Having previously brought internationals like Kasey Taylor and Boris Brejcha to rock the beautiful Victoria Star across the bay and back, this year’s Sonic Textures boat party line-up was equally impressive. Fresh from playing Rainbow Serpent Festival, Perfect Stranger was headlining this year’s nautical adventure, along with a boatload of local support.

The weather started out brisk and slightly wet, with a forecasted high of only 19 degrees suggesting partygoers arrive rugged up. Luckily Melbourne’s weather predictably changed completely by the time we set sail, turning into a beautiful sunny, warm day, ideal for gallivanting on the high seas and sunning oneself from the deck.

The Victoria Star was a little slow to launch, but this was lucky for some last minute punters running late who managed to snap up tickets and hop on the gang plank just before we left. Soon however the engines began to rumble, and the tunes began. There were two dancefloors, both inside and covered with windows and doors open to railings circling the decks. Out there, benches, sea views, sunshine and smoking space made it a slightly more chilled atmosphere to enjoy the party from.

Ishtar Productions provided awesomely crisp, clear, and bassy Funktion One Sound for both rooms, making the windows vibrate with low frequency goodness. Also, pizza boxes appeared mysteriously at intervals upstairs during the first hour, providing tasty sustenance for those who hadn’t made it to breakfast beforehand, and those who got peckish after a few drinks. The bar staff were quick and there were never long lines, which made getting drinks a breeze.

Gavin Martin opened on the upstairs room playing funky techno, starting the party off with a great vibe, and getting a good third of the crowd dancing right from the start. It was a good opening set, relaxed and getting everyone comfortable and warmed up to rock the boat once we hit the bay.

Downstairs a surprise guest, Uone, replaced Benzai, who was unable to make the party due to unforeseen, flood-related causes. He played a relaxed sounding warm-up set for the better part of an hour, though his set was complicated by one of the CDJs glitching. The sound was also initially somewhat lacking in volume and bass down here, but it was turned up towards the end of his set.

Perfect Stranger took over, starting slowly with techy and very danceable progressive, getting steadily more bouncy. The room became ever more packed too, making it necessary to push though the crowd to get up to the front, were vibrating bass, flailing arms, camera flashes, and awesome beats assaulted the senses. Behind the booth, Yuli Fershtat was concentrating hard on mixing, but definitely seemed to be enjoying the enthusiasm of the crowd. The last half hour of the set was fantastic, featuring consecutive massive tunes, a cool breaks track, and an encore.

Tim Harvey was playing chilled and funky tunes downstairs now, with trancey, melodic breakdowns, making it a slightly more relaxed place to chill than the pumping beats upstairs. A remix of what sounded like ‘60s diva singing was especially interesting and groovy, and the improved sound drew in more people. The suspicious CDJ luckily behaved for most of his set. Unfortunately, it then packed up completely on poor Thad Lester, who was luckily able to save the day with a recorded set of his own from the recent Rainbow Serpent Festival from his iPhone.

Upstairs, Punkzonjunk played us back into port, rocking the ship with dirty bassy progressive techno grooves. Bobby and Dan were alternately intently listening through the earphones or excitedly jumping around behind the decks. A particularly standout track featured slow grindy bass that sounded like a machine slowly winding up, building to an energetic release that set the crowd wild. They finished with a fresh techy banger, and their set definitely helped ease us on our sad return to solid ground.

Other than an interesting moment when the boat turned a little sharply to avoid a rouge yacht coming perilously close, our captains took us smoothly out and back. The crowd was friendly and brought a great vibe; I felt very at ease. Security was also friendly. The only time they really seemed necessary was to send everyone back to the mainland at the end, when we would have much rather stowed away in the hopes of another voyage. Sonic Textures definitely rocked my Sunday with an ideal day out on the bay!