- Friday night at Two Floors Up served two purposes. It was international DJ Steve Gerrard’s chance to promote his up coming CD, Thinking out Loud, but mainly it was the Launch Party of new artist management company Third Storey Artist Management run by Anne-Marie Glory, the Goddess of Melbourne’s prog-breaks scene.
It’s been a couple of months since I’d visited Two Floors Up, one of my favourite clubs in Melbourne, given its size and quality of the DJs that visit there. In fact it has hosted my two favourite nights out this year, Steve Porter and then Habersham. Now you can make that the top three.
It wasn’t so much any particular DJ that made the night for me, I didn’t even make it through until closing time; but without doubt this was one of the best collections of exciting talent going around, with consistent quality sets thrown down to a very appreciative crowd. What more could anyone ask for?
The youngsters that shone downstairs are a testament to the quality of the night. The DJ roster on Third Storey’s promotion list is a combination of young producer’s and DJs making a name for themselves, and a new crop of kids just starting out. James Coombe, Ian Burrows and Ed Hassell were the early batch, setting a soundscape of mainly heavier tinged prog-breaks, some old and some new. By the time Steve May stepped up to the decks around 11:30 the crowd was swelling to almost full on the first level and Steve was pumping out big chunky baselines and up-tempo break-beats which had the masses moving. (Editor: All the tracks in Steve’s set, with the exception of two, were music he has written!) Whilst the early half of the night is usually the warm-up time in most clubs, the crowd that showed up early witnessed the exact kind of talent that a management label should be promoting.
Upstairs barely got a lookin for quite a majority of the night. I headed up to hear the end of Vance Musgrove’s set, closing with a cheeky break-beat remix of Foo Fighters “Everlong” (one he and PQM had thrown together earlier that day he later told me). Steve Gerrard stepped up around 1.30 am and played prog-breaks (somewhat of a reoccurring theme for the night). The kind of prog-breaks you’d expect of an international DJ; big, strong, heavy peak-time numbers. It wasn’t the best set by an overseas guest I’ve seen, and it was by no means the worst, but for whatever reason there seemed to be something missing from the first half of his set. That something would have been people dancing. For whatever reason the people wouldn’t move for Steve early on, I later found out why.
Downstairs it was the second international for the night, Irish newcomer Stuart McKeown, who stole the show. Stuart kept the prog-breaks tradition going laying down, by all reports, the best set of the night, keeping the crowds downstairs and leaving Steve to ply his trade to a relatively small crowd up top.
That I left not long after this wasn’t that a big deal for me. I missed some of Melbourne’s finest DJs but I got to see what I came for, the up and coming DJs that are making the future bright. The beauty of the night was that it show-cased this future of prog-breaks in Melbourne. The exciting genre has hit its straps in recent times with more and more producers and DJs delivering great music, and this was the best chance we’ve had to sample those DJs who are new and starting out, and those with reputations already built over time.
The future of Third Storey Management looks bright, and with international DJs such as Habersham, Dave Preston, Smight and Jacob Todd, we can only hold our breath in anticipation of the next party to be thrown down.