- The Musica parties push a unique music policy, bringing many new internationals to Australia and catering to an open-minded, loyal and friendly crowd. It was no surprise then that the latest party featuring D-Nox from Germany and DJ Three from the USA was another huge success. And although it was disappointing that SOS – the act originally planned for this installment – cancelled, D-Nox and DJ Three more than made up for their absence, with both playing sterling sets.
YU was an ideal venue for Musica, particularly with the internationals on display: intimate without being crowded, stylish without being overly swanky, and with a rejuvenated sound system that now sounds better than it ever did. The crowd was a bit of a mixed bag: there were those who had turned up specifically to bear witness to the brilliance of D-Nox and DJ Three, regular punters, and a fair share of the younger clubbers who frequent YU regardless of what’s on. But the mixed crowd was all part of the night’s charm. Everyone, from chinstrokers to posers, respected one another and focused on the most important thing of the night: the music.
The thoroughly underrated Tones was taking care of warm-up duties as the crowd settled in and prepared for the evening’s madness. Tones’ set was the epitome of a good warm-up: he treaded the thin line between playing too soft and not engaging the punters and playing too hard and scaring everyone off, successfully filling up the dancefloor but still giving D-Nox plenty of room to take his set wherever he wished. Starting off with warm melodic progressive house such as Lifelike & Kris Menace’s ‘Discopolis’ and the Alex Kid remix of Phonique’s ‘For the Time Being’, Tones then slowly built up the intensity with some tougher tech house such as the now massive Rene Amesz mix of ‘Insomnia’ by Faithless, before finishing off his set with some driving progressive house including Chab’s ‘Closer To Me’ (Hernan Cattaneo Mix). Technically, Tones was absolutely spot on: his mixing was tight and clean, his phasing was flawless, and his track selection and programming were as good as any international’s. By the time he had finished and D-Nox was cueing up his first weapon, the dancefloor was heaving: a successful warm-up set in anyone’s language, really.
D-Nox then took over the controls and kept the dancefloor very busy with a mammoth three hour set which traversed so many styles that it was almost like three different DJs played each hour. But this was exactly what made it so brilliant – despite playing such a wide variety of music, D-Nox managed to maintain a smooth flow to the set. Couple that with absolutely flawless mixing and you’ve got yourself one hell of a DJ. The German progressive don took it back down a notch for the first hour, blending deep melodic progressive house with melodic and bouncy minimal tech such as an unreleased remix of Ame’s ‘Rej’ and the Daniel Stefanik mix of Johnny Wagner’s ‘Intercity’ before taking it darker and laying down some deep, throbbing techno cuts that couldn’t have been more German even if they donned lederhosen and fried up some bratwursts. The second hour saw D-Nox step things up and throw down an excellent selection of driving tech and progressive beats peppered with tough electro house that very much reflected his production style. Cuts such as Roland Klinkenberg’s ‘Future Pussy’ sat perfectly alongside some of his own productions such as ‘Naked Punch’ and ‘Jet Lag Slave’ as well as Eric Prydz’s massive bootleg of ‘Good Life’ by Inner City. The final hour was more a musical equivalent of a patchwork quilt, with D-Nox piecing together a huge variety of music that spanned Desyn Massiello-esque funky progressive, tough tech house such as Dubfire’s huge remix of ‘Lucky Heather’ and ridiculously dark, throbbing techno and minimal.
DJ Three then stepped up to the decks and proceeded to belt out three hours of some of the most underground music imaginable. I suppose “head cave techno” would be the best way to sum describe it, but that wouldn’t be doing Three or the breadth of his sound any justice. There was a healthy dose of melodic minimal tech, including tracks such as James Holden’s ethereal reworking of ‘Breathe On Me’, Jona’s ‘Learning From Mistakes’ and Valentino Kanzyani’s remix of Nathan Fake’s ‘Outhouse’, which was this reviewer’s personal highlight of the evening; splashes of deep, percussive, throbbing techno such as Adam Beyer & Jesper Dahlback’s ‘As If Dubs’ and Audion’s mix of ‘Who’s Afraid Of Detroit?’; and lots of head-caving bassline driven monsters that the crowd had never heard before but still happily lapped up. Unlike D-Nox, who tended to separate his various sounds in to clusters over his three hours, Three threw caution to the wind and really mixed it up, following deep, melodic cuts with pounding percussive monsters and vice versa, creating a set that ebbed and flowed perfectly. Technically, he was also easily the most talented of the evening’s DJs: Not a single mix in his entire three hour set slipped even remotely out of time, every single mixed was perfectly keyed, and his phasing was smoother than silk: there were times where it was almost impossible to tell he was actually mixing. Unfortunately not everybody in the crowd was able to appreciate his unique sound, and some extra space on the dancefloor was made as Three’s set progressed, but for those who got it, it was truly something special.
Not much else needs to be said really, other than a big congratulations to the Musica crew for such an excellent party. See you all at the next one!