LISTEN OUT FESTIVAL – Melbourne Recap

Sonia and Huw attended the Melbourne leg of Fuzzy’s latest conquest, electronic dance festival Listen Out . The festival’s setting was beautiful, nestled in between the foliage that is the Botanic Gardens.

Huw: The first act that I really pay attention to was Rufus . Their debut LP Atlas has been doing amazingly well, and the crowd receives each track with great praise. Lead singer, Tyrone Lindqvist, has the crowd by the balls, thrashing his guitar whilst standing on the stage amps and jumping around the stage with a cowbell in hand. He adds a really exciting visual element to the set. The crowd knows a majority of their tracks, too, with ‘ Modest Life ‘, ‘ Tonight ‘ and obviously ‘ Take Me ‘ receiving big rounds of applause.

Sonia: My favourite performance of the day by far is  John Talabot (who performed with Pional ). His first live show in Melbourne is highly anticipated and a lucky crowd get to witness multiple tastes of his much revered Fin album.

The 80s synthwork bleed into our ears as the harsh edge of the sun faded. Personally this is a great way to close the afternoon and prepare for the evening.

My first bout of euphoria strikes with the intro to ‘ Oro y Sangre ’. Uplifting and oscillating chords raise our hands. ‘ When the Past Was Present ’ follows nicely with its rumbling paired kicks. Talabot and Pional put their own special touches on the tracks and extend most versions, however their level of fidelity to Fin material is appreciated.

No reflection on the performance itself, but it’s lost on much of the crowd. Sadly, there are too many people talking, not dancing or generally seeming distracted. I’m impressed by Talabot’s perseverance and, as expected, this all turns around for ‘ Destiny ’ and ‘ So Will be Now ’. Overexcitement clings at the strike of each reverberated clap and bubble of bassline. Seeing it all live surpasses the energy of the recorded album. It suits the open air so well and I’m very glad I didn’t miss a second.

My pick of the locals was Flip3k & David Bass . Flip3k is half of Melbourne-based Loophole Recordings, while David Bass was one of the heads behind the much-loved Too Much parties. Currently the duo are running the ultra-late recovery All Good, at Lounge every month.

While Flip3k and David Bass usually move between UK house right up to techno, their set at the Red Bull stage was styled with old school garage. The Red Bull stage is designed to educate party-goers in multiple genres. While it seems like a tacky idea, in reality it’s very fun. The pair had a great time as they dropped old favourites from Mr Oizo (remixed) to Craig David’s ‘Rewind’.

Huw: Following on from Talabot is the 80s electronic vibes provided by the Pizza Guy himself, Touch Sensitive . Sporting a killer pencil moustache and a haircut that would make Danny Zuko quiver, Touch Sensitive puts on a killer show for the Melbourne crowd, taking to his beat pad and bass with style. His mixing was nice, too, blending seamlessly from track to track.

Back on the Atari stage Duke Dumont follows the party-starting Rufus. He takes the mood back a notch from jump-around frenzy to dance floor groove. His mixture of house music and UK garage has the crowd pulsating as one, dropping hits such as ‘ 100% ‘ and ‘ The Giver ‘, which are the highlights of his set.

A few unfortunate mishaps dogged the festival. Mishaps that were largely out of the festival organisers’ control. The Azealia Banks debacle being the notable one, but AlunaGeorge ‘s equipment was delayed so their set started 20 minutes late, and the security guards were overly aggressive. Considering the festival was quite tame, for the majority, the security guards threw their weight around and I even witnessed one guard that leant over the barrier into the moshpit to kiss a girl that was obviously very intoxicated (that’s a sex crime). Pretty disgusting behaviour from someone who is supposed to be setting a standard for behaviour.

Also, I wasn’t overly impressed with the festival booker’s selection when they announced that Azealia Banks was playing the electronic heavy festival. Her attitude and recent Twitter beefs with everyone just confirms that she is a prima donna nobody that gained prominence through saying the word ‘cunt’ over a massively popular dance-floor beat made by someone else.

The rest of her music, in my opinion, is rather lacklustre. Songs like ‘ Aquababe ‘, ‘ BBD ‘, ‘ Rupunxel ‘ and ‘ Fuck up the Fun ‘ are messy. Both with the musical arrangements and her flows. I honestly don’t know how these songs would have been received if her set had continued. So, her storming of the stage at Listen Out was neither a disappointment nor a surprise. Good riddance.

But thankfully Banks isn’t the only female vocalist reppin the festival. Aluna from AlunaGeorge makes up for the black hole created by the teenage-tempered Banks, making the crowd eating out of the palm of her hand. Sporting boxing attire and killer vocals, she makes each AlunaGeorge tune sound like a radio edit. Comprising killer beats and RnB grooves with distinguishable high pitch vocals, her tunes have the crowd mesmerised. Songs such as ‘ Attracting Flies ‘, a killer version of ‘ This Is How We Do It ‘ and their very own cover of Disclosure ‘s ‘ White Noise ‘ featuring Aluna taking over the vocal duties were special moments. I am surprised they didn’t cut the set short due to delays, but only pushed set times on the 909 stage back. AlunaGeorge fans would have been grateful, I’m sure, but people that wanted to see both TNGTH and Disclosure without clashes would have been disappointed.

Speaking of TNGHT, their set is killer. If it wasn’t for the blown speakers and the reduced volume it would have been the highlight of the festival for me. Hudson Mohawke and Lunice looked to be enjoying themselves, with Lunice running around the stage acting as a hype man which the crowd absolutely frothed on. Their lighting show is exceptional too, strobes that light up the whole crowd and and killer LED lights that are all synched up to the music throughout the duration of their set. Hudson Mohawke also plays his party starting trap tune ‘ Thunder Bay ‘, which the crowd went nuts to. HudMo and Lunice don’t get distracted by the pops in the speakers and the lowered volume and carried on the show like true pros.

Sonia: How could I forget Disclosure! It felt like the moment that the sibling duo left Australia in January that everyone couldn’t wait for their return. Debut album Settle only made the frenzy more heated.

I had big expectations for their performance. While I wasn’t blown away by their 2012 Outlook festival show in Croatia, Disclosure certainly showed their full abilities at Listen Out. ‘ F for You ’ receives an immense reaction (with sing-a-longs off course) and somehow ‘ Fire Starts to Burn ’ surpasses this. They receive the best crowd reaction that I’ve seen all day. The atmosphere is lively and I can see that Disclosure was probably the only act that most attendees knew a substantial part of the discography of.

Live guitars and synths feature more heavily than in Disclosure’s previous shows, which works well to keep the set outside of pure electronic aesthetics. Everyone seems to really enjoy the visuals and light show; both are energetic and fun to watch but subtle enough to keep the focus on Guy and Howard.

‘ Grab Her! ’ gets a better reaction than I would have expected. The clunky honky tonk changes the mood from commercial house.

Disclosure keep the crowd dancing for the whole eighty minutes and pack in all of the Settle favourites, most notably ‘White Noise’ and their two-song finale of ‘ Help Me Lose My Mind ’ plus hit single ‘ Latch ’. Feet stamp to the steady claps as hips sink into its signature wobbly chords.

While the boys didn’t deviate much from original material, it suited their performance and satisfied the crowd. I was hoping to hear some un-released material but I can only guess that a full tour schedule has taken time away from their production. Overall though I can’t see fans being disappointed in the show in any way and am guessing that many headed to their DJ set at the Brown Alley after party.

REVIEW BY HUW NOLAN AND SONIA MILES-KHAN

WORDS BY Huw Nolan

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