Space Is The Place pres. Flying Lotus @ Hermann's, Sydney (22/02/08)
An unusually warm evening meant my bike ride to Hermann’s left a few sweat beads on my forehead; a mild precursor of what was to come inside the venue an hour or two later when Warp Records’ Flying Lotus affected an ecumenical gathering of dubsteppers, electro, hip-hop and indie punters.
My night began in earnest, however, with a cold beer and the inimitable local DJ Bec Paton warming up the sparsely populated room with an eclectic range of tunes that spanned chilled to grimey. Paton later told me that her laptop had been stolen from her house – while she was in it! – the week before. Worse still, the hasty thief had also knocked over and destroyed her backup hard drive, wiping all her music!
Next up was Englishman Mark Pritchard, whose slick arrangements of hip-hop infused with low slung beats and futuristic electro complemented the intricate lighting, including a fantastic projection of a space station on the main wall. Pritchard is a polished performer behind the decks, managing to blend an astonishing variety of genres, styles and rhythms into a highly listenable, and danceable, 90 minute set.
As the main room slowly filled while, I spent some time soaking up the laid back wafts of dub from the lei-covered outdoor decks ably controlled by Mike Burnham, Cleptoclectics and Trevor Parkee. The layout of Hermann’s was, however, a little unfortunate for this smaller event. The fenced off L-shape area outside, that corresponds to the concrete footpath on the edge of the courtyard, suggests that a groundskeeper (or perhaps a University board) feels a little precious about keeping the riff-raff off the grass. The net effect is jostling for space in a couple of unnecessarily narrow passageways. Not ideal when you’ve forked out $30 to get in.
However this was a peripheral concern once the man of the night took command of the mic, a laptop and sampler. By this stage a scrum of punters, led by a few photographers, had gathered around the dark foot of the stage where Flying Lotus (born Stephen Ellison) made the requisite thank-yous, followed by some comments about the opinions some punters had expressed about Sydney on earlier legs of his Australian tour. Then he launched head first into the set.
As he spun the bouncy opening hip-hop tracks, moving his whole body with a seamless, rhythmical, effortlessness befitting his moniker, a few things became quite clear. Firstly, that his musical lineage is tremendously strong (he is Alice Coltrane’s great-nephew). His performance was infused with a charisma and charm that never seemed arrogant or brash. Secondly, the influence of his recent interactions with UK dubsteppers was evident, as Mary-Anne Hobbes mentioned when introducing a Flying Lotus headline set for her radio show The Breezeblock last October. In the half year that has passed since then, I wouldn’t be surprised if we see Lotus warming a warehouse outside Barcelona as part of the Sonar Festival; allegedly a source of much inspiration on his last visit.
The remainder of the set didn’t sit easily within well-defined genres – which is what made it so exciting; that a uniquely diverse crowd could be brought together to strain the air conditioning capacity of Hermann’s. Highlights included the hazy ambiance of Massage Situation interrupting a series of bouncing rap tracks and a down-shifted remix of one of the hottest track of last year, Tea Leaf Dancers. Imagine the vivid eclecticism of Cinematic Orchestra with smooth and creamy J-Dilla icing and you’re somewhere in the right space.
On the whole, an unusually satisfying outing.
