broken beats and rumbling basslines at the South Bank

Hot on the heels of recent remix album releases sees German heavyweights Apparat, and Pantha Du Prince combine for a night of dance and electronic music as part of the Ether Festival 2011.

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Following a short opening DJ set from DJ Walls, a collection of house and dance, Apparat took to the stage to kickstart the night proper, accompanied by VJ artist Pfadfinderei. Starting up initially as a floaty collection of ambient strings and noises, the set proceeded to explode into a pumping collection of dance and electronic tracks, with pulsing light show and with twisting visuals projected across two massive screens behind them. Needless to say, the crowd showed their appreciation as the set moved across dance, electro, breakbeat and even a Joy Orbison remix adding dubstep to the varied setlist, each with Apparat's signature production touches from new and new material. With Apparat providing the pumping beats to Pfadfinderei's kaleidoscopic, dreamy visuals they easily filled a one hour set and could probably keep going for as long as the audience could stand.

Headlining for the evening, Pantha Du Prince cut a lean figure on stage, dressed in a dark hooded sweatshirt with a weird, shiny metal facemask (think of the bad guy from Flash Gordon film). Complete with laptops, mixers and a strange DIY metal mobile frame with lights and cameras (piped to projectors around the venue ), his take on modern electronic music takes on a slightly slower, darker and more insidious form, with pounding drums and growling basslines that suited a set that started after midnight. The set also included shifting drum patterns and arrangements alongside the samples and overlay effects that were thrown into the mix, varying the rhythm and keeping things interesting and fresh throughout. Doom and bass anyone? With such a great opening performance, any act following would have a hard time matching it, but Pantha du Prince stepped up to the plate and delivered a solid act with a lot of neat extras.

Apparat and Pantha du Prince both produce a great and entertaining live show. While they have differing approaches to visuals, both make a great impression and compliment their own music styles well. Once again, Ether provides a great demonstration of exciting and new electronic/dance music from Europe and a brilliant gig to kick-start the weekend.

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