the genre, and desire to bring the scene here to Melbourne.
“After we went to Berlin again last year we came back and thought, ‘That’s what we want to bring’. Sameer is still playing a soft mix, whereas Miguel and myself are more into deep techno, deep and dark techno, so we usually play our stuff at the end and get Sameer to warm the place. That really, really hard techno came after August.”
In March 2018 the trio hosted their first international DJ, Cleric, at Platform One, an underground bar in the CBD. The event drew a crowd of around 300 people, a pretty good turn-out for what started off as a bunch of mates jamming together at house parties.
The next few months are looking big for Cat House, who are teaming up with promoters MGA Sound to bring international guests Skober and Yan Cook to Brown Alley on May 4. The trio has plans to set up a studio too, allowing them to focus more on producing and organising their upcoming events. This includes a new series of ‘Berlin Calling’ that will kick off mid-winter, this time in underground basement bar The Sub Club.
“June will be ‘Berlin Calling’ with local artists and local DJs. From August, September, November and December we will have a ‘Berlin Calling’ each month with an international artist,” says Boin, who hopes the series will give underground artists the chance to cultivate a following and share their passion for techno.
“We try to bring the techno we love, no matter if someone is famous or not. It doesn’t matter about the popularity — if their techno is good, and the way it’s produced is really good, then we want to give them space in the Melbourne scene.”
