Perth electronic outfit Moriarty have been quiet of late. A few sporadic gigs this year have seen them play the recent WAMI Weekender and support for the Black Eyed Peas in February. However the cogs are starting to turn a little faster and the touring machine changing up a gear as the four-piece prepare for the September/October release of their sophomore self titled album.

Few bands can claim their first ever gig as being the music extravaganza that is the Big Day Out. With luck and circumstance on their side this is exactly what happened as the bands manager Scott Adams explains. “I was in the right place at the right time really. I was talking to the promoter of the Big Day Out and they were looking for electronic acts at the end of 2001. He said to me do I know any and I gave him the Moriarty demo. So their very first gig ended up being the Big Day Out.” Funnily enough after landing them such an opportunity the band members saw potential in Adams and asked the independent record label owner, to whom they’d just supplied their demo, to manage them.

In speaking of the ready to be released album and the past year of playing too few gigs, Adams declares the band are eager to just get back out there and work at building on their already well earned live reputation. The few gigs they have played have all be favourable. With new music to woo their audiences with there is to be no holding back. “Basically they’ve got an album ready to go. It’s been mastered and everything. But for the last year they haven’t done much in the way of gigs. The main highlight would have to be the Endorphin support where they played at the Rosemount and in Dunsborough. Both shows were a huge success and we had a lot of people interested in the band. They’ve played the odd show here and there and they recently did the WAMI weekender. The venue they played, The Kitchen, was a classic example of a band that a lot of live promoters want to get on board because they’ve got a bit of a name but they don’t really knowing where to put them for the simple reason that there’s not a lot of live electronic acts out there.”

Compared to the number of DJs the scene is based around, live electronic bands have been a bit of an anomaly. Adams believes this has had an affect on the way such bands are presented to audiences, not always achieving their full potential. “I love dance music but my whole vibe of dance music if from the original creators. I’ll go to a club where there’s a DJ playing where you’ll have a bit of a dance and it’s a very social thing. For me I’ve grown up in the band scene seeing bands of all different styles. With electronica I like to see a full band performing. So that’s where I came from. If I went to see a band I can kick back with a drink and watch the band. If I were to go to a club on my own you can’t really just kick back and watch the DJ.”

And so was born the concept for Refresh, a night held in conjunction with local DJ Pulse. “The actual concept of the night is not originally mine. It belongs to DJ Pulse who used to run various nights at The Big Apple. I think it was the Friday night they started with and then they did a few Saturdays. They were interested in a night we’d booked there to do with Moriarty. He rang us up asking if we were doing anything with the night and if we wanted to give it to them. I said how about you guys put on the show and just book Moriarty to play. The event was called “Odyssey” and turned out to be a pretty successful show. They were a little bit worried as they’d never dealt with live acts before, just DJs. With Moriarty being a bit of a mixture of dnb, breaks, house that sort of thing, it’s tough to find other live acts to book them with. I thought this might be a good opportunity for someone to book them with so we joined forces and put on that gig. They decked out both floors of the Big Apple – the upstairs DJ booth for example was decked out like a space ship. The night was a big success and we got a really good review for it. Then time got away from us and we didn’t do anything until we started talking a few months back. We sat down over a coffee and thought, “why don’t we do one of these every few months?” We started off with a gig at Ambar because I was able to get a date there. And instead of just one live act we thought why not get in a local producer as well so we approached Soundlab. I know Shane (Soundlab) and he was keen to do the show. We’ll probably do this combination of live acts and DJs as a more regular thing.”

By changing venues, support artists and even promotional artwork for each night the hope is that each night will be unique in feel. “The next gig will be a new poster with a different line up and venue. We’re trying to take a new spin on the whole clubbing thing. With a lot of new people in the club scene today it’s a very different environment to five or six years ago. It seems to have dropped off a bit and we’re just trying to do something a bit different. We want to give something a bit different than just having music pumping out of the speakers; we want to create a bit of a vibe. Pulse will have his stable of DJs and I’ll have Moriarty and one other live act. We’ll try and rotate that around. Next time we’re thinking of having it in the upstairs room at the Leederville. The guy there Craig is keen to get us there on a Saturday night as they have the Funk Club on Fridays. We’re hoping for Ku-Ling Brothers or someone similar.”

As you read this, copies of Moriarty’s latest single Soul Skin are being shipped to radio stations nationwide. With strong support for previous singles from RTR, JJJ and Nova you can expect to hear more soon. If you can’t wait that long then perhaps you’d better get down to Ambar this Friday night, June 18th and see them live. They will be giving away copies of the single on the night. You’ll also be able to hear the latest tunes from Soundlab as well as a variety of beats from the likes of DJs Pulse, Choice, Terry Waites, Max Landy and Dean Moriarty.

As Moriarty prepare for the album release they’ve also got a quick trip planned to Melbourne to support Offcuts and Preshrunk. A more comprehensive tour is planned later in the year to coincide with the album release where they hope to not just take on the state capitals but also hit regional centres and hopefully repeat the success in WA which has seen Margaret River become one of their largest fan bases.

You can see Moriarty at these upcoming dates:

June 18th – Refresh @ Ambar (Perth)
July 1st – First Floor (Melbourne – supporting Offcuts)
July 2nd – Revolver (Melbourne – supporting Preshrunk)