Electronic Beats Festival Cologne 2010

Anticipation was riding high for the third Electronic Beats Festival of the spring, which took place in Cologne last night – 20th May. The city's cavernous E-Werk club was the setting - an amazing space that also boasted an outdoor beer garden, and indoor lounge as well as a gigantic main room.

First to the stage were fantastic Little Dragon, a band so unique that it is almost impossible to categorize them. Their rhythmic, ethereal dream like music was shot through with burst of noise and electronic flourishes. A surprisingly large amount of people made the effort to come at the beginning of the party to see them play, and the band rewarded their fans with a fantastic set of songs taken from their latest album as well as older favourites.

Next up were Turboweekend, a band who were a last minute addition to the line up in Cologne. They impressed us so much In Graz and Prague that we just had to have the Danish power pop trio on board for Cologne. They certainly didn't disappoint either, ripping through their set with extra breakdowns and solo's showing that they really do live up to their name (even though it was still only Thursday)

With the dust just beginning to settle on the stage, next was the turn of Miike Snow to take to the stage. With their full and powerful sound they tore through their set and had the crowd singing and swaying along with them.

To be hosting the very first solo performance of Kele (ex-Bloc Party) in Germany was a huge honor for Electronic Beats. We were unbelievably excited to see him perform after hearing his sound check, and when it came to the show, he was amazing. A powerful blend of indie rock and electronic Kele declared at the end of his set that “Electronic Beats was a right love!”

Following another short break, it was time for the first of our bass heavy dance-floor slaying acts to take to the stage. Moderat should need no introduction to Electronic Beat's readers - their dubstep influenced tunes, laden with emotion, were the perfect tonic or the crowd who by this time was at full capacity.

Time flew by with hands in the air, and before anyone knew it, Moderat's show was over and dance-floor vandals Major Lazer (Diplo & Switch) were turning everything up to 11 as they were accompanied on stage by an inflatable Pirate, Monkey & Dragon. Ghetto bass-lines, broken beats and sirens screamed out of the speakers and the whole club went crazy for nearly two hours. Dancing, whooping and cheering the duo got as close to a standing ovation as you can get form a crowd of people who are already standing and to show his appreciation, their MC Dale Richardson took the end of their set as his cue to leap into the crowd. We were a little bit worried, but he was OK once we managed to extract him from the screaming fans.

An unbelievable night of music in Cologne.