- Arriving at the Greenwood at 2.30pm, I was shocked to find a relaxed and empty Courtyard awaited me. Worrying for a moment that this might be the first time Sounds failed to get feet on the dance floor, I quickly forgot my fears as the outstanding music being played by Trent Anthony filtered through my slightly foggy mind! The set was already progressive but only in so much as it was creative, not too heavy and very funky. “Convergence” by Random Factor was my pick of the chunky tunes being belted out in the courtyard during Trent’s set. To say I am impressed is an understatement; it was skillful set that built beautifully through the sunny Sydney afternoon, ready for Ben Korbel.
Ben Korbel got going at around 4pm and the courtyard had started to fill with the usual eclectic array of clubbers, homies and trashbags! Korbel took the tunes a little deeper in preparation for Dave Seaman’s arrival, losing the funky sound that had so impressed me during Trent’s set. That said, I was still impressed, playing a progressive set at 4pm on a Sunday without making it too hectic and yet still building the crowd in preparation for Dave, is no mean feat. The music deepened gradually through late afternoon, with my only criticism being the slightly repetitive edge to the set and the simply dreadful guitar based track that got slammed in around 5pm…As my ears recovered, I noticed the queues – this was more like it, more people than normal held off on an afternoon party but still Sounds was full, ready for Dave Seaman’s arrival.
One of the best moments of catching an International is their arrival on the decks; Dave Seaman caused a wave of excitement through the crowd kicking off an outstanding progressive set. I’ve heard some harsh criticism of Seaman over the last 12 months but Sydney witnessed a slick, slamming set that was maybe not subtle but great to dance too. As ever many of the tracks played were underground and of course there were plenty of filler tunes, given Seaman’s love of building the crowd and taking them back down again. Tracks that really stood out included “Beloved - Sweet Harmony (Northern People Remix”, “X-Press2 - Strobelight Silhouette” and “Morgan Page - All I Want (Cattaneo & Garcia Remix” and another favorite of mine “Flash dance – Deep Dish”
Often the Internationals play well, but maybe don’t produce the magic we expect from our superstar DJ’s. That was the case with Seaman, until about halfway through his set when my new favorite tune was slammed on, in true Seaman style “four to the floor” the thin duke mix amped the crowd right up, a thumping filler track got mixed in as we waited to see what tune Seaman was going to mix in next to send the crowd mad, then bang “four to the floor” was back on, outstanding – it worked and the crowd went off. True Seaman style showed through and it was a heavy reminder for me just how well the man can work up a crowd.
I also suddenly realized I was neglecting PhilK and ran for the Cocktail bar managing to catch a few moments of bass heavy, but slamming tunes including “The Operators – Furball” and the favorite tune of the Therapy Sessions album – “Nubreed - One Day” . Then once more it was back to the courtyard as we noticed something was not right…there was no music!
As the crowd heckled and yelled, annoyance changed to amusement as Dave Seaman tried to work out why we had no tunes anymore! With the Amp blown, panicking SOS staff came to the rescue, but after a good 10 minutes of tune free Courtyard, we started to fear that Dave was going to be finished an hour earlier than planned. It was a great chance for me to catch up with the lovely PhilK, who shattered after a massive set was excited about his return trip home to Melbourne after 7 weeks away on tour. SOS to the rescue and the tunes kicked back in and the crowd settled down to dance their way through to 9pm.
9pm being the cue for Alex Taylor, which was a surprise choice to close Sounds for me, as huge a fan of Alex’s as I am – it had been progressive all day with the headliner playing 6-9pm instead of closing and we have a house DJ closing the night…hmmm! I was interested to see what type of set Alex was going to play, actually so much so I asked him..but he wouldn’t share his plans..
Yet again I was blown away, Alex kicked in hard at the start of his set, very deep tunes without a highlighted break from the progressive sound we had heard. Then gradually you could hear an Alex Taylor set happening, vocals dropped in and big tunes came on, although they remained the heavier mixes and Alex kept the beats pretty deep. Finally when we thought our treats were over for the night, we got a debut hearing of Alex’s new track. I’m not going to share details, except to say – Nice! Keep an eye out on Resident Advisor for more news on Alex Taylor’s new tune.
In reflection, Therapy Sessions was yet another superb event at Sounds on Sunday, the sets in courtyard (sorry to the other rooms but I hardly left the dance floor all night) were tight, skillful and could not have been more inline with each other even is they had rehearsed the whole thing; the music was built to perfection through out the day and I was reminded just how damn good the progressive sound can be.