Winter isn’t usually associated with huge festivals in Australia, but then again, the Sounds Group have never been ones to do things the conventional way, and that’s part of their charm. The third annual We Love Sounds festival made its way to the Fox Studios complex on June 11th of the Queen’s Birthday long weekend, utilising the Hordern Pavilion, the Forum and the Dome, and featuring a huge local and international lineup spanning house, breaks, techno, electro, hip-hop and progressive.

First up, I’d like to apologise to readers in advance, as given the monstrous and diverse lineup, I decided to watch at least two thirds of certain artists’ sets to give you a better idea of their performances, rather than catch five minutes of everyone and not really have anything to say about them. Please accept my many apologies if you were hoping to hear a round up of every single DJ and live act on the day, or if I didn’t cover an artist you would have liked to read a review about.

Electric Disco’s Trix and Goodfella opened proceedings in the cavernous Horden and quickly had a sizeable crowd appreciating their set. Luckily for them, the duo had a chance to showcase their more underground taste in music, throwing down loopy, minimal tech-house grooves full of funk, all mixed to perfection. Trix’s closing tune, The Electric Press’ remix of Dave Robertson’s monstrous “One Dunk Wonder” had the crowd whistling and clapping like they were the main act, setting the stage for a brilliant day.

Kink resident Ben Morris was up next, and showed all the skeptics in the crowd that he doesn’t just play main room house music, following on perfectly from Trix and Goodfella’s opening effort with a set full of tough minimal and funky tech-house grooves. Taking plenty of chances with his mixing, and his track selection, Morris was there to educate on Sunday, and educate he did, with tunes from the likes of D. Ramirez (his remix of Bodyrox – “Yeah Yeah”) and Paul Woolford (the absolutely silly “Erotic Discourse”), as well as plenty of unreleased goodness that had me racking my brain and feeling a little disappointed with my efforts as a trainspotter.

In The Forum Luna was warming up a small, but steadily growing crowd with a two hour set featuring her usual tight blend of quirky tech, funky electro house and deeper house sounds. Cuts from the likes of headliners Tiefschwarz (“Damage”) and perennial head-cavers Solid Groove (“This Is Sick”) characterised the set’s distinct sound, and Luna’s mixing was perfectly on point. Give this girl some more gigs! Robbie Lowe then took over the controls and proceeded to work the now sizeable Forum crowd in to an absolute frenzy with a sublime blend of progressive, tech, minimal and breaks, all mixed like only Robbie can: perfectly. Lowe suited the Forum’s “We Love Tech” name down to a T, throwing twisted, techy, bass heavy tunes from the likes of Dan F and Heartthrob. By the end of his set the crowd was amped beyond belief, and he could easily have been one of the headliners with the way he had them eating out of the palm of his hand.

The first international of the day, Luke Fair, then stepped up to the decks. Known for his impeccable taste in progressive house, Fair had me eagerly awaiting some deep, throbbing basslines and warm, spacey melodies. Instead, he treated the crowd to a set of main room funky electro house. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t all that special either. The mixing was tight, and the progression of the set was truly incredible, starting off quite groovy, and ending up as banging as funky electro house can get, but it just didn’t feel right. Nonetheless, a large proportion of crowd got in to it, and I found myself bouncing away here and there, but it was easy to tell who had been expecting Fair’s usual progressive style and felt just a little hard done by.

However, whatever slight disappointment some of the crowd felt during Fair’s set was easily washed away by DJ Sneak’s stellar performance. The Puerto Rican Chicago house star dropped beats bigger than his physique, and worked the mixer like a man possessed, cutting and EQing like his life depended on it. Opening with one of the all time greatest house tracks ever, “Intro” by Alan Braxe and Fred Falke, Sneak wound his way through tech-house, jackin’ Chicago house and even a little funky techno that had the house heads in the crowd bouncing like the floor was a trampoline and the rest of the crowd doing their best to keep up with the frenzied hip swinging and arse shaking.

