|
yep too easy mate, i review for a local website anyway 
Edited for TA
Got there in the early stages of Steve Gerrard’s set. He wasn’t overly inspirational at that stage, playing some deep and funky progressive, though at 12 o’clock there wasn’t really any choice. He picked it up a bit through the set with the last hour or so producing a more melodic focus while not diverting from the progressive sound. It was a bit strange dropping a couple of breaks tracks late in the set, including a remix of Tarantella – Karma, and it ruined the flow for me, especially after he expended so much time on building the set.
Halfway through Gerrard’s set, I’m dancing away and look across and there’s James Holden dancing away. This was definitely a bad move and he was cornered for the next hour by me and my mates lol. It was fantastic that he was so happy to have a chat about everything and anything and really refreshing. I listed the songs I wanted him to play and he laughed saying he didn’t want to turn into a hit parade of his own work though the cheeky grin when I said Into The Dawn no doubt meant something special was going to happen. Also notable was the massive grin he exploded into when I asked him about Australian producers. He has amazing respect for them especially Luke Chable and Infusion and mentioned that Luke and him had just finished a new project together when he was in Melbourne so that’s definitely one to look out for.
We talked about file sharing and as you can imagine he isn’t too impressed with it. He was saying that small labels like Border Community can only afford to lose 500 sales on each release so file sharing does an extensive amount of damage to people trying their best to encourage, build and support the scene.
I also asked him about the tour and stuff. He said Adelaide was really good but that he prefers playing the smaller club gigs than the big events like melbourne gk. Embarassingly I asked him about ta, and he said he knew it so I told him about how everyone on the boards really loved his sets and he was really really stoked which was fantastic to see. I'm not bullshitting you, he was really happy about this.  To put it bluntly, the guy is a fucking champion. Of course though it was his performance in the booth we were all waiting for.
So with the plebs occupied downstairs (kid kenobi), James Holden took the opportunity to give Hobart a case of the pixies. Starting with dreamy melodic progressive it did take a while to get going, perhaps staying a bit floaty for too long. The mixing wasn’t flawless by any means but the rising keys and track selection was second to none and utterly hypnotic. He played the vocals of Nothing over another track and sent the nerds into raptures with Break In The Clouds. He played a bit of tech for a short period but didn’t stay there for too long. He also played a very simlar tl to sydney and melbourne with Joshua Ryan – Pistolwhip (James Holden Mix), Nathan Fake – Outpost, PQM – You Are Sleeping (Luke Chable Vocal Mix), Kirsty Hawkshaw – Fine Day (James Holden Mix) and completely owned the crowd by finishing with Accadia - Into The Dawn (James Holden Mix).
The last hour of Holden’s set was subtle euphoria with probably the most sublime melody Tasmania has ever seen. Indeed talk of Dave Seaman’s coming set being the set of the year is extremely premature and it will have to be something astonishing to surpass it.
Just because the sound is loud, it isn’t necessarily good. Obviously for DJs of this stature a special system was installed but Gerrard did something wrong as his bass was too overpowering, especially considering the melodic progressive he was playing. I say it must have been Gerrard as none of the three DJs after him had any problems with it at all. On the contrary the sound was aurgasmic with James Holden’s set containing the clearest of melodies and crispest of vocals.
As someone who will generally look for the weaknesses and possible criticisms, I acknowledge it takes a superb performance for me to give praise. Steve Gerrard was ok, nothing special but James Holden was indeed brilliant. I’ve long thought that style of music would suit the above ground underground of syrup/rm and as always I was right. Undoubtedly he loved playing it and we loved wrapping ourselves with the warm tones and embracing depth of his record box. Friday night and more specifically James Holden was simply mesmerising.
___________________
Meh
|
