The long weekend as usual brought with it an absolute bounty of huge events and international acts including a massive line up at the next in the Sounds Kinky series of parties. Heading up the amazing line-up was Australia’s own Infusion who need no further introduction after unbelievable successes in the past couple of years including touring around world, releasing a number of huge tracks and now promoting tracks from their upcoming artist album. Other special guests on the night included Evil 9 consisting of producers and DJs Tom Beaufoy and Pat Pardy who are signed to the Adam Freeland’s Marine Parade label. Mark Knight was heading up the main room with some quality house if the long list of his quality productions are anything to go by. If that isn’t enough to get you fired up these guests were supported by locals such as Shamus, Ben Korbel, Ajax, The Jackal and many more throughout the events three rooms.
When we got to the Arthouse there was already a significant line building for both those with and without tickets. However entry went quite smoothly and soon we were immersed in the sea of happy faces who were all darting about the massive venue. The main room was already pumping out some funky house while in the Broke-n-beats room, The Jackal was dropping some monster tunes such as the breaks remix of ODB – Baby I got Your Money, Tone Loc – Wild Thing, and Moogwai – U know Y; which were all going down a treat with the building crowd. After spending a little time chilling in the outdoor area which was constantly bubbling with activity throughout the night we decided to head off and check out one of the many good sets on offer.
Evil 9 were one of the first acts we settled down to watch after darting around the venue and squeezing our way through the masses of people scattered throughout the many labyrinth like levels of the Arthouse venue. Evil 9 were laying down some pretty phat and chunky breaks sounds which were being lapped up by everyone in the room including the Adam Freeland mix of Nirvana’s classic tune Smells Like Teen Spirit. The crowd did thin out a little as they slammed down some nice dark techy tracks but you could definitely see that those who knew liked their breaks tough and dirty were absolutely loving the set.
As the night continued on we soon decided to head up to the top level before the start of Infusion considering the room is not that large and masses of people were at the event. We got to see the end of Ben Korbel set who warmed up the crowd nicely for Infusion and was dropping some huge tracks. Infusion started off with a nice subtle intro and then burst into the first few tracks of the set. In my opinion it was a great set throughout, full of energy mainly, crisp basslines and tight percussion driving the crowd into an absolute frenzy. From the back of the room the front area looked like a mosh pit and it was damn hot towards the front of the room.
Unfortunately for many punters they did not get to see the headline act as they stopped letting people in through the main stairway entrance due to the top level being too packed. This has come to be expected at events of this magnitude and luckily for those inside their was a fair amount of room to dance towards the back of the room. Many of the tracks were recognisable throughout their set but I most enjoyed their version of Girls can be Cruel and their cover of the Midnight Oil track Beds Are Burning. After deciding not to leave the top level (as we were worried we not be able to get back in) we consequently missed a fair chunk of Mark Knight’s set although from all reports it was meant to be quite solid. The room had quite a nice party vibe downstairs each time we meandered through so no doubt everyone in there had a good time.
Overall, the event was awesome and most party goers would no doubt agree that they had a great time no matter what room they were in. Some of the positives of the event were the great line-up and generally good production. However a couple of major negatives were mainly due to the design of the venue, these being the heat in the rooms and the distinct lack of toilets to match the capacity of the event. In total there were only the middle level toilets; each with five or six cubicles that were also quite inaccessible considering it was such a packed event. Props to the Kink crew though for organising such an enjoyable event and putting together such a huge line-up for a very reasonable ticket price of $35.
