- Melbourne's The Likes of You meant little to me, but it turns out they've been responsible for some of the most exciting imports the city has seen. That said, they've been inactive for a while, clearly saving themselves for this September 11 fiesta. While the line-up lacked coherence, it was made up for in sheer quality: Matthew Dear played psychedelic techno live as Audion, Oxia added bittersweet European progressive hues and Omar-S spun a three-hour set of underground Detroit house. Joining these far-flung internationals, locals played by turns dry, deep and disordered—an eclectic ruckus—making for a fun party that had much more than three rooms of minimal sameness.
When we arrived, unfashionably early at 11.30, the place was empty, giving us plenty of time to wander about and find our bearings in Brown Alley's labyrinthine passageways. Sound- and music-wise, things were bleak. Room 1's tall thin cavern sounded awful, muddied bass tones obscuring all else. Room 2's sound was better, but the pseudo-IDM breaks being played were charmless. Liveliest was the terrace, filled with pepped-up macho smokers bopping to banging electro-house, ridiculously energised considering the hour.
Myles Mac and Andy Hart lured us back downstairs with Gadi Mizrahi's "I'll Set Your House," and they continued on this funky Wolf + Lamb tip, and as the room began rapidly filling up, it started sounding almost decent. Refreshing too, it wasn't only sweaty fist-pumping men arriving, but a healthy varied audience—male and female, sharp and shabby, young and ... slightly less young, at least in our corner. Whoever had followed in Room 2 was doing a serviceable warm-up job for Omar-S, playing jazz-yet-techy stretches of US house, and the crowd were quietly digging it, even if it was a bit too noodley for my tastes. Cigarette breaks found more of the same testosterone on the terrace, intense and ill-fitting, but the fresh air made up for it.
Omar-S's arrival brought cheers and hollers, and he slid in without missing a beat. Playing up to—or upwards of—three tracks at once, cold analogue bleeps mixed over jazz snippets and sharp drum sequences. Recognizable FXHE tracks would appear, but as traces, and they'd slink off indiscriminately, replaced by new combinatory elements. This was incredibly soulful music, revelling in its mechanical make-up, and Omar's DJing was fantastic, the finest music of the night.
France's Oxia was hardly disappointing Room 1 either, with heavy Cologne-style house shaking and shimmering like Eulberg or Mayer. Too much emotion for the hard liners perhaps, but it was consistent and effectively delivered, and the crowd were loving it, and their numbers increasing. He kicked on past Audion's scheduled start time, which might have ruffled feathers, until he ended with "Domino," a truly anthemic finale, leaving all but the coldest hearts a-flutter.
Expectation for Audion was considerable, what with Dear ambling about the stage for the last hour or so, tinkering with hardware and cables while Oxia wound up, so his understated entry was something of an anti-climax. This didn't last long, though, as his subtle elements developed into just what was expected, disorienting streamlined melodies and portentous, pounding drums. "Full of Blinding Light" was built up from scratch, and when it hit, it ripped the room to shreds. It was a short set, but big on drama, and proved how skilled Dear is in crafting visceral techno monsters rich in disorienting detail.
The schizophrenic line-up made overall assessment difficult, but the good moments were very good indeed. With such a pleasant and receptive crowd as well, it made for a pretty fine evening; add some new speakers, and it would have been excellent.