Berlin round-up: Cassy

Last Sunday I finally got to see/hear Cassy play at Panorama Bar in Berlin. Her productions (especially the two releases on Perlon) are just lovely - like bleached skeletons of old Chicago house records. She manages to squeeze real melancholic emotion out of what are virtually just three or four elements, repeated and slightly tweaked over eight minutes: the wonderful sounds of old Roland drum machines, all metallic handclaps and warm kickdrums; a 303 bassline; the barest of melody and her own plaintive voice, usually used as a motif, but occasionally singing a full song.



Anyway, she's one of the residents at Panorama Bar, the smaller upstairs room of Berghain, a big dark techno club in an old powerstation. The doors open at midnight on Friday and Cassy was on at 6pm on Sunday, which is when I arrived. I'm pretty sure I was the only person there who'd had a good night's sleep, a lie-in and a steak for lunch. I heard (and danced to) three hours of her set, and she played some good records, but it was all very banging and nothing came close to the subtleties and depth of her own recordings, which was disappointing, but then I wasn't sleep deprived and off my face, like everyone else. I suppose it's the same problem I talked about with Richie Hawtin, producer versus DJ, patience versus impatience. I left at 9.30pm had a beer on the way home and went to bed, it all felt quite civilised.