Melbourne - techno city or house haven???

[~techboy~]

Alright melbourne, here's your chance to let Sydney know what you're all about. I'm from melbourne but I haven't lived there for over a year. When I left, I was of the opinion that it was techno city, but more recently, it seems to be a lot more about hard housey stuff.

What's the score?

or am I totally wrong and it's really a den of commercial R&B and house?

You tell me....

[Seb.B]

I think Melbourne realy is a place of mad Techno.

[marcus]

Never been there but I get the impression that its biggest "scene" is techno, but after talking to Andy Van I hear its house scene is as big as ever as well, with many small clubs and bars nurturing a good house "scene".

[brett]

I would agree, Melbourne has a lot of hard house/trace oriented nights. Look at Bass Station for example, that used to have 3 levels of different styles but now I believe that's been scrapped and it's become a totally hard NRG (what a load of crud) night. I may be mistaken, I have not been in over 18 months but just going by what I've read in newspapers, etc.

Sure most of the big parties that are put on (i.e by crews like Hardware and Agent Mad) are still mainly focused towards techno, or tech house (all fits under techno for me).

But I would agree with your original statement that there is a load of hard house nights popping up, personally I think the musik is totaly shitful (but we are all welcome to our own opinions). Gimme acid techno any day of the week, year!

[kitsu]

I'm not a big house fan - not a house fan at all actually, but yes it's definitely a growing and strong part of our scene down here in Melbourne.

Thinking about it logically house music has always been around and probably will always be around and it's strength over the years is undeniable so really there will always be a pretty strong house contingent in most dance music loving cities.

[Trashbag]

Melbourne is far more eclectic than Sydney.
We are not overrun by one particular style of music. While this may be difficult for our humble neighbours in Sydney to understand, a Melbournian may attend a drun'n'bass night on Friday, go to a Hardware -techno- party on Saturday and then follow it up with a House night mid-week., or even a Hard House or Tech-House night.
This becomes very clear if you compare the program grids of Melbourne's KISS FM with Sydney's Rhythm FM.

Its all good

[rattray]

Its all good - so true.

While we had Umek rock it so hard at Teriyaki, Peter Mac still plays the nicest house at Monkey, Sugar makes the best trance, drum and bass is on the move, two step too, etc, etc...

Fair enough for people to attend what they like - but here in Melbourne the options are many - can't compare it to other places as I haven't been there - but there are many styles.... all performed to a very high standard.

[jayblue]

Hmmm having seen thousands of people show up for a primarly techno-oriented party on Saturday night (H17) made me think that techno is still very much alive and well down South. Not that I am any expert on the Melbourne 'scene'.

UnfortunateIy I can't see the same thing happening up here in Sydney (ie thousands turning up for a techno party). I think *we're* the hard house/progressive (whatever that really is anyway) city...

'-]

[cyclone]

I think the city is undergoing transition. Melbourne is very diverse and I think there is a stereotype interstate that it is a "techno city" - techno being defined here as the minimal style big in Europe.

Yes there is something of a backlash to progressive trance and European techno but only in some circles and house music is back in a big way with the rise of Freakazoid one indicator. But that said other styles of techno are more popular than ever. There is a neo-Detroit movement with DJ/producerss like Rolando blowing up world over, Stacey Pullen was one of the big hits in Melbourne last year when he played together with Derrick Carter at Innovator.

Samuel L Sessions is going down the neo-Detroit route as a producer; so is Ian Pooley under his Quiet Daze guise, then there is new talent like Aril Brikha.....

Listen also to some of Jeff Mills' recent works - the rare Every Dog Has Its Day LPs.

Electro is going to come back too.

Then urban music is blowing up in this country too despite the inherent racism in mainstream radio.