33/45 @ Uni Bar (3 May 03)
Reported by Tristan Sunday, May 4 2003
The problem of appropriate venues for Hobart dance events has been well documented recently. It was then, of course, with great anticipation that the renovations to the Uni Bar at the University of Tasmania’s Hobart campus were completed, albeit over time. Doubling capacity, installing airconditioning and adding a relevant feel finally brought this much loved venue up to date with modern rivals and who better to help celebrate this opening than two of Melbourne’s finest DJs and producers.
Holding the event, one night after infamous Amateur Night, meant that only the hardcore were going to back up. So it was only half an hour after Ivan Gough took over from local Adam Turner, that the dancefloor begun to fill, no doubt due to the sounds the Melbournite. If any DJ needs an example of playing to a crowd then this was the set to study. Comprised of as much dance music fanatics as there were uni bar stalwarts, Ivan knew who the crowd he was playing to and linked with them. Playing in a far more funky and vocal direction than normal, stand outs were his and Colin Snape’s new mix of Icehouse – Don’t Believe Anymore, the new Infusion track Dead Souls and a new breaks mix of Bjork – Hyperballad for which Luke Chable and PQM are responsible.
There’s not much to rival the sound of breaks mixed out into 4/4, but when the track is Ivan’s own mix of Origene – Sanctuary it’s pure progressive madness. Anyone who’s graced an Australian dancefloor this year would have come across this gem and Ivan was clearly over the moon that one Harry Lemon (progressive superstar) had finally signed on to remix the tune, only the day before. Fusing beautiful melodies with dirty beats, Ivan drove it home with Midtone – Pearl, the Wrecked Angle Mix of Fluke – Slide and finished with one of the tunes of 2003, the Junkie XL mix of Legacy.
Literally bounding onto the stage, Phil K ripped into his banging progressive and funky breaks absolutely pounding the DJM-600 and EFX-500 within an inch of their lives. From simple scratching, to dropping edits, loops and acapellas, Phil at time overused the effects available to him which interrupted the flow of the music. The Foreman summed it up perfectly in stating “technically brilliant but hard to dance to”. Even though breaks really isn’t my area, naming tunes was made even harder by the stack of 100 white labels and 200 capacity wallet of CDRs splayed round the booth, however Raze – Break 4 Love did get a spin towards the end. Playing great music, it only intensifies the experience to see Phil singing along, smiling wildly and bouncing away to his tunes. Indeed, here is a DJ who truly loves what he does. Coming on sometime after 3, SpinFx kept the flow of the night going, playing a great set of Tayo style breaks whilst scratching and sampling away.
Obviously in a multi purpose venue such as this, the sound won’t be perfect, and in some ways it was probably good there wasn’t an extensive sound check or Phil might have blown up half the equipment. Evidently though all future (pun intended) dance parties will be installing their own sound systems to do the music justice.
Not a mind blowing night, but it’s always great to see four DJ’s really on top of their game at the moment. A good start to an excellent and really promising venue.
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