Getting there just a smidge after midnight, I walked in to the Espy and had a quick survey of the lay of the land. Front Bar? pretty crowded, Joe Bataan and BAMBOOS on the stage. Vibe was noteable but alltogether too much latin “flava” for this humble reviewer. I moved rather swiftly on to see RADIOSLAVE making with the depth and breadth in the Gershwin room. I found that I’d missed HARRIS ROBOTIS live, however got hot reports of an Ed-Bangeresque hot rock electric set. Nice one, Harris! Reminding me more of late 90’s atmospheric techno/tek house than anything else (particularly Low Spirit Recordings, Laurent Garnier, Carl Craig, Slam) he played a deep and mid-range heavy set of 125ish hypnotic slowly developing sounds. Here and there a housy jazz influenced melodic line, an acid loop, but the key was the slow development and the subtlety. Because it’s a sound not often used these days (sounds change much more quickly in tracks now) the levels of patience on the floor were variable. For an indication of the sound I’m trying to describe, think of his remix of Carl Craig’s ‘Darkness’, or for that matter Carl Craig’s rework of Theo Parrish’s Falling Up.
To be honest, the room wasn’t exactly full at any stage of the night. Comfortable, but not full. I expected more action here considering the names on offer but it seems the Front Bar pwned most of the night. The last couple of tracks from Mr Slave went down a treat, and some consolidation of the floor, just in time for the PHAM AND CALLANDER show. As Mike stepped up to the decks, I confess that I was bolting to the Public Bar, to catch what was supposed to be the 2nd half of my night’s Pirate Treasure: MARCO PASSARANI VS PATRICK PULSINGER LIVE JAM. Making my way out of the Espy into the public bar area, I found that the big bang was far from over – in fact it hadn’t even begun. In its’ place was a Red Bull participant dj, I can only assume it was Douglas Greed according to the running sheet, however I can’t be sure. Whoever it was, he was djing and his particular flavour was old-fashioned 100% diva fueled House Music. Again, I was experiencing 90’s flashbacks, but according to European tastemakers “House is back” so maybe it’s a flashforward to the clubs of tomorrow? I’m sure there are many who feel house never left – and many of those most dedicated had shown earlier in the night to pay respects to deep house king CHEZ DAMIER… The Public Bar was free entry to the general public so the audience was variable in both appreciation and numbers – certainly it was the litmus test for the St Kilda Massive’s response to Red Bull Academy’s talent and it seemed that trad House was not unwelcome: with claps whistles and some asses shaking. Not my particular cup of generic beverage, however I did have to give the guy creds for finishing with the original 12” mix of Marc Almond’s ‘Tears Run Rings’ which technically qualifies for an 80’s flashback.Whilst the strains of that Almond croon filled the room, the 2 oldskoolers were setting up behind me. Seeing these 2 guys kick out a freestyle jam was pretty damn close to the Ultimate Gig for me. However, I found that a lot of people had no idea who either of them were. Pulsinger I guess I can understand. He’s a quiet one, but his label Cheap Records (started in 1993) has spawned some underground tracks of mammoth proportions: particularly Peaches & Louie Austen’s “Grab My Shaft” and Louie Austen ’s “Hoping”, as well as artists like Sluts n Strings n 909, Robert Hood, Gerhard Potznick (aka G D Luxxe), Christopher Just and many more including personal favourite I.O.’s Claire which was licenced to seminal nu-jazz label Mo’ Wax in the mid 90’s. I.O was actually Pulsinger and Potznick’s project. In more recent times he’s done work for Klein and Gigolo records plus remixes and more. Marco Passarani, if you reference my review of his dj gig @ Honkys so I don’t have to repeat it all again, has always been a busy little beaver since starting Final Frontier in 1994. He makes disco, electro, house, techno, body music and more under a number of monikers. In short, they’ve both made enough hot tracks to know their shiz back to sideways and could really make something of this jam.
The set up looked a bit like this: I’m sure there are some blanks to be filled so if you saw more please comment to this article: 2 laptops, 2 chaos pads, a midi keyboard, a 303 emulator or at least some kind of midi controller for a 303 plugin, and central mixer, all piled onto a low trestle table behind the decks. Given the size of the room and the crowd (both quite small – 40 people and a lounge-room sized area) it seemed like a very intimate little show we were to be treated to. Surreally so, actually. One could be forgiven for thinking we’d walked into some Viennese backroom club on a Tuesday night to the local open-mic session. P & P walked on to cheers of enthusiasm from the assembled crowd – mostly Red Bullers, fans and geeks – and started to tweak. Without wanting to spend too much of my time over the technical side of it, as far as I could ascertain, Passarani provided most of the drums and basslines, and Pulsinger most of the acid tweaks and noises, but they swapped main lines a fair bit with the more tweaked out stuff being Patrick and the more clubby lines being Marco (at a guess). Whatever they were doing, they did it damn right: super special props go to those Chi-town esque super swung drums with shifty hats and claps which completely RULED and I wish they were mine! Also utterly tasty were the Pulsinger acid feeds which drifted in and out of tracks throughout the set. Some of the echo, distort and delay effects Patrick was playing with seemed to freak things out too muchly for the masses, and sadly by the end of their set the room was kinda empty. (this would also have had something to do with hype monkey Alex Smoke playing in the Gershwin). Which was a pretty sad thing as the next guy was also smokin’! Apparently it was ROMAN ROSIC from Russia – Red Bull Participant – using Live and a Korg MS 20 (TASTEEEEEE) to generate some sweetly low slung acid fonk which deserved a much bigger crowd than it got. someone to watch out for 4 sure, and a nice take on that nuevo acieeed thing which is shaking the rounds.
But I felt duty bound – as good as he was – to check some Alex Smoke before the Bull was put back in the barn for the night. Wandering back through the Front Bar, there was some down and dirty almost Scornesque slow beats stuff going on which sounded really pretty good, actually. According to the timetable it was STEVE SPACEK AND BENJI B from London. Wish I’d gotten to hear more, was impressed. but then it was in to ALEX SMOKE. The Gershwin was fuller than I’d seen it before, and there was a fair dancefloor, with Alex Smoke playing Vakant-esque tough dancefloor minimal and appreciation abounding. But with rumours (which were true) of RADIOSLAVE doing a guest at One Love, plus GREG WILSON at Revolver some were peeling off to other pastures. I didn’t catch enough of Smokey to figure out whether he was brilliant or not, but he certainly didn’t suck while I was there. Big Room Minimal for the masses, but with some sophisticated cut up aesthetics and warm sounding production.
And then, it was time for the Espy to chase that Bull back out the door, after such a massive all afternoon and nighter. Many satisfied punters later, many great artists later and once again we’re thanking the Academy for getting so many unique musicians to cross our paths in such a short space of time. And the participants certainly didn’t shine up shabby next to the bigguns – so congrats to them for getting here and working Melbourne’s butt till it hurt so good. It’ll be hard to beat this kind of gig where the electric bards of the Avant Guarde are there in handfulls to hear and appreciate. Speziale!
