Brand new ITM t-shirt… Tick. Mobile phone… Tick. Wallet… Tick. Lecture notebook, pens, pocket protector… Pocket protector? Visiting Professor monolake is in town to give a late-night musical lecture and I expect the geekier end of the scene to be represented. And I always try my best to blend in.

The turnout before midnight isn’t very big, but I’m not surprised. Except for the posters plastered around the East, there hasn’t been too much publicity for this gig. Being the last weekend before the Christmas long weekend wouldn’t have helped.

Promoter Ming D is busy putting up the final bits of decor, and the people at the door are very friendly. This is my first Foo Man Chunes party and it’s earning points from me already.

Sub Bass Snarl are playing early, in the middle of a set that sounds and feels like a jam session. Tracks and loops were coming into play much like in an improv. Seb Chan, one half of Snarl, was visibly in the groove.

Then I find I’ve gone from listening to Simon Caldwell one weekend (at Candy’s Apartment) to Phil Smart the next. Life’s not all that bad after all! For once I can say that I had no idea where a DJ’s tracks came from and I thoroughly enjoyed them. Yes, Smart was doing his eclectic thing again; weirdo house, African house, psy-house—sorry, I really don’t know. You just had to be there.

Jimmi James played earlier than billed and made things a little more familiar. The dancefloor was beginning to fill up, and all the deep house fans had appeared.

Finally it was time for monolake, the headline act. monolake is now the outlet of Robert Henke, having been formed with Gerhard Behles in 1995. They have garnered world-wide respect not just for their music, but also for Ableton Live. This computer software is famed for how easy it makes live sequencing and improvisation with samples. Highly recommended by the likes of Richie Hawtin, Coldcut, and composer Hans Zimmer, I learned much about Live from its many fans who were in attendance. I can’t say I’ve been out clubbing to see software before.

I never could think of monolake’s music as ‘dance music’, and his latest album Momentum is a perfect example. So I had my doubts about a gig at a dance party, squeezed in between two DJs.

When Henke came to the controls, looking and moving for all the world like a professor about to start a lecture, the dancefloor was packed with tensed arms and legs ready to spring at the first beat dropped. Obviously aware of this, Henke started his set at an extremely high tempo with high-hats pitched well into hardcore rave territory. The downtempo house crowd of Foo Man Chunes was stunned.

Seated with the pocket protector brigade off to a side, I cringed as I watched uncomfortable glances being exchanged on the floor. Of course, Henke’s own Live software came to the rescue here, as it allowed him to seamlessly “time warp” his way out of a tight spot. With less live-performance oriented software, things could’ve been a lot worse.

As the BPMs came down and the beats became less predictable, the music became more monolake. The set was the best—beautiful, even—when it was the least danceable. The crowd had by then adjusted to this, and were content to disperse and have a boogie whenever the beats called for it. As I went to hear monolake-being-monolake, rather than monolake-trying-to-be-a-club-DJ, I was quite happy.

Without doubt, the psytrance doof setting of his Queensland gig would’ve been far more suitable. Doof crowds in general are open to more experimental types of music, and there’s no denying the very psychedelic aspects of monolake.

Next was Chop Stuey, whose set immediately brought out the Foo Man Chunes regulars who had been sitting and chatting till then.

Lecture over. Learned something about live performance software… Tick. Met interesting people… Tick. No ink stains in pocket…