- It's not often one gets to party at one of the most picturesque locations in the world, so it was with great eagerness that Sydney awaited Harbourlife 2006, which this year featured international acts Steve Angello & Sebastian Ingrosso, Elite Force, Derrick Carter and Chuck Love, as well as a plethora of local talent.
Before getting stuck in to the music, a little bit needs to be said about the venue, crowd and general vibe of the day. The location was simply stunning. The Harbourside Stage at the steps of Mrs Macquarie's Chair overlooked Sydney Harbour, giving the crowd a great view of the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House as they lapped up the perfect weather, while the Treetop Stage, although lacking a beautiful harbour view, had the advantage of providing some much needed shade. All the usual festival necessities were there: bars, food stalls and toilets, but the layout struck this reviewer as requiring a little more thought: the food stalls were located up near the Treetop Stage, meaning there was only one place to go when you got hungry, and for the majority of the crowd this meant hiking back up from the Harbourside Stage more often than not. There also weren't enough toilets and only one water refill station – a severe oversight for an outdoor daytime party held in late November.
The crowd and general vibe of the day were either wonderful or horrible, depending on your idea of the point of music festivals. Those there to get loose, dance, relax with friends and soak up the good weather amongst thousands of other people would’ve felt it was a fantastic crowd with a perfect vibe, but for those there to hear fresh new music and not be bothered by punters with no manners, it was a nightmare. It was also unfortunate to see quite a few people getting a little too heated in their exchanges with one another, particularly on the boats anchored in the harbour outside the festival. However, to security's credit, they quickly and professionally handled any incidents that occurred inside the event.
Onto the music. The day started off with Mo' Funk warming up the Treetop Stage, and John Devecchis and then Illya opening the Harbourside Stage. Mo delighted the small but clearly impressed crowd with a fantastic blend of hip-hop, funk, broken beats and deep house, all mixed and cut-up like only he knows how. Utilising Serato Scratch, Mo chopped, looped, doubled, juggled and scratched his way through 90 minutes of quality underground beats, but made sure he never forgot the funk, providing a fantastic start to the day.
John Devecchis proved why he's one of Sydney's, if not Australia's, favourite deep house DJs, playing a fantastic set of warm, subtle grooves that perfectly suited the time of the day, and sounded even warmer and more blissful thanks to the perfect weather. Illya followed on with some slightly more jacking sounds, throwing together his usual high quality blend of deep and Chicago house, all chopped up and mixed to perfection. But like the professional he is, he made sure never to go into overdrive, leaving the first international of the day, Chuck Love, plenty of room to take his set wherever he pleased.
Chuck Love then proceeded to thoroughly impress the now sizeable crowd with a delicious mix of deep, soulful grooves, uplifting summer house vibes, and jackin' tech house, all mixed with flair and, dare I say it, "love" for the music. Chuck's ability to construct a diverse yet fluid and coherent set shone through in his performance, which seamlessly melded a variety of sounds into a well-structured whole. But what really stood out was his incredible musical ability. Too many DJs these days really know nothing about music theory, let alone can play any instruments, but Mr. Love excelled in both areas. His tracks were mixed perfectly in key, with Love often blending two tracks for a long period of time, allowing synths and basslines to harmonise and create unique counterpoints during a mix. He even played a trumpet, a flute and a small breath operated keyboard, as well as added his own vocals over his tunes.
At the same time, up on the Treetop Stage Elite Force was playing easily the best set of the day. In true Elite Force style, Shack threw down a head-caving mix of breaks, acid, minimal, techno, electro and progressive, bringing together a variety of sounds into a perfectly flowing, well-constructed two hours of madness. Highlights included Shack's own ‘Mindfunkpsychadelic’ (which he followed with a 2006 remix of the same track), Lee Coomb's massive bootleg of Leftfield's ‘Open Up’, the Erol Alkan mix of ‘Waters of Nazareth’, Rogue Element's ridiculously massive remix of Soul Of Man's ‘Sukdat’, the thumping techno goodness of ‘MPX-309’ from Joris Voorn, and one of Elite Force's own remix of Plump DJs' ‘Scram’. Shack's mixing was as tight as you’d wish for, and more importantly, he went that extra step and really worked the mixer and CDJs, constantly looping, chopping, cutting and effecting. His energy behind the decks also should be mentioned: Shack went absolutely nuts! I've never witnessed a DJ get so into the music, and the crowd certainly appreciated his interaction, with Shack hyping them up as often as possible.
Unfortunately I didn't get to see much of Derrick Carter down on the Harbourside Stage as his set clashed with Elite Force, but reports were outstanding. Carter mixed up old school Chicago jack, new school acid, tech house and even some straight up funky boompty boomp sounds on three decks, constantly layering tunes to create an awesome groove that locked onto the crowd's hips and didn't let go. The highlight of the brief portion I saw was Carter dropping a stupidly massive remix of Marvin Gaye's ‘Sexual Healing’ which he layered over a jackin' Switch styled glitchy house track.
Steve Angello and Sebastian Ingrosso divided the crowd into those who loved their set (the majority) and those who hated it (the minority). In terms of technical ability, Angello was severely lacking, but it's not really surprising considering he's a producer not a DJ. However, Ingrosso showed considerable skill, mixing very tightly and utilising the Pioneer EFX-1000 to its full extent. Ingrosso's ability to build a set also outshone Angello's: he’d carefully selecting his tunes to ensure that at least his portions of the set flowed smoothly, whereas Angello just threw down tunes with little concern for how it came together as a whole. Their track selections also differed: Angello played all the big crowd pleasing tunes (his own remix of ‘Sweet Dreams’, Mason's ‘Exceeder’ and Eric Prydz's remix of Pink Floyd's ‘Proper Education’), whereas Ingrosso went for more tech house and techno sounds, including Cirez D's remix of the old school speed garage anthem ‘R.I.P. Groove’ by Double 99, CLS' ‘Can You Feel It?’, Axer's ‘123’, Steve Angello's acidic monster ‘Teasing Mr. Charlie’ and Rene Amesz and Peter Goldblum's chunky tech house reworking of ‘Insomnia’ by Faithless.
At the Harbourside Stage, John Wall and Ajax finished of the day, playing a very similar set to their closing set at 360. The crowd lapped it up, but this reviewer wasn't all that impressed, so it seemed like a good idea to check out James Taylor up on the Treetop Stage. What a great decision that turned out to be: Taylor absolutely destroyed the place, perfectly mixing chunky breaks with tech and electrohouse, including Noisia's massive ‘Gutterpump’, Sébastién Leger's thumping acid rework of ‘Deep Throat’ by Claude Von Stroke, a new bootleg of Azzido Da Bass' "Doom's Night", the Plump DJs remix of Josh Wink's ‘Higher State Of Consciousness’, Chris Lake and Trophy Twins' electrohouse monster ‘Babaloo’ and a stupidly filthy breaks bootleg of Coolio's ‘Gangster's Paradise’. The crowd seemed to lap up every second of Taylor's set, and rightly so – it was fantastic. He even got to play two encore tracks, and even after the second, the crowd was still asking for one more.
Overall, Harbourlife was a good festival. The music was high quality and the weather was fantastic, but the layout and number of facilities may need to be reconsidered for next year, just to make things a little easier on all of us.