Minimal Fuss is most definitely one of the fastest growing nights in the Sydney clubbing scene, with an already well established reputation for putting on some of the best techno and minimal parties around. Boasting a vast array of international and local talent, Fuss has also been able to pull a hefty crowd both of dedicated techno fans, as well as new young punters looking for some new and fresh sounding electronic music. Embracing the wave of quirky German minimal tech from the likes of the popular Kompakt, Sonar Kollektiv and Get Physical labels, with international acts like Ame, Trickski and Justin Martin all having seen Australian shores thanks to the Fuss crew. All of these have been amazing events, most of which have been held at the intimate Civic Theatre. Now celebrating their first birthday at the new Oxford Art Factory in style, they have dazzled us again and have brought us two of Europe’s most popular exports: Ewan Pearson, and Get Physical’s Dixon (Steffen Berkhahn). The event also featured Sydney’s very own Deepchild (Rick Bull), as well as the Minimal Fuss residents.

The venue is new to Sydney and it’s very well organized; I was impressed by the set-up of the two rooms, which featured large ceilings and two main bars that allowed good quick service. Crowd flow is also another very noticeable aspect, as there are also two main access doors to each room making it easy to get around quickly. The sound was also really clear and punchy and made every single high, low and mid frequency sound as though you were in a production studio. And also I would like to mention that the door staffs were absolutely wonderful and friendly. Considering Sydney is not one of the best places for door staff at the moment it was such a relief to be treated with such respect, and be greeted with a friendly manner and a smile. In other words, it looks like the Oxford Art Factory will be one of my favourite venues from now on.

Ben Korbel was warming up the crowd at around eleven o’clock when I arrived, and it was already sounding like the night was taking off on a good note. Some very warm melodic house numbers from memory, which flowed quite well into Dixon’s intro, as he took this even further and explored a much more deep and dark tech house sound. Having been associated with the Sonar Kollektiv label in Berlin, and being a close friend of one of the labels maestro’s Ame, Dixon also chose to play many tracks by the artists, whom he has also collaborated with on numerous productions over the past few years. Some highlights were Ame’s remixes of Sydenham & Ferrer’s Timbukt, Etienne Jaumet’s Repeat Again After Me and also Martin Buttrich’s remix of Tracey Thorn’s It’s All True. The set flowed so well through some very melodic tech house, and he even through in some very lush progressive which the crowd seemed to love every minute of. I even managed to have a chat with Dixon after he had finished, in which he explained he felt that he wanted to connect with the crowd much more. I personally thought that he had impressed the crowd with the set he played, but coming from Berlin where the crowd is much more responsive to this music, I can see how the Sydney crowd would have seemed a little disconnected to him.

It was then time for Ewan Pearson to take over, who then brought the tempo down considerably, and played some very deep house music. I really didn’t think that this flowed very well from where Dixon had left off, and I also felt that the crowd lost a significant amount of energy. I tried to get into the music but every time I heard something I liked in his track selection, they would be followed by something much worse and at this point I was getting more than a little frustrated. Given that everything about the night up until this point was close to being flawless, on reflection I was still very happy with the way the gig had shaped up.

In conclusion, I would like to express my warmest thanks to the organisers of Minimal Fuss, and the friendly staff at the Oxford Art Factory for making this event such a huge success. I hope to see many more gigs of the same quality at this gem of a venue, and other club owners in Sydney should consider a visit to the Oxford Art Factory for an example in great patron services.