Quality names like Hernan Cattaneo, James Zabiela, Nick Fanciulli, Ben Watt, KOS and Audiofly all on the same bill is something we usually miss out on over here in Australia. It seems like every time someone flicks you a ‘Whats On’ for some amazing event in the UK or Ibiza, these are the kind of names you’d see on the flyer and you can only look on in envy. But this time round, Sounds managed to put on the afterparty to beat all afterparties, EVER!
Seeing Hernan, Zabs, Fanciulli and Audiofly on the single bill is a progressive dance lover’s wet dream: from the smooth, dark and driving sounds of Hernan to the glitchy synth sound that Zabiela has mastered, on to minimal house beats and techy goodness of Nick Fanciulli and finally maybe even the electro experimentation that is Audiofly. It may not all be strictly ‘progressive’ in the genre sense of the word, but every one of these DJs is certainly progressive in their approach to music – they push, explore and experiment on so many different levels.
Ben Watt is another ‘progressive’ musician – the man is one half of classic act Everything But the Girl, the influential duo who brought modern electronica all those years ago to a music scene that was so heavily entrenched in rock – and succeeded beautifully. He’s wowed people all over the world in recent times with his deep, twisted style house music and his last tour of Australia with inthemix resulted in rave reviews, including one controversial claim that he played “better than Sasha and Digweed ”.
So this was the basis of what I was heading into at the Afterparty – high quality, innovative and fun music. Having seen a good few of the acts already at the We Love Sounds festival, I was interested to see how their sets compared: would they be banging out the same stuff? Or would it be altered perfectly to suit the intimate club environment? And what about Zabiela and Fanciulli? Having not seen either of them before, I was going to be hearing them with fresh ears.
Walking up that long flight of stairs into The Cross, we were greeted by the warm techy beats from one of my favourite Sydney DJ’s Robbie Lowe. His set was the warm up for Hernan and he was setting the scene, as always, perfectly in tune with what was to come.
Hernan was, in a single word, incredible. He played a magic festival set at the We Love Sounds festival that was uplifting and exciting, but this set was deep, driving and melodic, perfect for the club and exactly what was needed. The vibe in the crowd was heaving and electric, with all the tiredness from the festival washed away with every beat and there wasn’t a single person in the room who wasn’t captivated. Personally I loved both of his sets – each was different and catered to the environment – but his set at The Cross was the icing on the cake for me. Deep and dark sounds that got my fist pumping away, and head shaking from the sheer awesomeness of it all. He definitely lived up to his excellent reputation that night.
Zabiela was on straight after Hernan, and although I could see the appeal of it, I felt his set was disjointed and lacked continuity. I had heard much about his attachment to the effects unit, and that was definitely something that was apparent on Sunday night. He did play some thumping remixes but every time I got into the tune, it was snatched away from me with the twist of an FX dial. I think this is the appeal of Zabiela: that he is glitchy and effects dominated, unlike anyone else on the scene, and that’s what sets him apart and brings him such a huge following here in Australia and overseas.
Zabiela and Fanciulli were supposed to both play, as the amazing new duo known as One+One: but it seemed to me like Fanciulli was happier to rest on his laurels and let Zabiela take control. Bit unfortunate because I was seriously looking forward to hearing his minimal sounds. KOS was another act I didn’t see getting up there and hammer the vinyl. Maybe Hernan and Zabiela were just having so much fun with the crowd they didn’t want to share, who knows.
Ben Watt was on downstairs in the Bourbon at the same time as Zabiela, and he absolutely smashed it. The club was buzzing when I made the walk down there, and I was told that Audiofly (who was on the decks before him) was actually busting some moves to his beats. Watt really knows how to involve the crowd, playing track after track that is familiar, accessible and fun, all the while mixing it in a way you wouldn’t expect and yet it works.
The day’s events finally managed to catch up with me at around 5am, so with weary heads and tired smiles and the sounds of Zabiela’s FX unit ringing in our ears, we wandered out onto Darlinghurst Road and took ourselves home. The Afterparty was absolutely amazing, and it’s not often that we get treated to such a massive list of quality names in an intimate environment, but the crowd well and truly realised why they are considered the best of the best. If only this were a weekly occurrence: but maybe such an epic event is better off being a ‘once-a-year thing’, it makes it special after all.
sparc54 says...
Definitely a wicked night! I thought Zabiela integrated the fx skills well imo. It was a little hectic when he first started, but he soon settled into a deep thumping groove :)