I was a Bunker virgin. Also, I’m embarrassed to admit – a Matt Rowan virgin and an Obsidian virgin. But lucky me, this was the Eat Musik launch party – which made Eat Musik a virgin too. A virgin… And totally up for it. Awesome! Since we were obviously going to lose it together, did a bit of research on the new night and found out what I was to expect. “Good music of many varieties, good people, good sound and good vibe.” And yes, all that was delivered. Eat Musik totally put out!
I fronted up at the Bunker just as Matt Rowan was taking control of the room. Curses on the fates that made me miss Andrew Wowk, Mortlock and Tiny Tim; I’d really wanted to hear what tasty choices they were loading onto the menu. They’d obviously been throwing down some quality sounds, because the packed room was going at it hard, and Matt Rowan was driving the prog house vibe even harder. Matt’s production work (including tracks with his production pal Jaytech) is all about lush waves of keyboards and massive funked-up basslines, and this was exactly the sound he was dishing out tonight. Definitely the funked up end of progressive house. All great tracks, mixed without crazy effects, bells and whistles. Just good, solid, unpretentious music. Too, too good.
It was such an appreciative and cool, ‘we’re here for the music’ crowd too. Very friendly. I’d already made five new chums at the bar as soon as I walked in. And I spotted all the aforementioned DJs getting amongst it on the dancefloor. This was just like one big houseparty, only with a kickass soundsystem. Good people? Check. Good sound? Check!
Obsidian took all that bass goodness that had been built up already, and smashed it hard. He launched out with the Mouth 2 Mouth edit of Thriller, dropped a sweet mix of Daft Punk’s Around the World, and served up a solid set of techy proggy electro. Or that might be funky tech house. Whatevs, it was freaking great! Trinity and Jay Smalls stepped up for a double set at some crazy hour of the morning. A glitchy start with some technical junk messing them up, but in the spirit of a true house party, pretty much everyone who had already played stepped in to sort it quick and soon they kicked back into the quality tunes.
So, to checklist the Eat Musik manifesto – yes there were good people, and good sound, and a great vibe and loads of seriously good music. A great intimate venue too, and DJs that don’t need to carry on like tossers in order to deliver sweet sets. Awesome night. Friends were made, pretensions were discarded. Eardrums were shredded, in a good way. And Eat Musik is now officially experienced and ‘active’ in the Sydney music scene. Thanks Eat Musik, it was good for me too, let’s hook up again.
