It’s not often you get six highly revered internationals and some extremely talented locals all playing in one of the best clubs in Australia for only forty bucks, so for anyone heading out over the Easter long weekend, the choice was simple: Sounds’ and Sweetchilli’s collaborative effort Livewire. Featuring Anthony Pappa, Rex The Dog, DJ T, Dave Seaman, James Holden and Paolo Mojo as well locals Robbie Lowe, Ben Korbel, Daniel C, Crispin and Sugar Ray, Livewire was always set to be a night to remember, and unfortunately for me, an exercise in executive decision making as there was just way too much talent to get around to see everyone in their entirety.
Robbie Lowe kicked off the proceedings in the main room (which at 10:30 was already filling up) and proved why he’s easily one of Sydney’s, if not Australia’s, best DJs. Lowe mixed absolutely flawlessly, and threw down some killer deep tech house before taking it up a notch with some punchy percussive sounds and filthy acid, and finally finishing off with melodic, uplifting grooves that had the crowd eating out of the palm of his hand. Highlights of the set were definitely Zen Kei’s new cut “The Blast” and The Hoxton Whores’ groovy remix of the rave classic “Voodoo Ray”.
James Holden then graced the decks in front of a full house and took it deeper and dirtier with plenty of new Border Community releases, and some very dark, yet still melodic and vocal, progressive-tinged minimal. Technically, Holden has improved out of sight since the last time he was in Sydney: his mixing was as tight as it gets, well keyed and properly phased, and he was even getting creative with some clever looping and effects use. However the set itself seemed like it was lacking in direction. While the individual tracks were absolutely top notch (especially The Lazy Fat People’s “Big City” which literally shook the walls and had me worried the speakers were about to cark it because of the thunderous low end), the set didn’t seem to really come together cohesively in to a smooth-flowing whole.
Upstairs on the terrace Ben Korbel was warming up a sizeable crowd with a fantastic blend of tough tech house and minimal sounds, including Alex Smoke’s new release. There was lashings of funk, dashes of acid, bleeps and squeaks aplenty, and basslines larger than Roseanne Barr. Of course it doesn’t need to be said that Korbel was technically outstanding.
DJ T took over the controls after Korbel and proceeded to rip the punters on the terrace a collective new arsehole. The Get Physical label owner wins the award for most infectious grooves and filthiest basslines of the night, laying down plenty of chunky, techy rhythms and farty basslines. Starting the set with some deep tech and minimal from the likes of Claude Von Stroke (“Deep Throat”) and Serge Santiago (“Atto D’Amore”), it wasn’t long before he brought out the insanely thumping electro house. Although he held a somber demeanour behind the decks, the crowd more than made up for his lack of movement with plenty of jumping around, hooting, whistling and clapping. And two massive thumbs up for his technical skills: the mixing was tight, the phasing was excellent, and there was plenty of cheeky filtering and cutting thrown in for good measure.
Down in the icon room Paolo Mojo was about five minutes in to his third hour when I finally managed to tear myself away from DJ T and check him out. Bottom-heavy filtered house grooves were the order of the day for the first part of the hour, before Mojo started banging it out for the last twenty minutes or so with some monstrous cuts from Switch (the Eric Prydz mix of “A Bit Patchy”) and Mad 8 (“Work This Pussy”) as well as his own remix of Pryda’s “Aftermath”. The packed dancefloor was absolutely lapping it up during the entire hour I was there, and Mojo was as lively as a DJ can be, bouncing around behind the decks as he did his thing. Technically, Mojo was easily the best international DJ on the night. His mixing was totally flawless, his phasing was so sublime I was starting to think he’d planned his set from beginning to end, he had a great deal of fluidity and cohesiveness in his track selection, and he was looping, cutting, filtering, layering and sampling like a man possessed throughout the entire hour I saw him.
Then it was back up the stairs to the terrace for a dose of thumping electro-tech from the ever elusive Rex The Dog. As a testament to his desire to remain anonymous, Rex was tucked away in the far corner of the terrace while his VJ remained in the DJ booth, making it look as if Rex was playing from the front of the room – and it worked! For at least thirty odd minutes everyone danced facing towards the VJ! However, while he may have been a little camera shy, he certainly wasn’t afraid to work his live set up to its fullest extent. Utilising Ableton, a midi controller, and a small mixer, Rex recreated, re-edited and remixed his tunes on the fly, looping small sections of vocals or percussion from one tune while throwing down the basslines and synths from another. Highlights of the set included his stomping remix of Mylo’s “Drop The Pressure”, his interpretation of The Knife’s “Heartbeats”, “I Look In To Mid Air”, “Prototype”, “Frequency”, “We Live In Daddy’s Car”, and his ever-popular remix of “Girls” from The Prodigy, which got a live re-working involving one of the noisiest and freakiest acid lines I’ve ever heard.
Downstairs in the icon room James Holden was keeping a small but open-minded crowd (myself included) thoroughly entertained with an encore set that lasted until it was time for the mash up in the main room. Throwing down some of his own tracks such as “A Break In The Clouds”, some real left-field works from the likes of AFX and Nathan Fake, as well as a strange electro mix of Pet Shop Boys (yes, I’m serious), Holden perfectly meshed together music that really shouldn’t have worked as well as it did. This second set from Holden was definitely the better of the two he played on the night, and a real testament to his versatility as a DJ.
At 6 a.m. Paolo Mojo and Anthony Pappa took over the reigns for the final hour in the main room, banging it out without a care in the world for my poor feet. Pappa kept the set on more of a traditional melodic progressive tip, throwing down some absolute classics such as Hardfloor’s remix of New Order’s “Blue Monday” and Der Dritte Raum’s “Halle Bop”. He also showed us all why he’s one of the world’s best with some incredible trickery on the CDJs, particularly when he simultaneously dropped two copies of Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love”, which he then proceeded to beat juggle and remix on the fly. Mojo on the other hand decided it was time for the techno, and layed down slamming percussive grooves, including Cirez D’s “Teaser” which he mashed with Felix The Housecat’s new release “Jack U”, and his remix of Pryda’s “Aftermath” (which sounded just as good the second time as it did the first). The final set wasn’t a lesson in carefully constructing a smooth flowing DJ set, with the two spanning funky house, slamming progressive and percussive techno in just over an hour, but damn it was fun.
To put it bluntly: Sounds and Sweetchilli proved why they’re on top of the game when it comes to large scale club events with Livewire. Someone please convince these two to work together again. Now if only my ears would stop ringing and my voice would come back, I’d be well and truly happy.
