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Alison Wonderland @ Villa Nightclub Saturday, September 6

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Hayden James, Pilerats DJs, Falcona DJs

Villa Nightclub
Saturday, September 6

The hype around female DJs is an unexplained phenomenon. Maybe the girls want to be her and the guys just want to do her. Either way, the fact that she is a girl behind the decks shouldn’t detract from the huge amount of talent that one Alison Wonderland possesses.

The weather of the night was mild and the venue was Villa. The line was running pretty efficiently and there seemed to be that high-strung tension in the air that predicted something pretty supreme was coming.

If you were an early bird and arrived at 10.30 your ear buds would have been politely welcomed by a pair from the Pilerat DJs collective. It saw all participants limbering up for some pretty trancey whispers of general house. The boys slipped in a bit of newly created swing-step by up-and-coming Sydney producer Just A Gent, and created an overall jumping vibe while attendees got their drank on.

Hailing from Sydney, Hayden James took us into his own special paradise, convoluted with synthesizers and smooth vocals in a Flume-esque dreamland. He cooled our bodies down but seemed to heat up our insides with his stunning soulfulness.

When Alison appeared, I wasn’t anywhere near the stage, but the entire club turned into a jungle with animals scrambling over couches to get to the balcony to witness the physically meek yet stunningly simplistic Alison grace the stage. Her oversized T and knee-high socks said, “Yes I’m cute, but I’m also pretty freaking rad”. She pushed us down into the rabbit hole with an incredibly fresh track unknown to me. It seemed to start a riot.  Remixes of Hudson Mohawke’s Chimes (that trap song from the Apple stickers advertisement) turned the downstairs dance floor into a writhing mess of bodies. Alison brought in some very pretty Wave Racer (his mix of Always) and added some real girl power, her set crawling with filthy dubstep. Her samples of the sensational Wildfire by SBTRTK, tributes to Dip and Latch set the wheels definitely in motion.

Her seductive trap-chick interaction with the audience saw her hand banging between her legs to her own works I Want You and Lies, the entire place exploding as much as the confetti cannons were. People were hanging from the barricades and trying to grasp any essence of her presence. The end of her set saw the majority of the crowd disperse, but for the strays it meant a plethora of floor space had opened up for the Falcona DJs. They carried out the night in style.

All in all, it was a fantastic example of Australian talent across all genres of EDM. Alison Wonderland, amazingly powerful, definitely kept it 100 for every clubber rinsing in that club.

MIA CAMPBELL-FOULKES

Pics: Jack Lawrence/Slice of Life

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