Brisbane’s Dirty-Birds turned out in force on Friday night to welcome San Francisco resident Claude Von Stroke to town.

Started in 2003 by one Barclay Crenshaw (aka Claude Von Stroke), DirtyBird Records is now a San Franciscan institute and sports a roster of artists including Christian Martin, Sammy-D, Worthy, Justin Martin, John Tejada and of course the dirtiest DirtyBird himself – Claude Von Stroke. Crenshaw is the man responsible for producing the 5 hour DVD ‘Intellect’, featuring the likes of Derrick May, Theo Parish, Derrick Carter, Deep Dish, Paul Van Dyk, Swayzak and a host of others. The intended purpose of the DVD project was to help other artists break into the electronic music scene but ended up providing Crenshaw with the avenue to start his own label – DirtyBird records.

The DirtyBird parties, now synonymous with the Bay Area of San Francisco, are more than well attended and are by all accounts rather like Sydney’s infamous ‘Mad Racket’ soirees. Friday night saw Claude Von Stroke at Brisbane’s’ Empire Hotel to show the local Dirty-Birds just how to get the party done. Ably supported by local DJs Kieron C and Mark Briais, Claude Von Stroke took to the decks with all the aplomb and finesse of a UN Ambassador and proceeded to educate Brisbane City in the ways of the DirtyBird.

By now, everyone on the entire planet should be well acquainted with both Claude Von Stroke tracks currently receiving radio airplay – the light and shade of his ‘Deep Throat’ (with it’s juxtaposed, airy plink-plonk minimal-tracking and sinister, burbling ‘I would like to come over… ‘) and the more recent love-it-or-hate-it ‘The Whistler’. Von Stroke administered both tracks to an esurient crowd, eager to be pleased. Pulling out showstoppers like the original version of his very own ‘Deep Throat’, the very lavish Mikael Weill ‘Silmarions’, The Martin Brothers ‘Stoopit’ and Andy Caldwells’ startlingly lush ‘Warriors’, Claude Von Stroke took the packed dancefloor on a West-Coast ride, exploring all Minimal to Progressive-Minimal avenues. Sparse, crystalline-synth laden flowing into fat-bottomed swells – Claude Von Stroke laid down the goodness and Brisbane welcomed him with open arms.

Two very enthusiastic thumbs-up to the bar-staff at the Empire Hotel for mixing together one heck of an awesomely psychotomimetic Long Island Iced Tea for yours truly and to Claude Von Stroke for providing the here-to-fore peerless musical backing for same. Let’s hope the recent quasi-influx of deep-to-minimal artists is a sign of things to come. Claude Von Stroke? Thank you – please come again!