Minimal Fuss feat. Alex Smoke @ Civic Underground, Sydney (24/04/08)

Alex Smoke’s first visit down under was a roaring success. His gig at the Chinese Laundry has been much talked about, and is widely regarded as the gig of the year last year (amongst minimal aficionados anyway). This year finds Alex playing at the newly refurbished Civic Underground on Pitt Street for the Minimal Fuss crew. Boasting one of the grandest sound systems Sydney that has to offer and an intimate dancefloor space, I’m sure we’ll see more and more parties utilise this awesome venue. The only thing I’d have to point out is the beyond ridiculous drinks prices… At $8 a beer, I suggest grabbing whatever spirits you have lurking in the dusty cabinet and sneaking them in with an inconspicuously placed water bottle (note: only works for vodka and proceed with caution).

Back to the subject at hand… Alex Smoke came on at 1:30 to a very loose crowd. For a gig of this calibre (tech house isn’t the most accessible music out there), it was a nice surprise to find people of all socioeconomic backgrounds getting down on the dancefloor. The Civic has allocated a small portion of the club as ‘dance floor area.’ Unfortunately, due to the large numbers that witnessed Alex’s set, the dance floor felt more like a human corridor than a boogie space. This could possibly be improved by setting the DJ booth in a more accessible area. Alex was positioned in the far right corner on the stage, invisible for the punters on the dance floor and it made for quite an alienating experience. But armed with Ableton Live and a midi controller, Alex clicked and pointed his way through the spheres of techno, house, minimal and all that jazz. The main thing I noticed in Alex’s set is his keen ear for ‘organising sound’.

A lot of the tracks that Smoke was putting on display (besides ones from his two albums) featured crazily obscure sounds comparable to the odd noises found whilst connecting to the internet through a dial-up modem, and the white noise that emits from you’re TV when you don’t know what to watch. All these soundscapes were fashioned with a healthy four-to-the-floor beat that jumped from the Civic sound system; but I don’t know if it was me, but I found this to be quite tedious over the course of his one and half hour set. Coupled with the dancefloor problems mentioned earlier, I found it extremely hard to get into Alex’s headspace and often found myself being satisfied with the familiar, like when Persona from his sophomore album were dropped amidst the factory noises.

Maybe I didn’t get enough drinks into me… maybe my music tastes have changed over the years… or maybe I’m just too much of a discerning punter. But when it’s all said and done I was expecting a lot more from this gig, especially considering the avid fanbase the Minimal Fuss crew have and the stellar performance Alex put on show for us last year. Much to my disappointment, it just didn’t happen. Hopefully Alex will be much more of a delight next time he plays in Sydney at Lost Baggage. And with a lineup that features not only Alex Smoke but also Matthias Tanzmann from the Poker Flat label, it’s a gig that should not disappoint.