We Love Sounds @ Shed 4, Melbourne (07/06/08)

Having been to two We Love Sounds events up in the festival’s spiritual home of Sydney, I knew how good they could be, so the Melbourne event had a lot to live up to – and I was glad that Melbourne finally got a party that was on the same scale as what our northern cousins enjoy. But it wasn’t the best start to the day – there were grey skies, it was a bit drizzly and we weren’t really sure where Shed 4 was. In the end we followed our ears; we could hear bass coming from an older looking shed and headed that way.

I found the venue to be an inspired choice and reminiscent of early rave parties that Hardware used to put on, amongst other events that had been held at the docks. The vibrating metal sheet walls helped with this reminiscing too! Thankfully the venue was a lot warmer than I envisaged, so I dropped my jacket in the cloakroom and headed straight to the Hardware room where I would spend most of my day and what follows is run down of what I saw.

First up, Gaiser. Unfortunately we arrived late into his set, and proceeded to kick ourselves for it. Everyone was saying how good he had been and I now, listening to him myself, could hear it. Gaiser is part of the M_Nus label along with Marc Houle, who was to play next. Gaiser was playing live and it was some very funky techno. He was very similar to Steve Bug – jacking minimal and techno. Next up was Derrick Carter, and he was responsible for one of the few clashes of the evening with Marc Houle. We chose to catch some Carter first and the crew I was with made our way front and centre. Amongst this crew were some very big Carter fans, and we were not left disappointed. It was that classic blend of house and techno, very bright but dirty and so, so danceable! There were some gorgeous tracks in there with some saxophone highlights among them. The only disappointment was the sound was way too loud, and was distorting because of it; we actually took this as a sign to check out Marc Houle.

Mr Houle was playing a set that was just as good as his track Bay of Figs: deep melodic techno. His sound was simple but very effective, building nicely as the set progressed. Very lush. But unfortunately for him, the sound coming from over at Carter’s stage was overshadowing his deep sound.

Berlin belle Ellen Allien was up next – to be honest I had not heard one thing that Ellen Allien has done prior to this event, but having heard loads of people rave about her I was looking forward to her set. She definitely picked up the pace from Houle, and it was more a peak time set. It seemed to be what everyone was waiting for. It also seemed to be a bit louder than Houle’s set, which was welcome. It was good to see her enjoying herself as much as we were enjoying her, and she dropped one of my favourite tunes, Ricardo Villalobos’ Enfants!

next was a bit of a change of pace with Brazil’s Bondo Do Role. Loud, brash, punk, fun! I am not sure how may adjectives I can write to explain the energy of these guys! It was an awesome mix of electro, punk, rock and Brazilian attitude! Bondo Do Role really had that room rocking and they even had the nerve to sample Summer Lovin’ from Grease. After that, the vibe was building for Modeselektor and we were right amongst it at the front. Playing up to the crowd by talking to them, and playing the most massive rumble of sound, it went off from there! It was loud, filthy and got harder and more frantic towards the end. They had the crowd going crazy by the time they wound things up.

More on the indie/electro side of things, I’m a big fan of The Bravery’s Honest Mistake and there were another act I was happy were going to play at We Love Sounds. And they were almost like a pub band, only a whole lot better. The music was rock, but it had a good beat and was danceable. The lead singer had a great voice and it worked really well with the blend of guitars, drums and synths. But next up was the don of house, Steve Lawler... It had been a few years since I had seen him, and was curious to check out how his sound had changed. What I like about Lawler is that he puts thought into his mixes, for example the intro and outro that he constructs when putting together a CD. Today he started with one such intro and by the time he dropped his first beat, we were with him all the way. In classic Lawler style it was dark and proggy. He had a really good groove and swing to his set. He locked you in and then all of a sudden, he would drop a bomb and have you clapping along. One track that he dropped explained it all: “dirty, filthy, immoral, ooh yeah!”

The other big-hitter DJ name on the bill was Dubfire. He’s been on fire lately (forgive the pun), with a swag of his own productions and remixes. This include two of the biggest tracks of the last twelve months or so, his own Ribcage and a remix of Plastikman’s Spastik. He started quite eerily, it almost sounded like a horror movie soundtrack, building the suspense. He played quite dark like Lawler did, but more minimal. The tracks were long and very repetitive, which I like, but at times it didn’t seem to be going anywhere… It was a lot like a live set mind you, he was probably playing a lot of his own tracks!

And that’s it, ‘The End’. To be picky, you could point out some things that weren’t so good about this party: the sound could have been a lot better, and the toilets had long cues most of the day. However, the good so far outweighs the bad that I would have to put this up as one of the best party’s I have ever been too. Four stars for this year’s We Love Sounds event in Melbourne.

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Ronnie Hudson says...

on June 12th, 2008

This event was rubbish! I cannot believe the sheds at the docks have ever had a reputation for being seminal in Melbourne's electronic dance music culture esp if the sound quality on Saturday is typical of all events. I'm sure it was okay for people too inebriated to realise that the sound was way too loud throughout the day (the exceptions being Steve Lawler, Lindstrom and !!!) and caused heinous reverb issues. I'm sure many of the acts were great, but it was simply too hard to tell. Compared to D nox the following day at FIX bar this event was like a battle of the bands run by teenagers. Shit house.

Samueltorrance says...

on June 12th, 2008

I agree with Ronnie I was so pumped to see this but left after an hour because not only was I not into hearing all three stages at once but the sound was simple SHITT! I am never ever ever ever going to go to a gig put on by these bunch of Amateurs ever again as my ears will never recover from the torment that they were subjected to at this horrible excuse for a dance party!!!!!

Mickey1 says...

on June 12th, 2008

So i made the right choice to give my tickets away and stay fresh for Armin Only wow Hey even Armin had Sound issues they messed up the levels which flooded the floor with to much low end frequency mind u it was 45min after the curtain was dropped to to mark the the start of armins set

nictoupee says...

on June 14th, 2008

no offence but... to be 'picky' - that last paragraph is a complete shocker. grammar ftw.

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