Becks Fusions pres. Berlin Sessions @ Miss Libertine, Melbourne (20/06/08)
Being as I’m a relative new face to Melbourne, I’m looking forward to the opportunity of going out to hit the nightspots, as invariably I’ll be going to a venue that I’ve not been to before, so it’s exciting to get the chance to check out cool new places. But that’s not half as exciting as the chance to get to see Heiko Laux again. I’d caught him in Sydney a couple of years ago when he toured with Alexandra Kowalski for the ‘Advanced Engines’ tour, so it was great to have a chance to catch up with what he’s doing, courtesy of the Berlin Sessions events.
First on my checklist of ‘Things to See and Do’ for the night was Jazzanova. My own understanding of Jazzanova is that they bring deep, organic house music so it was a surprise to hear such a solid, driving sound issuing from the speaker-stacks. It was sullied a little by some muddy mid-range but it was consistently groovy, and kept the dancefloor moving with deep, funky, soulful tech- ouse including their own That Night (Wahoo remix), the Atjazz version of All Over the World and a tidy version of the Bill Withers classic Who is He and What is He to You.
Cruising around and checking the place out, we ran into Mike Callendar in the front room. Mike’s a chap who’s obviously gifted with a natural technical aptitude and he seems particularly suited to the general style of minimal and tech house that he employs. It’s refreshing to hear someone deliver good tunes, skillfully and cleanly. Heading back to another one of the evening’s headliners, I’d never heard of Quarion beyond their 2006 tune Karasu, and was rather keen to see what the fuss was all about. Deep, driving progressive tech house – and the dancefloor ate it up. Dropping plenty of tunes from his Drumpoet Community imprint, some of the faves in there included Soultourist Fo Eva and Fabrice Ligs The Track.
Now it’s time for Heiko…
Kanzleramt was in the house and from the first beat to the last, Heiko had me in the palm of his hand. I was so pleased to catch him again and find that over the last few years, his sound has progressed and matured and grown to become as awesome as it has. Of course, it’s always a joy watching Heiko enjoying himself behind the decks and it’s exactly that kind of vibe that transfers directly to the dancefloor, as we saw Friday night. His own Dubfix got a thrashing as did Peter Horrevort’s The Rabbit Hole (Johannes Heil remix), and some Thomas Heckmann. And as always, it was nice to be able to turn in any direction and see a happy face, marred only by the fact that with Heiko starting at 3am, a lot of punters would have faced problems with the 2am lockout. And getting alte into the evening, it was getting difficult to stay for more than an hour of his set. Maybe next time we could convince him to treat us to some ‘Back to Mine’ action…
It was great to see the promoters of the event rocking Melbourne with such a quality lineup, and even better to see Becks coming on board and putting these guys up. It’d be great to see some more of these kind of ‘Sessions’ in the future!
