We Love Sounds @ Family, Brisbane (07/06/08)

With such a build up surrounding We Love Sounds 2008, Brisbane’s mini version of the winter festival, big things were expected from the Family and the vast line-up of 24 artists across three rooms in nine hours. From popular Family regulars to international names the night was sure to attract more than the usual suspects. And sure enough my first encounter of We Love Sounds ‘08 was the usual suspect in the form of Chris Wilson in the Basement. The reliable Wilson battled with a sparse crowd, but did well to help lubricate their limbs in preparation for the big names to follow.

The first of which was Welsh duo Hybrid, who played a deep bass electronic set with great highs and lows. Although Wilson shook the overnight dust off the speakers well, it wasn’t until Hybrid assumed centre stage that people really began to show their appreciation to what they were hearing. The solid Hybrid set continued to draw people just arriving which relieved them of having to progress too far with it, so I ventured up to Uncle to watch one of Chicago’s finest in proper house, Derrick Carter. The mischievous Carter was playing very catchy jazz/funk house which could have easily been pumped across a bigger room, but the tunes were cleverly adjusted to suit the increasing crowd. Carter’s solid set in Uncle was to be a good indication of how the space’s night would progress.

I wanted to continue soothing my ears with Carter’s charm but to do you guys justice, I felt compelled to continue onto the Lounge. On stage I found Blackgrass complete with their velvet tonsil MC thrusting out some ‘honest’ hip hop classics on vinyl assisted by a ‘gangster’ clad dancer attempting to jive up the crowd. Despite a few mismatches, they were playing well in the intimate room appropriate for the genre. However, after leaving and returning for an update just shy of 1am it sounded as though the Lounge had been converted into a karaoke bar; I chose not to endure this in favour of the headliners.

In the Basement an eager crowd continued to bounce about to Hybrid in anticipation for the start of Parisian electronic duo Cassius. The Red Bull fridge on stage was likely emptied by Hybrid to maintain energy in place of Cassius, whose scheduled start time came and went. This forced Hybrid to pull impulsive tracks from the folder and continued admirably to engage an increasingly impatient crowd. Despite the situation, Hybrid did well with a consistent and safe set, handling the delay well; this simply increased the hype for Cassius. In the meantime I ran back up to Uncle to see how Carter had progressed. The set advanced further towards slightly experimental funky house and although Carter had lost a few people earlier to the Basement, those had now returned while waiting for Cassius. This allowed Carter to feed of the heightened crowd and he was clearly thriving on the reactions. I wanted to continue listening to the remarkable tunes but couldn’t resit revisiting the Basement for any sign of Cassius.

Sure enough, I was rewarded as they had just entered stage. Their body language showed a guilty apology, so they quickly advanced the set to where they would have been had they been punctual. Although initially this meant they couldn’t connect with the crowd on their own terms, the spinning of their big hit Toop Toop made up for lost time and had the crowd loving their set and jumping on board. A groovy set of eclectic electro beats on vinyl and CDJ, with accompaniment of an electronic beat box, soon had the rafters jumping in unison with the lads.

The evening was steamrolling along by the time Grammy award winner Dubfire had assumed the decks. Until this point the Basement had heard predominantly forms of breaks and electro house, so I was ready to hear something richer. A quick set up of his Macbook had the master, who’s one half of DC duo Deep Dish, moving into progressive house and minimal/tech with an electronic bass undertone. The crowd was extremely responsive to the change of pace, soaking up every beat and pounding it into the floor with their feet. I took a step back at this point to take in what I was a part of, and to marinade myself in Dubfire’s dark juicy sound.

I had to dash to the restroom to clean the juice off me when I caught a wave of some addictive sound reverberating down the stairs from Uncle. To satisfy my newfound addiction, I had to take a look. I was astonished to find Steve Lawler behind the glass partition who had begun working the decks an hour earlier than scheduled. Initially the earlier start caught people off-guard and the less-than-full room appeared a little confused. But I liked what I was hearing and found it difficult to disembark from the Lawler music train. My loyalty was rewarded. About thirty minutes into the set, a sudden flood of people had washed in on word that something captivating, if premature, was happening upstairs. Lawler was spinning a unique groove of funky house which could have filled the Basement twice over. He continued to use the effects and high and low tones on the mixer with precision. Tracks were tweaked so high the crowd salivated for it to drop. Although assisted by Serato, Lawler developed the set with precision. A few scantily glad women were openly displaying to Steve what the rest of the crowd, including Dubfire, were feeling. And Lawler loved it, giving a cheeky grin as he mixed a sparing but effective level of vocalised tunes. Like textbook DJing, more melodic tunes were included with a slower BPM towards the end which rounded up a fucking brilliant performance.

Knowing what I would miss upstairs I couldn’t fight the urge to see what the Utah Saints had come up with 16 years after their heyday. Moving onto the dacefloor to find one of the Leeds duo with a t-shirt honouring Van She, attributed for re-igniting the Saints fame with their remix of Something Good. In the final time slot of the evening they knew they were playing to a tiring crowd, so were swift to drop the hit into the set. After which the mostly satisfied crowd dispersed yet still leaving a dedicated number keen to be blessed by the Saints. And they were compensated, with the boys experimenting with remixes of various 90’s pop tunes and even an amazing mix of ACDC’s Thunder with a breaks remix of the Crookers version of Salmon Dance. They played a good upbeat electro set and despite a bit of mismatching, if anyone noticed they didn’t seem to care; we just wanted to continue to immerse ourselves and show appreciation for the Saints efforts.

The head of the Family had sent each artist to their correct rooms and the DJs responded by adjusting their repertoire to fit. Each had their distinctive style and each displayed their talents producing impressive tunes. I certainly loved the sounds resonating through the Family on Saturday night and like one prominent DJ, wish I could’ve taken a ‘part’ of the night home with me.