- When a label whose motto is "Kill Your Boredom" announces a techno and avant-garde festival in the heart of Berlin, it makes you curious to find out more. Started in 2010, Killekill has spent the last five years honing Krake, building a reputation and ironing out any creases. It takes place across six days, with events spread between various venues in the capital. This year's edition coincided with a heatwave in early August.
At a glance, the lineup comprised a mix of Killekill mainstays and those who have occasionally flirted with the label, such as Eomac, Arad, Cassegrain & Tin Man, Mondkopf, Ekman, Untold and Kamikaze Space Programme. As festivals go, tickets were affordable (single day tickets never exceeded €18), with full-week passes valued at €65.
Krake is more than just a straightforward romp on the dance floor. Lakker hosted an Ableton Live masterclass, there were label boutiques, and an evening that focussed on electronic music's relationship with the human body. That said, the parties were the main attraction, and most of the programme was centered around the Friday and Saturday nights at Killekill's favourite haunt, Suicide Circus.
On Friday I was greeted by Mondkopf's tasteful but abrasive techno on the main dance floor. The unbearable heat meant that the garden was a total blessing, even if the setting sun couldn't provide any solace from the weather. Emika provided some distraction from behind the decks, her summery selections working wonders for those in search of some light relief. Her productions would crop up throughout the festival, some from her recent DREI LP, and one particularly potent remix of "Battles" by Kamikaze Space Programme.
Though the nights had been curated with the dance floor in mind, Peter Van Hoesen and Yves De Mey, collectively known as Sendai, had other plans. At this point I half expected the crowd to disperse, put off by the duo's non-club electronics. But instead they stuck around, transformed from dancers into captive audience members, patiently absorbing the atmosphere. The room remained a sweatbox, filled with Sendai's dark electronica and murky, modern techno. It's not easy to win over a kick drum-hungry crowd with cerebral music, but these two made it work.
The Saturday night, dubbed "The Kraken," was the festival's centrepiece. The remaining artists on the lineup were let loose on Suicide Circus, with UK favourites Untold, Eomac and Bintus among the main draws. All of them held their own, but Eomac's live set was the standout. Using a Vestax controller and Ableton, he journeyed through various genres, keeping the floor guessing throughout. The highlight was a Carcass vocal sample—"Lets's Get Ready To Scream!"—laid over a flurry of intricate breakbeats.
It's refreshing to see a festival curated with such finesse and with such a strong sense of what its audience deserves and enjoys. No surprise, then, that Krake has gone from strength to strength every year. It thinks outside the box, even if it was never really inside the box in the first place.
Photo credit: Joi Bix Photography