Tech-ni-kal feat. Voiteck Live @ Chinese Laundry, Sydney (17/04/2003)
Sat in the pub a few hours beforehand, my faithful cohort for the evening runs up to me, breathless, and tells me not to hang around cos he’s off to Byron at 5 the next morning and so can’t come as he has to sleep. Not to worry – it’s the start of the long (and messy) weekend and there are plenty of willing volunteers to come out and play, to mount an early celebration of Christ’s crucifixion by getting nailed. Beers get sunk, cigs get smoked, men get seen about dogs and before long it’s time to head to the Laundry, if only the bloody cab would arrive! Waiting and waiting and waiting and refusing to head out in the pissing-down rain, we drink some more and wait some more.
A light at the door offers some hope but no, it’s the police. Seems that the neighbours weren’t too pleased about the pounding tunes blaring out the front door, which was open so we could look for the cab. We explained to the cops why the door was open and they smugly inform us that our cab left just as they arrived. Screaming and cursing we wave the dibbles off and sit for a moment contemplating how shitty our long weekend already is. Fortune smiles on us though, as our cabbie (who was scared by the police – we’re not sure why) had merely driven round the block to escape the blue-and-whites and had happily returned to take us to Sussex Street. Finally!
So we hit the Laundry, lig our way in and check out the two rooms of chunk. In the main room, Biz-E be savagely tearing the dancefloor a new arsehole while in the Cave Jimmi James is hard at work earning his reputation as the man with the best record collection in Sydney. Soulful, meaty, driving techy mayhem assaulted the crowd who lapped it up with closed eyes and big smiles. Spotting ITM’s freak with the digital camera but far too busy checking the music to converse, I make a mental note to chat to him later when the time is more suitable.
Of course, the madness being what it is, I decided that a more suitable time to speak to our photographer was bang on peaktime in the middle of Voiteck’s set. About 7 words got exchanged which I was particularly proud of at the time. Voiteck was just going crazy in there – hard and tribal and somewhat minimalistic at the same time, the sound was just fantastic. Techno more than most styles requires a quality sound set up that is perfectly equalized – lots of crisp clear top-end, a balanced but not washy middle and bass that is both abundant and tight as. And they got it right, making Voiteck’s set the perfect way to dance in the long weekend, and the crowd understood, responding in the only way they could. Having only heard him on his WetMusik CD before, it was great to experience the sound live – Melbourne should be proud of him.
Meanwhile, in the Cave, Jimmi James had given way to Simon Caldwell who was turning out a great set, starting hard and getting softer as the night progressed – as we were leaving, he was playing some gorgeous tubular electro sounds that had a deservedly buggered mob grooving despite themselves.
In all, a great night. To think that we had a live show from a talented producer, some great techno DJs in the front and a mini-Mad Racket in the back room, all for 15 bux – on that evidence alone, I have to recommend Tech-ni-kal to everyone – the music’s solid enough to satisfy all you hard dance freaks, funky enough to keep those groovers smiling and underground enough to make the chinstrokers come on all eczematous. They got another live show soon – why not check it out?
