Club Club feat. Guy J & Audiojack @ Chinese Laundry, Sydney (03/08/08)
Face north, knock 3 times on a handy hollow object and say to yourself, “Why am I here? Why am I stuck in Sydney at that magical time of year when ‘everything good’ seems to be happening somewhere else?” Like you care even if some uber-festival is starting up every 2.8 seconds somewhere in the Northern Hemisphere! And as if a long weekend in Byron would have been a grand plan after all (if only you’d sorted your shit a bit sooner, dumbass). But never fear eager young beat-bunnies. Laundry’s got your back in these times of darkness and uncertainty. Flights? Accommodation? Fuel prices? Who needs the hassle! Tonight, we’ve got elite international talent right here in Sydney – Guy J (the Israeli progressive operative who’s infiltrated the massive Bedrock label) and Audiojack (British agents of elite cross-genre goodness assigned to 20:20 Vision recordings), no less. When you check out the long and extraordinary list of artists these guys have remixed, and quality tracks they’ve produced over the last few years, you’ll need just two words to define your quickly vanishing disappointment. “Fuck Splendour!”
When I first arrived at the clubhouse under the stairs and made my usual direct assault on the Cave, Club Junque was beat-mustering one of the biggest crowds I’ve ever seen in that space. The last time I saw this dude at work was just after Anthony Pappa’s set a few months back, and that night he had full range to show off his skills and was awesome to behold. But tonight the Laundry resident was doing what ‘warmer-uppers’ do, winding up the hectic crowd without being too over the top. It’s a fine line to walk when you’re this good, but ‘The Junque’ nailed it perfectly with some ‘not too melodic’ but cranking tech house.
Guy J stepped up to launch the next phase of tastiness, punting his first track headlong into a primed and aligned crowd. Tonight he was mixing on Ableton Live, interfaced with his own mixer. So no headphones required to pull off flawless mixing, but plenty of opportunity for him to run a set that was intricate and involved. I’d spent the week listening to some of his recent productions on the famous Bedrock label. (ringmastered by master John Digweed), with the lush and juicy progressive house I’d been hearing leading me to expect the same from this set. But prog is just not the new black at the moment, is it? Guy J was in the mood to drive us much harder. Tech and electro. Fast and furious. A few fleshy walls of keys to make the fans smile, but he read the room just right and whipped up a beatstorm of bits and bytes. There were tracks we knew, like one of his recent singles Under Pressure. Tracks we thought we might know (a trusted source recognized an Underworld sample twisted into the rest of the madness). And of course there were megagigs of completely new and tasty tracks that we’ll be scouring the net for months to find. Awesome.
Meanwhile in the Sandbar, The Vandals were making sure that enough happy little beans stayed upstairs for long enough to avoid complete pack carnage in the two main rooms. I briefly caught the Crookers remix of Kid Cudi’s Day and Night before I was lured off again to find Jeff Drake whipping up the main Laundry room with tracks like the Aston Shuffle’s Stomp Your Shoe, and the very same remix of Day and Night that the Vandals had just played. Or has my head been completely messed with?
Back in the Cave, Guy J wrapped up a sweet, sweet set to massive crowd props, and handed over to the dynamic duo Audiojack. With all the unplugging and mixer-swapping, and working out exactly who’s track was coming up on what fader, there was a touch of ‘seamlesslessness’. But Audiojack have the non-stop party skillz down and the ninja teamworking sorted. If the music magically stops, the best course of DJ action is obviously to put your hands in the air and cheer. I love these guys already!
The lads from Leeds are renowned for tight teamwork in producing, as well as in their live-action mixing. Tonight they defended their title, trawling their CD folder to smash out a wicked set of high-energy tech, electro and hard hectic beats. Stylistically they pulled together tracks that take munted-up vocal samples and use them as a percussion element, plus bend pitch like it’s made of melted mercury (yes I know it’s already melted. That’s the point). Fine examples of these phenomena were the Spektre remix of DiFi’s 24 Bit Bleep, and one of their final tracks for the night, their own mix of Mike Monday’s Zum Zum. Audiojack definitely loved every moment as much as the crowd did, which was lots. Their sheer energy was infectious, in that ‘good infectious’ way.
What a hectically good night. Almost stupidly crowded, but it’s all about the music, with the added bonus of no portaloos, mud or missing tentpegs to interfere with the pure enjoyment of quality beats. Face north, smack your head a few times to see if you still have eardrums, and say to yourself “I’m so doing this again.”
kone says...
kudos, a very good summation of the night...cept i'd have no idea about what happened out side of the cave. guy j was a master
jarrardscott says...
i think guy j playing darien j - dubstar (perc remix) deserves a mighty worthy mention. fucking TUNE!
Mal_X_mas_03 says...
Tunes wise this was the best night ive been to in years... All 3 of the acts in the cave played some ausome shit. My only problem was there was no room to enjoy it. I have never seen the cave rammed like it was. This was seriously oversold, and would have been much better in a slightly larger venue. Dont get me wrong, i think the Laundry is the best club in Sydney, but come on guys, you almost ruined it by stuffing so many people in there. And what was with the lighting, or should i say serious lack of lighting in the cave? Keep bringing out the quality please...but back it up with a sensible policy on how many people you let in.