We enter into a starkly lit garden of Australian dreams to the loose and thunderous system pushing out an ill conceived set from Sub Bass Snarl. I take a seat on the hill that is pleasantly warm and managed to stay that way all through the show. The beanbags are back again, this year I elect not to use them as the color rubs off onto your clothes.

With the quick intro set over Mark N steps up to the decks and VJ Superlight starts his work. This was listed as a “trick” set but he over-extended his skills, that lead to missed beats and a refusal to cut his losses when he got into trouble. Despite this the track selection was good and there were a few people up there dancing. VJ Superlight provided a disappointing show with a generic urban collage of pre-recorded clips overlaying a stationary feed of the DJ.

The movie screen was not able to be used thanks to the high winds on the night so all the animations were projected onto the garden’s white cube. The side facing the hill was projected by a battle worn LCD that really didnt provide sufficient contrast for the animations and the sound was un-naturally coming from off-centre. However the selection of animations was excellent, it was a shame the crowd had such a short attention span as they happily chatted their way through Footnote and King Python missing arguably the two most thought provoking and highly produced pieces of the evening. Only the straight out action of WARD 13 got their attention back.

Mark N returned for his second set with less trickery on his mind and pulled out a excellent set that looked as though it would provide the perfect entry for Meem, but then he ramps it up and leaves us pointing back where we started. Track selection was excellent in general but there were a few odd transitions.

After a bit of confusion with the sound engineer Meem gets underway with a somewhat housey sound. Showing amazing control of the difficult system he delivered a simplistic and solid live set, in the process he seemed wrapped up in his own vibe and never really connected with the audience in any way. There was of course the punter requests put to the live act even though no-one requested anything while the DJ’s were playing (go figure), Meem covered these excellently and the punters seemed content with the response. VJ Superlight brought in a green theme briefly and started working with the beat but soon traveled off into a technicolor yawn and never really go back onto the rhythm.

After a 40 minute live set Meem hits the decks and brings in the electro I was expecting. He still seems unable to involve the crowd and this is where the majority of people leave (also the bar closed but they wouldn’t leave just because of that would they :P).

All in all a good way to pass the evening and it was also great to see security actually enforcing the no smoking rule this year.