Todd Bodine is a Berlin DJ. And while thousands of artists and DJs now lay claim to this eminently cool appellation, having pilgrimaged en masse from all corners of the globe to work, live and party in the world’s electronic music capital, Bodine was born in Berlin and has been hanging out in its dusty, sound-flooded industrial spaces since the fall of the wall. In many a cultural hot spot – we’re looking at you Williamsburg and Shoreditch – when a city reaches this saturation point of talent and renown, things tend to sour a bit, with the old timers getting nostalgic and the latecomers succumbing to hipster self-hate. Yet somehow, despite having been cool just about forever, Berlin remains embracive.

We were reminded of this refreshing fact when a call to the offices of respected Berlin techno label High Grade connected us with Bodine.

“Some Paris DJ friends recently told me that the French government contacted them about working together to find a way to keep artists in Paris, because so many have been leaving for Berlin. I heard that and was like, ‘What? No. Really?’ But I thought about it and it’s true. Everybody is here now,” he laughs. “There is this amazing mixture of people from Spain and Italy and Paris, and other parts of Germany. I think ten or 12 years ago, we were heavily influenced by Chicago and Detroit and all the old techno heroes, but after a while, the scene grew its own character, and since about five or six years ago, people are proud to say they make Berlin music.”

Bodine has been working with friend and High Grade founder Tom Clark for almost a decade, but it wasn’t until a year and half ago that he quit his graphic design day-job to join High Grade on a fulltime co-owner basis. High Grade celebrates its ten-year anniversary later this year, and Bodine, Clark, Guido Schneider et al have booked both floors of the famous converted power station club Panorama Bar/Berghain for the weekend. “It’s the best crowd in the world there on a Sunday afternoon. It has its own movement at the end. You can play such strange stuff. You can do whatever you want – it’s art, it’s really cool. For our last party there, we started on Friday night and I played the last record on Monday morning at 2am,” he says, again laughing. “It’s like a marathon. Between sets I run home and have some fruit and lay down for an hour to refresh a bit, and then I can go another 12 hours.”

As for what he and his friends are playing at the moment and what we might hear at Space on Saturday 6, Bodine says, as always, it depends on the club and the crowd. “In some places in Germany and Spain, you have to play harder and more minimal. I try to play really deep and really housey now. In Berlin and around Europe that’s the style of the moment. But it has to be powerful – always powerful.”

Patrick Brzeski

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