- Kamoflage was set to be an incredible party with a blockbuster ‘Who’s Who’ lineup serving up a smorgasbord of every techno subgenre. Unfortunately, as we arrived at 11pm, we were disappointed to discover the third room had been cancelled.
Surviving the reshuffle were Degenerator and Teknotyk, and I berated myself for not arriving sooner, because the two were finishing off their opening ‘versus’ set as I walked in.
And whilst there weren’t many people there at the time to enjoy it, I was instantly cheering on a rocking finish from Degenerator, who was cutting up some tough techno regardless of the size of his audience.
With this great lead-in, Simon Coyle’s set was fantastic. It was the kind of bouncy hard techno that has made the start of Simon Digby’s Wetmusik Mix Up 4 a favourite in my CD player. Aggressively mixed to a tee, it was a fresh set that showed his talent. As more people trickled in they got busy dancing up a storm like Destiny’s Child overhead on the video screens.
Simon Digby started off a solo set that went off. Pitched up, levels maxed, crowd seething, Digby dropped ‘Vitalian House’, ‘Eurostar’, and all the other bombs he’s been pumping of late, slammed in with his trademark cutting mastery.
Will E Tell arrived half an hour later to take over, and threw his harder brand of techno into the mix.
Elsewhere, in the front room, the sounds were anything but hard, with Boogs having started on a melodic ambient tip, and Ra paying some downtempo electro.
I’m not sure that DJ Bold has ever heard the word ‘downtempo’ in his life, because his live set was pure relentless hard techno brilliance. With the volume dropped to a more comfortable level, it was a joy to take in Bold’s set, which he’s been cultivating on the international circuit for a while, but has never unleashed on Melbourne.
Unlike other live acts that play ‘songs’, this performance seemed more unstructured, and much more dynamic. Not only were his sounds fucking awesome, but he kept the dancefloor guessing. Teasing them with some magic fader and EQ abuse, DJ Bold was just amazing. Definitely one I’d like to see out this way more often!
HMC started by contrast with very minimal tech-house. His years of immersion in techno were plain to see with a set that was all class. Ultra-smooth mixing of that older, cleaner techno sound that I admired for what it was, but felt, like many, HMC shouldn’t have been sandwiched by the tougher sounds of Bold and Fenton. Nonetheless, I richly, richly enjoyed a challenging trek through the more ‘intelligent’ techno sounds, with HMC delivering us at destination Ade by building and building in his latter half to storm home with some chunkier tech.
Then it was time for the man with the mascara, Ade Fenton. Fenton took HMC’s hard yet funky lead to kick off his set with JB3 – ‘Slide’ and the instrumental mix of the classic ‘Force’.
Fenton’s track selection was on the ball for most of his set, but many mixes were rather awry. Still, this didn’t deter the crowd from going crazy to everything from ‘La La Land’ to ‘The Biggest Ten Inches I Have Ever Seen’ (Major Rush remix). Towards the end of his set Fenton dropped a Teriyakiesque track with an acidy loop that built and built relentlessly, and then closed with an industrial-strength hammering snare drum. From funky to acid to industrial, this set had it all!
Ben Cromack took to the decks accompanied by roars of approval, and naturally set about slicing and dicing the vinyl as only he can. Starting off on Fenton’s hard tip, Cromack wound it down ever so slightly, but it was a joy to see him unleashing his full talent on the crowd, and not holding back as he sometimes seems to at the big events. Go Ben!
Over in the chillout RSK had been playing everything from electro to hip-hop to funk and Phil K was serving up a catalogue of melodic ambient breaks. The main room’s visuals had gone back to commercial video clips, but in the front room punters were chilling with the Thunderbirds. Channel Nine are still on a winner after all these years :P
Nick Dem Q took over from Cromack to close the main room with a solid set of chunky techno. And although the room had been sweltering for hours, there was no time to pause for breath with the perfect type of music to close a techno party: the tough stuff.
Kamoflage wasn’t the roaring success it could have been, but the artists that did get to play served up a solid gold night of highly enjoyable techno. Well done to the wicked local lineup who greatly impressed across all those different sounds. And please, Adelaide, can we borrow DJ Bold again soon?