Ben Klock, Nina Kraviz and Marcel Dettmann are the three biggest names in techno right now. They are also the three biggest names to roll through Korner since its inception two years ago and over the next three weekends, they will each perform at the club in honor of its two-year anniversary.
Throughout those two years, Korner has gone to great lengths to cultivate not just a techno scene in Taipei but also their image, atmosphere and music policy in a way that no matter the weekend, artist or promoter, Korner has revolutionized itself from being known as the entrance to The Wall (這牆) into one of Taipei’s most revered nightclubs.
It started first as an alternative project after a few promoters used a small corner of The Wall’s winding entrance as a second DJ booth. The club decided to brand the space as its own entity because it wanted to have a separate and dedicated space for indie electronic music. The Wall focused mainly on indie rock.
Photo courtesy of Modern Matters
“We took a shot on branding it and hoped that Korner could become a common ground for DJs, artists, promoters and electronica enthusiasts,” says the club’s Chang Chun-hao.
And they’ve done a good job. Korner doesn’t even offer tables or bottles and most of the time they book DJs that many people have never heard of, but they’ve fostered a kind of weekend culture that people believe in. Regardless if the cover is NT$100 or NT$1,000, people trust that the music will always be good.
Chang thinks it’s because they shoot for the future classic in their bookings. Instead of the What’s Popular Now approach, they look at scene makers in the world of underground music and consider those artists to be a must-book.
“And if we lose money, it’s fun to just make a statement,” he said.
Also, Chang says their only music policy is to leave it to the DJ. “We care more about the DJs taste, and from there they can play whatever they want and become a tastemaker.”
The celebration commences this weekend when Ben Klock, who hails from Berghain — a club in Berlin generally considered the iconic center of the techno world. Klock has been a resident at Berghain since 2004 and his dark, driving and pounding techno, as well as his powerful sometimes 12-hour sets have come to define the club and basically created a culture around it.
This culture has been making waves around the world as more and more people are becoming disenchanted with explosive festivals and EDM, and all along Korner has been drip-feeding it to us with names like DVS1 and Scuba. But now they’ve stepped it up a notch.
■ Ben Klock plays tomorrow night from 11:30pm to 5am at Korner, 200, Roosevelt Rd Sec 4, Taipei City (台北市羅斯福路四段200號B1). Admission is NT$1,500 at the door and includes a drink.
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