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Reviewer: Richard Brown
Delirious Summer Festival 2003
This Easter Sunday UWA's Oak Lawn took on a decidedly different
ambience to its usually sedately academic vibe, as the latest instalment
of Delirious took flight. And though there wasn't a book on post-modern
thought or western philosophy in sight, there was plenty of scope
for existential contemplation, as a thoroughbred line-up of DJs
took Perth's party people on a mind-bending journey through a wide
range of dance music.
Most people on the sun-dappled lawn of the main arena got off to
a lazy start as things commenced, however a small section of prog-lovers
were straight onto the dance-floor for Casey Taylor and Sean Quinn.
These guys enjoy a reputation of being two of Melbourne's finest,
and they were extremely impressive on the latest trip west. The
mix consisted mainly of deep and techy progressive house, with a
nice dose of more emotive, soaring sounds blended through, which
made me wish Perth had more weekly venues which feature a quality
dose of genuine progressive.
The d'n'b community also made an effort to swing into action early,
as one of the genre's most revered figures Mampi Swift, took to
the decks at 1:00 pm. Mampi was spellbinding and had the nicely
decked out space in a frenzy throughout a set which exhibited his
awe-inspiring technical proficiency. Mampi frequently double-dropped
tunes into the mix, resulting in an earth-shatteringly high calibre
brand of d'n'b.
Though he has only just gained mainstream fame through the ubiquitous
and oft-remixed single Fix My Sink, DJ Sneak has been one of the
Chicago scene's most important figures for a long time, and was
very eagerly anticipated by those who are passionate about funky
house cuts. As the big fella stepped up the sun started to drop
beneath the horizon and crowd numbers swelled rapidly around the
main stage. Sneak started off in fairly minimal territory, and perhaps
was a bit over-kill with the filtered-house sound for the first
few phases of his set. As he started to work more organic elements
into the mix the crowd began to visibly lift, and before long the
sprawling masses were grooving as one. As the night drifted into
peak-time, Sneak worked in some heavy percussive/tribal sounds into
the barrage of funk, as well as the big new single, which of course
got a great reaction.
The techno section took on the appearance of a mini-amphitheatre,
as the court-yard it was located in was enclosed on all sides by
several levels of stairs. It was relatively intimate in comparison
to the other two arenas, but the crowd numbers were high and the
attitude very enthusiastic, which gave the space a strong atmosphere.
This enthusiasm was fired early by the awesome selection of tek
and electro flavours pushed out with consummate technical skill
by Troy and MRW. It's become a clichéd comment, but the standard
of our own DJs really does make visiting internationals look fairly
average much of the time. However Anthony Rother, who took over
the reins from the locals, certainly is not an international of
the over-hyped variety. His electro-fuelled set started off flying
high, with driving tek and prog-house sounds. The quality was maintained
throughout his extended appearance (due to the late cancellation
of Pascal F.E.O.S), which featured keyboard and other live elements,
that added a special something extra over the tight mixing. A large
segment of attendees regarded Rother's performance as the undisputed
highlight of the day.
For the last few hours the Delirious party people had the options
of the ever-frenetic d'n'b space, a marathon of unrelenting temple
pounding techno from Belgium's Stanny Frannsen, or relaxed, cerebral
sounds from headliners Kruder and Dorfmeister. The contrast between
the grooving, chilled out vibe of the latter act, with the stomping,
fist-pumping nature of Frannsen's area, provided an explicit contrast
between the very different vibes and types of people, all encompassed
by the dance scene. After a fairly exhausting day, the relaxed vibe
of K&D was a preference for the largest number of people, and
the esoteric journey the German duo provided was an appealing way
to finish off festivities. The set took heed from numerous genres
the whole way through, among these were reggae, soul, funky house,
jazz, deep house and hip-hop. Massive screens displaying trippy
visuals and a number of members of the crowd taking to the stage
and swaying with the grooves provided a memorable visual experience
to accompany the tunes. The tune-selection drifted from leftfield
to fairly well-known numbers, and trainspotters could identify a
number of the duo's stellar remix efforts, such as the re-invigoration
of jazz legend Willie Bobo's Spanish Grease.
As usual Delirium's multi-genre approach left most of those in
attendance with something to be very happy about, and continued
this particular festival's history of quality excursions across
the broad spectrum of dance music.
Richie Brown
Contact : Richie Brown
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Delirious
Sunday 20th April 2003
33 and 1/3 Outside Stage:
Kruder and Dorfmeister Live feat. MC Sugar B and visuals by Fritz
Fitzke
DJ Sneak
Laidback
plus: Koosh; Dazz K; Wataz; Buex
Loaded Dice DnB Arena:
Mampi Swift and IC3
DJ Fierce
plus: Concept; Frantik; Mystique; Greg Packer; Diamond D and MC's
Assassin; Jay Rippa; X-sessiv
Trance and Progressive Arena:
Commander Tom
Our House (Sean Quinn and Kasey Taylor)
plus: Boy; Chad D; Adam Kelly; Clint W and Law
Plastik Techno Arena:
Anthony Rother Live
Pascal F.E.O.S.
Stanny Franssen
plus: Cee vs. Tamar; James A vs. Nic Tan; Troy vs. Mrw; Puff vs.
Kane; Warren 10 vs. Adam K
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