- I had not been to Seven since the mammoth Fractured and Lasergun Christmas party in late December. Having missed the reopening the previous week due to a Sydney trip, I was desperate for an electro fix on my return.
But it was not to be, the Lasergun crew teaming up with Team Forklift at the eleventh hour to present a night of techno. Even better! I was excited as I walked in the door even though the first thing I heard on my arrival was that the Lasergun room hadn’t even opened the previous week. Along with a gathering gaggle of techno nuts, I waited to see if Seven management would pull the same stunt two weeks running.
The room eventually opened almost half an hour late, and we rushed in to catch Spacey Space spinning some not so techy tunes. Still, it was an interesting collection of housier numbers, interspersed with some hits, such as a mix of two 2001 hits; Punk Chic’s ‘DJ Spinnin’’ overlaid with the ‘Star 69’.
Mike Callander stepped into the booth to inject some techno into the room, and did so with his typical flair. Smoothly leading the dancefloor from Spacey Space’s set to something a little chunkier, Callander even found time to pump out one of my all-time favourites, the Heavenly remix of ‘Diabla’. Yes, Mike, you’ll always be my favourite prog DJ :P
But something more sinister was just around the corner, as the Forklifts started trickling into the room. Dave Pham first, then Dave Rankine, Dallas, and ultimately Cecille would make up the motley tag-team.
There was nothing motley about the assortment of tunes on offer, however. This was top quality hard techno, all pumped out with each member’s individual signature: Pham made a brief diversion to electro, Dallas pumped out some funkier material and stacks of old techno monsters, Rankine was damn tight, and Cecille chopped and bopped with her standard aplomb.
It is my pleasure to report that all the DJs were on fire. I haven’t heard Pham play his brand of hard techno so well since the weekend of Pureflow last February. But play hard he did, and the others were more than happy to follow suit. Rankine again showed how skillful he can be, coming up with lengthy and novel mixes to drop bombs on the dancefloor such as ‘Vitalian House’. Dallas had the Seven crowd cheering once again with a performance as compelling as that fabled F3 set at the same console a few months ago.
If they were amazing individually, their cohesion simply levelled the dancefloor. With apparent ease, Team Forklift played off against each other and again played their way into our hearts. Those in the room that knew their techno knew that they were seeing something special.
Music of the calibre displayed on Friday night isn’t something you can go out and pay top price for a ticket to see. As a few other musicians once said, “money can’t buy you love.” It’s on rare, unexpected occasions that it all comes together. There’s no pressure to perform on these DJs and they still deliver a million dollar display. That’s what the Lasergun crowd got on Friday – Team Forklift have definitely still got ‘it’, and so too the Lasergun crew.
Well done to Kev, Mike, and all the people concerned for taking a punt on Forklift, and on electro in general. Let’s hope Lasergun gets the respect from Seven they deserve in the future. Viva techno!