inthemix | Event Coverage | Earthcore Launch feat. Tsuyoshi Suzuki @ Room 680, Melbourne (05/09/08)

Giving us a taste of things to come in late November, the Earthcore Launch held at Room on Friday definitely tantalised the senses. Headlining the party was the Japanese psychedelic superstar Tsuyoshi Suzuki, alongside many of Australia’s best psy DJs. Indeed, the launch party was set to be banging.

Entering about 12:30am I had to reacquaint myself with the Room, as it had been a while since I last visited. For one, the more open layout of the place was great and necessary for the crowd to flail limbs to their hearts content. The decks and VDJ setup were both fantastic, as you could literally dance within a few feet of the DJs and still see the wide array of LCDs and lasers, so it added the extra element of performance. Also, the new smoking room upstairs – aptly named the ‘rooftop forest’ – was amazing with an indoor-outdoor rooftop with lots of seats and room to relax.

Ben Evans of Interview was rocking out upon entering, kicking off the main-room shenanigans with some familiar tracks and an uplifting mood. The music was not too full-on as it was early in the night, which was a relief. Ben did a great job of building his music up, and Coomzy followed. Boy did he get some bodies moving! With people now coming out of the woodwork to the dancefloor, Coomzy’s set was very satisfying and showed his great mixing style and stellar use of effects. He got the groove ball rolling and set the mood perfectly for what – or should I say who – was to come.

After a very weird individual in a fluoro jumpsuit with glowsticks provided us with some entertainment front of the stage, the man we all came to see appeared and the crowd gave themselves up. Tsuyoshi Suzuki is always a crowd favourite in Australia and it showed on Friday, everyone in the room was noticeable pumped for his set. Coomzy introduced some more full-on sounds, but Suzuki took it to another level entirely. He played tracks old and new, and in that hour and a half everyone had a smile on their dial. Masterfully mixing is an art that Tsuyoshi has been doing for years, with seamless transitions and wacky samples introduced. I was impressed by his agility behind the decks, all the way through pumping at 150+bpm, he made it look easy.

Triple Dream came on next and continued in Suzuki’s full-on fashion, with high bpm psy-trance all night. It was interesting to see such a culturally diverse crowd as well, which the psy scene tends to draw. Cruising into the more relaxed Club Hades room, I was fortunate to hear Mischief drop some wicked progressive, and it was the perfect sound to take a breathe from the main room. It was comfortably crowded, and after 20 minutes in there I’d heard more killer tracks than you could poke a stick at.

All-in-all it was a great night, catering for fans of full-on psy through to progressive, and the venue was well-decorated and staff were friendly. With such a diverse crowd and great music I eagerly anticipate hearing some more music like this in the bush in a bit over two months. Tsuyoshi, your set was memorable as always. Bring on Earthcore!