Charlotte de Witte
La Rotonde Stalingrad in Paris, France for Cercle
Paris, techno, and an aggressively stylish crowd wearing tiny sunglasses at sunset. Half of them are just waiting for the breakdown so they can turn on their phone torches and get the perfect Instagram story. Say what you want about the posers, but this Charlotte de Witte La Rotonde Stalingrad in Paris, France for Cercle tracklist is proper brutal. The neoclassical Parisian rotunda gets a merciless industrial makeover as dark, pounding kicks echo across the canal. This Charlotte de Witte live set is a masterclass in driving, unrelenting Techno.
Sitting at a surprisingly groovy 127.3 BPM, she leans heavily on the 12A key to construct a monolithic wall of sound. The mixing is sharp, utilizing massive low-end drops that hit you squarely in the chest. The crate digging here is frankly unhinged. Sicko's "Corrosive" provides the expected acid burn, but Franky Rizardo's remix of "Cola"? Cheeky. The real madness is dropping Joey Seminara's "Pump It Up" to a bunch of Parisian techno snobs.
The melodic opening track "All I Know" lulls the crowd into a false sense of security. The absolute scenes arrive with Alex Dolby's "Sintesi", before she leaves everyone entirely confused and bouncing to the closing track: Alexandra Stan's "Mr. Saxobeat". Having a complete laugh.