During Sneak’s outstanding set The Presets were rocking a packed Hordern with their trademark indie-electro-mashup sound. Not being a huge fan of this style, I found myself pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed their energy on stage and their party-rocking style. The rest of the crowd was enjoying it too. A long wait in line later (which was to become a recurring issue for many people throughout the night), I finally made it in to the Forum about 20 minutes in to Tiefschwarz’s set, and these lads were a close second for set of the day. Ali and Basti showcased their new Berlin-influenced sound, a wicked head-caving mix of minimal, tech and electro, and they had chinstrokers and party goers alike dancing like there was no tomorrow and screaming for more. The highlight of the set, and possibly the entire day was Oxia’s epic “Domino”, a monstrous, deep, melodic, minimal cut, and LFO & Fuse’s classic techno anthem “The Loop”, which put a huge smile on the face of old schoolers and won the Schwarz brothers a few new fans too.

The Youngsters then followed on perfectly from Tiefschwarz, taking it up a notch and pounding out some thumping techno. Utilising Ableton for loops, a huge Allen & Heath mixing rack, a Pioneer EFX 1000, decks, and a microphone, the French techno stars manipulated sound in every way imaginable, creating a sonic wall of pounding and dark, but still melodic, loops. There were even some dashes of squelchy acid and vocoder that took the crowd back to the days of the early techno raves. Plenty of their bigger tunes, such as “Break Them Up”, made an appearance in the set, but were twisted and cut up to the point where they were almost unrecognisable, keeping the set fresh and interesting.

Over in the Horden, Infusion were doing their best to move the capacity crowd, however they seemed largely uninterested in anything a little different. It’s a shame, because Jamie, Manuel and Frank played a fantastic set which featured some of their bigger tunes such as “Girls Can Be Cruel” and “Natural”, as well as some new unreleased material that should keep them on top of the game, and their energy on stage was nothing short of amazing. Even calls to the crowd didn’t seem to achieve much, and I was starting to wonder if I was the only one actually enjoying their set.

James Zabiela then stepped up for the closing honours, having been moved from the Forum to the Horden for safety reasons, and also to earn him some new fans. It was a good move. Zabiela instantly energised the crowd, dropping monstrous techy breaks, acid house, and thunderous techno from the likes of Soto (“Ghetto Blast Ya”), Montero (“Hairy Hits”), Aquasky & The Drumattic Twins (“Bring It On Down”) and his own excellent follow up to last year’s massive “Robophobia”, the equally geeky “Weird Science”. Technically, he was outstanding. The mixing was flawless, the effects (ab)use was mind blowing, and his scratching had jaws dropping and hands clapping. It was unfortunate he only had an hour and a half to work his magic, because given longer he could have really taken the set somewhere, rather than having to ram in as many huge tunes as he could in to such a small space.

Unfortunately due to my decision to watch as much of each artists’ set as possible, I missed Deadly Avenger, Grandmaster Flash, Annie and Sandy Rivera, however will summarise some second hand reports for those who are interested. Deadly Avenger apparently redeemed himself after a disappointing set at Summer Break two years ago, playing party rocking tunes and displaying turntable skills that could put Q-Bert to shame. It seems that Grandmaster Flash was disappointing, spending more time puffing his chest and proclaiming his brilliance than actually showing off the skills and records that made him the legend he is. Annie received mixed reports: some people loved her, others thought she was laughable. Sandy Rivera apparently had technical difficulties, and was unable to mix his tunes, which was both confusing and disappointing for his fans, as his technical skills are in reality up there with the best.

Moving the focus away from the music, a couple of other things are worth mentioning. The first was the giant Twister tent: an annoyingly fun distraction from the acts, which unfortunately had to close early because of the freezing cold weather. Secondly there was the production: it was outstanding. The lighting was brilliant, the decorations were fantastic, the sound was loud but crystal clear, the stages were raised up above the dancefloor so it was easy to see the artists at work from anywhere in the room, and the visuals in the Hordern were fantastic. Unfortunately, the issue with crowd control put somewhat of a dampener on the day. While I personally had no major dramas, many people have complained about unacceptably long waits in line to get in to the Hordern and the Forum, despite neither arena being filled to capacity. Finally, the festival’s layout could have done with some more thought, as the only first aid tent and food stall were outside in the lane way between the arenas, forcing one to leave an arena for something as simple as a hot dog, and then having to wait in line for upwards of half an hour just to get back in to see their favourite act. However, these were really only minor annoyances that couldn’t detract from what was an outstanding day.

Overall, two thumbs up to the Sounds Group. While a couple things were disappointing, the lineup was amazing, a large proportion of the acts delivered big time, and no expense was spared to make the venue look as great as possible. If you missed this, you missed out on a party that will be talked about for years to come.