Berlin, 17.05.2012 around 6:45am

Highgrade Records is a Berlin-based label that does not need any introduction any more.

When stylistberlin was born, Highgrade’s label manager and A&R Todd Bodine was one of the first to agree to do an interview (Todd Bodine stylistberlin interview) and invited me to the AMAM label night at Arena. This event led to a first introduction to Alessio Mereu (founder of the label amam), who presented me a vinyl copy of Jay Haze (Fuck Pony, Contexterrior), an artist that kept stylistberlin (the first blog version) going with encouraging words when it was difficult in the beginning.

In short, I owe Mr. Todd Bodine something.

Last night, the stylistberlin crew was invited to an amazing three hour – live set by Highgrade Disharmonic Orchestra with Tom Clark, Todd Bodine, Philipp Bader and Daniel Dreier at katerholzig. We had missed their big night in collaboration with mobilee at Stattbad Wedding, so we cleared all our schedules to attend this event.

The performance of the guys was so impressive, that I (respresentatively) wanted to share our impressions with you right away:

When we arrived, they had just started their set and the floor was packed. Frankly speaking, we were not expecting too much, as all those “live” artists nowadays are popping out of nowhere like grass on the ground and think that drumming boring beats on the Machine is everything you need to do.

At katerholzig, we were taught a lesson.

Tom Clark, Todd Bodine, Philipp Bader – who had just released wonderful tracks (Philipp Bader – Wishful Thinking EP review) – and Daniel Dreier were rocking the floor without a single break. The tracks were never monotonous, never hesitating, sometimes “held low” but then again in a glimpse of an eye exploding – the crowd had no moment to rest. This was just too good. Three hours of delightful music with Bader and Dreier singing along now and then kept the floor crowded and moving. There was no time to rest, you did not want to miss a track.

Impressive were the technical devices as well that were run by all four artists at the same time. To create such a dynamic set for such a long span of time required a lot of energy and concentration.

The chats on the floor with random people, as we do like to get the opinions of the crowd as well showed that everyone was especially fond of being there because those guys had fun playing – you could see them having fun performing and these strongly positive vibes were conferred on the crowd.

You really have to check one of their next gigs nearby your city and see, hear and feel it for yourselves!

There are loads of artists performing (live) with an attitude, when you are already established – but these guys, who already gained recognition all over the world kept it fun and yet professional. A big hand for that.

Please check out their Multilayer Album, too!

We really enjoyed ourselves being at katerholzig with the guys.

The stylistberlin team (including entourage!) says THANK YOU for the very good set.

Important links to Highrade Disharmonic Orchestra:

Artist profile: http://www.highgrade-records.de/artists_hdo_german.php

FB page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Highgrade-Disharmonic-Orchestra/114135331982991

RA with tour dates: http://www.residentadvisor.net/dj/highgradedisharmonicorchestra