- Is it possible to have too much of a good thing? Sydney's Days Like This Festival put this notion to the test on Saturday afternoon, cramming three days-worth of music into ten short hours. The city had never seen such an abundance of underground house and techno artists, even if that meant that no performance lasted more than 90 minutes and many ran for barely an hour. Figuring out how to review the festival was tricky—trying to see too much would mean missing the ebb and flow of each act. Luckily, getting oriented at Randwick Racecourse didn't take long. The four stages, all but one with excellent sound, were arranged over a compact area, giving the festival a cosy, boutique feel.
Gerd Janson was the first international on the main stage. Faced with an empty floor, he played unexpectedly hard to begin with, before edging in soulful vocal disco to pull dancers into action. He finished with a quirky medley that included a Depeche Mode remix heavy on dolphin noises and some Moroder-esque disco. The next four hours played out like an unofficial Innervisions open-air party. Âme laid down beats and synths packed with longing, and Recondite turned the melancholy up to 11 with a set perfectly suited to the late afternoon. Dixon, on the other hand, played it safe, hewing too close to the dreamy sound he's known for.
The indoor stage, which alternated between DJs and live acts, was a mixed bag: Nathan Fake remains an ardent classicist, Stimming has barely deviated from the sonic formula that he started with a decade ago, and Axel Boman whipped up some energy but didn't break much new ground within his trance-y tech house. Octave One, though, sent dancers into a frenzy with their closing live set.
Stage 2, hosted by Sydney promoter WeLove, had the housiest lineup of the day, but too many of the acts never left their comfort zones. Soul Clap's set, for example, rarely rose above middle-of-the-road. That said, there were some exceptions to the rule: Detroit Swindle did well, throwing down jazzy house that got people moving, while Omar-S saved the day with a brief but jackin' selection. Fatima Yamaha delivered exactly what was expected: a hypnotic blend of electronic disco that felt like it was from another time and place.
For anyone after more cutting-edge sounds, there was the smaller Stage 4, run by Peoples Club. The music was consistently bolder and more adventurous, even if the soundsystem didn't carry enough oomph. Midland went from tough Chicago house through to Redshape's "Tel Aviv," before sending the crowd raucous with a sharp left turn into disco. Later, Job Jobse elevated dancers to a state of nu-disco euphoria, followed by a mind-bending set from DJ Tennis, the highlight of which was an Ibiza-style sit-down. To close, John Talabot threw down trippy, groovy house in his signature style.
On balance, Days Like This tried to pack too much into too small a timeframe. But despite the truncated sets and lack of daring on behalf of some of the bigger names, it was still miles ahead of anything to happen in Sydney previously. The team should be commended for bringing to Australia the kind of lineup that is usually reserved for festivals in the northern hemisphere. Let's hope Days Like This returns next year.
The indoor stage, which alternated between DJs and live acts, was a mixed bag: Nathan Fake remains an ardent classicist, Stimming has barely deviated from the sonic formula that he started with a decade ago, and Axel Boman whipped up some energy but didn't break much new ground within his trance-y tech house. Octave One, though, sent dancers into a frenzy with their closing live set. Stage 2, hosted by Sydney promoter WeLove, had the housiest lineup of the day, but too many of the acts never left their comfort zones. Soul Clap's set, for example, rarely rose above middle-of-the-road. That said, there were some exceptions to the rule: Detroit Swindle did well, throwing down jazzy house that got people moving, while Omar-S saved the day with a brief but jackin' selection. Fatima Yamaha delivered exactly what was expected: a hypnotic blend of electronic disco that felt like it was from another time and place.
For anyone after more cutting-edge sounds, there was the smaller Stage 4, run by Peoples Club. The music was consistently bolder and more adventurous, even if the soundsystem didn't carry enough oomph. Midland went from tough Chicago house through to Redshape's "Tel Aviv," before sending the crowd raucous with a sharp left turn into disco. Later, Job Jobse elevated dancers to a state of nu-disco euphoria, followed by a mind-bending set from DJ Tennis, the highlight of which was an Ibiza-style sit-down. To close, John Talabot threw down trippy, groovy house in his signature style. On balance, Days Like This tried to pack too much into too small a timeframe. But despite the truncated sets and lack of daring on behalf of some of the bigger names, it was still miles ahead of anything to happen in Sydney previously. The team should be commended for bringing to Australia the kind of lineup that is usually reserved for festivals in the northern hemisphere. Let's hope Days Like This returns next year.